US elections 2024

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      Trump’s latest campaign strategy: co-opt Biden’s claims about the threat to democracy

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      View image in fullscreenOn the cusp of the election year, Donald Trump made a decision: knowing Joe Biden would structure his campaign around the threat Trump poses to US democracy, Trump would use the same line back at Biden.It was an unlikely bet, given that Trump is facing 88 criminal charges for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. But Trump started laying out that message last summer, sprinkling into his speeches the idea that the US president was “grossly incompetent” and that such incompetence posed a threat to democracy. As charges rolled in against the former president, none of them lodged by Biden himself, he added the claim that Biden was also using his power to shut down his opponent, threatening democracy by engaging in “election interference”.As 6 January 2024 approached, three years after the insurrection, Trump ramped up his attempt to turn one of his liabilities against his opponent. On the 2024 campaign trail, Trump falsely claims to be a savior of democracy and, with increasing harshness, says Biden is the threat.At a rally in Ohio this month, Trump predicted an end to US democracy if he doesn’t win the race.“I don’t think you’re going to have another election in this country, if we don’t win this election … certainly not an election that’s meaningful,” he said.The “threat to democracy” retort was Trump’s latest attempt at rebranding the truth, a practiced part of his effort to create an alternate reality for his disciples. In that mirror world, Trump is both the victim and the strongman, the only person who can drive out an underworld of deep-staters who control the country and have unjustly targeted him because he threatens their supposed dominance. The wealthy businessman casts himself as an everyman, the guy willing to say what others are thinking, no matter how uncouth.“Someone on his staff has made it clear that criticisms that he is anti-democratic are hurting his image,” Edward Schiappa, a humanities professor who researches argumentation, media influence and rhetorical theory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said in an email. “Rather than fix the image, or otherwise moderate any of his lies, he has resorted to the Pee-wee Herman strategy of: ‘I know you are but what am I?’” (Trump’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment for this story.)Trump’s previous efforts to shift blame by warping criticisms of himself are legion. Fake news, which once referred to untrue articles online that fooled readers, became a retort to media critical of Trump. Not paying taxes makes him “smart”. Efforts to hold him accountable are “witch-hunts” or a “hoax”. After being called out for racist words and actions, he claimed to be “the least racist person anywhere in the world” – this, despite a track record of dehumanizing language aimed at immigrants. “Believe me,” a man whose political career runs on a stack of falsehoods often tells his audiences.The seeds of these falsehoods culminated in the biggest lie he has attempted to get his followers, and in turn the American public, to believe: that he won an election he lost. That claim reverberates in all he does on the campaign trail in his attempt to return to the White House.Trump’s attempt to cast himself as pro-democracy also coincides with more authoritarian language, saying he would be a dictator for a day and vowing to go after his political opponents, whom he called “vermin”. He called those arrested for storming the US Capitol “hostages” rather than acknowledging the crimes they committed.Jennifer R Mercieca, a professor specializing in political rhetoric at Texas A&M University, said she would have expected Trump to double down on his “dictator for a day” messaging rather than fall into this back-and-forth with Biden over who’s better for democracy.“It’s very interesting and, in fact, a sign of weakness that Donald Trump is allowing Joe Biden to define this election as democracy versus autocracy,” Mercieca said.Trump’s consistent base doesn’t need his new line about threats to democracy in order to vote for him; in fact, the far right of the Republican party, Trump’s most ardent followers, favor some degree of authoritarianism. This inclination was on display at CPAC in February, where the far-right activist Jack Posobiec praised the insurrection and called for overthrowing democracy, though he later attempted to walk back the comments as partly satirical.“Welcome to the end of democracy. We are here to overthrow it completely,” Posobiec said. “We didn’t get all the way there on January 6, but we will endeavor to get rid of it.”For that Trump-loving core group, being a Trump supporter is part of their core identity, Schiappa said. When Trump repeats a claim over and over, like that the 2020 election was stolen, it becomes part of that self-identity, making their beliefs and attitudes hard to charge, he said.It’s an argument technique called “tu quoque”, essentially attacking an opponent’s argument by pointing out a hypocrisy, but it’s more understandable as the kind of language you’d hear in a match of playground finger-pointing, not in a presidential election.“Through sheer repetition, aided by conservative news media, he has persuaded a group of devoted followers that what he speaks is true,” Schiappa said. “It is similar to how a cult works in the sense that his followers are deeply invested in him – emotionally and for their own sense of identity. This combination leads a minority of Americans, who are sufficiently unmotivated or unable to consider alternative sources, to believe claims that rational adults know are false.”Beyond that group for whom Trump is a part of their identity, his ability to sway beliefs is weaker. So who is this argument for? Given the democracy message’s lack of needed appeal to his base, it would seem Trump is seeking out a less radical voter by starting to proclaim himself a savior of democracy.But, Schiappa noted, “outside of self-identified conservatives, no, I do not think Trump’s assertions that Biden represents a threat to democracy has much influence”.Mercieca said it could be for donors, some of whom eschew Trump’s authoritarian rhetoric.“I think they don’t want to give money to somebody who says they’re going to end democracy,” she said. “They still probably legitimately recognize that democracy is actually a better environment for business than autocracy.”A timeline of key moments for Trump’s “threat to democracy”
      March 2023
      In a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump calls on the audience to “complete the job” by sending him back to the White House so he can “reclaim our democracy”.
      April 2023
      Biden launches his re-election campaign with a video that frames his bid around freedom, equality and democracy. It includes imagery from the insurrection and calls out “Maga extremists”.
      A few days later, Trump speaks to a crowd at a rally in New Hampshire and references the launch video: “He states he’s running because Trump and Maga pose a threat to democracy. Can you believe it? Maga is Make America Great Again, right? No threat there. No.
      “It’s Biden who poses the threat to democracy because he is grossly incompetent, has no idea what he’s doing, and basically he doesn’t have a clue and that’s a very bad position to put our country in. Our country’s in a very dangerous position right now.”
      June 2023
      The US justice department charges Trump with 37 felonies related to keeping classified documents after he left the White House (more charges are later added). At an arraignment in Miami on 13 June, Trump pleads not guilty.
      That night, he rails against the charges and Biden, outside Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey.
      “This day will go down in infamy,” Trump says. “And Joe Biden will forever be remembered as not only the most corrupt president in the history of our country, but perhaps even more importantly, the president who together with a band of his closest thugs, misfits and Marxists tried to destroy American democracy. But they will fail and we will win bigger and better than ever before.”
      August 2023
      The special counsel Jack Smith spends much of 2023 working on an investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, culminating in a grand jury indicting Trump on 1 August 2023.
      At an Alabama Republican dinner on 4 August, Trump calls the indictment a “sham” with “fake charges”.
      “We’re not the ones trying to undermine American democracy,” Trump says. “We are the ones fighting to save our democracy. We’re fighting to save our democracy. This ridiculous indictment against us, it’s not a legal case. It’s an act of desperation by a failed and disgraced crooked Joe Biden and his radical-left thugs to preserve their grip on power.”
      Elsewhere, in Fulton county, Georgia, a grand jury hands up an indictment of Trump on 14 August in another election subversion case, centered on the swing state in 2020. The sprawling case includes Trump and many of his allies and involves state racketeering and conspiracy charges.
      After his booking in Fulton county, Trump brings up his common line that the charges are “election interference” but doesn’t mention Biden by name – the case is not brought by the US justice department, but by the local prosecutor Fani Willis.
      “What they’re doing is election interference. They’re trying to interfere with an election. There’s never been anything like it in our country before,” he says. “This is their way of campaigning, and this is one instance, but you have three other instances. It’s election interference.”
      September 2023
      Biden makes remarks a couple times that call out Trump as a threat to democracy and pins his re-election campaign on preserving US democracy, just as his 2020 election was.
