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      Biden and McCarthy to hold White House talks in bid to reach debt deal

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      Joe Biden was due to meet Kevin McCarthy on Monday as the White House sought to stave off a US debt default, a potentially catastrophic event the US treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, has said will happen on or around 1 June if no deal to raise the $31.4tn debt ceiling is reached.If the debt limit is not raised, the US government will default on its bills: a historic first with probably catastrophic consequences. Federal workers would be furloughed, global stock markets would be likely to crash and the US economy would probably drop into recession.McCarthy, the House speaker, leads a Republican caucus demanding harsh spending cuts in return for raising the ceiling. Democrats fear Republicans are willing to allow talks to fail, thereby pitching the US and world economies into chaos, seeing it as a price worth paying for beating Biden at the polls next year.On Monday, in a message seen by the Guardian, a senior Democratic Senate staffer predicted disaster ahead.“I think we will” default, the staffer said. “I think most House Republicans want a default so even if McCarthy could make a deal he won’t have the votes to pass it.”Biden has said he will consider spending cuts but has called Republican demands “unacceptable”, for example saying he will not back subsidies for big energy companies and “wealthy tax cheats” while putting at risk healthcare and food assistance.Biden and McCarthy were due to meet at the White House at 5.30pm ET.On Sunday, arriving at the White House after attending the G7 summit in Japan, Biden told reporters a conversation with McCarthy from Air Force One “went well”.The House speaker said the call was “productive” and added: “Our teams are talking today and we’re … meeting tomorrow. That’s better than it was earlier. So, yes [I am more hopeful].”On Friday, talks paused after Republicans rejected a White House offer to impose spending freezes rather than cuts.On Sunday, McCarthy added: “There’s no agreement. We’re still apart.”On Monday, according to Bloomberg News, the speaker said morning staff-level talks were productive and would continue, adding: “We’re not at a deal.”The debt ceiling was imposed in 1917, a response by Congress to US entry into the first world war. For most of the next 100 years, raising the ceiling was a formal process, if often subject to political grandstanding.Under Donald Trump, Republicans raised the ceiling three times while contributing to rising debt with spending increases and tax cuts for richer Americans.Now, under McCarthy but drawing inspiration from a 2011 standoff in which House Republicans under the then speaker, John Boehner, extracted major concessions from Barack Obama, the GOP is presenting itself as the party of budget hawks.On Sunday the lead Republican negotiator, Garret Graves of Louisiana, told reporters: “A red line is spending less money. And unless and until we’re there, the rest of it is really irrelevant.”Trump, the clear frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, has said the US should default if Biden will not concede to demands that would hobble much of his signature domestic legislation.As the far right of the Republican House caucus remains loyal to Trump, so it exerts its hold on McCarthy after stretching the process by which he became speaker through 15 rounds of voting.Republicans control the House 222-213, while Democrats hold the Senate 51-49, making it tough to secure votes for any bipartisan deal.Democrats have pondered an attempt to peel off Republican House moderates, most in seats in areas won by Biden in 2020, in order to pass their own spending package.Biden has also been urged to invoke the 14th amendment to the US constitution, which says “the validity of the public debt of the United States shall not be questioned”, as a way to bypass House Republicans and stave off a default.The president has progressed from opposing such a move to saying he thinks he has the authority to do it but fears Republican appeals would snarl the process in the courts, leading to a default regardless.On Monday, global markets were gripped by unease.“We expect a resolution to be reached before the deadline, but anticipate unforeseen developments throughout the process,” Bruno Schneller, a managing director at Invico Asset Management, told Reuters. More

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      Tim Scott: 10 things to know about the Republican entering the 2024 race

