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      Mayra Flores wins special election to turn Texas House seat Republican

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      Mayra Flores wins special election to turn Texas House seat RepublicanSouth Texas congressional district goes Republican for first time as party continues to make inroads among Latino voters A south Texas congressional district will be represented by a Republican for the first time following a special election on Tuesday. The election of Mayra Flores, who bested her Democrat competitor in a 51%-43% vote, comes as Republicans continue to make inroads among Latino voters in south Texas.Bernie Sanders skewers Republican critic of ‘full-on socialism’ in Fox debateRead moreFlores, reportedly the first Latina Republican to serve Texas in Congress, is expected to face a more challenging race in November, however. Her victory was to replace Democrat Filemon Vela, who retired before his term ended – meaning she was elected to serve out the remainder.During November’s general election, voters will determine who will serve as the district’s permanent congressional representative starting in 2022. Flores, who is running for this seat in the general election, will face off against Democratic nominee Vicente Gonzalez.Gonzalez now serves as the representative for a neighboring congressional district. He is reportedly expected to beat Flores in the election.Flores’s victory comes as Republicans ramp up efforts to court Latino voters and amid a slew of polls and elections showing a broader shift among Latino voters away from the Democrats.“If you look at things like the Texas local elections, the New Jersey elections, Nassau County elections, the Virginia elections, they all point to Hispanics not just not snapping back but continuing to get more Republican in relative terms than they were before,” David Shor, a political data analyst of the left, told Yahoo News.Indeed, Flores touted her conservative bona fides on the campaign trail. She invoked elements of Trump’s rhetoric, and leaned heavily on law-and-order motifs in describing her background.Flores, a respiratory care worker, was born in Mexico. On her website, Flores boasts that her parents and grandparents “raised her with strong conservative values and to always put God and family first”.She has made clear that her immigration to the US at age six was done “legally” and “with the help of her father … gave her family the biggest gift, the gift of becoming a proud, naturalized American citizen”.Flores has also voiced alignment with “America First”, an exceptionalist rightwing clarion call to those who feel neglected by politicians. She has claimed her district has long had “to beg for scraps from Nancy Pelosi” and said “for over 100 years, the Democratic party has taken for granted the loyalty and support south Texas has given them for decades”.“They do nothing to earn our vote or our support,” Flores also said on her campaign site. She also faulted President Joe Biden by claiming that he signed “a record number of executive orders to kill Texas jobs, weaken border security, and remove protection for the unborn”.TopicsRepublicansUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Democrats voice concerns over Biden’s Saudi trip: ‘Their values are not ours’ – as it happened

