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      Nancy Pelosi announces 2024 House re-election bid

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      Former House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced that she will be seeking re-election in 2024. The 83-year-old Democrat representing California’s 11th district announced the news on Wednesday among volunteers and labor allies in San Francisco.Pelosi went on to tweet about her plans, saying: “Now more than ever our city needs us to advance San Francisco values and further our recovery. Our country needs America to show the world that our flag is still there, with liberty and justice for ALL. That is why I am running for reelection – and respectfully ask for your vote.”Pelosi, who has represented San Francisco since 1987, served as House speaker twice. Her first tenure as House speaker was from 2007 to 2011, during which she made history by becoming the first female speaker. Pelosi went on to lead the House of Representatives again from 2019 to the beginning of this year.Last November, Pelosi announced that she was stepping down as the leader of the Democratic party after Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives with a narrow 222-212 majority with one vacancy.Her announcement on Wednesday comes amid several politically delicate moments on Capitol Hill, particularly as Democrats prepare to take back control of the House of Representatives. Moreover, it comes as House Republicans entertain the idea of an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden amid a federal investigation into the business dealings of his son Hunter.It also comes as growing questions surround the mental competency of older Capitol Hill leaders including the 80-year-old president, 81-year-old Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, and 90-year-old California senator Dianne Feinstein.According to a source close to Pelosi who is familiar with her re-election decision, Pelosi believes that democracy hangs in the balance in the upcoming election as she prepares to help re-elect Biden and appoint House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries as the next House speaker, the Associated Press reported.Throughout Pelosi’s leadership, she helped lead the Democratic party through a series of legislative victories including the passage of the Affordable Care Act under then-president Barack Obama in 2010, as well as legislation surrounding gun violence prevention measures, minimum wage increases.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionPelosi has also played a key role in international politics, including becoming the first highest-ranking US official to visit Taiwan in 25 years, as well as securing the votes needed to defeat Republicans’ efforts to disapprove of Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. More

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      Take another look at Joe Biden. His is the presidency progressives have been waiting for | Jonathan Freedland

