More stories

  • in

    Americans should focus on Biden’s accomplishments, says chief of staff – as it happened

    Here’s the meat of White House chief of staff Ron Klain’s argument to American voters, as he put it to Politico:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“Elections are choices, and the choice just couldn’t be any clearer right now. Democrats have stood up to the big special interests. They stood up to the big corporations and insisted that all corporations pay minimum taxes, stood up to the big oil companies and passed climate change legislation. They stood up to Big Pharma and passed prescription drug legislation. They stood up to the gun industry and passed gun control legislation. Things that this city [was] unable to deliver on for decades because the special interests had things locked down, Joe Biden and his allies in Congress have been able to deliver on.”The point of interviews like these is to get the administration’s message out ahead of November’s midterms, when voters will get a chance to decide which lawmakers they want representing them, and ultimately which party controls Congress. Considering Biden’s low approval ratings, the base case now is that Republicans have a good shot at taking the House, while Democrats seem favored to narrowly keep the Senate, though anything could happen.The White House would, of course, prefer Democrats hold onto both chambers. If one falls into the hands of the GOP, the prospects for any major legislation getting through Congress become dramatically slimmer for the next two years. Klain and others seem to be hoping that two things will happen: either enough voters change their minds about Biden, or they divorce their dislike of the president from their opinions of Democrats on the ballot. It may be premature to say whether the latter is happening, but when it comes to the former, polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight does show the president’s approval rating recovering from something of a nadir reached in mid-July.In closing, Klain offered this comment on Biden’s public profile, as compared to the previous White House occupant:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“I don’t think it’s true he’s out there less than his predecessors. I just think Donald Trump created an expectation of a president creating a shitstorm every single day.”The Biden administration took advantage of a quiet week in Washington to lay the groundwork for the roughly two months of campaigning before the November midterm elections, when Democrats will have to fight for control of Congress.Here’s what else happened today:
    White House chief of staff Ron Klain gave an interview to Politico, where he promoted Biden’s legislative accomplishments and previewed Democrats’ message to voters.
    A Georgia judge blocked senator Lindsey Graham’s attempt to quash a subpoena compelling his appearance before the special grand jury investigating election meddling in the state.
    Democrats attacked Mike Pence’s trip to Iowa, as the former vice president continues exploring whether to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
    An Ohio House Democrat criticized Biden in a television advertisement. She is fighting to keep her seat representing a district whose boundaries have been redrawn to include more Republican voters.
    More LGBTQ politicians are holding elected office in America than ever before, according to a new survey.
    The supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade may be causing a surge in women registering to vote, a political data firm has found.
    “Joe Biden’s letting Ohio solar manufacturers be undercut by China.” Sounds like a Republican campaign advertisement. It’s not – instead, it’s a television spot from an Ohio House Democrat fighting for her seat in a newly redrawn district that’s become much more friendly to the GOP.The New York Times reports that Marcy Kaptur has become the latest and most prominent Democratic lawmakers to publicly break with Biden with an ad that also highlights her collaboration with Rob Portman, Ohio’s retiring Republican senator. It’s a reversal from just last month, when she greeted the president at the airport in Cleveland during his visit to the city. However, such conduct is not unheard of for Democrats this election cycle. Maine representative Jared Golden aired an ad where he described himself as an “independent voice” that voted against “trillions of dollars of President Biden’s agenda because I knew it would make inflation worse,” according to the Times.Then there are the somewhat bizarre actions of Carolyn Maloney of New York, who is fighting to keep her House seat against a challenge from Jerry Nadler, a fellow Democrat. She had to apologize after saying Biden wasn’t planning to stand for reelection in 2024, only to make the same comment again. Democrat apologises for saying Biden won’t run in 2024 – then says it againRead moreRepublican House candidates who are facing close races are being advised not to talk too much about Donald Trump, but rather try to concentrate voters’ attention on the issues where they see an advantage over Democrats, CNN reports.“I don’t say his name, ever. I just avoid saying his name generally,” a Republican lawmaker in a tight race told the network. “I talk about the policies of his that I like.”The advice comes from Tom Emmer, a GOP House representative and chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, which is tasked with reclaiming Congress’ lower chamber in the November elections. While a spokesman for Emmer didn’t address the report about Trump, he told CNN, “Candidates know their districts best,” and “public and private polls show the midterms will be a referendum on Joe Biden and Democrats’ failed agenda that’s left voters paying record prices, dealing with soaring violent crime and facing billions in middle-class tax hikes.”As the report notes, this strategy could become complicated if Trump opts to announce another campaign for the presidency before the November midterms. Earlier this week, The Guardian reported he was being counseled to do so to avoid an indictment by the justice department over his handling of classified material.Trump should announce run for 2024 soon to avoid indictment, source saysRead moreThe investigation into Donald Trump’s ties to Russia was one of the earliest and most intense scandals of his presidency, and the legal wrangling over it still hasn’t finished.The Associated Press reports that a federal court of appeals panel has found that William Barr, Trump’s attorney general in 2019, wrongly withheld a memo that he cited to say that Trump did not obstruct justice during in the investigation into his ties with Moscow.Here’s more from the AP:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}At issue in the case is a March 24, 2019, memorandum from the head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, or OLC, and another senior department official that was prepared for Barr to evaluate whether evidence in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation could support prosecution of the president for obstruction of justice.
    Barr has said he looked to that opinion in concluding that Trump did not illegally obstruct the Russia probe, which was an investigation of whether his campaign had colluded with Russia to tip the 2016 election.
    The Justice Department turned over other documents to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington as part of the group’s lawsuit, but declined to give it the memo. Government lawyers said they were entitled under public records law to withhold the memo because it reflected internal deliberations among lawyers before any formal decision had been reached on what Mueller’s evidence showed.
    But U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said last year that those arguments were disingenuous because the memo was prepared for Barr at about the same time as a separate Justice Department letter informing Congress and the public that Barr and other senior department leaders concluded that Trump had not obstructed justice.
    The memo noted that “Mueller had declined to accuse President Trump of obstructing justice but also had declined to exonerate him” and “recommended that Barr ‘reach a judgment’ on whether the evidence constituted obstruction of justice,” the panel wrote Friday. The memo also noted that “the Report’s failure to take a definitive position could be read to imply an accusation against President Trump” if the confidential report were released to the public, the court wrote.Busy day for courts in Georgia. A federal judge in the state has just rejected another bid by Republican senator Lindsey Graham to quash a subpoena compelling his appearance before a special grand jury probing attempts to meddle in the 2020 elections by Donald Trump’s allies.“Senator Graham raises a number of arguments as to why he is likely to succeed on the merits, but they are all unpersuasive, not least because they largely misconstrue the Court’s holdings,” judge Leigh Martin May wrote in denying the senator’s motion.“A stay is not justified even assuming for the sake of argument that Senator Graham has shown ‘a substantial case on the merits.’”Earlier this week, Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani appeared before the panel, which has informed him he is a target of their investigation.Rudy Giuliani informed he is target of criminal investigation in GeorgiaRead moreHowever in Georgia, a judge will allow a state law provision that bans giving food and water to voters standing in line to go into effect for the November midterm elections, though it is still subject to further legal challenges, the Associated Press reports. The law, passed last year, was part of a Republican-backed effort to reform the state’s election system, which Democrats attacked as an attempt to make it harder for the poor and racial minorities to vote. But as the AP notes, the legal battle isn’t over:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee said the voting rights groups may ultimately prevail on part of their challenge, but he agreed with the state that it’s too close to the election to block any part of the provision. He noted that requiring different rules for the general election than those in place for the primaries earlier this year could cause confusion for election workers.
    Boulee said that voting rights groups had failed to show that prohibiting the distribution of food and drinks within 150 feet (45 meters) of a polling place violates their constitutional rights. But he said that another part of the provision that bars people from offering food and drink within 25 feet (7.6 meters) of any person in line is probably unconstitutional because that zone is tied to the location of voters and could stretch thousands of feet from the polling place. More

