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      A celebrity heart surgeon wins in Pennsylvania, what next? Politics Weekly America – podcast

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      Dr Mehmet Öz is the Republican nominee for the Pennsylvania Senate race, which will take place in November. Up against him is another interesting character in John Fetterman. Both see themselves as political outsiders, but who will win this important swing state in the midterms? Jonathan Freedland puts this to politics reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer Julia Terruso

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      Find a link to Jonathan Freedland’s new book, The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World, here Send your questions and feedback to podcasts@theguardian.com Help support the Guardian by going to theguardian.com/supportpodcasts More

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      How a documentary film-maker became the January 6 panel’s star witness

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      How a documentary film-maker became the January 6 panel’s star witnessNick Quested, who was embedded with the Proud Boys after the 2020 election, will supply first-hand knowledge of the riots When the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack on Thursday got to the witness testimony at its inaugural hearing, it heard from an individual with first-hand knowledge about how the far-right Proud Boys group came to storm the Capitol.The panel’s star witness, Nick Quested, is an Emmy award-winning British documentary film-maker who founded the indie film company Goldcrest and embedded with the Proud Boys in the weeks after Donald Trump lost the 2020 election as part of a project about division in America.“We chose the Proud Boys because they’ve been so vociferous in rallies and protests around America, and they’ve emerged as a political voice and force, particularly in the summer of 2020,” Quested told the Guardian. “We felt they were a group worth following.”January 6 hearings get under way as US braces for revelations – liveRead moreQuested spent much of the post-2020 election period following around the Proud Boys and is considered by the select committee as an accidental witness to the group’s activities and likely conversations about planning to storm the Capitol on January 6.The documentary film-maker shot footage of some of the most crucial moments connected to the attack, starting with rallies in November and December 2020 which the Proud Boys attended alongside other militia groups including the Oath Keepers and the 1st Amendment Praetorian.Quested then managed to capture on camera a late-night rendezvous between Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys and Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers, in an underground parking garage near the Capitol the day before January 6.The US justice department has referenced that encounter in indictments for seditious conspiracy against Rhodes and other militia group members, though Quested has told the select committee he does not believe that was a meeting to coordinate storming the Capitol.Quested also filmed the Proud Boys marching up the National Mall from the Save America rally at the Ellipse to the Peace Monument at the foot of Capitol Hill, where the group’s members found themselves stopped from moving further by the edge of the US Capitol police perimeter.Over several tense minutes, he photographed Joseph Biggs, one of the Proud Boys indicted for seditious conspiracy, having a brief exchange with another man in the crowd, who then confronted Capitol police in a moment widely seen as the tipping point of the riot.The confrontation sparked the crowd to overturn the police barricade – despite Quested holding on to the fencing to keep it upright – and Quested filmed the charge up Capitol Hill towards the inaugural platform on the west side of the Capitol building.“Why did I go over to the barriers in the first place? Look, there’s two types of people in this world. There’s people who walk to disturbances and people who walk away. I walk towards disturbances,” Quested said.Panel to connect Proud Boys and Oath Keepers in Capitol attack conspiracyRead more“I didn’t know there was a confrontation happening. I felt a disturbance in the crowd and I moved towards that confrontation. And that confrontation happened to be Ryan Samsel shaking the barriers. And then the weight of the crowd overwhelmed the officers at the barrier.”Late in the day on January 6, Quested filmed Tarrio’s reaction to news about the Capitol attack in real time, having gone to see Tarrio in Baltimore, Maryland, where he had retreated after being ordered out of Washington by a local judge the day before.Quested discussed his footage and more at the select committee’s inaugural hearing pursuant to a subpoena, having already testified on multiple occasions behind closed doors about his recollections and experiences around the Proud Boys on January 6.The documentary film-maker – originally from west London and educated at St Paul’s school in London – followed the Proud Boys in the post-election period after covering conflict zones including Afghanistan, Iraq, El Salvador, Mexico, Nicaragua and Syria.Among other works, Quested produced Restrepo, the 2010 Oscar-nominated film that followed a platoon in Afghanistan for a year, and directed the 2018 duPont-Columbia award-winning film Hell on Earth, as well as more than 100 hip-hop videos, including with Dr Dre.TopicsUS Capitol attackRepublicansUS politicsThe far rightHouse of RepresentativesnewsReuse this content More