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      The tragedy of Joe Biden is that people see his age, his frailty and his ailing poll numbers and they miss the bigger story. Which is that his has been a truly consequential presidency, even a transformational one. In less than three years, he has built a record that should unify US progressives, including those on the radical left, and devised an economic model to inspire social democratic parties the world over, including here in Britain.Sadly for Biden, politics and government are different things: it takes more than a record of good governance to get reelected. For one thing, voters cast their ballots less as a verdict on the past than as an instruction (or hope) for the future. And the fear, shared by 76% of Americans, according to a poll this week, is that Biden, who would be 86 at the end of a second term, is simply too old to lead them there. Put aside the fact that his near certain opponent in November 2024, Donald Trump, is only three years younger. Trump has a presence and vigour, an ability to project himself, that Biden does not. And that simple fact affects – distorts – the entire way the Biden administration is seen. As one observer puts it, “the vibes are off”.The challenge for Democrats is to use the 14 months between now and election day to get past that, to point out the malignancy of Trump and the danger a second Trump presidency would represent to the republic and the world – and also to make the positive case for what we might call Bidenism. Luckily, that is not a hard case to make.That’s because, though elected to be no more than a calm hand on the tiller, a stopgap, interim leader who might allow the country to steady itself after four years of Storm Donald, Biden has confounded that expectation. He has none of the stage presence of his old boss, Barack Obama – who never had any trouble with vibes – but he can already claim to have achieved much more.Top of the list is, characteristically, something that sounds boring but is of enormous significance: the Inflation Reduction Act, passed last year. That seemingly technocratic piece of legislation actually achieves two epochal goals. First, it hastens the day the US makes the break from fossil fuels – by making clean energy not only the morally superior option for both industry and consumers, but the financially superior one too.It does that through a massive raft of tax breaks, subsidies and incentives all designed to encourage the production of wind turbines, solar panels, ever improving battery technology, geothermal plants and the like, along with tax credits aimed at making electric cars irresistible even to those middle-American consumers more concerned about their wallets than the burning planet.The estimated cost of $386bn is huge, but that’s not a limit on how much Biden has committed to spend. On the contrary, if the demand is there for solar panels or electric vans, Biden’s law obliges the US government to keep spending. A calculation by Credit Suisse reckoned the figure could rise to $800bn, which will in turn unleash $1.7tn in private-sector spending on green technology. Small wonder that everyone from environmental activists to Goldman Sachs hailed the act as a “gamechanger” in the fight to tackle the climate emergency.But the second goal of the legislation is almost as significant. Biden insisted that this surge in green manufacturing would happen inside the US, thereby reviving industrial towns and cities in decline since the 1980s. It is US factories that are getting the subsidies to build all this clean tech – alongside an earlier, huge package of infrastructure spending – restoring jobs to workers who had long been written off.The Inflation Reduction Act is the centrepiece of Bidenomics, an approach that resurrects Democratic principles discarded in the Bill Clinton years, seemingly for ever: old-school industrial policy centred on an activist state making serious public investment in manufacturing; muscular regulation of corporations; and warm encouragement of unionised labour. (“When unions win, Americans across the board win,” says Biden.) Which is one reason why the AFL-CIO trade union, echoing Goldman Sachs, also hailed the act as a “gamechanger” for working people.The passage of the legislation – all the more remarkable given a Senate then split 50-50 between the parties – and its impact are set out in an outstanding new book on the Biden presidency, The Last Politician by Franklin Foer. He describes how Biden, whose hands were already full with the Covid pandemic and the aftermath of the January 6 insurrection, was not content simply to be a caretaker manager, troubleshooting crises. Instead, “he set out to transform the country through some of the biggest spending bills that have ever been proposed”, Foer told me when we spoke this week.The result is that Biden has “redirected the paradigm” of US economic life in a way that will affect Americans “for a generation”. While Obama and Clinton were “deferential to markets”, says Foer, Biden has reversed “the neoliberal consensus” in place since the Ronald Reagan era. He doesn’t leave corporations alone; he gets stuck in, taking on de-facto monopolies, reviving “anti-trust” policies that had long been abandoned. (“Capitalism without competition isn’t capitalism,” insists Biden. “It’s exploitation.”) “Like