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      CPAC: Nikki Haley calls out Republicans’ failure to win voters’ confidence – live

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      Many, many things have changed in American politics since 2016, but one thing has stayed the same – Donald Trump’s position as the most popular man in the Republican party.He’s been in a commanding position among Republicans ever since clinching its presidential nomination more than six years ago, and that dynamic hasn’t meaningfully changed in the years since. Case in point: the latest batch of opinion polls show him essentially blowing all the other potential contenders for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination out of the water.As Sebastian Gorka made clear at the start of today’s events, CPAC is very much a convention of the “hardcore Maga”. Trump speaks tomorrow, but his most powerful presumed challenger next year, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, isn’t showing up at all. Instead, CPAC attendees will today hear from Nikki Haley, who is running next year, and Mike Pompeo, Trump’s former secretary of state who is expected to launch a campaign.CPAC attracts conservatives from across the country. We’ll try to let you know what they think of Trump’s challengers, and whether they agree that – after all that’s happened – he remains the best man to lead the GOP.Steve Bannon just got off stage after an enthusiastic, 15-minute defense of Donald Trump that was the best received speech of the day.Bannon, a former White House adviser who is appealing a federal prison sentence for ignoring a subpoena from the January 6 committee, won more applause than any speaker before him by singing the former president’s praises and attacking Fox News for ignoring Trump.“Donald J. Trump, let me repeat, in a very volatile time in American history, it was four years of peace and prosperity,” he said, to loud applause, “You know why? He puts you in the room to make decisions.”“And that’s why they hate him,” Bannon continued. “They don’t hate him because he’s Trump. They hate him because he represents you.”He then attacked Fox News for not giving the former president enough coverage. “Note to Fox senior management: when Donald J. Trump talks it’s newsworthy,” Bannon declared.“Maga, Maga, Maga. Remember, Murdoch, you deem Trump’s not going to be president, well we deem that you’re not going to have a network,” Bannon declared as he wrapped up his speech.Conservatives at CPAC today heard from one Republican presidential contender, Nikki Haley, and another potential contender, Mike Pompeo. But the convention remains very much Donald Trump’s show.“I’m still sticking with Trump,” said Gary Wolcott, a 69-year-old retiree from the Virginia suburbs near Washington DC. He acknowledged that Haley’s speech “was definitely impressive, and Pompeo’s, too”. But neither dissuaded him from the support he’s maintained for Trump since his first days as a candidate in 2015.“I just believe he’s the person who is most for America, and he gave up a lot to run for president. He’s not a career politician, and I know he’s always going to try to do what he thinks is best for America,” Wolcott said.Karen and Donald Ruthig’s sentiments were much the same.“He gets things done,” Karen, 77, said of Trump. As for the other candidates, “Maybe they’re wanting to run for vice? I don’t know, but I don’t think they can make it as president.”Her husband, Donald, called Pompeo’s speech “fabulous”, but Haley’s “predictable”. He didn’t think either could win. “I don’t think Nikki Haley is electable. I don’t think Mike Pompeo is electable, and I’m not even sure that Ron DeSantis is at this point,” he said, referring to the Florida governor who is seen as probably the second strongest contender to Trump among Republicans.Donald, a 73 year old who was attending the convention along with his wife from Virginia’s rural eastern shore, worried that if the GOP nominates anyone but Trump, many voters will stay home. “Without Trump’s complete base, we haven’t got a prayer,” he said. “So while there may be some very good candidates in the field, the electability issue (makes) him front and center.”As enduring as his support was for Trump, Wolcott called on the former president to change tactics as he navigates his second GOP primary.“His liability is, he’s got to stop bashing Republicans. He needs to explain why he’s good, not why they’re bad. So long as he can do that he will easily win the presidency. I’m not sure he can do it,” he said.The White House this afternoon decried Tennessee’s aggressive move to limit drag shows in the state.The state’s Republican governor, Bill Lee, yesterday signed a bill passed by the legislature that restricts public drag show performances – the first state to do that this year, CNN reported.The law limits “adult cabaret performances” on public property, defining such as a show “that features topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dancers, strippers, male or female impersonators who provide entertainment that appeals to a prurient interest, or similar entertainers.”At the White House press briefing on Friday afternoon, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “American people are focussed on so many issues..the economy..healthcare..safety in schools” and lamented Republicans’ targeting activities like drag shows as their priority instead.“Going after drag shows, how is that going to help people’s lives?” she asked. KJP is the first out gay White House press secretary.She added that these “ridiculous policies” are “dangerous. They vilify our fellow Americans at a time when LGBTQ Americans are facing heightened violence.”Joe Biden has the backs of LGBTQ Americans, she noted, “and will continue to be there for the community.”Earlier this month, famous Tennessee drag queens, including Eureka and Jaidynn Diore Fierce spoke up to Entertainment Weekly, with Eureka calling the bill “blatantly unconstitutional.”They talked to a competitor on this season’s Ru Paul’s Drag Race, and now fellow Tennessean, Aura Mayari, who said she was deeply upset and saddened by the push and said the law was nothing more than “a mask used to hide discrimination toward the LGBTQ+ community and the desire to erase drag.”Jaidynn Diore Fierce for all stars / lipsync assassin when? pic.twitter.com/H8XnYY7qTQ— ᴅʀᴀɢᴍᴇᴛᴏꜰɪʟᴛʜ ◡̈ (@dragmetofilth) February 8, 2023
