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      Majority of US Democrats don’t want Biden as 2024 candidate, poll finds – live

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      Joe Biden’s approval rating has been struggling mightily for a year and the US president’s popularity is now shockingly low even among his own supporters across America, with 64% of Democratic voters saying they want someone else to be the party’s presidential nominee in the 2024 election, according to a new opinion poll carried out by the New York Times and Siena College and published by the newspaper this morning.It describes Biden “hemorrhaging support” amid a bleak national outlook on life and politics, and only 26% of Democratic US voters telling pollsters that they want the party to renominate the current president to run for a second term.The results make shocking and grim reading for the White House this morning.The report laments a “country gripped by a pervasive sense of pessimism” and notes that voters across the nation gave the president a dismal 33% approval rating amid, overwhelmingly, concern about the economy.More than 75% of registered voters think the US is “moving in the wrong direction” with a pessimism that “spans every corner of the country, every age range and racial group, cities, suburbs and rural areas, as well as both political parties,” the NYT reports..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Only 13% of American voters said the nation was on the right track — the lowest point in Times polling since the depths of the financial crisis more than a decade ago. Biden had earlier as the presidential nominee signaled that he regarded himself as preparing the way for a new guard of Democratic leaders, but since he became president and has been pressed on whether he would seek a second term he has repeatedly said he would.At 79 he is the oldest US president in history and, alarmingly, the Times reports that among Democratic voters under the age of 30, a staggering 94% would prefer a different presidential nominee for their party going into the 2024 presidential election.Three quarters of voters surveyed said the economy was “extremely important” to them but only one percent think that current economic conditions are excellent.Kamala Harris is hailing the recent bipartisan gun reform legislation, even though it only enacts a fraction of what gun control advocates want in the US, with the vice president noting that “for 30 years our nation failed to pass meaningful legislation” addressing what she noted have been repeated calls for “common sense action to protect our communities”.The legislation will toughen background checks for the youngest gun buyers, keep firearms from more domestic violence offenders and help states put in place red flag laws that make it easier for authorities to take weapons from people adjudged to be dangerous.Most of its $13bn cost will help bolster mental health programs and aid schools, which have been targeted in Newtown, Connecticut, and Parkland, Florida, and elsewhere in mass shootings.At the time of the bill’s signing last month, Joe Biden said the compromise hammered out by a bipartisan group of senators “doesn’t do everything I want” but “it does include actions I’ve long called for that are going to save lives”.“I know there’s much more work to do, and I’m never going to give up, but this is a monumental day,” said the president, who was joined by his wife, Jill, a teacher, for the signing.US president Joe Biden and vice president Kamala Harris are now approaching the podium in the garden of the White House at an event to mark the bipartisan gun reform legislation passed last month, called the Safer Community Act.The first speaker is Uvalde pediatrician Roy Guerrero, who speaks of “a hollow feeling in our gut” in the south Texas community where a teenage shooter gunned down 19 children and two teachers in the tiny city in May.Guerrero said he hopes that the legislation just passed is just “the start of the movement to ban assault weapons” in the US.Guerrero said: “I spend half my days convincing kids that no one is coming for them and that they are safe—but how do I say that knowing that the very weapons used in the attack are still freely available?” Uvalde pediatrician Roy Guerrero at White House event: “I spend half my days convincing kids that no one is coming for them and that they are safe—but how do I say that knowing that the very weapons used in the attack are still freely available?” https://t.co/GmgmvSw9oQ pic.twitter.com/qv6ArIZWgF— ABC News (@ABC) July 11, 2022
      Harris is speaking now.House January 6 panel member and senior Democrat Zoe Lofgren has explained that the committee intends to present evidence “connecting the dots” about how different extremist groups rallied to the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, to form a violent mob that perpetrated the deadly insurrection as they sought in vain to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election defeat by Democrat Joe Biden.The panel is holding its next hearing tomorrow afternoon and the subsequent one is expected on Thursday evening..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}We are going to be connecting the dots during these hearings between these groups and those who were trying – in government circles – to overturn the [2020]election. So, we do think that this story is unfolding in a way that is very serious and quite credible,” Lofgren of California told CNN yesterday.Jason Van Tatenhove, a former spokesman for the right-wing group the Oath Keepers will reportedly testify tomorrow, KDVR of Colorado and CNN have said.Panel member and Florida Democrat Stephanie Murphy told NBC yesterday about a vital tweet by Donald Trump in late 2020 and far-right groups such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers that:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Without spoiling anything that comes this week and encouraging folks to tune in to the specifics, what I will say is that we will lay out the body of evidence that we have that talks about how the president’s tweet on the wee hours of December 19th of ‘Be there, be wild,’ was a siren call to these folks. And we’ll talk in detail about what that caused them to do, how that caused them to organize, as well as who else was amplifying that message. The House January 6 select committee is expected to make the case at its seventh hearing Tuesday that Donald Trump gave the signal to the extremist groups that stormed the Capitol to target and obstruct the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s electoral college win.The panel will zero in on a pivotal tweet sent by the former president in the early hours of the morning on 19 December 2020, according to sources close to the inquiry who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the forthcoming hearing.