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      Biden’s top border official not worried about Republican impeachment threats

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      Biden’s top border official not worried about Republican impeachment threatsHomeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas forging ahead with plans to ease Covid-related immigration restrictions Joe Biden’s top border official said on Sunday he was unconcerned by threats from the top House Republican that the GOP could impeach him if it regains the majority after the midterm elections, as the Biden administration forges ahead with plans to ease a coronavirus-related immigration restriction.Republicans return to politics of immigration as midterm strategyRead moreSpeaking on CNN’s State of the Union, Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, addressed the remarks from the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy.“I am incredibly proud to work with 250,000 dedicated and talented personnel and I look forward to continuing to do so,” Mayorkas said.“I am not [concerned about the possibility of impeachment] – I am focused on mission and supporting our incredible workforce.”Republicans are building a key part of their midterm strategy around a byzantine public health order invoked by Donald Trump’s administration in March 2020 to ostensibly control the spread of Covid-19 along the border with Mexico.Faced with pressure from immigration advocates and progressives, the Biden administration wants to lift the so-called title 42 restriction, which allows authorities to immediately expel migrants seeking entry instead of allowing them to remain while their claim for asylum is reviewed.But Republicans, and even some Democrats, argue that the federal government is not prepared for the projected increase in migrants making asylum claims if title 42 is lifted on 23 May as planned.The homeland security department anticipates as many as 18,000 migrants daily at the border in the wake of elimination of Title 42, up from 6,000.On Sunday, Mayorkas acknowledged “that is going to be an extraordinary strain on our system”. He also declined an opportunity to say whether or not he believed title 42 should remain, saying he was “not a public health expert” but rather an enforcer of laws.Nonetheless, Mayorkas insisted the administration was prepared for the consequences of lifting title 42 and expecting cooperation from Mexico and other countries south of the border.“We didn’t just start this,” Mayorkas said, echoing his message in more than eight hours of testimony on Capitol Hill over two days recently. “We’ve been doing it for months.”McCarthy invoked Mayorkas’s name during a trip to the border last month, as Republicans sought to tie the title 42 debate to election themes such as crime and voter fraud.Trump accepted ‘some responsibility’ for Capitol attack, McCarthy audio revealsRead moreThe top Republican in the House had just made headlines over audio recordings of him telling other lawmakers in his party he thought Trump should be impeached – if not resign – over the Capitol attack.McCarthy tried to deny he ever said any of that – before the release of the audio recordings.At the border, McCarthy said it was Mayorkas who should worry about impeachment if the Republicans flip Congress in the midterm elections, unless the homeland security secretary kept title 42 in place.“This is his moment in time to do his job,” McCarthy said. “But at any time if someone is derelict in their job, there is always the option of impeaching somebody.”Mayorkas also addressed criticisms aimed at him over his office’s recent creation of a so-called misinformation governing board tasked with counteracting misleading information about the border, whether from political enemies of the US or smugglers trying to convince migrants to hire them for help crossing into the country despite not having permission.Some lawmakers, mainly Republicans, have argued that the board could stifle free speech. But Mayorkas said the board would simply issue recommendations on how best to combat misrepresentations that in the past have fueled sudden surges of travel to the border and overwhelmed authorities there.“Those criticisms are precisely the opposite of what this small working group … will do,” Mayorkas said.TopicsUS immigrationUS politicsUS midterm elections 2022Biden administrationUS domestic policyUS CongressnewsReuse this content More

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      Rand Paul promises Covid review if Republicans retake Senate in midterms

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      Rand Paul promises Covid review if Republicans retake Senate in midtermsKentucky senator who has clashed publicly with Dr Anthony Fauci champions lab leak theory in remarks at rally The Kentucky senator Rand Paul promised on Saturday to wage a vigorous review into the origins of the coronavirus if Republicans retake the Senate and he lands a committee chairmanship.This Will Not Pass review: Trump-Biden blockbuster is dire reading for DemocratsRead moreSpeaking to supporters at a campaign rally, the senator denounced what he sees as government overreach in response to Covid-19. He applauded a recent judge’s order that voided the federal mask mandate on planes and trains and in travel hubs.“Last week I was on an airplane for the first time in two years and didn’t have to wear a mask,” he said, drawing cheers. “And you know what I saw in the airport? I saw at least 97% of the other free individuals not wearing masks.”Paul has clashed repeatedly with Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, over government policies and the origins of the virus.Paul, who is seeking a third term, said he was in line to assume a committee chairmanship if the GOP wins Senate control. The Senate has a 50-50 split, with the vice-president, Kamala Harris, the tie-breaking vote.“When we take over in November, I will be chairman of a committee and I will have subpoena power,” Paul said. “And we will get to the bottom of where this virus came from.”The senator, an ophthalmologist before politics, continued to offer his theory about the origins of the virus.02:49“If you look at the evidence, overwhelmingly, not 100%, but overwhelmingly the evidence points to this virus being a leak from a lab,” Paul said.Many US conservatives have accused Chinese scientists of developing Covid-19 in a lab and allowing it to leak.US intelligence agencies remain divided on the origins of the coronavirus but believe China did not know about the virus before the start of the global pandemic, according a Biden-ordered review released last summer.The scientific consensus remains that the virus most likely migrated from animals. So-called “spillover events” occur in nature and there are at least two coronaviruses that evolved in bats and caused human epidemics, SARS1 and MERS.At the Kentucky rally, the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, the state’s senior senator, also pointed to Paul’s opportunity to lead a committee. If that occurs, he said, Paul would become chairman of “one of the most important committees in the Senate – in charge of health, education, labor and pensions”.McConnell was upbeat about Republican prospects in November.“I’ve never seen a better environment for us than this year,” said McConnell, who is in line to again become majority leader.The rally featured other prominent Kentucky Republicans, including several considering running for governor in 2023, when Andy Beshear, a Democrat, will seek a second term.In his speech, Paul railed against socialism, saying it would encroach on individual liberties. The senator was first elected to the Senate in the Tea Party wave of 2010.02:21“When President Trump said he wanted to ‘Make America Great Again’, I said, ‘Amen,’” Paul said. “But let’s understand what made America great in the first place, and that’s freedom, constitutionally guaranteed liberty.”Charles Booker is by far the best known Democrats seeking their party’s nomination for Paul’s seat in the 17 May primary. Paul is being challenged by several little-known candidates. A general election campaign between Paul and Booker would be a battle between candidates with starkly different philosophies.Booker, a Black former state lawmaker, narrowly lost a bid for the Democratic nomination in 2020. He is a progressive who touts Medicare for all, anti-poverty programs, a clean-energy agenda and criminal justice changes.Paul, a former presidential candidate, has accumulated a massive fundraising advantage.Kentucky has not elected a Democrat to the US Senate since Wendell Ford in 1992.TopicsRepublicansRand PaulUS midterm elections 2022CoronavirusUS politicsDemocratsAnthony FaucinewsReuse this content More