  • in

    Republican says comment Garland should be executed was ‘facetious’

    Republican says comment Garland should be executed was ‘facetious’Carl Paladino, a Republican candidate for Congress in New York, recently caused controversy when he praised Adolf Hitler A Republican candidate for Congress in New York said he was “being facetious” when, in the same interview, he said the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, should be executed for authorising the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s Florida home.The candidate, Carl Paladino, recently caused controversy when he praised Adolf Hitler, as “the kind of leader we need today”.Paladino made his remark about the attorney general in an interview with the far-right site Breitbart. Paladino said: “So we have a couple of unelected people who are running our government, in an administration of people like Garland, who should be not only impeached, he probably should be executed.“The guy is just lost. He’s a lost soul. He’s trying to get an image, and his image, his methodology is just terrible. To raid the home of a former president is just – people are scratching their heads and they’re saying, ‘What is wrong with this guy?’”Asked to explain his “executed” remark, Paladino said: “I’m just being facetious. The man should be removed from office.”The FBI and Department of Justice have faced violent threats since agents searched Mar-a-Lago for classified White House records, under the Espionage Act.In Ohio, a man who said on social media federal agents should be killed was shot dead after trying to get inside an FBI office with a semiautomatic rifle.Paladino, a real-estate developer, has courted controversy before.As the Republican nominee for governor of New York in 2010, he was criticised for forwarding emails containing racist jokes and pornography.He also said children were being “brainwashed” to make them think being gay was equivalent to being heterosexual.In 2016, he told a newspaper he hoped Barack Obama would die from mad cow disease and said Michelle Obama should “return to being a male” and be sent to live with a gorilla in a cave.The following year, Paladino was removed from Buffalo’s school board. He contended the Obama comments were the reason for his removal.This year, Paladino shared a Facebook post suggesting a racist mass shooting in Buffalo was part of a conspiracy to take away guns. The same month, he apologised for saying Hitler was “the kind of leader we need today”, supposedly because of his ability to rally crowds.In a close primary fight with Nick Langworthy, a state Republican politician, Paladino has been endorsed by Elise Stefanik, the No 3 Republican in the US House and a prominent Trump supporter.When Paladino praised Hitler, Stefanik said she “condemn[ed] any statement, but don’t take it out of context”.The justice department did not immediately comment on Paladino’s remarks about Garland.TopicsUS politicsRepublicansUS CongressMerrick GarlandNew YorknewsReuse this content More