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      Democrats in the Senate are raising their eyebrows at Biden’s decision to travel to Saudi Arabia, objecting to the country’s human rights record and worrying the visit won’t meaningfully lower gas prices.As Oregon’s Ron Wyden told Manu Raju of CNN:Dem pushback this morning on Biden’s decision to meet with MBS. “I don’t see any evidence that the Saudis are going to significantly lower gasoline prices,” Ron Wyden said.On the other hand, I see their horrendous human rights record.”— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 14, 2022
      Here’s Maryland’s Ben Cardin, who referenced the murder of Jamal Khashoggi:Asked about WH sidestepping queries yesterday on responsibility for Khashoggi murder, Cardin told us: “I hope they’ll be very clear in the conversation. America’s strength is in our values.”— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 14, 2022
      Kaitlan Collins, also of CNN, heard this from Illinois’s Dick Durbin:’I have mixed feelings on this and if the President called me, I would say, ‘Mr. President, you can’t trust these people. Their standards are not our standards, their values are not ours,'” Sen. Dick Durbin says about President Biden’s upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia.— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) June 14, 2022
      Congress was at the center of the action today, where the January 6 committee announced the surprise postponement of its Wednesday hearing. Meanwhile, the top Senate Republican said he would support the gun control compromise reached with Democrats, while the House voted to approve a bill to improve security around the supreme court, sending it to the president’s desk.Other top stories today:
      President Joe Biden made official his plans to visit Saudi Arabia, which is widely seen as a bid to increase oil supply and lower gas prices at home. Several Democrats have expressed disapproval over the visit, citing the kingdom’s human rights record.
      The president meanwhile traveled to in Philadelphia to address a convention of the AFL-CIO trade union federation, in which he defended his economic record and attacked Republican policies.
      A top Biden ally in the Senate proposed levying a windfall tax on oil companies as Democrats try to convince voters corporate greed is fueling record-high gas prices.
      An investigation by the Capitol Police determined a Republican House representative did not give Trump supporters a tour of the building the day before the January 6 attack.
      It’s about to get really hot in America. The National Weather Service is advising more than 100 million people to stay indoors due to high humidity and temperatures.
      The US politics live blog will return on Wednesday, with the supreme court set to announce more decisions at 10am ET.The Republican Party is launching a nine-day “election integrity” tour throughout Wisconsin, less than two months before the battleground state’s primary elections. The tour, which begins Wednesday, will start in La Crosse, Wisconsin and go through Wisconsin’s most liberal cities, including the state’s capital, Madison. Planned events will include an appearance from conservative former state Supreme Court judge Daniel Kelly. The tour has already received pushback from those who say it is meant to spread lies that the 2020 election was fraudulent ahead of the primaries and November’s midterm election. Republicans have argued that the roundtable events are meant to recruit poll workers, voting deputies, and other election day staff as well as connect campaign staff with volunteers. The Capitol Police have determined that a Republican House representative did not give a tour to Trump supporters the day before the January 6 attack.CNN reports that the investigation into Barry Loudermilk of Georgia was requested by the chair and vice chair of the House committee investigating the insurrection, over allegations he was seen hosting visitors on 5 January, 2021.“There is no evidence that Representative Loudermilk entered the U.S. Capitol with this group on January 5, 2021,” Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger wrote to the top Republican on the House Administration Committee. “We train our officers on being alert for people conducting surveillance or reconnaissance, and we do not consider any of the activities we observed as suspicious.”Following the attack on the Capitol, several Democrats accused their Republican colleagues of granting tours to people who went on to storm the building as Congress was meeting to certify Joe Biden’s election win.According to CNN:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} Manger said the video shows Loudermilk with “a group of approximately 12 people which later grew to 15 people” walking through the Capitol office buildings on January 5. It also states that the group of visitors did not “appear in any tunnels that would lead them to the US Capitol.”
      House Republicans suggested they may release video they believe exonerates Loudermilk of any insinuation that he led a so-called “reconnaissance” tour the night before the January 6 riot.
      The House select committee declined to comment on Manger’s letter.
      The letter the committee sent to Loudermilk last month indicated the panel has reviewed evidence that “directly contradicts” previous claims by Republican lawmakers who said security footage from the days before January 6 shows there were “no tours, no large groups, no one with MAGA hats on” at the US Capitol complex.
      “Based on our review of evidence in the Select Committee’s possession, we believe you have information regarding a tour you led through parts of the Capitol complex on January 5, 2021,” Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, and Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming, wrote at the time.The House has passed a measure to increase security for the supreme court, sending it to the president’s desk for his signature.A vote was requested and postponed on S. 4160 – Supreme Court Police Parity Act of 2022. https://t.co/CcET8jSBAI— House Press Gallery (@HouseDailyPress) June 14, 2022
      The Senate had unanimously approved the measure back in May, but the House delayed its passage. Republicans in the Senate began attacking Democrats over their failure to pass the measure following last week’s arrest of a man who is charged with planning to kill justice Brett Kavanaugh.Senate approves beefed-up security for US supreme court after abortion leakRead moreVice-president Kamala Harris is meeting with attorneys and activists ahead of a widely expected supreme court decision that could weaken or overturn nationwide abortion rights.VP Harris meeting with legal experts and activist on pending SCOTUS decision on Roe: “I do believe that overturning Roe could clear the way for challenges to other fundamental rights” Named women’s data privacy, IVF, contraception, gay and trans rights pic.twitter.com/qNZnyUEiqo— Jordan Fabian (@Jordanfabian) June 14, 2022
      CNN reports that Harris has been encouraged by people outside the Biden administration to lead the charge against any supreme court decision restricting abortion, as a way to better connect with voters. The network quoted an unnamed official as saying Harris’s “goals really have been around ensuring that people in this country have an understanding of what is at stake here.”The supreme court will issue another batch of decisions on Wednesday beginning at 10 am eastern time, though it’s unknown if that will include the abortion case.The Senate’s top Republican Mitch McConnell said he will support the compromise measure on gun control reached with Democrats over the weekend.The two parties have seldom found agreement on gun control legislation, and McConnell’s endorsement sends a positive signal that the proposal will win enough votes from his party to pass the evenly divided Senate.“If it leads to a piece of legislation, I intend to support it,” McConnell said at a press conference. “I think it’s progress for the country, and I think the bipartisan group has done the best they can to get total support.”While the bill hasn’t been written yet, it doesn’t go as far as many Democrats would like, such as by raising the age to buy an assault weapon to 21 from 18. Many of its provisions focus on improving mental health, as well as offering states money to implement programs intended to stop mass shootings such as those in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York.US senators reach bipartisan gun control deal after recent mass shootings Read moreOne of Biden’s Senate allies has an idea for lowering gas prices: levy new taxes on oil companies’ profits.Bloomberg reports that Democratic senator Ron Wyden will propose putting a 21 percent tax on petroleum companies with profit margins above 10 percent. The idea comes after the average gas price crossed the $5 a gallon level, which the White House has increasingly looked to blame on forces beyond its control, particularly the disruptions to global markets caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Progressive Democrats have meanwhile sought to convince voters that profit-seeking corporations are to blame for the overall spike in inflation Americans are feeling, and last week, Biden took aim at Exxon Mobil, saying the oil giant “made more money than God this year.Wyden’s proposal, which has yet to be released publicly, would however need the approval of all 50 Democrats to make it through the Senate, and tweaks to the tax code were among the contentious issues the party couldn’t reach an agreement on during last year’s unsuccessful attempt to pass Build Back better. From the article:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Taxing excessive oil company profits is one of many policy ideas under consideration in the White House, two administration officials said. Yet internally, aides remain concerned such a tax could hurt ongoing efforts to boost the supply of oil.
      If combined with a gasoline rebate, a windfall profits tax would both deter supply and encourage fuel demand, said Kevin Book, managing director of research firm ClearView Energy Partners LLC. “It is the opposite of balancing the market.”
      An idea out of Treasury to place a cap on the price of Russian oil, alongside European allies, has gained far more traction inside the administration.
      Wyden’s plan would also impose a 25% stock buyback tax for oil and gas companies that repurchase their own shares, Wyden spokeswoman Ashley Schapitl confirmed. Both levies apply to oil and gas companies with at least $1 billion in revenue and would expire at the end of 2025, according to the people briefed on the plan.
      Wyden also proposes to eliminate an accounting benefit, known as last-in first-out, or LIFO, that can deliver tax breaks for oil and gas companies with at least $1 billion in revenue starting in 2023.There’s been another sentence handed down over the January 6 attack, this time of a former city councilmember in West Virginia.Eric Barber was sentenced to 45 days in jail for entering the Capitol during the insurrection, as well as a seven-day suspended sentence for stealing a charging station belonging to C-SPAN, West Virginia’s MetroNews reported. The former city councilmember in Parkersburg, West Virginia, also received 24 months of federal probation.“You’re too old and you’re too accomplished and you’re too smart to get involved in nonsense like this,” federal judge Christopher Cooper said during the Thursday sentencing. “This is not about the First Amendment. You are free to express your views. You’re free to support any political candidate or positions or issues that you want. I encourage that. But enough of this nonsense, OK?”According to MetroNews:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Barber, 43, was being sentenced today in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after pleading guilty to two misdemeanors.
      One is a count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol Building. The other is theft, an accusation that Barber stole a charging station belonging to a C-SPAN employee.
      He has to pay $500 restitution as his share of damage to the Capitol that day, and he has to pay back C-SPAN a little less than $60 for the charger that he took home.
      Barber was not accused of violence that day, but prosecutors noted that he wore a Kevlar helmet and went to Washington, D.C. to “go punch a Antifa terrorist in the face,” referring to the loosely-knit antifascist activists sometimes accused of violence themselves.
      Prosecutors underscored that Barber entered the Capitol as sirens blared and broken glass was apparent, entering not only the areas that are commonly open to the public but also entering a restricted hallway outside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. Prosecutors said Barber wound up in that hallway twice — the second time after being told to leave. Barber said he was lost.
      But Barber and his public defense attorney emphasized that he had expressed remorse about what happened that day to local media, to investigators, to Congress’s January 6th Committee and to the judge.
      Judge Cooper took note of all those factors.
      “It’s troubling that you still seem to have a mindset of ‘There’s a bully out there. I need to prime for the fight.’ You did not go for self-defense, but you went with the helmet, ready to punch somebody or affirmatively engage in violence,” Cooper said.Barber sentencing memo began with a particularly direct quote.Strongest lede I’ve seen yet in a Jan. 6 defendant’s sentencing memo. pic.twitter.com/3Es2hM4Bpl— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) June 8, 2022
      There is still a lot of buzz about the House panel investigating the January 6, 2021 insurrection by extremist supporters of Donald Trump, as reports spill out about disagreements over whether to refer Trump for criminal prosecution or just lay out the evidence and let others deduce, etc, as well as today’s abrupt postponement of Hearing No. 3.Most of these tweets speak for themselves.Committee needs to keep on track. No more referral talk in public. Keep to the schedule. There has been unity and absence of grandstanding so far. They must keep it that way.— Jennifer ‘I stand with Ukraine’ Rubin 🇺🇦🇺🇦 (@JRubinBlogger) June 14, 2022
      Larry Tribe.“You do not get to arm-twist officials or send the mob to the Capitol because you really, really think you won.”https://t.co/4xtlAfrYf5— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) June 14, 2022
      George Conway, cheeky.A Twitter contest—let’s see who can come up with the best answer for:𝘘. 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘥𝘳𝘶𝘯𝘬 𝘙𝘶𝘥𝘺𝘴 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘸 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘣𝘶𝘭𝘣?— George Conway🌻 (@gtconway3d) June 14, 2022
      Conway on ZimmerExcellent thread. 🪡 🧵 https://t.co/scpfcj4SR8— George Conway🌻 (@gtconway3d) June 14, 2022
      Scuitto on TrumpAs you watch the #January6thHearings remember the principal source of disinformation in the 2016 election was foreign. In 2020, it was the sitting US president. And his lies succeeded in convincing a majority of GOP voters the election was stolen.— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) June 14, 2022
      Much of today’s action has occurred in Congress, where the January 6 committee announced the surprise postponement of its Wednesday hearing. The Senate still doesn’t have the bill text of its gun control compromise to vote on, but the House is moving forward with the vote on a a bill to increase security for the supreme court, which the upper chamber has already approved.Here’s what else is going on:
      President Joe Biden has made official his plans to visit Saudi Arabia, which is widely seen as a bid to increase oil supply and lower gas prices at home. Several Democrats have expressed disapproval over the visit, citing the kingdom’s human rights record.
      The president was meanwhile in Philadelphia to address a convention of the AFL-CIO trade union federation, in which he defended his economic record and attacked Republican policies.
      The votes of Republicans in the Senate will be crucial to passing the gun control bill, and more of the party’s senators offered their thoughts on the legislation.
      It’s about to get really hot in America. The National Weather Service is advising more than 100 million people to stay indoors due to high humidity and temperatures.
      Republicans will be crucial in determining whether the bipartisan gun control proposal makes it through the Senate, and more lawmakers are reacting to the deal reached over the weekend.“I think the framework is very encouraging,” GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski just told me of the guns package. Says she’s eager to see the details but sounds very positive about it. She was not one of the 10 Republicans who signed onto the framework. Bill text still needs to be drafted— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 14, 2022
      Thune, No. 2 Republican, uncertain whether he would back Senate’s guns package. While he noted there have been some successes, there are “real concerns about due process” with how states adopt red flag laws.“Those are things that are going to have to be addressed,” he told me— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 14, 2022
      But Bill Cassidy, R who backs framework, said the bill would mandate due process in red flag laws. “You can argue that some state red flag laws do not have due process. we mandate it. So I think as people become acquainted with that, Republicans will like that,” he told us— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 14, 2022
      “Federal government, we don’t need to be pushing red flag laws,” Tommy Tuberville told me when asked about the guns package. “The states, if the states want to get involved in it, they need to get involved in it.” Plan would incentivize states to enact red flag laws.— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 14, 2022
      Asked him how to take away guns from mentally ill. He said: “Well let’s look at what they’ve got proposed. I haven’t looked at all of it. But let’s look…and see if they’ve got anything in there to prohibit mentally ill patients from having guns, anybody that’s having problems”— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 14, 2022
      Democrats are expected to back the proposal even though it doesn’t do all of what they want, such as raising the age to purchase an assault rifle to 21 from 18. To avoid a filibuster, at least 10 Republicans in the Senate will need to vote for the bill, which also must clear the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives.Biden has used his speech at the AFL-CIO convention in Philadelphia to promote his handling of the economy make a pitch for keeping Democrats in office.As CBS News’s Ed O’Keefe reports:TODAY: @POTUS Biden addresses a @AFLCIO convention in Philly to tout US economic strength: low unemployment rates, states and cities being buoyed by American Rescue Plan and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. White House says he’ll reiterate fighting inflation “is his top priority.”— Ed O’Keefe (@edokeefe) June 14, 2022
      Also expect some election year contrasts: Biden/Dems would “ask the wealthy to pay their fair share” while @SenRickScott and “Congressional Republicans” would “put Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid on the chopping block every five years.”— Ed O’Keefe (@edokeefe) June 14, 2022
      A new election-year clarion call of sorts from @POTUS Biden in his @AFLCIO speech: “America still has a choice to make. A choice between a government by the few, for the few. Or a government for all of us, democracy for all of us, an economy where all of us have a fair shot.”— Ed O’Keefe (@edokeefe) June 14, 2022
      The president also took special notice of a Republican proposal to make all federal legislation expire after five years, asking, “How well are you going to sleep at night knowing that every five years, Ted Cruz and the other ultra-MAGA Republicans are going to vote on whether you have Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid?”Democrats in the Senate are raising their eyebrows at Biden’s decision to travel to Saudi Arabia, objecting to the country’s human rights record and worrying the visit won’t meaningfully lower gas prices.As Oregon’s Ron Wyden told Manu Raju of CNN:Dem pushback this morning on Biden’s decision to meet with MBS. “I don’t see any evidence that the Saudis are going to significantly lower gasoline prices,” Ron Wyden said.On the other hand, I see their horrendous human rights record.”— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 14, 2022
      Here’s Maryland’s Ben Cardin, who referenced the murder of Jamal Khashoggi:Asked about WH sidestepping queries yesterday on responsibility for Khashoggi murder, Cardin told us: “I hope they’ll be very clear in the conversation. America’s strength is in our values.”— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 14, 2022
      Kaitlan Collins, also of CNN, heard this from Illinois’s Dick Durbin:’I have mixed feelings on this and if the President called me, I would say, ‘Mr. President, you can’t trust these people. Their standards are not our standards, their values are not ours,'” Sen. Dick Durbin says about President Biden’s upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia.— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) June 14, 2022 More