Reagan, Biden is resetting the economic trajectory of the nation,” adds Foer. “In fact, as a matter of substance, he is the most transformational president since Reagan.”Internationally, the change is not as dramatic, but Biden is credited with bringing stability after the chaos and dictator-coddling of the Trump years and, especially, for building and maintaining a western alliance in support of Ukraine as it defends itself against Russian imperialism. Others admire his handling of China: robust, without crossing the line where a cold war turns hot.There’s more to the Biden record than this, of course. Inflation is not at European levels, but Americans are feeling the cost of higher prices. And plenty had their confidence in the president shaken two summers ago, when they saw images of a scrambled, chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan, to say nothing of the climate activists who cannot forgive his approval of an oil-drilling project in Alaska. His poll numbers point to a grim truth about politics: that it can be a cruel business. No matter how strong his record, Biden looks older and shakier than Trump and he is less entertaining. And those may be reasons enough for him to lose.For now, the Biden presidency is a reminder of why politics matters, why political skills matter, including the dark, sometimes ugly arts of getting legislation passed, often through painful compromise. It also suggests a possible, unexpected formula for success, one Labour might study closely: campaign in reassuring prose, but govern in radical poetry. Biden was no one’s idea of a fire-breathing leftist: that’s one reason why he was able to win. But once you’re in, you can dare to be bold. Once you have power, be sure to use it.
      Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist. He will host a Guardian Live event with Gordon Brown on Tuesday 26 September at 7pm BST. The event will be live in London and livestreamed – book tickets here More

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      Republicans talking about Biden’s age are ‘one-trick pony’ – campaign co-chair

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      Republicans attacking Joe Biden for being too old to serve a second term are “one-trick ponies”, the US president’s campaign co-chair said.“Republicans are a one-trick pony talking about the president’s age, that’s all they talk about,” Cedric Richmond told CNN.Biden, 80, is the oldest president ever. He will turn 82 after the election next year. If he completed a second four-year term, he would be 86 on leaving office. His likely opponent – Republican former US president Donald Trump – is 77.Polling shows that more than two-thirds of the American public think Biden is too old to serve an effective second term, with smaller proportions thinking the same of the 91-times indicted Trump.Richmond, a former Louisiana congressman, told CNN: “It’s now time to go into campaign mode and talk about the president’s accomplishments because they are great accomplishments.“Beating the NRA [to pass gun control reform]. Passing [an] infrastructure [spending package] which no other president could do, although they promised it.”Democrats lost the US House last year but only narrowly. They kept the Senate, after a campaign focused on warning of extremism in Trump’s Republican party.Richmond said: “We have to be solely focused on what not only this president and vice-president but what this Congress has done, the Democratic Senate and the Democratic House when we had it.“And I think that that’s going to prove to be a winning formula once again for all Democrats and for President Biden and Vice-President [Kamala] Harris.”Earlier, a CNN poll showed Biden and Trump in a dead heat in a general election. The poll also returned a low approval rating for Biden and showed about 70% of Democrats want someone else as their candidate next year.The poll also showed the former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley as the only Republican candidate clearly beating Biden. Haley, 51, has called for mental competency tests for politicians over 75 and claimed a vote for Biden was really a vote for Harris, given the chances of Biden not completing a second term.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionRichmond said he was “glad” to be asked about Haley, because of “her position on abortion, because I’ll tell you that if you look at the vote in Ohio, just a month ago, a swing state, they soundly rejected the extreme positions on abortion. And that’s Nikki Haley.“Now about the president’s age. Voters will see his vigour. Voters will see his accomplishments … he’s traveling around the world over the next four and a half days [to the G20 in India] to continue to show American leadership.“So when they compare President Biden’s miles traveled to that of Republicans, even Republicans that are running for president, he’s traveling almost 30% more.”Polling also shows widespread belief that Biden’s policies have been bad for the US economy, despite most observers saying it is performing strongly.Richmond said: “This is about American families. And I think American families are going to look at the issues they have faced, and they’re going to look at who’s addressing those issues, who’s talking about those issues, and who’s doing something about it, and that’s going to be President Biden.” More