  • in

    What does the future hold for Liz Cheney? Politics Weekly America | podcast

    More ways to listen

    Apple Podcasts

    Google Podcasts

    Spotify

    RSS Feed

    Download

    Share on Facebook

    Share on Twitter

    Share via Email

    This week, Joan E Greve speaks to the former chair of Republican National Committee Michael Steele about the defeat of Liz Cheney in the Wyoming primary, the state of the GOP after she leaves and why Donald Trump should fear what she does next

    How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know

    Archive: NBC, MSNBC, C-Span Send your questions and feedback to podcasts@theguardian.com Help support the Guardian by going to theguardian.com/supportpodcasts More

  • in

    Sarah Palin advances to November election for Alaska House seat

    Sarah Palin advances to November election for Alaska House seatFormer governor clinches one of four spots on ballot for seat formerly occupied by Don Young Sarah Palin looks set to be on the ballot in November’s general election after the former governor of Alaska and ex vice-presidential candidate clinched one of four spots vying for a seat in the US House, according to the Associated Press.Palin, who rose to fame more than a decade ago as John McCain’s running mate, advanced to the general election along with her two challengers, Nick Begich III, a tech millionaire backed by the Alaska Republican party, and Mary Peltola, a former state legislator and Democrat. It was too early to call the fourth spot.Palin, Peltola and Begich are competing for Alaska’s only House seat, formerly occupied by Don Young, who died in March. The trio were also competing in a special election to serve the remainder of Young’s term, which ends early next year.The results of the special election could take days to finalize as Alaska voters are using a ranked voting system for the first time.Liz Cheney loses Wyoming Republican primary to Trump-endorsed rivalRead moreYoung was first elected to the office in 1973 and was the longest-serving Republican member of the House, holding the state’s sole seat in the chamber for nearly 50 years.Palin, 58, first shot to prominence as McCain’s running mate in the 2008 elections, when she branded herself a “mama grizzly” and built a persona as a loose-lipped loose cannon. Palin’s attacks on the media, her racist rabble-rousing and her eschewing of policy or traditional politics in favor of demagoguery in many ways paved the way for Trump, of whom she was an early endorser.After that failed 2008 campaign, Palin left her post as Alaska governor and took a long hiatus from politics amid ethics scandals. This year, she staged a comeback, appearing with Trump at rallies and fundraisers but often skipping traditional campaign events and candidate debates within her home state.Elsewhere in Alaska, Senator Lisa Murkowski faced 18 challengers – including the Trump-backed Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka – in a non-partisan primary in which the four candidates garnering the most votes will advance to November’s general election.The Congress and Senate races will offer insights into the power Trump still commands over voters, even in the “last frontier” of Alaska, where most voters have not declared a party affiliation.As perhaps one of the most famous Alaskans, Palin remained the most familiar among the candidates, despite the perception among many voters that she abandoned her state after quitting the governorship. After leaving politics, she launched a career in reality TV, showcasing her life and state in shows such as Sarah’s Alaska and belting out Baby’s Got Back by Sir Mix-A-Lot while dressed in a pink and blue bear outfit on an episode of The Masked Singer.“I knew who Sarah was before I became an Alaskan,” said Kari Jones, 47, who moved to the state five years ago after her husband, who is in the military, was posted there. But Jones said her husband backed Begich, in large part because the former governor didn’t show up to a local meet-and-greet event and had been less accessible than her opponents. “She did lose some votes because of that,” Jones said.“I’m looking for candidates that show they’re really dedicated to the state, not just during election time,” Aundra Jackson, 60, who was fishing for coho salmon in Anchorage.Nearly 15 years ago, when Palin first took the governor’s seat, she was a fiery newcomer who unseated a powerful incumbent: Lisa Murkowski’s father, Frank Murkowski. Back then, Palin’s approval rating had peaked just over 90% according to Ivan Moore, an Anchorage-based pollster. She was briefly reputed for her bipartisanship, creating a sub-cabinet on climate change and taking on the oil and gas industry, before she leaned into more rightwing politics.“Palin is probably the most attractive, charismatic candidate out there,” Jackson said. “But when she’s asked any specific questions, all I hear from her are soundbites. So it just surprises me that she’s got the popularity.”Begich, who painted Palin as absentee and vacuous in the days before the election, had earned endorsements from many prominent state Republicans. Peltola, the Democratic candidate, has presented herself as a fiercely amicable moderate who was willing to collaborate with conservatives and progressives. “I’m not interested in speaking ill of Sarah, she has her supporters and I respect her and her supporters,” she said in an interview with the Guardian before the election.The congressional election on Tuesday was the state’s first ever ranked-choice race, where voters were able to choose their first, second and third choice for the role. In “pick one” Senate and congressional primaries, voters also choose their favorite candidate from a longer list of choices. The four with the most votes in each race will advance to the ballot in November.The Associated Press contributed reportingTopicsUS midterm elections 2022House of RepresentativesUS politicsAlaskaSarah PalinJohn McCainDonald TrumpnewsReuse this content More