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      This Will Not Pass review: Trump-Biden blockbuster is dire reading for Democrats

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      This Will Not Pass review: Trump-Biden blockbuster is dire reading for Democrats Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns have made waves with tapes of Kevin McCarthy and other Republicans – but the president’s party has more to fear from what they revealThis Will Not Pass is a blockbuster. Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns deliver 473 pages of essential reading. The two New York Times reporters depict an enraged Republican party, besotted by and beholden to Donald Trump. They portray a Democratic party led by Joe Biden as, in equal measure, inept and out of touch.The Right review: conservatism, Trump, regret and wishful thinkingRead moreMartin and Burns make their case with breezy prose, interviews and plenty of receipts. After Kevin McCarthy denied having talked smack about Trump and the January 6 insurrection, Martin appeared on MSNBC with tapes to show the House Republican leader lied.In Burns and Martin’s pages, Trump attributes McCarthy’s cravenness to an “inferiority complex”. The would-be speaker’s spinelessness and obsequiousness are recurring themes, along with the Democrats’ political vertigo.On election day 2020, the country simply sought to restore a modicum of normalcy. Nothing else. Even as Biden racked up a 7m-vote plurality, Republicans gained 16 House seats. There was no mandate. Think checks, balances and plenty of fear.Biden owes his job to suburban moms and dads, not the woke. As the liberal Brookings Institution put it in a post-election report, “Biden’s victory came from the suburbs”.Said differently, the label of socialism, the reality of rising crime, a clamor for open borders and demands for defunding the police almost cost Democrats the presidency. As a senator, Biden knew culture mattered. Whether his party has internalized any lessons, though, is doubtful.On election day 2021, the party lost the Virginia governor’s mansion. Republican attacks over critical race theory and Covid-driven school closures and Democrats’ wariness over parental involvement in education did them in. This year, the midterms offer few encouraging signs.This Will Not Pass portrays Biden as dedicated to his belief his presidency ought to be transformational. In competition with the legacy of Barack Obama, he yearns for comparison to FDR.“I am confident that Barack is not happy with the coverage of this administration as more transformative than his,” Biden reportedly told one adviser.Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, is more blunt: “Obama is jealous of Biden.”Then again, Hunter Biden is not the Obamas’ son. Michelle and Barack can’t be too jealous.A telephone conversation between Biden and Abigail Spanberger, a moderate congresswoman from Virginia, captures the president’s self-perception. “This is President Roosevelt,” he begins, following up by thanking Spanberger for her sense of humor.She replies: “I’m glad you have a sense of humor, Mr President.”Spanberger represents a swing district, is a former member of the intelligence community and was a driving force in both Trump impeachments.This Will Not Pass also amplifies the disdain senior Democrats hold for the “Squad”, those members of the Democratic left wing who cluster round Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.Martin and Burns quote Steve Ricchetti, a Biden counselor: “The problem with the left … is that they don’t understand that they lost.”Cedric Richmond, a senior Biden adviser and former dean of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), is less diplomatic. He describes the squad as “fucking idiots”. Richmond also takes exception to AOC pushing back at the vice-president, Kamala Harris, for telling undocumented migrants “do not come.”“AOC’s hit on Kamala was despicable,” Richmond says. “What it did for me is show a clear misunderstanding of what’s going on in the world.”Meanwhile, Cori Bush, a Squad member, has picked a fight with the CBC and led the charge against domestic terror legislation.Burns and Martin deliver vivid portraits of DC suck-ups and screw-ups. They capture Lindsey Graham, the oleaginous senior senator from South Carolina, in all his self-abasing glory.During the authors’ interview with Trump, Graham called the former president. After initially declining to pick up, Trump answered. “Hello, Lindsey.” He then placed Graham on speaker, without letting him know reporters were seated nearby.Groveling began instantly. Graham praised the power of Trump’s endorsements and the potency of his golf game. Stormy Daniels would not have been impressed. The senator, Burns and Martin write, sounded like “nothing more than an actor in a diet-fad commercial who tells his credulous viewer that he had been skeptical of the glorious product – until he tried it”.This Will Not Pass also attempts to do justice to Kyrsten Sinema, the Arizona senator and “former Green party activist who reinvented herself as Fortune 500-loving moderate”. In addition to helping block Biden’s domestic agenda, Sinema has a knack for performative behavior and close ties to Republicans.Like Sarah Palin, she is fond of her own physique. The senator “boasted knowingly to colleagues and aides that her cleavage had an extraordinary persuasive effect on the uptight men of the GOP”.Palin is running to represent Alaska in Congress. Truly, we are blessed.Subtitled Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future, Burns and Martin’s book closes with a meditation on the state of US democracy. The authors are anxious. Trump has not left the stage. Republican leadership has bent the knee. Mitch McConnell wants to be Senate majority leader again. He knows what the base is thinking and saying. Marjorie Taylor Greene is far from a one-person minority.Martin and Burns quote Malcolm Turnbull, a former prime minister of Australia: “You know that great line that you hear all the time: ‘This is not us. This is not America.’ You know what? It is, actually.”The Republicans are ahead on the generic ballot, poised to regain House and Senate. Biden’s favorability is under water. Pitted against Trump, he struggles to stay even. His handling of Russia’s war on Ukraine has not moved the needle.Inflation dominates the concerns of most Americans. For the first time in two years, the economy contracts. It is a long time to November 2024. Things can always get worse.
