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      Rightwingers threaten legal action on Biden’s student loan debt relief

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      Rightwingers threaten legal action on Biden’s student loan debt reliefRepublicans seek to challenge loan forgiveness in the courts and are making it a key talking point in the midterm elections Even before Joe Biden announced his recent plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student loans for Americans burdened by their unprecedented debt from higher education, the US president was threatened with legal action by his adversaries on the right.Since the plan was put forward, chatter about a legal threat has grown even louder as Republicans have said they will seek to formulate opposition in the courts. But what remains unclear is how big of a threat those legal challenges actually pose.Student loan forgiveness: what you need to know about Biden’s planRead moreMeanwhile, supporters of debt forgiveness are also working on challenging the political threat to the plan as Republicans have also sought to make the program a key talking point during the upcoming midterm elections.The plan, which includes the forgiveness of federal student loans of up to $20,000 for Pell grant recipients and up to $10,000 for all others, with some exceptions, will provide a substantial amount of relief for the millions of Americans encumbered with student loan debt.Those ineligible for student debt cancellation include individuals who make over the income limit of $125,000 annually, for example.One of the plan’s staunchest opponents is rightwing Texas senator Ted Cruz. He laid out plans for pursuing legal action against the Biden administration in an interview on a rightwing podcast.Cruz explained that he and others would have to actively seek out someone that makes over the income limit – and is thus ineligible for any student debt forgiveness – who would be willing to be the plaintiff in a lawsuit, illustrating how they were “harmed” by Biden’s executive action.Cruz conceded that courts won’t accept just any plaintiff – for example, any taxpayer outraged by Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan. “Well, that may prove a real challenge. The difficulty here is finding a plaintiff whom the courts will conclude has standing to challenge this,” he said.Loan service providers stand to lose from Biden’s plan, but whether or not companies will legally challenge the cancellation and also claim to be “harmed” remains to be seen. Since Biden’s announcement, it was reported that the websites of nearly every major loan servicer crashed or experienced severe traffic-related problems as borrowers scrambled to check the latest status of their loans or get more information.Jim Hawkins, a law professor at the University of Houston and an expert in lending law, said Cruz is right to worry about the amount of work it will take to sue the Biden administration for student debt cancellation.He said: “One problem is identifying a plaintiff who has standing to sue. Who got hurt from loan forgiveness? I think the Republicans will have to work to find someone who was injured in order to sue them.”But while it’s unlikely that Republicans will find a plaintiff who has standing, Hawkins said it’s not impossible.“There’s uncertainty until a court makes a decision interpreting a law or applying the law to the facts of the specific case,” Hawkins said. “So for a lot of people, it’s going to be up in the air until we have decisions from courts.”Another uncertainty is how far some are willing to go to question the constitutionality of Biden’s use of executive authority to cancel the debt. Biden invoked the 2003 Heroes Act in order to cancel student loan debt, which gave the secretary of education authority to make changes to any provision of the law applicable to student aid programs in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.Hawkins said the Heroes Act “has broad language, giving the president power. But it might be a bit of a stretch to think that the act written in response to 9/11 applies to Covid. It applies to anyone affected by an emergency. The question is, how much authority does that give Biden?”Hawkins said there is a chance a court could say the act is more narrow than Biden thinks. Cruz and others argue student debt cancellation is an overreach of power, despite Trump invoking the same act to pause student loan payments at the start of the pandemic.Biden’s secretary of education, Miguel Cardona, sought to clear up confusion by publicly releasing a legal opinion from the Department of Justice that states the Covid-19 pandemic qualifies as a national emergency.One speculative lawsuit has already been launched by an Oregon homeowner who once ran for the US Senate as a Republican. Daniel Laschober is arguing both that Biden overstepped his authority and that as a homeowner he will suffer damages because the program could stoke inflation and raise interest rates on his mortgage.But the rightwing pushback over student loan forgiveness is also a political fight in the court of public opinion, and one where supporters of the program are also gearing up to have their say, especially when it comes to false narratives pushed by the right that the program will largely benefit an elite class of people.That is certainly the tone of the Republican response so far. Ron DeSantis, the far-right governor of Florida, argued that Biden’s student debt cancellation plan benefits members of high society. He said: “It’s very unfair to have a truck driver have to pay back a loan for somebody that got like a PhD in gender studies. That’s not fair. That’s not right.”DeSantis joined 21 other Republican governors across the country to publish a joint letter condemning Biden’s plan to forgive student debt. “We fundamentally oppose your plan to force American taxpayers to pay off the student loan debt of an elite few,” the letter read. Astra Taylor, a film-maker and activist who founded Debt Collective, a union of debtors, said that those condemning people with student loans fail to take into consideration that these borrowers are in reality anything but the elite. They are usually working-class Americans, many of whom went into debt for trade school or community college rather than for a top university degree.“I’m just not sure that they’re playing to the base the way they think they are,” Taylor said. “Obviously, [Republicans] are very invested in a kind of anti-intellectual, anti-academy politics. But people go to trade school and get student debt. People go to cosmetology school and get student debt.”Taylor is right. Ten per cent of those with student debt received a professional certificate from institutions like trade schools, according to Upjohn Institute labor economist Aaron Sojourner.In an interview with Axios, Sojourner said: “Many Americans understandably, but mistakenly, assume that the vast majority of student loan debtors have four-year degrees, when in fact about half do not.”And on the whole, 90% of relief dollars will go to people making less than $75,000 annually, according to the Department of Education.So far, polling shows Republicans may not have found the winning issue some of them might think they have. Surveys on the plan usually show majority support for it and two recent polls – by Quinnipiac and the Economist/YouGov – have registered voters backing it by 51% and 52%, respectively. That support rises among Latino and Black voters and those aged under 50.While Taylor, like many others across the country, believes the student debt forgiveness plan doesn’t go nearly far enough, she said she understands its significance and that it is worth fighting hard for.“My position is very clear in that I think all student debt should be lost and we should return and expand the model of higher education that was the standard in this country a few generations ago,” she said. “But on paper, it’s enormous. It’s an incredibly significant political victory for progressives.”She added: “We’ve had all sorts of debt relief over the last decade plus, for more affluent people and corporations, so I think this is really significant in terms of showing that for working class and middle class people, debt can also be canceled. It’s just the beginning of a real reckoning with the scale and scope of the student debt crisis.”TopicsUS student debtUS politicsJoe BidenRepublicansUS student financefeaturesReuse this content More