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      Ex-Trump aide Peter Navarro found guilty of contempt of Congress – live

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      From 2h agoFormer Trump White House official Peter Navarro has been found guilty of two counts of criminal contempt of Congress after he ignored a subpoena issued last year by the House January 6 committee during the investigation into the Capitol attack.Much will be riding on Donald Trump’s ability to remove the case to federal court.The racketeering charge filed against Trump carries a sentence of five to 20 years in prison. If Trump were convicted in Georgia, he could not pardoned by a sympathetic president because the charges were filed at the state level. In Georgia, the governor does not even have the power to issue pardons, as that duty lies with the state’s board of pardons and paroles.According to Ronald Carlson, a professor at the University of Georgia School of Law, Trump could not even apply for a pardon until he has been convicted and served five years in a Georgia prison. He said:
      The stakes for the Trump team are really high in Georgia, so I expect a full-fledged defense by President Trump. Probably a lot of that will verge on political bias.
      Trump has already offered a preview of that politically driven strategy. In a statement issued last month, Trump’s presidential campaign attacked Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis as a “radical Democrat” and “rabid partisan”. Despite those personal attacks, Willis appeared undaunted as she spoke to reporters shortly after the indictment was unsealed.Eric Segall, a professor at Georgia State University College of Law, believes Trump may succeed at removing the case to federal court, but he expressed hope that a group of Georgians will eventually have the opportunity to issue a verdict on the former president’s election subversion efforts. He said:
      I’m talking as a citizen more than as a law professor, but I think Donald Trump is an existential threat to our country. And I think a Georgia jury should decide if he broke the law in Georgia.
      Florida governor Ron DeSantis vowed to fight recent efforts to respond to a rise in coronavirus cases across the US, while his state surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, warned against the latest Covid-19 vaccine.At a Jacksonville news conference on Thursday, DeSantis and Ladapo promised Florida would not join states, cities or school districts across the country in temporarily closing schools or mandating mask-wearing because of the recent uptick in Covid-19 cases, according to an AP report.“People are lurching toward this insanity again,” DeSantis said.
      As we see these things being orchestrated … there needs to be pushback.
      His remarks came on the same day his GOP presidential campaign sent out an email to supporters pledging to “fight back against every bogus attempt the Left makes to expand government control” in relation to Covid-19 measures.Lapado, whose previous warnings against Covid-19 vaccines have been criticized by federal health agencies who said his claims were harmful to the public, said there were no arguments for getting the latest vaccine. He added:
      There are a lot of red flags.
      South Dakota governor Kristi Noem is expected to endorse Donald Trump at a campaign rally in the state on Friday, sources told CNN, amid speculation the Republican governor could be potential running mate for the former president if he wins the GOP nomination.Trump is expected to join Noem in the South Dakota Republican party’s “Monumental Leaders Rally” in Rapid City on Friday, where she is slated to appear as the event’s special guest.Noem, who won re-election during the midterms with Trump’s endorsement, was once a potential 2024 candidate herself and in a November 2022 interview with the New York Times that she didn’t believe Trump offered “the best chance” for the Republican party in 2024.In August, she doubled down on her decision not to run for the GOP primary race, telling Fox News that “none of them can win as long as Trump’s in the race […] So why run if you can’t win?”The report writes:
      While she is expected Friday to formally throw her support behind Trump – a move most other Republican governors have been reluctant to make so far – Noem has demurred on questions about her interest in the nation’s second-highest office.
      ‘Of course, I would consider it,’ Noem told Fox News host Sean Hannity recently when asked if she would be Trump’s vice president.
      An impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden would be sure to enflame America’s bitter political divisions ahead of next year’s presidential election, a likely Biden-Trump rematch. Trump faces criminal and civil trials of his own.It would also collide with efforts to prevent a shutdown of the federal government. The House is scheduled to meet for just 11 days before the fiscal year ends on 30 September. Members are under pressure to come up with short-term funding to keep government offices functioning and provide emergency funding for Ukraine and disaster relief.House speaker Kevin McCarthy faces resistance from fellow Republicans, including far-right members who have threatened to shut the government unless they get the impeachment they crave. Marjorie Taylor Greene posted a video, declaring she “will not vote to fund the government” unless the House holds a vote to open an impeachment inquiry.Some have threatened to oust McCarthy if he stands in the way. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, admitted last week:
      Honestly, it’s a pretty big mess.
      Vice-President Kamala Harris has dismissed questions about Joe Biden’s age, telling a television interviewer she is prepared to be commander in chief, but that it won’t be necessary, Reuters writes.
      Joe Biden is going to be just fine,” Harris said, when asked about concerns that Biden is too old to run again.
      Biden, who will turn 81 in November and would be 82 at the start of a prospective second four-year term in January 2025, faces skeptical American voters who will decide whether to elect the Democrat for another four years in November 2024.
      His leading opponent, Republican Donald Trump, is 77. American voters tell pollsters they’d like to see younger candidates for president.
      Some Republican presidential candidates, including former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, have said a vote for Biden would end up being a vote for Harris, who had a 40% approval rating in an average of polls compiled by politics website Five Thirty Eight.
      Harris, on a trip to an Asian leaders summit meeting in Jakarta, told CBS News, when asked if she was prepared to take over the presidency, “Yes, I am, if necessary. But Joe Biden is going to be fine. Let me tell you something: I work with Joe Biden every day.”
      Harris also rejected criticism by Republicans who said electing her would be risky.“They feel the need to attack because they’re scared that we will win based on the merit of the work that Joe Biden and I, and our administration has done,” she said.
      The verdict on Peter Navarro in court in Washington DC this afternoon was unanimous.Reuters has more on this:
      The 12-member jury found Navarro guilty of two counts of contempt after he refused to testify or turn over documents to the Democratic-led House panel that investigated the Januaruy 6, 2021 riot by Trump supporters and broader attempts by Trump, a Republican, to reverse his 2020 election defeat.
