US Congress

Subterms

    More stories

    • 150 Shares159 Views

      in US Politics

      House ethics committee opens investigation into George Santos – as it happened

      by

      The House ethics committee has opened an investigation into George Santos, the Republican lawmaker who admitted to lying about his résumé in his campaign to represent part of New York City’s suburbs in Congress’s lower chamber.A statement from the committee’s GOP chair Michael Guest and Democratic ranking member Susan Wild said the panel voted to create a subcommittee to look into alleged misconduct by Santos. They specified it would investigate “whether Representative George Santos may have: engaged in unlawful activity with respect to his 2022 congressional campaign; failed to properly disclose required information on statements filed with the House; violated federal conflict of interest laws in connection with his role in a firm providing fiduciary services; and/or engaged in sexual misconduct towards an individual seeking employment in his congressional office.”Republican Dave Joyce will chair the subcommittee, alongside Democratic ranking member Susan Wild. They’ll be joined by Republican John Rutherford and Democrat Glenn Ivey.In his defense against civil lawsuits connected to the January 6 insurrection, Donald Trump is getting no help from Joe Biden’s justice department, which told an appeals court it thinks cases against the former president over the violent attack should be allowed to go ahead. Meanwhile, the House ethics committee began its widely expected investigation into George Santos, the New York Republican who lied and lied and lied.Here’s what else happened today:
      Ron DeSantis outlined how he could take policies implemented in Florida national, and cause “a complete upheaval of the deep state,” as he put it.
      Matt Schlapp, organizer of the Conservative Political Action Conference, does not want to talk about allegations he groped a Republican campaign staffer.
      Mike Pence is among Republicans giving CPAC a miss, and his (mutual) dislike for Trump is probably a big reason why.
      Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is also in trouble with Congress’s ethics watchdog, though not yet as much as Santos.
      Biden supports statehood for Washington DC – to an extent.
      Joe Biden and most Democrats in Congress support turning the majority of Washington DC – America’s only federal district – into the 51st state. But that’s not stopping the president and some Democratic senators from joining with the GOP to stop Washington’s city council from implementing a new criminal code:I support D.C. Statehood and home-rule – but I don’t support some of the changes D.C. Council put forward over the Mayor’s objections – such as lowering penalties for carjackings.If the Senate votes to overturn what D.C. Council did – I’ll sign it.— President Biden (@POTUS) March 2, 2023
      Washington DC has a unique relationship with Congress, which can vote to override decisions made by its 13-member city council – currently composed of 11 Democratic members and two independents.Late last year, the council approved a new criminal code that advocates say represents a long-overdue modernization of its penalties and procedures for lawbreaking. But Democratic mayor Muriel Bowser opposed it, while Republicans in Congress pounced on the law to claim it is indicative of Democrats’ weakness on crime.The city council overrode Bowser’s veto of the measure earlier this year, but the Republicans controlling the House last month voted to block its implementation, and there appears to be enough Democratic votes in the Senate for Republicans to stop its implementation there. Now that Biden has made clear he’ll sign legislation to block the new code, the council’s effort seems dead, at least for now.Today in the Capitol, Joe Biden pulled a Joe Manchin when asked when he planned to run for a second term:Reporter: “When will you announce your reelection, sir?”President Biden: “When I announce it.” pic.twitter.com/UgrsUfjRTj— The Recount (@therecount) March 2, 2023
      But unlike with Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat and frustrater of progressives who has remained coy on if he’d like to remain in the Senate, all signs point to Biden running again.Nina Jankowicz, who resigned last year as director of the homeland security department’s disinformation governance board amid a flurry of threats and conspiracy theories that led to a pause in its operations, is raising money for a lawsuit against Fox News:Fox News lied about me hundreds of times to tens of millions of people. Help me hold them accountable for the harm they do.https://t.co/m7O8m50OPmhttps://t.co/4K7RgedI90— Nina Jankowicz (@wiczipedia) March 2, 2023
      She accuses the network of spreading inaccurate information about her job, which led to threats against herself and her family, and her decision to resign from the government.“I became the young, female, easy-to-attack public face of what Fox pundits were recklessly spinning as ‘men with guns [telling] you to shut up.’ Congressional Republicans and the right-wing media characterized me as an unhinged, partisan, unserious, dangerous fascist, despite my track record of measured, bipartisan work, including testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2018 at the GOP chair’s invitation,” Jankowicz wrote on the GoFundMe she set up for the legal effort.“My life has been irrevocably altered because Fox News repeatedly force-fed lies about me to tens of millions of their viewers. Tens of thousands have harassed me online. Hundreds have violently threatened me. I am far from the only American to experience this type of Fox-led hate campaign, and it must stop.”As of the time of this post, Jankowicz had raised $4,435 of the $100,000 she is seeking to cover the cost of the lawsuit she wants to file against Fox News, as well as expenses related to other lawsuits filed against her, a protective order she sought against someone who was harassing her and a subpoena she expects from a Republican-led congressional panel.George Santos is not alone in running afoul of Congress’s ethics watchdogs.Fox News reports the House Office of Congressional Ethics has concluded Democratic lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may have broke the rules by accepting tickets to New York’s Met Gala two years ago:1) The House Ethics Committee has released a report by the quasi-official “Office of Congressional Ethics” (OCE) on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) March 2, 2023
      2) The OCE (which is NOT the Ethics Committee, but can refer issues to that panel), said it discovered “substantial reason to believe” that Ocasio-Cortez improperly accepted gifts in the form of tickets, et al, in connection with her appearance at the Met Gala in NYC in 2021— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) March 2, 2023
      3) The formal Ethics Committee has NOT launched a formal inquiry into Ocasio-Cortez like it did today with Rep. George Santos (R-NY). But the Ethics Committee is still reviewing Ocasio-Cortez’s actions.— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) March 2, 2023
      Established in 2008, the House Office of Congressional Ethics reviews allegations against lawmakers and forwards their conclusions to the chamber’s ethics committee, which is composed of lawmakers. It’s up to that body to decide whether to act on the report.The House ethics committee has opened an investigation into George Santos, the Republican lawmaker who admitted to lying about his résumé in his campaign to represent part of New York City’s suburbs in Congress’s lower chamber.A statement from the committee’s GOP chair Michael Guest and Democratic ranking member Susan Wild said the panel voted to create a subcommittee to look into alleged misconduct by Santos. They specified it would investigate “whether Representative George Santos may have: engaged in unlawful activity with respect to his 2022 congressional campaign; failed to properly disclose required information on statements filed with the House; violated federal conflict of interest laws in connection with his role in a firm providing fiduciary services; and/or engaged in sexual misconduct towards an individual seeking employment in his congressional office.”Republican Dave Joyce will chair the subcommittee, alongside Democratic ranking member Susan Wild. They’ll be joined by Republican John Rutherford and Democrat Glenn Ivey.A showdown is brewing between Bernie Sanders and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who has been accused of frustrating efforts by the company’s employees to unionize. Here’s the latest on the dispute, from the Guardian’s Michael Sainato:Starbucks is under fire over the company’s response to unionization efforts as senator Bernie Sanders threatens to call its chief executive before his committee on alleged labor violations and staff petition for it to end “intimidation” of organizers.Sanders, chairman of the Senate health, education, labor and pensions (Help) committee, announced on Wednesday that the committee will be voting on whether to issue a subpoena to compel Starbucks chief Howard Schultz to testify about Starbuck’s federal labor law violations, and to authorize a committee investigation into labor-law violations committed by major corporations.“For nearly a year, I and many of my colleagues in the Senate have repeatedly asked Mr Schultz to respect the constitutional right of workers at Starbucks to form a union and to stop violating federal labor laws,” Sanders said in a press release confirming the 8 March vote.“Mr Schultz has failed to respond to those requests. He has denied meeting and document requests, skirted congressional oversight attempts, and refused to answer any of the serious questions we have asked. Unfortunately, Mr Schultz has given us no choice but to subpoena him.”The move came after 44 employees at Starbucks headquarters in Seattle and 22 additional anonymous employees signed on to a petition calling on the company to reverse a return-to-office mandate and “to commit to a policy of neutrality and respect federal labor laws by agreeing to follow fair election principles, and allow store partners, whether pro- or anti-union, to decide for themselves, free from fear, coercion, and intimidation.”Starbucks condemned for ‘intimidation’ of US union organizersRead moreA Republican US congressman from Texas reportedly faces censure from his state party this weekend, because he:
      Voted in support of same-sex marriage.
      Voted for a gun safety measure introduced in response to the Uvalde elementary school shooting, in which 19 children and two adults were killed.
      Voted against the Republican House majority’s rules package.
      The San Antonio Report details proceedings against Tony Gonzales, who won the 23rd congressional district in 2020. It said he did not immediately comment.For the San Antonio Report (tagline, “Nonprofit Journalism for an Informed Community”), Andrea Drusch describes other points on which Gonzales has angered his own party, including “numerous complaints about [his] approach to border security, such as repeating ‘the Democratic canard that supporters of border security are anti-immigrant’”.A censure vote is expected on Saturday, Drusch reports, adding: “If the resolution is successful, members of the [State Republican Executive Committee] would be able to choose between several options to punish Gonzales, according to party rules.“They could simply discourage Gonzales from running for reelection as a Republican, or they could lift the restriction on party officials campaigning against him, as is required for current GOP officeholders.“Perhaps of greater consequence, they also could prohibit Gonzales from receiving financial help from the party.”Among expert reactions to the news that the Department of Justice says Donald Trump does not have immunity in civil cases relating to January 6, this from Norm Eisen, a Brookings fellow, CNN analyst and former ethics tsar in the Obama White House, is interesting:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}DoJ has just filed a brief rejecting Trump’s claim (in a civil case) that he is absolutely immune from legal accountability [over his] attempted coup … [The brief is] important in its own right – and because signals weakness of his likely defense in the coming criminal case in Georgia.The case in Georgia concerns Trump’s attempted election subversion there. Indictments are believed to be imminent, not least because the foreperson of the grand jury which considered the case dropped very large hints last week.‘A big freaking deal’: the grand jury that investigated Trump election pressureRead moreDana Nessel, the Democratic attorney general of Michigan, said earlier she was among targets of a man charged with threatening to kill state officials who are Jewish.“The FBI has confirmed I was a target of the heavily armed defendant in this matter,” Nessel wrote. “It is my sincere hope that the federal authorities take this offense just as seriously as my Hate Crimes and Domestic Terrorism Unit takes plots to murder elected officials.”The Associated Press reports that Jack Carpenter III, of Tipton, Michigan, tweeted on 17 February that he was returning to his home state to “carry out the punishment of death to anyone” who is Jewish in Michigan government “if they don’t leave, or confess, and now that kind of problem. Because I can legally do that, right?”According to the criminal complaint against Carpenter, he also declared a new country – “New Israel” – around his home.He was arrested in Texas four days later. According to prosecutors, when Carpenter was “arrested in his vehicle, [officers] found approximately a half-dozen firearms and ammunition”.The complaint against Carpenter did not name any alleged targets.The US justice department has said Donald Trump is not entitled to absolute immunity in civil lawsuits related to the US Capitol attack on 6 January 2021, which he incited in an attempt to stop certification of his election loss to Joe Biden and which is now linked to nine deaths, including law enforcement suicides.Trump faces civil cases brought by congressional Democrats and US Capitol police officers who fought his supporters on January 6. His lawyers have urged dismissal. A Washington DC appeals court asked the Department of Justice for its opinion.Trump argued that he could not be sued for statements made before the riot, when he was still president, because presidents enjoy wide-ranging protections when performing their official duties.Government lawyers disagreed, saying in a new court filing: “Speaking to the public on matters of public concern is a traditional function of the presidency, and the outer perimeter of the President’s Office includes a vast realm of such speech.“But that traditional function is one of public communication. It does not include incitement of imminent private violence.“In the United States’ view, such incitement of imminent private violence would not be within the outer perimeter of the Office of the President of the United States.”Trump is the subject of an ongoing Department of Justice investigation, led by the special counsel Jack Smith. The House January 6 committee, which disbanded when Republicans took control after the midterms, made four criminal referrals of Trump to the DoJ.Lawyers for Trump have until 16 March to respond to the DoJ brief about civil cases.Gisele Barreto Fetterman, wife of the Pennsylvania Democratic senator John Fetterman, who remains hospitalised for treatment for depression, has responded to attacks from rightwing figures including the Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who claim she has pushed her husband too far.Barreto Fetterman tweeted: “In the worst moments of our lives, women are told it’s their fault. In case you need to hear it today: It’s. Not. Your. Fault. I will keep living and fighting with love. We all need more of it.”She accompanied her message with a link to a Washington Post column by Monica Hesse, under the headline “How Gisele Fetterman became the right wing’s favorite super villain”.Hesse’s column highlights Carlson’s segment on John Fetterman and Joe Biden on Tuesday, in which he said the senator was too ill and the president too old to fill their respective offices.Saying “a woman, a spouse, who loved her husband” would keep him away from campaigns, Carlson called Dr Jill Biden “a ghoulish, power-seeking creep”.His guest, Candace Owens, said: “Absolutely. These women are monsters.”Hesse cited comments from another Fox News host, Laura Ingraham (“Jill Biden and Gisele Fetterman should be ashamed of themselves”), radio host Jesse Kelly (“Who’s the bigger elder abuser, Jill Biden or Gisele Fetterman?”) and the rightwing Washington Examiner, which ran a column under the headline “Jill Biden and Gisele Fetterman are failing their husbands”, in which the writer said the two men were “arguably victims of terrible women”.Hesse wrote: “It’s not hard to guess why pundits are going after Jill and Gisele instead of Joe and John. Attacking someone who is ill or elderly simply because they are ill or elderly is beyond the pale in our culture (for now, at least), even for those pundits whose flexible morals usually find a way to drain-snake around any barricades of decency.“But by placing blame on the wives, these commentators get to spread harmful messages against the president and senator while having plausible deniability against charges of ableism. The commentators are not – heavens, no – throwing mud at these poor men. They are merely scolding the women who should know better. It’s ableism, with a little sexism, as a treat.”Read the whole column here.The annual Conservative Political Action Conference is happening outside Washington DC, but while Donald Trump will make an appearance just before it wraps up Saturday, many top Republicans are avoiding the event. These include the party’s leaders in Congress, and Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who is seen as the strongest challenger against the former president for the GOP’s presidential nomination next year. Up the road in Baltimore, House Democrats are plotting their strategies for the months to come, while awaiting word of whether Joe Biden plans to run for office again.Here’s what else has happened today so far:
      DeSantis outlined how he could take policies implemented in Florida national, and cause “a complete upheaval of the deep state,” as he put it.
      CPAC organizer Matt Schlapp does not want to talk about allegations he groped a Republican campaign staffer.
      Mike Pence is among Republicans giving CPAC a miss, and his (mutual) dislike for Trump is probably a big reason why.
      In more lighthearted news about Democratic presidents, the Associated Press reports Barack Obama is honoring the retirement of the woman behind one the most popular chants from his first presidential campaign:Marking the retirement of the woman credited with popularizing the chant “Fired up, ready to go!” that epitomized his campaigns, Barack Obama said her energy played a key role in lifting his spirits and his candidacy for president first time round.“It was early in my campaign, and I wasn’t doing that good,” Obama recalled in a video provided by the Obama Foundation, harking back to a 2007 campaign stop in Greenwood, South Carolina, on a dreary, rainy day.But the small crowd, Obama said, was transformed as Edith Childs led them in the rousing back-and-forth chant: “Fired up, ready to go!”“Leadership and power and inspiration can come from anywhere,” Obama said in the video to mark Childs’ retirement after 24 years on the Greenwood county council.“It just has to do with spirit, and nobody embodied that better than Edith.”Obama praises woman who popularized ‘fired up’ chant during 2008 campaignRead more More

