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      Troublemaker Trump doesn’t care about a second term – or America. What he craves is attention | Simon Tisdall

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      Troublemaker Trump doesn’t care about a second term – or America. What he craves is attentionSimon TisdallTrump says he’s in it to win it in 2024. But all he offers is disruption and division in the service of his ego, not his country For a man dismissed as a sad, bad loser who “rages at the dying of the right” while the world – and the Republicans – leave him behind, Donald Trump attracts a lot of attention. And that’s the whole point of his latest presidential bid.It’s not even certain that Trump really wants the gig. No former president has recaptured the White House for a second, non-consecutive term since the Democrat Grover Cleveland in 1893. It would take some doing. Is his heart really in it?Fact is, Trump, now 76, is work-shy and lazy. As president he didn’t pay attention to briefings or do his homework. He preferred to play golf. His constant skiving, off-the-cuff decision-making and Oval office tantrums proved he wasn’t fit for the job.Yet by launching his re-election campaign so far in advance, Trump has embarked on a marathon. It’s not principles or idealism that will sustain him. It’s not shop-worn cliches about America made “great and glorious again”.The truth is more mundane. Trump, high-handed braggart-in-chief and low-life star of multiple criminal and civil investigations, just cannot bear to be ignored. He cannot stand the thought of someone else winning. And he badly wants to avoid jail.Last week’s long-winded, fib-filled announcement of his 2024 candidacy was a reminder of Trump’s ability to fascinate even as he appals. Half-a-dozen New York Times columnists immediately felt compelled to register their lack of interest, at considerable length.[Fox News’s once slavish pundits, who have reportedly dropped him on Rupert Murdoch’s orders, visibly struggled on air to break their Trump fixation-addiction. They watched his speech from his Mar-a-Lago swamp the way rats watch a snake.Analysts have been busy explaining why he will not win again: voters are tired of lies and crude insults; the country cannot afford four more years of chaos; the failure of many Trump-backed midterm election candidates shows his appeal is fading.Big campaign donors and former allies are distancing themselves as a motley troupe of wannabe rivals advances. Even his daughter, Ivanka, a former aide, has had enough. She plans to spend more time with her other children.It’s already received wisdom on the left that the Republicans will self-destruct in a scrap for the party nomination. The most fancied king-slayer is Ron DeSantis. To channel Barack Obama, the rightwing Florida governor is the lipstick on the Trump pig.And yet, and yet … bandwagon-loads of wishful thinking cloud these calculations. Trump retains the support, mostly, of his famed “base” – the Maga core. He continues to attract torrents of individual cash donations. The politics of grievance have deep roots. DeSantis has not said he will run.And he is dusting off his election playbook, which confounded conventional wisdom in 2016. He will again cast himself as the underdog, the outsider, the only candidate who calls out corrupt Washington elites. Trump, after all, is an expert on corruption.Might this work? Yes, says commentator Kevin Williamson. Trump “is not as weak a candidate as many people might expect, or hope, him to be,” he warned. Despite all the caveats, he remains the man to beat, in pole position.Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me … Could America really fall for this vaudeville charlatan all over again? Polls suggest most voters want neither Trump nor Joe Biden in 2024. Yet if there is a rematch, who can say what will happen.Even Jeb Bush, George W’s dull-ish brother, mocked last week’s speech as “low energy”. But there’s no denying Trump, in his dog days, retains a showman’s ability to whip up a crowd, make waves and break news (fake or otherwise). He thrives on what Margaret Thatcher described as the “oxygen of publicity”.The mere fact that he is back in the running may undercut US global leadership. Coupled with the Democrats’ loss of the House of Representatives, it raises questions about Biden’s continuing authority. Biden told the world: “America is back.” Trump#2 would take it backwards.Vladimir Putin, for one, will be happy Trump is in the frame. The great appeaser is notoriously sweet on Russia’s war criminal boss. Putin and his fans, such as Hungary’s leader Viktor Orbán, hope the Maga mob will force reductions in aid for Ukraine.Autocrats and authoritarians everywhere will be rooting for a Trump comeback. His comrade-in-arms, Benjamin Netanyahu, in office again in Israel, has no time for Biden. The Saudis, having invested so much, expect a return – in both senses.The odd man out in this welcoming committee of tyrants and strongmen will be China’s president, Xi Jinping. Just the thought of a second Trump presidency is enough to wipe the smile off his face – if he ever smiled, that is.European leaders, the EU and Nato will pray it doesn’t happen. And after his sexist, discriminatory behaviour towards Theresa May, how might Trump redux treat the UK’s latest prime minister, Rishi Sunak? It hardly bears thinking about.Trump says he’s in it to win it in 2024. But that’s not the whole story. What the ultimate narcissist wants most of all is attention, preferably the uncritical, fawning variety. To stir up a storm, he will follow his tried and tested 3D formula.Some politicians offer blood, sweat and tears. Trump noisily offers disruption, distraction and division – in the service of his ego, not his country. The best, sensible course would be to ignore him. But that is not how the world works.Trump is still box office. He makes headlines. He sucks up energy. He is the nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue, a Mary Shelley monster. It’s hard to take your eyes off him, and dangerous to try. He’s not over.TopicsDonald TrumpOpinionUS elections 2024US politicsRepublicanscommentReuse this content More

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      So Help Me God review: Mike Pence’s tortured bid for Republican relevance

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      So Help Me God review: Mike Pence’s tortured bid for Republican relevanceTrump’s VP is surprisingly critical of the boss whose followers wanted him dead. But surely the presidency won’t be his too After four years at Donald Trump’s side, Mike Pence emerged as the Rodney Dangerfield of vice-presidents: he gets no respect. So Help Me God, his memoir, is well-written and well-paced. But it will do little to shake that impression.Cheney hits back as Pence says January 6 committee has ‘no right’ to testimonyRead moreAt the Capitol on January 6, his boss was prepared to leave him for dead. And yet the Republican rank-and-file yawned. Among prospective presidential nominees, Pence is tied with Donald Trump Jr for third. The GOP gravitates to frontrunners. Pence, once a six-term congressman and governor of Indiana, is not that.As governor, he was dwarfed by his predecessor, Mitch Daniels. On Capitol Hill, he was eclipsed by the late Richard Lugar, also from Indiana and chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, and Dan Coats, another Hoosier senator. On the page, Pence lauds all three. Say what you like, he is unfailingly polite.Coats became Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence and repeatedly pushed back against the president. That cost Coats his job. Pence pushed back less.The former vice-president is a committed Christian with sharp elbows but also a sonorous voice. He has struggled with the tugs of faith and ambition. Family is an integral part of his life. He takes pride in his son’s service as a US marine. Born and raised a Catholic, the 48th vice-president is now one of America’s most prominent evangelicals. So Help Me God is replete with references to prayer. Pence begins with a verse from the Book of Jeremiah and concludes with Ecclesiastes: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”Trump picked him as a running mate at the suggestion of Paul Manafort. Unlike Newt Gingrich and Chris Christie, other possible picks, Pence could do “normal”.Time passes. On 3 November 2020, America delivered its verdict on the Trump presidency. Trump lost. By his own admission, Pence was surprised. He refused to believe the polls and mistook the enthusiasm of the base for the entire political landscape. He wrongly believed he would serve another four years, yards from the Oval Office, enjoying weekly lunches with the Man.Instead, two months later, at great personal peril, he accepted reality and abided by his conscience and the constitution. Like Richard Nixon, Walter Mondale, Dan Quayle (another hapless Hoosier) and Al Gore, Pence presided over the certification of an election he had lost.For Pence and those around him, it was a matter of duty and faith. They refused to subvert democracy. Yet along the way Pence flashed streaks of being in two minds politically – as he continues to do. He rebuffed Trump’s entreaties to join a coup but gave a thumbs-up to the turbulence. He welcomed the decision by the Missouri senator Josh Hawley to object to election results.“It meant we would have a substantive debate,” Pence writes. He got way more than that. His own brother, Greg Pence, an Indiana congressman, voted against certification – mere hours after the insurrectionists sought to hang his brother from makeshift gallows. As the mob raged, Greg Pence hid too. After it, the brass ring came first.Among House Republicans, Trump remains emperor. Rightwing members have extracted a pledge that the GOP-controlled House will investigate Nancy Pelosi and the justice department for the purported mistreatment of defendants jailed for invading the Capitol. Pence’s anger and hurt are visible.