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      The Divider review: riveting narrative of Trump’s plot against America

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      The Divider review: riveting narrative of Trump’s plot against America Peter Baker and Susan Glasser offer a beautifully written, utterly dispiriting history of the man who attacked democracyThe US labors in Donald Trump’s shadow, the Republican party “reborn in his image”, to quote Peter Baker and Susan Glasser. Trump is out of office but not out of sight or mind. Determined to explain “what happened” on 6 January 2021, when Trump supporters attacked the Capitol, the husband-and-wife team examines his term in the White House and its chaotic aftermath. Their narrative is riveting, their observations dispiriting.Trump chief of staff used book on president’s mental health as guideRead moreThe US is still counted as a liberal democracy but is poised to stumble out of that state. The stench of autocratization wafts. Maga-world demanded a Caesar. It came close to realizing its dream.In electing Trump, Baker and Glasser write, the US empowered a leader who “attacked basic principles of constitutional democracy at home” and “venerated” strongmen abroad. Whether the system winds up in the “morgue” and how much time remains to make sure it doesn’t are the authors’ open questions.Trump spoke kindly of Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un. He treated Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine as a plaything, to be blackmailed for personal gain.In a moment of pique, Trump sought to give the Israeli-controlled West Bank to King Abdullah of Jordan. For Benjamin Netanyahu, the former and possibly future prime minister of Israel, he had a tart “fuck him”.At home, the US is mired in a cold civil war. Half the country deems Trump unfit to hold office, half would grant him a second term, possibly as president for life. Trump’s “big lie”, that the 2020 election was stolen, is potent.The tectonics of education, religion and race clang loudly – and occasionally violently. The insurrection stands as bloody testament to populism and Christian nationalism. The cross and the noose are icons. The Confederacy has risen.Baker is the New York Times’s chief White House correspondent. Glasser works for the New Yorker and CNN. Their book is meticulously researched and beautifully written. Those who were in and around the West Wing talk and share documents. Baker and Glasser lay out receipts. They conducted more than 300 interviews. They met Trump at Mar-a-Lago, “his rococo palace by the sea”, to which we now know he took more than 300 classified documents.“When we sat down with [him] a year after his defeat,” Baker and Glasser write, “the first thing he told us was a lie.”Imagine that.Trump falsely claimed the Biden administration had asked him to record a public service announcement promoting Covid vaccinations. Eventually, he forgot he had spun that yarn. It never happened.Baker and Glasser depict a tempestuous president and a storm-filled presidency. Trump’s time behind the Resolute Desk translated into “fits of rage, late-night Twitter storms, abrupt dismissals”. The authors now compare Trump to Napoleon, exiled to Elba.Congress impeached him twice. He never won the popular vote. His legitimacy flowed from the electoral college, the biggest quirk in the constitution, a document he readily and repeatedly defiled. Tradition and norms counted little. The military came to understand that Trump was bent on staging a coup. The guardrails nearly failed.The führer was a role-model. Trump loudly complained to John Kelly, his second chief of staff, a retired Marine Corps general and a father bereaved in the 9/11 wars: “You fucking generals, why can’t you be like the German generals?”“Which generals?”“The German generals in world war II.”“You do know that they tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off?”It’s fair to say Trump probably did not know that. He dodged the Vietnam draft, suffering from “bone spurs”, with better things to do. He is … not a reader.In Trump’s White House, Baker and Glasser write, Kelly used The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, a study by 27 mental health professionals, as some sort of owner’s manual.A week before Christmas 2020, Trump met another retired general, the freshly pardoned Michael Flynn, and other election-deniers including Patrick Byrne, once a boyfriend of Maria Butina, a convicted Russian agent. Hours later, past midnight, Trump tweeted “Big protest in DC on January 6th … Be there, will be wild!”In that moment, the fears of Gen Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff who saw the coup coming, “no longer seemed far-fetched”. Now, as new midterm elections approach, Republicans signal that they will grill Milley if they retake the House.Baker and Glasser also write of how Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump sought refuge from the Trumpian storm, despite being his senior advisers. They endeavored to keep their hands clean but the muck cascaded downward.Not everyone shared their discomfort. Donald Trump Jr proposed “ways to annul the will of the voters”. Rick Perry, the energy secretary, pushed for Republican state legislatures to declare Trump the winner regardless of reality.“HERE’s an AGGRESSIVE STRATEGY,” a Perry text message read.Trump’s increasing tirade against FBI and DoJ endangering lives of officialsRead moreIn such a rogues’ gallery, even the wife of a sitting supreme court justice, Ginni Thomas, stood ready to help. Mark Meadows, Trump’s last chief of staff, was a child who yearned for his parent’s affection. He would say and do anything. And yet he managed to spill the beans on Trump testing positive for Covid before debating Biden. Trump called Meadows “fucking stupid”. Meadows has since complied with subpoenas issued by the Department of Justice and the January 6 committee.Baker and Glasser conclude by noting Trump’s advanced age and looking at “would-be Trumps” who might pick up the torch. They name Ron DeSantis, Josh Hawley and Tucker Carlson.On Thursday, Trump threatened violence if he is criminally charged.“I think you’d have problems in this country the likes of which perhaps we’ve never seen before,” he said. “I don’t think the people of the US would stand for it.”As Timbuk 3 once sang, with grim irony: “The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades.”
      The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021 is published in the US by Penguin Random House
      TopicsBooksDonald TrumpTrump administrationUS Capitol attackUS politicsRepublicansThe far rightreviewsReuse this content More

