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      'You ought to be embarrassed': Mitt Romney exchanges heated words with George Santos – video

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      The Republican senator Mitt Romney appeared to confront congressman George Santos before Joe Biden was due to deliver his State of Union address on Tuesday. Though his remarks were not audible, Romney clearly told Santos that he ‘ought to be embarrassed’ several times. Later Romney told reporters that Santos did not ‘belong here [in Congress]’ and called him a ‘sick puppy’ 

      ‘You don’t belong here’: Romney and Santos in tense State of Union exchange
      Dozens of George Santos’s constituents call for his resignation at US Capitol
      George Santos accused of sexual harassment by congressional aide More

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      Twitter probably fumbled the Hunter Biden story. But don’t expect a sane investigation | Margaret Sullivan

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      Twitter probably fumbled the Hunter Biden story. But don’t expect a sane investigationMargaret SullivanWhy I’m not hopeful that the Republican-led House investigation will stay grounded in reality You can’t get Americans to agree on much these days – not on gas stoves, not on Chinese spy balloons, not on the books allowed in school libraries.But one thing they apparently can bond over is whether the Republicans in the House of Representatives are likely to spend the next two years responsibly serving as the loyal opposition to President Biden and the Democrats who control the Senate.Checks, balances and all that good stuff.The consensus: fat chance.Most Americans, in an NBC poll, think Republicans will spend too much time on investigations; a CNN poll showed three out of four respondents agreeing that House Republicans haven’t been paying enough attention to things that matter; a Pew Research poll finds two-thirds of Americans are concerned that they will focus too much on investigating the Biden administration.In other words, the public has seen enough grandstanding to know exactly what’s coming.“The GOP’s investigations are going to be drawn from a grab bag of rightwing grievances,” as Hayes Brown, an MSNBC editor, recently predicted.Things kick off in earnest on Wednesday morning with the House oversight committee taking up how Twitter handled a controversial New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop, back in the fall of 2020.Will this committee stay grounded in reality as members explore legitimate questions?I’m not hopeful, especially after hearing committee chairman James Comer, Republican of Kentucky, speculating on Fox News a few days ago about the Chinese spy balloon. Comer suggested that the balloon might be loaded with bioweapons, and then went full Trump: “Did that balloon take off from Wuhan?”Comer is the same guy who suggested back in December, again preaching to the Fox News faithful, that the Brittney Griner prisoner swap may had some tie to Hunter Biden. (Well, yes, of course, because in the Republican conspiracy world, everything must have that same diabolical connection.)Then there’s the oversight committee’s Republican membership, which includes Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Jim Jordan of Ohio and Lauren Boebert of Colorado. Not exactly a Mount Rushmore of governmental statesmanship.Get out your tin-foil hats and, while you’re at it, your earplugs.It’s too bad, because Congress’s oversight role is a crucial one.What’s more, the way Twitter handled the New York Post story really was dubious, as Jack Dorsey, then the CEO, has acknowledged.The Murdoch-owned paper reported in the fall of 2020 that it had received a copy of a hard drive of a laptop that Hunter Biden had left many months before at a Delaware repair shop and never retrieved, and that it included emails that showed attempted influence peddling by then vice-president Joe Biden’s wayward son.For several days, Twitter blocked users from sharing links to the story.To be sure, skepticism and caution were in order. Was there reason to wonder whether such a laptop even belonged to Hunter Biden? Was there reason on Twitter’s part to fear that the whole thing was part of a Russian disinformation campaign and thus to be wary of spreading it weeks before a presidential election?Again, legitimate questions.“We want to make sure that our national security is not compromised” is Comer’s explanation for bringing the former Twitter executives in for a grilling. (They are the former chief legal officer, Vijaya Gadde, former deputy general counsel James Baker, and former global head of trust and safety Yoel Roth.)Dorsey himself later called his company’s decision to block the story without communicating the reasons “unacceptable”.Major news organizations, meanwhile – considering the dubious source and unable to verify the facts in real time – held the New York Post’s article at arm’s length, while not entirely ignoring it.One reason for caution: as the Washington Post wrote in an October 2020 analysis, the article repeated the debunked claim, spread by then president Trump, that Joe Biden, vice-president at the time of the alleged influence peddling, had pressured government officials in Ukraine into firing a prosecutor at his son’s behest.But the media’s hesitancy to play up the story brought howls of partisan censorship from the right – especially because the presidential election was right around the corner.Speaking to the National Press Club recently, committee chairman Comer talked a good game about how he wants to lead his committee with transparency and bipartisanship, hewing closely to the mission of rooting out government fraud and mismanagement. He unveiled a long list of targets to investigate, from prescription drug pricing to the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, and of course, the inappropriate involvements of family members, which never seemed to trouble Republicans about the Trump clan.Comer claimed the high ground: “I want [it] to be a substantive committee.”I would love to believe that. But since what’s past is prologue, I will not be holding my breath.
      Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture
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      Wednesday briefing: Five key takeaways from Biden’s rowdy State of the Union

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      Wednesday briefing: Five key takeaways from Biden’s rowdy State of the UnionIn today’s newsletter: US president uses unity message to attack his opponents – and set up bid for a second term

      Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First Edition
      Good morning. “Finish the job,” Joe Biden said nearly a dozen times in a speech to a joint session of Congress in Washington DC a few hours ago. His combative State of the Union address was designed around both halves of that equation: persuading Americans that he has achieved a lot so far, and asking them to agree that he should keep going – with a nudge towards the idea that the Republicans are getting in the way.Biden is a pretty confusing political figure at the moment: on a downward trajectory in the polls, with even most members of his own party not wanting him to stand for re-election – but with better-than-expected midterm results in his favour, and a chaotic and extreme opposition who many voters like even less.Last night, Biden made a case to blue-collar voters that sounded awfully like a pitch for a second term. And he repeatedly drew contrasts with his Republican opponents, who heckled throughout even as their leader shushed them. Today’s newsletter, with Guardian US political reporters David Smith and Lauren Gambino, takes you through all of it. Here are the headlines.Five big stories
      Turkey-Syria earthquake | Anger has mounted in Turkey over what was described as a slow and inadequate response by authorities to the earthquake that also hit neighbouring Syria, as the death toll passed 8,000 and chances of finding survivors narrowed.
      Crime | The death of Epsom College headteacher Emma Pattison, her daughter and her husband is being treated as a homicide, Surrey police have confirmed. Detectives, who have recovered a firearm, are examining the possibility George Pattison killed his wife and daughter before killing himself.
      UK politics | Rishi Sunak appointed trade minister Greg Hands to replace Nadhim Zahawi as Conservative party chair in a mini-reshuffle to stamp his authority on his fractured party. As part of a sweeping Whitehall restructure that created four new government departments, Grant Shapps takes over the new department for energy security and net zero.
      Police | Former Metropolitan police officer and serial rapist David Carrick has been sentenced to life in prison and must serve a minimum term of 32 years, before he can be considered for release. At Southwark crown court, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said Carrick had taken “monstrous advantage” of his position as a police officer to coerce and control women.
      Climate | David Nixon, a 36-year-old care worker and Insulate Britain activist, has been jailed for eight weeks for contempt of court after disregarding a judge’s order to not to mention the climate crisis as his motivation during his trial for taking part in a road-blocking protest.
      In depth: ‘A soft launch for Biden’s 2024 campaign’At last year’s State of the Union, shortly after Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, Joe Biden had Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic then-speaker of the House of Representatives, standing behind him leading bipartisan applause.This time around, things looked different. Instead of Pelosi, there was Kevin McCarthy, a Republican. Biden was repeatedly booed. And the midterm defeat in the House, although narrower than expected, significantly constrains his power.He still talked about unity: “If we could work together in the last Congress, there is no reason we can’t work together in this new Congress.” In reality, “most of Biden’s policy initiatives are not going to pass,” Lauren Gambino said. “Republicans are more focused on investigations into him, his family, the administration.” Paradoxically, though, that may help him make unity a dividing line.“This was a good night for Joe Biden,” said David Smith. “It was a soft launch for his 2024 campaign, and a speech that some are describing as the best of his presidency.”Here are five key takeaways.1. Biden led with an argument that his policies are helping blue-collar voters“As I stand here tonight, we have created a record 12 million new jobs,” Biden said, “more jobs created in two years than any president has ever created in four years.” That was one of many appeals to voters who are worried about the economy, like boasts about taking on inflation, a call to “reward work, not wealth” with a new tax on billionaires’ investments, and a protectionist call to “buy American”.NBC News said that he spent 17 minutes speaking on the economy, infrastructure, and taxes – and those were the dominant threads in the speech. He called it a “blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America”.“He spent a lot of time talking about initiatives he’s already passed,” Lauren said. “Poll after poll shows that people don’t feel he’s achieved very much, despite having done a lot legislatively. He’s going to spend the next two years trying to convince Americans that those policies will make a difference in their lives.”2. He talked less about foreign policy, abortion, and the climate crisisBiden’s preferred emphasis was evidenced as much in what he left out as what he put in. “These speeches are often checklists,” Lauren noted. “But there wasn’t a ton of time on Ukraine, and there was no mention of the Chinese spy balloon except to talk tough and say if China ever threatens us we’ll respond as we did.”The Ukraine section came at the back end of his speech, and was relatively brief; abortion rights and the overturning of Roe v Wade were the subject of just four sentences, the climate crisis about the same. That reinforced the sense that this was a speech intensely focused on pocketbook issues on which many swing voters will make up their minds.3. He made an emotional appeal for change in policingIn another long section of the speech, Biden quoted RowVaughn Wells (above), the mother of Tyre Nichols, a Black man killed last month in Memphis by police officers who now face murder charges: “Something good must come of this.”He invited Wells and Nichols’ stepfather, Rodney Wells, who were in the gallery, to stand as he told the audience: “What happened to Tyre in Memphis happens too often. We have to do better.” In a rare section heard in something like silence, he noted that like the other white people in the room, he had never had to have “the talk” with his children about what to do if stopped by the police.It was not a radical appeal: while he demanded that police departments do more to hold officers accountable, he was also careful to note that “police officers put their lives on the line every day, and we ask them to do too much”. But it felt like a sharper message than he gave in 2022, when he said that “the answer is not to defund the police, it’s to fund the police”.4. He was repeatedly heckled by Republicans – but leaned inThere was a time when a single Republican congressman shouting “You lie!” at Barack Obama was deemed, as the Guardian put it in 2009, “an extraordinary breach of political protocol”. That looked pretty quaint last night, when an unruly Republican caucus became so caught up in jeering and shouting that McCarthy had to try – in vain – to shush them.At one point, far-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (who actually brought a balloon with her?) called Biden a liar as many of her colleagues booed his assertion that some Republicans have proposed cutting social security and medicare programmes (which is, in fact, true, but exaggerated as a real threat).If anything, though, Biden appeared to relish the confrontation – getting into a spontaneous back-and-forth which he then presented as consensus.“So folks, as we all apparently agree, social security and Medicare is off the books now,” he said. “They’re not to be touched? All right. We’ve got unanimity!” You can watch the exchange here.“That was very unusual,” David said. “It felt like Biden had won the bout, and done so in a very down-to-earth, human way, not crowing or getting into poisonous arguments as Trump would.”Again, using unity as a dividing line felt like a precursor to what we might see over the rest of Biden’s term. As he said to McCarthy, with obvious enjoyment: “Mr Speaker, I don’t want to ruin your reputation, but I look forward to working with you.”5. He seems intent on running againskip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionOnly 22% of voters, and 37% of Democrats, say they want the 80-year-old president to seek a second term – well down on where those figures stood before the midterms. But it appears increasingly clear that despite his age, he fully intends to run again, and believes he is the best placed candidate to beat Donald Trump, should he win the Republican nomination.There were plenty of features of last night’s speech that seemed to point in that direction. And while there’s often a sense in Biden’s speeches that you’re waiting to hear him falter, last night’s 72-minute address was energetic, combative and largely howler-free.“It will quell the discontent within the Democratic party,” David said. “After this, it’s looking more unlikely than ever that we will see a serious challenger.”What else we’ve been reading
      The natural next step for our collectively dwindling attention spans was, of course, the hyper-short date. Elle Hunt surveys a new study that suggests the average person can only manage 51 minutes of a date that is not going well. Hunt writes that on some occasions you might want to give the date a bit longer, to remind yourself to be “open to possibility, to being surprised and potentially swept off your feet”. Nimo
      Don’t ask why Rich Pelley spent the day as Mr Blobby (above) – although it’s actually pretty interesting that there appears to be a spate of costumes on sale online that claim to be Noel’s House Party originals. Just enjoy his account of life as a “giant novelty condom”, and the Blobby experts he met along the way. Archie
      Recycling is one of those things that we all wish we were better at (or maybe I’m projecting). Emma Beddington’s piece on how to get wise when it comes to taking out your rubbish is informative and extremely helpful. Nimo
      There’s an amazing piece on the Afghan Analysts Network made up of five interviews with members of the Taliban about how they’ve found life in Kabul. From traffic troubles to complaints about colleagues corrupted by visits to hookah bars, it’s full of remarkable, granular insights. Archie
      I absolutely loved this list of the best and worst TV endings of all time by Guardian staff – I’m still confused and upset by Sex and the City, and it ended in 2004. Nimo
      SportFootball | Non-league Wrexham’s FA Cup run was ended in a fourth-round replay by Sheffield United, who scored twice in injury time to win 3-1. There was controversy after the game when United’s Billy Sharp (above) accused Wrexham of being “disrespectful”. Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson said: “My message to Billy is: you’re better than that.”Cricket | Yorkshire has reached an agreement with the ECB after admitting to four charges of bringing the game into disrepute. As a result, it will no longer have to take part in the Cricket Discipline Commission hearings into allegations of racism and discrimination at the club. The news comes as former bowling coach Richard Pyrah joined the list of charged individuals who have pulled out of the proceedings.Football | As Manchester City reel from 101 charges of breaking Premier League financial rules, Jamie Jackson writes that the question for Pep Guardiola – who has said he would leave the club if he was lied to about its affairs – may now be: “Is this your last chance to win the Champions League with City?”The front pagesThe Guardian front-page splash is “‘Monstrous’: rapist ex-Met officer jailed for life after years of attacks”. The Telegraph says “Met rapist’s ‘lenient’ sentence to be reviewed”. The Metro calls David Carrick and his crimes “A scar on our police” and says “Met rapist gets 30 years”. The Financial Times has “Sunak breaks up business department to sharpen focus on energy and science”.“Race to find survivors” – that’s the i leading on the Turkey and Syrian earthquake. “Life and death under the ruins” – the Times shows a baby born in the earthquake rubble, the rest of whose family died. “Born in earthquake hell,” says the Daily Mirror, above a picture of the baby’s rescue – its lead story though is about “BP’s spoils of war” as the oil company stands accused of profiting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.The top story in the Daily Express is “Distressed call … then school head and daughter shot dead”, about the Epsom College killings. “Now even God could be going gender neutral” – the Daily Mail on how the Church of England might stop “referring to the almighty as ‘He’”. “Fawlty Towers returns” – Basil is coming back, 44 years on, says the Sun.Today in FocusWhy are more people in the UK turning to private healthcare?The NHS turns 75 this year, but as waiting lists for appointments grow, increasing numbers of patients are looking elsewhere for healthcare. Denis Campbell reportsCartoon of the day | Martin RowsonThe UpsideA bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all badThe early days of motherhood proved tricky for Freya Bennett. A long labour and an emergency C-section left her in shock and she found herself grieving her baby-free life. A growing sense of disconnection from the outside world spurred Bennett on to sign up for a parenting group that changed her first year of motherhood.It was in this group that she met Kristen. In the following weeks and months, the two saw each other everyday, babies in tow, sharing their life stories and commiserating over sleepless nights and the other challenges of new parenthood. Their daughters have become like sisters to one another, and even after Kristen’s maternity leave ended and their daily dates were replaced by organised catch-ups, Bennett found a version of sisterhood for herself that proved to be extremely important to her as a new mum.Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every SundayBored at work?And finally, the Guardian’s crosswords are here to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian’s Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until tomorrow.
      Quick crossword
      Cryptic crossword
      Wordiply
      TopicsJoe BidenFirst EditionUS politicsState of the Union addressUS CongressnewslettersReuse this content More