      “Let there be no question: Donald Trump and his Maga Republicans are determined to destroy American democracy,” Biden says at a New York fundraiser. “And I will always defend, protect and fight for our democracy.”
      In an Arizona speech framed around democracy issues later that month, Biden calls out the Maga agenda but doesn’t mention Trump by name much. He doesn’t mention the charges against Trump, which come in part from Biden’s justice department.
      “This Maga threat is a threat to the brick and mortar of our democratic institutions,” Biden says in Arizona.
      In response to the speech, Trump’s campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung gives NBC News a now familiar response: “The radical-left Democrats, now led by crooked Joe Biden, are the greatest threat to democracy the United States of America has ever faced.”
      November 2023
      In Colorado, a trial is under way that seeks to boot Trump from the ballot there, citing the 14th amendment as its basis. The amendment’s third clause disqualifies Trump from holding the White House again, the filers argue, because he engaged in insurrection while he was an officer of the US. The case will eventually end up in the US supreme court, after Colorado becomes the first state to decide Trump is disqualified from appearing on the state’s ballot, based on the amendment.
      In a speech in Iowa on 18 November, Trump brings up the cases now in several states that seek to keep him from returning to high office, calling them an “election-rigging ballot-qualification scam”.
      “Our opponents are showing every day that they hate democracy,” he says. “They’re trying every illegal move they can to try and steal this election because they know that in a free and fair fight against President Trump and crooked Joe Biden, Biden doesn’t have a shot. He’s going to be going down into his basement again. He’s going to be hiding.”
      December 2023
      On the campaign trail throughout the US, Trump keeps bringing up the democracy argument, solidifying its place in this election’s stump speech for the former president.
      The third anniversary of 6 January is on the horizon, a date that Biden is expected to use to drive home his points that his re-election protects democracy from the threat posed by Trump and his followers.
      In Iowa on 2 December, Trump says: “Biden and his radical left allies like to pose as standing up as allies of democracy. Joe Biden is not the defender of American democracy, Joe Biden is the destroyer of American democracy.”
      His speech to the New York Young Republicans on 9 December is perhaps his most extensive broadside at Biden over democracy issues yet. He’s not a threat to democracy, he says – he will “save democracy”. Biden is the threat, and the claims that Trump is the threat are a “hoax”. The media is part of the hoax, too, and is using it to deflect from the left’s “monstrous abuses of power”.
      “We call it now the threat-to-democracy hoax because that’s what it is. These guys are so good with misinformation, disinformation, it’s a slight difference,” Trump says.
      The lines Trump uses to attack Biden on democracy issues come out with a bit more clarity after a few months of him using them here and there while campaigning: “Biden is the real threat to democracy for two simple reasons. He’s corrupt, and he’s incompetent, grossly competent. But we have to fight Democrat misinformation at every corner if the Republican party is to survive.”
      Back on the campaign trail in New Hampshire, on 16 December: “We’re engaged in a righteous crusade to liberate this nation from a corrupt political class that is waging war on American democracy like never before.”
      On 17 December, in Nevada: “Joe Biden is a threat to democracy. They’re weaponizing law enforcement for high-level election interference because we’re beating them so badly in the polls.”
      In the Nevada speech, Trump brings up one of the terms he has effectively turned on its head, depriving it of its previous meaning: fake news. It used to refer to stories published by sham outlets that were patently fake, but for years now, Trump has been using it to refer to media he doesn’t like. “We have some great journalists and reporters, but mostly, for the most part, they’re corrupt and fake. Hence the term fake news. That was a good one. We have a lot of good ones,” he says.
      On 19 December, the Colorado supreme court rules that Trump is disqualified from the ballot because of the 14th amendment.
      In an Iowa speech that same day, Trump again calls Biden a threat to democracy.
      “It’s no wonder crooked Joe Biden and the far-left lunatics are desperate to stop us by any means necessary,” he says. “They’re willing to violate the US constitution at levels never seen before in order to win this election. Joe Biden is a threat to democracy. It’s a threat.”
      January 2024
      On the eve of the insurrection’s anniversary, Biden delivers a speech going deep on democracy issues, saying a “determined minority” is doing all it can to “destroy our democracy”. Trump won’t condemn political violence, Biden says. He pledges that democracy is our “sacred cause” that he will protect.
      “This is the first national election since [the] January 6 insurrection placed a dagger at the throat of American democracy,” Biden says.
      In a response to Fox News Digital after the speech, Trump uses his practiced line: “Because of his gross incompetence, Joe Biden is a true threat to democracy.”
      In the weeks following the 6 January anniversary, Trump keeps up his rhetoric about democracy.
      Back on the campaign trail, Trump tells supporters at an Iowa rally that a vote for him is a vote to “reclaim our democracy from crooked Joe Biden and the entire criminal class in our nation’s capital”.
      “It’s never happened, the weaponization of justice like they’re doing right now,” Trump says. “The DoJ is very corrupt. What they’re doing is very corrupt. People aren’t going to take it. Joe Biden is a threat to democracy. He’s weaponizing law enforcement for a high-level election interference.”
      After a court hearing about his claim of presidential immunity from prosecution, he says that the justice department’s cases against him, playing out now during an election year where he’s a candidate, are the “real threat to democracy”.
      At a New Hampshire rally again later that month, he says the prosecutions of his actions are more akin to what happens in “banana republics, third-world countries”.
      “Joe Biden is a threat to democracy. That’s what it is. He’s a threat to democracy,” Trump tells the crowd. “What he’s doing there is so bad, it’s a Pandora’s box. It can happen the other way. And when it happens the other way, it’s going to be a terrible thing, too. And that’s not a threat. That’s just the way life is. That’s the way life works. It doesn’t have to be me. It could be anybody else.”
      He closes out the month in Las Vegas, reciting his stump speech about Biden being a threat to democracy because he’s both incompetent and also interfering with Trump’s re-election.
      “Incompetence is a gross threat to democracy,” Trump says.
      March 2024
      At a 2 March rally in Richmond, Virginia, days before Biden’s planned State of the Union address, Trump brings up the democracy line again, saying he’s no threat.
      “Joe Biden and his fascists that control him are the real threat to democracy in this country,” Trump says. “They are a big threat, and they are corrupt. They are a big threat. He is the one. They have the standard line: ‘Donald Trump is a threat to democracy.’ Some advertising agency wrote that down. I’m not a threat. I’m the one that’s ending the threat to democracy.”
      Biden issues his State of the Union address on 7 March, an energetic defense of Democratic values, where he never uses Trump’s name, instead referring to him as Biden’s “predecessor”.
      As expected, democracy is a cornerstone of the speech: Biden notes how democracy is under threat both in the US and around the world.
      “January 6 and the lies about the 2020 election, and the plots to steal the election, posed the gravest threat to our democracy since the civil war,” he says. “But they failed. America stood strong and democracy prevailed. But we must be honest, the threat remains and democracy must be defended.”
      Trump and his allies in Congress “seek to bury the truth about January 6”, the president says. But the moment calls for speaking the truth.
      “And here’s the simplest truth: you can’t love your country only when you win,” Biden says. “As I’ve done ever since being elected to office, I ask you all, without regard to party, to join together and defend our democracy.”
      On 9 March, both Biden and Trump hold rallies in Georgia. There, Trump responds to the State of the Union, calling it an “angry, dark, hate-filled rant” that wouldn’t bring the country together.
      “I’m going to bring it together,” Trump says. “He’s a threat to democracy. I will tell you, he’s a threat to democracy. Weaponize government. Weaponize the FBI. Weaponize the DoJ. He’s a threat to democracy for other reasons also. No 1, he’s grossly incompetent.”
      In a 16 March speech in Ohio, Trump derides the court cases he faces and again calls the January 6 rioters “patriots” and “hostages”.
      He warns that there will be a “bloodbath” if he loses the race, though his campaign later claims Trump was talking about the effects on the auto industry and the economy. Biden’s campaign says the comment was another sign of Trump’s threats of political violence, saying :“He wants another January 6.”
      In the speech, Trump starkly lays out what he thinks will happen if he loses the election: US democracy will end.
      “I don’t think you’re going to have another election in this country, if we don’t win this election … certainly not an election that’s meaningful,” he says.
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      US primary elections: Biden and Trump notch wins with surprises in store down ballot

