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      Anger as Republicans block bill to help military veterans exposed to toxins

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      Anger as Republicans block bill to help military veterans exposed to toxinsJon Stewart, who has lobbied for bipartisan bill to expand care for veterans, condemns ‘stab-vets-in-the-back senators’ The comedian Jon Stewart ripped into Republican senators on Wednesday, after they abruptly halted a bipartisan bill that would expand healthcare access for military veterans exposed to toxic burn pits.The former host of the Daily Show, who now hosts The Problem with Jon Stewart on Apple TV+, has lobbied for the bill.Most Americans do not want Biden or Trump in 2024, poll findsRead moreHe called those who switched their votes “stab-vets-in-the-back senators”.He added: “PS: fuck the Republican caucus and their empty promise to our veterans.”The measure, called the Honoring our Pact Act, would make it easier for veterans to access military care related to exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam and toxins from pits used to burn military waste in Iraq and Afghanistan.A version of the bill passed the Senate 84-14 earlier this year but was sent back to the House for some technical corrections. It easily passed there.But on Wednesday, 25 Republican senators who previously supported the measure declined to move it forward.John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, told CNN Republicans did not back the measure because Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, was blocking votes on amendments Republicans wanted.Cornyn also said Republicans wanted to negotiate more, in order to cut out some of the mandatory spending contained in the bill.Stewart called that justification “bullshit”.Republicans blocked the veterans measure just after Schumer, from New York, and Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, announced they had reached a deal on a sweeping tax and climate measure.The Schumer-Manchin announcement reportedly caught Republicans off guard after another big measure, to support the US semiconductor industry, passed the chamber earlier in the day.In a speech on the Senate floor, Jon Tester, the Montana Democrat who chairs the Senate veteran’s affairs committee, said: “Putting this policy off does nobody any good whatsoever.”Tester also issued a strongly worded statement, lamenting an “eleventh-hour act of cowardice” and saying: “Republicans chose today to rob generations of toxic-exposed veterans of the healthcare and benefits they so desperately need – and make no mistake, more veterans will suffer and die as a result.”Stewart also criticized Patrick Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, who urged his colleagues to halt the bill because of the way it allocated discretionary funds, Roll Call reported.Stewart wrote: “Congratulations Senator Toomey. You successfully used the Byzantine Senate rules to keep sick veterans suffering!!!! Kudos!“I’m sure you’ll celebrate by kicking a dog or punching a baby … or whatever terrible people do for fun!!!!!”TopicsRepublicansUS militaryUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Murdoch told Kushner on election night that Arizona result was ‘not even close’

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      Murdoch told Kushner on election night that Arizona result was ‘not even close’Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser’s new book recounts turmoil caused by Fox News decision to call state for Biden in 2020 When Fox News called Arizona for Joe Biden on election night 2020, infuriating Donald Trump and fueling Republican election subversion attempts which continue to this day, Rupert Murdoch told Jared Kushner “the numbers are ironclad – it’s not even close”.Is Murdoch tiring of Trump? Mogul’s print titles dump the ex-presidentRead moreDetails of the Fox News owner’s conversation with Trump’s son-in-law and chief adviser about the call which most observers say confirmed Trump’s defeat are contained in Kushner’s memoir, Breaking History, which is due out next month.They also come as Murdoch-owned papers and even Fox News itself seem to turn against Trump in light of the January 6 hearings on the US Capitol attack and his attempt to overturn his election defeat.A first extract from the book, in which Kushner described being secretly treated for thyroid cancer, was reported by Maggie Haberman of the New York Times.On Wednesday another Times reporter, Kenneth Vogel, tweeted pictures of pages from Kushner’s book, each emblazoned with the word “confidential”.Kushner’s description of the shock of the Fox News Arizona call mirrors those in numerous reports and books on Trump’s 2020 defeat, his refusal to accept it and the attack on US democracy which followed.“The shocking projection brought our momentum to a screeching halt,” Kushner writes. “It instantly changed the mood among our campaign’s leaders, who were scrambling to understand the network’s methodology.”Kushner describes the Trump campaign’s focus on Arizona and writes that losing there “would drastically narrow our path to victory”.In Landslide, a book released last year, the author Michael Wolff reported that Murdoch gave his son Lachlan Murdoch approval for Fox News to call Arizona for Biden with “a signature grunt” and a barb for Trump: “Fuck him.”Fox News denied Wolff’s story.Kushner writes: “I dialed Rupert Murdoch and asked why Fox News had made the Arizona call before hundreds of thousands of votes were tallied. Rupert said he would look into the issue, and minutes later he called back.“‘Sorry Jared, there is nothing I can do,’” he said. “‘The Fox News data authority says the numbers are ironclad – he says it won’t be close.’”Biden won Arizona by about 10,000 votes, a margin which increased after a partisan audit encouraged by Trump allies and commissioned by state Republicans.Key members of the Fox News decision desk left after the election. Chris Stirewalt, the politics editor, was fired. He has appeared before the January 6 committee.“We knew [Arizona] would be a consequential call because it was one of five states that really mattered,” Stirewalt testified.Stirewalt also said that by the time of the Arizona call, Trump’s chances of beating Biden were “very small” and “getting smaller”. After Arizona, he said, those chances dwindled to “none”.In his book, Kushner shades close to his father-in-law’s lie about electoral fraud in Biden’s victory, writing: “2020 was full of anomalies.”The election was called for Biden on 7 November, when Pennsylvania fell into his column. He won the electoral college by 306-232, the same margin Trump called a landslide when it landed in his favour against Hillary Clinton in 2016. Biden won the popular vote by more than 7m.In his passage on the speech Trump gave in the early hours of 4 November, the day after election day, claiming “Frankly, we did win this election”, Kushner says he was called by Karl Rove, the strategist who helped George W Bush win “the closest presidential election in US history”, against Al Gore in 2000.Trump claimed to have been the victim of fraud. Rove, Kushner writes, said: “The president’s rhetoric is all wrong. He’s going to win. Statistically, there’s no way the Democrats can catch up with you now.”Kushner says he responded: “Call the president and tell him that.”Trump later turned on Rove, who he said called him at 10.30pm on election night “to congratulate me on ‘a great win’”. Fox News called Arizona just before midnight.On Wednesday, Vogel also tweeted pages in which Kushner describes his work on presidential pardons.Kushner says he did not oppose a pardon for Steve Bannon, the former Trump strategist who was accused of fraud but who was a prominent White House leaker, because of the work Bannon did on Trump’s winning campaign in 2016.He also writes that when Trump pardoned Alice Johnson, a Black grandmother sentenced on a minor drugs-related charge of the sort Kushner targeted in his work on sentencing reform, Trump said: “Let’s hope Alice doesn’t go out and kill anyone!”TopicsBooksJared KushnerRupert MurdochFox NewsUS elections 2020Donald TrumpPolitics booksnewsReuse this content More