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      Ex-Twitter execs to testify in Congress on handling of Hunter Biden laptop reporting

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      Ex-Twitter execs to testify in Congress on handling of Hunter Biden laptop reportingCompany temporarily restricted New York Post article in 2020 about contents of the abandoned computer of Joe Biden’s son Former senior staff at Twitter will testify on Wednesday before the House oversight committee about the social media platform’s handling of reporting on Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden.The hearing has set the stage for the agenda of a newly Republican-controlled House, underscoring its intention to home in on longstanding and unsubstantiated allegations that big tech has an anti-conservative bias.Republican targeting Hunter Biden says: ‘I don’t target individuals’Read moreThe recently departed Twitter employees set to testify include Vijaya Gadde, the social network’s former chief legal officer, former deputy general counsel James Baker and former head of safety and integrity Yoel Roth.The hearing will center on a question that has long dogged Republicans – why Twitter decided to temporarily restrict the sharing of a story about Hunter Biden in the New York Post, released in October 2020. The Post said it had received a copy of a laptop hard drive from Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, that Hunter Biden had dropped off 18 months earlier at a Delaware computer repair shop and never retrieved. Twitter initially blocked people from sharing links to the article for several days, citing concerns over misinformation and spreading a report based on potentially hacked materials.“Americans deserve answers about this attack on the first amendment and why big tech and the Swamp colluded to censor this information about the Biden family selling access for profit,” said the Republican committee chairman James Comer. “Accountability is coming.”At the time, the article was greeted with skepticism due to questions about the laptop’s origins, including Giuliani’s involvement. Twitter initially said the article had been blocked in keeping with its “hacked materials” policy, which restricted the sharing of unlawfully accessed materials. While it explicitly allowed “reporting on a hack, or sharing press coverage of hacking”, it blocked stories that included “personal and private information – like email addresses and phone numbers”. The platform amended these rules following the Biden controversy.Months later, Twitter’s then CEO, Jack Dorsey, called the company’s communications around the Post article “not great”. He added that blocking the article’s URL with “zero context” around why it was blocked was “unacceptable”.Elon Musk, who purchased the company last year, has since shared a series of internal records showing how the company initially blocked the story from being shared, citing pressure from the Biden administration, among other factors. Republican theories that Democrats are colluding with big tech to suppress conservative speech have become a hot button issue in Washington, with Congress members using various tech hearings to grill executives. But experts say claims of anti-conservative bias have been disproven by independent researchers.“What we’ve seen time and again is that companies are deplatforming people who are spreading racism and conspiracy theories in violation of the company’s rule,” said Jessica J González, co-chief executive officer of the civil rights group Free Press.“The fact that those people are disproportionately Republicans has nothing to do with it,” she added. “This is about right or wrong, not left or right.”Musk’s decision to release information about the laptop story comes after he allowed the return of high-profile figures banned for spreading misinformation and engaging in hate speech, including the former president. The executive has shared and engaged with conspiracy theories on his personal account.The White House has sought to discredit the Republican investigation into Hunter Biden, calling them “divorced-from-reality political stunts”. Nonetheless, Republicans now hold subpoena power in the House, giving them the authority to compel testimony and conduct an aggressive investigation.Online advocacy groups and big tech watchdogs have said the focus on alleged anti-conservative bias from social media firms has served as a distraction from legitimate concerns, delaying the chance for useful legislation to address issues like misinformation, antitrust concerns and online hate speech.“The fact that this is the very first tech hearing of this Congress says something,” González said. “There are real problems facing people across the political spectrum because of big tech, and lack of regulation. But instead we are getting a big waste of time, and a political stunt. The focus of Congress ought to be serving the people who elected them to office.”The Associated Press contributed to this articleTopicsHouse of RepresentativesTwitterHunter BidenRepublicansUS CongressUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      ‘Hot air’: Marjorie Taylor Greene in State of the Union balloon stunt

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      ‘Hot air’: Marjorie Taylor Greene in State of the Union balloon stuntRepublican extremist appears to reference Chinese surveillance dirigible by parading halls of Congress with white balloon Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared to tee up a State of the Union stunt on Tuesday, patrolling the halls of Congress with a large white balloon in reference to Republican criticism of Joe Biden over his handling of a flight over US territory by a Chinese surveillance dirigible.Now the Chinese ‘spy balloon’ is down, the question is: what was it for?Read more“Just an innocent white balloon everybody,” the Georgia extremist said, hours before Biden’s address to Congress, attempting to keep aloft the balloon saga which ended when it was shot down off the Carolinas on Saturday.Greene did not discuss the Pentagon disclosure that three Chinese balloons passed over the US during the presidency of Donald Trump, only for the Trump administration to fail to spot them.Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters earlier improvements to surveillance under Biden “enhanced our capacity to be able to detect things that the Trump administration was unable to detect”.Greene’s promenade with a balloon prompted widespread criticism.Bonnie Watson Coleman, a New Jersey Democrat, said: “She has to do something with all that hot air.”But Greene is nothing if not a dedicated conspiracy theorist and controversialist. Elected in 2020, she was ejected from committees for threatening behaviour in 2021 but last month restored to key panels as an ally of Kevin McCarthy, the new Republican speaker.President Biden: “Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset. I’m not saying it’s the majority.”Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: “Liar!” pic.twitter.com/OFUglFuBxC— CSPAN (@cspan) February 8, 2023
      US officials have explained that Biden wanted to shoot the balloon down three days before it was eventually popped with a missile, but was persuaded not to order the operation while it was over land, and might cause injury or destruction on the ground when brought down.China claims the balloon was for civilian meteorological research. Its downing stoked a confrontation with Beijing, as Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, cancelled a trip for talks.McCarthy – who has recently praised Greene – reportedly told Republicans not to plan any stunts in response to Biden’s speech.Greene did not have her balloon with her in the chamber. But she did make her mark when Biden accused Republicans of threatening social security and Medicare.“Liar!” Greene was seen to shout.TopicsState of the Union addressJoe BidenBiden administrationUS politicsUS CongressHouse of RepresentativesRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

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      Black lawmakers urge Biden to address police brutality in State of the Union speech – as it happened