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      Donald Trump and Joe Biden swept up more delegates in Tuesday’s primary elections as they set their sights on a rematch in November.Trump and Biden picked up wins in Arizona, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio. Trump also won the Republican primary in Florida, where the Democrats are not holding a primary.In Ohio, Illinois and Florida, the former South Carolina governor and presidential candidate Nikki Haley still captured a sizable fraction of the Republican vote, despite no longer being in the race.The president and former president had already won enough delegates to capture their parties’ presidential nominations, and most of their challengers have dropped out. Trump’s last Republican challenger, his former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, ended her presidential campaign after Super Tuesday. Biden’s long-shot challenger, the Democratic congressman Dean Phillips, dropped out as well.With the presidential nominating contests clinched, the candidates were focusing on campaigning in swing states they will need to win the general election in November.In recent days, Biden visited Arizona and Nevada, where he is looking to shore up the support of young and Latino voters who could be key to his re-election. Biden is touting economic policies and attacking Trump on immigration and abortion as he seeks to win over wavering voters and waning enthusiasm among groups that backed him in 2020.Democrats seeking to register frustration with Biden over his handling of the war in Gaza are urging supporters to vote for the self-help guru Marianne Williamson in Arizona – as she, unlike Biden, has called for a permanent ceasefire. Pro-Palestinian protesters in Ohio, meanwhile, are urging supporters to “Leave It Blank”.Trump, meanwhile, has continued to court controversy on the campaign trail amid ongoing legal troubles. He claimed that Jewish people voting for Democrats “hate their religion” and Israel, in an interview on Monday – drawing outrage. As he criss-crosses the country to rally supports and raise funds, he has also increasingly made the January 6 attack on the Capitol a cornerstone of his campaign, saluting rioters as heroes.In Illinois, Ohio, Illinois and California, a few key down-ballot races have been hotly contested.OhioIn Ohio, Bernie Moreno, whom Trump endorsed, has won the Republican US Senate primary, and will face the Democratic incumbent, Sherrod Brown, in November, the AP projects. Moreno, a wealthy former car dealer who has never held an elected office, was leading in polls ahead of election day, edging out the state senator Matt Dolan and the secretary of state, Frank LaRose.Dolan, whose family owns the Cleveland Guardians baseball team, had the backing of establishment Republicans, including the governor, Mike DeWine.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionMoreno’s candidacy had been weighed down by questions about his qualifications and lack of experience. Having espoused virulently anti-LGBTQ+ policies, he was also the subject of an Associated Press report that found his work email was used to create an account on an adult website seeking “men for 1-on-1 sex” in 2008. Moreno had denied the report.Republicans have targeted Brown’s seat as one they could flip in November – he is Ohio’s only statewide elected Democrat in a state that has moved dramatically to the right in recent years.IllinoisIn Illinois, the 82-year-old Democratic incumbent congressman Danny Davis will defend his seat in November after fighting off a progressive challenge, the AP projects. Davis was backed by the state’s governor, JB Pritzker, and the Chicago mayor, Brandon Johnson, but faced a tough challenge from the community organizer and gun-control advocate Kina Collins, a community organizer and gun control advocate.
      Biden v Trump: What’s in store for the US and the world?On Thursday 2 May, 8-9.15pm GMT, join Tania Branigan, David Smith, Mehdi Hasan and Tara Setmayer for the inside track on the people, the ideas and the events that might shape the US election campaign. Book tickets here or at theguardian.live More

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      US election 2024 primaries: follow live results

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      View image in fullscreenFive states – Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio – are holding their presidential nominating contests on Tuesday, with Florida holding only a Republican primary. Donald Trump and Joe Biden expect to sail to victory in their respective parties, growing their delegate counts in a march toward this summer’s conventions, where they will officially secure their parties’ nomination.Here are the live results from the five presidential primaries.Republican delegatesDemocratic delegatesRepublican resultsDemocratic resultsWho’s runningView image in fullscreenDonald TrumpThe former US president’s campaign to retake the White House and once again grab his party’s nomination got off to a slow start that was widely mocked. But after decisive wins in Iowa and New Hampshire, his campaign has steadily moved into a position of dominance.Trump declined to attend any of the Republican debates, has used his court appearances and many legal woes as a rallying cry to mobilize his base, and has run a surprisingly well-organized campaign. His extremist rhetoric, especially around his plans for a second term and the targeting of his political enemies, has sparked widespread fears over the threat to American democracy that his candidacy represents.His political style during the campaign has not shifted from his previous runs in 2016 and 2020 and, if anything, has become more extreme. Many see this as a result of his political and legal fates becoming entwined, with a return to the Oval Office being seen as Trump’s best chance of nixing his legal problems.View image in fullscreenJoe BidenBiden is the likely Democratic nominee for the 2024 presidential election. He announced his campaign for re-election on 25 April 2023, exactly four years after he announced his previous, successful presidential campaign. While approval for the president remains low, hovering just above 40%, political experts say he is the most likely candidate to defeat Trump. Biden has served in politics for more than five decades and is running on a platform that includes abortion rights, gun reform and healthcare. At 81, he is the oldest president in US history.View image in fullscreenMarianne WilliamsonFailed 2020 presidential candidate Marianne Williamson dropped out of the race last month before then resurrecting her long-shot campaign after the Michigan primary. Williamson, an author of self-help books, launched her bid with campaign promises to address climate change and student loan debt. She previously worked as “spiritual leader” of a Michigan Unity church.View image in fullscreenJason PalmerJason Palmer is a Democratic candidate who was only on the ballot in American Samoa and some other US territories. He won the primary in America Samoa after donating $500,000 to his own campaign. Palmer is a Baltimore resident who has worked for various businesses and non-profits, often on issues involving technology and education. More

