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      Potential rival or running mate? Kristi Noem, the governor denying Trump a face on Mount Rushmore

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      Potential rival or running mate? Kristi Noem, the governor denying Trump a face on Mount RushmoreSouth Dakota Republican says monument is ‘special just the way it is’, while speculation grows she is trying to broaden her national appeal Donald Trump’s rough summer continues. Hammered by the January 6 committee, his influence ebbing and possible prosecution looming, now the former US president must face the death of a long cherished dream.No, Trump’s face will not be carved into Mount Rushmore.Kristi Noem, the Republican governor of South Dakota, home to the hallowed national memorial, has ruled out any additions to the 60-foot-tall (18-metre) faces of presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.Noem first told the story of Trump’s wish to be immortalized on Mount Rushmore in 2018. On Thursday, speaking with reporters in Washington, she recounted again her first meeting with Trump in the Oval Office when she was a member of Congress.Trump photo with Rittenhouse reveals ‘Mount Trumpmore’ sculptureRead more“I said, ‘Mr President, I’m Kristi Noem, I’m from South Dakota. South Dakota is the home of Mount Rushmore. You should come visit it sometime.’ And he said, ‘Oh, did you know that it is my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?’ And I was surprised by that. We laughed and chuckled about it.”But asked on Thursday by the Guardian if Trump’s dream of being carved into the monument could be realised even after his involvement in the January 6 insurrection, Noem replied: “I don’t think we’re adding any faces to Mount Rushmore any time soon. It is pretty special just the way it is.“I don’t think anybody has ever claimed that any of our leaders were perfect. Every one of us has flaws but we still have leaders that led us through challenging times. Remembering that history is incredibly important.”Noem is widely seen as a potential rival – or running mate – for Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. This week she published a memoir, Not My First Rodeo: Lessons from the Heartland, and delivered speeches to the Heritage Foundation thinktank and National Conservative Student Conference in Washington.At the latter event she was accompanied by former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, apparently working for her again after a brief hiatus, and she held an informal conversation with reporters where questions included the supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling that guaranteed a woman’s right to abortion.A trigger law took effect banning abortion in South Dakota except to save the life of a pregnant woman. Some conservatives in the state legislature wanted to go further but Noem has proved hesitant, fuelling speculation that she is softening her position around the edges to broaden her national appeal.On Thursday she said she had no objections to women traveling out of state to get an abortion elsewhere. “I don’t know of any legislators that are seriously pursuing that and I’m certainly not. And to be clear, even in South Dakota, if they were to get an abortion, even though the law doesn’t allow it, a woman would never be prosecuted. It would be the doctor that facilitated it and knowingly broke the law and not the women.”Most Americans do not want Biden or Trump in 2024, poll findsRead moreBut Noem gave little solace to those who fear the supreme court’s rightwing majority could next go after the right to same-sex marriage. “I’ve never supported gay marriage as far as the legality of it in our state. For me, a lot of my faith has to do with that and the legal documentation of that. But I do know that a lot of people are still continuing to have those discussions.”Noem, the first woman to hold the governor’s office in South Dakota and up for reelection this year, resisted significant lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic and accused other state governors of having “overstepped their authority”. In her address to the Heritage Foundation on Wednesday, she also lambasted Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert.“He, out of anybody in this country, should never be given one minute of airtime ever again for the devastation that he has wrecked on so many families,” she said. “He has wiped out their livelihoods, he has destroyed kids’ education – we have kids that forever will struggle because they’ve been forced to wear masks that has hurt their development. It is a tragedy what that man was allowed to do to the United States of America.”Fauci, who is President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, has repeatedly hit back at his rightwing critics in kind.Last year he told the New York Times: “‘Fauci has blood in his hands’ – are you kidding me? Here’s a guy whose entire life has been devoted to saving lives, and now you’re telling me he’s like Hitler? You know, come on, folks. Get real.”TopicsRepublicansUS politicsDonald TrumpSouth DakotanewsReuse this content More