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      Centrists to launch Forward, new third US political party

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      Centrists to launch Forward, new third US political partyDozens of former Democrats and Republicans to form new party in bid to appeal to voters unhappy with America’s two-party system Dozens of former Republican and Democratic officials will announce a new national political third party to appeal to millions of voters they say are dismayed with what they see as America’s dysfunctional two-party system.Manchin announces deal with Democrats on major tax and climate billRead moreThe new party, called Forward, will initially be co-chaired by former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang and Christine Todd Whitman, the former Republican governor of New Jersey.They hope the party will become a viable alternative to the Republican and Democratic parties that dominate US politics, founding members told Reuters.Party leaders will hold a series of events in two dozen cities this autumn to roll out its platform and attract support. They will host an official launch in Houston on 24 September and the party’s first national convention in a major US city next summer.The new party is being formed by a merger of three political groups that have emerged in recent years as a reaction to America’s increasingly polarized and gridlocked political system. The leaders cited a Gallup poll last year showing a record two-thirds of Americans believe a third party is needed.The merger involves the Renew America Movement, formed in 2021 by dozens of former officials in the Republican administrations of Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, George W Bush and Donald Trump; the Forward party, founded by Yang, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 but left the party in 2021 and became an independent; and the Serve America Movement, a group of Democrats, Republicans and independents founded by former Republican congressman David Jolly.Two pillars of the new party’s platform are to “reinvigorate a fair, flourishing economy” and to “give Americans more choices in elections, more confidence in a government that works, and more say in our future”.The party, which is centrist, has no specific policies yet. It will say at its Thursday launch: “How will we solve the big issues facing America? Not Left. Not Right. Forward.”Historically, third parties have failed to thrive in America’s two-party system. Occasionally they can impact a presidential election. Analysts say the Green party’s Ralph Nader siphoned off enough votes from Al Gore in 2000 to help George W Bush win the White House.It is unclear how the new Forward party might affect either party’s electoral prospects in such a deeply polarized country. Political analysts are skeptical it can succeed.Forward aims to gain party registration and ballot access in 30 states by the end of 2023 and in all 50 states by late 2024, in time for the 2024 presidential and congressional elections.It aims to field candidates for local races, such as school boards and city councils, in state houses, the US Congress and all the way up to the presidency.In an interview, Yang said the party will start with a budget of about $5m. It has donors lined up and a grassroots membership between the three merged groups numbering in the hundreds of thousands.“We are starting in a very strong financial position. Financial support will not be a problem,” Yang said.Another person involved in the creation of Forward, Miles Taylor – a former Homeland Security official in the Trump administration – said the idea was to give voters “a viable, credible national third party”.Taylor acknowledged that third parties had failed in the past, but said: “The fundamentals have changed. When other third party movements have emerged in the past it’s largely been inside a system where the American people aren’t asking for an alternative. The difference here is we are seeing an historic number of Americans saying they want one.”Stu Rothenberg, a veteran non-partisan political analyst, said it was easy to talk about establishing a third party but almost impossible to do so.“The two major political parties start out with huge advantages, including 50 state parties built over decades,” he said.Rothenberg pointed out that third party presidential candidates like John Anderson in 1980 and Ross Perot in 1992 and 1996 flamed out, failing to build a true third party that became a factor in national politics.TopicsUS politicsRepublicansDemocratsnewsReuse this content More

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      Indiana investigates abortion doctor who treated 10-year-old rape victim

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      Indiana investigates abortion doctor who treated 10-year-old rape victim State attorney general notifies Dr Caitlin Bernard and claims ‘she used a 10-year-old girl to push her political ideology’ The Indiana state attorney general has launched an investigation into the doctor who performed an abortion on a 10-year-old rape victim.According to Kathleen DeLaney, a lawyer acting for the doctor, Caitlin Bernard, a notice from the Indiana attorney general, Todd Rokita, regarding his investigation arrived on Tuesday.Daughter of doctor who gave 10-year-old an abortion faced kidnapping threatRead more“We are in the process of reviewing this information. It’s unclear to us what is the nature of the investigation and what authority he has to investigate Dr Bernard,” DeLaney told CNN. The Guardian has contacted DeLaney for additional comments.On 2 July, Bernard reported a 30 June medication abortion for her 10-year-old patient, who had been obliged to travel to the state from Ohio, after that state followed the US supreme court’s overturning a few days earlier of the federal right to an abortion and banned the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy.According to reports reviewed by the Indianapolis Star and WXIN-TV of Indianapolis, Bernard’s reporting of her treatment to the health authorities came within the three-day requirement set by state law for individuals aged below 16 who undergo an abortion. The reports added that the patient who sought the abortion had become pregnant as the result of sexual abuse.A 27-year-old man has since been charged in Columbus, Ohio, in connection with abuse of the girl.Since the abortion, Bernard became the center of a political firestorm from rightwing media outlets and Republican politicians after Joe Biden expressed sympathy for the girl when he signed an executive order earlier this month aimed at safeguarding abortion access after the supreme court’s action in upending the historic 1973 abortion case Roe v Wade.According to DeLaney, Bernard is considering taking legal action against “those who have smeared my client”, including Rokita, who previously said that he would investigate whether she violated abortion reporting or child abuse notification laws.In a statement to the Guardian on Wednesday, Rokita said: “The baseless defamation claim and other accusations are really just attempts to distract, intimidate and obstruct my office’s monumental progress to save lives. It will take a lot more than that to intimidate us.