    • 100 Shares139 Views

      in US Politics

      House ethics committee announces investigation into George Santos

      by

      House ethics committee announces investigation into George SantosBipartisan panel will look into alleged misconduct by Republican congressman who has admitted to lying about his résuméThe House ethics committee has opened an investigation into George Santos, the Republican lawmaker who admitted to lying about his résumé in his campaign to represent part of New York City’s suburbs in Congress’s lower chamber.A bipartisan statement from the committee’s GOP chair, Michael Guest, and the Democratic ranking member, Susan Wild, said the panel voted to create a subcommittee to look into alleged misconduct by Santos.‘We don’t know his real name’: George Santos’s unravelling web of liesRead moreThey specified it would investigate “whether Representative George Santos may have: engaged in unlawful activity with respect to his 2022 congressional campaign; failed to properly disclose required information on statements filed with the House; violated federal conflict of interest laws in connection with his role in a firm providing fiduciary services; and/or engaged in sexual misconduct towards an individual seeking employment in his congressional office”.Republican Dave Joyce will chair the subcommittee, alongside Democratic ranking member Susan Wild. They will be joined by Republican John Rutherford and Democrat Glenn Ivey.Representatives for Santos did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Santos had already removed himself from his committee assignments but otherwise has refused calls from Republicans in New York to step down from office. “The committee notes that the mere fact of establishing an investigative subcommittee does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred,” the statement said.On Tuesday Santos introduced his first bill, an attempt to reverse part of Donald Trump’s tax plan that limited how much homeowners could deduct in state and local property taxes, the New York Times reported.TopicsGeorge SantosUS politicsUS CongressRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

    • 188 Shares189 Views

      in US Politics

      Deal reached with Republicans to repeal Iraq war authorizations, says Schumer – as it happened