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      Pro-Israel group pours millions into primary to defeat Jewish candidate

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      Pro-Israel group pours millions into primary to defeat Jewish candidateAipac says Democrat Andy Levin, a self-described Zionist, is insufficiently pro-Israel – alarming some because much of the money comes from wealthy Trump donors It is in Andy Levin’s nature to pick fights.The forthright Detroit congressman and former trade union leader has built a political career on confronting big oil, the gun industry and anti-abortion campaigners.But as the scion of a distinguished Jewish political dynasty, a committed Zionist and the former president of his synagogue, Levin has been stung by the largest pro-Israel lobby group’s campaign to paint him as an enemy of the Jewish state because he has spoken up for the Palestinians.The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) has spent more than $4m to defeat Levin in next Tuesday’s Democratic primary for a congressional seat in north-western Detroit with a twin strategy to discredit him within the city’s sizable Jewish community while funding an advertising blitz aimed at the wider electorate that avoids mention of the Israel lobby’s involvement.Aipac and its allies have poured millions of dollars into opposing candidates deemed not to be pro-Israel enough in this year’s Democratic primaries, a move that has alarmed some in the party because much of the money comes from wealthy Trump donors and other rightwing billionaires including Jan Koum, the inventor of WhatsApp, who recently donated $2m.Levin said Aipac’s involvement also raises the spectre of the entire primary process being hijacked by well-funded lobbies from big oil to the gun industry.“This strategy to gather millions from rightwing billionaires and other Republican sources to try to determine the outcome of Democratic primaries is deeply troubling. I don’t think the Democratic party can really stand for it and maintain the integrity of our own elections,” he told the Guardian at a campaign rally in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak.“It’s Israel today. It could be the fossil fuel industry tomorrow. It could be the tobacco industry, big pharma, any industry or any group that wants to have Democrats who are pliable and will do what they want.”Aipac boasts that its favored candidates have won in nine of the 10 Democratic primaries it waded into in recent months. Hardline pro-Israel groups have proclaimed these victories as evidence of American voters’ support for its positions. But the campaigns, funded through Aipac’s political action committee, the United Democracy Project (UDP), rarely mention the Jewish state or US policy on Israel.Other critics note that while Aipac opposes Levin and other candidates deemed to be out of line on Israel by accusing them of working against America’s interests, it has endorsed 37 Republicans who voted against certifying Joe Biden’s victory after the storming of the Capitol on 6 January 2020.Levin is running for a newly created district after his existing one was scrapped with boundary changes. He is competing against another sitting Democrat, Haley Stevens, whose constituency has also been abolished.Aipac turned its guns on Levin, a member of the House foreign affairs committee, after he introduced the Two State Solution Act in September, intended to promote a peace agreement including by preventing US aid being used to tighten Israel’s grip on the occupied Palestinian territories, and to block expansion of Jewish settlements and the demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank.The legislation also infuriated some by defining East Jerusalem as occupied territory, which much of the world says it is, when Israel claims sovereignty over the entire city.Aipac portrayed the act as “anti-Israel” and Levin as an extremist.“Andy Levin represents the fringe wing that is working to undermine the US-Israel relationship,” the lobby group said in an email to supporters last week. “Defeating Andy Levin would remove one hostile voice, but as important, ensuring Haley Stevens wins would cement a pro-Israel champion in the Democratic party.”Earlier this year, David Victor, a former president of Aipac who lives in the Detroit area, wrote to prospective donors saying that the redistricting “presents a rare opportunity to defeat arguably the most corrosive member of Congress to the US-Israel relationship”.“To make matters worse, Andy sincerely claims to be a lifelong Zionist, proud Jew and defender of Israel. So when Andy Levin insists he’s pro-Israel, less engaged Democratic colleagues may take him at his word,” wrote Victor.The email, which raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in support of Stevens, was denounced by other current and former Jewish Democrats in Congress.