“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” Trump said in the tweet. “Be there, will be wild!”The select committee will say at the hearing – led by congressmen Jamie Raskin and Stephanie Murphy – that Trump’s tweet was the catalyst that triggered the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers groups, as well as Stop the Steal activists, to target the certification.And Trump sent the tweet knowing that for those groups, it amounted to a confirmation that they should put into motion their plans for January 6, the select committee will say, and encouraged thousands of other supporters to also march on the Capitol for a protest.The tweet was the pivotal moment in the timeline leading up to the Capitol attack, the select committee will say, since it was from that point that the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers seriously started preparations, and Stop the Steal started applying for permits.The select committee also currently plans to play video clips from former White House counsel Pat Cipollone’s recent testimony to House investigators at Tuesday’s hearing.Raskin is expected to first touch on the immediate events before the tweet: a contentious White House meeting on 18 December 2020 where Trump weighed seizing voting machines and appointing conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell as special counsel to investigate election fraud.The meeting involved Trump and four informal advisers, the Guardian has reported, including Trump’s ex-national security adviser, Michael Flynn, ex-Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell, ex-Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne and ex-Trump aide Emily Newman.Once in the Oval Office, they implored Trump to invoke executive order 13848, which granted him emergency powers in the event of foreign interference in the election – though that had not happened – to seize voting machines and install Powell as special counsel.The former president ultimately demurred on both of the proposals. But after the Flynn-Powell-Byrne-Newman plan for him to overturn the election fell apart, the select committee will say, he turned his attention to January 6 as his final chance and sent his tweet.Read the full report here.In the quirky world of opinion polls, there is a “glimmer of good news” for Joe Biden, the New York Times notes, in its survey conducted in conjunction with Siena College.Even though almost two thirds of US Democratic voters don’t want him to be the nominee in 2024, if Biden does fight the election and his Republican opponent is Donald Trump again, the Democrat will win, according to this morning’s newly-published poll.Biden would beat Trump in that hypothetical match-up by 44% to 41% if those questioned in the survey had their way.The Times notes that “the result is a reminder of one of Mr. Biden’s favorite aphorisms: ‘Don’t compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative.’ The poll showed that Democratic misgivings about Mr. Biden seemed to mostly melt away when presented with a choice between him and Mr. Trump: 92 percent of Democrats said they would stick with Mr. Biden.”Its report details the discontent with Biden’s presidency and outlook, however, adding:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Jobs and the economy were the most important problem facing the country according to 20 percent of voters, with inflation and the cost of living (15 percent) close behind as prices are rising at the fastest rate in a generation. One in 10 voters named the state of American democracy and political division as the most pressing issue, about the same share who named gun policies, after several high-profile mass shootings.
      More than 75 percent of voters in the poll said the economy was “extremely important” to them. And yet only 1 percent rated economic conditions as excellent. Among those who are typically working age — voters 18 to 64 years old — only 6 percent said the economy was good or excellent, while 93 percent rated it poor or only fair.
      The White House has tried to trumpet strong job growth, including on Friday when Mr. Biden declared that he had overseen “the fastest and strongest jobs recovery in American history.” But the Times/Siena poll showed a vast disconnect between those boasts, and the strength of some economic indicators, and the financial reality that most Americans feel they are confronting….
      On the whole, voters appeared to like Mr. Biden more than they like his performance as president, with 39 percent saying they have a favorable impression of him — six percentage points higher than his job approval.
      In saying they wanted a different nominee in 2024, Democrats cited a variety of reasons, with the most in an open-ended question citing his age (33 percent), followed closely by unhappiness with how he is doing the job. About one in eight Democrats just said that they wanted someone new, and one in 10 said he was not progressive enough. Smaller fractions expressed doubts about his ability to win and his mental acuity. Joe Biden’s approval rating has been struggling mightily for a year and the US president’s popularity is now shockingly low even among his own supporters across America, with 64% of Democratic voters saying they want someone else to be the party’s presidential nominee in the 2024 election, according to a new opinion poll carried out by the New York Times and Siena College and published by the newspaper this morning.It describes Biden “hemorrhaging support” amid a bleak national outlook on life and politics, and only 26% of Democratic US voters telling pollsters that they want the party to renominate the current president to run for a second term.The results make shocking and grim reading for the White House this morning.The report laments a “country gripped by a pervasive sense of pessimism” and notes that voters across the nation gave the president a dismal 33% approval rating amid, overwhelmingly, concern about the economy.More than 75% of registered voters think the US is “moving in the wrong direction” with a pessimism that “spans every corner of the country, every age range and racial group, cities, suburbs and rural areas, as well as both political parties,” the NYT reports..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Only 13% of American voters said the nation was on the right track — the lowest point in Times polling since the depths of the financial crisis more than a decade ago. Biden had earlier as the presidential nominee signaled that he regarded himself as preparing the way for a new guard of Democratic leaders, but since he became president and has been pressed on whether he would seek a second term he has repeatedly said he would.At 79 he is the oldest US president in history and, alarmingly, the Times reports that among Democratic voters under the age of 30, a staggering 94% would prefer a different presidential nominee for their party going into the 2024 presidential election.Three quarters of voters surveyed said the economy was “extremely important” to them but only one percent think that current economic conditions are excellent.Good morning, US politics blog readers, it’s summer time but the living isn’t easy in Washington whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican. It’s going to be a busy day at the start of a busy week, so let’s get going.