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      Panel to connect Proud Boys and Oath Keepers in Capitol attack conspiracy

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      Panel to connect Proud Boys and Oath Keepers in Capitol attack conspiracySources say investigators intend to show far-right militias coordinated in effort to storm US Capitol on January 6 last year The House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack is expected at its first hearing on Thursday evening to connect the far-right Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers militia groups in the same seditious conspiracy, according to two sources familiar with the matter.The move by the panel and chief investigative counsel Tim Heaphy could be one of the major revelations that comes from the hearing, which is expected to focus on the militia groups and how they made plans to storm the Capitol, the sources said.US braces for House committee’s primetime January 6 hearings – liveRead moreTop members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers have been charged separately by the justice department with seditious conspiracy, but the select committee’s intention to show that their efforts were connected would escalate the gravity of the plans to attack the Capitol.The panel is understood to be able to connect the two groups in part as it got access to the Oath Keepers’ encrypted Signal messaging chats, while the first witness at the hearing, documentarian Nick Quested, who filmed the Proud Boys, overheard their planning.Text messages released by the justice department have also shown that the two groups were in touch before January 6. Meanwhile at least one person, Joshua James, appears to have simultaneously been both a member of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.It could not be confirmed ahead of the hearing whether the select committee had the evidence to tie Donald Trump into the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers’ conspiracy. But the panel is not expected to tie Roger Stone to the conspiracy, having been unable to find any such evidence.The role of the militia groups in the story of January 6 is important because they specifically planned to storm the Capitol to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election win – what Trump wanted and needed after his other efforts to overturn the election failed.The panel is expected to make its case that there was coordination between the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers – something the panel has long believed – over the course of a hearing that will specifically zero in on the role of the Proud Boys in the Capitol attack.A member of the Proud Boys was the first person to breach the Capitol by using a police riot shield to break through a window on the Senate side of the Capitol, and another member of the Proud Boys appeared to precipitate the first breach of police lines on January 6.The inaugural hearing is expected to focus on Quested’s video footage of the moment that Joseph Biggs, a member of the Proud Boys indicted for seditious conspiracy on Monday, had a brief exchange with another man near the Peace Monument at the foot of Capitol Hill.Biggs’ exchange with that man, Ryan Samsel, is widely seen as the tipping point that precipitated the riot. Samsel, who has been charged with attacking police, then walks up alone to the barricade and confronts US Capitol police officers before pushing it over.The inaugural hearing is also expected to focus on Quested’s video of the Proud Boys charging up Capitol Hill towards the lower west plaza of the Capitol and the inaugural ceremony platform, where Proud Boys member Dominic Pezzola smashes the window with the shield.Also during the inaugural hearing, the select committee is expected to play previously unreleased video of Trump’s top aides and family members testifying before the panel. The panel intends to show Trump was at the center of a multi-step effort to overturn the election.TopicsUS Capitol attackRepublicansUS politicsThe far rightnewsReuse this content More

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      US braces for House committee’s primetime January 6 hearings – live