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      White House warns Texas immigration law will ‘sow chaos and confusion at our southern border’ – as it happened

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      The supreme court has allowed a law passed by Texas’s Republican-dominated state government that gives police the power to arrest people suspected of crossing the border illegally to go into effect.The court’s six conservative justices turned down an appeal from the Biden administration, which wanted the law blocked while it challenged it in lower courts. The court’s three liberals dissented.The measure had been on hold due to a stay authorized by conservative justice Samuel Alito, who was among the group that allowed it to go into effect. Alito extended it yesterday:The White House expressed outrage after Donald Trump said in an interview that Jews who vote for Democrats “hate” Israel and their religion, with a spokesman for Joe Biden decrying Trump’s “vile and unhinged antisemitic rhetoric”, and the Democratic National Committee saying the former president “should be ashamed of himself”. Meanwhile, the leaders of Congress announced a government funding deal to avert a partial shutdown that would have begun this coming weekend, though it still needs to be approved by lawmakers. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden was “deeply concerned” about reports of an imminent famine in northern Gaza, while again calling on Republican House speaker Mike Johnson to allow a vote on aid for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan.Here’s what else happened today:
      The supreme court allowed a Texas law granting police powers to arrest people suspected of crossing the border illegally to go into effect, drawing objections from the White House.
      Peter Navarro, a former Trump White House adviser, reported to federal prison to begin serving a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress, but not without railing against his conviction one last time.
      Republican senator Lindsey Graham took up a proposal, championed by Trump, to turn Ukraine aid into a loan. The White House declined to comment.
      It’s primary day in five states, with most of the drama occurring in down-ballot elections.
      The Biden campaign launched an effort to win the support of Latino voters in the November elections.
      White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre blasted Texas’s SB4 immigration law, saying in a statement that allowing state police to arrest people suspected of entering the country illegally will upend border security:
      We fundamentally disagree with the Supreme Court’s order allowing Texas’ harmful and unconstitutional law to go into effect. S.B. 4 will not only make communities in Texas less safe, it will also burden law enforcement, and sow chaos and confusion at our southern border. S.B. 4 is just another example of Republican officials politicizing the border while blocking real solutions. We remained focused on delivering the significant policy changes and resources we need to secure the border – that is why we continue to call on Congressional Republicans to pass the bipartisan border security agreement, the toughest and fairest set of border reforms in decades.
      Some thoughts on the implications of the supreme court allowing Texas’s SB4 to go into effect and give police the power to arrest people suspected of crossing the border illegally, from Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council:However, the law is still being litigated at the appeals level, and depending on how that plays out, Reichlin-Melnick predicts the supreme court may have to weigh in on it again soon:In a dissent, liberal justice Sonia Sotomayor writes that allowing the Texas immigration law to go into effect “invites further chaos and crisis in immigration enforcement”.“Texas passed a law that directly regulates the entry and removal of noncitizens and explicitly instructs its state courts to disregard any ongoing federal immigration proceedings. That law upends the federal-state balance of power that has existed for over a century, in which the National Government has had exclusive authority over entry and removal of noncitizen,” writes Sotomayor, who is joined by fellow liberal justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.“Texas can now immediately enforce its own law imposing criminal liability on thousands of noncitizens and requiring their removal to Mexico. This law will disrupt sensitive foreign relations, frustrate the protection of individuals fleeing persecution, hamper active federal enforcement efforts, undermine federal agencies’ ability to detect and monitor imminent security threats, and deter noncitizens from reporting abuse or trafficking.”Texas’s Republican governor Greg Abbott called the supreme court’s decision a “positive development”, but notes it is still being challenged at the appeals court level:The Texas law allowing police to arrest suspected undocumented border crossers comes amid a wider confrontation with the Biden administration over border security. Here’s more on that, and the supreme court’s decision to allow the law to go into effect, from Reuters:The US supreme court on Tuesday declined to block a Republican-backed Texas law allowing state law enforcement authorities to arrest people suspected of crossing the US-Mexico border illegally, rejecting a request by President Joe Biden’s administration.The administration had asked the justices to freeze a judicial order allowing the Texas law to take effect while the US government’s challenge to the statute proceeds in the lower courts. The administration has argued that the law violates the US constitution and federal law by interfering with the US government’s power to regulate immigration.Governor Greg Abbott last December signed the law, known as SB 4, authorizing Texas law enforcement officers to arrest people suspected of entering the United States illegally, giving local officers powers long delegated to the US government.Abbott said the law was needed due to Biden’s failure to enforce federal laws criminalizing illegal entry or re-entry, telling a press conference on 18 December that “Biden’s deliberate inaction has left Texas to fend for itself.“The supreme court has allowed a law passed by Texas’s Republican-dominated state government that gives police the power to arrest people suspected of crossing the border illegally to go into effect.The court’s six conservative justices turned down an appeal from the Biden administration, which wanted the law blocked while it challenged it in lower courts. The court’s three liberals dissented.The measure had been on hold due to a stay authorized by conservative justice Samuel Alito, who was among the group that allowed it to go into effect. Alito extended it yesterday:An Arizona lawmaker announced on Monday on the state senate floor that she plans to have an abortion after learning that her pregnancy is not viable, the Associated Press writes.State senator Eva Burch, a registered nurse known for her reproductive rights activism, was surrounded by fellow Democratic senators as she made the announcement, the Arizona Republic reported and the AP brings us via news wire.Burch said that she found out a few weeks ago that “against all odds”, she was pregnant. The mother of two living children from west Mesa who is running for re-election said she has had “a rough journey” with fertility. She experienced her first miscarriage 13 years ago, was pregnant many times and terminated a nonviable pregnancy as she campaigned for her senate seat two years ago, she said.Now, Burch said that her current pregnancy was not progressing and not viable and she had made an appointment to terminate.
      I don’t think people should have to justify their abortions. But I’m choosing to talk about why I made this decision because I want us to be able to have meaningful conversations about the reality of how the work that we do in this body impacts people in the real world.”
      Burch said the state’s laws have “interfered” with her decision. Arizona law required an “invasive” transvaginal ultrasound that her doctor didn’t order and she was then read “factually false” information about alternatives that was required by law, she said.
      I’m a perfect example of why this relationship should be between patients and providers,” not state lawmakers,” Burch said.
      Burch called on the legislature to pass laws that make sure every Arizonan has the opportunity to make decisions that are right for them. She also said she hoped voters have a chance to weigh in on the topic of abortion rights on the November ballot.Joe Biden is onboard Air Force One en route to Nevada and expects to touch down shortly in Reno, for a campaign event, then head on to Las Vegas and, later, Arizona and its state capital, Phoenix.The US president and his vice-president, Kamala Harris, are today launching a special push to retain and win over teetering Hispanic voters who might be leaning towards the Republicans.Donald Trump was ahead of Biden in a recent New York Times/Siena College poll of Latino voters by six points. Many respond to Trump’s conservative economic message and hardline approach to migration and future immigration.Biden and Harris have devised the “Latinos con Biden/Harris” [Latinos with Biden/Harris] campaign. Harris has posted about it on X/Twitter, with Biden reposting/tweeting. There’s a clip of her on a bilingual radio show in Phoenix, Arizona, and giving speeches and making statements, talking up the US as a nation of immigrants.“Generation after generation, immigrants have made our nation stronger,” she said. There’s also a clip of her saying the US immigration system has been “broken for years”, which in the fourth year of the Biden administration is a tough message to push, despite intransigence in Congress and unprecedented forces driving migration, from extremism to the climate crisis.The White House expressed outrage after Donald Trump said in an interview that Jews who vote for Democrats “hate” Israel and their religion, with a spokesman for Joe Biden decrying Trump’s “vile and unhinged antisemitic rhetoric”, and the Democratic National Committee saying the former president “should be ashamed of himself”. Meanwhile, in Congress, the top Democrats and Republicans announced a government funding deal to avert a partial shutdown that would have begun this coming weekend, though it still needs to be approved by lawmakers. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden was “deeply concerned” about reports of an imminent famine in northern Gaza, while again calling on Republican House speaker Mike Johnson to allow a vote on aid for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan.Here’s what else has happened today so far:
      Peter Navarro, a former Trump White House adviser, reported to federal prison to begin serving a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress, but not without railing against his conviction one last time.
      Republican senator Lindsey Graham took up a proposal, championed by Trump, to turn Ukraine aid into a loan. The White House declined to comment.
      It’s primary day in five states, with most of the drama occurring in down-ballot elections.
      White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was also asked if the Biden administration had looked into making its aid to Ukraine a loan, as Donald Trump has proposed.She didn’t answer the question, only restating their position that Republican House speaker Mike Johnson must allow a vote on legislation approved by the Senate to provide military assistance to Ukraine along with Taiwan and Israel.“To give Ukraine what they need is to get that national [security] supplemental passed,” Jean-Pierre told reporters.“We know for a fact that there are multiple Republican congressional members in the House who have said that they would vote for it if it goes to the floor. We know where Democrats are on this,” she continued. “The speaker has to put it to the floor and not … let politics get in the way.”Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre just told reporters that the White House is “deeply concerned” over aid groups’ warning that famine in northern Gaza is imminent.“We certainly are deeply concerned about the report yesterday … about the imminent famine in Gaza,” Jean-Pierre said. “As the report makes clear, despite ongoing and tireless efforts, including by this administration, the amount of aid reaching people in Gaza, and particularly those most in need, remains insufficient. “So, we have been clear that there is more that needs to be done and this report is a stark and devastating reminder of this.”The United States has been airdropping food and other aid into the enclave, and Joe Biden announced earlier this month that the US military would build a floating pier to allow deliveries by sea.“Everyone needs to do more,” said Jean-Pierre, who called on Israel “to provide sustained and unimpeded for assistance to enter both northern and southern Gaza.” More