      A new opinion poll in the New York Times this morning makes stomach-dropping reading for the US president, Joe Biden, reporting that 64% of Democratic voters don’t want Biden to be their presidential candidate in the 2024 election. The newspaper says: “With the country gripped by a pervasive sense of pessimism, the president is hemorrhaging support … [the majority of Democratic party voters would] prefer a new standard-bearer in the 2024 campaign,” according to a NYT/Siena College poll, “as voters nationwide have soured on his leadership, giving him a meager 33% job-approval rating.”
      The House January 6 committee investigating the insurrection by extremist Trump supporters at the US Capitol in 2021 is due to hold two hearings this week, tomorrow and Thursday. It will spell out tomorrow afternoon the connections between the leading rightwing domestic extremist groups in the US as they planned to descend on Washington to try to overturn Donald Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election and, ultimately, will set about “connecting the dots” between those groups and the then Republican president himself and his role in inciting their actions.
      Joe Biden and US vice president Kamala Harris will speak at the White House this morning at an event to mark the passing, against the odds on Capitol Hill these days, of the gun reform bill that followed the mass shootings in New York and Texas but before the Fourth of July massacre in Illinois.
      The January 6 panel is expected to hold a primetime hearing on Thursday evening as its grand finale after setting out vivid and potent testimony and evidence about the attack on the US Capitol in the dying days of the Trump administration.
      A court filing this morning has revealed that Justin Clark, an attorney to former president Donald Trump, was interviewed by the FBI late last month. The interview is ostensibly linked to the criminal contempt case against Steve Bannon for refusing congressional demands for his testimony in relation to the Capitol attack. But details are sparse so far and we’ll keep you abreast of developments. More

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      We hear Americans support gun control, but I know the truth is more complicated | Devika Bhat

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      We hear Americans support gun control, but I know the truth is more complicatedDevika BhatIt was only when I moved to the US that I understood that this issue, more than any other, encapsulates our differences The last of Uvalde’s slaughtered children had been laid to rest for barely three weeks before the latest mass shooting to terrorise America unfolded. This time it was a suburb of Chicago, its Independence Day celebrations shattered by a hail of bullets from a gunman with an assault rifle on a rooftop, killing seven and injuring dozens more.The month before, it was Philadelphia and Tennessee; before that, Oklahoma and Michigan, alongside a string of other incidents that hardly registered on a national, let alone global level. Such is the bar for international outrage on American shooting deaths, rising with every Columbine, Virginia Tech and Las Vegas. The horrific killings at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde were a another reminder that 10 years after Sandy Hook, even the smallest children are not safe from the violence wrought by a young man wielding an assault rifle – which he was easily able to easily and legally obtain, thanks to the anachronisms of the hallowed constitution.Uvalde, at least, spurred what no previous shootings have managed: to get some gun reforms actually signed into law, even if US president Joe Biden admitted the measures fell short of what he had hoped for. It is a step beyond what usually happens: an insistence from Democrats that it will be this particular tragedy, finally, that will lead to gun control laws having their day, followed by despair as barriers built into the legislative system prevent even modest changes passing Congress.It was a narrative that was already set in Washington when I moved there from the UK, just a few weeks after Sandy Hook in 2012. At the time it really felt as if change might – amazingly – be afoot. There was a sense of grim momentum: Barack Obama, recently re-elected to his second term, pledged at a memorial service to the young victims to “use all the power of his office” to prevent another tragedy, with tears and faltering voice shootings were still a fresh memory. Within weeks though, it became clear that there was no hope.US mass shootings are getting deadlier and more common, analysis showsRead moreI have never felt more alien – as non-Americans are charmingly termed under the visa system than when I saw those fraught weeks play out and realised that the mass murder of tiny children just a few years out of nappies was not to be, after all, the eureka moment that forced US lawmakers to rethink. It was the first in a series of wake-up calls for me about the problematic side of American exceptionalism: one tied in with a particular worldview born the country’s unique history, which values a perceived notion of individual freedom against the tyranny of the state above all else.It is a mindset not just limited to intransigent Republicans in the Senate. A common frustration voiced recently is that congressional inaction has been particularly egregious, given that most Americans favour gun controls. But though polling shows a clear majority in favour of background checks, the gap narrows when people are asked to consider other measures like banning specific guns or accessories. This is hardly surprising when 40% of Americans live in a household with a gun. What’s more, national polls may themselves overstate the reality of support for gun control, recent analysis by the New York Times