      This Will Not Pass is published in the US by Simon & Schuster
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      The Right review: conservatism, Trump, regret and wishful thinking

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      The Right review: conservatism, Trump, regret and wishful thinkingMatthew Continetti’s history of 100 years of the American right is ambitious, impressive and worrying America’s tribes frequently clash but they rarely intersect. Over the past 60 years, the Democratic party has morphed into an upstairs-downstairs coalition, graduate-degree holders tethered to an urban core and religious “nones”. Meanwhile, Republicans have grown more rural, southern, evangelical and working class.Overcoming Trumpery review: recipes for reform Republicans will never allow Read moreWithin the GOP, Donald Trump has supplanted the legacies of Ronald Reagan and Abraham Lincoln. According to Matthew Continetti, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, being a conservative in 2022 is less about advocating limited government and more about culture wars, owning the libs and denouncing globalization.Subtitled The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism, Continetti’s third book examines a century of intellectual and political battles. He seeks to explain how Trumpism became the dominant force within the Republican party. In large measure, he succeeds.The Right is readable and relatable, well-written and engaging. The author’s command of facts is impressive. For decades, he has lived around and within the conservative ecosystem.Continetti chronicles the tumult of 1960s, the emergence of Richard Nixon’s “southern strategy” and the migration of blue-collar ethnic Catholics to what was once the home of the white Protestant establishment. He also looks back, at the pre-New Deal Republican party and at conservatism after the civil war.Continetti is sensitive to the currents that swirl in and around this country and its people. He laments that in the 21st century blood, soil and grievance have overtaken the conservative orthodoxies of free markets, personal autonomy and communal virtue. He is discomforted by how contemporary conservatism acquired a performative edge.On the page, his dismay is muted but present. He wistfully recalls the collapse of the Weekly Standard, where he worked for Bill Kristol, his future father-in-law. George W Bush’s war in Iraq was one thing that helped do-in the magazine.Similarly, the Republican establishment’s call for immigration reform left many Americans feeling unwanted and threatened. The US immigrant population hovers near a record high, almost 14%. More than 44 million people living here were born elsewhere. Even before the pandemic, the fertility rate hit a record low. The populist impulse is not going to disappear.Trump’s inaugural address, replete with images of “American carnage”, is illustrative of the new conservative normal. Continetti quotes George W Bush: “That was some weird shit.” Nonetheless, on 20 January 2017, Trump struck a nerve.Continetti is mindful of broader trends, and the havoc assortative marriage has brought to society and politics. On that point, he gives Charles Murray his due. Continetti is pessimistic. Marriage predicated upon educational attainment has helped concentrate intellectual capital and financial advantage within a narrow caste.Twenty years ago, David Brooks, once Continetti’s colleague, described an idyllic urban existence, Bobos in Paradise. Those who can’t get in, however, face life in purgatory. The meritocracy got what it clamored for, only to discover it wasn’t loved by those it left behind.Continetti seemingly attempts to downplay similarities between Trump’s Maga movement and the hard-right in Europe. He omits all reference to Nigel Farage in Britain and Marine le Pen in France. Farage led Britain to Brexit and made a cameo appearance in Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the US. Le Pen twice forced Emmanuel Macron into a run-off for president.On the other hand, Continetti does capture how part of the US right adores Vladimir Putin: his authoritarianism, his unbridled nationalism, his disdain for classic liberalism.“Putin held the same allure for the national populist right that Che Guevara held for the cold war left,” Continetti writes. “No wonder President Trump was a fan of the Russian autocrat.”Continetti also says conservatism “anchored to Trump the man will face insurmountable obstacles in attaining policy coherence, government competence, and intellectual credibility”. Here, he stands on shaky ground.In 2016, Trump assembled a winning coalition and beat Hillary Clinton. In power, he loaded the federal judiciary. Whether Jeb Bush could have replicated such success is doubtful. As for intellectual credibility, in 2008 Kristol, Continetti’s mentor, helped pluck Sarah Palin from obscurity. And we all know where that led.In 2009, Continetti himself wrote The Persecution of Sarah Palin: How the Elite Media Tried to Bring Down a Rising Star. He now says “attacks on Palin” caused him “to rally to her defense”. Intellectual slumming, more like it. Palin was unfit for the top job. She resigned as Alaska governor 18 months before her term expired.Continetti also argues that conservatism needs once again to embrace the Declaration of Independence, the constitution and the Bill of Rights.“One cannot be an American patriot without reverence for the nation’s enabling documents,” he says.January 6 demonstrates otherwise. Conservatism’s commitment to democracy and the constitution appears situational. Members of the conservative establishment provided intellectual sinew for America’s Caesar. It wasn’t just about Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and folks dressed as Vikings.The Presidency of Donald Trump review: the first draft of historyRead moreJohn Eastman, a former clerk to Clarence Thomas; Ted Cruz, a former clerk to Chief Justice William Rehnquist; Mike Lee, son of Rex Lee, Ronald Reagan’s solicitor general. Together with Ginni Thomas, the justice’s wife, they played outsized roles around the Capitol attack. Fifteen months later, Eastman is in legal jeopardy, Cruz is under growing suspicion and Lee looks like a weasel. Ms Thomas merits our scorn.The reckoning Continetti hopes for may never arrive. Gas prices surge. Crime rises. Together, they portend a Republican midterm landslide. Such realities ushered in Reagan’s 1980 landslide over Jimmy Carter.A one-term Biden presidency looms. A second Trump term is a real possibility. The latest revelations surrounding Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell teach us that inconvenient truths are quickly discarded. In politics, a win is a win.