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      Is Joe Biden’s bid for re-election in trouble? – video

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      In the vital swing state of Michigan, growing fractures among the Democratic base could spell trouble for Joe Biden in the November election. As party loyalists canvas in the run up to a primary vote, a protest movement against the president’s support for the war in Gaza gains momentum. Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone visit the state. More

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      US election 2024 primaries: intrigue in down-ballot races as Trump-Biden rematch set

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      With a rematch set between Joe Biden and Donald Trump after both candidates crossed the delegate threshold needed to clinch their parties’ presidential nominations, suspense around the next wave of Tuesday primaries shifts to a handful of key down-ballot races.Five states – Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio – will hold their presidential nominating contests on Tuesday. Trump and Biden are expected to sail to victory, growing their delegate counts in a march toward this summer’s conventions, where they will officially secure their parties’ nomination.Trump’s last Republican challenger, his former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, ended her presidential campaign after being routed on Super Tuesday, while the Democratic congressman Dean Phillips dropped his long-shot challenge to Biden after failing to win a single delegate, including in his home state of Minnesota.In Florida, the state Democratic party decided support for Biden was strong enough and cancelled its presidential primary. Republicans in the one-time swing state can vote for Trump, though his vanquished rivals, including the governor, Ron DeSantis, will still appear on the ballot. The result may reveal clues about the enduring strength of the anti-Trump vote within the Republican party.Further down the ballot there could be some surprises in store on Tuesday.OhioOhio Republicans will choose their nominee in one of the most highly anticipated Senate races of the cycle. The heated three-way battle to take on the Democratic incumbent, Senator Sherrod Brown, features Republicans Frank LaRose, Matt Dolan and the Trump-backed Bernie Moreno. The final days have become increasingly bitter.Trump held a rally for Moreno in Ohio this weekend, a day after the candidate, who has taken virulently anti-LGBTQ+ positions, was the subject of reporting by the Associated Press that his work email had been used to create an account on an adult website seeking “men for 1-on-1 sex” in 2008. Moreno’s team has condemned the report, and his lawyer told the AP that the account was created by a former intern as “part of a juvenile prank”.During his speech, Trump defended Moreno, used dehumanizing language to describe immigrants and warned darkly that if he loses “you’re going to have another election”.Ohio, once a perennial swing state, is now soundly Republican and backed Trump in 2016 and 2020.Meanwhile, voters in eastern Ohio will choose their party’s nominee to represent them in a June special election to serve the remaining term of the seat vacated by Congressman Bill Johnson, a Republican who retired earlier this year to become a college president.The leading Republican candidates will be on the ballot twice: once for the special election and again to represent their party in the November general election contest for this Republican-leaning seat.In another closely watched primary, Republicans are vying for the nomination to challenge the longtime Democratic congresswoman Marcy Kaptur. State representative Derek Merrin has secured the backing of the party and his former Republican rival, the scandal-plagued JR Majewski, who bowed out of the race after disparaging athletes at the Special Olympics.IllinoisIn Illinois, the incumbent congressman Danny Davis is in the fight of his political life as he seeks to fend off a progressive challenge. But the 82-year-old, 14-term congressman, backed by the state’s governor, JB Pritzker and the Chicago mayor, Brandon Johnson, is also contending with calls for a generational change in leadership that echoes the concerns Democrats have with Biden.CaliforniaMeanwhile, California will hold a special election to replace the Republican Kevin McCarthy, who resigned from Congress last year after his historic removal as speaker of the House.McCarthy’s departure left Republicans with one less vote in the House, where their grip on the majority is already razor thin. The race for the seat, a rare conservative stronghold in the otherwise liberal state, will feature Republicans Vince Fong, a state assemblymember and McCarthy’s chosen successor, and the Tulare county sheriff, Mike Boudreaux.While Fong, who won Trump’s endorsement, is favored to win the election to serve the rest of McCarthy’s unexpired term, it is possible he could be forced to a May runoff if no candidate secures a majority of the vote. The Republicans will face each other in the November general election for a new congressional term.Elsewhere in the west, Biden will visit Arizona on election day, touching down in Phoenix after a stop in Nevada and before departing for events in Texas. Biden narrowly won Arizona in 2020 but polls show him trailing Trump amid deep dissatisfaction with his handling of the economy and border security.As part of the Democratic effort to protest Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war, organizers with the “Vote Ceasefire AZ” campaign are urging supporters to cast a ballot for the president’s nominal challenger, the self-help guru Marianne Williamson who recently “unsuspended” her presidential campaign. Williamson, who is one of several candidates to appear on Arizona’s Democratic primary ballot, has called for a ceasefire in Gaza and has advocated a “peace” department as part of her platform.For observers closely tracking the strength of the “uncommitted” campaign, the result may be hard to parse. Uunlike in Michigan and Minnesota, there are few options on Tuesday for Democrats upset with the president’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war to register their discontent at the ballot box.Florida, for example, isn’t holding a Democratic primary. And Williamson won’t appear on the ballot in Ohio, where ceasefire activists there are urging supporters to “Leave It Blank”. More