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      Fox News and Republicans try to shift attention to crime as midterms loom

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      Fox News and Republicans try to shift attention to crime as midterms loomRightwing leaders push ‘soft on crime’ narrative to propel Republicans this fall, as most voters focus on abortion rights With most US voters indicating that the preservation of abortion rights is their chief focus as midterm elections loom, the face of Fox News and Republican politicians appear to be trying to shift attention to crime, a progressive media watchdog has warned.As Democrats seek to maintain razor-thin advantages in both congressional chambers, an analysis from Media Matters for America notes that on 19 August, the highest-rated Fox News host, Tucker Carlson, implored “every Republican candidate in the United States” to pitch themselves as favoring “law and order and equality under the law”.‘He could be a good president’: is Tucker Carlson the next Donald Trump?Read moreSince then, the word “crime” has appeared in 29% of Republican political ads, up from 12% in July, Media Matters said, citing reporting from the Washington Post.In one of the most closely watched contests, the Republican Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, Dr Mehmet Oz, then launched ads attacking his Democratic rival, John Fetterman, on criminal justice.Blake Masters – a past Carlson guest and Republican Senate candidate in Arizona – last week derided the Democrats as “the party of crime”.A new survey by the Pew Research Center showed 56% of voters said abortion would be “very important” at the polls after the US supreme court struck down the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling that established the right to terminate a pregnancy.A separate poll from the Wall Street Journal found that 60% of voters support abortion rights in most or all cases.Media Matters said it is not new for Republicans – who hailed the supreme court ruling in June – to fixate on crime and the concept of “law and order” as a topic in national elections.The left-leaning nonprofit pointed to a notorious ad about a convicted murderer, Willie Horton, that George HW Bush aired during his successful run to the Oval Office in 1988. The ad accused his Democratic rival, Michael Dukakis, of being soft on crime while Massachusetts governor because Horton raped a woman and robbed a man during a temporary furlough from prison in that state.Media Matters also said that Carlson and Republicans have echoed each other before. For instance, Republicans joined the star Fox News host in characterizing Black activists’ protests against police brutality after the 2020 murder of George Floyd as a threat to safety.But despite the increase in overall crime that the US has experienced in recent years across Democratic and Republican cities and states, murder and other violent offenses remain well below levels in the early 1990s, part of which was under a Republican White House.While property crime rates have fallen, murder rates have increased roughly equally in Republican-controlled cities as in their Democratic counterparts, said a Brennan Center for Justice report cited by Media Matters.The analysis also found that Republican candidates have not clearly outlined what federal-level policies they would adopt to drive down crime.Despite claims that Joe Biden has done nothing to address crime, the president recently signed both the first federal gun safety bill in nearly 30 years and the American Rescue Plan, under which he successfully pushed for $10bn for policing and public safety.Every Republican in Congress opposed the American Rescue Plan, which was aimed at helping the national economy recover in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.A spokesperson for New York City-based Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Media Matters analysis.TopicsRepublicansFox NewsUS television industryUS politicsTV newsTelevision industrynewsReuse this content More

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      Why Biden blames Trump’s MAGA as a threat to democracy: Politics Weekly America | podcast

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      After Joe Biden delivered a landmark speech a couple of weeks ago warning that the extremism of Donald Trump’s Republican supporters now threatened the country’s democratic foundations, Jonathan Freedland speaks to the journalist Luke Mogelson, who has written a book chronicling the transformation of America in the run-up to January 6

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      Archives: NBC, Al Jazeera, the Guardian Send your questions and feedback to podcasts@theguardian.com Help support the Guardian by going to theguardian.com/supportpodcasts More

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      Near-total abortion ban with narrow exceptions takes effect in Indiana

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      Near-total abortion ban with narrow exceptions takes effect in IndianaLaw effectively wipes out abortion access for 1.5m people in the state, which was a safe haven for those seeking the procedure A sweeping abortion ban went into effect in Indiana on Thursday, containing only extremely narrow exceptions for medical emergencies, rape and incest and making it the latest state to largely outlaw the procedure in the US.The ban is being challenged in court by the ACLU and several abortion care providers, with hearings set to start on 19 September.Indiana lawmakers passed the legislation during a special legislative session in early August, with a six-week pause before it came into effect. Then, Indiana was the first in the nation to bring in a new law banning abortion after Roe fell. Before that, anti-abortion activists had relied on so-called “trigger laws”, written pre-Roe, to ban the procedure once the supreme court decision came down.But earlier this week West Virginia followed and also passed a sweeping ban.“We will always have more work to do because we need to make it unimaginable to end an unborn baby’s life,” the Republican state senator Liz Brown said when she backed the bill six weeks ago.The law effectively wipes out abortion access for 1.5 million Indianans of reproductive age, and will have far-reaching consequences as Indiana had become a safe haven for those seeking abortion in other nearby states.Now, residents in places like Ohio, Wisconsin and Kentucky, which have total or near-total abortion bans in place, will have to travel hundreds of miles to neighboring Illinois for the procedure. Meanwhile, other midwestern states, like Michigan, will put abortion rights directly to the public in a ballot in November.The Indiana law – known as SB 1 – is an all-encompassing abortion ban with some extreme restrictions. It limits abortions to cases where there is serious risk to the health or life of the pregnant person, and in the case of a lethal fetal anomaly up to 20 weeks post-fertilization.Similar abortion restrictions in other states have already put the lives of pregnant people at risk, which is of huge concern in a state like Indiana, which has some of the worst maternal and infant mortality rates in the US.The Indiana law allows abortions in the case of rape or incest – but only up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. Indiana threw rape and incest exceptions into the spotlight on an international stage early this year, after a 10-year-old girl travelled to the state from Ohio after being raped. Dr Caitlin Bernard, the girl’s OB-GYN, spoke out about the case after the 10-year-old was denied an abortion in her home state due to a trigger law in Ohio that does not include exceptions for rape.The ban puts a limit on where abortions can be performed, specifically banning abortion clinics from performing the procedure. Instead, abortions must be performed in hospitals or surgical centers owned by hospitals. That has left hospitals scurrying to set up special units and work out their options – previously hospitals performed only a tiny fraction of abortions happening in state.TopicsIndianaAbortionUS politicsRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