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      in Elections

      January 6 committee postpones Wednesday’s hearing for technical reasons – live

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      Way back in 2020, a plank of Joe Biden’s successful presidential campaign was restoring bipartisanship in Congress. If all goes well for the president this week, he may soon have the chance to sign the types of compromise legislation he promised Americans.Chief among these would be the gun control measure senators negotiated over the weekend, which looks like it can get the 10 Republican votes needed to overcome a filibuster by others in the party opposed to the legislation, and which the Senate majority leader has said will be put up for consideration as soon as possible.More immediately, the House could today vote to increase security for the supreme court after a man was arrested on charges of trying to kill justice Brett Kavanaugh, ahead of the court’s expected rulings that could curb abortion and expand gun rights. The bill has already passed the Senate unanimously.Biden’s supporters would also point to the Republican votes for last year’s infrastructure overhaul as a sign of his success in uniting the parties around issues affecting all Americans. But it’s worth pointing out the massive American Rescue Plan spending bill won no Republican support, nor did Build Back Better, the president’s marquee spending plan that ended up floundering because Democrats themselves could not find consensus over it.The White House has confirmed that Joe Biden will meet Saudia Arabia’s crown prince and de-factor ruler Mohammed bin Salman on his visit to the country.“Yes, we can expect the President to see the crown prince as well,” Biden’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Air Force One.The announcement is significant because relations between the two men have often been frosty. As my colleague Julian Borger reported, Prince Mohammed “reportedly declined to take a call from Joe Biden last month, showing his displeasure at the administration’s restrictions on arms sales; what he saw as its insufficient response to attacks on Saudi Arabia by Houthi forces in Yemen; its publication of a report into the Saudi regime’s 2018 murder of the dissident and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi; and Biden’s prior refusal to deal in person with the crown prince.”Prince Mohammed may also be banking on a return of Donald Trump to the White House in 2024, whose prior administration was much friendlier with Riyadh.Saudis’ Biden snub suggests crown prince still banking on Trump’s returnRead moreThe postponed January 6 hearing will likely take place next week, committee member Pete Aguilar said.Speaking at a press conference of the House Democratic Caucus Leaders, the California Democrat downplayed the impact of the hearing’s postponement. “The schedule has always been fluid. So we’re going to move forward and have a Thursday hearing and then get ready for hearings next week as well,” he said, predicting the session originally set for Wednesday will “move to likely next week.”He didn’t elaborate on the reasons for the change in schedule, but said, “We just want to make sure that you all have the time and space to digest all the information that we’re putting out there.”The committee’s next hearing is scheduled for Thursday, June 16.Sometime soon, perhaps as soon as tomorrow, the supreme court will hand down a decision that could dismantle or greatly weaken abortion rights codified by Roe v Wade. If that happens, The Guardian’s Poppy Noor reports that prosecutors in a number of states are preparing to act to keep abortion accessible.Michigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, never thought she would have an abortion. But after finding herself pregnant with triplets in 2002, she faced an unenviable choice: abort one, or miscarry all three. “I took my doctor’s advice, which I should have been able to do,” she says in a phone interview.Nessel plans to protect that same right for residents of her state if Roe v Wade is overturned this summer, as a leaked supreme court draft opinion indicates is all but certain.If the draft opinion stands, 26 states are likely or certain to ban abortion. In Michigan, a 1931 law would be triggered, making abortion illegal in almost all cases except to save the life of the pregnant person.Nessel says she won’t enforce the ban in Michigan, along with at least a dozen law enforcement officials across the country – a bold statement that sets the US up for a complex legal landscape with different enforcement regimes in different states, and even within them.These officials are likely to face swift backlash from the right, including, in some cases, retaliation from state authorities who will demand they enforce the law as written. But they are determined to press ahead.‘This is not hopeless’: the progressive prosecutors who vow not to enforce abortion bansRead moreAt its hearing yesterday, the January 6 committee built its case that Trump knew his fraud claims were baseless but pushed them anyway, fueling the attack on the Capitol. My colleague Lauren Gambino reports on how the hearing’s revelations may not be enough to dislodge belief in the “Big Lie” from the Republican party.The House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection charged on Monday that Donald Trump “lit the fuse” that fueled the most violent assault on the US Capitol in more than two centuries with his groundless claim that the election was stolen.For those tuned in, the committee meticulously charted the origins and spread of Trump’s “big lie”, tapping a trove of evidence and interviews to show that the former president was told repeatedly that the election had been free and fair and peddled his myths anyway.But in Republican politics and the conservative media ecosystem, Trump’s myth of a stolen election rages on, uncontrolled in the Republican party as it seeks to surge back into power in November’s midterm elections.Despite January 6 panel’s efforts to stamp out Trump’s big lie, the myth rages on Read moreThe January 6 committee has announced the postponement of its hearing scheduled for Wednesday.JUST IN: Jan. 6 committee says hearing on June 15 at 10a ET — Wednesday’s hearing — has been postponed. No explanation at the moment.— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) June 14, 2022
      This was supposed to be hearing #3 where the Jan. 6 committee would show how Trump pressured DOJ to investigate election fraud with former acting AG Rosen, his deputy Donoghue, and former assistant AG Engel as witnesses.— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) June 14, 2022
      Committee member Zoe Lofgren blames technical reasons for the delay.Jan 6 committee member @RepZoeLofgren says on @Morning_Joe that postponement of tomorrow’s hearing on the DOJ done for technical reasons – they have to give the video team time to work, basically— Garrett Haake (@GarrettHaake) June 14, 2022
      It’s official: President Joe Biden will visit Saudi Arabia, a country he once vowed to turn into “a pariah” but which may play a crucial role in lowering US pump prices from their record levels.The visit, which will be coupled with a trip to Israel, comes as Biden’s approval rating slumps due to a wave of inflation caused in part by energy prices that have risen since Russia invaded Ukraine. Saudi Arabia is a major oil producer, and Biden is looking for ways to increase the global oil supply to lower pump prices at home.Biden to visit Saudi Arabia in push to lower oil prices and punish RussiaRead moreThere’s no hint of this dynamic in the White House statement announcing the trip, which focuses on Saudia Arabia chairing the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) regional group.“The President will… travel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which is the current chair of the GCC and the venue for this gathering of nine leaders from across the region, at the invitation of King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud. The President appreciates King Salman’s leadership and his invitation. He looks forward to this important visit to Saudi Arabia, which has been a strategic partner of the United States for nearly eight decades,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wrote.In Israel, Biden “will meet with Israeli leaders to discuss Israel’s security, prosperity, and its increasing integration into the greater region. The President will also visit the West Bank to consult with the Palestinian Authority and to reiterate his strong support for a two-state solution, with equal measures of security, freedom, and opportunity for the Palestinian people,” according to the statement.Biden’s ire towards Riyadh has centered on the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.Way back in 2020, a plank of Joe Biden’s successful presidential campaign was restoring bipartisanship in Congress. If all goes well for the president this week, he may soon have the chance to sign the types of compromise legislation he promised Americans.Chief among these would be the gun control measure senators negotiated over the weekend, which looks like it can get the 10 Republican votes needed to overcome a filibuster by others in the party opposed to the legislation, and which the Senate majority leader has said will be put up for consideration as soon as possible.More immediately, the House could today vote to increase security for the supreme court after a man was arrested on charges of trying to kill justice Brett Kavanaugh, ahead of the court’s expected rulings that could curb abortion and expand gun rights. The bill has already passed the Senate unanimously.Biden’s supporters would also point to the Republican votes for last year’s infrastructure overhaul as a sign of his success in uniting the parties around issues affecting all Americans. But it’s worth pointing out the massive American Rescue Plan spending bill won no Republican support, nor did Build Back Better, the president’s marquee spending plan that ended up floundering because Democrats themselves could not find consensus over it.Good morning, US Politics blog readers. Over the past few days, the January 6 committee has used its hearings to make the case that former president Donald Trump bears responsibility for the attack on the Capitol. But while he’s the most prominent promoter of the baseless claim that the 2020 election was stolen, an analysis published today by the Washington Post shows at least 108 Republicans candidates for statewide office or Congress also share that belief.Here’s what else is going on today:
      Senators are considering a bipartisan gun control compromise announced over the weekend that’s thought to have enough support to pass the evenly divided chamber. The bill has yet to be written, but it would represent Washington’s response to the mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York.
      The House is expected to today approve a bill to increase security for the supreme court following the arrest of a man who was charged with planning to kill Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
      The January 6 committee is taking a break from its hearings today, but will convene again on Wednesday. Expect more reactions today from across Washington to yesterday’s hearing, which focused on Trump’s promotion of fraud claims that his own officials said were baseless.
      Maine, Nevada, North Dakota and South Carolina will be holding primary elections ahead of the 8 November midterms, which will be decisive in determining the course of Washington politics over the next two years.
      The Federal Reserve is beginning its two-day meeting and could decide to make a big interest rate increase to fight the runaway inflation that’s badly damaged Biden’s standing with voters. The central bankers announce their decision Wednesday at 2pm ET. More