“It is fair to disagree on and debate policy approaches. But it is out of bounds to malign the only Jewish candidate in this race by impugning Andy’s love for the State of Israel or his community bona fides, which run strong and run deep,” they wrote in a letter.The lobby has since poured millions of dollars into supporting Stevens who admits she knew little about Israel until she visited the country three years ago on an Aipac-sponsored trip. Since then she has put an emphasis on “Israel’s right to defend itself” and has expressed scepticism about the US rejoining the Iran nuclear deal.Levin, on the other hand, comes from a line of politicians with strong ties to Israel including his father, Sander, who served 36 years in Congress, and uncle Carl Levin, who was a US senator for nearly four decades.Levin accused Aipac of attempting to impose a single hardline view of what it is to be pro-Israel when he has a “proud record” of supporting the Jewish state and a two state solution while also advocating for Palestinian rights. He says his position “has been the position of every Democratic and Republican administration besides Donald Trump”.“They’re the rightwing Israel lobby. They’re not more pro-Israel than me. In fact, they’re worse for Israel. If you want to be the best friend of Israel, you better give an honest opinion about what needs to happen for your best friend to be secure and safe, and to thrive in the future instead of supporting whatever the Israeli government of the moment does right or wrong,” he said.“This is the politics of intimidation. When I wrote the Two State Solution Act, I can’t tell you how many of my colleagues came up to me and said, ‘Oh, Andy, I read your bill, it’s great. But of course, I’m not going to co-sponsor.’ They didn’t even need to say why. It’s just assumed that they’re afraid to cross Aipac.”Much of this fight has gone unnoticed by the average voter in the Detroit district. But they have nonetheless felt its effects.The UDP has spent heavily on television spots for Stevens that featured President Barack Obama in 2018 praising her work as chief of staff for the taskforce that saw the US auto industry through bankruptcy during the recession. Another focuses on her stand for abortion rights. None of them makes mention of Israel.Opinion polls show the impact. In February, a Target Insyght poll had the two candidates tied at 41% support each. At the time, Levin led among groups likely to be key to victory, including union workers and women.A poll by the same company last week showed Stevens at 58% to Levin on 31%. The number of women who said they would vote for Levin fell sharply.Target Insyght’s director, Edward Sarpolus, said Levin was vulnerable in a number of ways including being a progressive in a new district with a more conservative demographic than his old one.But Sarpolus said UDP and other pro-Israel lobby money was a gamechanger because it paid for advertising to pound away at those differences in support of Stevens.“Aipac and the other [pro-Israel] groups kicking in the funds put her over the top because they’re dominating the airwaves with ads and mailings and that type of thing,” he said.Levin has the backing of a more moderate pro-Israel group, J Street, which has spent about $700,000 to support him with advertising attacking Levin for taking Aipac money.Aipac is targeting another Detroit Democratic primary race too. The UDP has spent nearly $2m running ads against a member of the Michigan state legislature, Shri Thanedar, who backed a resolution to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.Aipac supporters say it is not doing anything other pressure groups do, such as those advocating for abortion rights or environmental policies. But critics say those groups are open about their intent whereas most voters targeted by UDP funded-ads have no idea it is run by Aipac or that it’s goal is to elect a member of Congress it sees as more sympathetic to Israel.A fellow Democratic member of Congress, Mark Pocan, accused Aipac and its allies of deceiving voters.“It’s not just dark special interest money that’s spent on candidates. It’s the sketchy, anonymous misleading nature of the money that needs to get called out in the strongest of terms,” he said.“Now we have groups in Democratic primaries doing this in the most Trojan horse way. First, their values aren’t stated as an organisation. But second they’re raising money from Republican multimillionaires and billionaires to do this. It’s stealth campaigning combined with dirty oppositional money to create a Trojan horse within a Trojan horse.”TopicsUS politicsDemocratsRepublicansDetroitIsraelfeaturesReuse this content More