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      Biden touts efforts to boost electric vehicles at Detroit auto show – as it happened

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      Self-confessed “car guy” Joe Biden is about to take the podium at the Detroit motor show to tell Americans why they should be buying electric vehicles.The president, who owns a vintage Corvette, has set what the White House calls “a bold goal” for electric vehicles to make up 50% of all vehicles sold in the US by 2030. Biden is in Detroit touting the Inflation Reduction Act, the marquee spending bill he signed last month that includes incentives for buying electric vehicles, as part of a larger strategy to lower America’s carbon emissions.President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act makes it easier and cheaper to purchase an electric or fuel-cell vehicle – new or used – through tax credits for consumers.Learn more at https://t.co/KTCwt5Tmue.— The White House (@WhiteHouse) September 13, 2022
      While we await Biden’s words, here’s the White House factsheet, which says that since Biden took office last year, companies have invested nearly $85bn in manufacturing electric vehicles, batteries, and EV chargers in the US.The number of electric vehicles sold in that time has almost tripled, the handout claims.But there are concerns that his plans to build a nationwide network of charging stations will leave behind disadvantaged and lower income areas and communities of color.Read more:Is Biden’s goal to build charging stations for electric cars leaving low-income areas behind?Read morePresident Joe Biden struck a triumphant note in a Detroit speech where he promoted his administration’s efforts to revitalize manufacturing and get Americans behind the wheel of electric vehicles. Meanwhile, the January 6 committee has signaled it will resume public hearings later this month, and potentially share more of its evidence with justice department investigators looking into the attack on the Capitol.Here’s what else happened today:
      House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed optimism that Democrats would gain, not lose, seats in the chamber in the November midterms, despite widespread expectations that voters will elevate the Republicans into the majority.
      Donald Trump disavowed his former vice-president Mike Pence, saying he would not choose him as a running mate again, according to a soon-to-be-published book obtained by The Guardian.
      FBI agents paid a visit to prominent Trump ally and pillow mogul Mike Lindell, seizing his cellphone and questioning him in a fast food restaurant’s drive-thru lane.
      Biden called Britain’s King Charles III and expressed condolences over the death of the queen. It remains unclear if the president will meet Charles III or new prime minister Liz Truss when he heads to London for the queen’s funeral.
      Florida’s Republican senator Marco Rubio co-sponsored a bill to ban abortions nationwide after 15 weeks, in what could help his Democratic challenger Val Demings as she looks to energize pro-abortion sentiment among voters.
      Amtrak has begun canceling long-distance routes ahead of a possible rail strike that could begin within days, Axios reports.Unions and freight rail companies are negotiating furiously to prevent the strike, which would be the first in three decades and worsen supply chains that have been plagued by delays and manpower and equipment shortages over the past two years as the United States has bounced back from the pandemic.“While we are hopeful that parties will reach a resolution, Amtrak has now begun phased adjustments to our service in preparation for a possible freight rail service interruption later this week,” Amtrak said, according to Axios.“Such an interruption could significantly impact intercity passenger rail service, as Amtrak operates almost all of our 21,000 route miles outside the Northeast Corridor (NEC) on track owned, maintained, and dispatched by freight railroads. These initial adjustments include canceling all Long Distance trains and could be followed by impacts to most State-Supported routes.”The negotiations between the railroad companies and 12 unions are complex and have drawn in the Biden administration. Here’s the latest from the Associated Press:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Members of one union rejected a tentative deal with the largest U.S. freight railroads Wednesday while three other unions remained at the bargaining table just days ahead of a strike deadline, threatening to intensify snarls in the nation’s supply chain that have contributed to rising prices.
      About 4,900 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 19 voted to reject the tentative agreement negotiated by IAM leadership with the railroads, the union said Wednesday. But the IAM agreed to delay any strike by its members until Sept. 29 to allow more time for negotiations and to allow other unions to vote.
      Railroads are trying to reach an agreement with all their other unions to avert a strike before Friday’s deadline. The unions aren’t allowed to strike before Friday under the federal law that governs railroad contract talks.
      Government officials and a variety of businesses are bracing for the possibility of a nationwide rail strike that would paralyze shipments of everything from crude and clothing to cars, a potential calamity for businesses that have struggled for more than two years due to COVID-19 related supply chain breakdowns.Joe Biden’s inclination for optimism was on full display in Detroit, but he was outdone today by his Democratic colleague House speaker Nancy Pelosi, who insisted in an interview with Punchbowl News that the party was poised to gain – not lose – seats in the chamber in the midterms.