      by

      The Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said a deal has been reached with the GOP to repeal the 1991 and 2002 authorizations for use of military force against Iraq, which provided the congressional authority for America’s strikes against Saddam Hussein’s government, and the invasion that ultimately toppled him from power.In a speech on the Senate floor, Schumer said the foreign affairs committee would begin considering the measure next week.“There’s support on both sides of the aisle for this proposal. Because both Democrats and Republicans have come to the same conclusion: we need to put the Iraq war squarely behind us once and for all. And doing that means we should extinguish the legal authority that initiated the war to begin with,” the New York lawmaker said.Lawmakers from both parties have sought to repeal the authorizations for years, but never managed to do so. Punchbowl News reports that in the House, two of its most conservative Republican members are leading the charge to approve the repeals.The mystery of “Havana syndrome” continued, with US intelligence agencies concluding no foreign adversary was behind the debilitating attacks on its government officials overseas, but otherwise coming up with no answers for what so harmed their health. Meanwhile at the White House, Joe Biden introduced Julie Su, who he has nominated for a promotion to the labor department’s top post. If confirmed by the Senate, she would be the first Asian American cabinet secretary to serve since he took office two years ago.Here’s what else happened today:
      The Senate will consider legislation to revoke the 1991 and 2002 authorizations for use of military force against Iraq, its Democratic leader said.
      FBI agents in Washington tried to slow down the investigation into Donald Trump’s possession of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
      Top Democrats want Fox News to stop promoting Trump’s lies about the 2020 election.
      Attorney general Merrick Garland got into it with rightwing senator Ted Cruz over security for supreme court justices.
      The mute people in straitjackets wandering around the Capitol? Adam Kinzinger sent them.
      Elsewhere in the Capitol, things have gotten a bit weird:The House offices are filled with people silently walking the halls in straitjackets and light-up glasses.I asked if it’s a protest but they indicated they’re not allowed to speak. pic.twitter.com/Q6Lb7NQDh9— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) February 28, 2023
      That was from yesterday. Today, the white-clad performers were back, this time displaying a QR code that Axios used to figure out who was behind them: Adam Kinzinger. The retired House lawmaker was one of two Republicans to serve on the January 6 committee, but ultimately decided not to run for another term and left Congress at the end of last year.Now, he’s helming a campaign against political extremism, and told the website the performers’ uniforms and straitjackets were meant to send a message. “We call them ‘drones’ … They’re just kind of droning around, they really don’t have a purpose at the moment… because they just feel unrepresented. They feel like government is just kind of going along.” The whole point of their presence in the halls of the Capitol offices were to grab attention, he said, and satirize the “desperate need of every lawmaker and staffer there” to go viral on social media or appear on TV.Thus far, Kinzinger has spent $250,000 on the campaign’s launch, which also includes advertising on billboards and television. “I’m sure it’ll end up probably building to be even more,” Kinzinger told Axios.The Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said a deal has been reached with the GOP to repeal the 1991 and 2002 authorizations for use of military force against Iraq, which provided the congressional authority for America’s strikes against Saddam Hussein’s government, and the invasion that ultimately toppled him from power.In a speech on the Senate floor, Schumer said the foreign affairs committee would begin considering the measure next week.“There’s support on both sides of the aisle for this proposal. Because both Democrats and Republicans have come to the same conclusion: we need to put the Iraq war squarely behind us once and for all. And doing that means we should extinguish the legal authority that initiated the war to begin with,” the New York lawmaker said.Lawmakers from both parties have sought to repeal the authorizations for years, but never managed to do so. Punchbowl News reports that in the House, two of its most conservative Republican members are leading the charge to approve the repeals.Joe Manchin, the Democratic senator whose hostility to aggressively fighting climate change and some social aid programs infuriated progressives, remains coy about whether he will stand for another term in 2024, Punchbowl News reports.Try and decode this:Asked if he’ll run for re-election, Manchin says “I will be involved.”— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) March 1, 2023
      Love him or hate him, the truth is that Manchin’s presence has allowed Democrats to control the Senate since January 2021 – and few in the party believe that voters in red-state West Virginia would replace him with another Democrat if he does not run again.As he testifies before the Senate judiciary committee, it’s become clear what Republicans are using as their attack line of the day against attorney general Merrick Garland.GOP senators at the hearing are accusing him of ignoring the security concerns of conservative supreme court justices, who were the target of protests outside their homes, particularly around the time of their decision to overturn Roe v Wade. Case in point, here’s Republican Tom Cotton of Arkansas’s exchange with Garland:Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) asks Attorney General Merrick Garland why the DoJ wouldn’t arrest protesters outside Supreme Court justices’ houses when the department devoted time to prosecuting January 6th insurrectionists.Garland: “Our priority is violence and threats of violence.” pic.twitter.com/Oqksj0TbaQ— The Recount (@therecount) March 1, 2023
      Last year, Congress agreed to pay for more security for supreme court justices and their families in a measure approved by bipartisan votes.Our world affairs editor, Julian Borger, considers the state of US-China relations, and views about US-China relations from both sides of the aisle in DC, a day after the first hearing of the House China committee…The Biden administration has settled on the ambiguous phrase “pacing challenge” to characterise Beijing’s place in its global outlook, but the newly formulated House China committee expressed impatience with such delicacy at its first hearing on Tuesday.“We may call this a ‘strategic competition’,” said Mike Gallagher, the committee’s Republican chairman. “But this is not a polite tennis match. This is an existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st century, and the most fundamental freedoms are at stake.”The ranking Democrat, Raja Krishnamoorthi, said both Republican and Democratic administrations had underestimated the threat posed by China and called for a policy built around deterrence.“We do not want a war with the PRC [People’s Republic of China], not a cold war, not a hot war, we don’t want a ‘clash of civilizations’. But, we seek a durable peace. And that is why we have to deter aggression,” Krishnamoorthi said.Here’s Lauren Gambino’s report on that first committee hearing:‘Time is not on our side’: Congress panel says tackling China defines next centuryRead moreSpeaking of Trump’s election subversion and the events of January 6, Politico is first to report a new move by Liz Cheney, the Wyoming Republican and member of GOP royalty who stood up to Trump, vice-chaired the House January 6 committee and lost her seat in Congress to a Trump loyalist as a result.Cheney is joining the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia as a professor of practice, Politico reports, a move due to be announced today. The daughter of the former congressman, defense secretary and vice-president Dick Cheney will “offer guest lectures in classes and public events as well as participate in research”.Liz Cheney said: “There are many threats facing our system of government and I hope my work with the Center for Politics and the broader community at the University of Virginia will contribute to finding lasting solutions that not only preserve but strengthen our democracy.”The other Republican who sat on the January 6 committee, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, retired from Congress rather than face losing his seat to a Trumper.Politico now reports that he is launching “a nationwide campaign urging voters to reject extreme candidates on both sides of the aisle ahead of the 2024 election”..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The centerpiece of the campaign is a nearly six-minute-long video titled Break Free, inspired by Apple’s 1984 Super Bowl ad about escaping the conformity of non-Apple computers. In the political ad’s twist, people are forced to wear blue- and red-tinted goggles showing them divisive images and broadcasts from a Big Brother-type character until they take them off and escape. A monologue from Kinzinger urges Americans to reject political extremes.”Here’s more about the 1984 Apple ad:The Apple Super Bowl ad that announced the future was hereRead moreAnd here’s an interesting nugget about Cheney: her defiance of Trump was in part informed and inspired by her reading of Lincoln on the Verge, a 2020 book by the historian and sometime Guardian contributor Ted Widmer which you should definitely read. Here’s some lunchtime reading on that:‘What it means to be an American’: Abraham Lincoln and a nation dividedRead moreDonald Trump has responded to news of Rupert Murdoch’s extraordinary deposition in Dominion Voter Systems’ billion-dollar defamation suit against Fox News.The deposition concerns the repetition by Fox News hosts of the lie spread by Trump and his advisers and allies that Joe Biden’s 2020 election win was the result of voter fraud, specifically voter fraud supposedly carried out using Dominion machines in extraordinarily outlandish ways.The Trump response is, predictably, furious and filled with a characteristic disregard for the truth:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}If Rupert Murdoch honestly believes that the Presidential Election of 2020, despite MASSIVE amounts of proof to the contrary, was not Rigged & Stolen, then he & his group of MAGA Hating Globalist RINOS should get out of the News Business as soon as possible, because they are aiding & abetting the DESTRUCTION OF AMERICA with FAKE NEWS. Certain BRAVE & PATRIOTIC Fox News Hosts, who he scorns and ridicules, got it right. He got it wrong. THEY SHOULD BE ADMIRED & PRAISED, NOT REBUKED & FORSAKEN!!!That was delivered, of course, via Truth Social, Trump’s social media platform which he set up after being booted off Twitter for inciting the deadly January 6 attack on Congress.For some further and rather more temperate reading, here’s Charles Kaiser’s look at why the Dominion suit is such a serious problem for Murdoch and Fox News:How Dominion Voting Systems filing proves Fox News was ‘deliberately lying’Read moreAnd here’s Ed Pilkington’s look at the Murdoch deposition … and why it is such a serious problem too:Stunning Rupert Murdoch deposition leaves Fox News in a world of troubleRead moreThe mystery of “Havana syndrome” continues, with US intelligence agencies concluding no foreign adversary was behind the debilitating attacks on its government officials overseas, but otherwise coming up with no answers for what so harmed their health. Meanwhile at the White House, Joe Biden introduced Julie Su, who he nominated for a promotion to lead the labor department. If confirmed by the Senate, she would be the first Asian American cabinet secretary to serve since he took office two years ago.Here’s what else has happened today so far:
      FBI agents in Washington tried to slow down the investigation into Donald Trump’s possession of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
      Top Democrats want Fox News to stop promoting Trump’s lies about the 2020 election.
      Attorney general Merrick Garland got into it with rightwing senator Ted Cruz over security for supreme court justices.
      Joe Biden is cheering news that drugmaker Eli Lilly will drop the price of insulin:Huge news.Last year, we capped insulin prices for seniors on Medicare, but there was more work to do.I called on Congress – and manufacturers – to lower insulin prices for everyone else.Today, Eli Lilly is heeding my call. Others should follow. https://t.co/Kv57KFATe9— President Biden (@POTUS) March 1, 2023
      As is Jaime Harrison, chair of the Democratic National Committee:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Thanks to the leadership of President Joe Biden, Americans across the country will no longer be forced to pay astronomical prices for the life-saving insulin they need. Make no mistake: Eli Lilly’s decision to cap its insulin prices at $35 a month is a direct result of President Biden calling on drug manufacturers to lower insulin prices for everyone else, after Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act to cap insulin costs for seniors on Medicare, which every single Republican in Congress voted against. While Democrats’ fight to bring down costs for American families, MAGA Republicans have threatened to try and repeal the Inflation Reduction Act and raise drug prices for millions of Americans.”Attorney general Merrick Garland usually presents a placid facade in public, but in today’s Senate judiciary committee oversight hearing, Republican Ted Cruz managed to get the top prosecutor’s back up.The Texas lawmaker hammered Garland about why US Marshals did not stop protesters outside the homes of supreme court justices who voted last year to overturn Roe v Wade. Republicans have used the arrest of California man who allegedly plotted to murder conservative justice Brett Kavanaugh to argue that the demonstrators presented a threat to justices, and that the Biden administration did little to stop it.Here’s the exchange:Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and AG Garland go back and forth over protesters outside SCOTUS justices’ homes.Cruz: “How did you choose not to enforce this statute?”Garland: “The marshals on scene …”Cruz: “Marshals don’t make that decision.”Garland: “They do make the decision!” pic.twitter.com/FlPLy8etU3— The Recount (@therecount) March 1, 2023 More