      Navarro, wearing a dark suit and red tie, showed no visible reaction when the verdict was read aloud.
      “The defendant chose allegiance to former President Trump over compliance with the subpoena,” federal prosecutor Elizabeth Aloi told the jurors during closing arguments earlier on Thursday. “That is contempt. That is a crime.”
      The charges carry a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of one year in jail. A sentencing hearing was scheduled for January 12, 2024.
      Navarro is a hawk on China policy who advised Trump on trade issues during his presidency and also served on the Covid-19 task force.
      The verdict in Navarro’s case in federal court in Washington came after a trial that featured just one day of testimony from three prosecution witnesses, former staff members of the select committee. The defense did not call any witnesses or present any evidence.
      Peter Navarro, a senior trade adviser during Donald Trump’s presidency, is the second Trump aide to be convicted on contempt of Congress charges after former White House adviser Steve Bannon. Navarro has been charged with two counts of contempt of Congress, both punishable by up to a year behind bars. Bannon is appealing his own conviction.Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro has been found guilty of two counts of criminal contempt of Congress after he ignored a subpoena issued last year by the House January 6 committee during the investigation into the Capitol attack.Former Donald Trump White House aide Peter Navarro, who is facing contempt of Congress charges for not complying with a subpoena from the January 6 committee, has returned to the Washington DC courtroom to hear the verdict for his trial.A federal jury began deliberating the criminal contempt of Congress charges against Navarro earlier this afternoon. Navarro faces two counts stemming from his failure to comply with the committee’s demands to produce documents and testimony. Each charge carries a maximum of one year in prison.The former Trump adviser has long insisted he could not comply with the subpoena because Trump had asserted executive privilege and he was obliged to protect his confidential discussions with Trump when he was the president.The White House warned House speaker Kevin McCarthy to “honor” commitments he made to the American people and to approve its request to tie aid for Ukraine with increased disaster relief funding.McCarthy has been considering tying approval for aid to Ukraine to controversial immigration and asylum policies strongly opposed by Democrats.A statement from White House spokesperson Andrew Bates reads:
      Lives are at stake across a wide range of urgent, bipartisan priorities for the American people that are addressed in President Biden’s supplemental funding request – a request that honors the funding commitments he and both parties in both chambers made to the American people.
      Like Senate Republicans, Speaker McCarthy should keep his word about government funding. And he should do so in a way that acts on these pressing issues – including fentanyl, national security, and disaster response – rather than break his promise and cave to the most extreme members of his conference agitating for a baseless impeachment stunt and shutdown.
      The White House said Joe Biden tested negative for Covid-19 again, ahead of his scheduled departure for India and Vietnam.The first lady, Jill Biden, tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday.Biden is expected to depart for New Delhi on Thursday evening to attend a G20 summit and a stop in Vietnam designed to further cement US influence in Asia.Hunter Biden’s case has become a political lightning rod. Republicans accused the justice department of concocting a “sweetheart deal” and raised the prospect of impeaching the president over unsubstantiated claims that he played a role in his son’s foreign business affairs during his time as vice-president.Hunter has been the target of congressional investigations since Republicans gained control of the House in January. Three committees are pursuing lines of inquiry. They have obtained thousands of pages of financial records from members of the Biden family through subpoenas to the treasury department and financial institutions.But Republicans have failed to produce evidence that Biden directly participated in his son’s work, though he sometimes had dinner with clients or greeted them on calls.Although Senate Republicans have voiced scepticism, the momentum behind an impeachment inquiry in the House may prove unstoppable. The speaker, Kevin McCarthy, told Fox News recently:
      If you look at all the information we have been able to gather so far, it is a natural step forward that you would have to go to an impeachment inquiry.
      Donald Trump – the clear frontrunner for the presidential nomination in 2024 despite facing 91 criminal charges in four jurisdictions and civil lawsuits too – is urging Republicans to move quickly. He told Real America’s Voice:
      I don’t know actually how a Republican could not do it. I think a Republican would be primaried and lose immediately, no matter what district you’re in.
      The White House is bracing for political trench warfare after prosecutors pursuing Joe Biden’s son on a gun possession charge said they would seek a criminal indictment by the end of September.The prospect of Hunter Biden standing trial is likely to energise Republicans preparing to launch an impeachment inquiry into the president even as Congress tries to avert a government shutdown.The White House has reportedly set up a “war room” of two dozen lawyers and aides to combat the Republican effort, partly by studying how Bill Clinton turned his 1998 impeachment to his political advantage.Long a political liability for his father, Hunter Biden bought a pistol in 2018 and allegedly lied on a federal form by stating he was not a drug user at the time. In a Wednesday court filing, the special counsel David Weiss said the government would seek a grand jury indictment before 29 September.The development followed the collapse of a plea deal under which Hunter Biden would have entered into a deferred prosecution agreement over the gun charge and pleaded guilty to tax charges too. The younger Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, insists the deal is still in effect.
      We believe the signed and filed diversion agreement remains valid and prevents any additional charges from being filed against Mr Biden, who has been abiding by the conditions of release under that agreement for the last several weeks.
      Donald Trump has filed notice in Fulton County that he “may” seek to have his 2020 election subversion case removed to federal court.I’m told by people familiar that Trump’s legal team is waiting to see what happens with former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and his arguments before taking that step.The unusual notice appears to have been aimed mainly for presiding Fulton County superior court judge Scott McAfee. Trump has 30 days from the day of his arraignment – or when he filed his not guilty plea and arraignment waiver on 31 August – to file for removal to federal court. Removal could upend things and McAfee noted the potential logistical headache at a hearing yesterday.If Meadows wins his removal motion, then the case goes to US district court. If Meadows loses but the US court of appeals for the 11th Circuit reverses, then McAfee could face problem of having started a trial with no jurisdiction. More