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      in US Politics

      Bernie Sanders skewers Republican critic of ‘full-on socialism’ in Fox debate

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      Bernie Sanders skewers Republican critic of ‘full-on socialism’ in Fox debate‘Is guaranteeing healthcare to all people socialistic?’ senator asks Lindsey Graham in stellar defense of political philosophy Fox News is, to put it mildly, not known for indulging progressive politics – but the rightwing news channel gave it a go on Monday, when Bernie Sanders appeared in a debate on the network’s sister channel, Fox Nation.AOC refuses to endorse Biden for 2024 as Democrats doubt his ability to win Read moreSanders, the Vermont senator, democratic socialist and two-time presidential candidate, took on Lindsey Graham, his Republican Senate colleague from South Carolina.Sanders gave an unfettered breakdown of Medicare for all, or a national public healthcare system, a living wage, and increasing taxes on the wealthiest Americans.For Fox viewers it was a rare opportunity to hear a different perspective on policies which are regularly demonized by rightwingers Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, Fox News’ two most watched hosts.For Sanders, it was a chance to reach a new audience, and he wasted no time before diving into a signature issue – universal healthcare.“In the United States, Lindsey, we spend twice as much per capita on healthcare compared to the people of any other country, while major countries like Canada, the UK, Germany manage to supply healthcare to all their people,” Sanders said.“Why is that?” he continued. “Because they’re not having insurance companies ripping off the system.”Several polls have shown that a majority of Americans support Medicare for all, despite the Republican refrain that much of the US public is thrilled with their private health insurance.“The real question is what the American people want. And you know what the American people do want? They do want Medicare for all,” Sanders said.Bernie Sanders absolutely obliterating Lindsey Graham in this debate opener pic.twitter.com/K0N1JrfFV3— Mac (@GoodPoliticGuy) June 13, 2022
      Medicare is the US government’s national healthcare system for seniors, and progressives want to expand its coverage to all and abolish private health insurance.“You talk about the joys and beauties of private insurance. Talk to the millions of workers who lost their private insurance during Covid,” Sanders said to Graham.Graham ran for the Republican nomination for president against Donald Trump in 2016 and was a sharp critic of Trump’s – then became one of his most ardent defenders, although the relationship between the pair has since soured.He accused Sanders of being out of touch.“America deserves better than this. We can do better than this but the path charted by Senator Sanders is full-on socialism,” Graham said, after a conversation about gas prices and rising inflation.“And it’s not going to fix America. We are not a socialist nation. There is a better way, I promise you this.”Graham did not give specifics on his better way.“If I’m chairman of any committee, hopefully the budget committee, I’ll sit down with Democrats and Republicans and find a way to fix our national debt,” he said.After being criticized by Graham for being a “socialist”, Sanders leaned into the political philosophy and offered an ardent defense.“Do you think raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour is socialistic? Do you think doing what every major country does – guaranteeing healthcare to all people – is socialistic? Do you think expanding Medicare to cover dental care is socialistic?” Sanders said.Sanders had previously appeared on Fox News for a “town hall” style event during his 2020 presidential campaign. That time, to the surprise of many, he was applauded by the Fox News live audience several times as he explained some of his progressive policy ideas.Monday’s debate came after a bipartisan group of senators announced they had come to a tentative agreement over minor potential gun control measures.A plan announced by Chris Murphy, a Democrat, and John Cornyn, a Republican, and supported by at least 10 Republican senators, would increase funding for school safety and mental health programs, and expand background checks for gun buyers under 21.The bill would not, however, ban assault-style weapons or even raise the age limit to buy them – something advocates for greater gun control insist is necessary.During the debate Sanders gave his tentative support to the legislation, but said it did not go far enough. It is time, Sanders said, for Congress to “stand up to the power of the NRA and pass real gun reform legislation”.“I come from a rural state. And you know, most people do not use AR-15s to hunt deer. These are weapons, military-type weapons, designed to kill people as quickly as possible,” Sanders said.“And as a nation we have to decide whether it is appropriate to do what virtually no other major country does: allow somebody to walk into a gun store and buy one of these weapons.”Graham said he had taken a different lesson.“You know, after New York, after Buffalo and after the shooting in Texas there’s a common thing: very disturbed people getting guns and doing terrible things with them,” Graham said. Graham said he owns an AR15, adding: “If you ever have to defend yourself, maybe a double barrel shotgun at your house if everything breaks down and the mob’s coming, [is] not enough. We’re not going to ban assault weapons.”Sanders and Graham unsurprisingly found little common ground, although they agreed change is required.“You’ve got to get new people in Washington,” said Graham, who has been in Congress for more than 26 years.Sanders offered a bigger vision.“I think most people, frankly, will tell you what they tell me: that the Congress is way, way out of touch with the needs of the American people,” Sanders said, adding: “We have a corrupt political system dominated by wealthy campaign contributors.”TopicsBernie SandersRepublicansUS politicsDemocratsnewsReuse this content More

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      Jan 6 updates: Garland says he’s watching hearings as pressure mounts to charge Trump – as it happened