      The Right is published in the US by Basic Books
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      ‘We’re not attacking Russia,’ Biden says as he asks for $33bn in Ukraine aid – as it happened

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      US politics live with Joan E GreveUS politics‘We’re not attacking Russia,’ Biden says as he asks for $33bn in Ukraine aid – as it happened
      ‘We’re helping Ukraine defend itself,’ says president
      Full report: Biden asks Congress for more Ukraine aid
      Russia-Ukraine war – latest updates
      Sign up to receive First Thing – our daily briefing by email
       Updated 1h agoJoan E Greve in WashingtonThu 28 Apr 2022 16.03 EDTFirst published on Thu 28 Apr 2022 09.13 EDT Show key events onlyLive feedShow key events onlyThat’s it from the US politics live blog today. Here’s how the day unfolded in Washington:
      Joe Biden asked Congress to provide Ukraine with $33bn of additional funding to assist its fight against Russian aggression. The request includes another $20bn in military aid, as well as $8.5bn in economic aid to Kyiv and $3bn in humanitarian relief. “The cost of this fight is not cheap, but caving to aggression is going to be more costly if we allow it to happen,” Biden said at the White House today.
      Biden emphasized America’s ongoing assistance to Ukraine should not be taken as an attack on Russia. “We’re not attacking Russia. We’re helping Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression,” Biden said. “Russia is the aggressor — no ifs, ands or buts about it.” Russia has warned the US against providing Ukraine with more weaponry, but the White House has insisted it will continue to aid its ally.
      Nancy Pelosi said she expected a “strong, bipartisan vote” in the House to approve the next Ukraine aid bill. “The assistance appropriated by Congress has made a significant difference for Ukraine, but much more is needed to fight back against Putin’s brutal aggression,” the Democratic House speaker said in a statement.
      The White House dodged a question about whether it was now a US policy goal for Ukraine to win its war against Russia. “We’re not going to define that from here,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at her daily briefing.
      The US economy shrank in the first three months of the year, contracting by -0.4% in the first quarter, marking its weakest performance since the early days of the pandemic. Biden blamed the contraction on “technical factors” caused by the ongoing pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
      The Guardian’s live blog on the war in Ukraine is still running, so be sure to follow along with that for more updates:Russia-Ukraine war: Kyiv rocked by missile strikes as UN chief visits Ukraine capital – liveRead moreOne reporter asked Jen Psaki whether it was now a policy goal of the United States for Ukraine to beat Russia in the war.“We’re not going to define that from here,” the White House press secretary said, adding that the question of strategic goals was a matter for Ukrainians to determine.“What we are going to do from here is to continue to provide them with a range of security and military assistance, as evidenced by the package that the president proposed and put forward to Capitol Hill today,” Psaki said.Joe Biden’s defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, said earlier this week that the US hoped the war in Ukraine would result in a “weakened” Russia.“We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine,” Austin said. A reporter asked Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, about the expected timeline for Congress approving the requested $33bn in Ukraine aid, as well as additional pandemic response funds.“I’m not here to set new deadlines, but I can tell you that both needs are urgent,” Psaki said.Psaki underscored the crucial need to provide Ukraine with more resources as it fights off Russian attacks more than two months after the war began.“In order to continue to help assist them, help make sure they have the the weapons they need, the artillery they need, the equipment they need, it is certainly urgent to move forward on this funding,” Psaki said.The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, is now holding her daily briefing, and a reporter kicked off today’s questioning by asking about student debt cancelation.Joe Biden said earlier today, “I am not considering $50,000 [student] debt reduction, but I am in the process of taking a hard look at whether or not there will be additional debt forgiveness.”Asked whether the White House has concluded that Biden can cancel student debt via executive order, Psaki replied, “There’s been no conclusion of any process internally yet.”The president said today that he would provide an update on his student debt policies “in the next couple weeks”. Progressives have called on Biden to cancel all federal student debt, but Biden has signaled opposition to that proposal.Republican Senator Rick Scott has released a statement denouncing Joe Biden’s criticism of his tax proposals after the commerce department reported the US economy contracted during the first quarter of 2022.“Joe Biden is clearly obsessed with my plan to rescue America and very confused about his own agenda that is devastating American families. Unlike Joe Biden, I’m a proven tax cutter,” Scott said.The Florida senator noted a recent Washington Post analysis concluded the White House had made false claims about Scott’s proposal, which has even attracted some criticism from fellow Republicans. “As long as Biden and the Democrats keep trying to destroy this great country, I’ll be fighting to rescue it,” Scott said.Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said he would probably support a bill appropriating another $33bn in aid to Ukraine, as Joe Biden has requested.“Very likely yes,” McConnell told ABC News.Asked @LeaderMcConnell if he is supportive of the $33 billion Ukraine aid supplemental request the administration has put forward.“Very likely yes,” he said.— Allison Pecorin (@AllisonMPecorin) April 28, 2022