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      in US Politics

      Trump unable to make $454m bond in civil fraud case, say his lawyers – as it happened

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      Donald Trump has been unable to post a bond covering the full amount of his $454m New York civil fraud judgment against him, his lawyers said in a court filing.The filing on Monday states that obtaining a bond has proven to be “a practical impossibility”, adding that “diligent” efforts made to secure a bond have included “approaching about 30 surety companies through 4 separate brokers” and “countless hours negotiating with one of the largest insurance companies in the world.”These efforts have proven that “obtaining an appeal bond in the full amount” of the judgment “is not possible under the circumstances presented,” the filing states.With interest, Trump owes $456.8m. In all, he and co-defendants including his company and top executives owe $467.3m, according to AP. To obtain a bond, they would be required to post collateral worth $557m, Trump’s lawyers said.
      Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, told Joe Biden that he will send a team of Israeli officials to Washington to discuss a potential military operation in Rafah in southern Gaza, the White House said. Biden and Netanyahu spoke by phone on Monday in their first known interaction in more than a month, in which the US president questioned the Israeli leader about establishing a “coherent and sustainable strategy’ to defeat Hamas.
      Donald Trump’s lawyers told a New York appellate court that it’s impossible for him to post a bond covering the full amount of his $454m civil fraud judgment while he appeals.
      Trump’s claim to be immune from criminal prosecution for acts committed in office is rejected by 70% of American voters, and 48% of Republicans, according to a new poll.
      Trump is expected to enlist Paul Manafort, his former 2016 presidential campaign manager who he pardoned, to help with the Republican national convention, according to multiple reports.
      The supreme court heard oral arguments Monday in a case that could upend the federal government’s relationship with social media companies and with lies online. Plaintiffs in Murthy v Missouri argue that White House requests to take down coronavirus misinformation on Twitter and Facebook constitute illegal censorship in violation the first amendment.
      Congress is once again running up on yet another critical government funding deadline, with a dispute over border security funding threatening to force a shutdown of vast swaths of the federal government.
      Gavin Newsom, the Californian governor, has postponed his State of the State address while his signature mental health and homelessness initiative Prop 1 remains too close to call.
      The father of Laken Riley has objected to how he says his daughter’s death is “being used politically” ahead of the upcoming presidential and congressional elections.
      Geoff Duncan, the former Georgia lieutenant governor, said he is withdrawing his name from consideration for a third-party 2024 presidential ticket with the centrist group No Labels.
      Mike Johnson, the House speaker, asked fractious fellow Republicans to “cool it” and stop fighting each other during primary elections as he seeks to maintain some sort of control over a caucus at the mercy of the far right.
      The supreme court rejected an appeal from Couy Griffin, a former New Mexico county commissioner who was removed from office over his role in the January 6 insurrection.
      The son of the late supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called a decision to give Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch an award named for his mother a “desecration” of her memory.
      Barack Obama has held talks with Rishi Sunak as the former US president paid a “courtesy visit” to Downing Street during a trip to London.The pair are understood to have discussed a range of subjects during an hour-long meeting, including one of the prime minister’s favourite topics, artificial intelligence.Obama, who served two terms in the White House from 2009 to 2017 before he was succeeded by Donald Trump, was in London as part of work with his Obama Foundation, which oversees a scholarship programme and other initiatives.The prime minister’s official spokesperson said Obama had made “an informal courtesy drop-in as part of his trip to London”. He added:
      I think President Obama’s team made contact and obviously the prime minister was very happy to meet with him and discuss the work of the Obama Foundation.
      The two held what were understood to be largely one-to-one discussions in the prime minister’s study. Obama briefly paused at the door of No 10 to wave to the cameras but no photos were released from what Downing Street said was a private meeting.A conservative social media influencer has been charged with storming the US Capitol and passing a stolen table out of a broken window, allowing other rioters to use it as a weapon against police, according to an AP report.Isabella Maria DeLuca, 24, was arrested last Friday in Irvine, California, on misdemeanor charges, including theft of government property, disorderly conduct and entering a restricted area.During the January 6 riot, DeLuca posted to social media, writing “Fight back or let politicians steal and election? Fight back!”Videos captured her entering a suite of conference rooms inside the Capitol through a broken window. She passed a table out of the window and then climbed back outside through the same window. A table that another rioter threw at police resembled the one that DeLuca passed out the window, according to court records unsealed on Monday.More than 1,300 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related crimes. More than 800 of them have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds getting a term of imprisonment ranging from a few days to 22 years.The supreme court heard oral arguments Monday in a case that could upend the federal government’s relationship with social media companies and with lies online.Plaintiffs in Murthy v Missouri argue that White House requests to take down coronavirus misinformation on Twitter and Facebook constitute illegal censorship in violation the first amendment.The arguments began with Brian Fletcher, the principal deputy solicitor general of the justice department, making an argument that none of the government’s communications crossed the line from persuasion into coercion. He also pushed back against descriptions of events in lower court rulings, stating that they were misleading or included quotations taken out of context. Fletcher said:
      When the government persuades a private party not to distribute or promote someone else’s speech, that’s not censorship, that’s persuading a private party to do something that they’re lawfully entitled to do.
      The justices, most prominently conservatives Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, questioned Fletcher on where exactly the line is between threatening companies and persuading them. Fletcher defended the government’s actions as part of its broader ability to try and reduce public harm. Fletcher said:
      The government can encourage parents to monitor their children’s cell phone usage or internet companies to watch out for child pornography on their platforms, even if the fourth amendment would prevent the government from doing that directly.
      Joe Biden’s phone conversation with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “businesslike”, the White House’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.During the call, the president warned Netanyahu that an Israeli military operation in Rafah would deepen anarchy in Gaza, Sullivan told reporters.Biden also questioned Netanyahu over a lack of a “coherent and sustainable strategy’ to defeat Hamas, “rather than Israel go smashing into Rafah,” he said.The two leaders agreed teams from each side would meet in Washington to discuss a prospective Rafah operation, Sullivan said. This meeting could take place this week or next, he said, adding that no Rafah operation would proceed before the talks.Donald Trump is expected to enlist Paul Manafort, his former 2016 presidential campaign manager who he pardoned, as a campaign adviser later this year, according to multiple reports.Manafort has been in discussions for several months with Trump’s team to help with the Republican national convention in Milwaukee, although his potential role at the party’s convention has not been decided, the Washington Post reported.Manafort was sentenced to more than seven years in prison as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation into Trump’s associates. Trump pardoned him in the final weeks of his presidency.Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has told Joe Biden that he will send a team of Israeli officials to Washington to discuss a potential military operation in Rafah in southern Gaza, the White House said.White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters:
      We’ve arrived at a point where each side has been making clear to the other its perspective.
      Biden and Netanyahu spoke by phone earlier on Monday, their first known interaction in more than a month as the rift deepens between the two leaders over the war in Gaza.The son of the late US supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called a decision to give Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch an award named for his mother a “desecration” of her memory.Discussing protests made to the Dwight D Opperman Foundation, which gives the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Woman of Leadership award, James Ginsburg told CNN:
      I don’t want to speak to what our other plans might be if the foundation doesn’t see the wisdom of desisting and ending this desecration of my mother’s memory. But I will say that we will continue to fight this.
      The second woman appointed to the US supreme court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg spent 27 years as a justice, becoming a hero to American liberals. She died aged 87 in September 2020 and was replaced by Amy Coney Barrett, the third conservative justice installed by Donald Trump.Ginsburg helped establish the award colloquially known as the RBG, saying it would honour “women who have strived to make the world a better place for generations that follow their own, women who exemplify human qualities of empathy and humility, and who care about the dignity and well being of all who dwell on planet Earth”.Previous recipients have included Barbra Streisand and Queen Elizabeth II. Last week, the Dwight D Opperman Foundation announced a five-strong list it said was chosen from “a slate of dozens of diverse nominees” but which included just one woman.Former Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan said he is withdrawing his name from consideration for a third-party 2024 presidential ticket with the centrist group No Labels.“After careful deliberation, I have withdrawn my name from consideration for the No Labels presidential ticket,” Duncan said in a statement on Monday.
      It was an honor to be approached, and I am grateful to all those who are engaged in good-faith efforts to offer Americans a better choice than the Trump vs. Biden re-match.