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      Tim Scott, a senator from South Carolina, formally announced his candidacy in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. One of an increasing number of nominees joining a fight that will include heavyweights Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, the South Carolina senator has risen quickly over the past decade to a position of prominence in the GOP.Here are 10 things to know about Tim Scott.Scott is a 57-year-old senator from South CarolinaScott grew up in South Carolina, attending a Baptist university and owning an insurance company before becoming involved in politics. He entered politics in the mid-1990s as a Charleston, South Carolina, city council member before running for Congress.Scott leans into a story of personal success and ‘personal responsibility’Scott presents himself as an American success story. After growing up in poverty, living with his single mother in his grandparents’ house, Scott says he was mentored by a local Chick-fil-A business owner who taught him “conservative business principles” and allowed him to see a way to a better life. He has described his life as an “only in America” story of achievement, and claimed that people need to take “individual responsibility” for their lives.Scott was first elected to Congress in 2010Scott staked his political claim amid a wave of conservative opposition to Barack Obama’s presidency. As a member of the hardline conservative Tea Party movement, he was endorsed at the time by the former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and became a rising star of the party. After two years as a congressman, he was chosen in 2012 to replace the Republican senator Jim DeMint and appointed to the Senate.Scott is the sole Black Republican senatorScott is the only Black Republican senator, and was the first Black Republican elected to the US House of Representatives from South Carolina in over a hundred years. He has previously talked about his unique role as a Black Republican and the discrimination he has faced from authorities, but has claimed that liberals use race as a way to divide voters. He faced heated criticism from Black activists in 2021 after declaring “America is not a racist country” in response to a speech from President Joe Biden that condemned racism following a white supremacist mass shooting.Scott repeatedly emphasizes his evangelical faithScott’s campaign is set to heavily court evangelical voters and lean into his conservative Christian identity – Scott has previously said he sees himself first as a biblical leader rather than a Republican or conservative. In a video declaring he was launching an exploratory committee for president, Scott said that he would “defend the Judeo-Christian foundation our nation is built on” and the committee’s first fundraising email included a call for a two-minute prayer in support of Scott.Scott has vowed to sign anti-abortion legislation if presidentScott told NBC News reporters in April that he would sign “the most conservative, pro-life legislation that they can get through Congress” if elected president. Although Scott did not give a specific answer on how far into a pregnancy he would make abortion illegal, he did not rule out a six-week federal ban when asked to clarify his stance.‘He is the exact opposite of Donald Trump’Scott’s reputation is that of a “kind-hearted” and optimistic politician, Republican pollster Frank Luntz told the Guardian. It’s a stark difference in tone from Trump, whose apocalyptic vision of the United States and vows of retribution against his opponents have come to dominate the GOP.But Scott has praised Trump and advocated similar policiesWhen the Fox News host Sean Hannity asked Scott in February what the differences would be between his platform and Trump’s, the senator responded “probably not very many at all”. He called the policies passed under Trump’s presidencies “monumental” and said he was “so thankful” that Trump was elected.Some Republican mega-donors have backed Scott’s campaignWealthy conservative mega-donors are throwing some of their largesse in Scott’s direction, with the tech billionaire Larry Ellison giving $15m to a pro-Scott SuperPac. Scott’s campaign told reporters in May that it had about $22m cash on hand.Scott’s support from Republican voters appears very lowA recent Morning Consult poll from 16 May showed Scott with only 1% of Republican primary voters supporting him. In contrast, that same poll placed Trump with 61% support among the same group. More

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      Tim Scott’s mic fails as he launches 2024 presidential campaign – video

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      Tim Scott was announcing his presidential campaign on Monday, when a technical glitch left the 57-year-old senator in silence. ‘Joe Biden and the radical left are attacking every rung of the ladder that helped me climb. And that is why I am announcing today that I am running for president of the United States of America,’ Scott told a cheering crowd at Charleston Southern University in his home state of South Carolina. ‘Our nation, our values, and our people are strong, but our president is weak,’ he added. At that point, the sound cut out.
      Scott joins a growing field of Republican candidates hoping to win their party’s nomination and deprive Donald Trump of a repeat contest with Joe Biden next year More

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      Senator Tim Scott launches bid for 2024 Republican presidential nomination