      However, some Senate Republicans have warned Democrats against trying to combine the Ukraine aid and pandemic response funding into one bill, as the Covid money remains tied up over a dispute about a controversial border policy known as Title 42.Asked earlier today whether he thought the two proposals should be linked in one bill, Biden said, “I don’t care how they do it. I’m sending them both up. They can do it separately or together, but we need them both.”Joe Biden is now meeting with small business owners to “discuss the small businesses boom under his leadership,” per his official schedule.The president was joined at the White House meeting by Isabella Casillas Guzman, administrator of the Small Business Administration.“These enterprises and entrepreneurs know the American economy is strong because America’s small businesses are strong,” Biden said at the start of the meeting.In an instance of rather bad timing, the meeting came hours after the commerce department reported the US economy contracted in the first quarter of 2022, marking its worst performance since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.At the meeting, Biden once again attacked Republican Senator Rick Scott’s plan to raise income taxes for millions of Americans, a proposal that has divided Scott’s own party and become a Democratic punching bag.“It’s just not right,” Biden said. “Our administration wants to make it easier to start a business, easier for a small business to succeed.”Nancy Pelosi said she expected a “strong, bipartisan vote” in the House to approve the next Ukraine aid bill, which Joe Biden has requested.“The assistance appropriated by Congress has made a significant difference for Ukraine, but much more is needed to fight back against Putin’s brutal aggression,” the Democratic House speaker said in a statement.“The forthcoming supplemental package will deliver critical funding including for more defensive systems and weaponry, support for Ukraine’s energy and healthcare infrastructure, and food assistance to address a growing hunger crisis around the globe stemming from this conflict.”Biden has asked Congress to approve another $33bn in assistance to Ukraine, including $20bn in military funding and $3bn in humanitarian relief.“The cost of this fight is not cheap, but caving to aggression is going to be more costly if we allow it to happen,” Biden said at the White House earlier today.Joe Biden reiterated his message that Russia is the aggressor in Ukraine, even as the Kremlin tries to villainize the West over its efforts to aid Ukraine.“Despite the disturbing rhetoric coming out of the Kremlin, the facts are plain for all to see: We are not attacking Russia,” Biden said on Twitter. “We are helping Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression. And just as Putin chose to launch this brutal invasion, he could make the choice to end it.”Earlier today, Biden asked Congress to approve another $33bn in aid to Ukraine, including $20bn in military funding. Russia has warned the US to stop providing arms to Ukraine, but the White House has remained firm in its commitment to helping its ally.Despite the disturbing rhetoric coming out of the Kremlin, the facts are plain for all to see: We are not attacking Russia. We are helping Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression. And just as Putin chose to launch this brutal invasion, he could make the choice to end it.— President Biden (@POTUS) April 28, 2022
      US FDA moves forward with proposal to ban menthol cigarettesThe Food and Drug Administration on Thursday issued a long-awaited proposal to ban menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.The move is a major victory for anti-smoking advocates but one that could dent sales at tobacco companies.The proposal, which comes a year after the agency announced the plan, still needs to be finalized and can take years to implement as it is likely to face stiff opposition from the tobacco industry. “The proposed rules would help prevent children from becoming the next generation of smokers and help adult smokers quit,” said the health and human services secretary, Xavier Becerra, Reuters reported. For decades, menthol cigarettes have been in the crosshairs of anti-smoking groups who have argued that they contribute to disproportionate health burdens on Black communities and play a role in luring young people into smoking.‘I hope we’ll get through this’: the Ukrainian refugees arriving in TijuanaIn recent weeks Mexico has been the second-to-last stop on a journey to a semblance of normal life for some Ukrainian families hoping to get to safety in the United States. The Guardian has published a dispatch from Tijuana by Jo Napolitano who writes: Just over the zigzag pathway of the Tijuana border crossing, a mile or so from the taco and churros stands that feed locals and tourists alike, rests a pop-up encampment for Ukrainian and Russian refugees fleeing an invasion they could neither endure nor support.Tijuana has been a two- or three-day respite on their journey before trying to enter the US. There, these displaced families – a flight away from Washington state or Illinois or South Carolina – are fanning out across the country, staying with friends and relatives, applying for food stamps and social security cards and enrolling their children in school. While they are far further in their relocation than the Mexican, Central American and Haitian asylum seekers waiting years for that same opportunity, these newcomers still face many hurdles.“Everything is so different here in the US,” said Anastasiia Puzhalina, a Ukrainian refugee who arrived in the States in early April with her family. “We must learn so much. I hope we’ll get through this.”The piece is published in partnership with the the 74, a non-profit, non-partisan news site covering education in America. ‘I hope we’ll get through this’: the Ukrainian refugees arriving in TijuanaRead moreNAACP calls on Biden to cancel all student debt “President Biden, we agree that we shouldn’t cancel $50,000 in student loan debt. We should cancel all of it,” the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) said in a statement on Thursday.The statement came after the president told reporters he was open to cancelling some debt but poured cold water on the $50,000 number. “$50,000 was just the bottom line. For the Black community, who’ve accumulated debt over generations of oppression, anything less is unacceptable,” the NAACP said. The NAACP has a petition calling on Biden to take action to cancel student debt, which it says would :
      Provide Black borrowers with opportunities to pursue homeownership
      Develop economy-boosting discretionary income
      Fuel upward mobility in the Black community and equitable efforts to close the racial wealth gap
      Here’s where the day stands so far:
      Joe Biden asked Congress to provide Ukraine with another $33bn in funding to assist its fight against Russian aggression. The request includes another $20bn in military aid, as well as $8.5bn in economic aid to Kyiv and $3bn in humanitarian relief. “The cost of this fight is not cheap, but caving to aggression is going to be more costly if we allow it to happen,” Biden said at the White House today.