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      Paul Manafort admits indirectly advising Trump in 2020 but keeping it secret in wait for pardon

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      Paul Manafort admits indirectly advising Trump in 2020 but keeping it secret in wait for pardon In new book, obtained by Guardian, 2016 campaign manager convicted of tax fraud says he was ‘very careful’ to hide advice Paul Manafort indirectly advised Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign while in home confinement as part of a seven-year sentence for offenses including tax fraud – advice he kept secret as he hoped for a presidential pardon.Murdoch told Kushner on election night that Arizona result was ‘not even close’Read more“I didn’t want anything to get in the way of the president’s re-election or, importantly, a potential pardon,” Trump’s 2016 campaign manager writes in his new book.In May 2020, as Covid-19 ravaged the prison system, Manafort was released to home confinement. He stayed in an apartment in northern Virginia. From there, he re-established contact with Trumpworld.“There was no contact with anyone in the Trump orbit when I was in prison,” he writes. “And I didn’t want any, especially if it could be exploited by the MSM [Mainstream Media, a derogatory term in rightwing circles].“But when the re-election campaign started kicking off, I was interacting, unofficially, with friends of mine who were very involved. It was killing me not to be there, but I was advising indirectly from my condo.”The startling admission is spelled out in Political Prisoner: Persecuted, Prosecuted, but Not Silenced, a memoir that will be published in the US next month. The Guardian obtained a copy.Throughout the book, Manafort, 73, strenuously denies collusion with Russia and ridicules investigations by the special counsel, Robert Mueller, Congress and the US intelligence community.But in Virginia in August 2018, in a case arising from Mueller’s investigation of Russian election interference and links between Trump and Moscow, Manafort was found guilty on eight counts: five of tax fraud, two of bank fraud and one of failure to report a foreign bank account.In March 2019, he was sentenced to 43 months in prison. Later that month, in Washington DC, Manafort was sentenced to an additional three-and-a-half-year term, having pleaded guilty to conspiracy including money laundering and unregistered lobbying and a count related to witness tampering.Manafort was also found to have violated an agreement with Mueller, by lying.In his memoir, Manafort describes his travels through the US prison system – including a stay in a Manhattan facility alongside the financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the Mexican drug baron Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.In another startling passage, Manafort writes that during one transfer between facilities, at a private airfield “somewhere in Ohio”, the sight of “prisoners … being herded in long lines and then separated into other buses and on to … transport planes … reminded me of movies about the Holocaust”.Manafort ran Trump’s campaign between May and August 2016, when he resigned shortly after the arrival of Steve Bannon as campaign chairman and amid a scandal over alleged evidence of payments connected with consulting work in Ukraine.In his book, Manafort denies wrongdoing in connection with the so-called “black ledger” but writes: “My resignation only deflected attention from the Russian collusion story for a short period of time.”Describing his informal advice to the Trump campaign in 2020, after four years of scandal, trial and imprisonment, he writes: “I didn’t have any prohibition against it, but I didn’t want it to become an issue.”He continues: “I still had no promise of a pardon, but I had an expectation. My fear was that if I got in the way of the campaign and Trump lost, he might blame me, and I did not want that to happen.”Trump lost to Joe Biden – an outcome Manafort, whose career in politics began as an adviser to President Gerald Ford, puts down to Biden’s campaign understanding Trump’s limitations better than Hillary Clinton.But he also flirts with Trump’s lie about electoral fraud being the cause of his defeat, writing: “I believed there were patterns that were irregular. The results in battleground states were close enough that the fraud could be the difference between winning and losing.”Trump chief of staff ‘shoved’ Ivanka at White House, Kushner book saysRead moreAfter Trump lost, Manafort writes, he held off “making phone calls the day after to start working for a pardon” and instead waited on Trump.Manafort says the news he would be pardoned came via an intermediary, “a very good doctor friend, Ron, who is also close to Donald and Melania” and “was always one of the judges” at Miss Universe pageants when Trump ran them.The friend spoke to Kellyanne Conway, a senior Trump adviser, who relayed the good news. Manafort was pardoned on 23 December 2020 – two weeks before the culmination of Trump’s attempt to overturn the election, the deadly US Capitol attack, an event Manafort does not address.“It was like a switch was pressed,” Manafort writes, of telling his wife, Kathy, that he had been pardoned.“We hugged and cried. I was free.”TopicsBooksPaul ManafortDonald TrumpUS elections 2020US elections 2016US politicsRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