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      Tim Scott formally launched his presidential campaign on Monday, joining a growing field of Republican candidates looking to capture their party’s nomination and rob Donald Trump of another opportunity to face off against Joe Biden next year.“Under President Biden, our nation is retreating away from patriotism and faith,” Scott told a cheering crowd at Charleston Southern University in his home state of South Carolina. “Joe Biden and the radical left are attacking every rung of the ladder that helped me climb. And that is why I am announcing today that I am running for president of the United States of America.”As the only Black Republican serving in the US Senate, Scott argued he had a unique perspective to offer on how conservative policies can best serve the American people, and he leaned into his optimistic vision for the future of the country. Scott’s mother joined him on stage at his campaign event, and he thanked her for “standing strong in the middle of the fight”.“We live in the land where it is absolutely possible for a kid raised in poverty in a single-parent household in a small apartment to one day serve in the People’s House and maybe even the White House,” Scott said. “This is the greatest nation on God’s green Earth.”The South Carolina lawmaker was introduced by the Senate minority whip, John Thune of South Dakota, who became the highest-ranking congressional Republican to endorse Scott in the presidential race.“I want all of America to know what South Carolina knows and what I know because I get to see it every day in the United States Senate – and that is that Tim Scott is the real deal,” Thune said.Scott’s announcement came three days after his team filed official paperwork with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), confirming his plans to run for the White House. Later this week, the 57-year-old senator plans to visit the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, where he has already met a number of Republican primary voters as part of his Faith in America listening tour that kicked off in February.Scott’s team will also begin airing TV ads in Iowa and New Hampshire this week as part of a $5.5m ad buy that is scheduled to run through the first Republican presidential debate in late August.Scott enters the race with a significant fundraising advantage over many of his primary opponents. After Scott won re-election to the Senate in November, his campaign committee still had $22m in cash on hand that can now be used to bolster his presidential candidacy. According to the FEC, Scott’s existing funds represent the largest sum of money that any US presidential candidate has ever had when launching a campaign.Speaking to reporters last week, senior campaign officials insisted Scott’s funds would help him break out in a primary field where he has struggled to gain national recognition. The most recent Morning Consult poll showed Scott drawing the support of just 1% of Republican primary voters across the country. Even in his home state of South Carolina, which will hold its primary after Iowa’s and New Hampshire’s contests, Scott is stuck in fourth place, according to a Winthrup University survey taken last month.The South Carolina survey showed Scott trailing behind Trump, the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley. Having served as South Carolina’s governor before joining the Trump administration, Haley also enjoys a home state advantage there, further complicating Scott’s path to victory.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionBut Scott’s campaign advisers argued the senator’s optimistic message and compelling personal story would soon resonate with a large swath of voters. Scott was raised by a single Black mother, and his grandfather dropped out of school in the third grade to start picking cotton. Scott often summarizes his life story as “from cotton to Congress in one lifetime”, a theme he emphasized in 2021, when he was tapped to deliver the Republican response to Biden’s first presidential address to a joint session of Congress.Viewed as a rising star in the Republican party, Scott played a central role in the congressional negotiations over criminal justice reform. After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, Scott worked with two Democratic lawmakers – Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey and then representative Karen Bass of California – to try to craft a bipartisan compromise on policing reform, but the talks collapsed in 2021 without any agreement reached.Although Scott has attempted to work across the aisle on criminal justice issues, he remains staunchly conservative on everything from gun safety to abortion access. He received an A rating from the Gun Owners of America last year, and he enjoys a voting score of 94% from the rightwing group Heritage Action, putting him 16 points ahead of an average Senate Republican.Scott also has an A rating from the anti-abortion group Susan B Anthony Pro-Life America and has vowed to sign the “most conservative pro-life legislation” that can pass Congress if he becomes president. However, Scott has remained vague on his preferred cutoff point for banning abortion, telling NBC News last month: “I’m not going to talk about six or five or seven or 10 [weeks].”Scott will probably face more questions from voters about his policy agenda as he hits the campaign trail this week. More

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      Republican senator: Trump will lose 2024 presidential race if nominated