“The doctor alone brought this case to the press. She used a 10-year-old girl – a child rape victim’s personal trauma – to push her political ideology. She was aided and abetted by a fake news media who conveniently misquoted my words to try to give abortionists and their readership numbers an extra boost.”Rokita added: “My heart breaks for this little girl.”According to Indiana University Health, where Bernard practices as an obstetrician-gynecologist, “IU Health conducted an investigation with the full cooperation of Dr Bernard and other IU Health team members. IU Health’s investigation found Dr Bernard in compliance with privacy laws.”Pregnancy termination forms that Bernard filed with the Indiana department of health, which Indy Star obtained and reviewed, showed that Bernard indicated the girl was six weeks pregnant at the time of her abortion and that Bernard did not know the age of the person who impregnated her.Bernard’s attorney said that she “took every appropriate and proper action in accordance with the law and both her medical and ethical training as a physician”.Meanwhile, a Wyoming judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked that state’s abortion ban on the day it took effect, siding with a firebombed women’s health clinic and others who argued the ban would violate the state constitution and harm healthcare workers and their patients.And lawmakers in West Virginia debated an abortion ban, drawing an at times raucous crowd of hundreds to the state capitol, where dozens spoke against the bill on the house floor.Wyoming’s court action puts it among several states including Kentucky, Louisiana and Utah where judges have temporarily blocked implementation of “trigger laws” while lawsuits play out.Such trigger laws are designed to automatically implement pre-prepared abortion ban laws after Roe was felled and the power over the right to abortion was returned from the federal government to the states.Later on Wednesday, a North Dakota judge blocked a trigger law there that was set to outlaw abortion in the state starting on Thursday.The Associated Press contributed reportingTopicsIndianaUS politicsAbortionRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

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      Pence has ‘erect posture but flaccid conscience’, says ex-Trump official

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      Pence has ‘erect posture but flaccid conscience’, says ex-Trump officialMiles Taylor, author of famous column and book by ‘Anonymous’, says former vice-president cannot stand up to his former boss On the day Mike Pence and Donald Trump both spoke in Washington, a former member of their administration poured scorn on Pence’s attempt to portray himself as a potential Republican presidential nominee, and competitor to Trump, in 2024.Self-awareness in short supply as Trump calls for law and order in DCRead moreSpeaking on CNN, Miles Taylor said: “If you want to know what the Mike Pence vice-presidency was like, Mike Pence is a guy with an erect posture and flaccid conscience. He stood up tall but he did not stand up to Donald Trump.”Taylor was chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security when he wrote a famous column for the New York Times under the name “Anonymous”. He then wrote a book, A Warning, expanding on his insider’s account of Trump White House dysfunction.Reviewing the book in the Guardian, world affairs editor Julian Borger said: “It fails to answer the question that hangs over almost every page: why heed the counsel, however urgent, of someone who is not prepared to reveal who they are?”Having identified himself as a conservative opponent of Trump, Taylor is now attached to think tanks including Business for America and Renew America Movement.In Washington on Tuesday, Pence spoke to the Young America Foundation before Trump spoke at the America First Policy Institute. Pence also announced a memoir, So Help Me God, to be published in November.He said the book would deal with the “severing” of his relationship with Trump over Trump’s demand that Pence refuse to certify electoral college results in key states in Trump’s 2020 defeat by Joe Biden.Told by advisers he had no such authority, Pence did not do so. Trump supporters attacked the Capitol, some egged on by a tweet in which Trump said his vice-president “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done”. Some rioters chanted: “Hang Mike Pence.” A gallows was erected outside.02:46In public hearings about Trump’s election subversion and the insurrection, the House January 6 committee has portrayed Pence’s decision to defy Trump as a brave and noble action. It has also aired testimony suggesting Trump approved of the call for Pence to be hanged.But as the Republican 2024 field begins to take shape, with Trump suggesting he will soon announce a run, perhaps to head off criminal charges, Pence must appeal to a party largely still in Trump’s thrall.In Washington on Tuesday, he said: “Some people may choose to focus on the past. But elections are about the future. And I believe conservatives must focus on the future to win back America. We can’t afford to take our eyes off the road in front of us.”He also said: “I truly believe elections are about the future. That is absolutely essential … that we don’t give way to the temptation to look back.”On CNN, Taylor said Pence “stood up tall in that speech but he still – after people trying to assassinate him – could not stand up to Donald Trump …“That tells you everything you need to know about Mike Pence.”TopicsMike PenceDonald TrumpTrump administrationUS elections 2024US politicsRepublicansUS Capitol attacknewsReuse this content More

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      Self-awareness in short supply as Trump calls for law and order in DC

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      Self-awareness in short supply as Trump calls for law and order in DCIn his first trip to Washington since he left office, the former president blamed Democrats for ‘a cesspool of crime’ in the US America first, irony last. Donald Trump, the former US president accused of a coup attempt in which police were speared and sprayed, returned to Washington on Tuesday with a plea for law and order to give police “the respect that they deserve”.Trump spoke at a luxury hotel less than two miles from the US Capitol where, 18 months ago, his supporters furiously attacked law enforcement in a bid to overturn the 2020 presidential election result. It was his first visit to the nation’s capital since he snubbed Joe Biden’s inauguration and took flight to Florida.Garland: ‘Justice without fear or favor’ will guide decision on charging TrumpRead moreThere were chants of “four more years!” as Trump gave a 90-minute address to a summit hosted by the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a rightwing thinktank conceived by alumni of his White House. Less than a week after the congressional January 6 committee detailed 187 minutes in which he chose not to stop the deadly insurrection, Trump sought to blame Democrats for what he described as rampant crime.“There is no higher priority than cleaning up our streets, controlling our border, stopping the drugs from pouring in, and quickly restoring law and order in America,” he said to applause.Trump complained: “There is no longer respect for the law and there certainly is no order. Our country is now a cesspool of crime. We have blood, death and suffering on a scale once unthinkable because of the Democrat party’s effort to destroy and dismantle law enforcement all throughout America. It has to stop and it has to stop now.”Wearing his signature dark suit, white shirt and red tie, Trump went on to cite individual murder cases in lurid detail and argue that police have been unfairly maligned.“Every time they do something, they’re afraid they’re going to be destroyed, their pension is going to be taken away, they’ll be fined, they’ll be put in jail. Let them do their job, give them back the respect that they deserve.He added: “The radical left’s anti-police narrative is a total lie. Let’s call it ‘the big lie’. Have you ever heard that expression before?”More than 140 Capitol police and DC Metropolitan police officers were injured while defending the US Capitol, according to official figures. Officer Caroline Edwards told the January 6 committee: “I was slipping in people’s blood. I was catching people as they fell. It was carnage, it was chaos.” In the days and weeks after the attack, five officers who had served at the Capitol on January 6 died.Biden said on Monday: “You can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-cop, You can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-democracy. You can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-American.”Call me old fashioned, but I don’t think inciting a mob that attacks a police officer is “respect for the law.”You can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-cop – or pro-democracy, or pro-American. https://t.co/iPtFrgVX5P— President Biden (@POTUS) July 26, 2022