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      Attorney General Merrick Garland said he and his prosecutors are watching the hearings of the January 6 committee as the justice department faces pressure to bring charges against former president Donald Trump.NEW: AG Merrick Garland says he’s watching the Jan. 6 committee hearings, adding “I can assure you the January 6 prosecutors are watching the hearings as well”— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) June 13, 2022
      Some of the lawmakers on the committee have called for Garland to levy criminal charges against Trump. The former president is at the center of an array of investigations, including an inquiry into his business practices in New York. He will testify under oath in that probe on 15 July, along with his daughter Ivanka Trump and son Donald Trump Jr.Donald Trump to testify in New York investigation into his business practicesRead moreGarland answered reporters questions during a DoJ press conference about gun trafficking.The January 6 committee’s second public hearing was today’s main story, as it aired testimony from several of Donald Trump’s top advisors, all of whom said they told the former president there was no fraud in the 2020 election that would change the result of his loss to Joe Biden.Nonetheless, Trump pressed on with making the claims, which the committee said fueled the violence at the Capitol.Here’s what else happened today:
      Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said the chamber will vote on a bipartisan gun control bill as soon as it’s written. The compromise measure doesn’t go as far as Democrats would like, but represents the best chance to pass legislation at the federal level in response to the mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas.
      The supreme court released five opinions that dealt with a number of aspects of federal law, though none of the verdicts were in any of the major cases touching on abortion, gun rights or other hot-button issues.
      Attorney General Merrick Garland said he is watching the hearings of the January 6 committee, as the justice department comes under pressure to bring charges against Trump.
      Separately, Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, who was hailed for leading rioters away from the senate chamber, testified in the criminal trial of two men facing charges in the attack.
      The blog is wrapping up for the day and will return on Tuesday morning around 9am ET. For updates on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, please tune into our global live blog on the war, here.At the White House daily media briefing, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has reiterated in response to a question that Joe Biden is going to leave the topic of whether Donald Trump will be prosecuted over the January 6 hearing “up to the Department of Justice”.The White House wants “Americans to watch” the January 6 hearings, the second of which occurred this morning, “and remember the horrors of one of the darkest days in our history” but the US president will stay away from commenting on related prosecutions.He chose US attorney general Merrick Garland “because of his loyalty to the law”, Jean-Pierre said, and also “to restore the independence and integrity of the Department of Justice.”That’s a dig at how the DoJ was regarded by Democrats as an extension of Donald Trump’s White House and under his sway instead of staying independent.Meanwhile in New York, an ongoing sell off on Wall Street has pushed the S&P 500 into a bear market, meaning a loss of 20 percent from its most recent high.The stock market’s health and wider economy’s health are generally regarded as two different things, but the S&P 500’s nearly four percent loss in today’s trading is fueled in part by concerns that the United State’s decades-high inflation rate will cause a recession. It’s also more bad news for Joe Biden and his economic policies, overshadowing more positive developments such as the drop in unemployment on his watch.From the Associated Press:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The S&P 500 dropped 3.8% in the first chance for investors to trade after getting the weekend to reflect on the stunning news that inflation is getting worse, not better. The Dow Jones was down 879 points, or 2.8%, at 30,513, as of 11.08am ET, and the Nasdaq composite was 4.5% lower.
      The center of Wall Street’s focus was again on the Federal Reserve, which is scrambling to get inflation under control. Its main method is to raise interest rates in order to slow the economy, a blunt tool that risks a recession if used too aggressively.
      Some traders are even speculating the Fed on Wednesday may raise its key short-term interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point. That’s triple the usual amount and something the Fed hasn’t done since 1994. Traders now see a 34% probability of such a mega-hike, up from just 3% a week ago, according to CME Group.
      No one thinks the Fed will stop there, with markets bracing for a continued series of bigger-than-usual hikes. Those would come on top of some already discouraging signals about the economy and corporate profits, including a record-low preliminary reading on consumer sentiment that was soured by high gasoline prices.S&P 500 sinks into bear-market territory as recession fears pound US stocksRead moreSenate majority leader Chuck Schumer said he’ll bring a recent bipartisan gun control bill to a vote on the chamber’s floor as soon as it’s written.“I will put this bill on the floor as soon as possible, once the text of the final agreement is finalized so the Senate can act quickly to make gun safety reform a reality,” Schumer said in a speech in the Senate. “Yesterday’s agreement does not have everything Democrats wanted but it nevertheless represents the most significant reform to gun safety laws that we have seen in decades.”Democratic and and Republican lawmakers have been trying to find a common ground on the highly controversial topic of gun control following a recent spate of mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York.Attorney General Merrick Garland said he and his prosecutors are watching the hearings of the January 6 committee as the justice department faces pressure to bring charges against former president Donald Trump.NEW: AG Merrick Garland says he’s watching the Jan. 6 committee hearings, adding “I can assure you the January 6 prosecutors are watching the hearings as well”— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) June 13, 2022
      Some of the lawmakers on the committee have called for Garland to levy criminal charges against Trump. The former president is at the center of an array of investigations, including an inquiry into his business practices in New York. He will testify under oath in that probe on 15 July, along with his daughter Ivanka Trump and son Donald Trump Jr.Donald Trump to testify in New York investigation into his business practicesRead moreGarland answered reporters questions during a DoJ press conference about gun trafficking.Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor who was one of Trump’s top attorneys near the end of his term, has denied he was drunk on election night in 2020.Giuliani’s attorney says Giuliani was not drunk on election night. “Giuliani denies all falsehoods by the angry and misguided Ms Cheney,” Robert Costello tells CNN. https://t.co/lsOdoaOgvv— Kara Scannell (@KaraScannell) June 13, 2022
      While the latest report of Giuliani being drunk in public came from today’s hearing of the January 6 committee, such claims are not new.White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will soon start her daily briefing to reporters, and there’s a chance she’ll be asked about this story from The New York Times.The piece asks a provocative question: given his low approval ratings, among other issues, should Biden not run in 2024? The president says he will stand again, but the article features a trickle of Democratic voices questioning the wisdom of that idea, or even outright telling him not to.As the Times reported:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}As the challenges facing the nation mount and fatigued base voters show low enthusiasm, Democrats in union meetings, the back rooms of Capitol Hill and party gatherings from coast to coast are quietly worrying about Mr. Biden’s leadership, his age and his capability to take the fight to former President Donald J. Trump a second time.
      Interviews with nearly 50 Democratic officials, from county leaders to members of Congress, as well as with disappointed voters who backed Mr. Biden in 2020, reveal a party alarmed about Republicans’ rising strength and extraordinarily pessimistic about an immediate path forward.
      “To say our country was on the right track would flagrantly depart from reality,” said Steve Simeonidis, a Democratic National Committee member from Miami. Mr. Biden, he said, “should announce his intent not to seek re-election in ’24 right after the midterms.”Democratic stalwart Howard Dean has perhaps the sharpest criticism in the piece, though it’s not aimed at Biden alone:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Howard Dean, the 73-year-old former Vermont governor and Democratic National Committee chairman who ran for president in 2004, has long called for a younger generation of leaders in their 30s and 40s to rise in the party. He said he had voted for Pete Buttigieg, 40, in the 2020 primary after trying to talk Senator Chris Murphy, 48, of Connecticut into running.
      “The generation after me is just a complete trash heap,” Mr. Dean said.The United States is indeed led by elderly people these days, as Axios reports in a closer look at the subject that’s fittingly titled “American gerontocracy”:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Diversity and technology are making the workplace, home life and culture unrecognizable for many older leaders. That can leave geriatric leadership of government out of step with everyday life in America — and disconnected from the voters who give them power.
      Washington is run by Biden, 79 … House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 82 … Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a comparatively youthful 71 … and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, age 80.
      Dr. Anthony Fauci, running the U.S. pandemic response, is 81.Separate from the January 6 committee hearing, Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman was in a federal courtroom describing how one of two defendants facing charges over the attacked jabbed him with a Confederate battle flag.Goodman is one of the most prominent defenders of the Capitol that day, credited with diverting the mob away from the Senate chamber and appearing in a well-known photo.He was testifying at the trial of Kevin Seefried and his adult son Hunter Seefried, whom the Associated Press reported face charges including a felony count of obstruction of an official proceeding. According to the AP:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Goodman recalled seeing Kevin Seefried standing alone in an archway and telling him to leave. Instead, Seefried cursed at him and jabbed at the officer with the base end of the flagpole three or four times, Goodman said.
      “He was very angry. Screaming. Talking loudly,” Goodman said. “Complete opposite of pleasant.”
      U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden is hearing testimony without a jury for the Seefrieds’ bench trial, which started Monday. The Seefrieds waived their right to a jury trial, which means McFadden will decide their cases.Today has been dominated by the latest revelations from the January 6 Committee, which aired testimony from a number of former officials in Donald Trump’s campaign and White House, all of whom told the president the same thing: the 2020 election was not stolen. Nonetheless, Trump pressed on with making the claims, which the committee said fueled the violence at the Capitol.Here’s what else happened today:
      The supreme court released five opinions that dealt with a number of aspects of federal law, though none of the verdicts were in any of the major cases touching on abortion, gun rights or other hot-button issues.
      The senate reached a compromise on gun rights legislation that can hopefully win enough support from both Democrats and Republicans to pass the evenly divided chamber. Further negotiations on the bill are expected in the days to come.
      Lawmakers on the January 6 committee continued their calls for the justice department to bring criminal charges against Trump, saying the evidence they uncovered justifies the move.
      Separately, Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, who was hailed for leading rioters away from the senate chamber, testified in the criminal trial of two men facing charges in the attack.
      The US Supreme Court has ruled against immigrants who are seeking their release from long periods of detention while they fight deportation orders, the Associated Press writes.In two cases decided on Monday morning, the court said that the immigrants, who fear persecution if sent back to their native countries, have no right under a federal law to a bond hearing at which they could argue for their freedom no matter how long they are held.The nine justices also ruled 6-3 to limit the immigrants ability to band together in court, an outcome that Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Will leave many vulnerable non-citizens unable to protect their rights.”In recent years, the high court has taken an increasingly limited view of immigrants’ access to the federal court system under immigration measures enacted in the 1990s and 2000s..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} For a while, it seemed like the court was going to push back a bit. In extreme cases, it would interpret a statute to allow for as much judicial review as possible. Clearly now, the court is no longer willing to do that,”said Nicole Hallet, director of the immigrants rights clinic at the University of Chicago law school.The immigrants who sued for a bond hearing are facing being detained for many months, even years, before their cases are resolved.The court ruled in the cases of people from Mexico and El Salvador who persuaded Homeland Security officials that their fears are credible, entitling them to further review.Their lawyers argued that they should have a hearing before an immigration judge to determine if they should be released. The main factors are whether people would pose a danger or are likely to flee if set free.Sotomayor wrote the court’s opinion in one case involving Antonio Arteaga-Martinez, who had previously been deported to Mexico. He was taken into custody four years ago, and won release while his case wound through the federal courts. His hearing on whether he can remain in the United States is scheduled for 2023.But Sotomayor wrote that the provision of immigration law that applies to people like Arteaga-Martinez simply doesn’t require the government to hold a bond hearing.The court, however, left open the issue of the immigrants’ ability to argue that the Constitution does not permit such indefinite detention without a hearing.Justice Samuel Alito wrote the court’s opinion holding that federal judges can only rule in the case of the immigrants before them, not a class of similarly situated people.Sotomayor dissented from that decision, joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan.She wrote that the ability to join together in a class was especially important for people who have no right to a lawyer and “are disproportionately unlikely to be familiar with the U.S. legal system or fluent in the English language.”The cases are Johnson v Arteaga-Martinez, 19-896, and Garland v Aleman Gonzalez, 20-322.The US Supreme Court issued five opinions this morning, just around the time the January 6 hearing was getting underway. None of them was one of the four big cases being mostly closely watched, on abortion, gun rights, rules on emissions affecting climate change and an immigration issue affecting undocumented people crossing the US-Mexico border in order to claim asylum in the United States, known as Remain in Mexico.In one of the most significant opinions of the day, the nine-judge court ruled that Native Americans prosecuted in certain tribal courts can also be prosecuted based on the same incident in federal court, which can result in longer sentences, the Associated Press writes.The 6-3 ruling is in keeping with an earlier ruling from the 1970s that said the same about a more widely used type of tribal court.The case before the justices involved a Navajo Nation member, Merle Denezpi, accused of rape. He served nearly five months in jail after being charged with assault and battery in what is called a Court of Indian Offenses, a court that deals exclusively with alleged Native American offenders.Under federal law Courts of Indian Offenses can only impose sentences of generally up to a year. Denezpi was later prosecuted in federal court and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He said the Constitution’s “Double Jeopardy” clause should have barred the second prosecution.But the justices disagreed..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Denezpi’s single act led to separate prosecutions for violations of a tribal ordinance and a federal statute. Because the Tribe and the Federal Government are distinct sovereigns, those offenses are not the same. Denezpi’s second prosecution therefore did not offend the Double Jeopardy Clause,” the court decided.Amy Coney Barrett, the ultra conservative leaning associated justice confirmed in the dying days of the Trump administration, wrote the opinion for the majority.The Biden administration had argued for that result as had several states, which said barring federal prosecutions in similar cases could allow defendants to escape harsh sentences.In a dissent, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that the case involved the same “defendant, same crime, same prosecuting authority” and said the majority’s reasoning was “at odds with the text and original meaning of the Constitution.” The conservative Gorsuch was joined in dissent by two of the court’s three liberal justices, Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Elena Kagan.The case before the justices involves a tribal court system that has become increasingly rare over the last century.Courts of Indian Offenses were created in the late 1800s during a period when the federal government’s policy toward Native Americans was to encourage assimilation. Judges and generally prosecutors are appointed by federal officials.The January 6 committee has ended the day’s testimony by taking viewers back to the scene of the attack and showing how the people who broke in to the Capitol were believers in a conspiracy that many of Trump’s top officials told him was bogus.“I know exactly what’s going on right now. Fake election!” a rioter said in video aired by the committee. The hearing closed with the jarring words of Eric Herschmann, a White House lawyer, who recalled a phone call with John Eastman, another of the president’s lawyers whom a judge has said conspired with Trump to overturn the election. “I said to him, Are you out of your effing mind?” Herschmann recalled. “I said I… only want to hear two words coming out of your mouth for now on: orderly transition.”Before the hearing ended, the committee’s senior investigative counsel Amanda Wick outlined one possible motivation for why Trump stuck with the fraud claims: they were a money-making opportunity.“As the select committee has demonstrated, the Trump campaign knew these claims of voter fraud were false, yet they continue to barrage small dollar donors with emails encouraging them to donate to something called Official Election Defense Fund. The select committee discovered no such fund existed,” she said.Wick goes on to say much of the $250 million raised for the supposed effort was funneled into a political action committee that made donations to pro-Trump organizations, as well as confidantes like his chief of staff Mark Meadows. The barrage of fundraising emails to supporters “continued through January 6, even as President Trump spoke on the ellipse. Thirty minutes after the last fundraising email was sent, the Capitol was breached,” Wick said.The committee said to expect more testimony from Herschmann in the future. It reconvenes on Wednesday at 10 am.The second panel of witnesses for the day has been dismissed, after Lofgren went through the many court rulings against Trump’s claims of fraud.“The rejection of {resident Trump’s litigation efforts was overwhelming. Twenty two federal judges appointed by Republican presidents, including 10 appointed by President Trump himself and at least 24 elected or appointed Republican state judges dismissed the president’s claims,” Lofgren said, noting that 11 lawyers have been referred for disciplinary proceedings due to “due to bad faith and baseless efforts” to undermine the election.Prior to their dismissal, the committee heard from Benjamin Ginsberg, whom Lofgren called, “the most preeminent Republican election lawyer in recent history.” “In no instance did a court find that the charges of fraud were real,” Ginsberg said. He also rejected arguments pushed by the Trump campaign that they didn’t get a fair hearing, noting that of 62 lawsuits filed by the campaign, 61 were dismissed, and the one upheld didn’t affect the outcome. More