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      The leaders of more than 220 top American companies are calling on the Senate to pass gun control legislation, Axio reports.However, the petition signed by the CEOs of companies like Unilever, Levi Strauss, Bloomberg, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Lululemon as well as sports teams like the San Francisco Giants and Philadelphia Eagles doesn’t endorse any specific policy, and is a revised version of a letter first released in 2019, though with about 50 percent more signatories this time.“The gun violence epidemic represents a public health crisis that continues to devastate communities — especially Black and Brown communities — and harm our national economy. All of this points to a clear need for action: the Senate must take urgent action to pass bold gun safety legislation as soon as possible in order to avoid more death and injury,” the letter reads.Yesterday, the Democrat-led House of Representatives passed their own measure yesterday raising the age limit to buy a semi-automatic rifle and banning the sale of magazines that can hold more than 15 rounds, but it’s unlikely to win the Senate’s approval.Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer sounded optimistic about the prospects of a bipartisan gun deal in a speech Thursday, saying “good progress” is being made by negotiators from both parties on a bill that can pass the chamber.“Yesterday, a bipartisan a group of Democrats and Republicans met again to continue working towards a bipartisan compromise. This morning, my colleague Senator Murphy reported that the group is making good progress and they hope to get something real done very soon,” Schumer said, referring to Senator Chris Murphy, the Democrats’ point man in the negotiations.“As soon as the bipartisan group comes to agreement, I want to bring a measure to the floor for a vote as quickly as possible,” the majority leader said in a speech in the chamber.It’s unclear what exactly the deal may contain, but the legislation is unlikely to contain all provisions that gun control advocates have called for. Democrats control the Senate by one vote, and the legislation will need at least some support from Republicans, who are far less inclined to limit gun access.In a nod to that reality, Schumer said, “The overwhelming consensus of our caucus, of gun safety advocates and of the American people is that getting something real done on gun violence is worth pursuing, even if we cannot get everything that we know we need.”As Ed Pilkington and Lauren Gambino report, the January 6 committee has gone to great lengths to grab the public’s attention in its hearings beginning tonight, hoping the strength of its evidence and its carefully managed presentation will counteract the enduring allure of Trump among many Americans:The directors are hoping that the storyline will have all the elements of a TV smash hit: a King Lear figure ranting and raving as his power slips away from him, a glamorous couple struggling to rise above the fray, shady characters scheming sedition in hotel bedrooms, hordes of thugs in paramilitary gear chanting “hang him” as they march on the nation’s capitol.When the US House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection opens its hearings on Thursday evening, it will do so in prime time and with primetime production values. The seven Democrats and two Republicans – shunned by their own party – who sit on the panel are pulling out all the stops in an attempt to seize the public’s attention.They have brought onboard a former president of ABC News, James Goldston, a veteran of Good Morning America and other mass-market TV programmes, to tightly choreograph the six public hearings into movie-length episodes ranging from 90 minutes to two and a half hours. His task: to fulfill the prediction of one of the Democratic committee members, Jamie Raskin, that the hearings “will tell a story that will really blow the roof off the House”.Congress’s January hearings aim to be TV spectacular that ‘blows the roof off’Read moreIf the supreme court overturns Roe v Wade in the coming