      No Labels has been struggling to field a so-called “unity ticket” to provide voters with an alternative to Donald Trump and Joe BidenDuncan becomes the latest lawmaker to turn down No Labels, a list that includes Republican former presidential candidate Nikki Haley, Republican former Maryland governor Larry Hogan, and Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema.California’s governor Gavin Newsom has postponed his State of the State address while his signature mental health and homelessness initiative Prop 1 remains too close to call.With more than 95% of votes counted, the statewide ballot measure that would restructure mental health funding in the state is slightly ahead – but still too close to call. The measure, which has faltered despite no funded opposition, is a key piece of the governor’s plan to address both the mental health and homelessness crises. It would redirect some of the state’s mental health funds toward housing and residential treatment facilities for severe mental health and substance use disorders, and raise billions via a bond.Fiscal conservatives have balked at the measure’s borrowing costs – but Prop 1 was also criticized by local officials, because it would defund community-based programs, and disability rights advocates, who object to its funding of locked-door psychiatric institutions and involuntary treatment.Still, while healthcare companies, and unions backing the state’s prison guards and construction workers, have funded a $14.3m campaign to sell the measure to voters, opponents had only raised $1,000. The “no” campaign conceded last week, but there’s still a chance the measure could fail.The governor was banking on Prop 1 to fund broader plans to combat homelessness, which include the Care court program, which will empower families, providers and outreach workers to ask state courts to compel people with certain severe mental disorders into treatment programs, and SB43, which expands the group of people who can be placed in involuntary psychiatric holds or forced to undergo medical treatment.Ahead of the election on 6 March, Newsom had been confident – telling the LA Times, “I think it’s going to win overwhelmingly.”Now, the governor’s federal PAC, Campaign for Democracy, is seeking volunteers to help Democrats who have had their ballots rejected, for reasons such as forgetting to include a signature, to help them correct issues and have votes counted.Donald Trump’s failure to secure a bond to cover a $454m judgment in his New York civil fraud case means he is inching closer to the possibility of having his properties seized, Reuters reports.The former president must either pay the sum out of his own pocket or post a bond to stave off the state’s seizure while he appeals the judgment against him last month for misstating property values to dupe lenders and insurers.Trump’s lawyers said on Monday that they’d approached 30 companies without success to make the bond.A bonding company would be on the hook for any payout if Trump loses his appeal and proves unable to pay.He must post cash or a bond within 30 days of the judge’s formal entry of the order on February 23 or risk the state seizing some of the Trump Organization’s assets to ensure New York attorney general Letitia James, who brought the civil case, can collect. Thirty days end on March 25.In a court filing, Trump’s lawyers urged a mid-level state appeals court to delay enforcement of the judgment, arguing the amount was excessive. It was unclear when the court, known as the appellate division, would rule.The Guardian adds that last month James said she will seize Trump’s assets if he doesn’t pay.US vice president Kamala Harris kicked off an event at the White House a little earlier to mark women’s history month.She was accompanied by Jill Biden and a dude who loves to describe himself as “Jill Biden’s husband”, as well as a dude who’s the Veep’s husband, and Maria Shriver, who is founder of the nonprofit organization the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement as well as the former first lady of California and a member of the Kennedy clan.Harris said that she’s visited 20 countries in her current position and firmly believes that the strength of a democracy is measured by how a nation values the women of its population, especially in the economy.She reminded those gathered, to huge cheers, that her scientist mother was in a tiny minority as a woman graduating in her day in such a discipline and yet her daughter is now the first female vice president of the US.Harris said that in the US, women carry around two thirds of student debt. She ran through a list of what the Biden administration is doing for women. But her key role in this election is to persuade voters to reelect the Biden-Harris team as the only path to protecting reproductive rights. She has been out on the trail railing against the conservative-leaning Supreme Court, which tilted far to the right under Donald Trump, overturning in the national right to abortion afforded under Roe v Wade and the ongoing hard right assault from many angles on reproductive choice.“In states across our nation we are witnessing a full on attack against hard-fought, hard-won freedoms and rights, including the right of women to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do,” she said at the White House a little earlier today.Reactions are bubbling up to the news that Donald Trump has been unable to obtain a bond to secure the $464m New York civil fraud judgment against him.Film producer and political commentator Keith Boykin metaphorically shakes his head at Republicans being prepared to nominate Trump for a second term when he can’t pay his fines.Actor Rob Reiner is even plainer.Various other reactions from the commentariat include “sad”, the “king of debt” may need to hold a fire sale, and a pic of Trump sweating.
      Donald Trump’s lawyers told a New York appellate court that it’s impossible for him to post a bond covering the full amount of his $454m civil fraud judgment while he appeals.
      Trump’s claim to be immune from criminal prosecution for acts committed in office is rejected by 70% of American voters, and 48% of Republicans, according to a new poll.
      The supreme court is hearing arguments in Murthy v Missouri, a case with the potential to radically redefine how the US government interacts with social media companies.
      Congress is once again running up on yet another critical government funding deadline, with a dispute over border security funding threatening to force a shutdown of vast swaths of the federal government.
      The father of Laken Riley has objected to how he says his daughter’s death is “being used politically” ahead of the upcoming presidential and congressional elections.
      Mike Johnson, the House speaker, asked fractious fellow Republicans to “cool it” and stop fighting each other during primary elections as he seeks to maintain some sort of control over a caucus at the mercy of the far right.
      The supreme court rejected an appeal from Couy Griffin, a former New Mexico county commissioner who was removed from office over his role in the January 6 insurrection.
      Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, accused the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, of treating his country like a “banana republic” after Schumer publicly broke with Netanyahu over his handling of the war and called for new elections in Israel.
      The father of Laken Riley, whom authorities suspect was murdered by an undocumented migrant in February, has objected to how he says his daughter’s death is “being used politically” ahead of the upcoming presidential and congressional elections.Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, was beaten to death on the University of Georgia’s campus on 22 February. Republicans have claimed Riley’s slaying represents a failure of the Joe Biden White House’s border policies and have used the killing to push legislation which would make it easier for law enforcement to detain unauthorized migrants accused of theft.Jason Riley, Laken’s father, told NBC’s Today show:
      I’d rather her not be such a political – how you say – it started a storm in our country … It’s incited a lot of people.
      Jason Riley said that since his daughter was killed, “there’s people on both sides that have lashed out at [his and Laken’s mother’s] families”.Investigators have charged José Ibarra with Riley’s murder. The 26-year-old, who is originally from Venezuela, had previously been charged with two crimes in New York before being released, ​​US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement said, although officials in the state told the Associated Press they had no record of Ibarra being previously arrested.“I think it’s being used politically to get those votes,” Jason Riley said of his daughter’s death.
      It makes me angry. I feel like, you know, they’re just using my daughter’s name for that. And she was much better than that, and she should be raised up for the person that she is. She was an angel.
      Donald Trump is facing “insurmountable difficulties” in obtaining a bond to satisfy the $454m civil fraud judgment, his lawyers said in a court filing on Monday.In the filing, the former president’s lawyers wrote that Trump had “devoted a substantial amount of time, money, and effort” toward obtaining a bond but has “faced what have proven to be insurmountable difficulties in obtaining an appeal bond for the full $464 million.”Trump himself was ordered to pay $454m and with interest, owes $456.8m, according to AP. In all, he and co-defendants including his company and top executives owe $467.3m.They said Trump has approached 30 underwriters to back the bond, which is due by the end of this month, but that “very few bonding companies will consider a bond of anything approaching” the amount.The supreme court has rejected an appeal from a former New Mexico county commissioner who was removed from office over his role in the January 6 insurrection.Couy Griffin, a cowboy pastor and commissioner in Otero county in southern New Mexico, was kicked out of office in 2022 after he was sentenced to 14 days in jail and a $3,000 (£2,604) fine for misdemeanor trespassing during the Capitol attack. Griffin is the only elected official thus far to be banned from office in connection with the Capitol attack.The 14th amendment to the US constitution bars anyone who has participated in an insurrection from holding elected office.Though the supreme court ruled this month that states do not have the power to bar Donald Trump or other candidates for federal offices from the ballot, the justices said different rules apply to state and local candidates.House speaker Mike Johnson asked fractious fellow Republicans to “cool it” and stop fighting each other in displays of “member-on-member action” during primary elections as he seeks to maintain some sort of control over a caucus at the mercy of the far right, controlling the chamber by a mere two votes.“I’ve asked them all to cool it,” Johnson told CNN in remarks published Sunday.
      I am vehemently opposed to member-on-member action in primaries because it’s not productive. And it causes division for obvious reasons, and we should not be engaging in that. So I’m telling everyone who’s doing that to knock it off. And both sides, they’ll say, ‘Well, we didn’t start it, they started it.’
      Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, the far-right Trumpist firebrand pursuing such fights, effectively told the same outlet: “They started it.”“I would love nothing more than to just go after Democrats,” said Gaetz, who was last year the prime mover behind the historic ejection of Johnson’s predecessor as speaker, Kevin McCarthy, and who is now going after two more Republicans, Tony Gonzales of Texas and Mike Bost of Illinois.“If Republicans are going to dress up like Democrats in drag, I’m going to go after them too,” Gaetz said.
      Because at the end of the day, we’re not judged by how many Republicans we have in Congress. We’re judged on whether or not we save the country.
      Gonzales is under attack over a vote for gun safety reform, after the Uvalde elementary school massacre; over his positions on immigration reform; and for voting in favour of same-sex marriage. More