“Yes, indeed,” she told Punchbowl when they asked if she thought the party’s majority would grow in the November 8 election.Let’s unpack the many reasons that statement appears improbably. First of all, it’s a reflection of how much the political climate is thought to have shifted in the Democrats’ favor over the past few months. Declining gas prices, the supreme court’s overturning of national abortion access and Biden’s legislative wins are all believed to have energized Democratic voters, while on their part, Republicans have chosen some weaker nominees for key races.But history is against Pelosi. As The Guardian’s Joan E Greve has reported, the party holding the White House has only gained seats in the House in two midterms, and Pelosi personally experienced the ruinous 2010 election that saw Democrats lose 63 seats in the lower chamber and end her speakership for eight years. She may well be poised to endure that again – poll aggregator FiveThirtyEight gives the GOP a very good shot at returning to the majority next year in the House, though the Senate may be harder to conquer. Nonetheless, analysts generally believe that the political developments over the past few months are meaningful for Democrats, and while Republicans may win the House, their gains won’t be enormous, and certainly not comparable to 2010.Here’s what Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel had to say about Biden’s visit to Detroit, which she described as a stop on his “failure tour”:“Whether it’s handing out tax credits for luxury electric vehicles or bailing out the wealthy’s debts, Biden and Democrats are leaving hardworking Americans behind. Democrats will be driven out of office in November because they put their left-wing special interests ahead of Americans struggling to fill grocery carts and gas tanks.”“American manufacturing is back, Detroit is back, America is back,” Biden declared at the conclusion of his speech in Detroit, where he touted the benefits of legislation passed to repair infrastructure and promote electric vehicles.The speech at the Detroit Auto Show hit familiar talking points for the president as he attempts to convince voters to re-elect Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections and preserve their majorities in Congress. Among these were his recent legislative successes, including the $1 trillion measure Democrats and some Republicans in Congress approved last year to overhaul the nation’s infrastructure. In his speech, he announced that he had authorized funding from that law for 35 states to build electric vehicle charging stations.Beyond being the center of the auto industry, Michigan is among the more crucial states to Biden’s political fortunes. It’s a perennial swing state that Biden narrowly won in the 2020 election, and its Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer will also be on the ballot in November as she stands for second term against Republican challenger Tudor Dixon. Biden appeared at the show along with the governor, and spent much of his speech shouting out other Michigan Democrats, while closing on a note of triumph. “Folks, we’re proving it’s never, ever, ever a good bet to bet against the American people, never never, never. You just gotta remember who we are.”In the ongoing legal wrangling over documents seized by the government from Mar-a-Lago, The Guardian’s Richard Luscombe reports that the justice department is sounding the alarm over an order preventing them from reviewing the materials.Donald Trump’s lawyers are causing “irreparable harm” to the government and public by delaying the investigation into his hoarding of highly classified documents at his Florida mansion, the US Department of Justice said.The claim came in a strongly worded court filing urging a district judge, Aileen Cannon, to reconsider her ruling last week granting Trump’s request for an independent “special master” in the case.The Department of Justice argued that the order stops it continuing its review of thousands of documents, some reportedly containing details of a foreign power’s nuclear secrets, seized during an FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach last month.Mar-a-Lago documents: Trump delaying tactics causing ‘irreparable harm’ – DoJRead moreSelf-confessed “car guy” Joe Biden is about to take the podium at the Detroit motor show to tell Americans why they should be buying electric vehicles.The president, who owns a vintage Corvette, has set what the White House calls “a bold goal” for electric vehicles to make up 50% of all vehicles sold in the US by 2030. Biden is in Detroit touting the Inflation Reduction Act, the marquee spending bill he signed last month that includes incentives for buying electric vehicles, as part of a larger strategy to lower America’s carbon emissions.President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act makes it easier and cheaper to purchase an electric or fuel-cell vehicle – new or used – through tax credits for consumers.Learn more at https://t.co/KTCwt5Tmue.— The White House (@WhiteHouse) September 13, 2022
      While we await Biden’s words, here’s the White House factsheet, which says that since Biden took office last year, companies have invested nearly $85bn in manufacturing electric vehicles, batteries, and EV chargers in the US.The number of electric vehicles sold in that time has almost tripled, the handout claims.But there are concerns that his plans to build a nationwide network of charging stations will leave behind disadvantaged and lower income areas and communities of color.Read more:Is Biden’s goal to build charging stations for electric cars leaving low-income areas behind?Read moreCall it a magical mystery tour… migrants being sent on buses from Texas to New York by the lone star state’s governor Greg Abbott in protest at Joe Biden’s immigration policies are being moved on to Florida.That’s according to Fox 5 New York, which interviewed the city’s commissioner of immigration Manuel Castro on its Good Day New York show on Wednesday.New York City officials claim that many of the migrants who are being bused from Texas did not want to go to New York so they are helping them get to other states. https://t.co/KFbzJyMs4N— Fox5NY (@fox5ny) September 14, 2022
      Castro says many of those arriving from Texas don’t want to be there, and have ties elsewhere:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Many want to go to places like Florida, where the largest community of Venezuelans live.