  • in

    Liz Cheney loses Wyoming Republican primary to Trump-endorsed rival

    Liz Cheney loses Wyoming Republican primary to Trump-endorsed rivalThe vice-chair of the House January 6 panel faced retribution from state voters for going against the former president Liz Cheney has paid the price for her staunch opposition to Donald Trump’s assault on US democracy by losing her seat in Congress to a challenger backed by the former president.In praise of Liz Cheney. May we have more politicians like her | Robert ReichRead moreThe vice-chair of the January 6 committee was beaten by a conservative lawyer, Hageman – who has echoed Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud – in a Republican primary election to decide Wyoming’s lone member in the House of Representatives.Conceding defeat in a speech in Jackson, she said: “No House seats, no office in this land is more important than the principles we are all sworn to protect. And I well understood the potential political consequences of abiding by my duty.“Our republic relies upon the goodwill of all candidates for office to accept honorably the outcome of elections. And tonight, Harriet Hageman has received the most votes in this primary. She won.“I called her to concede the race this primary election is over. But now the real work begins.”Widely predicted by opinion polls, the result continues a winning streak for Trump-endorsed candidates in congressional primaries and deals a blow to the last vestiges of the Republican party establishment.It would have been unthinkable just a few years ago in Wyoming, a deeply conservative state where the Cheney family has been seen as political royalty.The three-term congresswoman’s father, Dick Cheney, represented the state in the US House for a decade before becoming defense secretary under George HW Bush from 1989 to 1993 and vice-president under George W Bush from 2001 to 2009.Supporting his daughter this month, Dick Cheney called Trump the greatest “threat to our republic” in American history.He also said he was proud of his daughter “for standing up to the truth, doing what’s right, honoring her oath to the constitution when so many in our party are too scared to do so”.But Liz Cheney’s crusade against Trump during the January 6 committee’s televised hearings angered local Republicans, who accused her of putting her national career ambitions ahead of Wyoming constituents.She was praised by Democrats and independents for taking a principled stand despite the likelihood it would prove an act of political self-sacrifice.Leading Republicans were eager to celebrate Cheney’s defeat.In a statement released before the race was called, Elise Stefanik of New York, who replaced Cheney as the No3 House Republican, said: “Congratulations to Harriet Hageman on her massive Republican primary victory in Wyoming over Nancy Pelosi’s puppet Liz Cheney.“… Harriet is a true America First patriot who will restore the people of Wyoming’s voice, which Liz Cheney had long forgotten”.Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee, followed suit, saying Hageman would “make Wyoming proud”.The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group formed by disaffected conservatives, said: “Tonight, the nation marks the end of the Republican party.“What remains shares the name and branding of the traditional GOP, but is in fact an authoritarian nationalist cult dedicated only to Donald Trump.” More details soon …TopicsUS midterm elections 2022US CongressHouse of RepresentativesRepublicansUS politicsUS Capitol attackJanuary 6 hearingsnewsReuse this content More

  • in

    Biden hails ‘biggest step forward on climate ever’ as he signs Inflation Reduction Act – as it happened