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      Republican US senator Bill Cassidy predicted on Sunday that Donald Trump would fail to win the 2024 presidential race if his party nominates him to run again, citing the poor performance of his endorsed candidates during last year’s midterms.“We saw in all the swing states, almost all – Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Arizona – the candidates for Senate that Trump endorsed all lost,” Cassidy said of the former president on CNN’s State of the Union. “If past is prologue, that means President Trump is going to have a hard time in the swing states, which means he cannot win a general election.”The Louisiana Republican delivered those remarks after network host Jake Tapper asked him for his thoughts on comments that Florida’s conservative governor, Ron DeSantis, made on a recent call with donors about his chances of winning the White House.DeSantis – who has not formally announced himself as a candidate but is widely expected to do so – argued on the private call that he, Trump and Democratic incumbent Joe Biden were the only credible contenders for the presidency in 2024, according to the New York Times.“And I think of those three, two have a chance to get elected president – Biden and me,” DeSantis reportedly added.Cassidy said on Sunday that DeSantis’s comments were “a nice way” for the governor to cast aspersions on another “pretty formidable candidate”: the Republican US senator Tim Scott. Scott, of South Carolina, the only Black Republican serving in the Senate, filed paperwork on Friday to run for the presidency ahead of a formal campaign launch on Monday.“You just have to take this as a competitor trying to diss others,” said Cassidy, whom Louisiana first elected to the Senate in 2014.However, Cassidy added, DeSantis did have a point in arguing that Trump would be quite beatable in a rematch with Biden, to whom he lost when he ran for re-election in 2020.Cassidy alluded to how Trump threw his support behind Senate candidates Herschel Walker, Mehmet Oz, Adam Laxalt and Blake Masters in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Arizona, respectively, during last year’s midterm elections. And they respectively lost to Raphael Warnock, John Fetterman, Catherine Cortez Masto and Mark Kelly as the Democrats seized a two-seat majority in the upper congressional chamber.Cassidy also alluded to how other Republicans in those states performed well in political contests that didn’t draw Trump’s attention, leading the Louisianan to conclude that the former president’s “kind of high-profile endorsement of those candidates actually hurt those candidates” in the doomed Senate campaigns that he backed.Cassidy’s comments on Sunday were not the first time he has spoken out against Trump, whom polling has shown to be the leading contender for the Republicans’ 2024 presidential nomination.Trump maintains that lead despite unprecedented legal jeopardy, including over a hush money payment to an adult film actor, his retention of classified materials and 2020 election subversion.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionCassidy, along with six other Republicans in the Senate, voted to convict the former president after Trump was impeached over his role in the deadly attack that his supporters staged at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. Trump, nonetheless, had more than enough votes to be acquitted at his impeachment trial.When Cassidy later said that he would not support Trump if he ran for the White House again, he prompted the ex-president to call him a “Rino”, which is an acronym meaning “Republican in name only”.Cassidy has been able to carve out a seat for himself at the negotiating table for some of the most prominent issues discussed on Capitol Hill by presenting himself as being willing to engage in bipartisan talks with Democrats and the Biden administration.He was one of the federal lawmakers who successfully pushed for the gun control bill that Biden signed into law last year, which expanded background checks for the youngest gun buyers while funding mental health and violence intervention programs amid a spate of deadly mass shootings across the US.Despite that legislation, the nation is on track to have its deadliest year in terms of mass shootings in recent memory, leading many to call for more substantial gun control measures. More

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      ‘The exact opposite of Donald Trump’: Republican senator Tim Scott’s vision for America

