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It’s OK to be Angry about Capitalism review: Bernie Sanders, by the book
ReviewIt’s OK to be Angry about Capitalism review: Bernie Sanders, by the bookThe Vermont senator and former presidential candidate offers a clarion call against the American oligarchsThe Vermont senator Bernie Sanders has a predictably unsparing view of the effects of “unfettered capitalism”: it “destroys anything that gets in its way in the pursuit of profits. It destroys the environment. It destroys our democracy. It discards human beings without a second thought. It will never provide workers with the fulfillment that Americans have a right to expect from their careers. [And it is] propelled by uncontrollable greed and contempt for human decency.”Has Bernie Sanders really helped Joe Biden move further left?Read moreThe two-time presidential candidate makes his case with the usual horrifying numbers about the acceleration of inequality in America: 90% of our wealth is owned by one-tenth of 1% of the population; the wealth of 725 US billionaires increased 70% during the pandemic to more than $5tn; BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street now control assets of $20tn and are major shareholders in 96% of S&P 500 companies.Sanders recites these statistics with religious fervor, and poses fundamental questions for our time: “Do we believe in the Golden Rule? [or] do we accept … that gold rules – and that lying, cheating, and stealing are OK if you’re powerful enough to get away with it?”Bernie believes (and I strongly agree) that it’s long past the time when we should be paying at least as much attention to American oligarchs as we do to those surrounding Vladimir Putin. Our homegrown plutocrats “own” our democracy.“They spend tens of billions … on campaign contributions … to buy politicians who will do their bidding. They spend billions more on lobbying firms to influence governmental decisions” at every level. And “to a significant degree”, the oligarchs “own” the media. That is why our prominent pundits “rarely raise issues that will undermine the privileged positions of their employers” and “there is little public discussion about the power of corporate America and how oligarchs wield that power to benefit their interests at the expense of working families”.We were reminded this week of how this system works. Joe Biden released a budget with perfectly modest proposals for tax increases, like a 25% minimum tax on the wealthiest Americans and a seven-percentage-point raise in the corporate tax rate to 28%, which would still leave it seven points lower than it was before Donald Trump gutted it with his gigantic tax giveaways.Instantly, experts owned and operated by the billionaires started spewing their familiar bilge, like these moving words from the Cato Institute: “Higher tax rates on the wages of a narrow segment of the United States’ most productive executives and business leaders will have strong disincentives against their continued work and other negative behavioral effects that translate into a less dynamic, slower growing economy.“Higher taxes on investment income target the financial rewards to successful entrepreneurs who undertake risks and persevere through failure to build high return businesses that provide welfare enhancing goods and services to people around the world.”Sanders quotes one of the most prescient Americans of the mid-20th century, from 1944: “As our industrial economy expanded [our] political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness. We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence.”The name of that dangerous revolutionary: Franklin Delano Roosevelt.Several decades before that, Theodore Roosevelt similarly bemoaned the “absence of effective state, and, especially, national, restraint upon unfair money-getting” which “has tended to create a small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power”.There is something extremely refreshing about an author who assumes it should be obvious that billionaires should not be allowed to exist – and has perfectly reasonable proposals about how they should be eliminated. At the height of the pandemic, Sanders proposed the Make Billionaires Pay Act, which would have imposed a 60% tax on all the wealth gained by 467 billionaires between 18 March 2020 and January 2021.“But why stop at one year?” he now asks. After all, the 1950s were economic boom times in America – and under a Republican president, Dwight Eisenhower, “the top tax rate for the wealthiest Americans was around 92%. America thrived. Unions were strong. Working-class Americans could afford to support themselves and buy homes on a single income.” And the richest 20% controlled a measly (by current standards) 42.8% of the wealth.Bernie Sanders: ‘Oligarchs run Russia. But guess what? They run the US as well’Read moreSanders’ 99.5 Percent Act would only touch the top 0.5% of Americans. “But the families of billionaires in America, who have a combined net worth of over $5tn, would owe up to $3tn in estate taxes.” He would accomplish this with a 45% tax rate on estates worth $3.5m and a 65% rate on those worth more than $1bn.There is much more here, including a convincing case for Medicare for All and an excoriation of a for-profit healthcare system which spends twice as much per citizen as France or Germany and still manages to leaves tens of millions of Americans un- or underinsured, all while nourishing an obscene pharmaceuticals business in which profits jumped by 90% in 2021.I first toured the castles of the Loire Valley as a teenager in the company of the family of my uncle, Jerry Kaiser, a 60s radical and a very early opponent of the war in Vietnam. As we absorbed the opulence of one chateau after another, Jerry had only one question: “What took them so long to have a revolution?”The noble purpose of Bernie Sander’s powerful new book is to get millions of Americans to ask that question of themselves – right now.
It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism is published in the US by Crown
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Biden unveils ‘blue-collar’ budget plan with tax hikes for America’s wealthiest
Biden unveils ‘blue-collar’ budget plan with tax hikes for America’s wealthiestBlueprint – unlikely to pass given Republicans’ control of House of Representatives – frames president’s aspirations for re-electionJoe Biden on Thursday unveiled his budget, a sprawling plan that the White House says reflects the president’s commitment to creating a fairer economy while challenging Republicans who are demanding steep cuts to federal spending programs.The $6.8tn budget request, the third such request of Biden’s presidency and the first to a divided Congress, is effectively dead on arrival with Republicans in control of the House, and sets the stage for a high-stakes showdown over the nation’s finances. Even so, it frames the president’s policy aspirations ahead of his expected campaign for re-election in 2024.Biden’s budget blueprint would cut the federal deficit by nearly $3tn over the next decade, largely by raising taxes on corporations and high earners. It also includes proposals aimed at lowering the cost of healthcare, prescription drugs, childcare, housing and education while making new investments in domestic manufacturing, cancer research and a paid family leave program.It calls for restoring the child tax credit that helped reduce child poverty by half when Congress temporarily expanded the benefit during the pandemic. Under Biden’s plan, families could claim as much as $3,600 a child, compared with the current level of $2,000.Amid Republican claims that the Democrats are weak on crime and border security, Biden’s plan includes funding for more police officers and border patrol agents. Additional funding would support new technology at points of entry along the border and for cracking down on fentanyl trafficking, according to a factsheet provided by the White House.As tensions rise with Russia and China, Biden proposed a more than 3% increase to defense spending, an $886bn request that includes support for Ukraine and increased funding to allies in the Indo-Pacific region.Biden will formally introduce his spending plan, which he has described as a “blue-collar blueprint”, on Thursday afternoon in Pennsylvania, a battleground state that helped lift him to the White House in 2020. It is an unusually high-profile rollout for a budget proposal that is often greeted with a resounding thud on Capitol Hill.But Biden and the White House believe the suite of popular tax-and-spend proposals will be difficult for Republicans to attack. Emphasizing the point, White House officials released polling alongside the budget plan that they say shows overwhelming public support for their policies.“When you look at this president’s view of the world and what this budget puts forward, it shows you what he values,” Shalanda Young, director of the Office of Management and Budget, told reporters on Thursday. “And that’s what this is going to be about that. And we’re happy to have that debate with anybody: who are you for?”Republicans swiftly dismissed the plan as inadequate to address the nation’s debt, which the government projects will rise by $19tn over the next decade.In a joint statement, top House Republicans accused Biden of “shrugging and ignoring” the national debt, which they called one of the “greatest threats to America”.”President Joe Biden’s budget is a reckless proposal doubling down on the same far left spending policies that have led to record inflation and our current debt crisis,” the statement said.Underwriting his plans, the president calls for new tax hikes on the wealthy, including a repeal of the tax cuts that Donald Trump signed into law in 2017 – cuts that disproportionately benefited wealthy Americans. Biden also proposes quadrupling a tax on stock buybacks and raising the corporate income tax rate to 28%.At the heart of his budget is a plan that the White House says would help avert a Medicare funding crisis and extend the program’s solvency for at least 25 years. The plan would raise Medicare taxes from 3.8% to 5% for those who earn more than $400,000 per year to protect the government health insurance program for adults over 65, which is at the heart of a brewing policy debate poised to play a central role in the 2024 presidential election.Republicans have so far refused to put forward a counter-proposal, despite promises to put the US on a path to a balanced budget. Yet by rejecting tax increases and denying charges that they would cut social security or Medicare programs, it is unclear how Republicans would achieve that goal.“Republicans keep saying they want to reduce the deficit, but they haven’t put out a comprehensive plan showing what they’ll cut,” Young said. “We’re looking forward to seeing their budget so the American people can compare it to what we’re putting out today, this president’s vision.”TopicsJoe BidenUS taxationUS politicsUS domestic policyRepublicansDemocratsnewsReuse this content More