    • 113 Shares129 Views

      in US Politics

      Biden administration urges Congress to renew warrantless surveillance law

      by

      Biden administration urges Congress to renew warrantless surveillance lawSection 702 cast as an essential tool to gather intelligence about terrorists and other foreign targets located overseasThe Biden administration has formally urged Congress to reauthorize a high-profile warrantless surveillance program, warning in a letter to top lawmakers that allowing the provision to expire could sharply limit the intelligence on foreign threats and targets the government collects.The law – named section 702 – allows the US government to collect the communications of targeted foreigners abroad by compelling service providers like Google to produce copies of messages and internet data, or networks like Verizon to intercept and turn over phone call and message data.Biden administration under pressure as Israel-Palestine violence escalatesRead moreBut the law is controversial because it allows the government to incidentally collect messages and phone data of Americans without a court order if they interacted with the foreign target, even though the law prohibits section 702 from being used by the NSA to specifically target US citizens.The administration’s efforts to reauthorize section 702 as it currently stands could face increased resistance this year, with Republicans on the House judiciary committee sharing Donald Trump’s distrust of intelligence agencies and past FBI errors in using the warrantless surveillance authority.To that end, the administration moved to cast the provision that would otherwise expire at the end of 2023 as an essential tool to gather intelligence about terrorists, weapons proliferators, hackers and other foreign targets located overseas who use US telecommunication providers.“The information acquired using Section 702 plays a key role in keeping the United States, its citizens, and its allies safe,” the Attorney General Merrick Garland and the director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, wrote in the letter sent Monday. “There is no way to replicate Section 702’s speed, reliability, specificity and insight.”Congress enacted section 702 as part of a 2008 amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 that legalized the kind of surveillance used in the secret “Stellarwind” warrantless wiretapping program authorized by George Bush after the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks.The provision continues to be used as a counterintelligence tool, the letter said, and played a role in the drone strike last year that killed al-Qaida leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri. Section 702 information remains a large portion of the presidential daily brief, a source familiar with the matter added.But the government has moved to use the full scope of the powers from section 702, including as it applies to US citizens.When the NSA collects incidental intercepts between foreign targets and Americans, it generally stores the raw messages for five years in a searchable database where agents can use Americans’ identifiers – like names, email addresses, phone numbers and social security numbers – to filter results.The database is also accessible to the FBI for domestic investigations in certain circumstances, in a practice decried by civil liberties groups as a “back door search loophole” to the fourth amendment requirement that the government obtain search warrants to access Americans’ private communications.For Americans’ information, the NSA, CIA and National Counterterrorism Center need a reason to believe the surveillance would reveal information about foreign intelligence. Since 2018, the FBI has needed a court order to review anything in criminal investigations with no link to national security.The recent requirement for the FBI came in part after an inspector general report found repeated errors and omissions during its Russia investigation in applications for FISA wiretaps against Trump 2016 campaign aide Carter Page – though the authority for that kind of wiretapping is not the one that is expiring.The FBI missteps with Page has led Trump allies on Capitol Hill, most notably the Republican chair of the House judiciary committee Jim Jordan who shares jurisdiction over FISA with the intelligence committee, to tell Fox News last year: “I think we should not even reauthorize FISA.”The letter to top lawmakers came as the head of the US justice department’s national security division and former FBI official Matthew Olsen made the case for reauthorizing section 702 in remarks at the Brookings Institute in Washington, DC.“Its value cannot be overstated,” Olsen said. “Without 702, we will lose indispensable intelligence for our decision makers and warfighters, as well as those of our allies. And we have no fallback authority that could come close to making up for that loss.”TopicsBiden administrationSurveillanceUS politicsUS CongressnewsReuse this content More

    • 188 Shares129 Views

      in US Politics

      Supreme court justices appear skeptical about Biden’s student debt relief plan – as it happened

      by

      The supreme court’s conservative majority seemed sympathetic today to arguments that Joe Biden’s attempt to cancel some student debt under a two-decade old federal law was an unconstitutional expansion of power, Bloomberg News reports.The court today heard two cases challenging the program Biden announced last year, one filed by a group of Republican-led states, and the other by two people who sued because they were left out of the program. According to Bloomberg, several of the court’s six conservatives judges expressed skepticism to the government’s argument that the Covid-19 pandemic constituted the sort of emergency that would allow debt cancellation under a 2003 law.Here’s more from the report:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}As the court heard two cases Tuesday, Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested he is wary of expanding presidential powers during national emergencies. The Biden administration argues that the student loan forgiveness program is a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
      “Some of the biggest mistakes in the court’s history were deferring to assertions of executive or emergency power,” Kavanaugh said. “Some of the finest moments in the court’s history were pushing back against presidential assertions of emergency powers.”
      Chief Justice John Roberts suggested Congress didn’t authorize the president to unilaterally take a step with such enormous financial implications for millions of Americans.
      “We’re talking about half a trillion dollars and 43 million Americans. How does that fit under the normal understanding of modifying?” Roberts said, referring to a key word in the 2003 law at the center of the case.
      The law, known as the Heroes Act, says the secretary can “waive or modify” provisions to ensure that debtors “are not placed in a worse position financially” because of a national emergency.
      Roberts likened the case to the court’s 5-4 decision that blocked the Trump administration from ending a program shielding hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants from deportation. Roberts joined the court’s liberal wing in the majority in that 2020 case.Joe Biden’s plan to relieve some student loan debt may soon be struck down by conservative supreme court justices, who sounded skeptical of the government’s argument that the program was permitted under federal law. Elsewhere, Florida governor Ron DeSantis still has not said if he will run for president, but plans to travel to the states that vote first in the Republican nomination process. It seems a formal announcement is just a matter of time.Here’s what else has happened today so far:
      The House foreign affairs committee is holding a hearing about China’s global influence, ahead of this evening’s primetime session of a special panel to examine Beijing’s competition with the United States.
      GOP House speaker Kevin McCarthy will make about 40,000 hours of surveillance footage from January 6 available to the public, after sparking furor by releasing the video to Tucker Carlson.
      The House Republican “weaponization” committee plans to scrutinize the Twitter files.
      A Florida Republican lawmaker wants to formally terminate the state’s Democratic party.
      The Biden White House may soon get its first Asian-American cabinet secretary.
      In a House armed services committee hearing today on America’s military aid to Ukraine, Matt Gaetz, a rightwing lawmaker who is opposed to arming Kyiv, thought he had backed a top defense department official into a corner.In questioning Colin Kahl, the defense department’s undersecretary for policy, Gaetz cited a report that indicated the Azov battalion had received American weapons for years. Founded in 2014, the unit is controversial because some of its early members held far-right views, though commanders say it has since moved away from that ideology.The problem? The report Gaetz cited was published in the Global Times, an English-language publication of the Chinese Communist party.In the polite fashion of a congressional witness, Kahl called out Gaetz for falling for what he said was “Beijing’s propaganda”. You can watch the exchange in the clip below, around the three-minute mark:Rep. Matt Gaetz asks about Global Times Investigative report.@DOD_Policy Kahl: “Is this the Global Times from China?”@RepMattGaetz: “No, this is well…yeah, it might be. Yeah…”Kahl: “I don’t take Beijing’s propaganda at face value.”Gaetz: “Fair enough.” pic.twitter.com/9XQewKdZeA— CSPAN (@cspan) February 28, 2023
      Tucker Carlson’s staff was allowed to view the 40,000-plus hours of surveillance footage Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy handed over, but needed permission to copy any video, CBS News reports.Carlson’s employees “may request any particular [video] clips they may need, then we’ll make sure there’s nothing sensitive, nothing classified, including escape routes,” according to Barry Loudermilk, the Republican chair of a subcommittee under the House committee on administration. “We don’t want al Qaeda to know certain things.”McCarthy’s decision to provide the footage to Carlson – a popular Fox News commentator who has downplayed the attack by Donald Trump’s supporters on the Capitol – sparked fury among Democrats, who argued the footage could compromise Congress’s security arrangements.McCarthy has said he will soon make the footage public, but today told reporters he wanted to first give Carlson exclusive access:.@GarrettHaake asked @SpeakerMcCarthy why he gave Jan 6 security footage to Tucker Carlson.MCCARTHY: “Have you ever had an exclusive? Because I see it on your networks all the time. So he’ll have an exclusive, then I’ll give it out to the entire country.” pic.twitter.com/2zsnKmUb4V— Kyle Stewart (@KyleAlexStewart) February 28, 2023
      The Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is calling for the testimony of Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw, after one of the freight rail company’s trains derailed in East Palestine, Ohio earlier this month and spilled toxic chemicals:Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer calls on Alan Shaw, the CEO of Norfolk Southern, to testify following the train derailment disaster in East Palestine, Ohio:“Mr. Shaw, you have an obligation — obligation — after what happened to testify before the Senate.” pic.twitter.com/h6acw8EDYL— The Recount (@therecount) February 28, 2023