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      in US Politics

      Trump loyalists push desperate counter narrative to combat damaging January 6 testimony

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      Trump loyalists push desperate counter narrative to combat damaging January 6 testimonyThe Republican faithful defiantly claim the House committee is illegitimate, politically motivated and out of touch Deep in denial, Republicans loyal to former US president Donald Trump mounted a desperate rearguard action on Monday to counter the devastating narrative of Congress’s latest January 6 hearing.A House of Representatives panel investigating the insurrection used testimony from Trump’s own attorney general and campaign manager to assert that the former president knowingly propagated “the big lie” of a stolen election with deadly consequences.But even as the hearing unfolded on live television, leading Republicans defiantly pushed a counter narrative that claims the committee is illegitimate, politically motivated and out of touch with Americans’ everyday lives.“The whole thing’s an absurdity designed by desperate Democrats to try to help them this fall and to try to weaken Trump if he should run again in 2024,” Newt Gingrich, a former House speaker, told the Guardian. “So I don’t pay any attention to it.”Gingrich described the hearings as “a Stalinist show trial” that have “nothing to do with fairness or finding the truth”.On Monday the House committee made the case that Trump and his advisers knew that his claims of fraud in the 2020 election were false. It played video clips in which Trump’s former campaign manager, Bill Stepien, told investigators that lawyer Rudy Giuliani was urging Trump to declare victory on election night, despite Stepien’s warnings that it was “way too early” to make such a prediction.Distancing himself from the wild conspiracy theories, Stepien said: “I didn’t mind being categorized – there were two groups of them, we called them kinda my team and Rudy’s team – I didn’t mind being categorized as Team Normal.”But Republican leaders in the House tweeted a very different sets of messages during the hearing. One even sought to deflect attention to Democrats’ supposed fixation on “woke” cultural issues such as transgender rights.Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House judiciary committee, posted: “The same party that thinks men can get pregnant wants you to trust them when it comes to the economy and the January 6th Committee.”Others cited House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to exclude Jordan and colleague Jim Banks (both of whom backed Trump’s efforts to overturn the election) as evidence that the committee is one-sided and lacks credibility.Elise Stefanik, chair of the House Republican conference, wrote on Twitter: “Lame Duck Speaker Pelosi’s select committee is illegitimate. Its purpose is to distract the American people from the FACT that House Dems have no agenda for Americans and no real solutions to the problems that we face on a daily basis.”In more video testimony shown at the hearing, former attorney general William Barr dismissed Trump’s claims of voter fraud as “crazy stuff” and “complete nonsense”.A Twitter account known as “Trump War Room”, run by his political action committee Save America, sought to challenge these assertions. It posted: “FLASHBACK: Barr admits mail-in ballots have been found to have ‘substantial fraud!’ ‘Elections that have been held with mail have found substantial fraud …’” Republican Twitter accounts also deployed the tried and trusted tactic of “whataboutism” – claiming that Democrats have also frequently questioned the legitimacy of elections (though none has instigated an insurrection).Trump War Room posted: “Remember when Hillary Clinton claimed President Trump’s election was illegitimate?”RNC Research posted: “In 2017, Democrat Bennie Thompson – chair of Pelosi’s illegitimate committee – refused to attend President Trump’s inauguration because he questioned the legitimacy of the 2016 election.”The hearing was again broadcast on major nonpartisan TV networks, making it hard for Republicans to ignore. Trump diehards are unlikely to be moved but the damning evidence could cut through and persuade some moderate and independent voters of his culpability.Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal ran an opinion column over the weekend that concluded: “Trump betrayed his supporters by conning them on Jan. 6, and he is still doing it.” Murdoch’s New York Post encouraged readers to move on from Trump, telling them to “unsubscribe from Trump’s daily emails begging for money” and to “pick your favorite from a new crop of conservatives”.But another glimpse into the Republican psyche was offered by Fox News which, having refused to broadcast Thursday’s first hearing during primetime, did provide live coverage of the second during daytime.Its panel of experts gave the session a distinctly lukewarm reception.Martha MacCallum, a Fox News host, pivoted to politics: “You have former President Trump, who is obviously the focus of this, tying him to these events and we’ll see the effort to do that throughout the course of the next hearings, and then you have all these stories this morning about Democrats saying that they think that President Biden is the anchor that needs to be cut loose.“So you’re looking at the two individuals who are the most likely clear next runners for the presidential election and there’s just a lot of questions all across the board.”Then Jonathan Turley, a legal analyst, said he was unsure what case the committee is making and argued it would have greater weight if more Republicans were involved. He commented: “You can say this is laying a foundation for what they said they would be proving, which is an attempted coup. That’s a tall order.“But so far, they seem to be trying to sort of create a persona non grata trial, to declare President Trump a horrible person, and they may not get much pushback by the end of the hearing. I thought the most telling moment came at the end when the chairman said, I’m going to introduce this video unless there is an objection, and that really put a pin on it. It’s like asking at a wedding, anyone who objects to this union speak up. Nobody is really there to do it.”Andy McCarthy, an author and lawyer, also challenged the process: “They’ve got a very good story to tell. The problem is they’ve set it up in a process that is not a fair process that’s aimed at getting to the truth and giving whatever contra arguments there are their day in court. And as a result, it’s more like messaging than it is like a real investigation. I could have been very impressive in court if there were no defense lawyers, you know.”But America’s news agenda is likely to be dominated by clips of Barr and others. The former attorney general delivered some memorable lines, telling investigators at one point that Trump had “become detached from reality if he really believes this stuff.”TopicsRepublicansUS Capitol attackDonald TrumpUS politicsanalysisReuse this content More