      We’re helping them get to their actual final destination. We’re doing our best.The move probably isn’t going to go down too well with Florida’s hardline Republican governor and frequent Biden critic Ron DeSantis, who likes what he sees coming out of Texas and has been mulling his own plan to bus undocumented Cuban migrants from Florida to Washington DC.“All states and all cities have a role to play here, not just New York and Chicago and other places,” Castro told Fox 5. Joe Biden plans to nominate career diplomat Lynne Tracy, who is currently serving in Armenia, as the next US ambassador to Russia, CNN says.Tracy has experience of Moscow, having served there as deputy ambassador from 2014 to 2017. She would be the first woman in the role, the network said.The Biden administration hopes to get her in place swiftly to replace John Sullivan, who stepped down earlier this month. But the timing of her arrival and official nomination will depend on Russia agreeing to accept her as ambassador at a time of huge tension between Washington and Moscow as the war in Ukraine continues. Typically, the host country will approve the name of an ambassador pick before they are officially nominated through a process called agrément. The US has already given Tracy’s name to the Russians to begin that process, two sources told CNN.While we’re on the subject of November’s midterm elections, Martin Pengelly has this look at how Democrats got the matchup they wanted – an extremist, Trump-supporting election denier – as their Republican opponent for a New Hampshire Senate seat:A far-right Republican who backs Donald Trump’s election fraud lie and has vowed to decertify results in 2024 will be the GOP candidate for US Senate in New Hampshire.Don Bolduc, a retired special forces general who has said he suffered from PTSD and a traumatic brain injury, edged out Chuck Morse, the state senate president, to face the incumbent Democrat, Maggie Hassan, in November.Most if not all forecasters called the race for Bolduc before Morse conceded.The primary was the last in a series that have seen Republicans select candidates aligned with Trump, causing some to fear damage to their chances of winning the Senate in November.Bolduc, 61, has echoed Trump’s lie about election fraud in his defeat by Joe Biden. He has also questioned whether the FBI should be abolished following its search of Trump’s Florida estate, which turned up a cache of classified documents.Though Bolduc has courted Trump, he has not won an endorsement. Trump did call Bolduc a “strong guy”.Last October, Bolduc spoke to the New Yorker. He said he thought his “values and principles as an American, and the constitution, which I served for 33-plus years in the military, was safe with President Trump”, and that Trump’s appeal stemmed from the (notoriously reading-averse) former president’s reading and understanding of the constitution.He also said “there was a tremendous amount of fraud” in 2020, adding: “I very much believe it and I think it exists, and I think it happens and it’s been happening for a long time in this country. When you try to steal the presidency, a lot of people are going to go, ‘OK, wait a minute. What the hell’s going on here?’”Read more:Republican backer of Trump’s big lie wins New Hampshire Senate primaryRead moreFlorida Republican Marco Rubio has emerged as a co-sponsor of Lindsey Graham’s nationwide 15-week abortion ban bill, providing Democratic hopeful Val Demings new ammunition as she challenges for his Senate seat in November.Rubio’s campaign has not said why he’s signed on to the controversial and extreme bill, which has confused and angered many congressional Republicans. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell says he’s sure his members would prefer to leave the issue to the states. But Rubio’s overall position on abortion is clear. Talking to a Christian group in south Florida earlier this month, he said an unborn child’s rights outweighed those of the mother and that, in an apparent contradiction to his position on the Graham bill, “The state legislatures will decide [the] law.” “I would rather be right and lose an election than [be] wrong,” he said, according to ABC10 Miami.He may get his wish, at least the losing the election part, if Demings has her way. The former Orlando police chief and US congresswoman is a vocal pro-choice advocate and has slammed Rubio’s position.“It’s outrageous to mandate what a woman can and can’t do with their bodies,” she says in a televised campaign message.“I know something about fighting crime, Senator Rubio. Rape is a crime. Incest is a crime. Abortion is not.”Polling by RealClearPolitics gives Rubio, a former candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, a narrow lead over Demings.President Joe Biden is set to proclaim his administration’s efforts to boost the electric car business with a speech at the Detroit Auto Show set for 1:45 pm eastern time. Meanwhile, the January 6 committee has signaled it will resume public hearings later this month, and potentially share more of its evidence with justice department investigators looking into the attack on the Capitol.Here’s what else has happened today so far:
      Donald Trump disavowed his former vice-president Mike Pence, saying he would not choose him as a running mate again, according to a soon-to-be-published book obtained by The Guardian.
      FBI agents paid a visit to prominent Trump ally and pillow mogul Mike Lindell, seizing his cellphone and questioning him in a fast food restaurant’s drive-thru lane.
      Biden called Britain’s King Charles III and expressed condolences over the death of the queen. It remains unclear if the president will meet Charles III or new prime minister Liz Truss when he heads to London for the queen’s funeral.
      Let’s check in with Joe Biden, who has arrived at the Detroit Auto Show.He’s set to deliver “remarks highlighting the electric vehicle manufacturing boom in America” at 1:45 pm eastern time according to the White House, but is first getting a look at the latest models from America’s automakers.Biden is a vintage Chevrolet Corvette owner, and CNN caught him behind the wheel of the latest model:Biden at the Detroit Auto Show pic.twitter.com/54IMxuUnfO— Kate Sullivan (@KateSullivanDC) September 14, 2022
      Here he is checking out Ford’s new electric offerings:The Mustang Mach-E. “0 to 60 in three seconds,” Biden said. “3.5, but who’s counting?” Bill Ford replied. pic.twitter.com/yctQP3c9LX— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) September 14, 2022
      Why does Biden care so much about electric cars? In part because the Inflation Reduction Act, as the marquee spending bill he signed last month is known, includes incentives to try to get more Americans to buy the vehicles, as part of a larger strategy to lower America’s carbon emissions. The other reason is that Biden is a “car guy”, as he likes to describe himself.Electric cars to solar panels: tax breaks in Biden’s climate law for AmericansRead more More