      The supreme court’s conservative majority seemed sympathetic today to arguments that Joe Biden’s attempt to cancel some student debt under a two-decade old federal law was an unconstitutional expansion of power, Bloomberg News reports.The court today heard two cases challenging the program Biden announced last year, one filed by a group of Republican-led states, and the other by two people who sued because they were left out of the program. According to Bloomberg, several of the court’s six conservatives judges expressed skepticism to the government’s argument that the Covid-19 pandemic constituted the sort of emergency that would allow debt cancellation under a 2003 law.Here’s more from the report:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}As the court heard two cases Tuesday, Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested he is wary of expanding presidential powers during national emergencies. The Biden administration argues that the student loan forgiveness program is a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
      “Some of the biggest mistakes in the court’s history were deferring to assertions of executive or emergency power,” Kavanaugh said. “Some of the finest moments in the court’s history were pushing back against presidential assertions of emergency powers.”
      Chief Justice John Roberts suggested Congress didn’t authorize the president to unilaterally take a step with such enormous financial implications for millions of Americans.
      “We’re talking about half a trillion dollars and 43 million Americans. How does that fit under the normal understanding of modifying?” Roberts said, referring to a key word in the 2003 law at the center of the case.
      The law, known as the Heroes Act, says the secretary can “waive or modify” provisions to ensure that debtors “are not placed in a worse position financially” because of a national emergency.
      Roberts likened the case to the court’s 5-4 decision that blocked the Trump administration from ending a program shielding hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants from deportation. Roberts joined the court’s liberal wing in the majority in that 2020 case.Biden administration officials faced tough questioning from both Republicans and Democrats on the House foreign affairs committee during today’s hearing on US-Chinese relations.Congressman Brad Sherman, a Democrat of California, criticized China for failing to cooperate with investigators seeking to determine the origins of Covid-19, and he pressed Daniel Kritenbrink, the US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, on why the state department had not done more to condemn China’s “obfuscation”.“They failed to cooperate. They failed to come clean,” Sherman said. “The state department has done almost nothing to tell the world how China is responsible, not maybe for the virus, but certainly for their obfuscation and failure to cooperate afterwards.”Kritenbrink replied, “We have long stated that China needs to do a better job of being transparent.”Shortly after that tense exchange, congresswoman Sara Jacobs, a Democrat of California, asked Kritenbrink how the state department defines competition with China and how US officials can ensure that such competition does not devolve into conflict.“We’re competing for and fighting for the kind of region that we want to live in,” Kritenbrink said. “We talk about a free and open region where countries can freely pursue their interests and where people in those countries can enjoy freedom.”Jacobs replied, “I just think it’s really important that we stay focused on those end goals because China’s not going anywhere. We don’t want to feed into the [Chinese Communist Party’s] talking points around us just being out to weaken China for the sake of weakening them indefinitely.”Julie Su has received Joe Biden’s nomination to become the next labor secretary, the White House announced.If Su wins the Senate’s required approval, she would be the Biden administration’s first cabinet-level secretary of Asian-American descent. She would succeed labor secretary Marty Walsh, who is now leading the National Hockey League players’ union after becoming the first cabinet secretary to depart Biden’s White House.The White House’s announcement Tuesday contained a statement from Biden, which referred to Su, who once served as California’s labor secretary, as a longtime “champion for workers” and “a critical partner” to Walsh.“She helped avert a national rail shutdown, improved access to good jobs free from discrimination through my Good Jobs Initiative, and is ensuring that the jobs we create in critical sectors like semiconductor manufacturing, broadband and healthcare are good-paying, stable and accessible jobs for all,” Biden said.In 2021, the Senate appointed Su as Biden’s deputy labor secretary in a vote along party lines. After last fall’s midterms, Biden’s Democratic party controls the Senate by a 51-49 margin.The Democratic Pennsylvania senator John Fetterman is out of work for a few weeks at least while the staff of Walter Reed medical center in Washington DC treats him for depression. But Biden’s vice-president Kamala Harris can serve as a tie breaker for any votes that require it.Biden’s cabinet was the first in 20 years without a secretary with Asian American or Pacific Island heritage. Asian-American legislators and advocate had pushed for Biden to nominate Su to the labor secretary’s role after he defeated Donald Trump in the 2020 election, and again pushed for her to be put up for the position after Walsh’s departure.Testifying before the House foreign affairs committee this morning, Daniel Kritenbrink, US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said that China represents “our most consequential geopolitical challenge”.“It is the only competitor with both the intent and increasingly the economic, diplomatic, military and technological capability to reshape the international order,” Kritenbrink said.“The scale and the scope of the challenge posed by the [People’s Republic of China] as it becomes more repressive at home and more aggressive abroad will test American diplomacy like few issues we have seen.”Kritenbrink noted that the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, met with his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference earlier this month. In that discussion, Blinken condemned China’s “unacceptable and irresponsible violation of US sovereignty” with its use of a surveillance balloon shot down by American fighter jets on 4 February off the coast of South Carolina, Kritenbrink said. Blinken also warned China about the potential consequences of providing material support to Russia in its war against Ukraine.“At the same time, the secretary reiterated our commitment to maintaining open lines of communication at all times, so as to reduce the risk of miscalculation that could lead to conflict,” Kritenbrink said.“In coordination with US government departments and agencies, this committee and colleagues across Capitol Hill, we’re confident we can sustain the resources and policies needed to prevail in our competition with the PRC.”It seems the figurative wipeout of the Florida Democratic party in the midterm elections was not enough for the state’s Republicans, who on Tuesday introduced legislation to have it formally terminated.Unashamedly billed “The Ultimate Cancel Act” by its sponsor, vociferous conservative state senator Blaise Ingoglia, the bill requires Florida’s division of elections to decertify any political party that has “previously advocated for, or been in support of, slavery or involuntary servitude.”In a press release accompanying Senate Bill 1248, Ingoglia, who tweets using the handle GovGoneWild and is a devotee of Florida’s far-right governor Ron DeSantis, insists that because the Democratic party adopted “pro-slavery positions” in at least five conventions during the 19th century, it has no place in politics in 2023 or beyond.Additionally, the bill would automatically transfer the registrations of Florida’s 4.9m registered Democratic voters to no-party affiliates.Democrats in Florida lost by huge margins in 2022, now Republicans here want to eliminate the party pic.twitter.com/zQ80TmnrkG— Matt Dixon (@Mdixon55) February 28, 2023
      “For years now, leftist activists have been trying to ‘cancel’ people and companies for things they have said and done in the past,” Ingoglia claims in the release, which also cites the removal of controversial Civil War-era statues and memorials.The release, tweeted by Politico’s Florida bureau chief Matt Dixon, goes on to say: “Using this standard, it would be hypocritical not to cancel the Democratic party itself for the same reason.”It remains to be seen if Ingoglia’s bill gains any traction. But with a supermajority in both houses of Florida’s legislature, Republicans certainly have the numbers to pass it.Joe Biden’s plan to relieve some student loan debt is having its day at the supreme court, where conservative groups are arguing to do away with the proposal. However, there are signs at least one conservative justice may believe the individuals and states trying to undo the Biden administration’s signature program for debt-burdened Americans don’t have standing to sue. Elsewhere, Florida governor Ron DeSantis still hasn’t said if he will run for president, but plans to travel to the states that vote first in the Republican nomination process. It seems a formal announcement is just a matter of time.Here’s what else has happened today so far:
      The House foreign affairs committee is holding a hearing about China’s global influence, ahead of this evening’s primetime session of a special panel to examine Beijing’s competition with the United States.
      GOP House speaker Kevin McCarthy will make about 40,000 hours of surveillance footage from January 6 available to the public, after sparking furor by releasing the video to Tucker Carlson.
      The House Republican “weaponization” committee will scrutinize the Twitter files.
      As they heard two cases intended to stop Joe Biden’s student debt cancelation program this morning, some of the supreme court’s nine justices questioned whether conservatives suing over the program had the ability to do so.The court is currently dominated by conservatives, who hold a six-member majority that could upend the Biden administration’s plan to help Americans saddled with student loans. The questions justices pose to attorneys appearing before them in their hearings are no guarantees of how they will ultimately vote, but there are indications at least some conservatives are skeptical of the challengers, particularly Amy Coney Barrett.Here are what a few supreme court watchers saw in this morning’s arguments:I think this Supreme Court will likely do whatever’s necessary to abolish Biden’s student debt relief plan, but arguments aren’t going as well for the challengers as a LOT of people expected. Barrett sounds extremely skeptical on standing. The liberals are roasting Nebraska’s SG.— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) February 28, 2023
      Argument in the first student-debt case just wrapped up. There’s a clear majority of conservative justices to strike down Biden’s order on the merits. But it’s less clear if there’s one to overcome standing hurdles to get there. Barrett was pretty pointed in Qs for MO’s SG.— Matt Ford (@fordm) February 28, 2023
      Three liberals clearly against state standing and for Biden Admin on the merits.Barrett unsympathetic to state standing, ambiguous on merits.Alito clearly for state standing, against Biden on merits.Roberts, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kav against Biden on merits, quiet on standing.— Mike Sacks (@MikeSacksEsq) February 28, 2023 More