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      in Elections

      Trump calls for Liz Cheney to be jailed for investigating him over Capitol attack

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      Donald Trump has renewed calls for Liz Cheney – his most prominent Republican critic – to be jailed for her role in investigating his actions during the January 6 Capitol attack launched by his supporters in 2021, a move that is bound to raise further fears that the former president could persecute his political opponents if given another White House term.In posts on Sunday on his Truth Social platform, Trump said other members of the congressional committee that investigated the Capitol attack – and concluded he had plotted to overturn his 2020 electoral defeat to Joe Biden – should be imprisoned.Those statements followed Trump’s previous comments that he would act like a “dictator” on the first day of a second presidency if given one by voters.Cheney, who served as vice-chair of the January 6 committee and was one of two Republicans on the panel, lost her seat in the House of Representatives to a Trump-backed challenger, Harriet Hageman, in 2022. She responded later on Sunday, saying her fellow Republican Trump was “afraid of the truth”.Trump has been charged with four felonies in relation to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, including conspiracy to defraud the United States. The US supreme court is considering Trump’s claim that he has absolute immunity from prosecution in the case because he served as president from 2017 to 2021.Trump is also facing charges of 2020 election interference in Georgia, retention of government secrets after he left the Oval Office and hush-money payments that were illicitly covered up.On Sunday, Trump wrote that Cheney should “go to jail along with the rest” of the select January 6 House committee, which he sought to insult in his post on Truth Social by calling it the “unselect committee”.Trump founded Truth after he was temporarily banned from Twitter – now known as X – in the wake of the January 6 insurrection.In a separate Truth Social post, Trump linked to an article written by Kash Patel, a White House staffer in Trump’s administration. In the article, published on the rightwing website the Federalist, Patel claimed that Cheney and the committee “suppressed evidence” which “completely exonerates Trump” from charges that he had a hand in the January 6 insurrection.Patel, who was chief of staff in the defense department under Trump, said in December that if the former president was re-elected, his administration would “come after the people in the media” who had reported on Trump’s attempts to remain in power.Trump wrote: “She [Cheney] should be prosecuted for what she has done to our country! She illegally destroyed the evidence. Unreal!!!”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe suggestions that Cheney and others should be targeted for their role in the January 6 investigation came after House Republicans released a report that they claim contradicts the testimony that Trump tried to grab the wheel of his presidential limousine on January 6 in his excitement to join his supporters attacking the Capitol.Cheney was one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump over the attack, which has been linked to nine deaths and sought to prevent the congressional certification of Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.After a series of retirements and Trump-backed primary challenges, only two of those Republicans remain in office.Cheney’s father, former US vice-president Dick Cheney, released a video in 2022 urging Republicans to reject Trump.“He is a coward. A real man wouldn’t lie to his supporters. He lost his election, and he lost big,” Dick Cheney, who served as George W Bush’s vice-president, said in the video. More