      This feels like the year when CPAC’s centre of gravity shifted from Fox News to Newsmax – more extreme, more fringey and less relevant.Fox News personnel are thin on the ground as the network, embroiled in crisis over its part in pushing Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud, tilts away from him towards rival Ron DeSantis.Meanwhile Chris Ruddy, chief executive of Newsmax, was fawningly interviewed on stage by CPAC co-organiser Mercedes Schlapp. Adverts for Newsmax are running regularly on screens here.CPAC is teeming with Trump loyalists. Donald Trump Jr, Steve Bannon, Mike Lindell and Sebastian Gorka are causing crowd congestion as the live stream and podcast loudly cluster outside the main ballroom.Such scenes might symbolise how Trump has lost Fox News but dominates the likes of Newsmax, One America News Network and far right social media. Fox no longer carries his rallies live whereas those channels do – with smaller audiences.It could be good news for DeSantis, a regular on Fox, as he seeks to command the Republican base and banish Trump to the margins.Fox News reportedly imposes ‘soft ban’ on Donald TrumpRead moreHere are some more bits and pieces from Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s interaction with reporters at CPAC.She called on everyone in the Republican party to support the eventual nominee for president in 2024 – something that former president Donald Trump seems unlikely to do.But Greene confirmed that she is endorsing Trump, saying she talks to him “every week” and “I absolutely adore him”.The Guardian asked: “Would you be his running mate?” Greene replied: “We haven’t really engaged. That’s up to President Trump who he chooses.”Questioned about her message to former ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley and other potential candidates, she added: “Well, it’s nice that they’re running but they’re not going to win. President Trump is going to be the primary. I don’t know what they’re doing it for in the first place.”And Greene said of Ron DeSantis: “I think he is a fantastic governor for the state of Florida and, at the snail’s pace things get done here in Washington, if I were Florida, I’d give him a third term and beg him to stay as governor.”Rightwing congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene just held an impromptu question and answer session with a group of reporters at CPAC – who therefore paid little attention to Kimberly Guilfoyle’s speech from the nearby stage.The Guardian asked the first couple of questions. Greene, an influential figure in the House of Representative, said: “I think the US should be pushing for peace in Ukraine instead of funding and continuing a war that seems to be escalating and putting the entire world at risk of world war three.”The Republican from Georgia called for US funding to cease immediately. “Look, I voted for the resolution to support the Ukrainian people and against what Russia has done invading their country. But what the United States is doing is we are actually accelerating a war there and this war should be over.“We should be promoting peace. Europe should have peace and the United States should do their part. Ukraine is not a Nato member nation and Joe Biden said in the beginning he would not defend Ukraine because they’re not a Nato member nation. It doesn’t make sense and the American people do not support it.”Later Greene added that Biden is more interested in Ukraine’s border than America’s own or the victims of a toxic rail disaster in East Palestine, Ohio. She also floated an unfounded conspiracy theory that Biden’s son Hunter’s business dealings in Ukraine is likely underpinning the president’s motivations there.“Does that play a role in Joe Biden’s commitment to Zelenskiy as if Zelinskiy and Ukraine is the 51st state of the United States of America?… Is that why we’re all going to be dragged into World War three? And I’m sorry, I’m not going on that train and most Americans – pretty much everyone I talk to – is not interested in that either.”In the final days of the Trump administration, after he had lost the 2020 election, then-secretary of state Mike Pompeo declared that “there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.”Pompeo seems to have acknowledged reality in the years since, and stated the grim truth about the GOP’s recent election record in his speech at CPAC today. Here’s a clip:Potential GOP presidential candidate Mike Pompeo, who declared in November 2020 that there would be a “second Trump administration” even after the election was called for Biden, seems to acknowledge Trump’s loss at CPAC:“We lost three elections in a row.” pic.twitter.com/C2AixiOdXf— The Recount (@therecount) March 3, 2023
      He later appeared to throw some shade at his former boss:Potential GOP presidential candidate Mike Pompeo signals some new distance from Donald Trump:“We can’t become the left, following celebrity leaders with their own brand of identity politics; those with fragile egos who refuse to acknowledge reality.” pic.twitter.com/maZP39yVyE— The Recount (@therecount) March 3, 2023
      Still no word yet from Pompeo on whether he plans to run for the GOP nomination next year.At the Conservative Political Action Conference today, Republicans who are not Donald Trump are trying their best to convince the audience to give them a shot in 2024. Up first was his former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, who argued that the GOP’s struggle to win the popular vote in recent elections is a sign the party needs a change in leadership. And then she walked out of the speech venue to crowds of conservatives chanting “Trump! Trump! Trump!” That’s how it goes when you’re not on his side at a conference were Maga rules supreme. We’ll see if candidate Vivek Ramaswamy or Mike Pompeo, who hasn’t announced a run for president yet but is seen as a potential candidate, have better luck with the crowd.Here’s a recap of the day’s events:
      A call to defund the police was a surprise applause line at CPAC.
      Rightwing congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene wants to make providing gender-affirming care to minors a felony.
      Democrats remain behind Joe Biden, if the statements of House lawmakers are any indication.
      CPAC is a tough place for Republicans who are not on Donald Trump’s side.Following her speech, Nikki Haley stepped outside the venue to greet conservative attendees – who made their preference for next year’s GOP presidential nomination clear, as this video from Bloomberg News shows:Crowd chanting “Trump!” as Nikki Haley take photos with supporters after her CPAC speech. pic.twitter.com/iI7WSKSwT9— Christian Hall (@christianjhall) March 3, 2023
      The parade of speeches by former Trump officials continues with Mike Pompeo, who served as secretary of state from 2018 to 2021.He’s thought to be considering a run for the White House next year, but hasn’t yet said one way or the other. Let’s hear what he has to say.Nikki Haley has a tall order in overcoming the former president’s popularity among Republicans.The latest polls have shown her support well below that of Trump’s. Here’s one from Yahoo News/YouGov, which shows Trump in the lead with 45% support, against Haley’s 4%.Haley, who served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, is surely aware of where she would end up if the Republican primary were held today. As she closed out her speech, she appealed to the audience to consider an alternative to the former president.“We’ve lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections. Our cause is right, but we have failed to win the confidence of a majority of Americans. That ends now. If you’re tired of losing, then put your trust in a new generation. And if you want to win – not just as a party, but as a country – then stand with me,” Haley said.Nikki Haley is now on stage at CPAC, and started her stump speech off by reiterating her call for politicians over the age of 75 to take a mental competency test.“When I launched my campaign, I said every politician over 75 years old should be required to take a mental competency test. Have you seen DC lately? We should start with Joe Biden – and we shouldn’t stop there,” she said. The last part seemed to stir a murmur of disapproval from the audience, considering that Donald Trump is 76, and would also be subject to one of these tests.Many seats noticeably empty.At CPAC at National Harbor in Maryland. Nikki Haley enters to standing ovation but also many empty seats. “The liberal media’s head are exploding about me running for president… Liberals are the most sexist by far.” pic.twitter.com/u7SZOZUCqu— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) March 3, 2023
      At their retreat in Baltimore this week, House Democrats voiced enthusiasm about Joe Biden‘s likely reelection campaign, with the president expected to formally announce his 2024 bid in the next several weeks.“I think he will win. I think he’s our strongest candidate,” congressman Pete Aguilar, the House Democratic caucus chair, said Thursday at an event with Punchbowl News. Aguilar added, “I think that he can and should run, and he’s going to have the support of the House Democratic caucus.”Even House progressives, who have previously clashed with Biden over policy concerns, appear to be rallying behind the president. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said Thursday that she hopes Biden will announce his reelection campaign sooner rather than later.“Nobody is surprised that Biden was not my choice in the first election for the primary,” Jayapal said. “But the CPC and the President and his administration have formed an incredibly strong partnership.”The mayor of a Maryland city has resigned after authorities arrested him on charges of possessing and distributing images of child sexual abuse, according to multiple reports.Patrick Wojahn, 47, had been the mayor of College Park since 2015 and, before that, a member of the city council there for eight years when he was arrested Thursday. He had submitted his resignation later the previous night, as the local news outlet WBAL reported, but that did little to head off the scandal that his arrest ignited, drawing headlines nationally.Charging documents cited by the local news station WTOP accused Wojahn of using an anonymous account to upload child abuse imagery to the mobile messaging application Kik in January. Kik officials then alerted the federal missing and exploited children center, which prompted police to subpoena internet service providers’ records that linked the uploads to Wojahn.Local county investigators searched Wojahn’s home in February, and they seized cell phones, a tablet, a computer and a storage device before Thursday’s arrest.Wojahn faces 40 counts of possessing child abuse imagery and 16 of distributing it.College Park has a population of about 35,000 and is just northeast of Washington DC. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Wojahn’s arrest shocked the city’s residents.Local resident Drake Allen said he feared the scandal showed that College Park was “headed in the wrong direction”.“I don’t know if this is going to wake anybody up. It should, but it probably won’t,” Allen said, before describing how he wishes Wojahn’s successor is “just a regular mayor who does his job.”On stage at CPAC now is Donald Trump Jr, who came bearing gifts.“There’s a little surprise for all of you,” he told the audience. “Check under your seats. If there happens to be a gold chocolate bar underneath there … that’s a VIP ticket to my father’s reception tomorrow at CPAC,” the former president’s son said.Wonder what Roald Dahl would think of that. More