suggests.Other nations may shake their collective heads and mutter “only in America”, quietly thankful their own children do not have to endure traumatic shooting drills and bulletproof rucksacks as routine necessities for an education. But this is a price many are willing to pay to uphold what they see as rights ordained by their forefathers.American civilians are estimated to hold a staggering 40% of the world’s firearms, despite accounting for only 4% of its population. As unpalatable as it might be to the rest of the world, not all these gun owners will be virulent NRA superfans, and many have complex, possibly contradictory views on gun ownership and regulation. Moreover, according to a Pew survey from 2017, while most gun owners could not entertain the thought of never owning a gun, the opposite did not appear to hold true: 52% of non-gun owners said they could see themselves owning a gun in the future.It was after Sandy Hook that the NRA’s president, Wayne LaPierre infamously declared that “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun”. As ludicrous as such talk sounds, it is not limited to the most aggressive of the pro-gun lobby. Similar language is found in the very laws of US states: legislation in Colorado enabling gun owners to shoot an intruder in self-defence is known as the Make My Day law. A similar appeal to an idealised history of uniquely American heroes versus villains was invoked in May by a judge in California, who ruled that the state’s ban on the purchase of semi-automatic firearms by under 21-year-olds was unconstitutional, on the basis that “America would not exist without the heroism of the young adults who fought and died in our revolutionary army”.Though we are familiar with this outlook, visible as it is in films, television, books and other behemoths of American soft power, it was only when I was living in the country that I was able to appreciate its reach. Guns may be at the extreme end of this particular brand of American exceptionalism, but it goes some way to explaining other matters too. There were echoes of something similar in the fraught debate over Obama’s other policy priority: the Affordable Care Act (2010), his signature healthcare reforms.The proposals were eviscerated by critics who held up the NHS as a warning of the ghastly horrors awaiting the US under Obamacare, never mind that the plan came nowhere close to being a fully nationalised health service. As if, scoffed those same critics, any other country could possibly have anything worthwhile to teach America.It was a dismaying wake-up call for a Brit who has deep ties to and a great admiration for the US, with its seductive promises of possibility and optimism. It is a promise that Obama himself has insisted he continues to believe in, even after the advent of Donald Trump’s presidency, and even after admitting that his failure to enact gun reforms were the greatest regret of his term in office. Others are less convinced: friends with the option to do so admit discussing whether to leave the country, as it rolls from one crisis to another. Each is a fresh reminder that its once-lauded system of government, with its supposedly unassailable checks and balances, may perhaps be failing the very democracy it was designed to protect.
      Devika Bhat is joint deputy head of International News at the Guardian
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      in US Politics

      US gunmakers summoned to Congress to justify soaring profits from gun violence – as it happened

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      Democrats in Congress are summoning the CEOs of firearm manufacturers to testify at a hearing later this month on gun violence.“I am deeply troubled that gun manufacturers continue to profit from the sale of weapons of war, including AR-15-style assault rifles that were used by a white supremacist to murder ten people in Buffalo, New York, and in the massacre of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas,” Carolyn Maloney, the Democratic chair of the House Oversight Committee, wrote in letters to the leaders of Daniel Defense, Smith & Wesson, and Ruger, which make AR-15 style rifles. “Products sold by your company have been used for decades to carry out homicides and even mass murders, yet your company has continued to market assault weapons to civilians.”Under her leadership, the committee began investigating gun manufacturers last May. The following month, it held a hearing featuring gut-wrenching testimony from survivors of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.The latest hearing is set for July 20.President Joe Biden honored notable Americans with the country’s highest civilian honor, while details emerged of the January 6 committee’s plans for its next – and potentially last – hearings.Here’s what else happened today:
      American women’s basketball star Brittney Griner pleaded guilty to drug charges in Russia, the latest development in a case that has captured the attention of the Biden administration.
      Another Democratic senator said she would support creating an exemption to the filibuster for abortion rights legislation. Meanwhile, lawmakers in South Carolina began debate on a bill to almost completely ban abortion.
      Details are trickling out about a new effort by Democrats to pass a big spending bill in what could be their final months controlling both houses of Congress.
      The CEOs of firearms manufacturers have been summoned by a congressional committee investigating the gun industry.
      Illinois police will investigate the father of the man who opened fire at an Independence Day parade on Monday for his involvement in his son’s purchase of a firearm.
      Sacha Baron Cohen, the comedian best known for portraying Borat, fended off a lawsuit from a former Republican Senate candidate in Alabama.