“The president’s words were reckless, and they endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol building,” he recently said. But in the next breath, he stonewalled the House January 6 committee. Pence told CBS it would set a “terrible precedent” for Congress to summon a vice-president to testify about conversations at the White House. He also attacked the committee for its “partisanship”.Bennie Thompson, the Democratic committee chair, and Liz Cheney, the Republican vice-chair, pushed back hard.“Our investigation has publicly presented the testimony of more than 50 Republican witnesses,” they said. “This testimony, subject to criminal penalties for lying to Congress, was not ‘partisan’. It was truthful.”From Pence, it was a strained attempt to retain political viability. Surely, that train has left the station.Pence’s memoir does deliver a perhaps surprisingly surgical indictment of Trump. The book catalogs Trump’s faults, errors and sins. From Charlottesville to Russia to Ukraine, Pence repeatedly tags him for his shortcomings and missteps.He upbraids Trump for his failure to condemn “the racists and antisemites in Charlottesville by name”, but then rejects the contention Trump is a bigot.Pence risks Trump’s wrath by piling on criticisms of ex-president in new bookRead moreAs for Putin, “there was no reason for Trump not to call out Russia’s bad behaviour”, Pence writes. “Acknowledging Russian meddling” would not have “cheapen[ed] our victory” over Hillary Clinton. On Ukraine, the subject of Trump’s first impeachment, Pence terms the infamous phone call to Volodymyr Zelenskiy “less than perfect”.But even as Putin’s malignance takes center stage, the Trumps refuse to abandon their man. Don Jr clamors to halt aid to Ukraine, the dauphin gone Charles Lindbergh. He tweets: “Since it was Ukraine’s missile that hit our NATO ally Poland, can we at least stop spending billions to arm them now?”These days, Pence leads Advancing American Freedom, a tax-exempt conservative way-station with an advisory board replete with Trump refugees. Kellyanne Conway, Betsy DeVos and Callista Gingrich are there, so too David Friedman and Larry Kudlow. If more than one of them backs Pence in 2024, count it a minor miracle.Rodney Dangerfield is gone. But his spirit definitely lives on – in Mike Pence, of all people.
      So Help Me God is published in the US by Simon & Schuster
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      ‘It’s on the tape’: Bob Woodward on the criminality of Donald Trump

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      Interview‘It’s on the tape’: Bob Woodward on the criminality of Donald TrumpDavid Smith in Washington The great Washington Post reporter has published 20 interviews he conducted with the then president – who is now running againJust when you thought it was safe to go back in the water. Donald Trump is running for president again. That was not a prospect Bob Woodward had to deal with when Richard Nixon resigned in 1974, after Woodward and his Washington Post colleague Carl Bernstein cracked open the Watergate scandal.“Our long national nightmare is over,” declared Nixon’s successor, Gerald Ford, and it was. Nixon faded into jowly retirement. But Trump yearns to regain the crown.The Trump Tapes: Bob Woodward’s chilling warning for US democracyRead moreWoodward spoke to the Guardian by phone six hours before the disgraced one-term, twice-impeached president took the stage at Mar-a-Lago, his gaudy personal Xanadu in Florida, to announce what might or might not be the greatest political comeback of all time.Does Woodward, who at 79 has written about nine American presidents, think Trump can win again? Or is Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, hammer of wokeness, now the man to beat?“Who knows? Trump’s got tens of millions of supporters. DeSantis is the flavour of the month. DeSantis may be the one. Maybe not. I remember in 1990, before the ’92 presidential election, with a bunch of friends making a list of the 50 people who might be the next president. [Bill] Clinton was not on the list [though] he would have put himself there. So who knows? You can’t record the future.”But you can revisit the past. Trump pulled off an unlikely victory in 2016 in what many saw as an indictment of the media. While there was some fine reporting that left America in no doubt about what it was getting, there was also wall-to-wall cable news coverage and a constant pressure for his opponent, Hillary Clinton, to respond to Trump’s latest unhinged tweet. Are there lessons to learn?Woodward says: “If you look back on 2016, there was a lot of good coverage but it was never enough. He was able to sell himself as a successful, wealthy businessman. What do we know about him now that we didn’t know in 2016? There is a lot of evidence, good reporting, investigations by some committees on the Hill, that actually he was not a successful businessman, he’s not wealthy. What’s the lesson from all that? Dig deeper and then, when you dig deep, dig deeper more and more and more.”His image burnished by the reality TV show The Apprentice, the Trump of 2016 was able to essay the role of political outsider and swamp drainer. Now the novelty has worn off, he faces federal, state and congressional investigations and his four years in the Oval Office are a matter of record.Woodward has contributed a trilogy of books – Fear, Rage and Peril (the last written with Robert Costa) – and now an audiobook, The Trump Tapes, presenting his 20 interviews with the president. The Guardian’s Lloyd Green called it “a passport to the heart of darkness”.Woodward continues: “Now he’s going to run again and we in our business need to focus on what he did as president. That’s the office he’s running for. Yes, it’s a political office, and you see all the stories now about the politics of Trump running, people abandoning him, people sticking with him and so forth – that’s an important story.“But the real scorecard is what he did as president and on foreign affairs, dealing with Kim Jong-un or [Vladimir] Putin or all this stuff that’s on the tapes. He made it personal. He ran it on instinct.”Woodward describes the tapes as a “laboratory” for understanding Trump’s presidency. “My conclusions are very severe. He failed as president, failed to do his constitutional, moral, practical duty, and I think, not all, but most of the reporting should be on his presidency.”Woodward cites the example of Trump’s tax cuts in 2017, estimated to cost $1.9tn over a decade, criticised as a handout to the rich and corporations at the expense of working families.“I fault myself on this. I’ve not seen – maybe I’m not aware – of some really good reporting on the tax cut, how it happened exactly, who benefited. I wrote in one of my Trump books, Fear, that Gary Cohn engineered and drove it. The former president of Goldman Sachs benefited from that and you can surmise but I’d like to see my own paper or the Guardian or anywhere say: this is really who benefited from this.”Nineteen of the Woodward/Trump interviews happened in person or by phone between autumn 2019 and August 2020, amid research for Rage.This period included the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and ensuing Black Lives Matter protests. Woodward suggested to Trump that both had benefited from white privilege. The president was having none of it. He sneered: “You really drank the Kool-Aid, didn’t you? Just listen to you. Wow.”This chapter of Trump’s tenure was also defined by the coronavirus, which emerged in China in late 2019 but which he downplayed, claiming it would vanish over the summer. Now, more than a million Americans have died of Covid-19.In The Trump Tapes, Woodward interviews Robert O’Brien, the national security adviser who warned Trump the virus would be “the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency”, and his deputy, Matthew Pottinger, who likened it to the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed 650,000.Woodward adds: “I discovered they issued this warning 28 January. I was as shocked as I’ve ever been as a reporter.”By April, Woodward could not resist pushing Trump to meet the moment, telling him experts were saying he needed to mobilise the country, coordinate with intelligence agencies and work with foreign governments. Woodward argued: “If you come out and say, ‘This is a full mobilisation, this is a Manhattan Project, we are going – pardon the expression – balls to the wall’, that’s what people want.”Had he crossed a line? His wife, Elsa Walsh, also a journalist, thought so. He recalls: “I did these interviews on speakerphone so I could record them with Trump’s permission. She was there many times and Trump knew that and then afterwards she said I was yelling at Trump and that I shouldn’t be doing that. I’m just supposed to ask questions. She berated me for this. It’s on the tape.”But he insists: “It wasn’t an advocacy position. Trump had these coronavirus meetings and had virus deniers there and so the whole atmosphere was one of ‘Let’s not listen to the experts’. I knew some of these people and found out what they said and they were very specific and it had a logic to it, namely that overall Trump needed a world war two-style mobilisation to deal with this.“I couldn’t talk to him so I passed it on and made it clear this is not me but this is my reporting from what the experts are saying. As I said to my wife, we’re in a different world. It’s the reporter who’s on the street and sees somebody shot. Go help them as a human being and then you phone in the story. This is of the magnitude that 1.1 million people died in this country because of the virus.”By the summer, the scale of Trump’s failure and the price in death and grief were clear. In the tapes, Woodward asks: “Was there a moment in all of this last two months where you said to yourself, ‘Ah, this is the leadership test of a lifetime?’”Trump replies, with dead finality: “No.”Woodward reflects: “Even then, let alone now, it was the leadership test of a lifetime and just, ‘No’. It’s tragic. Not only did he conceal what he knew and deny it but it’s a crime. It’s a moral crime to know all this and not tell the people. I once asked him the job of the president and he said, ‘To protect the people.’ I’ve never heard about or read anywhere in my own reporting or in history where a president was so negligent.”The last long interview took place on 21 July 2020. Woodward said things were bad. Trump did not understand so Woodward had to point out that 140,000 people had died. The president claimed to have Covid under control. Woodward asked, “What’s the plan?” Trump said there would be one in 104 days. Woodward wondered what he was talking about. Then he realised: the presidential election was 104 days away.Such exchanges are damning and ensure that more than eight hours of conversations, by his own words shall Trump be condemned. Why, then, did he agree to talk? As the comedian Jimmy Kimmel put it: “Why are you agreeing to do 20 interviews on tape with the guy who took down Richard Nixon with tapes? With tapes!”Trump campaign announcement deepens Republicans’ civil warRead moreOne answer is ego. Trump can be heard flattering “a great historian” and “the great Bob Woodward”. Woodward suggests: “I had been sceptical of the Steele dossier and the Russian investigation and had said so publicly. [Senator] Lindsey Graham, [Trump’s] supporter from South Carolina, had told him I would not put words in his mouth, which was true, and so he agreed to do these interviews.”On the other side of the coin, this is a rare opportunity to hear the Woodward method. The Washington Post, where he has worked for half a century, observed that The Trump Tapes “offers a surprising window into the legendary investigative reporter’s process – a perennial focus of both mystique and critique”.At times, Woodward indulges Trump’s streams of consciousness, airing of grievances and pathological narcissism. At others he cajoles, challenges or confronts. Woodward says: “He’ll talk and talk and talk but I ask questions, very specific questions. What are you doing about the virus? Tell me about Putin.”He did miss one opening. He asked if, in the event of a close election in November, Trump would refuse to leave the White House. The president declined to comment.“It was the only question he didn’t answer in eight hours – 600 questions – and I should have followed up. I should have said, ‘Wait a minute, why isn’t he answering that?’ I didn’t.”Re-listening to all 20 interviews, and finding it such a different experience from reading the transcripts or listening to snatches on TV or the internet, convinced Woodward to release the recordings – a first in his long career. Raw and unfiltered, this is one instance where Trump does not benefit from a reporter “tidying up” his quotations to make him sound more lucid and less repetitive than he actually is.“To be frank, it’s very surprising and it’s a learning experience at age 79, having done this so many years, that there’s something about hearing the voice that gives it an authenticity and power,” Woodward says. “Especially Trump. He doesn’t ever hem and haw, he doesn’t go hmm. He just is right out of the box.”Fifty years since the Watergate break-in, he sees a parallel with the secret White House recording system that caught Nixon.“The Nixon tapes didn’t just come out as transcripts. They came out so you could hear it and this is a version of that. It’s the same problem of appalling criminal – I can’t use any other word for it – behaviour for a sitting president to look away.“There’s a statement that Henry Kissinger once made: ‘What extraordinary vehicles destiny selects to accomplish its design’. I’m not sure destiny exists, but what an extraordinary vehicle.”TopicsBooksBob WoodwardDonald TrumpPolitics booksRepublicansTrump administrationUS politicsinterviewsReuse this content More

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      Trump campaign announcement deepens Republicans’ civil war

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      Trump campaign announcement deepens Republicans’ civil war Republicans are now soul searching over how they lost a very winnable Senate and bracing for two tumultuous years in the House – and many blame TrumpMike Lindell was full of passionate intensity. Wandering the white and gold ballroom of the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, the mustachioed pillow-maker predicted that Donald Trump’s candidacy for the White House would clear the Republican field.“After he announces today, I think [Florida governor] Ron DeSantis will end up just endorsing him,” Lindell, a rabid Trump cheerleader and conspiracy theorist, told the Guardian early on Tuesday evening. “I can’t imagine anybody wasting the time, effort and money of the people. We need to unite our country and there’s only man who can do that and he’ll be up on that stage. Period.”It did not work out that way.Could Trump’s 2024 campaign keep his legal troubles at bay?Read moreIn fact Trump’s lethargic primetime speech beneath crystal chandeliers and the stars and stripes had the opposite effect, conveying the impression to many of a Yesterday’s Man who has lost his swagger, more vulnerable than ever to DeSantis and other would-be challengers in 2024.Far from a coronation, it also deepened what Democrats gleefully called “an all-out civil war” engulfing the Republican party in the wake of midterm elections where, despite economic discontent and historical headwinds, forecasts of a red wave were scaled down to a pink splash.Republicans are now soul searching over how they lost a very winnable Senate and bracing for two tumultuous years in the House of Representatives, where their wafer-thin majority is likely to enflame divisions and empower the far right.Many point the finger of blame at Trump and his false claims of voter fraud, noting the underperformance of candidates he endorsed for the Senate and the near total wipeout of election deniers who ran for statewide office.It is perhaps an unflattering insight into human nature that Republicans who were willing to tolerate Trump’s misogyny, racism and lies, and even his attempted coup against the government, have declared “enough is enough” when they discovered him to be a loser.The Axios website reported that Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, won huge applause at an annual meeting of Republican governors after arguing that Trump had cost the party dearly for three elections in a row. Voters had “rejected crazy”, Christie said.Media proprietor Rupert Murdoch also appears to be deserting the sinking ship. His New York Post newspaper covered his presidential announcement with an article buried on page 26 under the headline “Been there, Don that.” The story was teased at the bottom of the front page with: “Florida man makes announcement.”Republican donors who previously backed Trump are out too. Ken Griffin, a billionaire founder of the Citadel hedge fund, has endorsed DeSantis for president. Stephen Schwarzman, of the private equity firm Blackstone, said he would support one among a new generation of leaders in the Republican primary.And the conservative Club for Growth, once a staunch ally of the former president, released a polling memo that showed him trailing DeSantis in several crucial states. Even Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, is staying away this time. Is the writing on the wall at last?Mark Sanford, a former Republican governor of South Carolina, said: “There’s a shelf life to every political figure. We do have expiration dates, and in military terms, at some point people outrun their supply lines. It has that feeling of desperation.”Trump’s potential rivals can smell blood in the water. DeSantis, Christie, former vice president Mike Pence – currently promoting a memoir – and ex-secretary of state Mike Pompeo have all dropped hints about running for president in 2024. Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, Glenn Youngkin, the governor of Virginia, Nikki Haley, a former UN ambassador, and Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Tim Scott of South Carolina could also be in the frame.Sanford added: “If Trump has been perceived as the alpha dog in the room and now he may be faltering, there are going to be a lot of people nipping at his heels.“Politics is constructed in a very Darwinian level and, the moment you start to show a little bit of weakness, you got 10 people coming at you fast, and I think there are going to be 10 people coming at Trump in fairly short order based on both real and perceived weaknesses that are beginning to now show.“Frankly, the only thing that he really had going for him, and this was the tagline in 2016, was ‘I’m a winner and you’re going to get so tired of winning’. He’s always been about the perception of winning and, once that mirror begins to crack, there is no there there.”But Trump is hardly likely to surrender without a fight. A crowded primary could turn into a bare-knuckle political brawl peppered with insults and name-calling, reminiscent of the 2016 campaign when Trump deployed terms such as “low energy”, “Lyin’ Ted” and “Little Marco”.For a party that became a cult of personality around one man to then attempt decoupling from him could trigger something of an identity crisis. Nowhere will that be more evident than on Capitol Hill, where Trump has branded Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, “an old crow”.On Wednesday McConnell was challenged for the leadership for the first time in 15 years amid post-election recriminations from the hard right. He prevailed by 37 votes to 10 over Rick Scott, the outgoing chair of Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, in a secret ballot.Republicans in the House, meanwhile, offered initial support for Kevin McCarthy of California to serve as speaker but, given their narrow majority, the job may prove akin to herding cats. Each member will have huge sway over the conduct of business, raising the spectre of partisan battles and legislative gridlock with pro-Trump extremists gaining huge leverage.To secure the speakership, the Washington Post reported, McCarthy has promised to restore committee assignments for Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona. The former was removed for endorsing violent behavior and conspiracy theories; the latter for posting an animated video that depicted him killing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.Rick Wilson, cofounder of the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group, said: “McCarthy is the Sino – he’s the speaker in name only. Marjorie Taylor Greene runs the House caucus. Marjorie Taylor Greene has more control over the caucus than Kevin McCarthy does. That symbolic vote was very clearly sending him a signal: do what we want or we’ll blow you out. They will if he does not obey them.”