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      Jan 6 hearings: Trump ‘lit the fuse that led to horrific violence’, committee chair says – live

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      The January 6 committee is beginning its second hearing into “the conspiracy overseen and directed by Donald Trump to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and block the transfer of power, a scheme unprecedented in American history,” as committee chair Bennie Thompson put it in his opening statement.The Mississippi Democrat is making clear today’s hearing will deal specifically with the former president’s actions.“This morning, we will tell the story of how Donald Trump lost an election and knew he lost an election and as a result of his loss, decided to wage an attack on our democracy and attack on American people, trying to rob you of your voice in our democracy, and in doing so lit the fuse that led to the horrific violence of January 6,” Thompson said.Trump claimed that there was “major fraud” on election night, his former attorney general William Barr told the January 6 committee, according to video the committee aired.“Right out of the box on election night, the president claimed that there was major fraud underway,” Barr said.The commission is discussing the “red mirage” that often occurs on presidential election nights, when Republicans who vote on election day have their votes counted first but Democrats, who often vote early or by mail, sometimes have their votes counted later, creating the impression that Republicans are leading early in the night only to have their share eroded as more Democrats have their votes counted.Barr testifies that though this dynamic was familiar and Trump had been warned about it, the president seized on it to allege fraud.“That seemed to be the basis for this broad claim that there was major fraud. And I didn’t think much of that because people had been talking for weeks and everyone understood for weeks that that was going to be what happened on election night,” Barr said.The committee’s first witness of the day Chris Stirewalt, a former politics editor for Fox News, has been sworn in, and the hearing is now showing a montage of clips from interviews with Trump’s lawyers and other officials.These include Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor who became one of Trump’s most notable attorneys. Jason Miller, another former Trump attorney, described Giuliani as being “intoxicated” on election night.Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien testified by video that he did not think the president should declare victory on election night, but said the president disagreed with him.It looks like William Barr, Trump’s final attorney general during the time of the 2020 election, will be playing a major role in the today’s hearing.The committee last Thursday aired video in which he said he thought Trump’s claims of election fraud were “bullshit,” and committee members say he will reappear today to elaborate on his views.“You’ll hear detailed testimony from attorney general Barr describing the various election fraud claims the department of justice investigated. He’ll tell you how he told Mr. Trump repeatedly that there was no merit to those claims. Mr. Barr will tell us that Mr. Trump’s election night claims of fraud were made without regard to the truth, and before it was even possible to look for evidence of fraud,” Democratic representative Zoe Lofgren said as the hearing began.Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice chair, is showing videos from lawyers who worked for Trump’s campaign that are testifying they never saw evidence that the 2020 election was stolen.“The Trump campaign legal team knew there was no legitimate argument, fraud, irregularities or anything to overturn the election. And yet, President Trump went ahead with his plans for January 6 anyway,” Cheney said.The Wyoming representative accused Trump of using this evidence to deceive his supporters into attacking the Capitol. “As one conservative editorial board put it recently, ‘Mr. Trump betrayed his supporters by conning them on January 6, and he is still doing it,’” she said.The January 6 committee is beginning its second hearing into “the conspiracy overseen and directed by Donald Trump to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and block the transfer of power, a scheme unprecedented in American history,” as committee chair Bennie Thompson put it in his opening statement.The Mississippi Democrat is making clear today’s hearing will deal specifically with the former president’s actions.“This morning, we will tell the story of how Donald Trump lost an election and knew he lost an election and as a result of his loss, decided to wage an attack on our democracy and attack on American people, trying to rob you of your voice in our democracy, and in doing so lit the fuse that led to the horrific violence of January 6,” Thompson said.Meanwhile in the Capitol, we may have more developments today on the gun control compromise reached over the weekend, which could attract enough Republican support to pass. Richard Luscombe has this look at what exactly the measure would do.Joe Biden has urged US lawmakers to get a deal on gun reforms to his desk quickly as a group of senators announced a limited bipartisan framework on Sunday responding to last month’s mass shootings.The proposed deal is a modest breakthrough offering measured gun curbs while bolstering efforts to improve school safety and mental health programs.It falls far short of tougher steps long sought by Biden, many Democrats, gun reform advocates and America citizens. For example, there is no proposal to ban assault weapons, as activists had wanted, or to increase from 18 to 21 the age required to buy them.Even so, if the accord leads to the enactment of legislation, it would signal a turn from years of gun massacres that have yielded little but stalemate in Congress.US senators reach bipartisan gun control deal after recent mass shootings Read moreCould Trump face criminal charges over January 6? As my colleague Richard Luscombe reports, some members of the committee investigating the assault believe the evidence is there.Members of the House committee investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat called on Sunday for the US justice department to consider a criminal indictment for the former president and warned that “the danger is still out there”.Their comments on the eve of the second of the panel’s televised hearings into the January 6 2021 insurrection and deadly Capitol attack will add further pressure on the attorney general, Merrick Garland, who has angered some Democrats by so far taking no action despite growing evidence of Trump’s culpability.“There are certain actions, parts of these different lines of effort to overturn the election, that I don’t see evidence the justice department is investigating,” committee member Adam Schiff, Democratic congressman for California, told ABC’s This Week.Capitol attack panel members urge DoJ to consider criminal charges for TrumpRead moreThe January 6 committee will soon continue building its case against former president Donald Trump, with today’s hearing looking at the motivations behind the attack on the Capitol.However, a wrench has already been thrown into their plans: the ex-president’s former campaign manager has a family emergency, and won’t be able to testify as planned, and the hearing has been pushed back to 10:30 am eastern time.The second hearing of the committee will have some important differences from the first, held last Thursday. First of all, it’s taking place during work hours, not during the primetime TV hour, as in the case of last week’s hearing. Committee member Zoe Lofgren is also set to question witnesses, rather than the body’s counsel.As for the goal of these hearings, my colleague Joan E Greve describes it in the words of committee chair Bennie Thompson:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}If the committee is successful in building its case against Trump, the hearings could deliver a devastating blow to the former president’s hopes of making a political comeback in the 2024 presidential election. But if Americans are unmoved by the committee’s findings, the country faces the specter of another attempted coup, Thompson warned.
      “Our democracy remains in danger. The conspiracy to thwart the will of the people is not over,” Thompson said on Thursday. “January 6 and the lies that led to insurrection have put two and a half centuries of constitutional democracy at risk. The world is watching what we do here.”Protesters are gathering outside the supreme court, with the justices less than a half hour away from releasing rulings in which the conservative majority could make major changes to abortion access, gun rights and environmental regulation.Opposing protestors face to face right now. pic.twitter.com/epObAVwJnp— Whitney Wild (@WhitneyWReports) June 13, 2022
      Scene outside the Supreme Court this morning. Two small groups of protesters have gathered with a group of police on bicycles separating the two groups. T-minutes 40 minutes until opinions. ⁦I’m standing by with ⁦@fox5dc⁩. Join us live on ⁦@SCOTUSblog⁩ TikTok. pic.twitter.com/PNPQifGuD2— Katie Barlow (@katieleebarlow) June 13, 2022
      Last month, the court was rocked by the unprecedented leak of a draft opinion showing conservatives were poised to strike down Roe v Wade and end abortion rights nationwide. Those same justices may also opt to expand the ability to carry concealed weapons and curb the government’s regulatory powers.Bill Stepien, the former campaign manager for Donald Trump who was to be a main witness in today’s hearing of the January 6 committee, will not attend due to an emergency.The hearing is now delayed by 30 minutes to 10.30am, the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports:Just in: Former Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien is no longer appearing at the second Jan. 6 committee hearing this morning due to a family emergency — and hearing has been delayed to around 10:30a ET— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) June 13, 2022
      The development throws a wrench into the plans for the committee’s second hearing, which was to look deeper into the conspiracy theories that fueled the attack on the Capitol.Lies are going to be the subject of this morning’s January 6 committee hearing, specifically those that motivated Donald Trump’s supporters to attack the Capitol, the Guardian’s Joan E Greve reports:The House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection in 2021 will reconvene Monday to scrutinize the conspiracy theories that led a group of Donald Trump’s supporters to attack the US Capitol.The Democratic chair of the committee, Mississippi congressman Bennie Thompson, has said the second hearing will focus on “the lies that convinced those men and others to storm the Capitol to try to stop the transfer of power”.“We’re going to take a close look at the first part of Trump’s attack on the rule of law, when he lit the fuse that ultimately resulted in the violence of January 6,” Thompson said on Thursday.House panel to scrutinize conspiracy theories that led to Capitol attackRead moreGood morning, everybody. Today could be a very big day in Washington, with the inquiry into the January 6 insurrection continuing, the supreme court releasing opinions and the Senate considering a proposal to restrict gun access following a spate of mass shootings.Here’s a rundown of what to expect:
      Senators have reached a deal on a framework for gun control legislation meant to respond to recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas, which looks like it could get the support of enough Republicans and Democrats to pass the chamber.
      The supreme court will release another batch of decisions at 10 am eastern time. There’s no telling what the court will opt to release, but major rulings on abortion rights, gun control and environmental regulation are expected before the term is out.
      At the same time, the January 6 committee will begin its second hearing following last Thursday’s blockbuster look into what happened at the Capitol that day. Today’s hearing will look deeper at the conspiracy theories that motivated the attack.
      Democratic senator Bernie Sanders and Republican senator Lindsey Graham will take part in a one-hour debate organized by The Senate Project, intended to build bridges between the two parties while also allowing the lawmakers to air their (very different) perspectives on politics. The event begins at 12 pm eastern time, and will be streamed on Fox Nation. More