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      Biden hails ‘most significant legislation to tackle climate crisis’ after Manchin says yes – as it happened

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      Joe Biden hailed the Inflation Reduction Act as “the most significant legislation in history to tackle the climate crisis” in a White House address welcoming the wide-ranging legislative package.The president outlined the benefits to Americans during his remarks, which followed the surprise announcement of a deal last night between Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and holdout West Virginia senator Joe Manchin..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}This bill will be the most significant legislation in history to tackle the climate crisis and improve our energy security right away, and give us a tool to meet the climate goals… we’ve agreed to by cutting emissions and accelerating clean energy. It’s a huge step forward.
      This bill will reduce inflationary pressures on the economy. It will cut your cost of living and reduce inflation, it lowers the deficit and strengthens our economy for the long run as well.
      This bill has won the support of climate leaders like former vice-president Al Gore, who said the bill is, quote, long overdue and a necessary step to ensure the United States takes decisive action on the climate crisis that helps our economy and provides leadership for the world.Climate activists have broadly welcomed the bill which, if passed by Congress, would give Biden a massive victory ahead of November’s midterms. Inflation at 40-year highs and soaring prices in supermarkets and at gas pumps have contributed to the president’s low approval ratings.It also follows months of stalling on Biden’s agenda, specifically by Manchin, who didn’t like the cost of $1.8tn Build Back Better spending package featuring measures like extended child tax credit.Biden acknowledged: .css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}This bill is far from perfect. I know the bill doesn’t include everything that I’ve been pushing for since I got to office. For example, I’m going to keep fighting to bring down the cost of things for working families and middle class families by providing for things like affordable childcare, affordable elder care, the cost of preschool, housing, helping students with the cost of college, closing the health care coverage gap…
      My message to Congress is this. This is the strongest bill you can pass to lower inflation, cut the deficit, reduce health care costs, tackle the climate crisis and promote energy security, all the time while reducing the burdens facing working class and middle class families.
      So pass it. Pass it for the American people. Pass it for America. We’re closing the politics blog now on a rollercoaster Thursday for President Joe Biden. The day began with depressing economic news that the US was technically in a recession, but was brightened considerably by a bipartisan vote in the House that sends the $280bn Chips Act to his desk.And then there was the unexpected development that Democratic West Virginia senator Joe Manchin, blamed for single handedly blocking the majority of Biden’s first term agenda on the climate emergency and the economy, had reversed his position.The Inflation Reduction Act Manchin negotiated with Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer is, Biden said, “the most significant legislation in history to tackle the climate crisis.”Thanks for joining us today. Before you go, please have a read of my colleague David Smith’s report on the reconciliation bill here. Here’s what else we followed today:
      Former treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin has spoken with the House panel investigating Donald Trump’s January 6 insurrection, and the committee is negotiating to obtain testimony from other members of the former president’s cabinet, the Associated Press reported.
      Politico reported that the House panel and the justice department’s criminal inquiry had struck an testimony-sharing deal on witness transcripts and other evidence. The report came as Trump’s former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney spoke with the panel virtually.
      Biden and Chinese president Xi Jinping spoke for more than two hours by phone, in what was reported to have been a sometimes testy conversation including a discussion of Nancy Pelosi’s controversial upcoming trip to Taiwan.
      At least 43 abortion clinics in 11 states have closed since the supreme court eliminated federal protections for the procedure last month, and seven states no longer have any providers, a study published Thursday by the Guttmacher Institute revealed. Prior to the ruling ending Roe v Wade protections, the 11 states had a total of 71 clinics providing abortion care, the report says.
      The Miami Herald reported that a state operation touted last month by Republican governor Ron DeSantis as a successful law enforcement action to “keep illegals out of Florida” ended up arresting mostly legal residents. Of 22 arrests in a three-day sweep from 7 to 9 June, the “vast majority” were not related to immigration, the Herald said.