“So we’re going to have endless investigations of Hunter Biden’s laptop. We’re going to have endless ‘Did Anthony Fauci brew up the virus in a Chinese lab?’ All this crap is coming down the pike and that’s because Kevin cannot resist the power they have over him. He is going to be the weakest speaker in the history of the US House.”Some prominent Republicans, including House conference chair Elise Stefanik of New York, have already endorsed Trump for president in 2024. Others are sitting on the fence or calling for change. Asked whether she would back Trump, Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, one of the most conservative states in the country, replied: “I don’t think that’s the right question. I think the question is who is the current leader of the Republican party. Oh, I know who it is: Ron DeSantis.”Trump faced opposition from Republican donors and establishment figures in 2016, when his insurgent campaign energised the grassroots and ultimately made the party capitulate. But this time, aged 76, he lacks novelty value, shock value or a Twitter feed. And his four-year record in the White House is there for all to see.Wendy Schiller, a political science professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, said: “He starts out in a weaker position than he did in 2016 in that voters are very familiar with the Trump show both in government and out of government. Not enough of them are willing to buy the tickets to the show to get him to the nomination or get him to the presidency.“If the mega-donors are already cutting ties it means they’re open for business for alternative candidates and they’re going to want to get behind some of those candidates pretty early to fill the vacuum, which nobody did after January 6. Republicans have now seen the electoral consequences of not filling the vacuum after January 6.”But many analysts and pollsters suggest that Trump still commands absolute loyalty from around a third of Republican voters. These “Make America great again” (Maga) fans display quasi-religious fervour at his campaign rallies, vow to stick with him through thick and thin and adopt his “big lie” about the 2020 election as an article of faith.Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, said: “There is a split in the Republican party between the Trump populists who want to savage the existing electoral and political system – we see that with the extraordinary number of election deniers out there – and a group of people who are committed to governing and the constitution and believe they can achieve conservative ends through those existing means. That’s a very fundamental split. I don’t see it going away.”For Democrats, the sight of Republicans at each other’s throats offers respite from scrutiny of their own internal divisions. Journalists with a taste for alliteration are fond of using the phrase “Democrats in disarray”. But with Trump looming large, Republicans could be facing years of Maga meltdown.Drexel Heard, a Democratic strategist based in Los Angeles, said: “Donald Trump put Republicans in disarray and that is what that campaign is going to be like. Do I think Donald Trump has a chance to win? Absolutely not. It’s going to further erode the Republican party. It’s going to split them. Ron DeSantis can’t out-Trump Donald Trump but he’s certainly going to try.”Heard added: “Democrats, as you saw in this midterm, did a pretty good job of holding the line across the country. My question is, why is it always ‘Democrats in disarray’ because of a small internal fight when you’ve got three major levers of the Republican party going at it?”TopicsRepublicansDonald TrumpUS politicsfeaturesReuse this content More

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      US attorney general appoints special counsel in Trump DoJ investigations – live

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      Merrick Garland said his appointment of a special prosecutor was necessary because of Donald Trump’s return to the campaign trail, as well as Joe Biden’s plans to seek a second term in the White House. “The department of justice has long recognized that in certain extraordinary cases, it is in the public interest to appoint a special prosecutor to independently manage an investigation and prosecution,” Garland said in the just-concluded press conference.“Based on recent developments, including the former president’s announcement that he is a candidate for president in the next election and the sitting president’s stated intention to be a candidate as well, I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel.”Gabrielle Canon here, taking over from the west coast to bring you the latest this afternoon. Trump-supporting Republicans have been quick to criticize the newly announced special counsel, with figures like Ted Cruz and Marjorie Taylor Greene sounding off against the ongoing investigation in an attempt to paint the move as a politically motivated.IMPEACH MERRICK GARLAND!— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) November 18, 2022
      “Joe Biden has completely weaponized the Department of Justice to attack his political opponents,” Cruz said on Twitter, trying to make a connection between the timing of Trump’s presidential campaign launch and Garland’s announcement. But Trump’s renewed attempt to regain the presidency could add complications to hold him to account. As Chris McGreal highlights:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}But then there is the politics of a prosecution against a presidential candidate who has already dismissed the investigations of his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, the hoarding of top secret documents, and allegedly fraudulent business practices, as “politically motivated” and a Democratic “witch-hunt”.Could Trump’s 2024 campaign keep his legal troubles at bay?Read moreRepublican party chairwoman Ronna McDaniel has offered her thoughts on the appointment of Jack Smith as special counsel handling the investigations into Donald Trump:We’ve seen this time and again: Biden weaponizes his administration to target his political opponents. Whether it’s the former president, pro-life organizations, tagging parents as domestic terrorists, or creating the “ministry of truth,” Biden is out of line and out of control.— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) November 18, 2022
      CBS News reports that the White House said it had no advance warning of attorney general Merrick Garland’s announcement today of Smith’s appointment. Joe Biden has previously said the justice department has not consulted with him during its investigation into government secrets found at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort:WATCH from our Special Report: White House officials tell @cbsnews they had no heads up from the Justice Department about the attorney general’s decision to appoint a special counsel to handle investigations regarding Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/lNykYAaodY— Ed O’Keefe (@edokeefe) November 18, 2022
      In an interview with Fox News, Donald Trump slammed the appointment of special prosecutor Jack Smith to weigh charging him over the government secrets found at Mar-a-Lago and the January 6 insurrection.“I have been going through this for six years – for six years I have been going through this, and I am not going to go through it anymore,” Trump told the network. “And I hope the Republicans have the courage to fight this.”“I have been proven innocent for six years on everything – from fake impeachments to Mueller who found no collusion, and now I have to do it more?” he continued, adding, “It is not acceptable. It is so unfair. It is so political.”The former president tied attorney general Merrick Garland’s appointment of a special prosecutor to his own announcement this week of another run for the White House.“I announce and then they appoint a special prosecutor,” Trump said. “They found nothing, and now they take some guy who hates Trump. This is a disgrace and only happening because I am leading in every poll in both parties … I am not going to partake in this.”Garland acknowledged that Trump’s run along with Joe Biden’s plans to seek a second term were both factors in his appointment of a special prosecutor, arguing it was the appropriate way to handle the question of whether to seek charges against the former leader after he returned to the campaign trail.“The department of justice has long recognized that in certain extraordinary cases, it is in the public interest to appoint a special prosecutor to independently manage an investigation and prosecution,” Garland said in his press conference earlier today.“Based on recent developments, including the former president’s announcement that he is a candidate for president in the next election and the sitting president’s stated intention to be a candidate as well, I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel.”Texas’s Republican senator John Cornyn has reacted to the appointment of a special counsel to handle the Trump investigations by asking the justice department to do the same for Hunter Biden:This is an admission of a conflict of interest by DOJ; now acknowledge the obvious conflict of interest in Hunter Biden investigation and appoint a special counsel. #nodoublestandard https://t.co/bmypUxWcTk— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) November 18, 2022
      The US attorney in Delaware is said to be weighing whether to bring federal charges against the president’s son, whose business dealings have been a target of scrutiny from GOP politicians and federal investigators for years.Andrew Weissmann was a seasoned justice department prosecutor whose last job was as a manager on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election.Here’s what he had to say about Jack Smith:Jack Smith, the new Special Counsel, is a very aggressive prosecutor who represents the best of the Department, who will bring cases if warranted be fact sand the law.— Andrew Weissmann 🌻 (@AWeissmann_) November 18, 2022