weeks, Florida could become a destination for women seeking abortions — even though a ban on the procedure past 15 weeks comes into effect on July 1. The 19th’s Shefali Luthra looks into the future of abortion in the state, which may not be as bright as it seems:On 1 July, Florida will begin enforcing a law banning abortions for people past 15 weeks of pregnancy. The ban, which has no exceptions for rape or incest, has been framed by its backers as a “moderate” compromise. The vast majority of abortions take place within the first trimester, which ends at 12 weeks, they note. The law is less stringent than the six-week bans and total prohibitions being passed across the country in anticipation of the supreme court overturning Roe v Wade, which guaranteed the right to an abortion, later this summer.Still, the 15-week ban, which has no medical rationale as a particular endpoint for access, represents a tremendous shift in Florida. The ripple effects could extend far outside of the state’s borders.Currently, abortions are legal up until 24 weeks in the state, which has more than 60 clinics. If, as expected, Roe is overturned, Florida will become a critical access point. The state, particularly its northeastern region with its cluster of clinics, will offer the most viable option for finding a safe, legal abortion for places such as South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana – all of which are poised to ban abortions, either entirely or for patients beyond six weeks of pregnancy.‘I’m scared’: Florida faces uncertain abortion future as 15-week ban set to take effectRead moreWith much of the conversation dealing with gun control and the perception that his administration is hamstrung by Republicans and rebellious Democrats, my colleague David Smith reports that Biden’s appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” wasn’t that funny at all:“Our very special guest tonight is to aviator sunglasses what Tom Cruise is to aviator sunglasses,” quipped the late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel. “I’m proud to say I voted for him dozens of times. He is the reason we all got a cavity search tonight.”This was how Kimmel introduced Joe Biden for his first in-person interview with a late-night host since taking office as US president.But any hopes that Biden, whose poll ratings are plunging, might have had that the comedian would invite him to show a lighter side to his personality were soon dashed. It was a night when there were not many laughs.Once the president had sat down, Kimmel asked: “Do you mind if I ask you some serious questions?” He then dived straight in to demand why, after a flurry of mass shootings across America, nothing had been done since Biden entered the White House.No easy ride for Biden as Kimmel tells him to ‘start yelling at people’Read moreMorning, everybody. Much of Washington is sleeping in this morning, ahead of the January 6 committee’s primetime presentation of new evidence into the assault on the Capitol beginning at 8pm Eastern time. The idea is to tell a story that, in the words of one of the committee’s members, “will really blow the roof off the House”. We’ll see if they succeed.Here’s what else is on the agenda for today:
      Talks on a bipartisan compromise continue in Congress, though their prospects for success remain unclear. The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed its own gun control bill, but its chances in the upper chamber appear slim.
      Joe Biden will address the Ninth Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. He arrived in the city yesterday and filmed an interview with TV host Jimmy Kimmel.
      Americans are growing increasingly nervous about inflation, a survey from the Washington Post and George Mason University found, with most expecting the price increases to worsen and changing their spending habits in anticipation. On Friday, the labor department will release updated inflation numbers for May.
      An explosion at a Texas natural gas facility has raised fears of shortages in Europe, where markets are already struggling with the cutoff of Russia’s supply. More