      California’s Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein has come out in support of creating an exception to the Senate’s filibuster rules in order to pass legislation protecting abortion rights nationwide.Let me be clear: If it comes down to protecting the filibuster or protecting a woman’s right to choose, there should be no question that I will vote to protect a woman’s right to choose. pic.twitter.com/rpHANTjyqn— Senator Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) July 7, 2022
      Reproductive rights activists are pressuring Democrats to pass a law protecting access to abortion nationwide after the supreme court last month overturned Roe v. Wade. But the filibuster, which allows the Republican minority to stop legislation in the Senate that does not win at least 10 of their party’s votes, has stood in the way of that, and until now, Feinstein hasn’t said if she would support modifying it to get an abortion law passed.Biden backs exception to Senate filibuster to protect abortion accessRead morePresident Joe Biden has handed out the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’s highest civilian honor, to 17 people, including Olympic gymnast Simone Biles.Here’s more from when Biles received the award:.@Simone_Biles receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom. pic.twitter.com/5MPnIzDWTW— CSPAN (@cspan) July 7, 2022
      Former congresswoman and gun control advocate Gabrielle Giffords was also honored:.@GabbyGiffords receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom. pic.twitter.com/vzE1IdrhdD— CSPAN (@cspan) July 7, 2022
      As was soccer star Megan Rapinoe:Megan Rapinoe (@mpinoe) receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom pic.twitter.com/GGc4JGwJxg— CSPAN (@cspan) July 7, 2022
      Three people were given the award posthumously: Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, president of the AFL-CIO trade union federation Richard Trumka and senator John McCain. His wife Cindy McCain accepted on his behalf:”John McCain was a giant among Americans from a family of patriots.” @cindymccain accepts the Presidetial Medal of Freedom on behalf of her late husband, Sen. John McCain. pic.twitter.com/7ejuKszzWe— CSPAN (@cspan) July 7, 2022
      Biden, a longtime Democratic senator, remarked on his relationship with McCain, a Republican.President Biden on John McCain: “I never stopped admiring John. I never said a negative thing about him in my life because I knew his honor, his courage and his commitment. That was John McCain.” pic.twitter.com/DSJD9scTAv— CSPAN (@cspan) July 7, 2022
      Actor Denzel Washington was also due to get the award, but could not attend the White House ceremony due to a positive Covid-19 test, according to a White House official:President Biden on Denzel Washington: “He’s couldn’t be with us here today. I’ll be giving him this award at a later date when he’s able to get here.” pic.twitter.com/N15bEG3gxv— CSPAN (@cspan) July 7, 2022
      South Carolina lawmakers have begun considering a bill to ban nearly all abortions in the state, Reuters reports.The proposal would “ban all abortions from conception, except to save the life of the mother, and would make performing an abortion a felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison,” according to the report. The measure would be more stringent than a law that a federal judge allowed to go into effect last month which outlaws the procedure after about six weeks of pregnancy. The court ruling followed the supreme court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade and allowing states to ban abortions.The January 6 committee has for the past month held carefully choreographed hearings that are meant to be attention-grabbing to a degree rarely seen in Congress, but a poll released today found they aren’t doing much to sway Americans’ beliefs about what happened that day.The survey from Monmouth University found only six percent of Americans say the hearings have changed their mind about January 6, in part due to the relatively few Republicans who are following the testimony. Only 10 percent of GOP supporters are turning in, versus 45 percent of Democrats and 16 percent of independents. For Republicans who did watch the hearings, only five percent said it changed their minds, with some telling Monmouth, “they learned about the pressure Trump was exerting or that election fraud claims were spurious.” The poll said that other respondents “claim they have ‘learned’ that ‘police officers were not killed in that protest,’ or that ‘the Democrats were highly involved as well as the F.B.I.’”The poll also documents a decline in Americans’ faith in their government. Only 36 percent of respondents told Monmouth that the American system of government is basically sound, a decline from February 2020, when it was 55 percent.In the words of Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} There’s more than just partisanship at work in declining faith in the institutional framework of American democracy. Yes, electoral outcomes play a role. Yes, the current economic crisis plays a role. But attacks on our fundamental democratic processes – and the lack of universal condemnation of those attacks by political leaders from both sides of the aisle – have taken a toll.The head of the IRS has asked for an investigation into a report that former FBI director James Comey and his deputy Andrew McCabe, both of whom clashed with ex-president Donald Trump, were subject to rare, intrusive audits, the Associated Press reports:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The IRS commissioner has asked the Treasury Department’s inspector general to immediately review the circumstances surrounding intensive tax audits that targeted ex-FBI Director James Comey and ex-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, both frequent targets of President Donald Trump’s anger.
      IRS spokesperson Jodie Reynolds said Thursday that IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig had personally reached out to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. Reynolds said the agency has officially referred the matter to the inspector general.
      But Reynolds insisted it is “ludicrous and untrue to suggest that senior IRS officials somehow targeted specific individuals for National Research Program audits.”Here’s the original New York Times article that led to the investigation.The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell has more detail about what we can expect from next week’s two January 6 committee meetings – one of which will shine more light on what was happening inside the White House as the Capitol was being attacked:NEW: Jan. 6 committee members Jamie Raskin and Stephanie Murphy will lead Tuesday hearing on Trump sending extremist groups to DC and pinpointing the 6th, and Elaine Luria and Adam Kinzinger will lead expected Thursday primetime hearing on inside the WH during the Capitol attack.— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) July 7, 2022
      Tentative schedule is tentative, per sources familiar with the tentative schedule. But the Thursday prime time hearing is expected to be the final one held by the Jan. 6 committee — for now.— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) July 7, 2022