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      Springsteen, Dolly Parton and the Killers: songs presidential candidates think make them look good

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      Chris Christie digs Coldplay. Cornel West is into Coltrane. And Vivek Ramaswamy, the pharmaceutical magnate whose net worth is approaching $1bn, has found a kindred spirit in Woody Guthrie.These are a few of the 2024 presidential candidates revealing the music that “stirs their soul”, assuming they have one. The lists, solicited by Politico, are oozing with the raw passion politicians are known for: who hasn’t shed a tear while listening to Bananarama, as Nikki Haley apparently has?Sure, the 20-song lists were probably focus-grouped beyond recognition, but you can learn a lot about someone from the music they pretend to like. Here’s what the playlists tell us.Chris Christie: Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, EaglesThe tough-talking former New Jersey governor has a well-documented obsession with the Boss, so it’s no surprise that his list starts with Springsteen. His alleged favorite song is Thunder Road, a politically deft option: it’s popular enough without being obvious, avoids any political messaging, yet still screams “regular guy”. The choice of a pathos-tinged tune also feels appropriate given Christie’s shifting position. Once the loudest bully in the room, he’s been so thoroughly out-evilled by red-meat maniacs that he seems to be running as the guy with a heart.To prove his New Jersey credentials – did you know Chris Christie is from New Jersey? He’s from New Jersey – he’s also chosen the obscure Bon Jovi hit Livin’ on a Prayer. And among the other highlights on his list – which features a truly remarkable number of ageing white guys – is the Eagles’ Hotel California, whose tale of self-imprisonment must ring true for any anti-Trump Republican:
      And in the master’s chambers
      They gathered for the feast
      They stab it with their steely knives
      But they just can’t kill the beast
      Nikki Haley: Dolly Parton, the Killers, Post MaloneThe former South Carolina governor’s favorites feature a bit more variety, squeezing in Dolly Parton, Cat Stevens and Abba. Virtually everything on her list is pre-2010, which is perfectly understandable for a 51-year-old – and then suddenly there’s Post Malone’s Take What You Want, featuring Ozzy Osbourne and Travis Scott.It’s unclear how she stumbled on this song the year after she stepped down as Donald Trump’s UN ambassador, and what about it stirred her soul. Does she cut a rug to lines like “I feel you crumble in my arms down to your heart of stone / You bled me dry just like the tears you never show” while mulling over policy ideas?The only other recent hit on her list is Fast Car – the 2023 version by Luke Combs, rather than the 1988 original by Tracy Chapman, a bona fide American classic. Maybe that version has somehow slipped under her radar for the past 35 years. Or perhaps, like Christie, she’s trying to flex her home-state credentials (Combs is from North rather than South Carolina, but they’re close). Then again, Chapman is from Ohio – a swing state.Haley and Christie have something else in common: a love for the Killers’ Mr Brightside. Tough to imagine why a song about cheating, lies and paranoia would appeal to two Republican presidential candidates.Vivek Ramaswamy: Imagine Dragons, Imagine Dragons, MozartThe Harvard-educated businessman apparently doesn’t know 20 songs: he only submitted eight pieces of music, and one isn’t a song – it’s Mozart’s Rondo Alla Turca, a staple of fifth-grade piano recitals. (That said, it is an absolute banger.) Beyond an inability to count, he also appears to have trouble following directions: he has two songs by the banal pop outfit Imagine Dragons, despite Politico’s one-song-per-artist rule.Eminem’s Lose Yourself tops Ramaswamy’s list, presumably to the artist’s chagrin: Eminem recently told the politician never to perform his song again after Ramaswamy started rapping at the Iowa State Fair. He’s not the only candidate to have a rocky relationship with one of his musical heroes – Springsteen has rejected performance invitations from Christie and mocked him on TV, though they did hug once after Hurricane Sandy.And like Christie, Ramaswamy has chosen Aerosmith’s Dream On; like Haley, he’s into Dolly Parton’s Jolene. In a country that can feel so divided, it’s nice to know that politicians can agree on which songs are most likely to make them look good.Will Hurd: A Tribe Called Quest, Demi Lovato, MatisyahuCredit where credit is due: this former congressman who will never be president has a very interesting list, including tracks from A Tribe Called Quest, Hootie & the Blowfish, Matisyahu and Demi Lovato. Either he has taste so eclectic it’s verging on bizarre, or he closed his eyes and jabbed at random sentences on the Wikipedia page for “American popular music”.Larry Elder: Sam Cooke, Gladys Knight, the BeatlesElder works in radio, so you’d think he might have heard a few songs written after 1992, but apparently none have stirred his soul. To be fair, his list is probably genuine – no focus group would suggest picking two Boyz II Men songs from the same album.Elder grew up in the 60s, and his favorite songs are mostly from that turbulent era – Sam Cooke, Gladys Knight, the Beatles. It was a time of youthful idealism, of fights for civil rights and gender equality and against war. One can only imagine how proud these musicians would be of Elder’s views – his preferred minimum wage of “$0.00”, his assertion that “women know less than men about political issues”, and his support for ending birthright citizenship and allowing the denial of emergency care to undocumented people.Asa Hutchinson: Johnny Cash, Garth Brooks, PinkThe former Arkansas governor also struggled to come up with 20 songs; like Ramaswamy, he managed a total of eight. They’re mostly country and folk hits from the likes of Johnny Cash, Levon Helm and Garth Brooks – not surprising for an Arkansas man.But don’t be fooled: this 2024 Republican contender knows a beat when he hears one. When things start to get wild in the ex-governor’s household – perhaps when the Hutch reflects on such accomplishments as blocking Syrian refugees from entering Arkansas, or resuming executions – he cranks up Pink’s Get the Party Started.Cornel West: John Coltrane, Nina Simone, Aretha FranklinGiven that the philosopher and activist has worked with Talib Kweli, André 3000, Killer Mike and a host of other musicians, he must know more than four songs. But that was all the Green party candidate was able to provide, falling short of even Ramaswamy and Hutchinson.Then again, maybe there are only four songs that truly stir his soul – and tracks from John Coltrane, Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin and the Isleys seem like reasonable candidates. More