      Biden emphasized America’s ongoing assistance to Ukraine should not be taken as an attack on Russia. “We’re not attacking Russia. We’re helping Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression,” Biden said. “Russia is the aggressor — no ifs, ands or buts about it.” Russia has warned the US against providing Ukraine with more weaponry, but the White House has insisted it will continue to aid its ally.
      The US economy shrank in the first three months of the year, contracting by -0.4% in the first quarter, marking its weakest performance since the early days of the pandemic. Biden blamed the contraction on “technical factors” caused by the ongoing pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
      The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.Unrelated to the war in Ukraine, Joe Biden was asked whether he plans to cancel more student loan debt via executive order in the coming weeks.Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said yesterday that the White House is “more open to it now than ever before” when it comes to canceling student loan debt.“There’s nothing done yet, but I am really hopeful that the goal that we have had, $50,000 of student loans canceled, is getting more and more likely,” Schumer said, per NBC News.President Biden: “I am not considering $50,000 debt reduction but I am in the process of taking a hard look on whether or not there will be additional debt forgiveness. I’ll have an answer on that in the next couple weeks.” pic.twitter.com/gpwPf2ghs5— CSPAN (@cspan) April 28, 2022
      Biden threw cold water on that idea today, telling reporters that he is not comfortable with the $50,000 number but is open to some debt cancelation.“I am not considering $50,000 debt reduction, but I am in the process of taking a hard look at whether or not there will be additional debt forgiveness,” Biden said. “And I’ll have an answer on that in the next couple weeks.”Biden has previously expressed openness to the idea of canceling up to $10,000 in student debt per borrower, but many progressives have criticized that proposal as insufficient.After finishing his prepared remarks, Joe Biden took several questions from reporters about his request to Congress for more Ukraine aid and other legislative matters.Asked for his message to Ukrainian refugees who are waiting at the southern border to enter the US, Biden said they are being allowed to come directly into the country.“We’ve said there’s no need to go to the southern border,” Biden said. “Fly directly to United States. We set up a mechanism whereby they can come directly with a visa.”Another reporter asked Biden about how the US will respond if Russia starts escalating its aggression toward Ukraine’s allies in response to their ongoing assistance to the country.“We are prepared for whatever they do,” Biden said.As he asked for more funding to assist Ukraine, Joe Biden also emphasized the importance of Congress appropriating more money for America’s pandemic response efforts.“That’s why I’m again urging Congress to act on our request for $22.5bn in emergency resources so the American people can continue to protect themselves from Covid-19,” Biden said.The president said the federal government would only be able to prepare more vaccine doses to help protect against future variants if Congress approves more money to preorder treatments.Noting that the US has also donated vaccine doses to other countries, Biden said, “Without additional funding, the United States won’t be able to help stop the spread around the world.”After concluding his prepared remarks, a reporter asked Biden whether he believed the Ukraine assistance and pandemic funding should be tied together in one bill, which lawmakers are currently at odds over.“I don’t care how they do it. I’m sending them both up,” Biden said. “They can do it separately or together, but we need them both.”NewestNewestPrevious1 of 2NextOldestOldestTopicsUS politicsUS politics live with Joan E GreveJoe BidenRepublicansDemocratsUS CongressUS foreign policyUkraineReuse this content More

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      Biden asks Congress for $33bn Ukraine aid package

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      Biden asks Congress for $33bn Ukraine aid packagePresident’s request includes over $20bn in military aid, $8.5bn in economic aid to Kyiv and $3bn in humanitarian relief

      Russia-Ukraine war – latest updates
      Joe Biden has called for a giant $33bn package of military and economic aid to Ukraine, more than doubling the level of US assistance to date, in an emphatic rejection of Russian threats of reprisals and escalation.A few hours after Biden spoke, Kyiv was shaken by two powerful cruise missile strikes, while the UN secretary general, António Guterres, was visiting the Ukraine capital following a meeting with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.A senior Ukrainian presidential aide, Mykhailo Podolyak, called the attack a “postcard from Moscow” and asked why Russia still had a seat on the UN security council.Biden asked Congress to give immediate approval for spending that would include over $20bn in military aid, involving everything from heavy artillery and armoured vehicles to greater intelligence sharing, cyber warfare tools and many more anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.Biden also requested $8.5bn in economic aid to Kyiv and $3bn in humanitarian relief, as well as funds to help increase US production of food crops and strategic minerals to offset the impact of the war in Ukraine on global supplies.The total of $33bn is more than twice the last supplemental request approved by Congress in March and dwarfs the entire defence budget of Ukraine and of many other countries. The US president said it was aimed at helping Ukraine repel the renewed Russian offensives in the east and south of the country, but also to transition to assuring the nation’s longer-term security needs.On the same day, Congress agreed to update the 1941 lend-lease legislation with which Franklin D Roosevelt sought to help Britain and other allies fight Nazi Germany. The updated law is intended to make it easier for the US to provide military equipment to Ukraine.It comes in the face of Russian warnings that increased western weapons supplies to Ukraine would endanger European security, that western intervention could bring instant Russian reprisals and raise the risk of nuclear conflict.Making the case for western aid, Biden argued that on the contrary, if Putin was not stopped in Ukraine he would continue to threaten global peace and stability.The president framed the request principally in terms of defending Ukraine, and did not explicitly repeat the declaration earlier this week by his defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, that one of US aims in Ukraine was to weaken Russia to stop it attacking other countries.“Despite the disturbing rhetoric coming out of the Kremlin, the facts are plain for everybody to see. We’re not attacking Russia. We’re helping Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression,” Biden said. But he added the cost involved was “a small price to pay to punish Russia and aggression, to lessen the risk of future conflicts”.“Throughout our history, we’ve learned that when dictators do not pay the price for their aggression, they cause more chaos and engage in more aggression,” he said. “The threats to America and the world keep rising. We can’t let this happen.”The new military assistance the congressional funding will finance will include:
      More artillery and armored vehicles, as well as anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft systems.