      Trump, a New Yorker born and bred now resident in Florida, was never entirely at ease in Washington during his four-year presidency, which some compared to an army of occupation in a Democratic stronghold: Biden beat the Republican by 92% to 5% in the District of Columbia.Trump was rarely seen about town and only ever dined out at the steakhouse in his Pennsylvania Avenue hotel, once the centre of the Trumpiverse but subsequently sold. The gold lettering that spelled out his name has been unceremoniously expunged, replaced by signage for the new owner, the Waldorf Astoria.But the AFPI’s two-day summit at the Marriott Marquis Washington hotel created an alternative-reality bubble where face masks and mentions of January 6 were vanishingly scarce and where Trump alumni were feted as celebrities, heroes and martyrs.Mark Meadows, a former White House chief of staff whose reputation has been shredded by the January 6 panel, projected insouciance as he chatted, chortled and posed for photos with supporters while declining interview requests. Shortly before Trump’s keynote address, a man asked the ex-White House counsel Kellyanne Conway: “Can I have a selfie?”As it happened, Trump’s estranged vice-president, Mike Pence, was also in town – but not at this venue, where he might have been heckled. In a case of duelling Washington speeches, Pence addressed the Young America’s Foundation’s National Conservative Student Conference.A potential rival to Trump in 2024, he said: “I don’t know that our movement is that divided. I don’t know that the president and I differ on issues, but we may differ on focus.“I truly do believe that elections are about the future, and that it’s absolutely essential – at a time when so many Americans are hurting, so many families are struggling – that we don’t give way to the temptation to look back.”Last week the January 6 committee heard how Pence’s Secret Service detail called family members from the US Capitol, fearing that they would never make it home. On Tuesday, Pence announced that his memoir, So Help Me God, will be published on 15 November by Simon & Schuster.Trump’s event, meanwhile, bore hallmarks of his campaign rallies, including music from Elton John and Frank Sinatra booming from loudspeakers, warm-up acts lavishing praise on him and a rambling speech of more than an hour that tossed out bigotry, red meat and personal insults.Familiar targets included the “fake news media”, “crazy” Nancy Pelosi, border security, the Russia investigation and the January 6 hearings. He advocated “quick trials” and the death penalty for drug traffickers and argued that presidents should be able to summon the national guard to restore order “without having to wait for the approval of some governor that thinks it’s politically incorrect to call them in”.Trump also got one of the biggest cheers of the day when he attacked transgender rights, declaring: “We should not allow men to play in women’s sports”.He returned to his false claims of election fraud in 2020, saying: “I ran the first time and I won. Then I ran a second time and I did much better.” The crowd cheered and whistled approvingly. “We got millions and millions more votes … We may just have to do it again.” More cheers.Attendees at the conference expressed joy at seeing Trump’s return and hope that he would run for president again – irrespective of what happened on January 6.Day Gardner, president of the National Black Pro-Life Union, said: “I’m really hoping for 2024. Promises made, promises kept: very important to me. I’m strongly pro-life. I want the wall finished and it’s not that we hate anybody. We’re saying come legally.”Gardner, 67, from Bowie, Maryland, dismissed the insurrection as overblown. “Most people that went there said it’s the people’s house, we want to make a statement … People who did anything wrong probably got sidetracked and kind of lost their way.”Matthew O’Brien, 53, director of investigations for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, said: “The Trump administration was the first administration since Eisenhower to take immigration seriously. The fact is, without a border, you don’t have a country.”He added: “The January 6 hearings – I’m not sure what their purpose is. It’s not clear to me what Congress is looking for in that particular situation. They seem to have been all over the map as far as the questions they’re asked and what they’re actually doing.”Asked if the hearings had shaken his faith in Trump, Christopher Payne, 70, an accountant, replied: “No, because I have listened to him many times in the past, including going to his rallies and, for all intents, I know the real president and yes, OK, like all of us, sometimes you slip up. But the fact is he’s not dwelling on past mistakes; he’s looking at what he can do in the future.”But Democrats mocked Trump’s return to Washington and noted the irony of his law-and-order message. Cedric Richmond, a senior adviser to the Democratic National Committee, said: “If Donald Trump wants to talk about crime, he should explain why he incited a mob to violently attack police officers defending the Capitol, or why he proposed massive cuts to community policing programs, or why his Maga Republican allies voted against funding that has bolstered law enforcement.”TopicsDonald TrumpThe US politics sketchUS politicsRepublicansfeaturesReuse this content More

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      Trump speaks in Washington DC for first visit since leaving office – live

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      Donald Trump is set to take the stage shortly in Washington DC to address the conservative America First Agenda Summit, his first return to the capital since leaving office last year.Conference organisers at the America First Policy Institute say the former president, who is mulling a third run at the White House in 2024, will focus on the Republican party’s plans to combat inflation and improve the US immigration system.But it remains to be seen if Trump can resist recirculating his lies about the 2020 election, especially following an appearance by his former vice-president, Mike Pence, at a conference of conservative students this morning.Pence took thinly-veiled shots at his old boss, and his obsession with his defeat to Joe Biden, telling his audience: “Some people may choose to focus on the past. But elections are about the future.”It is unlikely the notoriously thin-skinned ex-president will be able avoid the temptation to fire back.Stay with us, and we’ll bring you Trump’s comments as they happen. While we wait, take a read of my colleague Joan E Greve’s preview of his return to the capital:He’s back: Trump returns to Washington for first time since leaving officeRead moreWe’re closing the blog now, after a reasonably busy day in US politics. Merrick Garland’s big NBC News interview is due at 6.30pm ET – here’s our story, which will develop, for those who want to carry on reading about whether Donald Trump will face criminal charges over January 6 and his attempt to overturn US democracy itself.Otherwise, today saw:
      Trump return to Washington to deliver a 90-minute speech at the America First Agenda summit. He didn’t get so far as to announce a new White House run. See Richard’s blogging below and David Smith’s report on the speech to come.