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      Pressure mounts on Senate to act on gun safety amid Republican resistance

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      Pressure mounts on Senate to act on gun safety amid Republican resistanceRelatives of victims urge action while group of over 220 CEOS send joint letter pushing Senate to address gun violence Pressure is mounting on the US Senate to act on gun safety in the wake of the Uvalde and Buffalo massacres, as Republican intransigence continues to stand in the way of all but modest reforms.On Wednesday the House of Representatives passed a package of gun safety measures designed to staunch the disaster of mass shootings. The extent of Republican resistance was underlined by the fact that only five out of 208 House Republicans voted for the legislation.Uvalde survivor, 11, tells House hearing she smeared herself with friend’s blood Read moreNow the focus – and with it the anger of victims’ families and gun safety advocates – turns to the Senate. With the chamber divided 50-50, and 60 votes needed to overcome the filibuster, there is no chance of Democrats passing any changes unless they can bring Republican leaders with them.As compromise talks continue, there are tentative hopes that a deal might be in the offing. But the outcome is likely to be dictated by Republican refusal to contemplate anything other than limited steps.The most promising proposals under discussion include plans to increase resources for mental health treatment, school safety provisions and money to encourage states to introduce “red flag laws” that remove guns from those who might harm themselves or others.On Thursday a group of more than 220 CEOs from some of the biggest brands in the US sent a joint letter to the Senate in which they lamented what they called the “public health crisis” of gun violence. “We urge the Senate to take immediate action … Transcend partisanship and work together to pass bold legislation to address gun violence in our country,” the letter said.Among the signatories were business leaders of some of the most familiar corporations, including Levi Strauss & Co, Lyft, Unilever US, Yelp and the Philadelphia Eagles.Chip Bergh, CEO of Levi Strauss, said in a statement that it was time for senators to act. “Inaction on federal legislation has made gun violence a uniquely American problem,” he said.Gun safety groups are also piling on the pressure on the Senate. Kris Brown, president of the Brady campaign, pointed out that the Senate has sat on legislation to tighten federal background checks on gun sales for the past 15 months.“That’s 15 months of lethal inaction,” he said.The most visceral cries for something to be done are coming from relatives of those who died in the recent massacres. Kimberly Rubio, the mother of Lexi, 10, who was killed in last month’s mass shooting in Uvalde elementary school in Texas, told a House committee this week that it was time for a ban on assault rifles of the sort used to murder her daughter.“We understand for some reason, to some people – to people with money, to people who fund political campaigns – that guns are more important than children. So at this moment, we ask for progress,” she said.A ban on AR-15 style rifles – the sort used in both Uvalde, where 19 children and two teachers were killed, and in Buffalo, New York, where 10 Black people were killed at a grocery store – is not on the agenda for the Senate compromise talks. The discussions, which are being led by the Democratic senator from Connecticut Chris Murphy and his Republican counterpart John Cornyn from Texas, are focusing on more granular measures that have greater hope of moving forward.Other ideas on the table are a proposal to introduce juvenile records into federal background checks for anyone under 21 trying to buy a firearm. Senate Republicans will not countenance raising the age limit to buy AR-15s to 21, even though both the Uvalde and alleged Buffalo shooters were aged 18.Mass shootings continue to be an epidemic in the US, occurring far more frequently than high-profile disasters such as Uvalde and Buffalo. The Gun Violence Archive, which tracks mass shootings, defined as events in which four or more people are shot or killed, counts 251 such incidents in the US so far this year.TopicsUS SenateUS gun controlUS politicsRepublicansDemocratsHouse of RepresentativesnewsReuse this content More