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      About 45 minutes into his New Hampshire town hall, Tim Scott said he needed to reveal a secret to the Republican voters who had gathered to hear from the presidential hopeful.“Listen, this might surprise some of y’all,” Scott told attendees with subtle laughter in his voice. He paused briefly: “I’m Black.”The line was met with loud laughter from the mostly white crowd, and it underscored the unique role that Scott faces in the Republican presidential primary ahead of the 2024 election. The 57-year-old senator of South Carolina and erstwhile Donald Trump ally, who filed paperwork on Friday to declare his presidential candidacy ahead of a formal launch event on Monday, hopes to become the first Black politician to win his party’s nomination and go on to defeat Joe Biden in the general election next November.Scott’s chances of success appear slim, as Trump continues to dominate in national polls thanks to the enduring loyalty of many Republican primary voters. But Scott believes his sunny vision for America’s future can sway a significant number of Republicans who are ready for “new leadership” in the party.To do that, Scott will need to take on Trump and convince fellow Republicans to abandon the vengeful worldview embraced by the former president in favor of a more positive message about the direction of the country. Relying on Reaganesque optimism about the brighter days ahead, Scott has called for a new era of American policy based on “personal responsibility”, deeply rooted in rightwing principles like restricting abortion access and rigorously enforcing border security.But it remains unclear whether enough Republicans are interested in dumping Trump.“You cannot lean into ‘the best days ahead of you’ until you deal with the cancer inside of you at the moment,” said Michael Steele, a former chair of the Republican National Committee and a vocal Trump critic. “The way you do that is to take down the guy who’s perpetuating that narrative.”‘From cotton to Congress’As he spoke to the voters at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire earlier this month, Scott pointed to his own family history as an example of America’s promise. He was raised by a single, working mother, and his grandfather dropped out of school in the third grade to pick cotton on a South Carolina farm.That grandfather lived long enough to see his grandson win a seat in the US House of Representatives, where Scott served one term before being appointed to the Senate in 2013. Scott is currently the only Black Republican serving in the Senate.“One of the reasons why we say in my family ‘from cotton to Congress in one lifetime’ is because my grandfather had a stubborn faith,” Scott told the New Hampshire voters. “He had faith in God. He had faith in the American people, but he also had faith in the future of this great nation.”Echoing his message from 2021, when he delivered the Republican response to Biden’s first presidential speech to a joint session of Congress, Scott accused Democrats of turning Americans against each other by bringing attention to systemic oppression.“When I talk to my friends on the other side of the aisle, particularly the ones who disagree with me vehemently, the one thing I can tell them is that the proof of my life disproves your lies,” Scott said at the town hall. “America is a beautiful country. We are the land of opportunity and not the land of oppression.”Scott went on to list the benefits of his “opportunity zones” policy, an initiative aimed at directing private investment into America’s economically disadvantaged communities. He encouraged Americans to “take responsibility for yourself” and reject “today’s cultural victimhood”, alluding to the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” narrative that has been criticized on the left as unrealistic and racist.“My mentor literally taught me that if you take responsibility for yourself, that in that mirror, you see the problem. But in the same mirror, you find the promise,” Scott said at the town hall.Scott’s upbeat tone cast quite a contrast from Trump, whose presidential campaign thus far has focused on promising “retribution” to his political enemies if he wins the White House next year.“Everything about Tim Scott is out of the ordinary. He is the exact opposite of Donald Trump, and that’s why he is so intriguing,” said the Republican pollster Frank Luntz. “He is as nice and kind-hearted as Trump is tough and critical.”Scott’s message was greeted like a breath of fresh air from attendees of his town hall, some of whom said they are looking for the Republican party to break free from Trump’s influence and move in a new direction.“I really liked the guy. I thought he was very good and forthcoming, and he’s got a great message,” Bruce Nest, a 70-year-old anti-Trump voter from Nashua, said after Scott’s town hall.Though Scott’s tone is markedly different from Trump’s, the two politicians’ platforms have far more in common. Like Trump, Scott has called for a tougher stance against China and emphasized the importance of preventing migrants from entering the US. On abortion, which will take center stage in the 2024 election because of the supreme court’s decision last year to overturn Roe v Wade, Scott has vowed to sign “the most conservative, pro-life legislation” that could pass Congress. But Scott has refused to specify his preferred timeframe for a potential federal abortion ban.In the Republican primary, the senator’s tone and temperament alone may be enough to sway some voters.Nest’s wife, Debra, 70, argued it was “time to give someone else a chance” to lead the Republican party. “We want to pass the baton,” she said. “I’m looking for someone to pass the baton to.”But Trump’s enduring popularity left some town hall attendees skeptical.