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Ron DeSantis sees ‘freedom’ in Florida – thanks to Republican supermajority
Ron DeSantis sees ‘freedom’ in Florida – thanks to Republican supermajorityThe governor – believed by many to mount a 2024 presidential campaign – is ramping up an ‘anti-woke’ crusade with a veto-proof supermajority in state legislature If there’s one word Floridians have heard plenty of since their Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, was sworn in for a second term last month, it is “freedom”. The rightwing politician, expected by many to seek his party’s 2024 presidential nomination, sprinkles the word freely as he ramps up the “anti-woke” crusade he believes can propel him to the White House.Nikki Haley says Florida’s ‘don’t say gay’ law does not go ‘far enough’Read moreIt turns out, following a special legislative session last week that handed DeSantis victory after victory in his culture wars against big corporations, the transgender community, students, migrants and racial minorities, the person with the greatest freedom in Florida to do exactly as he pleases is the governor himself.In November, voters granted DeSantis’s wish of a veto-proof Republican supermajority in the state legislature. In a five-day session, those politicians validated every one of his demands.They granted DeSantis total control of the board governing Disney, the theme park giant with whom he feuded over his anti-LGBTQ+ “don’t say gay” law.They gave him permission to fly migrants from anywhere in the US to destinations of his choosing, for political purposes, then send the bill to Florida’s taxpayers.And they handed unprecedented prosecutorial powers to his newly created, hand-picked office of election “integrity”, pursuing supposed cases of voter fraud.The special session is over but DeSantis’s devotion to seeking retribution against those who disagree with him is not.Last week, after a backlash, the Florida High School Athletic Association backed away from forcing female students to chronicle their menstrual histories on medical forms, a requirement seen by many as a thinly-veiled attempt to keep transgender athletes out of girls’ sports.Exactly one week later, a Republican House committee proposed allowing DeSantis to turf out those who made the decision and replace them with his own appointments.It’s a familiar playbook: the Disney legislation allows the governor to supplant sitting officials on its governing tax authority with his own picks; his “hostile takeover” of the liberal New College of Florida last month was accomplished by swamping its board of trustees with hand-picked allies and conservative Christians.In what critics say was a particularly petty act earlier this month, DeSantis moved to strip the liquor license from the non-profit Orlando Philharmonic Plaza Foundation because it hosted a drag show, which some children attended with parents.The threats keep coming. The notoriously thin-skinned DeSantis wants to cut state ties with the College Board, which criticised him for a “PR stunt and posturing” when he demanded it revise an advanced placement college course on African American studies he said “lacked educational value”.“No politician should silence the stories of Black and brown people who helped create our country. Our democracy and constitutional values must transcend such hateful and callous political agendas,” said Tiffani Lemon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.Others accuse DeSantis of fascism, among them the progressive Democratic congressman Maxwell Frost, whose vocal criticism of the governor long predated his election in November.“If you disagree with Ron DeSantis he’ll abuse his power to close down your business, take over your school, remove your classes and unconstitutionally fire you,” Frost said in a tweet. “I encourage folks to look up the definition of fascism then read these headlines.”Other Florida Democrats see the DeSantis-ordered special legislative session as his “get out jail free card”, sweeping away legal obstacles and other hurdles that threatened to stall his policy objectives.His original plan to abolish the Disney authority would have saddled residents with $1bn in bond debt, so instead he asked the legislature to rename and restructure it.Judges threw out charges against several ex-felons the governor said voted illegally because his state office lacked prosecutorial authority, so a new law was drafted to give it.DeSantis’s administration was sued for flying migrants from Texas to Massachusetts in a “vile political stunt” stunt last year, because the existing law restricted migrant removals to those physically in Florida. So he changed the law.“It’s just a clear example of DeSantis changing the law because he broke the law,” said Anna Eskamani, a Democratic state congresswoman who voted against the new measure to allow the governor to fly migrants anywhere.“Republicans like Ron DeSantis don’t care about the rules. If they don’t like the rules, they change them. And if they can’t change them they try to destroy them, as we saw with the [January 6] insurrection.”Gregory Koger, chair of political science at the University of Miami, said the issues the legislature addressed suggested “speed over thought” when the DeSantis administration was planning its strategies.“It’s not unusual at all to see legislators and executives fixing problems in the laws that they have passed,” he said.DeSantis wins new power over Disney World in ‘don’t say gay’ culture warRead more“You could have had a slow, bipartisan, well-thought-out approach to changing the relationship between Florida and Disney, but that isn’t what we observed. We saw a law being drafted and passed as an act of retribution, and now they have to come back and say, ‘Well, when we passed our act of retribution, here’s what we actually meant.’“Same with changing the guidelines for Florida to fly migrants. That seems like an effort to back out of a legal challenge to their behavior by retroactively saying the legislature is actually OK tricking people into getting on a plane in Texas and flying them from there, rather than finding actual undocumented people in Florida.”In an email to the Guardian, DeSantis’s press secretary, Bryan Griffin, defended the governor, saying he was bringing “a new era of accountability and transparency” to Disney, Florida’s biggest employer.“Businesses in Florida should operate on a level playing field,” Griffin said. “In 1967, the Florida legislature created the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which gifted extraordinary special privileges to a single corporation.“Until Governor DeSantis acted, the Walt Disney Company maintained sole control over the district. This power amounted to an unaccountable corporate kingdom.”TopicsRon DeSantisRepublicansFloridaUS politicsUS elections 2024US domestic policyfeaturesReuse this content More
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Biden says he’s Republicans’ ‘nightmare’ over social spending cuts – as it happened
“I know that a lot of Republicans, their dream is to cut Social Security and Medicare,” Biden says.“If that’s your dream, I’m your nightmare,” he adds, to laughter and applause.Biden talks about Rick Scott, the Republican senator from Florida, who released a plan last year to ‘sunset’ all federal programs. It would mean programs including social security and medicare are federal programs – would expire every five years, and need to be reauthorized to continue.“I guarantee you it will not happen. I will veto it I’ll defend social security and medicare,” Biden says.Biden then turns his focus to Sen Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, a Republican who has also threatened measures which would likely cut the programs.“From the time you’re a teenager you had money taken out for these programs,” Biden says.Social Security is more than a government program, it’s “a promise we made”, he adds.