      Help to build up Ukraine’s cyber warfare capabilities.
      More intelligence sharing.
      Support to increase Ukraine’s ability to produce munitions and strategic minerals.
      Assistance in clearing landmines and other explosives and in Ukraine’s defence against chemical, biological and dirty bomb attacks.
      A further buildup in the US military presence on Nato’s eastern flank.
      The Kremlin’s official spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, warned on Thursday that an increased western supply of heavy weapons to Kyiv would endanger European security.“The tendency to pump weapons, including heavy weapons, into Ukraine, these are the actions that threaten the security of the continent, provoke instability,” Peskov said.The day before, Vladimir Putin had threatened a “lightning fast” response to western intervention in Ukraine, adding: “We have all the weapons we need for this.” His foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has accused the US and its allies of fighting a proxy war in Ukraine and warned of the rising danger of a nuclear conflict.Biden rejected the accusation he was fighting a proxy war, describing the claim as part of the Kremlin’s domestic propaganda to explain the inability of Russian forces to achieve their goals.“I think it’s more of a reflection, not of the truth, but of their failure,” the president said. He added: “No one should be making idle comments about the use of nuclear weapons.”The package of proposals the administration is sending to Congress also includes measures to strengthen the hand of the justice department in pursuing Kremlin-aligned oligarchs seizing their assets and using the proceeds to support the Ukraine war effort.UN secretary general describes war in Ukraine as ‘absurdity’ in 21st centuryRead moreBiden said the measures would allow for “expanded and expedited measures for investigating, prosecuting, and forfeiting assets of Russian oligarchs to be used for the benefit of Ukraine”.“We’re going to seize their yachts and luxury homes and other ill-begotten gains of Putin’s kleptocracy,” he added. The president made his announcement as the UN secretary general was visiting Ukraine, where he described the war as “an absurdity” in the 21st century.Guterres was touring Borodianka on Thursday, where Russian forces are accused of massacring civilians before their withdrawal, on his first visit to Ukraine since the start of the invasion on 24 February, before talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.01:23In nearby Bucha, where dozens of civilian bodies, some with their hands tied, were discovered this month, Guterres backed an investigation by the International Criminal Court into possible war crimes in Ukraine. “I appeal to the Russian Federation to accept, to cooperate with the ICC,” he said.The humanitarian impact of the Russian invasion has been devastating. The UN refugee agency UNHCR said nearly 5.4 million Ukrainians had fled their country since the attack began, with more than 55,000 leaving in the past 24 hours. While the outflow has slowed significantly since March, it forecast that the conflict in Ukraine could produce 8.3 million refugees by the end of the year.Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, warned the west on Thursday to stop encouraging Ukraine to strike at targets inside Russian territory, saying it was “trying our patience”. Multiple targets, including fuel and ammunition depots, have been hit in Russian provinces bordering Ukraine in recent days.“Such aggression against Russia cannot remain without an answer,” Zakharova said. “We would like Kyiv and western capitals to take seriously the statement that further provocation prompting Ukraine to strike against Russian facilities will be met with a harsh response from Russia.”Podolyak, the Ukrainian presidential aide, defended the country’s right to strike inside Russia, saying: “Ukraine will defend itself in any way, including strikes on the warehouses and bases of the killers in Russia. The world recognises this right.”Britain’s defence secretary, Ben Wallace, on Thursday also repeated the UK’s assertion that it was “legitimate under international law” for Ukrainian forces to target Russian logistics infrastructure, but he said such attacks were unlikely to use British weapons.The US on Thursday accused Russia of planning fake independence votes to justify its conquest of Ukrainian territory, saying the Kremlin might attempt “sham referenda” in southern and eastern areas it had captured using “a well-worn playbook that steals from history’s darkest chapters” and must “never be recognised as legitimate”.TopicsUS foreign policyJoe BidenUkraineRussiaUS CongressUS politicsEuropenewsReuse this content More

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      The Trumpian right keeps pushing rule of law to the brink. But the law is winning | Norman L Eisen and Dennis Aftergut

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      The Trumpian right keeps pushing rule of law to the brink. But the law is winningNorman L Eisen and Dennis AftergutSome Republicans in Congress allegedly considered using martial law to keep Trump in office. Thankfully our institutions have held the line This week has seen developments in two important legal battles. At stake is whether we are a society ruled by law or not. Without law, we face not survival of the fittest but survival of the fiercest – those most willing to use intimidation, force and violence to get their way.First, a New York judge held Donald Trump in contempt for stiffing a subpoena from the state attorney general, Letitia James, for documents relating to her civil investigation of the Trump Organization. She is investigating Trump’s businesses for allegedly inflating financial statements to lenders.Judges do not hold parties in contempt lightly. There needs to be an act so egregiously contemptuous of the law’s authority that a court cannot ignore it.In this case, the New York state court found team Trump’s efforts to locate documents in response to the New York attorney general’s subpoena “woefully insufficient” and showing complete disdain for the legal process. Trump was fined $10,000 for every day he continues in noncompliance.That court stood up for the rules that make our society work.Second, and on the same day, we saw evidence of attempts to destroy those rules and put allegiance to Trump above allegiance to country. New text messages – uncovered by the House committee investigating the January 6 siege of the Capitol, and disclosed by CNN – revealed the extent of rightwing Republicans’ attacks on the US constitution.Marjorie Taylor Greene texted Trump chief of staff urging martial law to overturn electionRead moreThe most striking text was an exchange from Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican congresswoman from Georgia. On 17 January, 11 days after the violent Capitol insurrection and three days before the scheduled transition of power to Joe Biden, she wrote: “In our private chat with only [House] Members several are saying the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to call Marshall [sic] law.”She wasn’t referring to Thurgood