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      The Congressional Black Caucus is pushing Joe Biden to address police brutality at his State of the Union address Tuesday night.Over a dozen members of the caucus are inviting as their guests families of Black Americans who have been killed by the police.Guests will include the mother of Eric Garner, brother of George Floyd, mother of Tamir Rice and father of Michael Brown – all high-profile cases of police killings over the last 10 years. Joe Biden invited the parents of Tyre Nichols to the address. They will be sitting with the White House’s special guests.More than a dozen members of the Congressional Black Caucus will be bringing families of Black people killed by police to the State of the Union tonight in an effort to show the visual impact of police brutality and Congress’ inaction. pic.twitter.com/I8zixpucrl— Farnoush Amiri (@FarnoushAmiri) February 7, 2023
      Bonnie Watson Coleman, a Democratic representative from New Jersey, made a pin for her and other Democrats to wear that say “1870”, referring to the year of the first known police killing of an unarmed Black man in the US.On the day of the #StateOfTheUnionAddress, my @TheBlackCaucus colleagues and I are calling for an end to the police brutality that disproportionately devastates Black and brown communities.We demand reform and accountability from those sworn to serve and protect. pic.twitter.com/nJEGb5sPiN— Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (@RepBonnie) February 7, 2023
      Here’s a quick summary of what’s happened so far today.
      House speaker Kevin McCarthy implied that George Santos is under a House ethics committee investigation, but then he backtracked to clarify that the committee has received complaints. A group of Santos’ constituents travelled to DC to call for his resignation, and though Santos has stepped down from his committee assignments, he has so far insisted that he will not step down.
      Washington is prepping for tonight’s State of the Union address, a crucial speech for Joe Biden as the 2024 election starts to loom on the horizon. The White House released a guest list of attendees, who will likely get a shout out from Biden. Tyre Nichols’ family will be there, along with Ukraine’s ambassador to the US and Bono.
      The Congressional Black Caucus is putting pressure on Biden to make police brutality one of the key issues of his address. A slate of Congress members have invited the families of victims of police brutality to the address, including the families of George Floyd, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice.
      Republicans are already bracing for an attack on Biden and Democrats in response to the State of the Union address. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, once Trump’s press secretary and now governor of Arkansas, is set to deliver the Republican’s main rebuttal to the address. Her speech will preview what criticism Republicans will throw at Democrats in the 2024 election.
      We will be closing this blog now but will be back tonight for live coverage of the State of the Union address, which starts at 9 pm ET. Thanks for reading.Joe Biden is planning to propose a 3% tax on stock buybacks – when a company buys shares of its own stock on the open market – in his State of the Union address Tuesday nights, according to the Wall Street Journal.Democrats have been doubling down on calls for new taxes that target wealthy individuals and corporations. Stock buybacks benefit shareholders of a company as it reduces the number of shares on the market and increases the price of shares. Democrats included a 1% tax on stock buybacks as part of the Inflation Reduction Act over the summer. Now, Biden will propose tripling the tax. Democrats estimate the current stock buyback tax will raise $74bn over the next decade. Now that Republicans control the House, it is unclear if such a proposal can be passed.“Republicans in Congress aren’t serious about national debt. If they were, Speaker McCarthy would support making billionaires pay their fair share and increasing taxes on corporate stock buybacks,” Elizabeth Warren said in a tweet. “This plan would raise billions in much-needed revenue.”A bus of George Santos’ constituents arrived in Washington DC to demand his resignation. The group is also delivering a petition to McCarthy calling for Santos’ expulsion from Congress.Constituents of Congressman George Santos traveled to Capitol Hill to demand his resignation and deliver a petition to Speaker McCarthy calling for a vote to expel Santos from Congress pic.twitter.com/XrOcHGfO2k— Kate Santaliz (@kate_santaliz) February 7, 2023
      A rally outside of the Capitol saw speakers denouncing Santos for his various lies – which range from where he went to college to his places of employment. Speakers at the rally included other US representatives from New York. Santos’ district encompasses part of Westchester County and Long Island, close to New York City.Rep. Dan Goldman joins people who traveled from NY’s 3rd district at the House Triangle calling for a vote to expel Santos from Congress. The group will deliver to Santos’ office and other Republicans a petition signed by more than 1,000 constituents calling for his expulsion. pic.twitter.com/VvbBuaBL5g— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) February 7, 2023
      Representative Ritchie Torres called Santos “the greatest fiction writer in the history of Congress”.“It is obvious that Kevin McCarthy forced him out of his committees, and it’s time for McCarthy to force him out of the US Congress,” Torres said. “Every day he brings new embarrassment.”Among the many falsities that Santos has campaigned on, one includes telling voters that his mother was a survivor of 9/11 – a claim which proved to be false. One constituent, a Republican, said he recalls the approximately 60 funerals that occurred in Long Island’s Manhasset neighborhood after 9/11 in a span of two weeks.“That’s not funny. To say that your mother was a part of that, you have to be really psychologically impaired to throw that around like it’s nickels.”A Republican constituent of Santos recalls all of the funerals that occurred in Manhasset in the wake of 9/11, citing that lie as particularly egregious given the sensitivity to the tragedy in the district. #NY03 pic.twitter.com/wZ702na3xn— Eva McKend (@evamckend) February 7, 2023
      Seems like House speaker Kevin McCarthy is stepping back on him saying that Republican representative George Santos is under an ethics committee investigation. McCarthy apparently meant that there have been complaints to the ethics committee against him, not that an investigation is underway – yet.“There are questions. I expect them to get answered,” he told CNN when asked if he expects an investigation from the ethics committee.Earlier, McCarthy told reporters that “ethics is moving through, and if ethics finds something, we’ll take action.”MCCARTHY CLARIFIES — ethics is not investigating santos. There have been complaints.— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) February 7, 2023