“And now these guys want to cut it. I don’t get it, I really don’t. I don’t know who they think they are.”That’s all for today… here are the key events that happened across the country.Joe Biden described himself as Republicans’ “nightmare” over their proposed cuts to social programs. “I know that a lot of Republicans, their dream is to cut Social Security and Medicare,” Biden said. “If that’s your dream, I’m your nightmare.” Speaking at the University of Tampa, Biden attacked Rick Scott, the Republican senator from Florida who has said programs including social security and medicare should expire every five years, and need to be reauthorized to continue. “I guarantee you it will not happen. I will veto it I’ll defend social security and medicare,” Biden said.Biden also took a dig at Ron De Santis, the Republican governor of Florida who may yet be his opponent in the 2024 presidential election. De Santis has effectively denied Floridians healthcare, Biden noted, by failing to sign on to the Affordable health care act’s Medicaid expansion provision. “Over 1.1m people in Florida would be eligible for Medicaid if Governor De Santis would just agree to expand it,” Biden said. “This isn’t calculus.”China’s balloon that crossed the United States was equipped to collect intelligence signals, the Biden administration said. The White House said the balloon, which was gunned down by the US last weekend, was part of a huge, military-linked aerial spy program that targeted more than 40 countries. A fleet of balloons is used specifically for spying, outfitted with high-tech equipment designed to collect sensitive information from targets across the globe, the US said.Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, moved closer to taking over Walt Disney World’s self-governing district on Thursday, after House Republicans approved legislation meant to punish the company over its opposition to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law.The legislation would leave Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District, in which Disney has the power to decide what it builds including, in theory, its own nuclear plant, intact, but would change its name and require DeSantis to appoint a five-member governing board, Associated Press reported:Board members are currently named through entities controlled by Disney and are tasked with overseeing the government services the district provides in the company’s properties in Florida.For DeSantis, the legislation is a victory on the nation’s cultural battlegrounds, where he has harnessed political tensions on gender, race and education to bolster his position as a conservative firebrand while on a path toward an expected 2024 White House run.Last week, the Republican leaders of the Florida House and Senate, in coordination with the governor, ordered lawmakers to return for a special session to complete the state takeover of the Reedy Creek district, taking up a bill that would preserve its operating functions and financial responsibilities.The legislation is all but certain to pass in the statehouse, where a Republican supermajority is eager to carry out the governor’s agenda. Democrats have widely criticized the legislation as a retaliatory power grab by the governor but are powerless to do much else other than delay its passage.“This bill sends a message from the governor to businesses in our state that if they dissent, they will be punished,” said Rep. Rita Harris, a Democrat. “And this is chilling. It’s not just chilling to me, it’s chilling to freedom of speech.”Our columnist Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, takes a look at troubling figures for Democrats – Joe Biden’s stubbornly low approval numbers:In his first State of the Union address since Democrats lost control of the House, Joe Biden celebrated recent economic gains – especially declining inflation and soaring job growth – while taking a bow for legislative victories that will curb prescription drug prices, expand health benefits for veterans, slow climate change and rebuild the nation’s infrastructure.Biden’s speech reminded me of how good a president he has been, especially given what he inherited from the former guy, who made a fetish out of dividing and angering Americans while accomplishing nothing except giving a giant tax cut to big corporations and the rich.Biden has steadied the nation. He has brought competent people into government. He has enacted important legislation. He has fortified America’s alliances against despots like Putin. He has strengthened American democracy.All of which raises a troubling paradox. Only 42% of Americans approve of Biden’s presidency – barely above the 41% at his last State of the Union address, and a lower percent at this point than any president in 75 years of polling except for Trump and Reagan (who at this point was hobbled by a deep recession).And despite Biden’s significant achievements, fully 62% think he has accomplished “not very much” or “little or nothing”.Read on…Joe Biden has steadied the nation – why don’t his polling numbers reflect this? | Robert ReichRead moreMeta has restored Donald Trump’s access to Facebook and Instagram, a spokesperson confirmed on Thursday, following a two-year suspension after the deadly Capitol Hill riot on January 6 2021.Meta said in January it would lift Trump’s suspension “in the coming weeks”, but “with new guardrails in place to deter repeat offenses”. Those guardrails include potential suspensions ranging from one month to two years should Trump violate its content policies again.Trump’s Facebook page was visible on Thursday. His most recent posts were all from January 6 2021, including one which read:“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!”Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol that day chanted for Pence to be hanged.Trump now regains access to key platforms for voter outreach and political fundraising ahead of another run for the White House in 2024. He had 23 million followers on Instagram and 34 million on Facebook when the pages were shut down.Joe Biden told Republicans he is “their nightmare” during a speech in Florida on Thursday, as he offered a stark contrast between his administration and the GOP.Speaking at the University of Tampa, Biden told the crowd that the GOP is seeking to hobble social programs that he has pledged to protect.“I know that a lot of Republicans, their dream is to cut Social Security and Medicare,” Biden said.“Well let me say this: if that’s your dream, I’m your nightmare.”Biden was in Tampa touting his administration’s accomplishments in its first two years.The president sought to remind those watching that he had signed into law legislation on infrastructure, prescription drug costs, and social reform.He attacked Rick Scott, the Republican senator from Florida who released a plan which would mean programs including social security and medicare would expire every five years, and need to be reauthorized to continue.“I guarantee you it will not happen. I will veto it I’ll defend social security and medicare,” Biden said.Biden also took a dig at Ron De Santis, the Republican governor of Florida who may yet be his opponent in the 2024 presidential election.De Santis has effectively denied Floridians healthcare, Biden noted, by failing to sign on to the Affordable health care act’s Medicaid expansion provision.“Over 1.1m people in Florida would be eligible for Medicaid if Governor De Santis would just agree to expand it,” Biden said.“This isn’t calculus.”Wrapping up his speech, Biden touts his achievements in office.“12m jobs created,” he says.“800,000 manufacturing jobs.”Biden says the US has lowest unemployment rate in 50 years.Less bombastically, he adds: “Inflation is coming down.”A record 10m Americans have applied to start a small business, Biden continues.“Let’s build on the promise we made. Keep prescription drug costs down, defend Social Security and Medicare,” Biden says.“I’ve never been more optimistic about America’s future.“Just remember who we are for god’s sake. We’re the United States of America.”On that triumphant note some marching band music starts blasting, and Biden heads off into the crowd to shake some hands.“I know that a lot of Republicans, their dream is to cut Social Security and Medicare,” Biden says.“If that’s your dream, I’m your nightmare,” he adds, to laughter and applause.Biden talks about Rick Scott, the Republican senator from Florida, who released a plan last year to ‘sunset’ all federal programs. It would mean programs including social security and medicare are federal programs – would expire every five years, and need to be reauthorized to continue.“I guarantee you it will not happen. I will veto it I’ll defend social security and medicare,” Biden says.Biden then turns his focus to Sen Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, a Republican who has also threatened measures which would likely cut the programs.“From the time you’re a teenager you had money taken out for these programs,” Biden says.Social Security is more than a government program, it’s “a promise we made”, he adds.“And now these guys want to cut it. I don’t get it, I really don’t. I don’t know who they think they are.”Referencing legislation passed on infrastructure, protecting gay marriage, and social programs, Biden says:“We did that in a bipartisan way: Democrats and Republicans did it. I don’t know why they won’t acknowledge that any part of what’s making the country great again.”Biden moves on to the Inflation Reduction act, which introduced a 15% tax on some of the wealthiest companies in the US.“I thought it was time people began to pay their fair share a little bit,” Biden says.Joe Biden is championing his administration’s achievements and insisting that he will further protect Social Security and Medicare at a speech in Tampa, Florida.Biden touts bipartisan accomplishments of his first two years, including legislation on infrastructure, climate and healthcare, before repeating a theme from his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, saying the American people are “strong”. He adds: “It’s never been a good bet to count us out.”Biden is aiming to pass legislation to give “families and seniors just a little more breathing room”, he says. Florida has the highest percentage of seniors of any state in the nation, Biden notes, to scattered applause.The president is speaking in front of a banner that says: “Protect and strengthen Medicare” and “Lowering costs for American families”, as he seeks to draw contrast his vision for Social Security and Medicare with the plans of some Republicans to gut both plans.The former Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen said today he is booked in for no less than his 16th meeting with Manhattan prosecutors looking into the hush money payment he made to Stormy Daniels, aka Stephanie Clifford, the adult film actor and director who claims an affair that Donald Trump denies.Cohen told Meidas Touch he will meet with prosecutors working for the Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg, next week, having been in to see them for a 15th time this week.Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 in 2016, as Trump campaigned for president. The payment (which Trump reimbursed) and its violation of campaign finance law played a part in Cohen being sent to jail. Trump has not been charged.The payment has come back to the fore in Bragg’s investigation of Trump, with a grand jury reportedly hearing evidence. It has also been part of a rumbling confrontation between Bragg and Mark Pomerantz, a prosecutor who resigned from the Manhattan Trump investigation last year, in protest at what he saw as Bragg’s reluctance to indict Trump, and who has now published a book.In People vs Donald Trump, Pomerantz says the Daniels payment became a “zombie case”, forever coming back from the dead as a way to indict the former president. He also says that he thinks Trump should be indicted in relation to more serious tax and fraud allegations.Cohen turned on Trump and has co-operated extensively with authorities investigating the former president.Yesterday, Cohen told MSNBC he found Bragg’s team to be “really well-versed in all aspects of this case. I’m actually impressed with how quickly they all came up to speed … they’re very knowledgeable about all the facts, all the testimony so far that’s been provided”.Further reading:Trump porn star payment a ‘zombie case’ that wouldn’t die, ex-prosecutor says in bookRead moreAngie Craig, a Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota, was assaulted in her DC apartment building this morning, her chief of staff said.“Rep Craig defended herself from the attacker and suffered bruising, but is otherwise physically okay,” Nick Coe said in a statement.Coe said Craig called 911 and the attacker fled the scene. He said there was “no evidence” that the incident was politically motivated.Craig was elected to the House of Representatives in 2018. She became the first openly gay person elected to Congress from Minnesota.Congresswoman Craig assaulted today in her DC apartment, per statement from her office pic.twitter.com/A1LXvR21pL— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 9, 2023 More
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Biden has revived democratic capitalism – and changed the economic paradigm
Biden has revived democratic capitalism – and changed the economic paradigmRobert ReichThe president’s domestic successes offer a rebuke to disciples of Reagan: the ‘free market’ has never existed How can inflation be dropping at the same time job creation is soaring?Schools and universities are ground zero for America’s culture war | Moira DoneganRead moreIt has taken one of the oldest presidents in American history, who has been in politics for over half a century, to return the nation to an economic paradigm that dominated public life between 1933 and 1980, and is far superior to the one that has dominated it since.Call it democratic capitalism.The Great Crash of 1929 followed by the Great Depression taught the nation a crucial lesson that we forgot after Ronald Reagan’s presidency: the so-called “free market” does not exist. Markets are always and inevitably human creations. They reflect decisions by judges, legislators and government agencies as to how the market should be organized and enforced – and for whom.The economy that collapsed in 1929 was the consequence of decisions that organized the market for a monied elite, allowing nearly unlimited borrowing, encouraging people to gamble on Wall Street, suppressing labor unions, holding down wages, and permitting the Street to take huge risks with other people’s money.Franklin D Roosevelt and his administration reversed this. They reorganized the market to serve public purposes – stopping excessive borrowing and Wall Street gambling, encouraging labor unions, establishing social security and creating unemployment insurance, disability insurance and a 40-hour workweek. They used government spending to create more jobs. During the second world war, they controlled prices and put almost every American to work.Democratic and Republican administrations enlarged and extended democratic capitalism. Wall Street was regulated, as were television networks, airlines, railroads, and other common carriers. CEO pay was modest. Taxes on the highest earners financed public investments in infrastructure (such as the national highway system) and higher education.America’s postwar industrial policy spurred innovation. The Department of Defense developed satellite communications, container ships and the Internet. The National Institutes of Health did trailblazing basic research in biochemistry, DNA and infectious diseases.Public spending rose during economic downturns to encourage hiring. Even Richard Nixon admitted “we’re all Keynesians”. Antitrust enforcers broke up AT&T and other monopolies. Small businesses were protected from giant chain stores. By the 1960s, a third of all private-sector workers were unionized.Large corporations sought to be responsive to all their stakeholders – not just shareholders but employees, consumers, the communities where they produced goods and services, and the nation as a whole.Then came a giant U-turn. The Opec oil embargo of the 1970s brought double-digit inflation followed by the Fed chair Paul Volcker’s effort to “break the back” of inflation by raising interest rates so high the economy fell into deep recession.All of which prepared the ground for Reagan’s war on democratic capitalism.From 1981, a new bipartisan orthodoxy emerged that the so-called “free market” functioned well only if the government got out of the way (conveniently forgetting that the market required government). The goal of economic policy thereby shifted from public welfare to economic growth. And the means shifted from public oversight of the market to deregulation, free trade, privatization, “trickle-down” tax cuts, and deficit-reduction – all of which helped the monied interests make more money.What happened next? For 40 years, the economy grew but median wages stagnated. Inequalities of income and wealth ballooned. Wall Street reverted to the betting parlor it had been in the 1920s. Finance once again ruled the economy. Spurred by hostile takeovers, corporations began focusing solely on maximizing shareholder returns – which led them to fight unions, suppress wages, abandon their communities and outsource abroad.Corporations and the super-rich used their increasing wealth to corrupt politics with campaign donations – buying tax cuts, tax loopholes, government subsidies, bailouts, loan guarantees, non-bid government contracts and government forbearance from antitrust enforcement, allowing them to monopolize markets.Democratic capitalism, organized to serve public purposes, all but disappeared. It was replaced by corporate capitalism, organized to serve the monied interests.Joe Biden is reviving democratic capitalism.From the Obama administration’s mistake of spending too little to pull the economy out of the Great Recession, he learned that the pandemic required substantially greater spending, which would also give working families a cushion against adversity. So he pushed for the giant $1.9tn American Rescue Plan.This was followed by a $550bn initiative to rebuild bridges, roads, public transit, broadband, water and energy systems. And in 2022, the biggest investment in clean energy in American history – expanding wind and solar power, electric vehicles, carbon capture and sequestration, and hydrogen and small nuclear reactors. This was followed by the largest public investment ever in semiconductors, the building blocks of the next economy.Notably, these initiatives are targeted to companies that employ American workers.Biden has also embarked on altering the balance of power between capital and labor, as did FDR. Biden has put trustbusters at the head of the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the justice department. And he has remade the National Labor Relations Board into a strong advocate of labor unions.Unlike his Democratic predecessors, Biden has not sought to reduce trade barriers. In fact, he has retained several from the Trump administration. But unlike Trump, he has not given a huge tax cut to corporations and the wealthy. It’s also worth noting that in contrast with every president since Reagan, Biden has not filled his White House with former Wall Street executives. Not one of his economic advisers – not even his treasury secretary – is from the Street.I don’t want to overstate Biden’s accomplishments. His ambitions for childcare, eldercare, paid family and medical leave were thwarted by senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. And now he has to contend with a Republican House.Biden’s larger achievement has been to change the economic paradigm that has reigned since Reagan. He is teaching America a lesson we once knew but have forgotten: that the “free market” does not exist. It is designed. It either advances public purposes or it serves the monied interests.Biden’s democratic capitalism is neither socialism nor “big government”. It is, rather, a return to an era when government organized the market for the greater good.
Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com
TopicsState of the Union addressOpinionJoe BidenBiden administrationUS politicsDemocratsUS domestic policyUS economycommentReuse this content More - in US Politics
Classified documents not found at Biden’s beach home after DoJ concludes search – as it happened
The justice department has concluded its search of Joe Biden’s home on Delaware’s coast, and while it found no classified material, agents did take away some documents for further review, an attorney for the president said.“The DOJ’s planned search of the President’s Rehoboth residences, conducted in coordination and cooperation with the President’s attorneys, has concluded. The search was conducted from 8:30 AM to noon. No documents with classified markings were found,” Bob Bauer, who is acting as a personal lawyer for Biden, said in a statement.“Consistent with the process in Wilmington, the DOJ took for further review some materials and handwritten notes that appear to relate to his time as Vice President.”Federal agents have come and gone from Joe Biden’s Rehoboth Beach, Delaware home in their search for classified materials, after previously paying a visit to his residence in Wilmington and former office in Washington DC. There were no government secrets found at Biden’s beachfront property, but the search means the investigation will stay in the news for the time being. Meanwhile, Democratic lawmaker Jared Huffman is circulating a letter worrying over security in the House ahead of next week’s State of the Union address, which he says has grown worse since the GOP took control of the chamber at the start of the year.Here’s what else happened today:
Nikki Haley and Tim Scott sure seem to be preparing to campaign for president, which would put them up against fellow Republican Donald Trump.
Socialism is set to be formally denounced with a Republican-backed House resolution that has received surprising Democratic support.
Biden is having his first meeting with Kevin McCarthy since the Republican was elected House speaker, but the press is not invited.
It’s the usual partisan split when it comes to the public’s views of the unfolding classified document scandal, new polling has found.
Just about anything can spark an argument in Congress these days, including the pledge of allegiance.
Kevin McCarthy is heading to his first meeting with Joe Biden since becoming House speaker.Increasing the debt ceiling is the main item on their agenda, and as he left the Capitol, Fox News caught McCarthy again laying out his demands for spending cuts:McCarthy leaving to talk to Biden: I got a big plan. The first question is does the President want to continue reckless spending or find a way that we could be responsible. Sit down and find common ground where we put ourselves on a path to budget. Make a balanced budget.— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) February 1, 2023
You might not hear much more than that about the meeting, at least not for a while. According to the White House, the encounter is “Closed Press”, meaning reporters are not invited to attend. That has sparked objections from Kelly O’Donnell, vice-president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, who said prior presidents have invited journalists to observe parts of such meetings:When presidents meet House speakers, there’s a long tradition of WH press pool covering a portion of meeting to document that for the day’s news and historical record. Today’s first meeting of Pres. Biden and Speaker McCarthy should be covered the same way. pic.twitter.com/fvMzhkLoNe— Kelly O’Donnell (@KellyO) February 1, 2023
Republicans are moving forward with a plan to boot Democrat Ilhan Omar off the House foreign affairs committee, saying she used antisemitic rhetoric. But a Democratic colleague said the effort is about nothing more than revenge, the Associated Press reports. A vote on her ouster is expected Thursday:A House Republican attempt to remove Ilhan Omar from the foreign affairs committee, expected as soon as Wednesday, is about “vengeance” and “spite”, one of the Minnesotan’s fellow Democrats said.“This is about vengeance. This is about spite. This is about politics,” said James McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the rules committee, as Republicans called a hurried meeting late on Tuesday to consider the matter.Republicans are targeting Omar, an African-born Black lawmaker, over comments she has made about Israel and as payback after Democrats kicked far-right Republicans off committees for incendiary and violent remarks. On Wednesday, the House voted 218-209 along party lines to move forward with a resolution to remove Omar from the committee. A final vote was expected later this week.The new House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, has been eager to remove Omar after blocking two other Democrats, Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, from the intelligence committee.Omar, a Somali immigrant and one of the first female Muslims in Congress, has apologized for comments she has said she has come to understand were viewed as antisemitic. Republican bid to kick Ilhan Omar off panel is ‘spite’, fellow Democrat saysRead moreNikki Haley, the Republican former governor of South Carolina who served as ambassador to the United Nations under Donald Trump, has a “big announcement” planned for later this month.What could it be?My family and I have a big announcement to share with you on February 15th! And yes, it’s definitely going to be a Great Day in South Carolina! 👊 🇺🇸Be sure to RSVP here: https://t.co/fxxxpBbW2b pic.twitter.com/2QJIo0H7Jo— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) February 1, 2023
A run for president, is the most likely answer. Trump may already have announced a second campaign for the White House, but that isn’t scaring off other Republicans from throwing their hat in the ring.Case in point: Tim Scott, a GOP senator who is also from South Carolina, will launch “a listening tour focused on Faith in America” later this month, with stops in Iowa and South Carolina. Both states happen to be on the early primary calendar for Republicans, and often play a major role in winnowing the field of presidential nominees.The biggest name waiting in the wings is Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who has repeatedly come in second in polls of Republicans over their preferences for president.In Memphis, mourners are gathering for the funeral of Tyre Nichols, whose death at the hands of law enforcement sparked outrage and renewed calls for Congress to act on long-stalled police reform legislation.Vice-President Kamala Harris is among the attendees, and the Guardian has a blog dedicated to covering the event live:Tyre Nichols funeral begins as mourners gather at Memphis church – latestRead moreDonald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, told CNN earlier he has handed his cellphones to prosecutors in Manhattan as they look again at a 2016 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, the adult film star with whom Donald Trump denies having an affair.A grand jury has been convened in New York to hear evidence related to the payment, a potential campaign finance crime.Cohen said: “Most recently, they asked for my cellphones because they want to be able to extract from it the voice recordings that I had had with Keith Davidson, former attorney to Stormy Daniels before Michael Avenatti, as well as a bunch of emails, text messages and so on.”Cohen’s phones have been seized before, by federal investigators in 2018.Cohen has previously pleaded guilty to paying Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, $130,000 to be quiet about her alleged affair with Trump, which she says happened in 2006. Cohen says Trump directed him to make the payment. Cohen’s recompense for doing so has been detailed by federal prosecutors.As CNN put it, “Manhattan prosecutors are [now] looking into whether Trump and his business falsified business records by improperly treating the reimbursement as a legal expense. That charge is a misdemeanor in New York unless it can be tied to another crime, such as campaign finance laws.”There follows more on what Stormy Daniels is up to now, containing a quote for the ages, about her experience as a stand-up comic, thus: “It was the most terrifying experience of my life, and that’s saying something because I’ve seen Trump naked.”