      The New York Times reported more details of part of Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, the fake electors scheme.
      Mike Pence also gave a speech in Washington, in some mild sense dueling with his old boss and in some very mild sense rebuking him for fixating on the past.
      CNN reported that John Roberts, the chief justice, tried to persuade Brett Kavanaugh to help him stop the other conservatives on the supreme court overturning the right to an abortion – but it didn’t work.
      Nancy Pelosi’s mooted trip to Taiwan continued to cause all sorts of bother and headaches – and to attract Republican support.
      The blog will be back tomorrow. Good night.Donald Trump on Tuesday dropped more hints that he will imminently announce a third run at the White House.In a largely subdued, and scripted, 90-minute speech to the America First Agenda summit in Washington DC, his first visit to the capital since leaving office last year, Trump said it would be his “very great honor” to run again, and that if he didn’t “our nation is doomed”.But he stopped short of outright declaring his candidacy, the former president mindful he is mired in legal and political jeopardy amid numerous investigations into the insurrection and attempt to stay in office following his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden.Trump said he could not just sit at home while the “persecution” continued:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}I can’t do that because I love our country. And I can’t do that because I love the people of our country. So I can’t do that. I wouldn’t do it, and people don’t want me to do it.
      I’m not doing this for me because I had a very luxurious life. I had a very simple life. People say you sure you want to do this? But you know, there’s an expression. The best day of your life is the day before you run for president. And I laughed at it. I said that may be true, actually. Trump’s speech was intended to be a laying out of Republican policy agenda for the November midterms and beyond, but it pivoted into a succession of familiar old Trump grievances, including attacks on Democrats over crime, immigration and the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.After an assault on the House panel investigating his illegal attempts to stay in office, Trump concluded:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}If I don’t [run] our nation is doomed to become another Venezuela or become another Soviet Union.Please look in later for my colleague David Smith’s account of Trump’s speech.And there it is, finally: Donald Trump’s lie that he really won the 2020 election.The former president waited an hour into his speech at the America First Agenda summit in Washington DC, just as he was winding down, before turning to the falsehood that his defeat by Joe Biden was corrupt:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}I ran for president, I won, and I won a second time, but much better the second time, a lot better.
      I always say I ran the first time and I won. We actually did it twice. Toward the end of the speech, Trump riffed freely about Mexico, and immigration, telling a succession of “sir stories” and claiming his administration built hundreds of miles of southern border wall before his plans were thwarted by the “catastrophe” of the 2020 election:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}We had it almost finished, it was a catastrophe, that election, a disgrace to our country.
      They [Democrats] didn’t want to build the wall. That’s when I started to think that maybe they really do want to have these borders open so everybody can invade our country.A speech that was billed as a setting out of Republican policies pivoted quickly into an airing of Trump’s old grievances, including the “hoax” of the Mueller inquiry into his administration’s links with Russia, the “China virus” – his derogatory term for the Covid-19 pandemic – and an attack on Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s top adviser on infectious diseases:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}I used to listen to Fauci and whatever he said I did the opposite. I came out very good.As if realizing he’d reach the hour mark, and it was time to wind down, Trump indicated his speech was over. “I look forward to laying out many more details in the weeks and months to come,” he said.Then came extra time, and the free-wheeling Trump of old stepped forward, with an assault on the “unfair January 6 unselect committee of political action thugs” investigating the insurrection.“Where does it stop?” Trump wondered. “It probably doesn’t stop because despite great outside dangers this country remains sick, sinister, and evil people within.“They want to damage me so I can no longer go back to work for you. But I don’t think that’s going to happen,” he said, another tease that he might soon declare another White House run.In NBC’s interview with Merrick Garland, Lester Holt also asked if the Department of Justice (DoJ) would welcome a criminal referral from the House January 6 committee. The panel has made referrals for Trump aides. Steve Bannon has been convicted of criminal contempt of Congress and faces jail time. Peter Navarro has been charged. Dan Scavino and Mark Meadows were referred, the DoJ then deciding not to act.Garland told NBC: “So I think that’s totally up to the committee.“We will have the evidence that the committee has presented and whatever evidence it gives us. I don’t think that the nature of how they style, the manner in which information is provided, is of particular significance from any legal point of view.“That’s not to downgrade it or to or disparage it. It’s just that that’s not … the issue here. We have our own investigation, pursuing through the principles of prosecution.”“We should not allow men to play in women’s sports. It’s so crazy,” Donald Trump says, before going off script to allege he was advised not to bring up transgender issues. “‘Sir, don’t say that, it’s very controversial,’” he claims he was told, launching into a bizarre tale of a transgender swimmer he says gave “wind burns” to a fellow competitor as she sped by. Then a story about a transgender weight lifter:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}This guy comes along, he’s named Alice … world record, world record. We could have put another couple hundred pounds on. It’s so unfair.Now Trump says he would be the “world’s greatest women’s basketball coach” and that he doesn’t like LeBron James, with whom he has clashed previously.NBC has released a clip of its eagerly awaited interview with Merrick Garland, in which Joe Biden’s attorney general is asked about the political sensitivities around potential criminal charges for Donald Trump concerning the attack on the US Capitol, arising from the work of the House January 6 committee.The interviewer, Lester Holt, said: “You said in no uncertain terms the other day that no one is above the law. That said, the indictment of a former president, of perhaps a candidate for president, would arguably tear the country apart. Is that your concern as you make your decision down the road here? Do you have to think about things like that?”Garland said: “We pursue justice without fear or favour. We intend to hold everyone, anyone who was criminally responsible for events surrounding January 6, or any attempt to interfere with the lawful transfer of power from one administration to another, accountable. That’s what we do. We don’t pay any attention to other issues with respect to that.”The Department of Justice is investigating Trump’s election subversion efforts on a number of fronts. The January 6 committee could make a criminal referral to the DoJ. Whether it should, or will, and whether it has presented sufficient evidence to do so if it chooses, is a matter of debate around the US and on the committee itself.Holt said: “So if Donald Trump were to become a candidate for president again, that would not change your schedule or how you move forward or don’t move forward?”Garland said: “I’ll say again, that we will hold accountable anyone who was criminally responsible for attempting to interfere with the transfer legitimate lawful transfer of power from one administration to the next.”So that’s that.It’s certainly a very subdued speech by Donald Trump so far, his monotone delivery lacking the energy of his campaign rallies. He’s more than a half-hour in, and still talking about crime, which he’s now blaming on Democratic governors – and the homeless.He’s lamenting what’s happened in “our beautiful cities”, San Francisco, Chicago … where he says people don’t have time to stop and admire the beauty, “they just want to make it to their offices”..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Let the liberals invite the homeless to camp in their backyards, soil their properties, attack their families and use drugs where their children are trying to play.