“I think he has a really good backstory, and I think he will connect to a lot of different ethnicities and different cultures of America,” said Robert Plourde, a 59-year-old voter from Loudon. “It remains to be seen whether he has enough traction with the Republican party that really doesn’t know him, I think, nationally right now.”Stuck at 1%When Scott formally launches his campaign on Monday, he will join a growing Republican primary field where candidates not named Trump have struggled to break through. The most recent Morning Consult poll showed Scott has drawn the support of just 1% of Republican primary voters across the country.There is some evidence to suggest that a crucial share of Republican voters are looking to move on from Trump. One AP/NORC poll taken last month found that nearly half of Republicans do not want Trump to seek re-election, but the same survey showed Trump still enjoys a favorability rating of 68% among Republicans.Even in Scott’s home state of South Carolina, a Winthrop University survey taken last month found that 7% of Republicans supported the senator, putting him in fourth place. The former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, who served as South Carolina’s governor and appointed Scott to the Senate, outpaced him by 11 points while Trump and Florida governor Ron DeSantis led in the poll.Scott’s advisers point out that the Iowa caucuses are still nine months away. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, senior campaign officials noted Scott’s campaign committee has nearly $22m in cash on hand. Scott has also received hefty financial support from some Republican megadonors; last year, the tech billionaire and fellow school choice proponent Larry Ellison poured $15m into a Super Pac aligned with the senator.Perhaps Scott’s greatest challenge at this early stage will be distinguishing himself from the other Republican presidential candidates. Scott has not made much of an effort thus far to distance himself from Trump on matters of policy, even as he has refused to commit to supporting the former president in the election if he wins the nomination.Appearing on the Fox News host Sean Hannity’s show in February, Scott was asked what differences there were between his campaign platform and Trump’s.“Probably not very many at all,” Scott replied. “I’m so thankful that we had President Trump in office. Frankly, the policies that we were able to pass from 2017 to 2020 were monumental.”Scott’s embrace of his opponent’s record has intensified speculation that this White House bid is simply a ploy to bolster his chances of becoming Trump’s running mate, although the senator has dismissed those suggestions.“If you’re going to go for it, go for it all,” Scott told reporters last month. “Period.”With Trump maintaining his massive lead in national polls, Steele is skeptical that Scott or any other Republican candidate can seriously fight for the nomination without directly confronting the former president.“Unless your name is Donald Trump, you’re running for vice-president,” Steele said. “Until shown otherwise, that they’re willing to take this man down and willing to really press the point that he is wholly incompetent and too politically damaged to be the nominee of the party again, everybody’s running for something other than the current presidential race.”‘I know it because I’ve lived it’As Scott continues to insist that he is truly running to win the Republican nomination, his team has pointed to two factors that could help him: his personal story and his evangelical faith. In a video released last month, Scott emphasized those points.“I was raised by a single mother in poverty. The spoons in our apartment were plastic, not silver,” Scott said in the video. “But we had faith. We put in the work and we had an unwavering belief that we too could live the American dream. I know America is the land of opportunity, not a land of oppression. I know it because I’ve lived it.”Scott’s video was filmed at Fort Sumter, the South Carolina military site where the civil war began in 1861, which Scott said represented America’s strength and resilience. That message of unity may not resonate with all Republican primary voters; after all, when a group of Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol on 6 January 2021, some of them entered the building waving Confederate flags.“That storyline doesn’t land the same way it used to because a lot of the folks that you’re going to be talking to don’t necessarily look at that as a positive,” Steele said. “They see that as part of the problem, which is why white nationalism has reared its ugly head the way it has.”Scott’s efforts to connect with white evangelical voters, who make up a substantial portion of the Republican primary electorate, will also likely encounter roadblocks. Evangelical voters represent a core piece of Trump’s base, and they have shown hesitation in abandoning the former president. According to data compiled by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) in March, 62% of white evangelicals held favorable views of Trump.“I think it’s going to be pretty heavy lifting for Senator Tim Scott, or really any other candidate aside from Donald Trump, to gain a lot of loyalty from white evangelical voters,” said Melissa Deckman, the chief executive of PRRI.Scott’s fumbled answers on abortion policy could add to his troubles with that cohort. He remains staunchly anti-abortion, but he has bristled when reporters try to nail down his specific views on enacting a nationwide ban. When asked about his preferred cut-off point for banning the procedure, Scott told NBC News last month: “I’m not going to talk about six or five or seven or 10 [weeks].”“For the [Republican] base, the positions on abortion really matter,” Deckman said. “And when you have someone like Tim Scott or Nikki Haley sort of waffling on that issue, not trying to pin down the specifics of where they stand, I think it’s going to be harder for them to pull people away from Donald Trump in the primary.”That task is already proving difficult for Scott. On Monday, he will start finding out if it is, in fact, impossible. More