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      After the East Palestine disaster, Congress needs to pass the Derail Act | Chris Deluzio and Rohit Khanna

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      After the East Palestine disaster, Congress needs to pass the Derail ActChris Deluzio and Ro KhannaOur legislation will help to address the wrongs of what happened in OhioOn February 3, a freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed in the town of East Palestine, Ohio, just across the state line with Pennsylvania. A fire erupted, an evacuation order was issued, and the dangerous chemical being transported, vinyl chloride, was spilled. It’s a devastating tragedy and one that could have been prevented.Here’s the real reason the EPA doesn’t want to test for toxins in East Palestine | Stephen LesterRead moreOne of us represents constituents in Beaver county, Pennsylvania, and the people who live, work and play just miles from the site of the Norfolk Southern derailment. The other has spent six years visiting factory towns, rural communities and working on policies to bring manufacturing and technology jobs to communities decimated by globalization. Residents are scared about their health and livelihoods. They are unsure whether the air, water and soil will be safe after this disaster. They want answers, accountability and assurance that something like this will never happen again.These are the working-class folks who feel invisible and abandoned by our nation. American communities have been hurt by decades of deindustrialization, watching as disastrous trade and economic policies sent their jobs overseas. Now, they are being displaced from their homes because of corporate greed and weak regulations that failed to keep them safe from toxic chemicals.From western Pennsylvania to Silicon Valley, political leaders from across the country have a moral duty to speak out loudly for better safety regulations and to acknowledge what the people around East Palestine and so many Americans are going through.That’s why we have come together to introduce the Derail Act, the first piece of legislation in Congress to hold the railroads accountable and protect Americans. The bill will ensure that trains carrying hazardous materials are properly classified and rail carriers are required to take proper safety precautions when carrying these materials across the country. That means investing in newer rail cars, better braking equipment, setting stricter speed limits, and more.Our legislation will also improve information sharing by requiring rail carriers to report to the National Response Center, state officials and local officials within 24 hours after a train carrying toxic chemicals derails. This is something concrete that we can do to address the wrongs of what happened.This bill is an important step forward, but there is much more that needs to be done. Under the Trump administration, the Department of Transportation repealed a train safety rule that would have required trains carrying highly hazardous material to have electronic brakes installed to help stop quickly. That rule should be immediately reinstated. The Biden administration should also work closely with DoT to establish new, commonsense rules like preventing older train cars from carrying dangerous materials and mandating two-person minimum crews to help respond in the case of an emergency.To directly help the people of East Palestine and Darlington Township, we should require Norfolk Southern, the railroad responsible for the accident, to pay for all clean up and relocation costs. The EPA has already ordered the company to offer cleaning services to those impacted and has the power to charge it $70,000 per day for failure to comply. If a company can afford to pay their CEO $4m a year and provide billions in stock buybacks to shareholders, it can afford to clean up the wreckage it has caused.What this situation comes down to is the difference between those who think that government should let companies chase profits at any cost and those, like us, who instead believe that government must protect our workers and our communities. Over the past few years, Norfolk Southern reported a rise in accidents also corresponding to a rise in profits. And just months before the derailment, the company was lobbying DoT against safety standards. These companies are not going to hold themselves responsible, and it’s putting their workers and the public at risk. It is up to us to push back against the lobbying blitz and stand with workers and regular Americans.For the past 40 years, our nation has given corporations free rein and been complicit in the hollowing out of our middle class. Our governing class watched it happen. No more. This is the moment to create a society that works for everyone. We need a patriotic economy where working conditions are safe, human needs are prioritized, and everyone is treated with dignity and respect.
      Congressman Chris Deluzio is a US representative from Pennsylvania’s 17th district
      Congressman Rohit Khanna is US representative from California’s 17th congressional district
      TopicsOhio train derailmentOpinionUS politicsUS CongressOhioHouse of RepresentativesDemocratsRepublicanscommentReuse this content More

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

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

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      House ethics committee announces investigation into George Santos

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

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

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

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      Biden administration urges Congress to renew warrantless surveillance law

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

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

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

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

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