      Signs that Florida governor Ron DeSantis is eyeing the White House in 2024 keeps adding up.Politico reported today that the Republican-controlled Florida legislature is holding a 12-day special session, seemingly to help sweep up some legal challenges DeSantis faced for issues that have gotten the governor a lot of attention, like formally giving DeSantis the authority to transport migrants (he sent 50 migrants from Texas to Massachusetts last year) and placing Disney’s special district under the control of governor appointees.“Presidential campaigns aside, I have every interest in helping the governor,” Tom Leek, a Republican state representative told Politico. “What the governor is doing is helping the people of Florida.”DeSantis’ autobiography is coming out at the end of this month, and he is expected to make appearances before Republican groups in Texas, California and Alabama – a schedule ripe for a campaign. Reports also say that respected Republicans are gathering up staff, supposedly for a super PAC that would support a DeSantis campaign.Of course if DeSantis decides to run for president, he will face Trump, who helped the governor raise his national profile. Trump has already said that if DeSantis decides to run “I consider that very disloyal”.The Congressional Black Caucus is pushing Joe Biden to address police brutality at his State of the Union address Tuesday night.Over a dozen members of the caucus are inviting as their guests families of Black Americans who have been killed by the police.Guests will include the mother of Eric Garner, brother of George Floyd, mother of Tamir Rice and father of Michael Brown – all high-profile cases of police killings over the last 10 years. Joe Biden invited the parents of Tyre Nichols to the address. They will be sitting with the White House’s special guests.More than a dozen members of the Congressional Black Caucus will be bringing families of Black people killed by police to the State of the Union tonight in an effort to show the visual impact of police brutality and Congress’ inaction. pic.twitter.com/I8zixpucrl— Farnoush Amiri (@FarnoushAmiri) February 7, 2023
      Bonnie Watson Coleman, a Democratic representative from New Jersey, made a pin for her and other Democrats to wear that say “1870”, referring to the year of the first known police killing of an unarmed Black man in the US.On the day of the #StateOfTheUnionAddress, my @TheBlackCaucus colleagues and I are calling for an end to the police brutality that disproportionately devastates Black and brown communities.We demand reform and accountability from those sworn to serve and protect. pic.twitter.com/nJEGb5sPiN— Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (@RepBonnie) February 7, 2023
      House speaker Kevin McCarthy confirmed that the chamber’s ethics committee is investigating Republican representative George Santos.“Ethics is moving through, and if ethics finds something, we’ll take action,” McCarthy told reporters. “Right now we’re not allowing him to be on committees from the standpoint of the questions that have arisen.”Santos told reporters that he is not concerned about the investigation and said that he will not let the “freedom of speech” of his constituents distract him from his work. A recent Siena College poll found that 78% of Santos’ constituents in New York’s 3rd Congressional district.“You’re saying that the freedom of speech of my constituents is a distraction to my work?” Santos said. “Do you think people are a distraction to the work I’m doing here?”Santos faces local, state, federal and international investigations over professional and personal behavior, including a largely made up resume he touted during his campaign. Last week, a former Santos aid accused Santos of sexual harassment.As State of the Union tradition goes, the president and vice president, along with their spouses, invite guests to attend the address, usually so they can receive some sort of shout out during the president’s speech.This year’s guests give insight into the topics Biden will likely delve into during his address. RowVaugh and Rodney wells, the mother and stepfather of Tyre Nichols, who was killed by Memphis police in January, will be present at the speech. Other guests include Brandon Tsay, the 26-year-old who disarmed the gunman who killed 11 people and injured 10 other in Monterey Park, California and Paul Pelos, husband of former House speaker Nancy Pelosi who was attacked by a home intruder in the fall.Amanda and Josh Zurawski, a couple from Austin, Texas, will be present at the speech and will likely be mentioned as Biden criticizes the overturning of Roe v Wade. Amanda Zurawski experienced severe pregnancy complications because doctors waited to perform an abortion on her, fearing that her life was technically not at risk.Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, will be present at the speech for the second year in a row. Singer Bono will also be with the group for his philanthropic work around HIV/Aids and poverty.Joe Biden will outline an optimistic vision for the future of America in his second State of the Union address on Tuesday, White House officials said, hoping to combat the widespread sense of pessimism that surveys and polls have captured across the country.As he marks the halfway point of his first term, Biden is expected to tout his legislative accomplishments from his first two years in office – including the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Chips Act.“This president is focused on delivering results for the American people, and we’ve seen him do that over and over and over again,” Kate Bedingfield, White House communications director, said. “We look forward to continuing to talk to the American people about the work that we are doing and the results that we’re delivering.”But polls show most Americans have not yet felt the impact of Biden’s policies in their everyday lives, particularly when it comes to their personal finances. Although inflation has started to cool after peaking at an alarming rate of 9.1% last summer, only 21% of Americans rate current economic conditions as positive, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.Even the jobs market, which has been a bright spot for the US economy in recent months, does not inspire much confidence among the American public. The country’s unemployment rate hit a 53-year low of 3.4% last month, but just 34% of Americans say Biden has made progress on creating more good jobs for their communities, a new ABC News/Washington Post poll found.Brian Deese, the outgoing director of the National Economic Council, said Biden would acknowledge these ongoing challenges in his State of the Union speech.