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      Fresh US abortion bans show Republicans trying to soften message

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      After repeated failed attempts to pass stricter bans, Republicans in some US states are changing their messaging, touting “common sense” abortion laws presented as more lenient than outright bans, but that are more restrictive than they seem when looked at in detail.Nebraska’s state legislature passed a 12-week ban on Friday, days after another 12-week ban cleared its final hurdle in North Carolina.Meanwhile, South Carolina’s senate will again weigh a six-week abortion ban that the legislature has repeatedly tried and failed to pass in previous weeks.In Nebraska, Republican lawmakers praised the ban as a compromise, but their Democratic colleagues did not see it that way. “This place is morally bankrupt,” said the Omaha state senator Machaela Cavanaugh. “I’m looking forward to 2025 when I no longer have to serve with many of you.” Cavanaugh filibustered for hundreds of hours in recent months in an attempt to stop the bill passed on Friday, an anti-trans measure to which the abortion ban was attached.Two weeks ago, a six-week ban was tanked in Nebraska, partly by one of its original co-sponsors – the Republican state senator Merve Riepe – who had come to think of it as too extreme, as many women do not yet realize they are pregnant at six weeks. Ahead of the earlier vote, which Riepe abstained from, he passed around a news article warning that abortion was hurting the Republican party, according to the Washington Post. Polling has consistently found that strong majorities of Americans oppose abortion bans.The Nebraska ban includes no exceptions for fetal anomalies or pregnancies incompatible with life and threatens doctors with jail time.Republicans in Nebraska’s technically non-partisan legislature (where each lawmaker nonetheless identifies either as Republican or Democrat) have painted the bill as a huge step down from the six-week ban.Nebraskans crowded the statehouse as the bill progressed on Wednesday, drowning out the lively debate on the house floor with angry chants and foot stomping. By the end of the night, lawmakers were forced to seek refuge, fleeing the capitol rotunda through a back tunnel flanked by police escorts in a bid to avoid angry protesters.With the legislative session about to end, lawmakers craftily advanced the ban by attaching it to a measure limiting gender-affirming care to transgender people.“You are willing to drive this state into the ground. You look ridiculous,” Cavanaugh, said on Wednesday, adding: “Women will die, children are dying, and you are responsible.”In North Carolina, the 12-week ban was passed on Wednesday, when Republican politicians overrode the Democratic governor’s veto. The fresh ban brings the current limit down from 20 weeks.Republicans described the bill as “pro-life plan, not an abortion ban”, as they passed it amid protestors chanting “shame” from inside the state legislature. But the bill will make it incredibly difficult to obtain an abortion in North Carolina, a state that has become somewhat of a safe haven for abortion in the increasingly restrictive Bible belt.Most notably, the bill limits the use of medication abortion – the most common US method of abortion – to 10 weeks of pregnancy, and requires three in-person visits to get pills or any other form of the procedure. Those restrictions will make it harder to get an abortion for those with uncompromising work schedules, those who can’t afford to pay for childcare and those traveling from out of state.Further worsening the effect of abortion bans on low-income people and women of color, it will also make people seeking abortions wait 72 hours between visits. It will require women to watch ultrasounds before they have an abortion, and to be warned about unfounded medical side-effects of abortion before having one.Strict licensing requirements written into the bill could also shutter a number of the state’s remaining 14 clinics, and oblige abortion providers to report details on people who have sought an abortion to the state department of health and human services.And in South Carolina on Wednesday, a six-week abortion ban finally progressed to the senate, after weeks of Republicans repeatedly trying and failing to move it forward. But even if it passes, it must be upheld by the state supreme court, which blocked a similar six-week ban earlier this year. (The composition of that supreme court has since changed – the judge who wrote the decision striking down the ban has been replaced by judge who GOP lawmakers hope will overturn it.) Meanwhile, Republican and Democratic women have repeatedly united in a filibuster to stop the bill from passing. They have said they plan to do so again.Some 900 amendments were affixed to the legislation – many by Democrats hoping to delay the passage of the bill. Some of those amendments included making the state liable for funeral costs of people who die after being denied an abortion, and making men liable for child support and the costs of half of all pregnancy expenses, starting from fertilization. More

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      Democrats fight to expand a ‘broken and illegitimate’ supreme court