      Special counsel Jack Smith has released a statement after being appointed to the role in which he will determine whether to charge Donald Trump and his allies over the January 6 insurrection and government secrets found at Mar-a-Lago.“I intend to conduct the assigned investigations, and any prosecutions that may result from them, independently and in the best traditions of the department of justice. The pace of the investigations will not pause or flag under my watch,” Smith wrote. “I will exercise independent judgment and will move the investigations forward expeditiously and thoroughly to whatever outcome the facts and the law dictate.”So who’s Jack Smith? As described by Merrick Garland, Smith is a veteran justice department prosecutor who from 2010 to 2015 was head of its public integrity section, responsible for handling corruption cases. He then served as a US attorney in Tennessee during the final years of Democrat Barack Obama’s administration.Lately, he’s been working in international law. He’s currently in The Hague as the specialist prosecutor at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor’s Office, which is handling trials of war crimes suspects from the eastern European country. He also worked as an investigator for the international criminal court from 2008 to 2010.“I strongly believe that the normal processes of this department can handle all investigations with integrity. And I also believe that appointing a special counsel at this time is the right thing to do,” Garland said. “The extraordinary circumstances presented here demand it. Mr. Smith is the right choice to complete these matters in an even handed and urgent manner.”Merrick Garland said his appointment of a special prosecutor was necessary because of Donald Trump’s return to the campaign trail, as well as Joe Biden’s plans to seek a second term in the White House. “The department of justice has long recognized that in certain extraordinary cases, it is in the public interest to appoint a special prosecutor to independently manage an investigation and prosecution,” Garland said in the just-concluded press conference.“Based on recent developments, including the former president’s announcement that he is a candidate for president in the next election and the sitting president’s stated intention to be a candidate as well, I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel.”Attorney general Merrick Garland has named veteran prosector Jack Smith as the special counsel to decide whether to bring charges against Donald Trump. Attorney general Merrick Garland has started his press conference by announcing a special prosecutor will be appointed to handle two inquiries.The first is “the investigation into whether any person or entity unlawfully interfered with the transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election, or the certification of the Electoral College vote held on or about January 6 2021.”The second is “the ongoing investigation involving classified documents and other presidential records, as well as the possible obstruction of that investigation, referenced and described in court filings… in the Southern District of Florida.” That is likely the inquiry into government secrets found at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.As we wait for what is looking to be a consequential announcement from attorney general Merrick Garland, a winner appears to have emerged from one of the last uncalled House races.The Pueblo Chieftain reports that Democrat Adam Frisch has conceded to Republican incumbent Lauren Boebert after a surprisingly close race:Adam Frisch just said that he’s called Lauren Boebert to concede the race in CO-03. He said an automatic recount will likely happen under state law but encouraged supporters to save fundraising $$ for gas, groceries and other causes.— Anna Lynn Winfrey (@annalynnfrey) November 18, 2022
      Boebert is among a group of conservative lawmakers known for their extreme rhetoric, but nearly lost to Frisch even though her district normally votes for Republicans. The House representative has in the past made Islamophobic comments and condemned the separation of church and state.Attorney general Merrick Garland plans to hold a press conference at 2.15pm eastern time, following reports that he will name a special prosecutor to decide whether to bring charges against Donald Trump and his allies.Beyond just the investigation into government secrets Trump allegedly retained at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Politico reports that the special counsel will also look into Trump’s attempts to undermine the 2020 election. The justice department has not yet announced who they will be appointed to job.This blog will cover Garland’s address as it happens.The plan for a special counsel appears to be linked to allegations of the unlawful retention of national defense information at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and residence in Florida, according to the Reuters news agency, which cites an unnamed senior Department of Justice official.The agency says a senior DoJ official has named a special prosecutor to investigate the entirety of the department’s criminal investigation into that potential offense.Meanwhile, CNN reports that the special counsel will also review the parallel DoJ investigation into Trump’s involvement around the insurrection on January 6, 2021, when extremist supporters of the-then president invaded the US Capitol in an attempt to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election by congress.We will bring you more developments as they happen.US attorney general Merrick Garland plans to name a special counsel to examine whether former president Donald Trump should be prosecuted as a result of investigations carried out by the Department if Justice (DoJ), the Wall Street Journal reports, citing an unnamed source “familiar with the matter”.The Journal reports:“A formal announcement, which is expected by Friday afternoon, would come three days after Mr. Trump announced another bid for the presidency and would mark the naming of the third independent prosecutor in five years to examine issues involving Mr. Trump. The exact scope of the special counsel’s remit and who it would be couldn’t be determined.”More details to come…A judge refused today to quash a subpoena issued to former White House press secretary Jen Psaki that seeks her deposition in a lawsuit filed by Missouri and Louisiana, alleging that the Biden administration conspired to silence conservative voices on social media, the Associated Press reports.Psaki filed a motion in federal court in Alexandria seeking to quash the subpoena, saying that she had no relevant information to provide and that a deposition would place an undue burden on her. The Justice Department supported her efforts to quash.US magistrate Ivan Davis said during a hearing today that he was unimpressed with Psaki’s arguments. But he did not reject her request outright. Instead, he transferred the case back to Louisiana, where the lawsuit was filed.Psaki was allowed to file a separate opposition in Virginia because she lives in the state and would be deposed there.Davis, though, said it makes no sense for him to wade into the questions of whether Psaki’s testimony is relevant when the judge in Louisiana is more familiar with the case.He also said Psaki failed to show how sitting for a deposition in her home state would be an undue burden. In fact, he said that if Psaki has little information to contribute, as she alleges, it shouldn’t be much of a burden at all.Justice Department lawyer Indraneel Sur indicated he would appeal Davis’ ruling to a district judge in Alexandria and asked the judge to stay his ruling to provide time to do so, but Davis declined.The lawsuit filed by the attorney general in Missouri and Alexandria accuses Joe Biden, former federal health official Anthony Fauci and others of conspiring with social media companies to restrict free speech by censoring conservative opinions about the Covid-19 response and other issues.Readers will have noticed that politicians, and indeed journalists and people, are still tweeting. But for how much longer?What should Twitter do next?— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2022
      Here’s the Guardian’s Kari Paul:Amid ongoing fallout from Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, speculation of the platform’s imminent collapse is swirling – leaving users wondering what parts of their online selves they’ll get to keep.After Musk laid off thousands of workers, many users have reported signs the platform is falling apart in real time – from glitching home pages to log-in failures – and researchers are desperately urging users to download their tweets in case Twitter implodes completely.“If there’s something you care about on Twitter, now’s the time to become like a temporary expert in digital archiving measures,” said Caroline Sinders, an artificial intelligence researcher and founder of human rights lab Convocation Research and Design.Digital archiving – the process of preserving online content for future use – has expanded steadily since the launch of the internet, but still exists in a patchwork, decentralized framework.There’s more to read, here. But the last bit is killer:If you want to save tweets – whether jokes from a favorite celebrity or the last thoughts of a loved one who has passed – an expert suggests a relatively analog solution.“Print out their tweets, and put them in a box,” the expert said. “They will last longer in every way.”He may still be the most popular man in the Republican party, but Donald Trump’s announcement of a new run for the White House this week has been fodder for his opponents, most recently his former top diplomat Mike Pompeo. Meanwhile, conservatives have continued their quest to stop Kevin McCarthy from becoming speaker in the Republican-run House next year, while Democrats’ transition away from Nancy Pelosi’s leadership appears to be running much more smoothly.Here’s what else has happened today so far:
      The January 6 committee could, as soon as today, file its response to Trump’s attempt to quash its subpoena for his testimony as the end-of-the-year expiration of its mandate draws nearer.