      President Joe Biden has weighed in on the resignation of British prime minister Boris Johnson, though the White House statement makes no mention of his name:JUST IN: @POTUS Biden statement on @BorisJohnson’s resignation: “the special relationship between our people remains strong and enduring. I look forward to continuing our close cooperation with the government of the United Kingdom, as well as our Allies and partners…” pic.twitter.com/sk4X6vWOxb— Ed O’Keefe (@edokeefe) July 7, 2022
      For the latest developments in the political upheaval across the pond, The Guardian is here for you:Boris Johnson resigns and says no new policies until next prime minister announced – liveRead morePresident Joe Biden will soon hold a ceremony at the White House to give the medal of freedom to a group of recipients, including some of the country’s best known politicians, actors and athletes.Perhaps the biggest names are two-time Academy Award winner Denzel Washington and Simone Biles, the most decorated American gymnast ever. Women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe will also be honored, as well as former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was badly injured during a mass shooting in 2010. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and Republican senator John McCain will receive the award posthumously in the event vice-president Kamala Harris and her husband will also attend.The White House has a full rundown here. Simone Biles and nurse who received first Covid vaccine to get top US honorRead moreDeSantis appoints elections police chiefFlorida governor Ron DeSantis caused shock when he announced the creation of the Office of Election Crimes and Security in the state, to keep an eye on election fraud: a crime for which there is usually very little evidence that it exists.Now, a CBS station in Orlando reports, we know the identity of the man who will head up that unit: Pete Antonacci, a former prosecutor and onetime supervisor of elections.CBS reports: “Antonacci, 73, has a long history of being called upon by state leaders as a fix-it man of sorts. His career includes stints as executive director of the South Florida Water Management District, president of the state business-recruitment agency Enterprise Florida and state attorney in Palm Beach County.”But in a sign that may ease – a few – fears about voter suppression in the state, it seems some Democrats welcome the appointment.CBS added: “This elections police thing is terrible. However, Antonacci is a pretty no-nonsense administrator. Even us Dems praised his work in Broward. He is by far the best that could be hoped for. So much so I could see DeSantis growing to hate him if he doesn’t go on witch hunts,” Matt Isbell, a Tallahassee-based consultant for Democrats, tweeted Wednesday.”The January 6 committee will hold a hearing on Thursday of next week that will be broadcast at the prime-time TV hour, Punchbowl News reports.The Jan. 6 committee is scheduled to hold hearings Tuesday AND Thursday next week, sources tell me.— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) July 7, 2022
      Thursday night is slated to be another primetime hearing, sources tell me https://t.co/WWlpehZj9P— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) July 7, 2022
      The House committee investigating the insurrection had earlier this week announced it will hold its next hearing on Tuesday, 12 July, which is expected to focus on the links between Donald Trump and extremist groups.Trump’s possible ties to far-right militias examined by January 6 committeeRead moreCongress is on recess, but details are slowly emerging about Democrats’ plans for a spending bill to be revealed perhaps in the coming weeks, while the party has announced a hearing to take firearms manufacturers to task over gun violence.Here’s what has happened today:
      American women’s basketball star Brittney Griner pleaded guilty to drug charges in Russia, the latest development in a case that has captured the attention of the Biden administration.
      Illinois police will investigate the father of the man who opened fire at an Independence Day parade on Monday for his involvement in his son’s purchase of a firearm.
      Sacha Baron Cohen, the comedian best known for portraying Borat, fended off a lawsuit from a former Republican Senate candidate in Alabama.
      A winner has been declared in the showdown between comedian Sacha Baron Cohen and former judge and failed Senate candidate Roy Moore, at least for now.Reuters reports that Cohen, who is perhaps best known for portraying the Borat character, has fended off a defamation lawsuit by Moore over an interview broadcast on his show, “Who Is America?”:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} In a 3-0 vote, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said the interview was constitutionally protected speech, agreeing with a lower court judge that it was “clearly comedy and that no reasonable viewer would conclude otherwise.”
      The court also said Moore waived his right to pursue his $95 million lawsuit by signing a standard consent agreement before the interview, which he knew would be televised. It also dismissed related claims by Moore’s wife Kayla.
      Larry Klayman, the Moores’ lawyer, called the decision a “travesty,” saying the consent agreement was ambiguous because Judge Moore crossed out a provision waiving claims related to alleged sexually oriented behavior and questioning.
      “This should not have been taken away from the jury,” Klayman said in an interview. The Moores will ask the entire 2nd Circuit to review the case.Accusation of sexual misconduct swirled around Moore when he stood as a Republican to represent Alabama in the US Senate in 2017, a race he lost to Democrat Doug Jones despite the state being among the most conservative in the country.Alabama election: Democrats triumph over Roy Moore in major blow to TrumpRead more More

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      Highland shooting sparks outrage over gun law loopholes that let suspect slip through