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      Republican media blitz aims to discredit Capitol attack hearings

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      Republican media blitz aims to discredit Capitol attack hearingsTrump loyalists to flood airwaves with claims inquiry lacks legitimacy, indicating their concern, pundits say Republican politicians are preparing a media onslaught to deflect, discredit and delegitimise Thursday’s opening hearing of the House of Representatives panel investigating the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.While major TV networks broadcast the first session live in prime time, Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News will stick with its usual show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, which has long pushed Donald Trump’s talking points.Trump loyalists are expected to flood the airwaves with claims that the January 6 select committee lacks credibility and Democrats are out of touch with more pressing concerns such as inflation, crime, border security and baby formula shortages.Elise Stefanik, chair of the House Republican Conference, told reporters on Capitol Hill on Wednesday: “They are scrambling to change the headlines, praying that the nation will focus on their partisan witch-hunt instead of our pocketbooks. It will not work.”In what amounted to an attempt at a prebuttal, Stefanik described the January 6 committee as “unconstitutional” and “illegitimate” and designed to “punish” the House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s opponents. She criticised its decision to hire James Goldston, the former president of ABC News, to help make its presentation compelling.“This further solidifies what we have known from day one: this committee is not about seeking the truth – it’s a smear campaign against President Donald Trump, against Republican members of Congress, and against Trump voters across this country.”The comments set the template for Republican counter-programming on conservative media such as Fox News, Newsmax, the One America News Network, Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast and other outlets that will seek to portray the hearings as a sinister show trial in which Trump supporters are the victims.Congress’s January hearings aim to be TV spectacular that ‘blows the roof off’Read moreJim Jordan, the top Republican on the House judiciary committee, wrote on the Federalist website: “The committee’s real goal, and what it hopes to achieve with its unprecedented subpoenas and its bright-light hearings, is a repudiation of conservatism and all those who hold conservative values.”For their part, Democrats hope that the hearings will cut through a crowded news agenda much more successfully than the former special counsel Robert Mueller’s turgid testimony about Trump’s ties to Russia. After an investigation entailing more than 100 subpoenas, 1,000 interviews and 100,000 documents, they are likely to characterise the riot as not a spontaneous gathering but part of a broader conspiracy.Congressman Jamie Raskin, a Democrat on the committee, promised in April: “The hearings will tell a story that will really blow the roof off the House. Because it is a story of the most heinous and dastardly political offence ever organised by a president and his followers and his entourage in the history of the United States.”Trump, whose “big lie” falsely claims that he won the 2020 election, was impeached by the House for his role in encouraging the assault on democracy. Dozens of the insurrectionists have been brought to justice, many having been convicted or pleading guilty to serious crimes.But Republicans, who previously rejected an independent September 11-style bipartisan commission, have sought to downplay the attack and deny the legitimacy of the committee, alleging that it is driven by political motivations to abolish the electoral college and prevent Trump’s re-election.They complain that Jordan of Ohio and his colleague Jim Banks of Indiana were barred from taking part by Pelosi. Democrats say the pair were disqualified because they backed Trump’s efforts to overturn the election and sought to block any investigation.Banks said at a press conference on Wednesday: “Speaker Pelosi blocked us because she’s afraid of what a real investigation would uncover.” Along with seven Democrats, the committee does have two Republicans but both are staunch Trump critics: Liz Cheney of Wyoming, daughter of the former vice-president Dick Cheney, and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who is not seeking re-election. Both were censured by the Republican party in February.Kinzinger responded to Fox News’s lack of planned coverage by tweeting: “If you work for @FoxNews and want to maintain your credibility as a journalist, now is a good time to speak out, or quit. Enough is enough.”News coverage of the hearings will be relegated from Fox News to its sister channel, Fox Business Network, which has much lower ratings. Carlson, who will go head to head with the hearing at 8pm on Thursday, has claimed the insurrection “barely rates as a footnote” and described the committee as “wholly illegitimate”. US networks to air January 6 hearings – but Fox News sticks with Tucker CarlsonRead moreTara Setmayer, a former Republican communications director on Capitol Hill turned Trump critic, said: “The Republican party and rightwing media is no longer interested in telling the truth, which is why they’re avoiding showing the hearings.“Democrats need to consistently hammer home to the American people the importance of what they’re doing and let the facts speak for themselves and not be distracted by the kabuki theatre that Republicans will try to put on to distract from the truth.”Setmayer added: “The truth is s so damning for the Republican party and they know it. We’re hearing about everything else because they know they can’t stand on the merits of the other side. That’s why we’re hearing about caravans and crime and all of the hot-button cultural issues that fuel the Republican party and get their people riled up instead of the truth of January 6. They can’t handle it.”Having sought to downplay the deadly insurrection for 17 months, Republicans know the sheer magnitude of Thursday night’s media coverage – aspiring to that of the Watergate hearings that dominated the national conversation in the 1970s – will make it difficult to ignore. It is possible that Trump himself will be stung into speaking out and denouncing the proceedings.Charlie Sykes, founder and editor-at-large of the Bulwark website and author of How the Right Lost Its Mind, said: “There’s going to be a full-court press to delegitimise the hearings, to throw up as much smoke and dust as possible, which is interesting to me. The conventional wisdom is that these hearings are not likely to move a lot of votes or change the midterm elections but Donald Trump and the Republicans are certainly acting as if they pose a threat. Otherwise, why would they be mobilising like this?“Obviously they see the hearings as somewhat dangerous. From Trump’s point of view, what he is most concerned about is the fact that it’s going to be on primetime television. He’s a television guy and he understands the power of this and I’m guessing the fact that they’ve hired a guy who’s a documentary maker really got his attention down at Mar-a-Lago.”TopicsUS Capitol attackUS CongressRepublicansDemocratsUS politicsfeaturesReuse this content More