“The core message is: we have to make more progress, but people should feel optimism that because of what we have seen and because of the progress that we’ve made, that we know how to keep making progress going forward,” Deese said Monday.Biden to outline optimistic vision for US’s future in State of Union addressRead moreSarah Huckabee Sanders is set to deliver the Republican’s rebuttal to the State of the Union address, a heavy handed endorsement from the Republican party of a Trump ally and one of the most successful people who came out of his administration.Sanders won the governorship in Arkansas, a post held by her father Mike Huckabee from 1996 to 2007, last year. She is the first woman elected to the state’s gubernatorial office.She was Trump’s press secretary from 2017 to 2019 and was one of his key vocal defenders during his presidency. During her campaign, Sanders took on much of Trump’s talking points, taking hits on critical race theory and national news outlets.While she has declined to outright endorse Trump’s 2024 campaign bid – many Republicans have been mum on endorsements as they consider their own bid – she told Fox News in January that “our country would infinitely be better off if he was in office right now instead of Joe Biden”.The rebuttal speech is seen as a key stepping stone for those who have national political ambitions, particularly this year’s speech as the 2024 election looms on the horizon. House speaker Kevin McCarthy praised Sanders, saying that she is “fighting on behalf of parents, small business and ordinary taxpayers.”“I’m thrilled Sarah will share her extraordinary story and bold vision for a better America on Tuesday. Everyone, including President Biden, should listen carefully,” McCarthy added.Sanders said in a statement that she is looking forward to her opportunity “to address the nation and contrast the GOP’s optimistic vision for the future against the failures of President Biden and the Democrats”.Sanders’ speech will take place at the conclusion of Biden’s 9 pm State of the Union address tonight.How Republicans are responding to the State of the Union address will offer a preview into what message the party will sell to voters in the 2024 presidential election. Republicans are already making media appearances on their chosen conservative news networks.House Republicans have a media row set up ahead of the State of the Union today, with outlets including Breitbart, Newsmax, Epoch Times, NTD, Washington Examiner, Fox News, Daily Signal, OAN. In a bit of irony, it’s set up in the newly-named Pelosi Caucus Room— Emily Brooks (@emilybrooksnews) February 7, 2023
      Elise Stefanik, House Republican Conference chair and rising GOP star from New York state whose staunch defense of Donald Trump helped her get a House seat, set up over 300 House Republican interviews with local media outlets, according to this morning’s Politico Playbook.On Sunday, Stefanik praised the upcoming appearances of Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and House Republican Juan Ciscomani as rebuttal Republican speakers, saying that “the Republican Party embodies the American dream”.On Tuesday, the first female Governor in Arkansas history and youngest Governor in America will deliver the Republican response, and a first-generation Hispanic American Republican will deliver the Spanish language response.The Republican Party embodies the American dream.— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) February 5, 2023
      It’s been less than a year since Joe Biden delivered his first State of the Union address on March 2 of last year, but a lot has changed over the last year. Top of mind for many Americans has been the economy, with inflation rising to decades-high level over the summer. Republicans gained a slim majority in the House during the midterm election. One thing has not changed: The war in Ukraine is still rattling on.In last year’s 62-minute speech, Congress was largely unified in support of Ukraine, with the invasion having taken place just a week prior. Both Democrats and Republicans were wearing yellow and blue in solidarity with Ukraine, and some held small Ukrainian flags.This year, First Lady Jill Biden has invited Ukraine’s ambassador to the US Oksana Markarova to be her guest to the address for the second year. Markarova received a standing ovation when she was introduced during Biden’s speech last year.Biden is expected to ask for bipartisan support in sending more aid to Ukraine as the anniversary of the invasion approaches. Yesterday, NBC News reported that Biden is expected to travel to Poland later this month for the anniversary, though the trip has not been confirmed.State of the Union addresses are usually a pretty big deal – it’s a major opportunity for the president to set the tone for the year in front of the most important people in Washington. This year, the stakes for Joe Biden are even higher. The 2024 presidential election is already looming on the horizon, and while Biden has yet to officially launch a reelection campaign, he is expected to do so in the next few weeks.Biden has been prepping for his speech for weeks and is expected to lay out an underlying theme of unity, angling for stable leadership over one drenched in partisan disarray. He is expected to speak at length about the achievements of the last two years, including the passage of the $1.2tn Bipartisan Infrastructure bill that was passed in 2021 and invests in repairing America’s roads and bridges, among other investments. He will also touch on recent good news around the economy, including a low unemployment rate and the decreasing inflation rate.Republicans are already readying up their punches in response to tonight’s address as the party tries to make their own case to Americans that Democrats have failed while in power.“The state of the union is weaker and American families are suffering because of Joe Biden,” Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement this morning. “There is a reason Republicans took back the House, and that’s because of speeches like tonight where Biden will ignore and deflect blame for inflation, rising crime, and a border crisis he created. Americans deserve solutions, but all they’ll hear from Biden are excuses.”Good morning, and welcome to the politics live blog.Washington is gearing up for Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, what many are seeing as a “soft launch” to a likely 2024 re-election campaign. The president will touch on the economy, touting the economic measures that have been passed under his tenure so far, especially the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure bill and Inflation Reduction Act. He will also likely point to recent job figures and declining inflation as signs that the economy is heading in a good direction.The speech comes at a pivotal moment for Biden as the 2024 presidential election, while nearly two years away, is starting to roll in. This is the first year in Biden’s tenure that he will be addressing a divided Congress, with a Republican-controlled House. Republicans are starting to zero in on attacks against Biden, whose approval ratingshave been fluctuating just above 40% in the last few months. The address gives Biden an opportunity not only to set the tone for the year ahead, but to try to reframe how voters see his presidency so far.Here’s what else we’re watching today:
      Republicans are gearing up for a widespread rebuttal of tonight’s address – as the party not in power always does. Arkansas governor and former Trump press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is poised to give a key speech tonight in response to Biden’s address.
      Revelations on the failure of US air defenses to spot the Chinese air balloon were revealed yesterday. Republicans have been doubling down on criticism toward Biden over the mishandling, though reports show the balloon was in the air during Donald Trump’s presidency too.
      Stay tuned for more live updates. More