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      Highland shooting sparks outrage over gun law loopholes that let suspect slip throughIllinois’s ‘red flag’ law could have disqualified shooter from legally obtaining guns but he was still able to purchase five firearms Legislators and activists have derided the weakness of US gun control laws following the Fourth of July mass shooting in which the alleged gunman was allowed to legally purchase weapons despite multiple alarming prior encounters with law enforcement.On Monday, seven people were killed and more than 30 wounded in Highland Park, an affluent, mostly white Chicago suburb, after the suspect allegedly fired on an Independence Day parade from a rooftop.Robert Crimo, 21, was subsequently arrested after his gun was tracked with the help of a firearms dealer, and was charged with seven counts of first-degree murder.He appeared in court on Wednesday in a bond hearing via a video link from jail. Ben Dillon, a county prosecutor, told the court Crimo had confessed to the attack after being apprehended.Crimo, wearing black, spoke to confirm he did not have a lawyer; he is being represented by a public defender. No plea was entered and the judge ruled he be held without bail. “He does pose, in fact, a specific and present threat to the community,” said the judge, Theodore Potkonjak.The words echoed those of local authorities in September 2019 when they declared Crimo a “clear and present danger” to the Illinois state police after he threatened to kill his family. Police briefly confiscated a trove of weapons from his house – yet three months later he successfully applied for a gun license, at the age of 19.According to police statements, on the Fourth of July the gunman climbed to the rooftop and fired on the parade, then drove his mother’s car to the Madison, Wisconsin, area, where he considered attacking another event.He changed his mind and returned to Illinois, where he was stopped by police at the wheel of the car, said the Lake county major crime task force spokesman, Christopher Covelli.Police found 83 bullet shells and three magazines of ammunition on the rooftop, Dillon told the court, and a Smith & Wesson semi-automatic rifle, similar to an AR-15, used in the shooting was found at the scene. The suspect had a similar weapon in his mother’s car when arrested, according to county prosecutors.Before the massacre, Highland Park already had relatively strict gun laws by US standards. In 2013, city officials banned semi-automatic assault riffles and large capacity magazines. Illinois also boasts some of the strongest gun control laws of any state, with mandated background checks for gun purchases, laws limiting gun access to domestic abusers, and a “red flag” law that allows people who pose a danger to themselves and others to be temporarily blocked from purchasing firearms.Monday’s mass shootings proves that those laws still fall well short of what is needed to curb the spree of mass shootings that has plagued the country, gun control advocates said.At a Tuesday press conference, the US senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois said: “Last month, Congress proved that bipartisan compromises on gun safety are possible. Today proved that we can’t stop there.”Kathleen Sances of the Gun Violence Prevention Pac called on politicians to “act quickly to regulate weapons of war” that make mass shootings increasingly deadly.Many have also decried the Highland Park shooting as an example of how loopholes within local gun control policies allow offenders to slip through the cracks.The suspected gunman had two prior brushes with law enforcement that were not flagged in the multiple background checks needed for him to legally purchase multiple guns, Reuters reported.In April 2019, an emergency call was made after the gunman had attempted suicide, said Covelli.In September of the same year, police were dispatched to the gunman’s home after he allegedly threatened to “kill everyone” in his family. During that visit officers collected multiple weapons from the gunman’s home: more than a dozen knives, a sword and a dagger.According to Illinois’s “red flag” law, both instances could have disqualified him from legally obtaining the five firearms he allegedly used during Monday’s mass shooting.The Illinois state police said, however, that despite the gunman being flagged as a “clear and present danger” following the September 2019 incident and his history of threatening violence, state police closed the case because the gunman did not have a gun owner ID or a pending application to own a gun.An additional barrier under Illinois law is that police, relatives, roommates or friends must also first ask a judge to seize a person’s guns.In December 2019, the gunman successfully applied for a gun license when he was 19 years old, with his father sponsoring his application.State police, who process gun license applications in Illinois, said that “there was insufficient basis to establish a clear and present danger” at the time of his application, reported the Associated Press.Police said they had no immediate evidence of any antisemitic or racist basis for the attack. The area has a large Jewish community. Investigators were reviewing videos Crimo had posted on social media containing violent imagery.Authorities have said they plan on seeking additional charges against him, with the Lake county attorney general, Eric Rinehart, promising that the charges would be the “first of many”. If convicted, he could face a maximum penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole. He is next due to appear in court on 28 July.TopicsHighland Park shootingUS gun controlUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Highland Park shooting death toll rises to seven with 46 injured – as it happened

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      Americans grappled with another wave of gun violence that left seven people dead after a shooting in a Chicago suburb while two new polls paint a grim picture of Americans’ views of President Joe Biden, his handling of the economy, and the country’s institutions in general.Here’s a rundown of what’s happened today:
      A Chicago Sun-Times journalist wrote a harrowing account of the mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, that killed seven during an Independence Day parade.
      Biden awarded the Medal of Honor to four army veterans who fought in Vietnam.
      The head of Planned Parenthood talked to the Guardian about how the group will continue working to help women get abortions.
      Inflation and the overall cost of living remains Americans’ top concern, according to a poll released today that casts doubt on Democrats’ hopes that concerns about abortion and gun access will reverse Biden’s poor approval ratings.
      But if Biden is unpopular, he’s not alone. Americans’ confidence in almost all of their institutions has declined compared with last year, according to a different poll.
      Local authorities also announced the names of three more victims which had not been known yet. The identity of the seventh – and so far last – victim has not been released. The three new names are: Katherine Goldstein, 88 Irina McCarthy, 35 Kevin McCarthy, 37At a press conference police have detailed two previous incidents involving the alleged shooter Robert Crimo. The first happened in April, 2019 when police got a report from Crimo’s family that he had attempted suicide. The second occurred in September, 2019 when there was a report that Crimo had been making threats that he wanted to “kill everyone” and had a collection of knives.Police visited where Crimo was living and confiscated a collection of 16 knives, a dagger and a sword. The New York Times has some heartbreaking details on the third victim to be identified. The paper reports: Steve Straus, 88.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}A father of two, grandfather of four and a financial adviser who, at 88, still took the train every day from his Highland Park home to his office at a brokerage firm in Chicago, Steve Straus “should not have had to die this way,” his niece, Cynthia Straus, said in a phone interview.