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      in Elections

      January 6 committee plans to hold new public hearing this month – live

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      The January 6 committee has accumulated reams of evidence and testimonies in its investigation into the attack on the Capitol, but one outstanding question has been what will happen to it all. Will the evidence be shared with federal prosecutors? What about the lawyers of people facing charges over the attack?The lawmakers in the committee gathered behind closed doors yesterday for their first meeting in more than a month, and Politico has reported a few details about where they were on these questions. “I think now that the department of justice is being proactive in issuing subpoenas and other things, I think it’s time for the committee to determine whether or not the information we’ve gathered can be beneficial to their investigation,” the committee’s chair Bennie Thompson said.Indeed, the justice department has recently issued a flurry of subpoenas to associates of Donald Trump as part of its investigation into the attack on the Capitol, and the January 6 committee seems to be aware that some of what it has found in its own, separate investigation could be useful to them. However, that could also open the door for attorneys of people defending charges over the attack to get access to the committee’s evidence as well.Either way, expect to be hearing a lot more from the committee later this month. Thompson said the lawmakers are eyeing September 28 as the date to resume their hearings, according to Politico.Senator Lindsey Graham’s proposal to ban abortion after 15 weeks nationwide was excoriated by Democrats and downplayed by Republicans after it was introduced yesterday.But pro-abortion sentiment isn’t unanimous among Democrats in the chamber. National Review reports that Joe Manchin, the conservative Democratic senator representing West Virginia, reiterated his support for banning abortion after 20 weeks, noting he’d voted for such a measure in the past. As for Graham’s more stringent proposal, Manchin said he was “very interested” in it. As long as Democrats control the Senate, Graham’s measure probably won’t even be put up for a vote. And even if Republicans did gain control, they’d need to find 60 votes to overcome an inevitable filibuster from Democrats before the bill could pass.Yesterday should have been a rough day for the Biden administration. It started off with the government releasing new inflation data that was worse than expected, and ended with a massive sell-off on Wall Street. Both developments should have been potent fodder for Republicans aiming to convince voters that inflation was the fault of Biden and the Democrats ahead of the November midterms. Instead, much of yesterday’s news cycle was dominated by Republican senator Lindsey Graham’s proposal for federal restrictions on abortion, which are controversial with many voters, including in the GOP.Politico has published a rundown of the own goal scored by the senator and the unexpected reprieve it won for Democrats from the disquieting economic news:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}So obvious was the apparent ill-timing of the bill’s introduction that one White House aide said a Republican lobbyist friend joked that Graham appeared to be working for the Biden administration. Other aides suggested that the comments continued a Democratic winning streak that started mid-summer and began to imagine holding onto both houses of Congress.
      “Dems might need to send gift baskets and champagne to Graham and other Republicans for their selfless act of service today,” another Democratic official told POLITICO.
      The immediate response to Graham’s legislation, which would not just establish a ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy but also allow states to keep and pass more restrictive laws, was a microcosm of the way abortion politics has wholly upended the midterm sprint.
      It’s not as if the images out of the White House were pristine. Live TV coverage of Biden’s speech was bracketed by large red arrows signifying the stock market’s downward trajectory. The more Biden talked about how the legislation would help the economy, the more the markets tumbled. By the closing bell, Wall Street had suffered its worst day since June 2020, with the Dow dropping more than 1,250 points.
      But Democrats, who have been on the defensive for months over stubbornly high inflation, felt once again revitalized in trying to fend off GOP-led initiatives to restrict abortion rights. Virtually every Senate candidate quickly issued statements excoriating Graham’s bill and asking their Republican opponents whether they would sign off on it.Biden has said he will attend the funeral of Elizabeth II, but it remains unclear if he will meet with new prime minister Liz Truss or King Charles III.White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre did not shed much light on the matter today, The Washington Post reports:Asked if Biden will be meeting with new King Charles III or new British prime minister Liz Truss while he’s in London, @PressSec says: “I don’t have an update on who he’s going to be meeting or anything like that.” She notes this morning’s call between the president and the king.— Matt Viser (@mviser) September 14, 2022
      President Joe Biden called Britain’s King Charles III today and offered his condolences on the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the White House announced.Here’s the full readout from the Biden administration:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. spoke today with King Charles III to offer his condolences on the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. The President recalled fondly the Queen’s kindness and hospitality, including when she hosted him and the First Lady at Windsor Castle last June. He also conveyed the great admiration of the American people for the Queen, whose dignity and constancy deepened the enduring friendship and special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom. President Biden conveyed his wish to continue a close relationship with the King.Elizabeth II passed away last week, and her coffin has just arrived in the Palace of Westminster in London to lie in state. The Guardian is running a live blog with the latest events, which you can read below.Queen Elizabeth’s coffin arrives at Palace of Westminster to lie in state – latest updatesRead moreBusy times for the feds, it seems. FBI agents reported to the drive-thru lane of a Minnesota Hardee’s to question and seize the cellphone of Mike Lindell, a prominent Trump ally and 2020 election denier who is also known for his company MyPillow, which makes… pillows. The Guardian’s Richard Luscombe explains what they were looking for:Mike Lindell, the pillow salesman who became an enthusiastic mouthpiece for Donald Trump’s lie about a stolen election, has said he was forced to hand his phone to FBI agents who surrounded him at a fast-food drive-through.The incident happened on Tuesday as Lindell, chief executive of My Pillow, was in line at a branch of Hardee’s in Mankato, Minnesota, his home town, following a hunting trip.“Cars pulled up in front of us, to the side of us, and behind us and I said those are either bad guys or the FBI,” the conspiracy theorist said on his internet show, the Lindell Report. “Well, it turns out they were the FBI.”Lindell said the agents questioned him about Tina Peters, a fellow election denier facing criminal charges in Colorado for tampering with voting machinery as a county clerk, and who in June lost a Republican primary to become the state’s top election official.My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell has phone seized by FBI at fast-food outletRead moreIn June, federal investigators issued a subpoena for surveillance footage from inside Mar-a-Lago and obtained a hard drive in response, according to a newly revealed portion of the warrant authorizing last month’s search of Donald Trump’s resort by the FBI.The detail was redacted from the warrant released by a federal judge last month, but the Associated Press reports that the justice department asked for it to be released after Trump’s lawyers publicly revealed the subpoena’s existence.Here’s more from the AP about the possible significance of the subpoena for surveillance footage:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The newly visible portions of the FBI agent’s affidavit show that the FBI on June 24 subpoenaed for the footage after a visit weeks earlier to Mar-a-Lago in which agents observed 50 to 55 boxes of records in the storage room at the property. The Trump Organization provided a hard drive on July 6 in response to the subpoena, the affidavit says.
      The footage could be an important piece of the investigation, including as agents evaluate whether anyone has sought to obstruct the probe. The Justice Department has said in a separate filing that it has “developed evidence that government records were likely concealed and removed from the Storage Room and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation.”The January 6 committee has accumulated reams of evidence and testimonies in its investigation into the attack on the Capitol, but one outstanding question has been what will happen to it all. Will the evidence be shared with federal prosecutors? What about the lawyers of people facing charges over the attack?The lawmakers in the committee gathered behind closed doors yesterday for their first meeting in more than a month, and Politico has reported a few details about where they were on these questions. “I think now that the department of justice is being proactive in issuing subpoenas and other things, I think it’s time for the committee to determine whether or not the information we’ve gathered can be beneficial to their investigation,” the committee’s chair Bennie Thompson said.Indeed, the justice department has recently issued a flurry of subpoenas to associates of Donald Trump as part of its investigation into the attack on the Capitol, and the January 6 committee seems to be aware that some of what it has found in its own, separate investigation could be useful to them. However, that could also open the door for attorneys of people defending charges over the attack to get access to the committee’s evidence as well.Either way, expect to be hearing a lot more from the committee later this month. Thompson said the lawmakers are eyeing September 28 as the date to resume their hearings, according to Politico.Good morning, US politics blog readers. After weeks of quiet, congress members investigating the January 6 attack have reconvened with plans to hold a new public hearing later this month, and potentially share evidence with the justice department. That would set the stage for the insurrection at the Capitol to remain in the public eye in the lead up to the November midterms, where a slew of Trump-supporting Republicans are on the ballot.Here’s what else is happening today:
      President Joe Biden is traveling to Michigan for an appearance promoting electric vehicles at the Detroit auto show.
      Federal health officials including CDC director Rochelle Walensky will testify about the response to Monkeypox before the Senate health committee.
      Donald Trump has ruled out picking his former vice-president Mike Pence as his running mate, a soon-to-be published book obtained by The Guardian reveals. More