Marshall. Nor was she referencing the former secretary of state George Marshall. Rather, she was referring to “martial law”, the use of the military to control all features of American life and to shut down our constitutional system of government. Greene was telling the then White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, that some Republican members of Congress were allegedly advocating to end the 225-year tradition of power transferring peacefully after elections and instead using force to keep the loser in office. By passing the idea along, she suggests she is willing to entertain it herself.Stop and think about that for a moment. Multiple elected federal officials sworn to uphold the constitution were contemplating abandoning it for the law of the jungle. We should not be so inured to extremism from the Republican right that such a text message fails to shock us.These texts take on an even more ominous cast when read together with emails disclosed by the January 6 committee’s recent legal filing in a civil suit Meadows brought to block the committee’s subpoenas. His meritless effort to rehash legal arguments already rejected by other courts is nothing more than a ploy to run out the clock, and the damaging evidence filed by the committee makes clear why.To pick but one example from almost 200 pages of exhibits, there is testimony that the secret service warned Meadows and others of the risk of January 6 violence, and they proceeded to discuss sending marchers to the Capitol. The evidence of efforts to overturn the election includes step-by-step plans which, taken together with yesterday’s texts, read like a recipe book for a coup, including all the ingredients and even the cooking instructions.For those on the American right who profess to believe in liberty, imposing martial law to put a strongman atop American government a la Putin should be unthinkable.But do not hold your breath waiting for outrage from the right over texts such as the one Greene was just revealed to have sent Meadows. Greene is a charter member of the anything-goes-for-Trump club. For its members, the end justifies any means.From ancient Greek democracy to the Roman republic to the French Revolution, history tells us again and again that gravitating to autocracy comes back to haunt a nation. As John Adams, signer of the declaration of independence and second president of the United States, wrote in 1775 to his wife, Abigail, “[A] Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty once lost is lost forever.”This week, we were reminded again how close we came to a coup here in the US. Fortunately, a New York judge also showed us that the institutions of law remain strong and the impulse to autocracy is being held at bay.
      Norman L Eisen served as President Barack Obama’s ethics czar, was special impeachment counsel to the House judiciary committee in 2019–20 and is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. His latest book is Overcoming Trumpery
      Dennis Aftergut is a former federal prosecutor, currently of counsel to Lawyers Defending American Democracy
      TopicsRepublicansOpinionUS Capitol attackUS CongressDonald TrumpUS politicscommentReuse this content More

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      McConnell was ‘exhilarated’ by Trump’s apparent January 6 downfall, book says

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      McConnell was ‘exhilarated’ by Trump’s apparent January 6 downfall, book saysNew York Times reporters show how Senate leader’s opposition to Trump dwindled in face of hard political reality Hours after the deadly Capitol attack on 6 January 2021, the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, told a reporter he was “exhilarated” because he thought Donald Trump had finally lost his grip on the party.Biden finds Murdoch ‘most dangerous man in the world’, new book saysRead moreClose to a year and a half later, however, with midterm elections looming, Trump retains control over the GOP and is set to be its presidential candidate in 2024.What’s more, McConnell has said he will support Trump if so.McConnell’s short-lived glee over Trump’s apparent downfall is described in This Will Not Pass, an explosive new book by Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns of the New York Times which will be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy.The two authors describe a meeting between one of them and McConnell at the Capitol early on 7 January 2021. The day before, a mob Trump told to “fight like hell” in service of his lie about electoral fraud attempted to stop certification of Joe Biden’s election victory by forcing its way into the Capitol.A bipartisan Senate committee connected seven deaths to the attack. In the aftermath, 147 Republicans in the House and Senate nonetheless lodged objections to electoral results.According to Martin and Burns, McConnell told staffers Trump was a “despicable human being” he would now fight politically. Then, on his way out of the Capitol, the authors say, McConnell met one of them and “made clear he wanted a word”.“What do you hear about the 25th amendment?” they say McConnell asked, “eager for intelligence about whether his fellow Republicans were discussing removing Trump from office” via the constitutional process for removing a president incapable of the office.Burns and Martin say McConnell “seemed almost buoyant”, telling them Trump was now “pretty thoroughly discredited”.“He put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger,” McConnell is quoted as saying. “Couldn’t have happened at a better time.”The authors say McConnell indicated he believed he would regain control of his party, alluding to a previous confrontation with the far right and saying: “We crushed the sons of bitches and that’s what we’re going to do in the primary in ’22.”McConnell also said: “I feel exhilarated by the fact that [Trump] finally, totally discredited himself.”McConnell’s words ring hollow, in fact, as the 2022 midterms approach. Trump endorsements are highly prized and Republicans who voted for impeachment are either retiring or facing Trump-backed challengers.Trump was impeached for a second time over the Capitol attack but as Burns and Martin describe, McConnell swiftly realised that most Republican voters still supported the former president – many believing his lie about electoral fraud – and that most Republicans in Congress were going to stay in line.Burns and Martin describe how in Trump’s Senate trial, Democratic House managers sought to convince McConnell of their case, knowing his loathing for Trump and hoping he would bring enough Republicans with him to convict.But McConnell, grasping a legal argument that said Congress could not impeach a former president, did not join the seven Republicans who did find Trump guilty of inciting an insurrection.After voting to acquit, McConnell excoriated Trump, saying he was “practically and morally responsible” for the Capitol attack.That did not change the fact that thanks in large part to McConnell, Trump remains free to run for office again.TopicsBooksDonald TrumpUS Capitol attackUS politicsUS SenateUS CongressRepublicansnewsReuse this content More