      For the good of everyone involved, the homeless need to go to shelters, the long-term mentally ill need to go to institutions, and the unhoused drug addicts need to go to rehab, or if necessary and appropriate, jail.On his first return to Washington DC since leaving the presidency, Trump says, he doesn’t recognize the place. He seems to be calling for a war on litter:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The main roads had more bottles and cigarettes and everything you can imagine. Then you see the tents and the homeless and you ask ‘what’s happened to this great bastion’?There’s very little applause, just the occasional trickle.Crime, and support for law enforcement, has become the central theme in Donald Trump’s comments so far, although he hasn’t mentioned the officers beaten in the violent January 6 attack by his supporters during the deadly Capitol riot.Trump is sticking strictly to the script, and reading diligently from his teleprompter:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}In the Make America Great Again, movement, we believe that every citizen of every background should be able to walk anywhere in this nation at any hour of the day, without even a thought of being victimized by violent crime. If we don’t have safety we don’t have freedom.
      First, we have to give our police back their authority, resources, power and prestige. We have to leave our police alone every time they do something. They’re afraid they’re going to be destroyed, their pensions going to be taken away, they’ll be fired, they’ll be put in jail. Without irony, or any acknowledgement of the police officers who were injured by the Trump-inspired mob defending politicians at the Capitol building, he continued:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Let them do their job. Give them back the respect that they deserve.Donald Trump has begun his remarks at the America First Agenda summit by tearing into the Biden administration’s policies he says have “brought our country to its knees”.“We made America great again,” Trump said, referring to what he considered was the state of the country, and economy, he left to Joe Biden, his successor..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Inflation is the highest in 49 years … gas prices have reached the highest in our country. We’ve become a beggar nation, grovelling to others for energy.He’s following up with attacks on Democratic immigration policy and levels of crime, and a drugs crisis, which he sees as happening only in “Democrat-run cities”:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Our country is now a cesspool of crime … because of the Democratic party’s efforts to destroy and dismantle law enforcement throughout America.There is, however, no evidence that Democrats have defunded law enforcement anywhere, and Biden has made a specific point of saying it is not his party’s policy.So far, at least, there have been no references to the 2020 election, which Trump maintains was stolen from him …Donald Trump was due to take the stage at 3pm but, just like at countless rallies before, during and subsequent to his single term in office, he is running late.Currently Newt Gingrich, a Republican former House speaker, and Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader who would like the job himself, are engaged in a roundtable discussion extolling Trump’s policies and looking ahead to the midterm elections, which McCarthy says will be a “one in 50-year election.”“We can lock in a conservative majority for the decade,” he says.Meanwhile, it appears a group of anti-Trump protesters have reached the hotel before the former president, and are making some noise:Protestors in the hotel at the America First Policy Initiative event chanting “no trump no kkk no fascist USA” pic.twitter.com/c37IVacDDP— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) July 26, 2022
      A number of Florida families and coalition of equality activist groups have filed a lawsuit over Republican governor Ron DeSantis’s “don’t say gay” law that bans discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms.The bill signed by DeSantis in March is “based on undefined standards of appropriateness [and] effectively silences and erases LGBTQ+ students and families,” the lawsuit, filed against four separate Florida school districts claims.Good morning. My lawsuit against #DontSayGay has been filed. Children deserve to be loved and respected no matter how they identify. Read more about it here:https://t.co/2YWEtftpMa pic.twitter.com/RaTJEl90we— Jen 🏳️‍🌈 SAY GAY 🏳️‍⚧️ Cousins (@slytherbitch6) July 26, 2022
      “This law will prevent our two youngest children, rising first and third graders, from discussing their older non-binary sibling in the classroom for fear of their teacher or their school getting in trouble,” said plaintiffs Jennifer and Matthew Cousins, according to a press release announcing the legal action. “The law also robs them of the opportunity of discussing their family like other non-LGBTQ+ children. It’s heartbreaking to know that my children may be bullied because this law paints our family as shameful.”DeSantis insists that the law, officially called the Parental Rights in Education act, is designed to stop “wokeism” in Florida’s schools and empowers families by giving them choice over their children’s educational activities.DeSantis’s taxpayer-funded press secretary Christina Pushaw has previously called opponents of the bill “groomers”.Greetings from the ballroom of a swanky Washington hotel that has been turned into an indoor Donald Trump rally as the former US president makes his return to the nation’s capital.Just like a Trump rally, music from Elton John and Frank Sinatra boomed from loudspeakers, then warm-up acts came out to lavish praise on Trump.Brooke Rollins, president and chief executive of the American First Policy Institute (AFPI), a thinktank created by Trump alumni which is hosting the speech, described him as “one of the greatest Americans of all time”. Televangelist Paula White added: “He wears a bigger mantle than I think many of us even recognise.”Less than a mile from the White House, it’s Trump’s first visit to Washington since he snubbed Joe Biden’s inauguration and took flight to Florida. Numerous Trump White House officials have been giving speeches or wandering the corridors during the AFPI summit, where face masks or mentions of January 6 are almost non-existent. I just overheard someone ask Kellyanne