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      in US Politics

      Republican Lindsey Graham proposes nationwide 15-week abortion ban

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      Republican Lindsey Graham proposes nationwide 15-week abortion banWhite House says South Carolina senator’s proposed bill ‘wildly out of step with what Americans believe’ Senator Lindsey Graham proposed legislation on Tuesday for a nationwide 15-week abortion ban, a politically risky strategy as a backlash grows to the US supreme court ruling earlier this summer overturning federal protections for the procedure.Polling shows that 57% of Americans disapproved of the court’s June reversal of the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling guaranteeing access to abortion, and 62% say the procedure should be legal in all or most cases.Ken Starr, who investigated Bill Clinton over Monica Lewinsky affair, dies at 76Read moreThe proposal by Graham, a hardline South Carolina Republican, will be called the “Protecting Pain-capable Unborn Children from Late-term Abortions Act”. It stands almost no chance of becoming law, but is seen by analysts as an attempt to frame the discussion around abortion, with fewer than 60 days until the midterms.The White House and top Democrats promptly decried Graham’s efforts.“Today, Senator Graham introduced a national ban on abortion which would strip away women’s rights in all 50 states. This bill is wildly out of step with what Americans believe,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.She added: “While President Biden and Vice-President Harris are focused on the historic passage of the Inflation Reduction Act to reduce the cost of prescription drugs, health care, and energy – and to take unprecedented action to address climate change – Republicans in Congress are focused on taking rights away from millions of women.”She said the Biden administration and Democrats in Congress “are committed to restoring the protections of Roe v Wade.”Republicans in states including South Carolina have seen recent efforts to introduce abortion bans falter, and Democrats are certain to use Graham’s push to fire up their base and repeat earlier warnings that their opponents’ agenda has always been the pursuit of outlawing abortion nationally.Previous versions of Graham’s bill have outlawed abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, but at a press conference on Tuesday he was unveiling a proposed ban that takes effect after 15 weeks, an attempt to align federal law with Florida.Graham’s earlier proposals contained exceptions for rape, incest, and to protect the life of the mother, which the Florida law does not.Nancy Pelosi added to her party’s protests, calling Graham’s proposal “the latest, clearest signal of extreme Maga Republicans’ intent to criminalize women’s health freedom in all 50 states and arrest doctors for providing basic care.”Joe Biden has recently toughened his language, as the midterm elections approach and Republicans put forward many rightwing candidates, decrying so-called Maga Republicansas semi-fascist and “Trumpies.”Pelosi added: “Make no mistake: if Republicans get the chance, they will work to pass laws even more draconian than this bill – just like the bans they have enacted in states like Texas, Mississippi and Oklahoma.”Even if Republicans seize control of the Senate chamber in November, Graham’s bill is unlikely to pass because the current Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, has indicated he would be unwilling to lift the filibuster – a procedure that requires a bill to win the support of 60 senators – for the abortion issue.McConnell, and Republicans generally, have taken note of developments since the fall of Roe v Wade. While nine Republican-controlled states moved quickly to enact abortion bans, others have witnessed a significant backlash.In Kansas, a staunchly conservative state, voters last month rejected abortion restrictions by a large margin, and pro-choice advocates recorded a notable victory earlier this month when the Michigan supreme court ruled 5-2 that the fate of an abortion ban would be in the hands of the midterms electorate rather than the state legislature.Democratic candidates have seized on the apparent momentum. In Pennsylvania, Senate hopeful John Fetterman told a weekend rally that abortion rights were at the top of his agenda. “Women are the reason we can win. Don’t piss off women,” he said.According to research by TargetSmart, a polling analysis company, Pennsylvania ranks fifth in states showing large gaps in registration numbers between men and women since the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade.Increasing numbers of Republican candidates running for election in November’s midterms, meanwhile, have been softening their messaging over abortion in an attempt to shore up votes, though GOP lawmakers have no plans to soften anti-abortion policy.Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B Anthony Pro-Life America group that is promoting Graham’s legislation, said in a statement that “radical Democrats [are] pushing an extreme agenda of abortion on demand until birth, paid for by the taxpayer, leaving countless unborn babies and mothers unprotected from the violence of abortion.”She called on Congress to “find consensus on a minimum federal standard that reflects the values of the overwhelming majority of Americans”, citing a Harvard Harris poll from June that suggested 79% of Americans wanted abortions limited to 15 weeks.The same poll, however, also found that 55% opposed the overturning of Roe v Wade.TopicsUS politicsAbortionRepublicansnewsReuse this content More