    • 150 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

      Ohio toxic train derailment to face congressional scrutiny – as it happened

      by

      The derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals that may have done long-lasting, potentially life-changing damage to a small Ohio community is certainly the type of calamity Congress is equipped to look into.And on the surface, the hearings announced by a House and a Senate committee thus far seem intent on doing just that.“Thousands of trains carrying hazardous materials, like the one that derailed in Ohio, travel through communities throughout the nation each day. Every railroad must reexamine its hazardous materials safety practices to better protect its employees, the environment, and American families and reaffirm safety as a top priority,” Maria Cantwell, the Democratic chair of the Senate commerce committee, wrote in a letter sent to the heads of the US’s top freight rail companies.Republican House commerce committee chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Bill Johnson, who leads the environment, manufacturing and critical materials subcommittee and also represents the district encompassing East Palestine, addressed their letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Michael Regan.They asked for “information to our Committee regarding the EPA’s overall response, the controlled burn of some of the rail cars, and its testing plan to ensure people are kept safe”.Both sound like serious efforts to get to the bottom of the derailment, and they may well be. But they’re also opportunities for each party to make the case that the other is responsible for laying the groundwork for the disaster. For Republicans, they’ll argue the buck stops with Joe Biden and the leaders he’s chosen for the EPA and transportation department. For Democrats, don’t be surprised if they bring up Donald Trump, arguing his deregulation policies were friendly to the rail industry at the expense of the communities around their tracks.The Ohio train derailment found its way on to Congress’s agenda, where House and Senate lawmakers said they are determined to get answers, but will also probably use the accident as a cudgel against their political opponents. Across the street from the Capitol at the supreme court, justices have agreed to hear the Biden administration’s appeal of a lower court ruling that would have defanged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.Here’s what else happened today:
      TikTok could be banned across the United States, if a bill House Republicans are pursuing becomes law.
      Primetime TV viewers can tune in tomorrow to a congressional hearing on the Chinese Communist party and how its policies affect the United States.
      Treasury secretary Janet Yellen has made a surprise visit to Kyiv on the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
      Marianne Williamson is back, becoming the first Democrat to challenge Joe Biden for the presidential nomination.
      Democrat Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA analyst who recently won re-election in one of America’s toughest House districts, is jumping into the Michigan Senate race.
      Elissa Slotkin, a Democratic House lawmaker from Michigan who won re-election last year in one of the most hotly contested races of the cycle, announced she will stand for the state’s open Senate seat in 2024.“I’m running for Senate because I believe that we need a new generation of leaders that thinks differently, works harder, and never forgets that we are public servants,” Slotkin wrote in an email to supporters. She would replace Debbie Stabenow, Michigan’s Democratic senator who has opted not to seek another term.A former CIA analyst who worked in the defense department under Barack Obama, Slotkin banked heavily on her support of abortion rights in her successful run for election last November.John Fetterman’s office has released an update on the senator’s health after the Pennsylvania Democrat earlier this month checked himself into a hospital to be treated for clinical depression.“There’s no real news to report except that John is doing well, working with the wonderful doctors, and remains on a path to recovery,” his communications director, Joe Calvello, said in a statement.“He is visiting with staff and family daily, and his staff are keeping him updated on Senate business and news,” Calvello said.“We understand the intense interest in John’s status and especially appreciate the flood of well-wishes. However, as we have said this will be a weeks-long process and while we will be sure to keep folks updated as it progresses, this is all there is to give by way of an update.”At today’s White House press briefing, national security council spokesperson John Kirby downplayed the energy department’s report into Covid-19’s origins, noting it represents the opinion of just one part of the US government:National Security Council’s John Kirby urges caution regarding the WSJ report that the Department of Energy believes, with “low confidence,” that COVID-19 leaked from a lab:“There is not a consensus right now in the U.S. government about exactly how COVID started.” pic.twitter.com/Gceirrwy6k— The Recount (@therecount) February 27, 2023
      There was more intelligence-related news this weekend, when the department of energy weighed in on the origins of Covid-19 and found it probably emerged from a laboratory, but could not say for sure. The conclusion will no doubt fuel the ongoing dispute over the pandemic’s origins and the extent to which China deserves blame. The Guardian’s Nicola Davis and Amy Hawkins took a closer look at what exactly the report says:What has the US energy department said about the origin of the Covid outbreak?According to the Wall Street Journal, an updated and classified 2021 US energy department report has concluded that the coronavirus behind the recent pandemic most likely emerged from a laboratory leak but not as part of a weapons programme.Does this report mean it is more likely Covid came from a lab?Not necessarily. The report’s conclusion runs counter to that from several scientific studies as well as reports by a number of other US intelligence agencies. What’s more, experts are unable to scrutinise the evidence the US energy department report is based on.How seriously should we take the US DoE’s Covid lab leak theory?Read moreThe top Democrats and Republicans in Congress and the leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees will receive a briefing tomorrow on the classified documents found in Donald Trump’s, Joe Biden’s and Mike Pence’s possessions.That’s the word from the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell:New: Gang of Eight will be briefed on Trump Mar-a-Lago, Biden and Pence docs and risk assessment tomorrow afternoon by ODNI, per sources.— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) February 27, 2023
      The Gang of Eight is an informal term for top lawmakers who are occasionally given classified briefings by the intelligence community. The group today encompasses speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy and the chamber’s top Democrat Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and his Republican counterpart Mitch McConnell, as well as the leaders of the chambers’ intelligence committees: Republican chair Michael Turner and Democratic ranking member Jim Himes in the House, and Democratic chair Mark Warner and Republican ranking member Marco Rubio in the Senate.Lawmakers, particularly in the Senate, have demanded a briefing from Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines ever since the Mar-a-Lago classified documents scandal became public last year. Their calls only grew louder as more documents turned up in Biden’s and Pence’s possession in the months that followed.The FBI recently arrested a Virginia man on allegations that he participated in the deadly US Capitol attack more than two years ago after matching a photo of the shoes he wore at the Capitol that day with a photo of him wearing the same shoes while doing a Crossfit workout, NBC News reporter Ryan J Reilly tweeted Monday.Also recently arrested by the FBI: Jan. 6 defendant Jeffrey Etter of Portsmouth, Virginia. They matched up the shoes he wore to the Capitol to a Crossfit photo. https://t.co/1qwNnNWhmg pic.twitter.com/1PxPaosQM3— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) February 27, 2023
      Jeffrey Etter, of Portsmouth, faces charges of illegally entering a restricted federal building as well as engaging in disorderly conduct at the Capitol, according to court documents filed on 22 February. There was no telling on Monday how long it might take for the case against him to be resolved.As of Monday, at least 1,000 people have been charged in connection with the Capitol attack, which a bipartisan congressional report linked to nine deaths, including the suicides of officers who were traumatized after securing control of the building, according to officials. More than 475 of those have pleaded guilty, and a smaller number have been convicted at trial.Supporters of Donald Trump who were trying to prevent the congressional certification of his defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential race staged the attack. Trump, who told his supporters to “fight like hell” on the day they targeted the Capitol, has not been among those charged in connection with the attack.The bestselling self-help author Marianne Williamson has announced that she is again running for president in 2024, becoming the first Democrat to sign up to challenge incumbent Joe Biden for the party’s nomination next year.Williamson, 70, ran in the 2020 race which saw Biden oust Donald Trump as president, bringing what the Associated Press described as “quirky spiritualism” to the campaign. In a Facebook post over the weekend that alluded to Trump’s White House victory in 2016 without mentioning him or how it was the Republican’s first time holding elected office, she argued that it was foolish “for anyone to think they can know who can win the presidency”.“I’m not putting myself through this again just to add to the conversation,” Williamson added in the post. “I’m running for president to help … bring forth a new beginning.”Williamson is sure to face the steepest of odds trying to win her party’s nomination over the sitting president. She is scheduled to kick off her campaign in Washington DC on Saturday.Biden hasn’t formally declared himself a candidate for re-election. But first lady Jill Biden gave one of the clearest indications yet on Friday that the president would seek office again, telling the AP in an interview that there is “pretty much” nothing left to do but set the time and place for the announcement.In a separate interview with CNN published on Monday, Jill Biden was asked if there was any chance her husband wouldn’t run. “Not in my book,” Jill Biden said.Jill Biden added that she was “all for it, of course”, when asked if she supported her 80-year-old husband’s search for a second term in the White House.The Ohio train derailment has found its way on to Congress’s agenda, where House and Senate lawmakers say they are determined to get answers, but will also probably use the accident as a cudgel against their political opponents. Across the street at the supreme court, justices have agreed to hear the Biden administration’s appeal to a ruling that would have defanged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.Here’s what else has happened today so far:
      TikTok could be banned across the United States, if a bill House Republicans are pursuing becomes law.
      Primetime TV viewers can tune in tomorrow to a congressional hearing on the Chinese Communist party and how its policies affect the United States.
      Treasury secretary Janet Yellen has made a surprise visit to Kyiv on the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
      After the East Palestine train derailment, Democrats have accused Donald Trump of laying the groundwork for the accident by deregulating the freight rail and chemicals industries during his presidency.But a Washington Post fact check of some of those arguments shows they don’t hold water, at least based on the information currently available. “From our analysis, none of the regulatory changes made during the Trump administration at this point can be cited as contributing to the accident,” the piece concludes.However, there does seem to be some difference of opinion on whether electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes could have made a difference in the crash. Barack Obama’s administration promulgated a rule that would have required this more sophisticated braking system on all “high hazard” trains. Trump put that rule on hold when he took office in 2017, and Joe Biden hasn’t reinstated it. Indeed, his chair of the National Transportation Safety Board Jennifer Homendy has said it would not have made a difference even if it had been in place.However, there’s this, from the Post’s fact check: “Cynthia Quarterman, who helped write the rule as administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration during the Obama administration, told The Fact Checker that if the rule had not been delayed and then shelved, she believes ECP brakes might have been widely adopted by industry and could have ended up on this train.”Last week, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin announced he was pulling out of New Start, its last major nuclear arms control treaty with the United States.Perhaps he spoke too soon. CNN reports that the state department says Russia was still complying with the treaty as recently as today:Kinda wild: Russia’s New START suspension hasn’t been officially affected yet, after Putin’s announcement last wk. “We’re still receiving notifications, as recently as today, under the treaty,” top State arms control official Mallory Stewart says, h/t @jmhansler.— Kylie Atwood (@kylieatwood) February 27, 2023
      Want to help Ukraine? Adopt an orphan. That’s the message from the leader of one non-profit, as the Guardian’s Ramon Antonio Vargas reports:Since Russian troops invaded Ukraine a little more than a year ago, some in the US have shown their support for the encroached country by volunteering to fight for it while others have called on politicians to equip the defenders with munitions and weapons.Randi Thompson is calling on Americans to ponder another way: aiding efforts to place Ukrainian children orphaned by the Russian invasion in new families within their country.Thompson is the president, chief executive officer and co-founder of the Los Angeles-based non-profit Kidsave, which is dedicated to connecting older children in institutionalized care around the world with families to adopt them. The group had worked in Ukraine for six years before the invasion by Russian forces on 24 February 2022 made a bad situation worse.Officials estimate there were more than 105,000 children across 700 orphanages, boarding schools and other institutions in Ukraine when the war there started – that’s more than 1% of the nation’s underage population and Europe’s highest rate of youth institutionalization.Numbers since then are harder to track as children have been evacuated and moved out of Ukraine’s institutionalized care for safety reasons. But there’s reason to think things have gotten only harder for Ukraine’s orphans.Ukrainian children orphaned by war ‘need a tremendous amount of help’Read more More