    Joe Biden has signed into law a plan to spend hundreds of billions of dollars fighting the climate crisis and lowering healthcare costs for Americans, capping more than a year of negotiations ahead of elections in which voters may oust his Democrats from control of Congress.Passage of the Inflation Reduction Act was a major accomplishment for the Biden administration, and marks the first time the United States has passed legislation specifically geared towards lowering its carbon emissions.“With this law, the American people won, and the special interests lost,” the president said as he signed the legislation in a White House ceremony. He called it proof for “the American people that democracy still works in America, notwithstanding … all the talk of its demise, not just for the privileged few, but for all of us”.The act will invest $386bn into programs to speed the transition into energy and climate programs, most of which are meant to speed the transition towards renewable sources. It will also extend health insurance subsidies, and expand coverage under government health care programs.“This bill is the biggest step forward on climate ever,” Biden said.Joe Biden signed into law his landmark spending plan to fight the climate crisis and lower healthcare costs, in what his administration hopes will turn around the president’s fortunes after months of worrying unpopularity. Elsewhere, more details about the many investigations surrounding Donald Trump were revealed.Here’s a look back at today’s news:
    Two Democratic committee chairs accused the homeland security inspector general of not complying with their investigations into the January 6 attack. Meanwhile, the New York Times reported two of Trump’s former lawyers were interviewed by the FBI regarding classified documents that made their way to Florida.
    Jill Biden has tested positive for Covid-19, and will isolate in South Carolina, where she was on vacation with her husband. Joe Biden remains negative, but will wear a mask indoors and around others for the next 10 days.
    The White House is making plans for a campaign to convince men and women alike of the harm of abortion bans, and to sue states that restrict the procedure.
    Democrats consider the Inflation Reduction Act to be a major win, but in an interview with the Guardian, independent senator Bernie Sanders outlined the many ways in which he feels it falls short.
    Joe Biden has signed into law a plan to spend hundreds of billions of dollars fighting the climate crisis and lowering healthcare costs for Americans, capping more than a year of negotiations ahead of elections in which voters may oust his Democrats from control of Congress.Passage of the Inflation Reduction Act was a major accomplishment for the Biden administration, and marks the first time the United States has passed legislation specifically geared towards lowering its carbon emissions.“With this law, the American people won, and the special interests lost,” the president said as he signed the legislation in a White House ceremony. He called it proof for “the American people that democracy still works in America, notwithstanding … all the talk of its demise, not just for the privileged few, but for all of us”.The act will invest $386bn into programs to speed the transition into energy and climate programs, most of which are meant to speed the transition towards renewable sources. It will also extend health insurance subsidies, and expand coverage under government health care programs.“This bill is the biggest step forward on climate ever,” Biden said.In a few minutes, Joe Biden will sign the Democrats’ marquee spending plan into law, channeling hundreds of billions of dollars towards fighting climate change and lowering health care costs.Biden and other Democrats have been trying to hype up the legislation – dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act – as much as they can. Here’s how he cast it on Twitter:Later today, with the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act into law, we make history.— President Biden (@POTUS) August 16, 2022
    Congress is in recess and many lawmakers are visiting their districts across the United States. In a letter to Democrats sent this afternoon, House speaker Nancy Pelosi offered advice on how to sell constituents on the legislation:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}It is crucial that, during this District Work Period, we communicate to our constituents how America’s families will benefit from this new law:
    Health: reducing pollution to secure clean air and clean water in every community across the country.
    Economy: securing an estimated nine million new good-paying jobs, saving families around $1000 per year on their energy bills and offering more stability from the volatile oil market that inflames inflation.
    National Security: declaring our energy independence so that foreign dictators cannot hold families and our economy hostage by manipulating the price of oil.
    Justice: delivering $60 billion in environmental justice initiatives so that we repair the mistakes of the past and ensure all communities feel the benefits of a cleaner, greener economy.
    Future: taking a giant step to honor our sacred responsibility to build a healthier, more sustainable future for our children.
    It took more than a year of negotiations to reach an agreement on the Inflation Reduction Act, which garnered no Republican votes in either chamber. Its name is a nod to the ongoing wave of high inflation in the United States, though the legislation itself may not make much difference. According to the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Wharton Budget Model, it will lower the US’ budget deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars, but “the impact on inflation is statistically indistinguishable from zero.”At the same time as voters in Wyoming head to the polls, the top House Republican is in the state for a fundraiser that Bloomberg reports will feature a special guest: Elon Musk.The Tesla boss is considered the world’s richest man, but has kept his politics murky, often announcing that he had voted for Democrats but lately expressing sympathy with some Republican positions. McCarthy, meanwhile, is likely to become speaker of the House of Representatives should Republicans win a majority following the November midterm elections. He also also been vocal in support of Harriet Hageman, the Trump-backed candidate expected to triumph over Liz Cheney in today’s GOP primary.Despite the investigations swirling around him, Donald Trump’s influence within the GOP will likely be confirmed again today in Wyoming, where Republicans are expected to oust Liz Cheney from her seat in the House of Representatives in favor of a challenger backed by the former president. The Guardian’s David Smith reports:Widely praised for her defence of democracy during the January 6 committee hearings, Liz Cheney looks set to lose her seat in Congress on Tuesday to a rival backed by former US president Donald Trump.Opinion polls show Cheney trailing far behind conservative lawyer Harriet Hageman – who has echoed Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud – in a Republican primary election to decide Wyoming’s lone member in the House of Representatives.Victory for Hageman would continue a recent winning streak for Trump-backed candidates in congressional primaries