      While chief of staff to Donald Trump, the retired general John Kelly “shoved” Ivanka Trump in a White House hallway, Jared Kushner writes in his forthcoming memoir. The detail from Breaking History, which will be published in August, was reported by the Washington Post.Kushner, the Post said, writes that he and his wife saw Kelly as “consistently duplicitous”.“One day he had just marched out of a contentious meeting in the Oval Office. Ivanka was walking down the main hallway in the West Wing when she passed him. Unaware of his heated state of mind, she said, ‘Hello, chief.’ Kelly shoved her out of the way and stormed by. She wasn’t hurt, and didn’t make a big deal about the altercation, but in his rage Kelly had shown his true character.”Kushner writes that Kelly offered a “meek” apology about an hour later.Kelly told the Post: “I don’t recall anything like you describe. It is inconceivable that I would EVER shove a woman. Inconceivable. Never happen. Would never intentionally do something like that. Also, don’t remember ever apologising to her for something I didn’t do. I’d remember that.”A spokesperson for Ivanka Trump said her husband’s description was accurate, the Post said.The Post also said Kushner writes that Kelly gave his wife “compliments to her face that she knew were insincere.“Then the four-star general would call her staff to his office and berate and intimidate them over trivial procedural issues that his rigid system often created. He would frequently refer to her initiatives like paid family leave and the child tax credit as ‘Ivanka’s pet projects.’”Read the full story:Trump chief of staff ‘shoved’ Ivanka at White House, Kushner book saysRead moreBarack Obama’s presidential portrait will be unveiled at the White House in a September ceremony hosted by his former vice-president Joe Biden, the Associated Press reports.Portraits of the former president and first lady Michelle Obama will be presented in the East Room on 7 September, according to Obama’s office.It will mark the first time the former first lady has returned to the White House since her husband left office in January 2017. Barack Obama went back in April to mark the 12th anniversary of his signature health care law.The House of Representative has delivered a big win for Joe Biden, passing the $280bn Chips and Science Act that includes $52bn to boost the production of semiconductors.The bill cleared the Senate 64-33 in a bipartisan vote yesterday, the president urging the House to get the bill to his desk as soon as possible to help ease a shortage in semiconductors he said is holding back US defense, healthcare and vehicle manufacturing industries.Biden received the news of the bill’s House passage, 243-187 in a strong bipartisan vote, during a virtual round table with business leaders at the White House this afternoon.The moment @POTUS gets word that the CHIPS Act has enough votes to pass the House pic.twitter.com/2CqAnr8oVc— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) July 28, 2022
      Biden earlier highlighted the Chips Act as a central plank of his agenda to boost American industry, as he also hailed the newly announced $739bn Inflation Reduction Act.In a statement, the president said the Chips Act “will make cars cheaper, appliances cheaper, and computers cheaper. It will lower the costs of every day goods. And, it will create high-paying manufacturing jobs across the country and strengthen US leadership in the industries of the future at the same time.”Republicans had threatened to whip members against voting for the Chips Act after they were angered by last night’s announcement of the reconciliation bill, brokered in a deal between Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and previously reluctant West Virginia senator Joe Manchin.Read my colleague David Smith’s report on the proposed new legislation here:Joe Biden hails Senate deal as ‘most significant’ US climate legislation everRead moreIt’s a double helping of Joe Biden today, the president just delivering remarks on the economy at an afternoon White House roundtable of business leaders.Once again, the president is downplaying the suggestion, bolstered by this morning’s dismal GDP figures, that the US is in a recession:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}There’ll be a lot of chatter today on Wall Street and among pundits about whether we are in a recession. But if you’re looking at our job market, consumer spending business investment, we see signs of economic progress in the second quarter as well.
      And yesterday, Fed chairman [Jerome] Powell made it clear that he doesn’t think the US economy is currently in a recession. He said, quote, there are too many areas of economics where the economy is performing too well.For the second time today, following his address earlier this afternoon on the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden listed positive factors, including job creation, low unemployment and foreign investment in US industry..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}I applaud by the bipartisan effort to get the Chips Act to my desk, which would advance our nation’s competitiveness and technological edge by boosting our domestic semiconductor production and manufacturing.