    • 175 Shares159 Views

      in US Politics

      Capitol Hill finds rare bipartisan cause in China – but it could pose problems

      by

      Capitol Hill finds rare bipartisan cause in China – but it could pose problemsExperts fear this moment of agreement in Washington could escalate tensions with Beijing and increase the risk of conflictIn the weeks since the US military shot down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon, Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill have spoken passionately about the need to more effectively compete with Beijing. A resolution condemning China for the balloon incident passed the House in an unanimous vote of 419 to 0.Joe Biden has similarly expressed hope that efforts to strengthen America’s global competitiveness in response to a rising China can unite Democrats and Republicans in an era defined by bitter partisanship.“Today, we’re in the strongest position in decades to compete with China or anyone else in the world,” Biden said in his State of the Union address earlier this month. “Let’s be clear: winning the competition with China should unite all of us.”The new House select committee on China will hold its first primetime public hearing on Tuesday, and the panel’s supporters are optimistic its work will provide a rare opportunity for bipartisan cooperation in the divided Congress.But while there’s widespread agreement among policymakers and lawmakers in Washington over the need to better compete with China, there is no prevailing consensus on how to do so. Some experts also fear this kumbaya moment in Washington could escalate tensions with Beijing and increase the risk of conflict.“There is a bipartisan consensus on the fact that China poses a broad challenge to the United States across multiple domains,” said Patricia Kim, an expert on US-China relations at the Washington-based Brookings Institution. “I don’t believe we have a clear consensus on the precise mix of policies that are necessary to address this challenge.”A committee walks the ‘fine line’Competitor or adversary? West struggles to define relationship with BeijingRead moreOne of Republican Kevin McCarthy’s first major victories after securing the House speakership (on the 15th ballot) was to create a new select committee examining competition between the US and China. The motion to form the committee was overwhelmingly approved in a 365 to 65 vote, with 146 Democrats joining all Republicans.“I’ve heard my colleagues on both sides say that the threat posed by Communist China is serious. I fully agree. This is an issue that transcends our political parties,” McCarthy said.The panel, officially named the House select committee on strategic competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist party, is broadly charged with examining a host of economic, security and human rights issues involving China.The panel will be led by congressman Mike Gallagher, a Republican of Wisconsin and prominent “China hawk”, who emphasized that it would work in a bipartisan fashion to expose the threats the CCP poses to US national security and economic interests. Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat of Illinois, will serve as the committee’s ranking member. The leaders have stressed that the target of their scrutiny is China’s ruling party, not its people, and hope their work yields policy and legislative recommendations that win support from lawmakers of both parties.Of course, partisan divisions will arise. Republicans increasingly depict China as an outright “adversary” intent on reshaping the international order while the the Biden administration and many Democrats ​have treaded more delicately, describing it as “our most consequential strategic competitor”.Republicans have repeatedly attacked Biden over his approach to Beijing, though members of both parties criticized the president’s handling of the balloon incident with some lawmakers accusing the White House of concealing information. And there have also been partisan disagreements about how the US should engage China over shared challenges such as the climate crisis.At the same time, some of the rhetoric from Gallagher and his Republican colleagues has alarmed Democratic members of the committee. Congressman Andy Kim, a Democrat of New Jersey, voiced concern after McCarthy and Gallagher co-signed a Fox News op-ed outlining a strategy to “win the new cold war” against China.“If Chair Gallagher keeps talking about this as a ‘new cold war’, that is not helpful,” Kim told NBC News. “There’s a fine line between deterrence and provocation, and you are crossing over that in a way that is only going to inflame and create greater escalatory challenges.”And there is fear that language casting China as America’s enemy will encourage anti-Asian sentiment amid a surge in hate incidents.“I have a lot of respect for Mike Gallagher in terms of how he’ll conduct the committee in a serious way, but it’s important to see how the conversations unfold,” committee member Ro Khanna, a Democrat of California, told the Guardian.“For those of us who are concerned about not devolving into a cold war or anti-Asian American sentiment, we have to be particularly vocal.”A transition is under wayOver the last decade, as the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, consolidated power at home, hope in Washington of improving US-China relations dimmed. Under Xi’s rule, the US has accused China of committing genocide against the Uyghurs and other Turkic and Islamic minority people in the country’s Xinjiang province.Xi has meanwhile overseen an expansive military buildup. This month, the Pentagon informed Congress that China now had more missile silos than the US, though the US has a much larger nuclear force than China.Amid rising fears of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a self-governed island that Beijing claims as its own, the US military has expanded its presence in Asia. Just this month, the US gained expanded access to four military bases in the Philippines.Meanwhile, US lawmakers, including former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, have enraged Beijing with visits to Taiwan in a show of support for the island’s democracy. Gallagher and Khanna made official trips to the capital city of Taipei this month for meetings with top political, national security and business leaders.The discovery of the suspected Chinese spy balloon sparked a diplomatic crisis that resulted in the cancellation of a long-planned trip to Beijing by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken. Just weeks prior, a top US military commander warned officers in a memo that his “gut” told him the US and China would be at war by 2025.Now US officials say China is considering supplying lethal weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine. China denies the claim, though that didn’t stop US national security adviser Jake Sullivan from telling CNN on Sunday that it would be “a bad mistake” for Chinese officials to do that. “China should want no part of it,” Sullivan said.In a sign of lawmakers’ hardening views on China, measures to confront Beijing on multiple fronts now routinely attract bipartisan support.Last year, Congress overwhelmingly approved sweeping legislation aimed at growing the nation’s domestic manufacturing and technology sectors to try to boost US competitiveness with China. Shortly thereafter, Biden introduced export restrictions on semiconductors in an effort to strangle China’s microchip sector.Congress also gave the Biden administration new authority to send Taiwan weapons​, though lawmakers say a spending dispute is slowing efforts to help the self-governing island fortify its defenses against China.Meanwhile, there is growing support for legislation that would ban the Chinese-owned video sharing platform TikTok that lawmakers say poses a security risk, as well as for efforts to hold China accountable over the country’s alleged abuses of Muslim minorities in its Xinjiang province.The US is turning from a strategy of integration with China to one of confrontation and competition, said Scott Kennedy, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. ​The sharp erosion in relations between the world’s largest economies​​, underscored by calls for an economic “decoupling”, has left multinational ​companies ​scrambling to adapt to the new geopolitical reality.“It’s a very fraught environment for companies to operate in,” Kennedy said. “They’ve become careful to a fault.”Spy balloon, UFO or Dragon Ball? Japan baffled by iron ball washed up on beachRead moreYet despite the rising tensions, he noted that the countries’ economies remain highly interdependent. Last year, trade between the US and China reached a record high of nearly $700bn.Bipartisanship without consensusAs US policymakers intensify their efforts to reorient the relationship between China and the US, critical questions remain about what that strategy will look like in practice.There is broad agreement that the US must decrease its reliance on Chinese-made goods and technologies, said Kim, the Brookings expert, but “there certainly isn’t a consensus on how much de-risking and decoupling is necessary to strike the right balance between national security concerns and upholding American values and principles that have long held dear the free flow of information, people, trade and open markets”.The House panel begins its work at a time of rising ​public ​hostility toward China. ​According to a survey by the Pew Research Center​, ​82% of Americans ​hold an unfavorable view of the country, ​more than twice the figure in 2012, when Xi came to power. In general, Republicans, more so than Democrats, tend to harbor more negative views of China and are more likely to support the US taking a more hardline approach to the country, it found.The committee’s hearings, meanwhile, will play out against the backdrop of a presidential campaign cycle, ​with Republicans already aiming to cast Biden as “weak” on China.Amid this heated political environment, some experts have emphasized the importance of avoiding a drumbeat to war with China. Matt Duss, a former foreign policy adviser to progressive Senator Bernie Sanders, complimented Biden’s overall handling of the balloon incident, but he admonished the administration’s “overreaction” in canceling Blinken’s trip.“The American people are going to take cues from their leaders on these issues,” said Duss, who is now a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “That makes it even more important for the administration and for others not to signal hysteria.”The US will soon mark 20 years since the invasion of Iraq, Duss noted; that vastly consequential and widely criticised decision was supported by members of both parties at the time.“Bipartisanship is good,” Duss said. “But bipartisanship behind bad policy is very bad.”TopicsUS CongressUS politicsEspionageChinaJoe BidenUS foreign policyfeaturesReuse this content More