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      Majority of likely Democratic voters say party should ditch Biden, poll shows

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      A majority of likely Democratic voters say the party should nominate someone other than Joe Biden for president next year, according to a poll released on Thursday.Two-thirds of Democratic and Democratic-leaning registered voters surveyed by CNN and SSRS from 25 to 31 August said they would prefer someone other than Biden. Among those voters, 18% specified another candidate but the overwhelming majority – 82% – said they “just want to see someone besides” the current president.Among declared Democratic candidates, however, Biden is seen as the best-positioned to beat the clear Republican favorite, Donald Trump, CNN said. Other contenders include Robert F Kennedy Jr, an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist, and the self-help author Marianne Williamson, who also ran in 2020.Most observers say the US economy is strong, and note legislative successes for Biden, including the passage of ambitious infrastructure and domestic spending packages. In last year’s midterms, messaging about Republican extremism, particularly on abortion and voting rights, helped Democrats avoid the kind of heavy losses usually suffered by a president’s party.Polling now shows voters are split on partisan lines when it comes to the merits or otherwise of a likely impeachment effort driven by far-right House Republicans over business deals involving the president’s son, Hunter Biden.But Biden’s own poll numbers remain stubbornly low. In the new poll from CNN and SSRS, the president’s approval rating was just 39%. Nearly 60% of respondents said they thought Biden’s policies had made economic conditions worse, while 76% said they were seriously concerned that, at 80, the president was too old to serve a full term if re-elected.That echoed other recent polls, including a survey conducted during roughly the same period and released on Tuesday by the Wall Street Journal. In that poll, 73% of voters said Biden was “too old to run for president” but just 47% of voters said the same about Trump, who is only three years younger than Biden.Despite widespread opposition to a second term for Biden, the CNN poll found that Nikki Haley was the only possible Republican nominee who voters said would conclusively beat Biden next year.Haley, 51 and a former South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the United Nations, enjoyed a clear lead over Biden in a notional general election, by 49% to 43%. On the campaign trail, Haley has repeatedly targeted Biden’s age, calling for mental competency tests for politicians over 75.Haley is, however, generally fourth in Republican polling averages, behind the entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis. All of them are way behind Trump, who has long dominated the race regardless of an extreme legal predicament that now features 91 criminal charges and civil suits including a defamation case in which he has been adjudicated a rapist.On Wednesday, in the strongest challenge yet to Trump’s eligibility to participate in the election, a watchdog group sued to remove him from the 2024 ballot in Colorado. The suit argues that Trump’s involvement in the deadly attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 – when supporters he told to “fight like hell” sought to block certification of Biden’s election win – disqualifies the former president because the US constitution bars from office any state or federal official who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion”.Trump did not take part in the first Republican debate in Wisconsin last month, a contest Haley was widely held to have won. But she has not seen a meaningful bump in support among Republican voters.Jim Messina, a former campaign chair for Barack Obama, to whom Biden was vice-president, this week called Democrats worried about Biden’s prospects “fucking bedwetters” and said electoral signs remained positive.But according to the CNN poll, match-ups between Biden and all other major Republican candidates returned ties or scores within the margin of error.Trump is set to face a series of criminal and civil trials in election year. Nonetheless, he led Biden by 47% to 46%. DeSantis and Biden were tied on 47%. Biden was one point ahead of Ramaswamy, 47% to 46%. The former vice-president Mike Pence, the South Carolina senator Tim Scott and the former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, a rare Trump critic, edged Biden out by two points each.Nearly half of respondents said any Republican would be a better choice than Biden. More

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      Watchdog group sues to remove ‘insurrectionist’ Trump from 2024 ballot