      Another thing Congress should do is to pass the Inflation Reduction Act to lower prescription drug costs, reduce the deficit, help ease inflationary pressures and ensure 13m Americans can continue to save an average of $800 per year on health care premiums.
      Both of these bills are going to help the economy continue to grow, bring down inflation and make sure we aren’t giving up on all the significant progress we made in the last year. Former treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin has spoken with the House panel investigating Donald Trump’s January 6 insurrection, and the committee is negotiating to obtain testimony from other members of the former president’s cabinet, the Associated Press reports.The panel is looking into the days following the deadly Capitol riot and discussions between senior officials over whether to try to remove the then-president from office.The negotiations come as the committee was interviewing Trump’s former chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, on Thursday. The former South Carolina congressman was special envoy for Northern Ireland on January 6 2022, a post he resigned immediately after the riot.The AP says Mnuchin’s interview, and the negotiations with others, were confirmed by three people familiar with the committee’s work, who spoke on condition of anonymity.The agency says the committee asked Mnuchin about discussions among cabinet secretaries to possibly invoke the constitutional process in the 25th Amendment to remove Trump after the attack on the Capitol, according to one of the people, and is in talks to interview former secretary of state Mike Pompeo. The panel has already interviewed former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen, former labor secretary Eugene Scalia and former acting defense secretary Christopher Miller as it focuses on Trump and what he was doing in the days before, during and after the riot. We’ve written plenty about the Inflation Reduction Act today, and heard that Joe Biden believes it’s “the most significant bill to tackle the climate crisis in history”. So what’s actually in it?My colleague Oliver Milman has this handy explainer to what made it into the package. And what didn’t:What’s in the climate bill that Joe Manchin supports – and what isn’t Read moreWe now have the White House readout of Joe Biden’s two hour conversation with China’s President Xi Jinping this morning:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The call was a part of the Biden administration’s efforts to maintain and deepen lines of communication between the US and PRC [People’s Republic of China] and responsibly manage our differences and work together where our interests align.
      The two presidents discussed a range of issues important to the bilateral relationship and other regional and global issues, and tasked their teams to continue following up on today’s conversation, in particular to address climate change and health security. It seems they also touched on Nancy Pelosi’s controversial upcoming trip to Taiwan, which has angered Chinese leaders. The White House readout said:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}On Taiwan, President Biden underscored that the United States policy has not changed and that the United States strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. The Chinese take, according to the Associated Press, was equally defiant.The news agency quoted an account of the call by China’s ministry of foreign affairs.“Those who play with fire will perish by it. It is hoped that the US will be clear-eyed about this,” it said.“President Xi underscored that to approach and define China-US relations in terms of strategic competition and view China as the primary rival and the most serious long-term challenge would be misperceiving China-US relations and misreading China’s development, and would mislead the people of the two countries and the international community.” At least 43 abortion clinics in 11 states have closed since the supreme court eliminated federal protections for the procedure last month, and seven states no longer have any providers, a study published Thursday by the Guttmacher Institute has found.Prior to the ruling ending Roe v Wade protections on 24 June, the 11 states had a total of 71 clinics providing abortion care, the report says. 🚨 As of July 24, these 7 US states 👇 had banned abortion completely following the SCOTUS decision to overturn #RoeVWade:❌ Alabama❌ Arkansas❌ Mississippi❌ Missouri❌ Oklahoma❌ South Dakota❌ Texas#BansOffOurBodies https://t.co/6r9oaGNzqJ— Guttmacher Institute (@Guttmacher) July 28, 2022