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      McCarthy calls on Biden to accept spending cuts in debt ceiling fight

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      McCarthy calls on Biden to accept spending cuts in debt ceiling fightWhite House has said Biden will discuss issue after ceiling is lifted, while Republicans insist on cuts first Kevin McCarthy, the House speaker, called on Joe Biden to agree to compromises and spending cuts, as the two remain deadlocked over raising the nation’s $31.4tn debt ceiling.McCarthy spoke on Monday before Biden gives the annual State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, aiming to get ahead of the president and reinforce his role as the leading congressional negotiator.The White House has said Biden will discuss federal spending cuts with Republicans, but only after the debt ceiling is lifted, while McCarthy has said Republicans will only lift the ceiling if Biden agrees to spending cuts. While the two sides disagree on the order of the subjects they are tackling, both say they will continue to talk.“Mr President, it’s time to get to work,” said McCarthy, whose Republicans won a narrow majority in the House of Representatives in November’s election.“We must commit to finding common ground on a responsible debt limit increase. Finding compromise is exactly how governing in America is supposed to work, and exactly what the American people voted for just three months ago,” McCarthy said.“Defaulting on our debt is not an option, but neither is a future of higher taxes, higher interest rates and an economy that doesn’t work.”House Republicans want to use the debt ceiling, which covers the spending programs and tax cuts Congress previously approved, as leverage to push spending cuts, after two years of Democratic control of the House and the Senate.Biden on Tuesday is expected to insist that raising the debt limit is not negotiable and US lawmakers should not use it as a “bargaining chip”, his top economic adviser, Brian Deese, said on Monday.“This bedrock idea that the United States has met all of its financial obligations for its existence as a country isn’t something that anybody should be using as a bargaining chip. It’s not a negotiable item,” Deese said.Biden seemed to question McCarthy’s ability to keep Republicans in line last week, calling McCarthy “a decent man, I think”, but noting the concessions he made to become speaker in January. Those included changing a rule of the chamber to allow any member to call for a vote that would remove him, rather than requiring a majority from either party.Despite what appears to be a standoff, McCarthy emerged from a meeting with Biden last week saying he believed the two could find common ground.A day later, McCarthy told reporters that the president had agreed to meet again.The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said the White House had been in touch with McCarthy’s staff on next steps.TopicsKevin McCarthyJoe BidenUS politicsUS CongressHouse of RepresentativesnewsReuse this content More