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      A watchdog group is suing to remove Donald Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot, saying he violated the constitution and is disqualified from holding future office.The lawsuit is so far one of the strongest challenges to Trump’s eligibility to seek re-election.According to the lawsuit filed on Wednesday, the former president violated section 3 of the 14th amendment, also known as the Disqualification Clause, with his involvement in the January 6 US Capitol attack. The section bars any federal or state official that has “previously taken an oath” from holding office after they “engaged in insurrection or rebellion”.Two prominent conservative legal scholars recently authored a lengthy law review article arguing that Trump is disqualified from holding office under the 14th amendment.“The bottom line is that Donald Trump ‘engaged in insurrection or rebellion’ and gave ‘aid or comfort’ to others engaging in such conduct, within the original meaning of those terms as employed in section 3 of the 14th amendment,” William Baude of the University of Chicago and Michael Stokes Paulsen of the University of St Thomas wrote in their 126-page article, which traces the history and original understanding of the amendment. “If the public record is accurate, the case is not even close.”Trump has dismissed attempts to remove him from the ballot as “election interference”, his umbrella cry against the long list of felony charges he faces in Georgia and in federal court for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election.“Almost all legal scholars have voiced opinions that the 14th Amendment has no legal basis or standing relative to the upcoming 2024 Presidential Election,” Trump claimed in a post to his social media platform Truth Social on Monday, calling arguments based on the amendment a “trick” being used by leftists to “steal” an election.The DC-based group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew), is representing six Colorado voters – who are either Republican or unaffiliated with a political party – seeking to remove Trump from their state’s ballot in next year’s general election.In addition to Colorado, other states are bracing for similar lawsuits challenging Trump’s eligibility including Arizona, Michigan and New Hampshire.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionIt’s unclear what the exact procedure will be for challenging Trump’s eligibility, and it could vary by state. Either way, the US supreme court is expected to weigh in soon on whether Trump is eligible.“If the very fabric of our democracy is to hold, we must ensure that the Constitution is enforced and the same people who attacked our democratic system not be put in charge of it,” said Crew’s president, Noah Bookbinder, in a statement on Wednesday.Last year, Crew represented New Mexico residents who successfully sued to remove their county commissioner, Couy Griffin, who participated in the January 6 riot. A federal judge ruled that the attack was indeed an insurrection, and that Griffin’s participation disqualified him from holding office. More

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      Election season has come. Here’s what you need to do to stop Trump from winning | Robert Reich

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      The week after Labor Day weekend usually signals the start of a return to serious business – summer vacations over and kids back to school, fiscal years ending and new ones beginning, cleaning up and battening down for winter.This particular week after Labor Day also marks the start of a terrifyingly high-stakes ride for America – five months until the beginning of the primaries, eight until Donald Trump’s trial for seeking to overturn the 2020 election, 10 until the Republican convention in which Trump is almost certain to be nominated, 14 until the presidential election of 2024.All the while, Trump and House Republicans will be throwing up every conceivable distraction and roadblock – threatening to or actually closing the government, impeaching Joe Biden, and holding more hearings on “woke” capitalism, Hunter Biden, the alleged “weaponization” of the justice department and the FBI.At this point, the polls are too close for comfort. Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal poll shows Biden tied with Trump in a hypothetical general election (not factoring a third-party candidacy from No Labels or Cornel West), and bogged down with an anemic 39% approval rating.Some of this is tied to Biden’s age, but some also seems to be the result of a remarkable unawareness of his policies.By a slim margin, more Americans disapprove than approve of Biden’s efforts to improve the nation’s infrastructure, and more believe that Trump “has a vision for the future” than they believe Biden does.There is time, but Biden and his administration must get across a clear message of Biden’s vision and accomplishments.What can the rest of us do between now and the election to help save American democracy? Let me try out a few answers:
      Do everything within your power to ensure that Donald Trump is not re-elected president. For some of us, this will mean taking time out of our normal lives to become more directly politically involved – up to and including getting out the votes in critical swing states.
      Do not succumb to the tempting anesthesia of complacency or cynicism. The stakes are too high. Even if you cannot take much time out of your normal life for direct politics, you will need to organize, mobilize and energize your friends, colleagues and neighbors.
      Counter lies with truth. When you hear someone repeating a Trump Republican lie, correct it. This will require that you prepare yourself with facts, logic, analysis and sources.
      Do not tolerate bigotry and hate. Call it out. Stand up to it. Denounce it. Demand that others denounce it, too.
      Do not resort to violence, name-calling, bullying or any of the other tactics that Trump followers may be using.
      Be compassionate toward hardcore followers of Trump, but be firm in your opposition. Understand why someone may decide to support Trump, but don’t waste your time and energy trying to convert them. Use your time and energy on those who still have open minds.
      Don’t waste your time and energy commiserating with people who already agree with you. Don’t gripe, whine, wring your hands and kvetch with other progressives about how awful Trump and his Republican enablers are. Don’t snivel over or criticize Biden and the Democrats for failing to communicate more effectively. None of this will get you anything except an upset stomach or worse.
      Demonstrate, but don’t mistake demonstrating for political action. You may find it gratifying to stand on a corner in Berkeley with a sign asking drivers to “honk if you hate fascism” and elicit lots of honks, but that’s as politically effectual as taking a warm shower. Organize people who don’t normally vote to vote for Biden. Mobilize get-out-the-vote efforts in your community. Get young people involved.
      Don’t get deflected by the latest sensationalist post or story by or about Trump. Don’t let the media’s short-term attention span divert your eyes from the prize – the survival of American democracy during one of the greatest stress tests it has had to endure, organized by one of the worst demagogues in American history.
      I cannot overstate how critical the outcome of the next 14 months will be to everything we believe in. And the importance of your participation.
      Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a 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 newest 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 More