‘It was my most terrifying experience – and I’ve seen Trump naked!’: Stormy Daniels on standup, tarot and reality TVRead moreSpeaking of the debt ceiling, the meeting at the White House later, Republican messaging as practised by Senate minority leader Addison Mitchell McConnell III – you know and love him as Mitch – and our columnist Robert Reich, here’s Robert with some pertinent preparatory reading…The dire warnings of fiscal hawks are once again darkening the skies of official Washington.They’re demanding that the $31.4tn federal debt be reduced and government spending curtailed – thereby giving cover to Republican efforts to hold America hostage by refusing to raise the debt ceiling.It’s always the same when Republicans take over a chamber of Congress or the presidency. Horrors! The debt is out of control! Federal spending must be cut!When they’re in power, they rack up giant deficits, mainly by cutting taxes on corporations and the wealthy (which amount to the same thing, since wealthy investors are the major beneficiaries of corporate tax cuts).Then when Democrats take the reins, Republicans blame them for being spendthrifts.Not only is the Republican story false, but it leaves out the bigger and more important story behind today’s federal debt: the switch by America’s wealthy over the last half century from paying taxes to the government to lending the government money.This backstory needs to be told if Americans are to understand what’s really happened and what needs to be done about it. Republicans won’t tell it, so Democrats (starting with Joe Biden) must.More:Republicans aren’t going to tell Americans the real cause of our $31tn debt | Robert ReichRead moreMitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, has issued a statement about the meeting scheduled for this afternoon between Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy, the Republican House speaker.True to Republican messaging about spending and debt – see Reich, Robert, former US labor secretary and Guardian US columnist, passim but also here, today – McConnell says “it is right, appropriate and entirely normal that our need to raise the debt limit would be paired with negotiations regarding Democrats’ runaway printing and spending”.McConnell cites previous remarks by his opposite number, Chuck Schumer, about the debt ceiling being something that should be negotiated over, and says: “The president of the United States does not get to walk away from the table.“The same president who happily signed off on [further messaging alert] trillions of dollars of reckless party-line spending needs to begin good-faith negotiations on spending reform with Speaker McCarthy today.”Schumer spoke on the Senate floor. He said Republicans had to show the American people their plan to avoid a catastrophic default..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Later this afternoon President Biden will meet with Speaker McCarthy for their first one-on-one meeting of the year, and everyone is asking the same question of Speaker McCarthy: show us your plan. Where is your plan, Republicans? Where is your plan, Speaker McCarthy?McCarthy “showing up at the White House without a plan is like sitting down at the table without cards in your hand”, Schumer said, adding: “We know why the speaker has struggled and is unable to produce a plan – delaying it or avoiding it – he doesn’t have the votes for one, in all likelihood.”He concluded: “We Democrats have a plan – raise the debt ceiling without brinksmanship or hostage-taking as it’s been done before. Speaker McCarthy doesn’t have a plan. So, he is not really negotiating. And the clock is ticking.”Whatever else one might say about Lauren Boebert, the extremist Republican from Colorado, she knows how to get herself in the news.We mentioned her just a few posts ago, regarding a contretemps earlier today about security matters at the Capitol.On the House floor yesterday, the eve of Black History Month, Boebert claimed to be afraid the History Channel and even the Weather Channel could be “canceled” by the forces of wokeness – and/or DirectTV.In her remarks, Boebert bemoaned the recent decision by the cable provider to drop Newsmax, a rightwing, pro-Trump channel.Boebert said: “Will the Weather Channel be canceled next if they refuse to bow to the left’s altar of climate change? What about the History Channel? We see on a regular basis the left wants to erase history and deny truth. How about [the rightwing Christian channel] TBN?”DirecTV says it dropped Newsmax for commercial reasons, because the channel’s “demands for rate increases would have led to significantly higher costs” for customers. It replaced Newsmax with The First, another rightwing operation.But the decision has stoked rightwing anger. In Florida on Tuesday the governor, Ron DeSantis, said DirecTV’s move “does warrant investigation”.Boebert insisted it was a political decision.“This is not the first time that we’ve seen this,” the Coloradan said, “and I’m afraid that it won’t be the last time that we are seeing this here in our great country.“OAN [One America News, also pro-Trump] was de-platformed by DirecTV in April of 2022. So what’s next? Fox News?”After DirecTV dropped OAN, Yosef Getachew, media and democracy program director at Common Cause, a government watchdog, told the Guardian: “No company should profit from spreading content that endangers our democracy.”But cancel culture is a profitable rightwing talking point, holding that people with views deemed unacceptable by the left are barred from public life.Insisting “conservatives are not being treated fairly”, Boebert said: “There has definitely been an increase in disdain and intolerance by many liberals for Christian beliefs simply by saying we love Jesus. So is TBN next? Americans are tired of cancel culture.”Federal agents have come and gone from Joe Biden’s Rehoboth Beach, Delaware home in their search for classified materials, after previously paying a visit to his former office in Washington DC and residence elsewhere in the state. There were no government secrets found at Biden’s beachfront property, but the search means the investigation will stay in the news for the time being. Meanwhile, in Congress, Democratic lawmaker Jared Huffman is circulating a letter worrying over security in the House ahead of next week’s State of the Union address, which he says has grown worse since the GOP took control of the chamber at the start of the year.Here’s what else has happened today:
Socialism is set to be formally denounced with a Republican-backed House resolution that has received surprising Democratic support.
It’s the usual partisan split when it comes to the public’s views of the unfolding classified document scandal, new polling has found.
Just about anything can spark an argument in Congress these days, including the pledge of allegiance.