and deal a blow to remnants of the Republican party establishment.Liz Cheney looks set to lose Congress seat to Trump-backed rivalRead moreThe New York Times reports that the FBI has interviewed Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel under Donald Trump, and his deputy Patrick Philbin regarding classified documents the former president may have taken with him to Florida after he left office.The lawyers are the most senior Trump White House officials the FBI has contacted as it investigated the documents, according to the report, which cites people familiar with the matter. The two men were appointed by Trump to deal with the National Archives, which usually takes possession of an outgoing president’s documents. Philbin spoke to investigators in the spring, while it was unclear when Cipollone was interviewed, the Times reports.The FBI last week searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida as part of their investigation into the documents, and turned up papers that were deemed “top secret” and other classifications that require special handling. Cipollone and Philbin have also been subpoenaed by a grand jury investigating the January 6 attack.Trump under investigation for potential violations of Espionage Act, warrant revealsRead moreTwo House Democratic committee chairs have today sent a letter to Joseph V. Cuffari, the department of homeland security’s inspector general, accusing him of blocking their probe into the January 6 insurrection.Cuffari has been at the center over the scandal caused by the Secret Service’s deletion of texts from around the time of the attack on the US Capitol, which the agency has said was caused by a change in their phone technology, but which lawmakers investigating the attack worried may be an attempt to cover up details of what happened that day.“In response to the committees’ requests, you have refused to produce responsive documents and blocked employees in your office from appearing for transcribed interviews. Your obstruction of the committees’ investigations is unacceptable, and your justifications for this noncompliance appear to reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of Congress’s authority and your duties as an inspector general,” Carolyn B. Maloney, chairwoman of the oversight and reform committee, and Bennie G. Thompson, chairman of the homeland security committee, wrote to Cuffari.“If you continue to refuse to comply with our requests, we will have no choice but to consider alternate measures to ensure your compliance.”Last week, it was revealed that Cuffari apparently failed to act on a memo from top career officials in his office to Congress informing lawmakers that the texts had been erased.Secret Service watchdog suppressed memo on January 6 texts erasureRead moreIndeed, the federal government has followed through on its plans to ration water as the west faces a “megadrought”, with the interior department announcing it will again cut water releases from the Hoover and Glen Canyon Dams.The two embankments create lakes Powell and Mead, which together provide water to 40 million people in the southwestern United States.Here’s more from deputy interior secretary Tommy Beaudreau:Today, @Interior announced urgent actions to improve and protect the long-term sustainability of the Colorado River System in the face of climate change-driven drought, extreme heat and low precipitation. https://t.co/bPFnmy3nwF— Tommy Beaudreau (@DepSecBeaudreau) August 16, 2022
    We are committed to using every resource available to conserve water and ensure that irrigators, Tribes and communities receive assistance and support to build resilient communities and protect our water supplies.— Tommy Beaudreau (@DepSecBeaudreau) August 16, 2022
    As drought shrivels Lake Powell, millions face power crisisRead moreThe federal government may today announce water cuts in western states in an attempt to conserve resources amid the region’s “megadrought”, Richard Luscombe reports:Water cuts are expected to be announced on Tuesday to western states in the grip of a severe “megadrought” that has dropped levels in the country’s largest two reservoirs to record lows.The flow of the Colorado river, which provides water to more than 40 million people across seven states and Mexico, will be stemmed to reduce supply to Arizona and Nevada initially, if the federal government confirms the proposal.The crisis, which has dropped levels in Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the US to an 80-year low of barely one-quarter its 28.9m acre-feet capacity, is threatening the future of the crucial river basin.It has also led to potential disruption of water delivery and hydropower production, forcing the US Bureau of Reclamation to consider drastic action.Drastic water cuts expected as ‘megadrought’ grips western US statesRead moreJoe Biden will this afternoon sign into law his marquee spending plan to fight climate change and lower healthcare costs, as his administration looks to make the most of hopeful political developments ahead of November’s midterm elections.Here’s a look back at what has happened today so far:
    First lady Jill Biden has tested positive for Covid-19, and will isolate in South Carolina, where she was on vacation with her husband. Joe Biden remains negative, and is heading back to the White House for the 3.30pm eastern time signing of the Inflation Reduction Act spending plan.
    The White House is making plans for a campaign to convince men and women alike of the harm of abortion bans, and to sue states that restrict the procedure.
    Democrats consider the Inflation Reduction Act to be a major win, but in an interview with the Guardian, independent senator Bernie Sanders outlined the many ways in which he feels it falls short.
    The Guardian’s Ramon Antonio Vargas spoke with the mother of a man who shot himself after driving into a barricade at the US Capitol. She attributed his actions not to politics, but rather brain trauma from playing football:The mother of a Delaware man who shot himself to death after driving into a US Capitol barricade over the weekend says she believes he was struggling with brain trauma from growing up playing football.Richard Aaron York III’s mother, Tamara Cunningham, said she suspects his past as a high school football player left him with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a brain condition colloquially known as CTE. Some football players develop CTE because of repeated head blows that are common to the sport.“Something was going on for a while,” Cunningham told the Guardian in an interview Tuesday. “And it was progressively getting worse.”Mother of man who shot himself after driving into Capitol barrier speaks outRead moreThe Biden White House has plans for capitalizing on both the defeat of the anti-abortion ballot initiative in Kansas this month and the supreme court’s June decision overturning Roe v Wade, Reuters reports.The campaign is targeted at both women and men, and among its goals is getting Americans to better understand the economic and mental health effects abortion bans can have. The justice department also plans to use two laws to sue states that try to crack down on access to the procedure, as well as on abortion pills.“The idea is to be much more disciplined and consistent in messaging to break through to the everyday American,” a source with direct knowledge of the plans told Reuters. More