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      Is rising Maga star Ron DeSantis the man to displace Trump in 2024?

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      Is rising Maga star Ron DeSantis the man to displace Trump in 2024? The Florida governor has beaten the former president in recent polls of activists and could offer a younger version of Trumpism without TrumpAs Donald Trump continues to prevaricate over a further run for the White House in 2024, another name has emerged as a possible candidate for the Republican party’s presidential nomination: Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis.The rising star of the conservative Maga movement – named for Trump’s “make America great again” campaign slogan – has beaten the former president in several recent polls of party activists, some of whom appear to finally be growing weary of Trump’s “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen.Republican primaries offer look into future of Trumpism without TrumpRead moreAnd with Trump’s grip on Republicans taking hits, aided by scrutiny of his actions around the deadly 6 January 2021 riot when a mob of his supporters ransacked the Capitol building in Washington DC in an attempt to keep him in power, some analysts say the time could be right for a younger, more appealing candidate to seize the baton.DeSantis, 43, appears to offer everything that the Maga base would want in a candidate, a high-profile yet irascible and media-hostile politician who embraces the ultra-conservative tenets of Trumpism, but without the baggage of Trump’s two impeachments and seven-million vote thumping in the 2020 election after a single term in office.While Trump, who left the White House in January 2021, berates his enemies real and perceived from his waterfront Mar-a-Lago mansion in Palm Beach, DeSantis has been enhancing his governing credentials from the Florida governor’s mansion in Tallahassee.In recent weeks he has signed numerous “culture war” bills into law, including stripping Black voters of power by gerrymandering Florida’s congressional districts to favour Republicans; restricting how race and diversity are discussed and addressed in schools and businesses; and banning conversations of gender identity and sexual orientation in certain Florida classrooms with his “don’t say gay” law.DeSantis’s self-styled war on “wokeism” has also encompassed banning mathematics textbooks deemed to contain “prohibited topics” including critical race theory; attempting to ban medical care for transgender youths; and picking a fight with Disney over its opposition to his clampdown on LBGTQ+ rights.“He’s nicknamed Governor Grievance,” said Michael Binder, political science professor and director of the public opinion research laboratory at the University of North Florida (UNF), Jacksonville.“Even though he has an election [to remain Florida governor] coming up in a few months, and I’m sure he’s taking it seriously, the choices that he’s making, the issues he’s attending to and the actions he takes are really designed for 2024.“The types of issues that are being discussed, particularly a lot of these social issues, in all honesty are not what matters in the state of Florida, but it’s generating immediate attention. It’s getting him on Fox News, and he can play to that conservative base that maybe has a feeling of that kind of white grievance that maybe their general state in society is slipping.”The argument that DeSantis is focusing on topics more in alignment with his individual political ambitions than the good of the state he serves has traction with opponents.Carlos Guillermo Smith, a Democratic state congressman who has criticised the governor over concerns ranging from banning mask mandates at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic to vetoing $500m (£400m) from the Florida budget for a housing program for homeless LGBTQ+ youth, challenged DeSantis this week over his latest hobby horse, a threat to have child protective services investigate parents who take their children to drag shows.Even so, DeSantis remains favorite to comfortably win his re-election race in November, and use that as a likely springboard to seeking the 2024 nomination, regardless of whether Trump, who will be 78 by the time of the next election, runs again or not.While DeSantis won’t comment on the speculation, he has been fundraising in recent months in other states. In Colorado, Republican activists at last weekend’s Western Conservative Summit voted 71%-67% for DeSantis over Trump in a straw poll for their preferred candidate for 2024, his second successive win (participants could offer multiple responses).DeSantis also won a straw poll of Wisconsin Republicans last month with 38% to Trump’s 32%.“There is no real party standard-bearer at the moment, and DeSantis in many eyes is starting to define the post-Trump party,” veteran Republican operative Tyler Sandberg told Politico.“He fights more about policy and less on his Twitter account.”Trump, as expected, is not appreciating the prospect of being usurped by his former protege, whom he described in 2017 as “a brilliant young leader”. The two have clashed over their respective responses to the pandemic while Trump was in office, and Axios reported more disharmony, claiming that Trump had privately slammed DeSantis as a “dull personality” with no chance of beating him for the 2024 nomination.This week Trump sent out emails highlighting a Morning Consult poll that showed him still in command of the Republican party nationally with 53% support, although he dropped 3% and DeSantis rose by the same mark since the previous poll in March.Binder, the UNF professor, expects a crowded field chasing the Republican nomination, which could include former vice-president Mike Pence, Texas senator Ted Cruz, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, and Nikki Haley, previously South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the United Nations.“I’d venture you’d probably see closer to a dozen-plus candidates rather than just two-plus candidates, maybe even more,” he said.“Anybody that doesn’t show deference to Donald Trump is potentially on the enemy list of Donald Trump no matter what your politics are [and] certainly it’s been clear for a while that DeSantis has had his eye on 2024.“Trump has been cool, if not outright cold towards DeSantis since a lot of that has become known. If and when Trump decides to get into the race, the interaction between those two candidates, and that relationship, will tell a great deal about how the entire election is going to play out.”TopicsRon DeSantisRepublicansUS elections 2024US politicsDonald TrumpUS midterm elections 2022featuresReuse this content More