      Joe Biden’s administration has asked the supreme court to allow its student debt relief plan to proceed.
      Republicans on the House judiciary committee want homeland security chief Alejandro Mayorkas and a host of top officials to testify. Expect the situation at the southern border to be a major topic of questioning for the GOP.
      Donald Trump’s former top diplomat Mike Pompeo has again attacked his one-time boss:We were told we’d get tired of winning. But I’m tired of losing.And so are most Republicans.— Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) November 18, 2022
      Pompeo’s wording echoes Trump’s promise on the campaign trail 2016 that if he was elected, supporters would “get tired of winning.” Pompeo, who served as secretary of state from 2018 till the end of Trump’s term in 2021, is thought to be considering a run for the presidency in 2024.Perhaps he’ll elaborate on his thoughts about the former president in his speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition later today:Today, I’m going to speak at @RJC on how we can regain Americans’ trust and win again.— Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) November 18, 2022
      The Biden administration has petitioned the supreme court to allow its plan to relieve some student debt relief to proceed, Bloomberg News reports:NEW: Biden asks Supreme Court to let his student-debt relief plan take effect. Case will be docketed as 22A444.— Greg Stohr (@GregStohr) November 18, 2022
      Biden in August announced the plan to forgive as much as $20,000 in federal student debt for people earning less than $125,000 a year, or households earning below $250,000.Conservative activists and states immediately sued to stop the program, and last month, an effort by six Republican-led states succeeded in getting it temporarily halted. More

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      How a five-term New York Democrat lost a House seat to a Republican

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      How a five-term New York Democrat lost a House seat to a Republican Sean Maloney, head of the influential Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, lost by less than 1% – and redistricting may have been part of itJack Dunnigan stood behind the counter of Pickwick Bookshop, a venerable store he owns, with its homey smell of nobly ageing paper, in the picturesque, liberal riverside town of Nyack about 30 miles north of downtown New York City, and sighed.“I had a feeling he was going to,” Dunnigan said of the local Democratic congressman and national party stalwart Sean Maloney’s loss to his Republican challenger, Mike Lawler, in the midterm elections.Who were the big winners and losers of the US midterm elections?Read moreIt was a mild afternoon in the Hudson Valley, four days after Democrats did much better than expected nationally but took damaging tumbles in the elections in solidly blue New York, which helped Republicans win a slim majority in the House of Representatives. It seemed Dunnigan, 77, had known something Maloney didn’t. Maloney was a five-term congressman and headed the influential Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which describes itself as “the only political committee dedicated to electing Democrats to the House of Representatives”.Maloney had spent the election cycle using funds and Washington knowhow to shore up vulnerable Democrats across the country and then late on had to rush back to his own district for frantic campaigning when it emerged that he, too, was suddenly vulnerable. But to no avail – he lost, by less than 1%.Some blamed his strategy and ground game, others said he was unlucky, especially in the congressional redistricting this year that started off favoring Democrats in New York but wound up weighing in Republicans’ favor.When the maps were redrawn this spring, Maloney decided to run in New York’s 17th congressional district rather than his longtime, more urban, 18th district, even though that meant booting out the newer Mondaire Jones, his fellow Democrat and the incumbent congressman in the 17th district.Redistricting placed almost three-quarters of the constituents Maloney had represented for a decade outside his new, heavily suburban district.At his store, Dunnigan added: “I said, Well, this guy’s got a lot of clout but, you know, he built up a lot of clout in his area. I don’t think he had time to really build up that clout [in the 17th district], and he was trying to.”Bill Clinton stumped for Maloney last month in Nyack, but as a blue enclave the Democratic vote there was hardly imperiled. “I said: that’s impressive but you know, when you’re here, you’re preaching to the choir,” Dunnigan said.But the 17th encompasses all of Rockland county, home to several right-leaning constituencies: cops and firefighters who commute to New York City and Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities who often vote as a conservative bloc.“Sean Patrick Maloney really did not come to our community. In terms of campaigning, I feel like until early voting, I didn’t really hear him here,” said Rivkie Feiner, a Rockland county resident who practices Orthodox Judaism and owns a grant-writing company. “I did see in the newspaper once that he was locally within Rockland or within the district on a Saturday, but tens of thousands of us are Sabbath observant,” Feiner said in a phone interview. “So, you know, it wasn’t like any of us were at any of those events.” Maloney told the New York Times that he invited leaders of several majority-Hasidic villages to meet with him.Feiner, who advocated for Lawler on the ground, described herself as a lifelong Republican but who has “absolutely” crossed party lines for the right candidate. She said that Lawler had been providing excellent constituent services long before the election – including at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.Some felt that Maloney didn’t focus enough on bread-and-butter issues such as inflation and he didn’t take seriously enough Republicans’ discourse on crime – which was emphasized by the New York Republican candidate for governor, Lee Zeldin, who ran the incumbent governor, Democrat Kathy Hochul, uncomfortably close.Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic political strategist based in New York City, said that in the 17th and other suburban districts where seats were flipped by Republicans, voters “cared about things that the National Democratic party didn’t seem to care about.” Or, at least, that they talked about a lot less.He said: “They included crime, because the [national] discussion was about abortion, but the subject in that district was crime – in the sense that New York City with all its ills might be encroaching on the people who live there, right? And economics.”Sheinkopf replied “probably not” when asked if Maloney or his party could have done anything to win his seat.“They couldn’t get past the Washington negatives and New York City, and the idea that New York City was creeping into their lives, and New York City would become the norm, which [to them] meant crime,” he said.Maloney’s office didn’t respond to a request for an interview. But he told the New York Times: “Suburban voters are always concerned about the state of New York City. In this case, they were told very negative things, even though in suburban areas north of the city we are blessed to have some of the safest cities anywhere and crime rates that are lower than just a few years ago.”However, Hochul only won by about six points in a state that went for Joe Biden over Donald Trump by 23 points in 2020, Shawn Donahue, an assistant professor at the University of Buffalo’s department of political science, noted.“Lee Zeldin may have lost, but he may have delivered the house to Kevin McCarthy,” Donahue said. “Democratic turnout was not good in a lot of parts of New York, Republican turnout was, which is a lot different than it was around the country, where both parties’ turnout was pretty good – and it seems like Zeldin’s relentless push on the crime issue really had a big effect in the suburbs.”Some of Maloney’s supporters in the district, like Dunnigan, weren’t shocked by his defeat.Amy Roth, a television producer who voted for Maloney, pointed out that “a lot of New York [District] 17 has turned red recently”.“Mondaire Jones used to be our guy and he wasn’t even allowed to run, so I think it was upsetting more than shocking. I think it was just like, you know, they’ve kind of screwed up,” Roth said. She also noticed more Lawler signs in the district and the campaign “seemed to knock on more doors”, she said.Lawler himself told the Guardian he felt that redistricting dealt a heavy blow to Maloney but added that voters were dissatisfied with Democratic heavyweights’ handling of inflation, crime and immigration issues.Still, Lawler thinks there’s a universe in which a Democrat could have bested him. “I think, obviously, given the close margin, Democrats certainly could have won. There’s 70,000 more Democrats than Republicans [in the district], but I think there’s a confluence of incidents that contributed to this,” he told the Guardian in a phone interview.“I represent a 2-1 Democratic district in the [state] assembly and I have a proven record of being able to reach across the aisle and get Democrats and independents to support me,” Lawler said. Maloney, on the other hand, was “primarily speaking” to his base, Lawler claimed. “It certainly would have been possible for him to win, and it would have been possible for another Democrat to win,” Lawler said. “But I think in this election, in this climate, we ran a very disciplined campaign and had a message that appealed to a broad coalition of voters.”TopicsNew YorkUS midterm elections 2022US politicsDemocratsRepublicansfeaturesReuse this content More

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      Nancy Pelosi says she will not seek re-election as Democratic leader in House – as it happened

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      Nancy Pelosi has announced she will step down as House Democratic leader after nearly two decades, but remain as a lawmaker in the chamber.“There is no greater official honor for me than to stand on this floor and to speak for the people of San Francisco. This I will continue to do as a member of the House – speaking for the people of San Francisco, serving the great state of California and defending our constitution,” Pelosi said.“And with great confidence in our caucus, I will not seek re-election to Democratic leadership in the next Congress.”Nancy Pelosi will not run again for a position in House Democratic leadership, ending her nearly two decades as one of the most powerful figures in the party and the first woman to serve as speaker of Congress’s lower chamber. In a speech, she reflected on her decades representing San Francisco in Congress, and found time to throw shade at Donald Trump.Here’s what else happened today:
      Pelosi’s number-two, Steny Hoyer, will also leave House Democratic leadership, paving the way for a younger generation to take over the party’s top jobs.