  • in

    Liz Cheney looks set to lose Congress seat to Trump-backed rival

    Liz Cheney looks set to lose Congress seat to Trump-backed rivalPolls show congresswoman trailing far behind conservative lawyer Harriet Hageman in Wyoming’s Republican primary Widely praised for her defence of democracy during the January 6 committee hearings, Liz Cheney looks set to lose her seat in Congress on Tuesday to a rival backed by former US president Donald Trump.Opinion polls show Cheney trailing far behind conservative lawyer Harriet Hageman – who has echoed Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud – in a Republican primary election to decide Wyoming’s lone member in the House of Representatives.Republicans rue price of fame as celebrity Senate candidates struggleRead moreVictory for Hageman would continue a recent winning streak for Trump-backed candidates in congressional primaries and deal a blow to remnants of the Republican party establishment.Cheney is vice-chairwoman of the House panel investigating the deadly attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. She has used the committee’s televised hearings to eviscerate Trump and members of her own party who remain loyal to him and his “big lie” that electoral fraudsters caused his defeat to Joe Biden in 2020.The three-term congresswoman has also made the existential struggle for American democracy a central part of her re-election campaign in Wyoming.In a closing video message, she said: “America cannot remain free if we abandon the truth. The lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen is insidious. It preys on those who love their country. It is a door Donald Trump opened to manipulate Americans to abandon their principles, to sacrifice their freedom, to justify violence, to ignore the rulings of our courts and the rule of law.”But Cheney’s status as an unyielding leader of the anti-Trump resistance has alienated many Wyoming Republicans, many of whom accuse her of putting personal ambition in Washington ahead of her constituents at home.She trailed Hageman 52% to 30% in a survey of likely primary voters from 7 to 11 July published by Wyoming’s Casper Star-Tribune. A University of Wyoming poll released last week put Hageman’s lead at 29 percentage points.Supporters of Cheney, the 56-year-old daughter of former vice-president Dick Cheney, believe she still has a fighting chance if enough Democrats and independents cross over and vote for her, which is allowed in the state’s primary system.But political strategist Terry Sullivan, who managed the Republican senator Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign, regards Cheney’s defeat on Tuesday as a “foregone conclusion” but sees her efforts as part of a larger battle.“Liz Cheney isn’t fighting for re-election – she’s fighting for the direction of the Republican party,” he told the Reuters news agency, noting that some observers have discussed whether Cheney should mount a presidential campaign in 2024. “It’s more of a kind of a beginning, not an end.”Cheney supported Trump’s agenda 93% of the time, according to the FiveThirtyEight website. But she was stripped of her role as the No 3 House Republican for voting to impeach him on a charge of inciting the January 6 Capitol attack.She was among 10 House Republicans to do so and to earn the former president’s wrath and vow of revenge. Three others have already lost their primaries – four decided not to run again and two won their contests.The fate of another Trump adversary, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, was less clear on Tuesday as the state’s non-partisan primary format allows the top four vote-getters to advance to the 8 November general election, which could bring a possible rematch of Murkowski and Trump-backed Kelly Tshibaka.Alaska voters will also determine whether to pick Sarah Palin, a former governor and 2008 vice-presidential nominee whom Trump endorsed for the state’s only House seat.Palin finished first among 48 candidates to qualify for a special election seeking to replace congressman Don Young, who died in March at age 88, after 49 years as Alaska’s sole House member.Palin is on Tuesday’s ballot twice: once in a special election to complete Young’s term and another for a full two-year House term starting in January.Most of the candidates Trump has backed this election season have triumphed in what his supporters say is a sign of his continued sway over the party as he considers whether to run for office again in 2024.TopicsHouse of RepresentativesUS politicsWyomingAlaskaUS CongressUS SenatenewsReuse this content More