      As of 24 July, there were only 28 clinics still offering abortions, all located in the four states with six-week bans. Across these 11 states, the number of clinics offering abortions dropped by 43 in just one month. The seven states no longer offering any abortion provision are Alabama (previously 5 clinics), Arkansas (2), Mississippi (1), Missouri (1), Oklahoma (5), South Dakota (1) and Texas (23 ).“Obtaining an abortion was already difficult in many states even before the supreme court overturned Roe,” Rachel Jones, Guttmacher’s principal research scientist, said.“These clinic closures resulting from state-level bans will further deepen inequities in access to care based on race, gender, income, age or immigration status since long travel distances to reach a clinic in another state will be a barrier for many people.”Joe Biden thanked Democratic senators Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, for their “extraordinary effort” in negotiating the reconciliation bill.It had looked like Manchin had killed hope of any of the president’s signature policy goals on the climate emergency or the economy passing when he withdrew from talks on Build Back Better earlier this year.The West Virginia senator, however, insisted earlier today he “never walked away” and was always open to renewed discussions, on parts of the package at least, which were finally concluded on Wednesday after weeks of secret meetings with Schumer and his staff.Biden said: .css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}I know can sometimes seem like nothing gets done in Washington. I know it never crossed any of your minds. But the work of the government can be slow and frustrating and sometimes even infuriating.
      Then the hard work of hours and days and months from people who refuse to give up pays off.
      History has been made. Lives have changed with this legislation. We’re facing up to some of our biggest problems. And we’re taking a giant step forward as a nation. Biden closed his address with remarks on data that came out this morning showing the economy had shrunk for a second successive quarter, and that the US was technically in a recession.He listed low unemployment, overseas investment in US manufacturing and yesterday’s passing by the Senate of the Chips Act boosting semiconductor production among a number of reasons why he believes the US economy is strong.“That doesn’t sound like a recession to me,” Biden said.Joe Biden hailed the Inflation Reduction Act as “the most significant legislation in history to tackle the climate crisis” in a White House address welcoming the wide-ranging legislative package.The president outlined the benefits to Americans during his remarks, which followed the surprise announcement of a deal last night between Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and holdout West Virginia senator Joe Manchin..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}This bill will be the most significant legislation in history to tackle the climate crisis and improve our energy security right away, and give us a tool to meet the climate goals… we’ve agreed to by cutting emissions and accelerating clean energy. It’s a huge step forward.
      This bill will reduce inflationary pressures on the economy. It will cut your cost of living and reduce inflation, it lowers the deficit and strengthens our economy for the long run as well.
      This bill has won the support of climate leaders like former vice-president Al Gore, who said the bill is, quote, long overdue and a necessary step to ensure the United States takes decisive action on the climate crisis that helps our economy and provides leadership for the world.Climate activists have broadly welcomed the bill which, if passed by Congress, would give Biden a massive victory ahead of November’s midterms. Inflation at 40-year highs and soaring prices in supermarkets and at gas pumps have contributed to the president’s low approval ratings.It also follows months of stalling on Biden’s agenda, specifically by Manchin, who didn’t like the cost of $1.8tn Build Back Better spending package featuring measures like extended child tax credit.Biden acknowledged: .css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}This bill is far from perfect. I know the bill doesn’t include everything that I’ve been pushing for since I got to office. For example, I’m going to keep fighting to bring down the cost of things for working families and middle class families by providing for things like affordable childcare, affordable elder care, the cost of preschool, housing, helping students with the cost of college, closing the health care coverage gap…
      My message to Congress is this. This is the strongest bill you can pass to lower inflation, cut the deficit, reduce health care costs, tackle the climate crisis and promote energy security, all the time while reducing the burdens facing working class and middle class families.
      So pass it. Pass it for the American people. Pass it for America. Joe Biden is about to deliver a hastily arranged address about the Inflation Reduction Act, the White House says.You can watch the president’s remarks here. More

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

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

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      in Elections

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

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

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      Centrists to launch Forward, new third US political party

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

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

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