The House will today begin considering a resolution proposed by Republicans to denounce “the horrors of socialism” – a non-binding statement that has received a surprising amount of support from Democrats.Florida Republican María Elvira Salazar first introduced the resolution in 2021 when Democrats controlled the chamber, and has proposed it again this year with the House under GOP control. “Through this resolution, the House of Representatives denounces socialism in all its forms and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States of America,” Salazar’s office said in 2021, noting it specifically singles out left-wing one-party states such as Cuba, China and the USSR, which broke up more than three decades ago.Ahead of the vote today, the second-largest Democratic caucus in the House, the New Democrat Coalition, announced their 96 members would back the measure. “New Dems strongly reject socialism – period. House Republican Leaders should set aside political games and join us as we work to grow our economy for all Americans,” the center-left group said in a statement.With support like that, the resolution seems sure to pass. But why bother with a statement condemning a governing philosophy that has few open adherents in Washington and is practiced by several of America’s best-known foes? According to Fox News, it’s an attempt to put progressive lawmakers like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib on the spot, both of whom are affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America. The justice department has concluded its search of Joe Biden’s home on Delaware’s coast, and while it found no classified material, agents did take away some documents for further review, an attorney for the president said.“The DOJ’s planned search of the President’s Rehoboth residences, conducted in coordination and cooperation with the President’s attorneys, has concluded. The search was conducted from 8:30 AM to noon. No documents with classified markings were found,” Bob Bauer, who is acting as a personal lawyer for Biden, said in a statement.“Consistent with the process in Wilmington, the DOJ took for further review some materials and handwritten notes that appear to relate to his time as Vice President.”Democrats are expressing safety concerns in the House natural resources committee after Republicans proposed rules that exclude a ban on firearms in hearing rooms, which existed in the previous Congress.Here’s how the debate started, according to NBC News:👀The Committee on Natural Resources is meeting NOW to organize and vote on their rules… Some fireworks expected: GOP side is pushing to ALLOW FIREARMS in hearing rooms and we are told DEMS will loudly object— Haley Talbot (@haleytalbotnbc) February 1, 2023
Jared Huffman, the Democratic lawmaker who is also circulating a letter questioning security in the House ahead of next week’s State of the Union speech, has proposed an amendment to reinstate the ban:Happening NOW @RepHuffman: “my amendment explicitly prohibits carrying or having readily available any firearm dangerous weapon explosive or incendiary device within the hearing rooms and conference rooms of this committee” https://t.co/9GO2PfubY3— Haley Talbot (@haleytalbotnbc) February 1, 2023
Several far-right lawmakers serve on the committee, including Lauren Boebert. In the hearing, she harkens back to a time when Huffman donned a tinfoil hat to mock her:Boebert pulls up this poster and says “looks my colleague forget his tin foil hat so I brought this to remind” pic.twitter.com/UPbdQCXFlb— Haley Talbot (@haleytalbotnbc) February 1, 2023
She then gets into her reasoning for wanting to carry a gun in the Capitol, a building where access is controlled at all hours by a large police force:BOEBERT: “With threats now at an all time high I would like to remind the gentleman that now’s not the time to be stripping members of our constitutional right to defend ourselves. DC has a violent crime problem and it’s often wondered 50% higher than the national average.”— Haley Talbot (@haleytalbotnbc) February 1, 2023
A Democratic representative is circulating a letter to congressional leadership warning that the security of the House is “precarious”, and asking what steps they will take to protect the chamber during the 7 February State of the Union address.California’s Jared Huffman blamed new rules passed under the House’s Republican leaders for worsening the security situation, and in his letter cited as evidence “the violent insurrection of January 6, an attempt by a Member of Congress to bring a concealed weapon on to the House Floor, other Members vowing to do so in contravention of House rules, and most recently a colleague distributing what appeared to be legitimate, and later revealed to be inert hand grenades on the House Floor.“We know from experience that the House is vulnerable to multiple fronts of attacks both from inside and outside Congress,” wrote Huffman. “Considering the ability of Members of Congress to carry firearms in the Capitol complex outside the House Floor, removal of magnetometers from the entrances to the House Floor, and with record threats against the lives of Members of Congress, the security of the House complex is today precarious.”Addressed to the Democratic and Republican leaders of the House and Senate, Huffman’s letter requests “information on what steps you are taking, in coordination with the House and Senate sergeant at arms, Secret Service, and other federal agencies to protect the president, vice-president, the diplomatic corps, cabinet secretaries, supreme court justices, senators, representatives, and their guests ahead of the State of the Union address on 7 February 2023. Any attack on this gathering would threaten our democracy and undermine the functionality of the entire federal government.”Huffman is circulating the letter to lawmakers interested in signing it, and plans to send it to leadership this evening, his office said. More - in US Politics
Trump says in video ‘anyone in my position not taking the fifth would be an absolute fool’ – as it happened
What does Trump think of those who would answer questions in a deposition, like the one he sat for with New York’s attorney general?“Anyone in my position not taking the Fifth Amendment would be a fool, an absolute fool,” he said in the interview.Meanwhile, on his Truth social network, which stands in for his inactive-but-no-longer-banned Twitter account, the former president was doing his usual thing.“The Democrat D.A.’s, Attorney Generals, and Prosecutors are very DANGEROUS to the well being of our Country. Many are deranged and only interested in pleasing the Fake News Media and the Democrat Party. Fair and True Justice means NOTHING in our Country anymore,” he wrote in a post released shortly after CBS News aired video of his deposition today.“I am being hit by so many DEMOCRAT Prosecutors, LOCAL, STATE, & FEDERAL, all to keep me from “running,” and all because I am leading by sooo much. The great people of our Country aren’t going to take it. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”“Witch-hunt”. “Unfair”. “Anyone in my position not taking the fifth would be a fool”. It was Donald Trump at his finest, or perhaps most exhausting, in video of his summer deposition before the New York attorney general obtained by CBS News. Besides bashing Letitia James and her inquiry – which alleges he and his children conspired to inflate his net worth in order to get better loan terms – Trump doesn’t say much, instead refusing to answer questions more than 400 times. Meanwhile, in Washington, lawmakers have plenty of questions of their own in the ongoing saga of the classified documents discovered in the possession of former White House occupants, with a top Democrat demanding information on Trump and Mike Pence’s visitors from the Secret Service.Here’s what else happened today:
George Santos announced he will not serve on any House committees, even though Republican speaker Kevin McCarthy said he would be willing to seat him.
The Biden administration will let the emergencies declared over Covid-19 expire, but is considering declaring a new crisis to allow Americans to obtain access to abortions.
Kamala Harris will attend Tyre Nichols’s funeral in Memphis on Wednesday, her office announced.
Minnesota’s governor Tim Walz signed into law a measure protecting abortion rights, making the state’s legislature the first to enshrine access to the procedure since the end of Roe v Wade last year.
Boris Johnson paid a visit to the US Capitol in search of support for Ukraine and perhaps also political relevance.
Boris Johnson, the former British prime minister, has brought his quest for political relevance to Washington, holding talks with Republican members of Congress in an effort to shore up support for Ukraine.Johnson left office last September amid a Trumpian cascade of scandals but, far from fading into retirement, may be hoping that the war with Russia offers a shot at redemption and chance to emulate his hero Winston Churchill as a global statesman.The 58-year-old visited Ukraine earlier this month and, on Tuesday, was seen entering the office of House speaker Kevin McCarthy, who ruffled feathers last year by warning that Republicans will not write a “blank check” for Ukraine if they win back the majority.Reporters also spotted Johnson heading to the office of Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader and staunch supporter of Ukraine who has urged Joe Biden to act faster, as well as Congressman Jim Banks, a veteran of the Afghanistan war.Cristina Maza, a journalist at the National Journal, tweeted that Johnson told her that he is on Capitol Hill to thank Americans for backing Ukraine and called Republican support for Kyiv “very robust”. The ex-PM also met Oksana Markarova, the Ukrainian ambassador to the US, and took questions from Ukrainian journalists.Johnson has penned an opinion column for the Washington Post, arguing that years of “diplomatic doublespeak” about Ukraine joining Nato ended in disaster. “Ukrainians should be given everything they need to finish this war, as quickly as possible, and we should begin the process of admitting Ukraine to NATO, and begin it now,” he writes.The former PM is set to speak at a private Republican club on Tuesday evening and take part in a virtual conversation about sustaining support to Ukraine with the Atlantic Council think tank at 11.30am on Wednesday.Here’s a statement from Ben Crump, attorney for the parents of Tyre Nichols, regarding Vice-President Kamala Harris’s attendance at his funeral tomorrow:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}This morning, Ms. RowVaughn Wells, Mr. Rodney Wells, and I spoke on the phone with Vice President Kamala Harris for over thirty minutes about the tragic loss of Tyre. Vice President Harris and Ms. Wells spoke exclusively, and during this emotional time, the Vice President was able to console Ms. Wells and even help her smile. Tyre’s parents invited Vice President Harris to the funeral tomorrow, and were pleased that she accepted their invitation. Mr. and Mrs. Wells are grateful for Vice President Harris reaching out to them during this heartbreaking time and for her sensitivity on the call.Vice-President Kamala Harris will travel to Memphis tomorrow to attend Tyre Nichols’s funeral, her office has announced.Last week, Joe Biden spoke with Nichols’s mother and stepfather after the 29-year-old was beaten by Memphis police following a traffic stop, and died three days later.Minnesota’s Democratic governor Tim Walz has signed into law the Protect Reproductive Options (PRO) Act, which creates a “fundamental right” to abortion under the state’s laws:Today, I signed the PRO Act into law. Your reproductive freedom will stay protected in Minnesota.— Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWalz) January 31, 2023
Abortion access is already protected under a state supreme court ruling, but the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports Democrats controlling the state legislature passed the PRO Act to guard against the possibility that the precedent gets overturned.With the law, Minnesota has become the first state to add abortion protections to its statutes since the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade last June and allowed states to ban the procedure entirely. Voters elsewhere in the country have approved ballot measures protecting abortion access in reaction to the ruling from the supreme court’s conservative majority.In the wake of Tyre Nichols’s death, Joe Biden will meet with Black lawmakers on Thursday in a bid to revive stalled talks on a federal police reform bill, the Associated Press reports: >@POTUS will meet with members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Thursday to discuss police reform in light of Tyre Nichols’ death, @ODalton46 tells reporters on AF1 en route to NYC— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) January 31, 2023
Spurred by the death of George Floyd in 2020 and the nationwide protests that followed, negotiations over passing some kind of reform measure dragged on for months in 2021, but ultimately proved fruitless. The Washington Post reports that despite the outrage over Nichols’s death following a beating by Memphis police officers – five of whom have been charged with murder – the chances of passing such a measure have only worsened.“I don’t know what the space is for that,” Senator Lindsey Graham, who is the top Republican on the judiciary committee that would probably consider any such bill.Previous talks were held while Democrats controlled both the House and Senate, and negotiators were trying to find a compromise that could overcome a Republican filibuster in the upper chamber. Now, the GOP controls the House, and John Cornyn, a Republican who played a part in passing a bill to help police departments implement de-escalation training, doubts such a measure is feasible.“I think it’s probably less likely to happen now with divided government,” Cornyn said, according to the Post.George Santos has elaborated on his decision to recuse himself from the House committees on small business and science, space and technology.Here’s a statement from the New York Republican lawmaker and fabulist:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}With the ongoing attention surrounding both my personal and campaign financial investigations, I have submitted a request to Speaker McCarthy that I be temporarily recused from my committee assignments until I am cleared. This was a decision that I take very seriously. The business of the 118th Congress must continue without media fanfare. It is important that I primarily focus on serving the constituents of New York’s Third Congressional District and providing federal level representation without distraction.