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      Wearing dark suit and sunglasses reminiscent of a character in The Matrix, Brian Fallon pointed a finger at the gleaming US Capitol building to his left, then to the marble edifice of the supreme court to his right.“If you look at any point in the last 40 years, Congress’s public approval always hovers around 10%,” said Fallon, a former justice department official who worked for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. “But the [supreme] court’s is now in the 30s and that’s a historical anomaly because there’s always at least been the benefit of the doubt conferred upon the court.”There is no better symbol of the crisis of trust in American institutions than its highest court, pummeled by partisan appointments, divisive rulings and ethical scandals. In a University of Chicago survey last year just 18% of Americans said they had a great deal of confidence in the supreme court – the lowest in half a century.Congressional Democrats and allies such as Fallon, now head of the pressure group Demand Justice, believe that they have a solution: expand the court by adding four seats to counter a rightward tilt during the Donald Trump administration that, they say, put it out of step with mainstream public opinion.This week a group including Senators Ed Markey, Tina Smith and Elizabeth Warren, and representatives Jerrold Nadler, Hank Johnson, Cori Bush and Adam Schiff announced the reintroduction of legislation that would create a 13-justice bench.At a press conference in front of the supreme court steps, surrounded by activists holding “Expand the court” signs as tourists and school groups wandered by, they pointed out that, while Democrats gained more votes in seven of the last eight presidential elections and represent 40 million more people in the Senate, Republicans have appointed 15 of the last 19 justices.These two “stolen” seats, the group argues, after Republicans blocked the confirmation of President Barack Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland in 2016 only to ram through the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett 10 days before the 2020 election, even as millions of votes were being cast for Joe Biden.Now, Markey said, it is time to “fix this broken and illegitimate court” with a forceful response. He said: “When a bully steals your lunch money in the schoolyard, you have to do something about it, or else the bully will come back over and over again,” he said. “So we’re in this fight, and we’re going to reclaim these seats. We’re not going to allow the bully to win.”The Massachusetts senator also called for the resignation of Justice Clarence Thomas over his failure disclose gifts provided by the billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow and his wife Ginni’s more than $680,000 in unreported income from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative thinktank. “We’ve got to remind him that we have a system of constitutional checks and balances, not cheques or balances.”The speakers argued that, given recent decisions on abortion rights, voting rights, gun control measures and environmental regulations, the supreme court is beholden to rightwing special interests and facing a crisis of legitimacy.Schiff, a congressman from California, said: “This is not a conservative court, not in a legal sense. A conservative court would have some respect for precedent. This is instead a political and partisan court with a reactionary social agenda and the only question, Mitch McConnell having packed the court, is will we do anything about it or will we subject an entire generation of Americans to the loss of their rights?“Dirtier air and dirtier water and dirtier elections? Is that the fate we would have for the next generation? My kids are both in their early 20 and I am not satisfied that they should have to live under a reactionary supreme court for their entire adult lives and I don’t want anyone else’s kids to have to suffer that fate.”The legislative effort was first launched two years ago but this time it is backed by Planned Parenthood and Naral Pro-Choice America, spurred by the court’s decision last year to overturn the constitutional right to abortion after nearly 50 years.Jacqueline Ayers, senior vice-president of policy, campaigns and advocacy at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, noted that 19 states have since moved to ban the procedure. “The moment is calling for us to realise that it’s necessary that we have fairness, that we have balance in our supreme court,” she said. “The bottom line is the courts are being used as a weapon to take away our rights.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionCongress has added and removed seats on the supreme seven times throughout its history – though the most recent example goes all the way back to the presidency of Ulysses S Grant in 1869. Supporters also contend that 13 is not an arbitrary number but based on sound logic: it would mean one justice per circuit court of appeals, consistent with how the number of justices was originally determined.But they face an uphill battle to persuade Biden and other senior Democrats to put the issue front and centre of next year’s election campaign. In 2021 a report by the president’s supreme court reform commission suggested that “court packing” would be a cure that is worse than the disease, citing autocrats using it to shore up power in Argentina, Venezuela, Turkey, Hungary and Poland.Biden, who hangs a portrait of Franklin Roosevelt in the Oval Office, may also be wary of what happened when the 32nd president, up against a supreme court that ruled parts of his New Deal unconstitutional, floated a plan in 1937 that could have expanded the bench to 15 seats. It was unpopular with the public and failed to clear the Senate.Bill Galston, a former policy adviser to President Bill Clinton, said: “I don’t think the Biden White House are going to walk down that road during a presidential election. You don’t need to know a lot of American history to remember what happened the last time a president tried to do this – that was a president at the very peak of his popularity and no one can say that President Biden is at the very peak of his.”Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution thinktank in Washington, added: “The general Democratic narrative is that Republicans are trying to change the rules to their advantage and a White House-led effort to expand or, as the Republicans would say, instantly pack the supreme court would blow up that narrative and create a new centre of attention with the Democrats on the defensive.”Conservatives would indeed cry foul at any such proposal and accuse Democrats of hypocrisy. Curt Levey, president of the advocacy group Committee for Justice, said: “If you could just add seats every time one party controls both Congress and the presidency then the supreme court would reflect whatever party was in power at the time and it would be a completely politicised supreme court. It would be very dangerous.”He added: “It strikes me that the Democrats are sore losers here. You had a liberal activist supreme court arguably from 1937 to as late as 2015 and during that entire 80-year period Republicans did not call for packing the court and they did not question the court’s legitimacy. They complained about the court’s decisions but they really never tried to undermine the court.“It’s only been three years since Barrett was appointed and there was a real conservative majority in the court and the Democrats just can’t stand it. They have used the court to implement their agenda for so many decades that the idea that they’ve lost that is just driving them crazy.”Democrats contend, however, that in recent years Republican dominated state legislatures have been content to expand the number of seats on their states’ respective supreme courts.The national effort has a new sense of momentum with the backing of dozens of civil liberties, education, climate and labour organisations, while last year’s midterm elections showed the political potency of abortion rights. Fallon described the presence of Planned Parenthood and Naral this week as “a gamechanger”.Acknowledging that Biden will be “one of the last dominoes to fall”, Fallon predicted that supreme court expansion could be on the agenda for Democrats in next year’s congressional elections, for example in Senate primary races in California and Maryland and in House races in New York and Los Angeles.He said in an interview: “If you want to be a Democratic candidate speaking to that outrage, if you want to mobilise those voters upset about rulings that come out of the court on reproductive rights, now you need to have this as part of your arsenal and what you’re going to promise in terms of what you’ll support when you get to Washington.“It might not be on the timeline of Joe Biden in 2024 but certainly in 2028, when there’s another open contested presidential primary, I would expect by then that every candidate has to be for it.”
      This article was amended on 21 May 2023 to replace an incorrect photograph of Ed Markey. More