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      Uvalde survivor, 11, tells House hearing she smeared herself with friend’s blood

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      Uvalde survivor, 11, tells House hearing she smeared herself with friend’s blood Miah Cerrillo recounts at gun violence hearing how she watched as her teacher and friends were shot and acted quickly to save herself01:59An 11-year-old survivor of the elementary school massacre in Uvalde, Texas testified before the House oversight committee on Wednesday, as lawmakers continued to try to reach a compromise on gun control legislation after a series of devastating mass shootings.‘It all happened too fast’: injured Uvalde teacher recounts school shootingRead moreThe House hearing came two weeks after an 18-year-old opened fire at Robb elementary school, killing 19 children and two teachers, and three weeks after 10 people were killed at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.Miah Cerrillo, a fourth-grader at the Uvalde school, recounted how she watched as her teacher and friends were shot and acted quickly to save herself. Miah covered herself in a friend’s blood and played dead until she was able to reach her teacher’s phone and call police.In her recorded testimony, Miah said she no longer felt safe at school.“Because I don’t want it to happen again,” she said.The slow police response to the Uvalde shooting has been the focus of intense scrutiny and criticism.Miah was joined by other families affected by gun violence, including Felix and Kimberly Rubio, whose daughter Lexi died in Uvalde, and Zeneta Everhart, whose son Zaire Goodman was injured in Buffalo. Ten people were killed there, in a supermarket by another gunman with an AR-15-style rifle.“We don’t want you to think of Lexi as just a number,” Rubio told the committee. “She was intelligent, compassionate and athletic. So today we stand for Lexi, and as her voice we demand action.”Gun control experts and New York mayor Eric Adams also testified at the hearing on the need to restrict access to firearms and, by extension, reduce violent crime.“It is high noon in America, time for every one of us to decide where we stand on the issue of gun violence,” Adams said. “I am here today to ask every one of you, and everyone in this Congress, to stand with me to end gun violence and protect the lives of all Americans.”But the emotional and searing testimony did not stop Republicans on the committee rehashing talking points about why they oppose gun restrictions.“Kneejerk reactions to impose gun control policies that seek to curtail our constitutional right to bear arms are not the answer,” said James Comer, the Republican ranking member.The Democratic chair of the committee, Carolyn Maloney, criticized Republican efforts to deflect attention from the need to reform gun laws.“They have blamed violent video games. They have blamed family values. They have even blamed open doors. They have blamed everything but guns,” Maloney said. “But we know the United States does not have a monopoly on mental illness, video games or any other excuse. What America does have is widespread access to guns.”The House was working on Wednesday to pass gun control proposals which would raise the age requirement to buy semi-automatic weapons from 18 to 21 and enact a federal extreme risk protection order for gun access, known as a “red-flag” law.The House has already passed bills to expand background checks for firearm purchases and increase the time gun sellers must wait for checks to be completed.But all those bills are unlikely to pass the 50-50 Senate, where 60 votes are needed to pass most legislation. A bipartisan group of senators has been negotiating over a potential compromise on gun control, but any legislation that can make it through the Senate will probably be far narrower than proposals approved by the House.Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, indicated on Tuesday that Democrats’ proposal to raise the age requirement for purchasing semi-automatic weapons was unlikely to be included in the Senate bill.“That can be in the discussion, but right now we’re trying to work on things where we have agreement,” Tillis told CNN. “We’ve got a lot of people in the discussion. We’ve got to get 60 votes.”Despite such disputes, senators have voiced confidence that they can craft a compromise bill. Members of the group met again Wednesday, and John Cornyn, a Republican of Texas, expressed hope that they would soon strike an agreement.“I think it’s reasonable to expect in the next couple weeks, maybe this work period, that that would be – I’m just speaking for myself – an aspirational goal,” Cornyn said. “But obviously, we have 100 senators who are free agents, and they can do anything they want on whatever timetable.”02:08The families whose lives have been forever altered by gun violence came to the House on Wednesday with specific demands.Everhart asked for more schools to teach Black history so children would understand the violent history of white supremacy, given that the Buffalo shooter voiced support for racist conspiracy theories.Rubio also called on lawmakers to ban assault rifles, raise the age requirement to purchase semi-automatic weapons and enact a national “red flag” law.“We understand that for some reason, to some people – to people with money, to people who fund political campaigns – that guns are more important than children. So at this moment, we ask for progress,” Rubio said.“Somewhere out there, there’s a mom listening to our testimony thinking, ‘I can’t even imagine their pain’ – not knowing that our reality will one day be hers unless we act now.”TopicsUS school shootingsTexas school shootingBuffalo shootingUS politicsHouse of RepresentativesUS CongressUS SenatenewsReuse this content More

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      Karen Bass and Rick Caruso head to runoff in Los Angeles mayoral race