Conway: “Can I have a selfie?” Donald Trump is set to take the stage shortly in Washington DC to address the conservative America First Agenda Summit, his first return to the capital since leaving office last year.Conference organisers at the America First Policy Institute say the former president, who is mulling a third run at the White House in 2024, will focus on the Republican party’s plans to combat inflation and improve the US immigration system.But it remains to be seen if Trump can resist recirculating his lies about the 2020 election, especially following an appearance by his former vice-president, Mike Pence, at a conference of conservative students this morning.Pence took thinly-veiled shots at his old boss, and his obsession with his defeat to Joe Biden, telling his audience: “Some people may choose to focus on the past. But elections are about the future.”It is unlikely the notoriously thin-skinned ex-president will be able avoid the temptation to fire back.Stay with us, and we’ll bring you Trump’s comments as they happen. While we wait, take a read of my colleague Joan E Greve’s preview of his return to the capital:He’s back: Trump returns to Washington for first time since leaving officeRead moreThe New York Times has published details of “previously undisclosed” emails between associates of former president Donald Trump, including some from lawyers in which they purportedly acknowledge a scheme to keep him office was likely illegal.Some of the messages refer to “fake” electors who were in place in certain key states to falsely declare Trump the winner of the 2020 election, and prevent Joe Biden from reaching the White House.The Times said they showed “a particular focus on assembling lists of people who would claim – with no basis – to be electoral college electors on his behalf in battleground states that he had lost.”One lawyer used the word “fake” to refer to the so-called electors, the Times said, while “lawyers working on the proposal made clear they knew that the pro-Trump electors they were putting forward might not hold up to legal scrutiny”.SCOOP: @lukebroadwater and I reviewed dozens of emails between Trump campaign officials and lawyers, including one in which a lawyer described the slates of electors they were putting together as “fake” https://t.co/P36lgMtFuA— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) July 26, 2022
      The “fake electors” scheme was a central plank of Trump’s strategy to remain in power, and has become a focus of the House panel investigating his insurrection. In declaring Trump the rightful winner, the committee asserts, the fake electors’ goal was persuading the then vice-president, Mike Pence, as Senate president, to refuse to certify Biden’s victory.The panel has already examined previously-known communications about it between Trump allies.The Times quotes, among others, an email reportedly sent by Jack Wilenchik, a Phoenix-based lawyer who helped organize the pro-Trump electors in Arizona, to a Trump adviser in the White House. “We would just be sending in ‘fake’ electoral votes to Pence so that ‘someone’ in Congress can make an objection when they start counting votes, and start arguing that the ‘fake’ votes should be counted,” he wrote.Wilenchik wrote in a later email, adding a smiley face emoji, that “‘alternative’ votes would probably a better term than ‘fake’ votes”.Joe Biden has said that his presidential predecessor Donald Trump “lacked the courage to act” as a mob of his supporters tried to halt the congressional certification of his defeat in the 2020 election by mounting the January 6 attack on the Capitol.In virtual remarks Monday to the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, Biden – who was recovering from Covid-19 – said police officers defending the Capitol were “speared, sprayed, stomped on, brutalized” for hours by white nationalists and other Trump sycophants who bought his false claims that he’d been robbed of victory by electoral fraudsters.Brave women and men in uniform across America should never forget that the defeated former president of the United States watched January 6th happen and didn’t have the spine to act.In my remarks today to @noblenatl, I made that clear: https://t.co/pQ8E4IcZR1 pic.twitter.com/uO60QO0Wrz— President Biden (@POTUS) July 25, 2022
      “The defeated former president of the United States watched it all happen as he sat in the comfort of the private dining room next to the Oval Office,” Biden said, alluding to evidence and testimony staged by the congressional committee investigating the assault during a series of public hearings throughout the summer. “While he was doing that, brave law enforcement officers are subjected to the medieval hell for three hours … dripping in blood, surrounded by carnage, face to face with a crazed mob that believed the lies of the defeated president.“The police were heroes that day. Donald Trump lacked the courage to act.”Read the full story:Biden says Trump ‘lacked the courage to act’ during January 6 attackRead moreLet’s take stock of where we are on a lively Tuesday in US politics:
      Mike Pence took shots at Donald Trump during a speech to young conservatives in Washington DC, the ex-vice-president telling them “elections are about the future”. The former president, obsessed by his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden, addresses the rightwing America First Agenda summit a little later this afternoon.
      Biden’s recovery from his Covid-19 infection has allowed him to resume exercising, physician Kevin O’Connor said in a morning update. But the president’s health will not have been improved by polling news from New Hampshire, where only one-fifth of residents want him to seek a second term, according to Politico.
      January 6 rioter Mark Ponder, who attacked police officers with poles during the deadly attack on the Capitol, was sentenced to at least five years in prison, one of the lengthiest terms so far handed out to those convicted. Ponder, 56, from Washington DC, said he “got caught up” in the chaos and “didn’t mean for any of this to happen”.
      Senators voted 64-32 to move forward on the Chips Act, which seeks to provide about $52bn for US companies manufacturing computer chips, plus tax credits and other incentives. Biden says the money is essential to reverse a shortage of semiconductors in the US, and keep the country at the cutting edge of defense, healthcare and the burgeoning electric vehicle market.