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      Trump documents: Congress offered briefing on records kept at Mar-a-Lago

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      Trump documents: Congress offered briefing on records kept at Mar-a-LagoLawmakers may not be satisfied given subsequent discoveries involving Joe Biden and Mike Pence US officials have offered to brief congressional leaders on their investigation into classified documents found at Donald Trump’s Florida residence, people familiar with the matter said on Sunday.Ted Cruz wants two-term limit for senators – and a third term for himselfRead moreA briefing could come as soon as this week but may not meet demands from lawmakers who want to review documents taken not just from Mar-a-Lago but also from the Delaware home and former Washington office of Joe Biden and the Indiana home of Trump’s vice-president, Mike Pence.Six months after agents at Mar-a-Lago conducted an unprecedented search of a former president’s home, the Biden White House faces bipartisan pressure to share what it found. Separate special counsels are investigating documents found in the possession of Trump and Biden.Officials have declined to answer most questions about what they found at Mar-a-Lago, citing the ongoing criminal investigation and a separate “risk assessment” of possible damage to intelligence sources.Mike Turner, who chairs the House intelligence committee, told NBC’s Meet the Press the administration told him it would brief this week.“This administration needs to understand we do have national security urgent matters,” the Ohio Republican said. He also called on the White House to brief him on the Chinese balloon shot down off the Carolinas on Saturday.He said: “What’s interesting is that the moment this balloon became public, I got a notice not from the administration that I’m going to get a briefing on this balloon, but they have to rush to Congress now to talk to us about Donald Trump’s documents.”Three people familiar with the matter confirmed a briefing was offered to the “gang of eight” – the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate and both intelligence committees. The people spoke on condition of anonymity. Any briefing is not expected to include direct access to documents, the people said.Senators Mark Warner and Marco Rubio, the Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate intelligence committee, asked for that access in a letter to the attorney general, Merrick Garland, and the director of national intelligence, Avril Haines.It was unclear if the administration will discuss the Biden and Pence records. Turner told NBC records linked to Biden and Pence would be included but two sources said the briefing was expected to focus on Trump.The director of national intelligence and Department of Justice declined to comment.The justice department says around 300 documents with classified markings, including at the top-secret level, were recovered from Mar-a-Lago last August. FBI agents executed a search warrant after evidence led them to believe Trump and his representatives had not returned all classified files.Material taken included around 13,000 government documents, about 100 bearing classification markings. Some material was so sensitive justice department prosecutors and FBI investigators required additional security clearance.A special counsel, Jack Smith, is investigating whether to bring charges against Trump or anyone else. Prosecutors have said they are investigating possible violations of criminal statutes including willful retention of national defense information and obstruction. A grand jury in Washington has been hearing evidence and prosecutors have interviewed Trump associates.Trump has claimed the materials were declassified and that he had the power to do so just by thinking – a claim his lawyers have not repeated. They tried to have an independent arbiter conduct a review of the documents. A federal appeals court said Trump’s team was not entitled to that assessment.TopicsDonald TrumpTrump administrationUS CongressHouse of RepresentativesUS SenateUS politicsUS national securitynewsReuse this content More