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      Karen Bass and Rick Caruso head to runoff in Los Angeles mayoral raceCandidates head to November rematch after neither one secures enough votes to win outright in primary The congresswoman Karen Bass and the billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso will head to a November rematch in their bids to become the next mayor of Los Angeles, after neither candidate secured enough votes to win outright in Tuesday’s primary.An early tally of mail-in ballots showed Caruso with 41% and Bass with 38% of the vote, meaning both candidates failed to clear the 50% threshold needed to win outright. The Associated Press called the race as a runoff late on Tuesday evening.As the top two vote-getters, they will advance to the general election in a contest whose outcome is likely to have major consequences for Los Angeles’s approach to policing, crime and the growing humanitarian crisis of homelessness across southern California.San Francisco recalls DA Chesa Boudin in blow to criminal justice reformRead moreWhile the non-partisan mayoral primary began with a field of a dozen candidates, it quickly became a contest between the two frontrunners: Bass, a former progressive community activist in South Central Los Angeles who had risen to become the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, and Caruso, a luxury mall developer and former Republican who Forbes ranks No 261 on the list of the richest people in the US. The mayoral candidates and their outside backers and critics poured more than $50m into campaign spending during the primary race, a stunning figure in a campaign whose central issue has been what to do about the more than 41,000 unhoused people living in Los Angeles.Homelessness is a crisis along the entire west coast, but many voters and politicians in Los Angeles say it has reached a state of emergency. As of 2020, an estimated 40% of all unhoused people in California, and 20% of all unhoused people living outside in the US, lived in Los Angeles county. As rent and housing prices have continued to rise, the presence of people living in cars, RVs, and in tents on the street and in public parks has prompted fierce debates about the failures of city officials to resolve a growing humanitarian crisis.Caruso, who has an estimated net worth of $4bn, poured more than $38m of his own fortune into his campaign through early June, with a pledge to “clean up” Los Angeles. He was backed by celebrity endorsements from his neighbor, the actor Gwyneth Paltrow; Bill Bratton, the police chief who championed “broken windows” policing; the rapper Snoop Dog; and the entrepreneurs Kim Kardashian and Elon Musk.His omnipresent political advertising across Los Angeles won him enough votes to advance to the general election as the more conservative, pro-police alternative to Bass, a California Democrat who was considered as a potential vice-presidential pick for Joe Biden.At his election night party at the Grove, one of his shopping malls, Caruso said the voters supporting him were sending a clear message: “We are not helpless in the face of our problems. We will not allow the city to decline,” the Los Angeles Times reported.At Bass’s election party, with her grandson and other family members by her side, the congresswoman told supporters, “We are in a fight for the soul of our city, and we are going to win,” the Times reported.Caruso ran a campaign focused on crime and disorder, pledging to strengthen and expand the city’s police department by hiring 1,500 additional officers. He drew scrutiny on a number of fronts, including his suggestion to arrest unhoused people who refuse to move to a city-provided shelter bed, his record of political donations to Republican candidates who have opposed abortion rights, and the fact that he only registered as a Democrat shortly before entering the mayoral race (he was previously a political independent, and before that, a Republican).Bass, who first rose to prominence as an advocate for public health approaches to addiction and crime during the crack epidemic in the 80s and 90s, has said that she decided to run for mayor in part because of her concerns that voters’ frustrations over homelessness and high-profile property crimes might lead to the same kind of punitive, damaging policies that California politicians and voters endorsed during the 1990s.Street activist, congresswoman – mayor? Karen Bass reaches for LA’s top jobRead moreBass has highlighted the dangers of criminalizing poverty, even as she has pledged to put an end to unhoused people living in public spaces across the city. She has said she supports small increases to the city’s police force and a focus on devoting more police resources to solving the city’s homicides.As Caruso faces off with Bass in the general election, it’s unlikely that Bass will fully match his spending, but progressive Hollywood donors are expected to pour a substantial amount of money into her campaign, as well.“If Rick Caruso was willing to spend $30m in the primary, why wouldn’t he spend the same amount for the general?” the political scientist Fernando Guerra said.Bass “will not meet or beat what Rick Caruso spends”, but her campaign and her liberal Democratic allies will spend enough “that she will be competitive in terms of getting her message out”, Guerra added.To break national records for a self-financed mayoral campaign, Caruso would have to outspend the New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who spent $109m on his campaign to win a third term as New York City’s mayor in 2009. Bloomberg spent $74m in 2001 and $85m in 2005 on his earlier mayoral bids; he burned through a reported $1bn on a short-lived run for president in 2020.The mayor’s race took place alongside other closely watched political contests in California on Tuesday. In San Francisco, the city’s progressive district attorney, Chesa Boudin, was recalled by voters in a blow to criminal justice reform.TopicsLos AngelesUS politicsCaliforniaDemocratsRepublicansnewsReuse this content More