I want to personally thank Speaker McCarthy for meeting with me to discuss the matter and allowing me to take time to properly clear my name before returning to my committees. To my constituents, I remain committed to serving the district, and delivering results for both New York’s Third Congressional District and for the American people.Most of Santos’s constituents would like him to resign, a recent survey said.Far-right commentators who joked or cast doubt about the hammer attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, are having to eat their words, now that video of assault has been released, the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports:Conservative commentators were forced to backtrack over conspiracy theories and jokes about the hammer attack on Paul Pelosi, after the release of police video and audio last week.One Fox News commentator had to retreat from his claim there was no “evidence of a breaking and entering” when his host pointed out that footage of the attacker breaking into Pelosi’s home was playing on screen at the time.“Got it,” Brian Claypool said. “Yeah. OK. Can’t we talk more about what is the DoJ doing?”The Department of Justice has charged Pelosi’s attacker, David DePape, with assault and attempted kidnapping. The 42-year-old also faces state charges including attempted murder. He has pleaded not guilty.Pelosi, 82, was attacked in his San Francisco home in late October, a time when his wife, Nancy Pelosi, was still speaker of the US House. According to tapes released by the police, the attacker said he was looking for her. She was not present. Her husband suffered a fractured skull and injuries to his hand and arm.Republican leaders including Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell condemned the attack.But prominent rightwingers including Donald Trump Jr, the Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the Tesla and Twitter owner Elon Musk and Republican members of Congress including Ted Cruz and Marjorie Taylor Greene eagerly spread jokes, misinformation and conspiracy theories.Paul Pelosi attack: rightwing pundits backtrack after release of police videoRead more“Witch-hunt”. “Unfair”. “Anyone in my position not taking the fifth would be a fool”. It was Donald Trump at his finest, or perhaps most exhausting, in video of his summer deposition before the New York attorney general obtained by CBS News. Besides bashing Letitia James and her inquiry – which alleges he and his children conspired to inflate his net worth in order to get better loan terms – Trump doesn’t say much, instead refusing to answer questions more than 400 times. In Washington, lawmakers have plenty of questions of their own in the ongoing saga of the classified documents found in the possession of former White House occupants, with a top Democrat demanding information on Trump and Mike Pence’s visitors from the Secret Service.Here’s what else has happened today so far:
George Santos announced he will not serve on any House committees, even though Republican speaker Kevin McCarthy said he would be willing to seat him.
The Biden administration will allow the emergencies declared over Covid-19 to expire, but is considering declaring a new crisis to allow Americans to obtain access to abortions.
The fallout from the police killing of Tyre Nichols continues in Memphis.
What does Trump think of those who would answer questions in a deposition, like the one he sat for with New York’s attorney general?“Anyone in my position not taking the Fifth Amendment would be a fool, an absolute fool,” he said in the interview.Meanwhile, on his Truth social network, which stands in for his inactive-but-no-longer-banned Twitter account, the former president was doing his usual thing.“The Democrat D.A.’s, Attorney Generals, and Prosecutors are very DANGEROUS to the well being of our Country. Many are deranged and only interested in pleasing the Fake News Media and the Democrat Party. Fair and True Justice means NOTHING in our Country anymore,” he wrote in a post released shortly after CBS News aired video of his deposition today.“I am being hit by so many DEMOCRAT Prosecutors, LOCAL, STATE, & FEDERAL, all to keep me from “running,” and all because I am leading by sooo much. The great people of our Country aren’t going to take it. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”The top Democrat on the House oversight committee has sent the director of the Secret Service a letter asking for information on all visitors to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and Mike Pence’s Indiana home since they left office two years ago.Jamie Raskin, the ranking member on the Republican-led committee that is playing a major role in investigating Joe Biden, cited the FBI’s discovery of classified materials at Pence and Trump’s properties.“The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating former President Donald Trump’s and former Vice President Mike Pence’s mishandling of sensitive, highly classified documents,” Raskin wrote in the letter to director Kimberly Cheatle.“Given that the U.S. Secret Service provided protection for Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence during the time they stored classified materials at their respective residences, the Committee is seeking information from your agency regarding who had access to former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club and former Vice President Pence’s personal residence since leaving office.”Led by James Comer, Republicans on the oversight committee are investigating Biden over a number of matters, including his improper possession of classified documents. Comer has requested from the Secret Service information regarding visitors to Biden’s Delaware residence, where some of his classified documents were found. In a statement, Raskin said he asked Comer to join in his letter about Trump and Pence’s properties, but received no reply.Donald Trump invoked his fifth amendment right to refuse to answer questions more than 400 times last summer during his deposition in the New York attorney general’s fraud investigation, CBS News reports.The network obtained video of the interview, which starts with the former president accusing attorney general Letitia James of conducting an “unfair” investigation that amounted to a “witch hunt” – familiar words for anyone who has heard Trump talk about the many inquiries he has faced, and is facing.He then states that on the advice of his lawyers, “I respectfully decline to answer the questions under the rights and privileges afforded to every citizen under the United States constitution. This will be my answer to any further questions.”An investigator for the attorney general’s office tells Trump that he can just say “same answer” for all the questions put to him, which Trump does throughout the deposition.Weeks after Trump’s August deposition, James announced she was suing the former president and three of his children for what she called a fraud scheme of “staggering” scale in which they falsely inflated his net worth to win more favorable loan terms.Here’s the full report and footage of the deposition, from CBS: More