      House Republicans are plowing ahead with plans to investigate Hunter Biden’s business ties, casting it as an inquiry into alleged corruption by Joe Biden.
      Arizona’s governor’s race may be over, but not for Republican candidate Kari Lake.
      The January 6 committee interviewed a Secret Service agent who Trump supposedly lunged at during a struggle for the steering wheel of his limo as he tried to get to the Capitol during the insurrection.
      Democratic senators want the Federal Trade Commission to look into how things are going at Twitter since Elon Musk took over.
      Donald Trump’s network of properties aren’t just good places to allegedly store government secrets – they’re also big-time moneymakers for the former president, according to a new report from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).Starting from January 20, 2021, when Trump departed the White House, the former president has made hundreds of thousands of dollars off of lawmakers and other candidates from more than 500 visits to Mar-a-Lago in south Florida and his other properties. A few of the finer points from CREW’s report:
      Sixty-seven senators and House lawmakers have visited Trump’s properties 187 times since he left office. The incoming Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy is the biggest spender, putting down more than $250,000 at the former president’s real estate over five visits, despite the lawmaker’s condemnation of Trump after the January 6 attack.
      State officials including governors, attorney generals and lawmakers have made 106 visits to the president’s properties. Despite their budding rivalry, Florida governor Ron DeSantis showed up the most out of this group, making seven visits.
      Candidates for various offices at the state and federal levels have made nearly half of all political visits to the Trump properties, with 140 aspirants stopping by 236 times. Anna Paulina Luna, an incoming House representative from Florida, made six visits, while Kari Lake, who failed in her bid for Arizona’s governorship, made five. In fact, the New York Times reports that Lake stopped by today:
      Seen at Mar-a-Lago: Kari Lake, per a source.— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 17, 2022
      Meanwhile in Georgia, the bloopers are piling up as Republican Herschel Walker continues his campaign for Senate, ahead of the state’s 6 December run-off election. Martin Pengelly watched footage of the latest, so you don’t have to:In a campaign speech on Wednesday, the Republican candidate for US Senate in Georgia, Herschel Walker, told supporters: “I don’t want to be a vampire any more. I want to be a werewolf.”The remark was the latest controversial or outright bizarre intervention from the former football star who like other candidates endorsed by Donald Trump struggled to overcome his Democratic opponent in the midterm elections.Raphael Warnock, the incumbent Georgia senator, outpolled Walker last week but did not pass 50% of the vote, meaning that under state law a runoff will be held on 6 December. Control of the Senate has been decided, after Democrats won in Arizona and Nevada, but the Georgia race will still be keenly watched.On Wednesday, Walker spoke in McDonough.Choosing to rehash the plot of a film he said he recently watched late at night, whose title he remembered as “Fright Night, Freak Night, or some type of night”, he said in rambling remarks: “I don’t know if you know, but vampires are some cool people, are they not? But let me tell you something that I found out: a werewolf can kill a vampire. Did you know that? I never knew that.“So, I don’t want to be a vampire any more. I want to be a werewolf.”Herschel Walker says in rambling speech he wants to be ‘werewolf, not vampire’ Read moreSeven Democratic senators have sent the Federal Trade Commission a letter to express concerns about changes made by Elon Musk to Twitter, asking the regulator to “vigorously oversee” the social media platform’s consent decree and compliance with consumer privacy laws.“We write regarding Twitter’s serious, willful disregard for the safety and security of its users, and encourage the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate any breach of Twitter’s consent decree or other violations of our consumer protection laws,” begins the letter to the commissions’s chair Lina Khan, which was signed by Richard Blumenthal, Dianne Feinstein, Ben Ray Luján, Elizabeth Warren, Edward J. Markey, Cory Booker and Robert Menendez.“In recent weeks, Twitter’s new Chief Executive Officer, Elon Musk, has taken alarming steps that have undermined the integrity and safety of the platform, and announced new features despite clear warnings those changes would be abused for fraud, scams, and dangerous impersonation,” the letter continues, noting the layoffs and resignations that have hit the company since Musk, the world’s richest man, took over last month.They also take issue with the bungled launch of the Twitter Blue service, which allows anyone to receive a verified account for $8 a month. The senators note it led to an explosion of impostor accounts, including “scammers impersonating companies and celebrities for cryptocurrency schemes, identity theft, and other financial crimes.”“We are concerned that the actions taken by Mr. Musk and others in Twitter management could already represent a violation of the FTC’s consent decree, which prohibits misrepresentation and requires that Twitter maintain a comprehensive information security program,” the senators write.“We urge the Commission to vigorously oversee its consent decree with Twitter and to bring enforcement actions against any breaches or business practices that are unfair or deceptive, including bringing civil penalties and imposing liability on individual Twitter executives where appropriate.”The Senate’s top Democrat Chuck Schumer made the journey to the House to watch Nancy Pelosi announce the end of her time in Democratic leadership.Here’s his thoughts on the end of the Pelosi era, delivered on the Senate floor:Thank you, @SpeakerPelosi. It is the honor of a lifetime to work with you. pic.twitter.com/V9pUMpSKAJ— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) November 17, 2022
      Reaction continues to come in after Nancy Pelosi’s announcement that she will not run for leadership of House Democrats again.Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics, says her organization has “witnessed a great deal of history in our 50 years of observing women’s roles in American politics, but among the most significant is Nancy Pelosi’s ascension as the first woman speaker of the US House of Representatives.“She has been, throughout her career, a symbol of the heights of aspiration for American women and girls … Nancy Pelosi will be remembered as one of the most consequential speakers in modern history, holding together an often-fractious caucus, shepherding momentous legislation, and wielding influence in ways that earned respect from allies and opponents alike.“She has weathered unprecedented vitriol but was nonetheless dedicated to consensus-building and results. She also prioritized the leadership of other women – encouraging and supporting women across the country to run for office. She presided over the largest ever increase in women’s representation in the US House, as well as the most diverse Democratic caucus in history … she has shown the world and future generations the unlimited potential of women’s leadership.”And here’s Danielle Melfi, executive director of the pro-Biden administration group Building Back Together: “Speaker Pelosi’s legacy is without equal in Congress. From the Affordable Care Act to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Dodd-Frank reforms, she has championed some of the most impactful legislation of the last four decades.“She fights for the interests of children and working families in California and across the country, broke down barriers as the first woman to serve as speaker of the House, and is a stalwart defender of our democracy – particularly in the wake of the January 6 attack. “Among her countless policy achievements, the speaker was instrumental in passing key elements of President Biden’s agenda, including the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Chips and Science Act, the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, and the Pact Act – each of them a historic win for working families.”Interesting news emerging on the January 6 front via Annie Grayer of CNN, who reports that the House select committee “is interviewing Secret Service agent Robert Engel, the lead agent in former president Donald Trump’s motorcade on the day of the US Capitol attack, two sources [say]”.Grayer adds that “Engel was the agent Cassidy Hutchinson testified she was told Trump lunged at” when he was told he could not follow his supporters to the Capitol after his speech near the White House.Trump denies lunging at agents on his protective detail. Here’s video of Hutchinson’s testimony, in which she said: “The president reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. Mr Engel grabbed his arm, said, ‘Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We’re going back to the West Wing. We’re not going to the Capitol.’ Mr Trump then used his free hand to lunge towards Bobby Engel.”01:42In other January 6 news, there follows a write-up of Mike Pence’s statement to CBS in an interview that he will not testify because he thinks the committee is partisan and also doesn’t think he, as an ex-vice-president, should have to testify “about deliberations that took place at the White House”.Pence’s detailed descriptions of detailed deliberations that took place at the White House are currently available from all good booksellers – and no doubt quite a few bad ones too.Of course, accounts of detailed deliberations that took place at the White House as contained in memoirs aimed at the 2024 Republican primary are not given under oath. But testimony to congressional committees is, as the January 6 chair and vice-chair, Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney, made clear in their response to Pence.In short, testimony such as Hutchinson’s about Trump lunging at agents is “subject to criminal penalties for lying to Congress”. So news that Engel is interviewing with the committee is interesting to say the least.Further reading:Cheney hits back as Pence says January 6 committee has ‘no right’ to testimonyRead moreDave Wasserman, US House editor at the nonpartisan Cook Report political analysis website, says the Democrat Mary Peltola has won in Alaska, beating two Republicans, Nick Begich and the former governor and John McCain vice-presidential nominee, Sarah Palin.I’ve seen enough: Rep. Mary Peltola (D) wins reelection in #AKAL, defeating Sarah Palin (R) and Nick Begich (R).— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) November 17, 2022
      Though Republicans have won the House back from Democrats this still qualifies for a “huge if true” – the Guardian follows the Associated Press, which has not called the Alaska race yet – and not only because Palin seems to have lost again in her attempt to return to meaningful political office.When she won a special election for the seat earlier this year, Peltola became the first Alaska Native elected to Congress.“I want to work with everyone and anyone who is a reasonable person to find solutions to Alaska’s challenges,” she told the Guardian then:‘I want to work with everyone’: Alaska’s history-making new congresswomanRead moreMore on Kari Lake and her refusal to concede defeat in the governor’s race in Arizona, where the Trump-endorsed Republican lost to her Democratic opponent, Katie Hobbs.Lake posted a two-minute statement to Twitter earlier. She began: “Hi, Arizona … I wanted to reach out to you to let you know that I am still in this fight with you. For two years I’ve been sounding the alarm about our broken election system here in Arizona. And this past week has confirmed everything we’ve been saying.”Lake proceeded to recount a list of evidence-free claims against Hobbs, the secretary of state who oversaw the election, and about supposed suspicious outcomes at the polls last week.Reporting Lake’s statement for the Guardian, Sam Levine writes: .css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}There were equipment malfunctions at about a third of polling locations on election day in Maricopa county, but voters were still able to cast their ballots. Officials had figured out a solution by the afternoon. A county judge also rejected a lawsuit filed by Republicans to extend voting hours, saying there was no evidence voters had been disenfranchised.”Lake said she was “busy here collecting evidence and data” and had “assembled the best and brightest legal team and we are exploring every avenue to correct the many wrongs that have been done this past week”. “I’m doing everything in my power to right these wrongs,” she said. “My resolve to fight for you is higher than ever.”She also referred to being part of a “movement [that] started in Arizona and it quickly expanded to all 50 states … a movement of mama bears and papa bears and students and Arizonans who love this country”.Lake concluded by promising “one thing. This fight to save our republic has just begun”.Sam has more:Election denier Kari Lake refuses to concede Arizona governor race she lostRead moreNancy Pelosi will not run again for a position in House Democratic leadership, ending her nearly two decades as one of the most powerful figures in the party and the first woman to serve as speaker of Congress’s lower chamber. In a speech on the floor, she talked about her decades representing San Francisco in Congress, and found time to throw shade on Donald Trump.Here’s what else has happened today so far:
      Pelosi’s number-two, Steny Hoyer, will also leave House Democratic leadership, paving the way for a younger generation to take over the party’s top jobs.
      House Republicans are plowing ahead with plans to investigate Hunter Biden’s business ties, casting it as an inquiry into alleged corruption by Joe Biden.
      Arizona’s governor’s race may be over, but not for Republican candidate Kari Lake.
      As she announced her plans to step down from House leadership, Nancy Pelosi managed to get in one more dig at Donald Trump.“I have enjoyed working with three presidents, achieving historic investments in clean energy with President George Bush, transformed healthcare reform with President Barack Obama … and forging the future, from infrastructure to healthcare to climate action, with President Joe Biden,” she said on the House floor.The problem is, Pelosi worked with four presidents. Trump is left unmentioned.What moment might the House speaker remember most fondly from the former Republican president’s time in office? Perhaps it would be when she tore up Trump’s State of the Union address right after he finished delivering it. More

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      Cheney hits back as Pence says January 6 committee has ‘no right’ to testimony

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      Cheney hits back as Pence says January 6 committee has ‘no right’ to testimonyPanel vice-chair issues statement with chair Bennie Thompson after Trump vice-president gives interview to CBS The chair and vice-chair of the January 6 committee hit back after Mike Pence said they had “no right” to his testimony about the Capitol attack, and claimed they presided over a “partisan” investigation.Trump bills himself as only option but Republicans split on 2024 runRead moreTestimony presented to the panel and to the nation in a series of dramatic public hearings was “not partisan”, Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney said. “It was truthful.”Pence was speaking to CBS, to promote a new book in which he sets out his version of events on the day supporters of his president, Donald Trump, attacked Congress, some chanting that Pence should be hanged.Pence previously said he would consider testifying. But to CBS, he said: “Congress has no right to my testimony on separation of powers under the constitution of the United States.“And I believe it will establish a terrible precedent for the Congress to summon a vice-president of the United States to speak about deliberations that took place at the White House.”Trump supporters attacked Congress after he told them to “fight like hell” to stop certification of Joe Biden’s election win, in service of the lie that it was the result of electoral fraud. Nine deaths have been linked to the riot, including suicides among law enforcement.Trump was impeached a second time but acquitted when Senate Republicans stayed loyal. On Tuesday, he announced a third consecutive presidential run.Pence is also eyeing a run for the Republican nomination. In doing so he must balance promoting his record as vice-president to Trump, thereby appealing to Trump’s supporters, with distancing himself from a former president whose standing is slipping after Republican disappointment in the midterm elections.Pence said he was “closing the door” on the prospect of testifying.“But I must say again, the partisan nature of the January 6 committee has been a disappointment to me. It seemed to me in the beginning, there was an opportunity to examine every aspect of what happened on January 6, and to do so more in the spirit of the 9/11 Commission, non-partisan, non-political, and that was an opportunity lost.”The January 6 committee was appointed by the Democratic House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, after the Republican leader in the House, Kevin McCarthy, tried to appoint Trump allies to a 9/11-style panel. Pelosi rejected those appointments, leading McCarthy to withdraw from the process.The January 6 committee consists of seven Democrats and two Republicans, Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, anti-Trump figures who will soon leave Congress.Who’s next? Republicans who might go up against Trump in 2024Read moreThe panel is wrapping up its work, after it was confirmed on Wednesday that Republicans will take control of the House.In their statement, Thompson and Cheney said: “The select committee has proceeded respectfully and responsibly in our engagement with Vice-President Pence, so it is disappointing that he is misrepresenting the nature of our investigation while giving interviews to promote his new book.“Our investigation has publicly presented the testimony of more than 50 Republican witnesses, including senior members of the TrumpWhite House, the Trump campaign, and the Trump justice department.“This testimony, subject to criminal penalties for lying to Congress, was not ‘partisan’. It was truthful.”TopicsMike PenceJanuary 6 hearingsLiz CheneyUS politicsUS CongressHouse of RepresentativesRepublicansnewsReuse this content More