    • 175 Shares159 Views

      in US Politics

      First lady signals Joe Biden will seek second presidential term – as it happened

      by

      First lady Jill Biden has given one of the clearest indications yet that Joe Biden will run for a second term, telling The Associated Press in an exclusive interview today that there’s “pretty much” nothing left to do but figure out the time and place for the announcement.Although Biden has long said that it’s his intention to seek reelection, he has yet to make it official, and he’s struggled to dispel questions about whether he’s too old to continue serving as president. Biden would be 86 at the end of a second term.“He says he’s not done,” the first lady said in Nairobi, the second and final stop of her five-day trip to Africa. “He’s not finished what he’s started. And that’s what’s important.”She added: “How many times does he have to say it for you to believe it?”Biden aides have said an announcement is likely to come in April, after the first fundraising quarter ends, which is around the time that Barack Obama officially launched his reelection campaign.First lady Jill Biden made clear she thinks her husband, Joe Biden, will stand for a second term – though we are still waiting for an announcement from the man himself. Otherwise, top American officials spent most of the day restating their support for Ukraine on the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion. Speaking before the UN security council, secretary of state Antony Blinken warned that anything less than Russia’s full withdrawal from the territory it seized will weaken the global body’s charter, while Biden highlighted the bipartisan nature of Washington’s support for Kyiv. Many Republicans do indeed support Ukraine’s cause – but others in the party argue it is a distraction from more pressing issues. This divide could prove crucial to the course of the war in the months to come.Here’s what else happened today:
      Blinken warned China against getting involved in the conflict by providing Russia with weapons.
      Kamala Harris condemned conservative efforts to block access to medication abortion nationwide.
      The American public is divided over how long to support Kyiv, with more Republicans preferring limits on US aid, and more Democrats in favor of helping them fight against Russia until the job is done.
      The Treasury announced new sanctions against Russian individuals and companies involved in the war effort, but such measures haven’t proven as successful as Washington has hoped.
      It turns out that Democrats in Congress have access to the 40,000 hours of footage Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy gave Tucker Carlson earlier this week.
      The White House has released a photo from earlier today, when Joe Biden marked the one-year anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine with its president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and the leaders of the G7, as America’s top allies are known.The group includes Canada, Germany, the European Union, Japan, Britain, France and Italy:Today, President Biden met with G7 Leaders and President Zelenskyy to continue coordinating our efforts to support Ukraine and hold Russia accountable for its war. pic.twitter.com/JDs4Z3geY4— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 24, 2023
      As Biden inches closer to announcing what is widely expected (most importantly, by his wife) to be his re-election campaign, a poll released earlier this week brought good news for his standing among Democrats.The NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll shows an even half of Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents believe the party has a better chance with Biden as the nominee, against 45% who think they’d be better off backing someone else. That’s an improvement for the president from November of last year, when it was roughly flipped: then, 54% wanted someone else, while a mere 38% backed Biden.The survey also had bad news for Donald Trump in his quest to be renominated for the presidency by the GOP. Among Republicans and independents who lean towards the party, 54% believe the GOP is best off with someone other than Trump as the nominee, while 42% thought the ex-president remained the best man for the job.Joe Biden will meet with congressional Democrats next week, Punchbowl News reports.His allies hold the majority in the Senate but lost control of the House following last November’s midterm elections, though only by a handful of seats. Punchbowl reports he will first meet with House Democrats during their annual retreat in Baltimore:Biden will speak to House Dems on Wednesday in Baltimore, @PeteAguilar announces https://t.co/qKpRM94FZe— John Bresnahan (@bresreports) February 24, 2023
      Then with senators:Schumer’s office says Biden will speak at a special Senate Dem caucus lunch next Thursday— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) February 24, 2023
      Earlier this week, Democrats erupted in fury when they found out that Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy handed over to Tucker Carlson 40,000 hours of video footage surveillance and other cameras in the Capitol picked up on January 6.The concern was not only that it could reveal details of the building’s security, but also that Carlson, a conservative firebrand who has repeatedly downplayed the severity of the insurrection before his audience of millions, would use the footage to distort what happened that day.As it turns out, Democratic leaders in Congress have access to that footage as well. Washington Post opinion columnist Greg Sargent confirmed as much from the Capitol police. In his column today, he argues that Democrats should fight fire with fire, and release the footage to news organizations in an attempt to counter whatever Carlson has planned for what he’s been given.Let’s take a quick dip into Trumpworld, where the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell has an exclusive on the ongoing mess that is Donald Trump’s possession of classified materials:Donald Trump’s lawyers found a box of White House schedules, including some that were marked classified, at his Mar-a-Lago resort in December because a junior aide to the former president had transported it from another office in Florida after the FBI completed its search of the property.The former president does not appear to have played a direct role in the mishandling of the box, though he remains under investigation for the possible improper retention of national security documents and obstruction of justice. This previously unreported account of the retrieval was revealed by two sources familiar with the matter.Known internally as ROTUS, short for Receptionist of the United States, the junior aide initially kept the box at a converted guest bungalow at Mar-a-Lago called the “tennis cottage” after Trump left office, and she soon took it with her to a government-leased office in the Palm Beach area.The box remained at the government-leased office from where the junior aide worked through most of 2022, explaining why neither Trump’s lawyer who searched Mar-a-Lago in June for any classified-marked papers nor the FBI agents who searched the property in August found the documents.Around the time that Trump returned to Mar-a-Lago from his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey at the end of the summer, the junior aide was told that she was being relocated to a desk in the anteroom of Trump’s own office at Mar-a-Lago that was previously assigned to top aide Molly Michael.The junior aide retrieved her work belongings – including the box – from the government-leased office and took them to her new Mar-a-Lago workspace around September. At that time, the justice department’s criminal investigation into Trump’s retention of national security documents was intensifying.Several weeks after the junior aide moved into her new workspace, federal prosecutors told Trump’s lawyers in October that they suspected the former president was still in possession of additional documents with classified markings despite the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago on 8 August.Vice president Kamala Harris condemned the “partisan and political attacks” on reproductive rights that have put the fate of medication abortion in the hands of a single, conservative judge in Texas.Convening a White House meeting with reproductive rights advocates and providers on Friday, Harris addressed the pending lawsuit, brought by abortion opponents, that threatens the access to the abortion drug mifepristone.“This is not just an attack on women’s fundamental freedoms. It is an attack on the very foundation of our public health system,” Harris said.Medication abortion now accounts for the majority of abortions in the US. It is also used as a miscarriage treatment. Abortion rights advocates have warned that a decision to reverse a decades-old approval of the drug by the Federal Drug Administration would have “devastating” consequences for women’s reproductive health.Harris said the legal challenge, as well as legislative efforts in Republican-led states that would restrict access to medication abortion, amounted to an attempt by political activists to undermine the FDA’s authority, accusing them of trying to “question the legitimacy of a group of scientists and doctors who have studied the significance of this drug.”The vice president said supporters of the lawsuit should “look in their own medicine cabinets” and question whether they would be willing to do away with any FDA-approved medication that they use to alleviate pain and improve their quality of life. “Mifepristone is no exception to that process,” Harris said.The FDA approved mifepristone, in combination with a second drug, in 2000, deeming it a safe and effective way to terminate a pregnancy up to 10-weeks.During the pandemic, the FDA expanded access to the pills by allowing patients to obtain them by mail through telehealth rather than requiring in-person hospital or clinic visits. The agency further broadened the availability of the medication when it announced in January it would allow certified retail pharmacies to dispense mifepristone, known under the brand name Mifeprex.US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk has not indicated when he will rule, but advocates are preparing for a possible decision as soon as today.Since the supreme court decision to end the Constitutional right to abortion, Harris has led the administration’s public response.During Friday’s roundtable, she said the participants would discuss ways to ensure Americans are aware of the lawsuit and its possible ramifications as well as what policymakers and providers could to ensure patients “have access to the medication that they need.”Last weekend, Joe Biden clandestinely traveled to Ukraine via a mode of travel he personally prefers, but which is unusual for a modern American president: a passenger train. The Guardian’s Peter Beaumont spoke to the man who made it happen:Alexander Kamyshin, the head of Ukraine’s railway company Ukrzaliznytsia, doesn’t get much sleep at the best of times. On Sunday night, as Joe Biden was being ferried into Ukraine in a 10-hour night journey from Poland – in a carriage now known as “Rail Force One”, he got almost none.Along with others involved in the secret operation to bring the US president to his meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Kamyshin watched the progress of the train in a command centre.A handsome bearded man sporting a hipster-ish braid of hair that falls over the shaved sides of his head, Kamyshin is deliberately vague about many of the details.But in the past year, his dedicated team has brought in world leaders, VIPs and diplomatic missions on an almost daily basis as part of a programme called “Iron Diplomacy”.Security is everything, he told the Guardian in an interview at Kyiv’s main railway station. “We have not had one leak. There have been no photographs from train attendants. We respect the confidence of the delegations.“It’s not a challenge. It’s our job that we do every day. Imagine,” he says with smile, “the president of the United States coming to a war-torn country by train.‘Rail Force One’: how Ukraine railways got Joe Biden safely to KyivRead moreHere’s a video that’s worth watching of Jill Biden describing her husband’s willingness to continue serving as president for a second term:— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) February 24, 2023
      First lady Jill Biden has long been described as a key figure in US president Joe Biden’s orbit as he plans his future – after today revealing to the Associated Press that he’s close to confirming he’ll seek a second term in the White House..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Because I’m his wife,” she laughed, AP writes.But she brushed off the question about whether she has the deciding vote on whether the president runs for reelection..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Of course he’ll listen to me, because we’re a married couple,” she said. But, she added later, “he makes up his own mind, believe me.”Biden did the interview in Kenya, during the second leg of her trip to Africa this week. Earlier she was in Namibia.First lady Jill Biden has given one of the clearest indications yet that Joe Biden will run for a second term, telling The Associated Press in an exclusive interview today that there’s “pretty much” nothing left to do but figure out the time and place for the announcement.Although Biden has long said that it’s his intention to seek reelection, he has yet to make it official, and he’s struggled to dispel questions about whether he’s too old to continue serving as president. Biden would be 86 at the end of a second term.“He says he’s not done,” the first lady said in Nairobi, the second and final stop of her five-day trip to Africa. “He’s not finished what he’s started. And that’s what’s important.”She added: “How many times does he have to say it for you to believe it?”Biden aides have said an announcement is likely to come in April, after the first fundraising quarter ends, which is around the time that Barack Obama officially launched his reelection campaign.Top US officials have restated their support for Ukraine on the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion. Speaking before the UN security council, secretary of state Antony Blinken warned that anything less than Russia’s full withdrawal from territory it seized will weaken the global body’s charter, while Joe Biden highlighted the bipartisan nature of Washington’s support for Kyiv. And indeed, many Republicans support Ukraine’s cause – but others in the party argue it is a distraction from more pressing issues. This divide could prove crucial to the outcome of the war in the months to come.Here’s what else has happened today so far:
      Blinken warned China against getting involved in the conflict by providing Russia with weapons.
      The American public is divided over how long to support Kyiv, with more Republicans preferring limits on US aid, and more Democrats in favor of helping them fight against Russia until the job is done.
      The Treasury announced new sanctions against Russian individuals and companies involved in the war effort, but such measures haven’t proven as successful as Washington has hoped.
      But the bipartisan comity over Ukraine has its limits. There’s been a definite increase over the past year in the number of lawmakers who have questioned Washington’s support to Ukraine, particularly among Republicans.Their argument is that Joe Biden cares more about Ukraine than various issues at home, especially those they’ve turned into cudgels against the administration such as border security, or the recent derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio.This tweet from GOP senator Josh Hawley captures the dynamic well:The Republican Party can be the party of Ukraine and globalists or the party of East Palestine and working Americans. Not both— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) February 24, 2023
      But it’s in the House where some of Ukraine’s biggest congressional foes can be found. “We can’t care more about Ukraine than we do our own country. President Biden has failed to lead on the train derailment, the border, inflation, crime, and so much more,” House Republican Jake LaTurner said in a statement released today.“The White House continues to prioritize Ukraine while leaving American communities behind. It’s unacceptable.”And while the Senate’s top Republican Mitch McConnell issued a statement of strong support for Ukraine today, his counterpart in the House, speaker Kevin McCarthy, has made no public statement that this blog is aware of.Back in Washington, Mitt Romney was one of several Republican lawmakers who tweeted strong statements of support for Ukraine on the war’s one-year anniversary – which caught the eye of Democratic president Joe Biden.Biden has been eager to play up the bipartisan nature of US support for Ukraine. Here’s what Romney, who represents Utah in the Senate and was the GOP’s nominee for president in 2012, had to say:It is in America’s interest to support Ukraine. If Russia can invade, subjugate, and pillage Ukraine with impunity, it will do the same again to others, and a world at war diminishes the security of Americans.— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) February 23, 2023
      And here is Biden’s response:I think Senator Romney would be the first to tell you that we don’t always agree.But he knows what I know: that standing with Ukraine — and standing up for freedom — advances our national security. https://t.co/X67SkDIL6W— President Biden (@POTUS) February 24, 2023 More