  • in

    US congressional delegation visits Taiwan on heels of Pelosi trip

    US congressional delegation visits Taiwan on heels of Pelosi tripFive-member group including a senator will meet president and attend banquet hosted by foreign minister A US congressional delegation has arrived in Taiwan, days after China held military drills around the island in retaliation for the House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit.The five-member delegation, led by Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, will meet President Tsai Ing-wen and attend a banquet hosted by the foreign minister, Joseph Wu, during the visit, according to Taiwan’s foreign ministry.The American Institute in Taiwan said the US politicians would discuss “US-Taiwan relations, regional security, trade and investment, global supply chains, climate change, and other significant issues of mutual interest”.Quick GuideChina-Taiwan relations ShowA brief historyThe Chinese government claims Taiwan as a province of China and has not ruled out taking it by force.At the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, the losing Kuomintang government fled to the island of Taiwan, establishing the Republic of China (ROC) government in exile. On the mainland the Chinese Communist party (CCP) established the People’s Republic of China. From the 1970s onwards many nations began switching their formal ties from the ROC to Beijing, and today fewer than 15 world governments recognise the ROC (Taiwan) as a country.The CCP has never ruled over Taiwan and since the end of the civil war Taiwan has enjoyed de facto independence. Since its decades-long period of martial law ended in the 1980s, Taiwan has also grown to become a vibrant democracy with free elections and media.But unification is a key goal of the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping. The island’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, has said Taiwan is already a sovereign country with no need to declare independence, but Beijing regards Taiwan’s democratically elected government as separatists.Under Xi’s rule, aggression towards Taiwan has increased and analysts believe the threat of invasion is at its highest in decades. In recent years the People’s Liberation Army has sent hundreds of war planes into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone, as part of greatly increased “grey zone” activities, which are combat-adjacent but do not meet the threshold of war. Taiwan is working to modernise its military and is buying large numbers of military assets and weapons from the US in the hope it can deter Xi and the CCP from making a move. Helen Davidson Photograph: Tingshu Wang/X06979Taiwan hailed the delegation’s visit as another sign of warm ties between Taipei and Washington. “The ministry of foreign affairs expresses its sincere welcome [to the delegation],” the ministry said in a statement. “As China is continuing to escalate tensions in the region, the US Congress has again organised a heavyweight delegation to visit Taiwan, showing a friendship that is not afraid of China’s threats and intimidation, and highlighting the US’s strong support towards Taiwan.”The other members of the delegation are the Democratic members John Garamendi and Alan Lowenthal of California and Don Beyer of Virginia, and the Republican representative Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen from American Samoa, according to the institute.China’s embassy in Washington said on Sunday that “members of the US Congress should act in consistence with the US government’s one-China policy” and argued the latest congressional visit “once again proves that the US does not want to see stability across the Taiwan strait and has spared no effort to stir up confrontation between the two sides and interfere in China’s internal affairs”.China views Taiwan as its own territory to be taken one day, by force if necessary. For a week after Pelosi’s visit this month it sent warships, missiles and jets into the waters and skies around the island. Pelosi was the highest-ranking elected American official to visit Taiwan in decades.Taiwan has accused China of using her visit as an excuse to kickstart drills that would allow it to rehearse for an invasion. It held its own exercises simulating defence against a Chinese invasion of its main island. China drew down its drills but said it would continue to patrol the Taiwan strait.In its daily update, Taiwan’s defence ministry said on Sunday that it had detected 22 Chinese planes and six ships operating around the strait. Of those, 11 planes crossed the median line, an unofficial demarcation between Taiwan and China that Beijing does not recognise.Sign up to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every weekday morning at 7am BSTTaiwan’s presidential office said the group would meet Tsai on Monday morning. “Especially at a time when China is raising tensions in the Taiwan strait and the region with military exercises, Markey leading a delegation to visit Taiwan once again demonstrates the United States Congress’ firm support for Taiwan,” it said.Markey’s office said the lawmakers in Taiwan “will reaffirm the United States’ support for Taiwan as guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, US-China joint communiques, and six assurances, and will encourage stability and peace across the Taiwan strait.”The group would meet “with elected leaders and members of the private sector to discuss shared interests including reducing tensions in the Taiwan strait and expanding economic cooperation, including investments in semiconductors,” Markey’s office said.Taiwan’s foreign ministry published pictures of four lawmakers being met at Taipei’s downtown Songshan airport, having arrived on a US air force transport jet, while Markey arrived at the Taoyuan international airport.Last week China vowed zero tolerance for “separatist activities” in Taiwan and reaffirmed its threat that it would take control of the self-ruled island by force if provoked.“We are ready to create vast space for peaceful reunification, but we will leave no room for separatist activities in any form,” China’s Taiwan affairs office said in a white paper on Wednesday.It said China would “not renounce the use of force, and we reserve the option of taking all necessary measures”. It added, however: “We will only be forced to take drastic measures to respond to the provocation of separatist elements or external forces should they ever cross our red lines.”China last issued a white paper on Taiwan in 2000.AFP and Reuters contributed to this reportTopicsTaiwanUS CongressUS foreign policyChinaAsia PacificUS politicsnewsReuse this content More