      Chief Justice John Roberts made ultimately fruitless efforts to persuade fellow supreme court conservatives to preserve abortion rights, CNN said. The network published an analysis of events leading up to the court’s overturning of almost half a century of federal abortion protections last month, including a claim that Roberts pressed Brett Kavanaugh – one of three Donald Trump-appointed justices – in particular to change his vote.
      Stick with us, there’s plenty more to come this afternoon, including Trump’s return to the capital for the first time since he left office last year.Poll shows Biden’s deep unpopularity in New HampshireIt is just one poll and just it is just one state, but a new survey of voters in New Hampshire makes grim reading for the White House.In the state which holds the crucial first primary in the presidential nomination process, Joe Biden’s numbers are cratering.Politico has the details and you’ll find their quick top line rundown below: Only one-fifth of New Hampshire residents want Biden to seek a second term in 2024, according to the poll.The president is statistically tied with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in 2024 presidential support, survey results show. He also trails a handful of potential 2024 candidates in favorability, including Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Cory Booker.The percentage of Democrats who want Biden to run again has tanked since this time last year, from 74 percent to 31 percent, according to this year’s poll.And among New Hampshire members of both parties, the poll also shows concern for Biden’s age: 78 percent of respondents overall said they were at least somewhat concerned, including 75 percent of Democrats.January 6 rioter Mark Ponder gets at least five years in jailThe Associated Press has news on a lengthy sentence for a January 6 rioter. The story follows: A man who attacked police officers with poles during the riot at the U.S. Capitol was sentenced on Tuesday to more than five years in prison, matching the longest term of imprisonment so far among hundreds of Capitol riot prosecutions.Mark Ponder, a 56-year-old resident of Washington, D.C., said he “got caught up” in the chaos that erupted on Jan. 6, 2021, and “didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”“I wasn’t thinking that day,” Ponder told U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, asking her for mercy before she sentenced him to five years and three months in prison.That was three months longer than the prison sentence requested by prosecutors. And it’s the same sentence that Chutkan gave Robert Palmer, a Florida man who also pleaded guilty to assaulting police at the Capitol.More than 200 other Capitol riot defendants have been sentenced so far. None received a longer prison sentence than Ponder or Palmer.Chutkan said Ponder was “leading the charge” against police officers trying to hold off the mob that disrupted Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s electoral victory.“This is not ‘caught up,’ Mr. Ponder,” she said. “He was intent on attacking and injuring police officers. This was not a protest.” More

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      ‘Nancy, I’ll go with you’: Trump allies back Pelosi’s proposed Taiwan visit

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      ‘Nancy, I’ll go with you’: Trump allies back Pelosi’s proposed Taiwan visitMike Pompeo and Mark Esper support visit to ‘freedom-loving Taiwan’ but Biden concerned any trip would antagonise Beijing Plans for Nancy Pelosi, the US House speaker, to visit Taiwan have prompted opposition from China and the American military but support from Republicans in Washington, including former members of the Trump administration.Trump’s second secretary of defense, Mark Esper, told CNN: “I think if the speaker wants to go, she should go.”Japan sees increasing threat to Taiwan amid Russia’s invasion of UkraineRead moreMike Pompeo, Trump’s second secretary of state, tweeted: “Nancy, I’ll go with you. I’m banned in China, but not freedom-loving Taiwan. See you there!”No date has been set for a Pelosi visit to Taiwan, a self-governing democracy that Beijing claims is a breakaway province. Many observers expect some form of military action by China some time soon, particularly in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.China has said a Pelosi visit would “severely undermine” its “sovereignty and territorial integrity, gravely impact the foundation of China-US relations, and send a seriously wrong signal to Taiwan independence forces”.Joe Biden said last week: “I think that the military thinks it’s not a good idea right now. But I don’t know what the status of it is.”The White House has not weighed in officially. On Monday, Biden’s press secretary, Karin Jean-Pierre, said: “The administration routinely provides members of Congress with information and context for potential travel, including geopolitical and security considerations.“Members of Congress will make their own decisions.”The state department spokesperson, Ned Price, said: “I will just restate our policy, and that is that we remain committed to maintaining cross-strait peace and stability and our ‘One China’ policy” – a reference to the US position that recognises Beijing as the government of China but allows for informal relations and defense ties with Taiwan.That was a policy Trump initially seemed to jeopardise, telling Fox News in December 2016, after he won the election: “I don’t know why we have to be bound by a ‘One China’ policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade.”In office, Trump agreed to follow the policy. But his administration was vociferous in its support of Taiwan and antagonism toward Beijing, with some observers suggesting officials wanted to force the Biden administration, which followed Trump’s, into confrontation with China.Pelosi has said it is “important for us to show support for Taiwan”. She also said she believed that when Biden referred to US military concerns, he meant “maybe the military was afraid our plane would get shot down or something like that by the Chinese”.Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican from Nebraska, said: “Speaker Pelosi should go to Taiwan, and President Biden should make it abundantly clear to Chairman Xi [Jinping] that there’s not a damn thing the Chinese Communist party can do about it.“No more feebleness and self-deterrence. This is very simple: Taiwan is an ally and the speaker of the House of Representatives should meet with the Taiwanese men and women who stare down the threat of Communist China.”Also on Monday, the New York Times reported that the Biden administration “has grown increasingly anxious … about China’s statements and actions regarding Taiwan, with some officials fearing that Chinese leaders might try to move against [it] … over the next year and a half – perhaps by trying to cut off access to all or part of the Taiwan Strait, through which US naval ships regularly pass”.The Democratic senator Chris Coons of Delaware, who is close to Biden, told the Times: “One school of thought is that the lesson is ‘go early and go strong’ before there is time to strengthen Taiwan’s defenses. And we may be heading to an earlier confrontation – more a squeeze than an invasion – than we thought.”The Times also said the White House was “quietly work[ing] to try to dissuade” Pelosi staging the first visit by a speaker to Taiwan since 1997.The Republican speaker who made that trip, Newt Gingrich, said: “What is the Pentagon thinking when it publicly warns against Speaker Pelosi going to Taiwan?“Timidity is dangerous.”TopicsUS foreign policyUS politicsNancy PelosiChinaTaiwanAsia PacificJoe BidennewsReuse this content More