      “He was an honorable man who worked his whole life and looked out for his family and gave everyone the best he had,” Ms Straus said. “He was kind and gentle and had huge intelligence and humor and wit.”
      He was devoted to his wife, she said, and intensely close with his brother, and extremely health conscious: “He exercised as if he were 50.”Biden has no plans yet to visit Highland Park, Illinois, site of Monday’s mass shooting that killed seven people, his press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.“We don’t have any plans right now to go to Chicago”, the city of which Highland Park is a suburb, Jean-Pierre said. However vice-president Kamala Harris is scheduled to be in the city later today to to address the National Education Association, “and she will speak to the devastation that we that we all saw with our own eyes yesterday in Highland Park”, according to Jean-Pierre.Biden will travel to Cleveland, Ohio on Wednesday for a speech regarding the economy.White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is holding the daily press briefing, and reiterated the Biden administration’s efforts to get WNBA star Brittney Griner released from prison in Russia.“We believe she was wrongfully detained. We believe she needs to come home, she should be home,” Jean-Pierre said, adding that Griner’s wife spoke with national security advisor Jake Sullivan over the weekend, their second phone call in the past 10 days.Griner wrote a letter to Biden asking him to push for her release, which Jean-Pierre said the president had read. “He takes this to heart, he takes this job very seriously, especially when it comes to bringing home US nationals who are wrongfully detained,” Jean-Pierre said.This post has been updated to clarify that Griner’s wife, not Griner herself, spoke to Jake Sullivan.’I’m terrified I might be here forever’: Brittney Griner appeals to Biden in letterRead morePresident Biden has ordered flags flown at half-staff across the United States and its embassies abroad until the end of the day on July 9 in memory of the people killed at the mass shooting in Highland Park.Biden had previously ordered flags flown at half-staff in May after the shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas that killed 19 children and two teachers.A seventh person has died following the July 4 shooting at an Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Illinois, NBC Chicago reports.The death brings the toll of wounded in the shooting to 46, according to the broadcaster. Police have said the man suspected of carrying out the attack planned it for weeks and dressed as a woman in order to conceal his identity.Mississippi’s restrictions on abortion were at the center of the supreme court’s ruling last month overturning Roe v. Wade, but the litigation isn’t finished in the state.The Associated Press reports that Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the plaintiff in the supreme court case, is suing to stop a law that would ban almost all abortions in the state:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} The law — which state lawmakers passed before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 ruling that allowed abortions nationwide — is set to take effect Thursday.
      The Jackson Women’s Health Organization sought a temporary restraining order that would allow it to remain open, at least while the lawsuit remains in court.
      The closely watched lawsuit is part of a flurry of activity that has occurred nationwide since the Supreme Court ruled. Conservative states have moved to halt or limit abortions while others have sought to ensure abortion rights, all as some women try to obtain the medical procedure against the changing legal landscape.
      If Chancery Judge Debbra K. Halford grants the clinic’s request to block the new Mississippi law from taking effect, the decision could be quickly appealed to the state Supreme Court.Twenty-six states are expected to outlaw abortion entirely following the supreme court’s decision, and according to the Guttmacher Institute, six states have already done so.Maryland’s governor announced today that his state will change its requirements for licensing concealed weapons in response to last month’s ruling by the supreme court expanding Americans’ ability to possess a gun outside their homes.In light of a recent Supreme Court ruling and to ensure compliance with the Constitution, I am directing the Maryland State Police to suspend utilization of the ‘good and substantial reason’ standard when reviewing applications for Wear and Carry Permits.My full statement: pic.twitter.com/0wi1dzD8Aw— Governor Larry Hogan (@GovLarryHogan) July 5, 2022
      As its term came to a close in June, the court’s conservative majority overturned a New York law that had placed strict limits on carrying a firearm outside the home, which affected states with similar laws on their books, including Maryland.New York’s governor Kathy Hochul last week signed legislation designed to counter the supreme court’s ruling by prohibiting the carrying of weapons in certain locations such as bars and restaurants that serve alcohol, schools, government buildings and airports, as well as requiring owners to consent to people carrying guns on their property.US supreme court overturns New York handgun law in bitter blow to gun-control pushRead moreIn other January 6 news, Adam Kinzinger, one of only two Republicans sitting on the House committee investigating the insurrection, has released a compilation of threatening and profane phone calls his office has received.Threats of violence over politics has increased heavily in the last few years. But the darkness has reached new lows. My new interns made this compilation of recent calls they’ve received while serving in my DC office.WARNING: this video contains foul & graphic language. pic.twitter.com/yQJvvAHBVV— Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) July 5, 2022
      Last year, Kinzinger announced he would retire from Congress, where he’s served since 2011.A Georgia grand jury investigating Donald Trump’s attempts to subvert the 2020 election result in the state has issued subpoenas to a number of the former president’s attorneys and allies, including senator Lindsey Graham.The special grand jury empaneled in Fulton county, where the capital and largest city Atlanta lies, issued the subpoenas today, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} In addition to Giuliani, among those being summoned are John Eastman, Cleta Mitchell, Kenneth Chesbro and Jenna Ellis, all of whom advised Trump on strategies for overturning Democrat Joe Biden’s wins in Georgia and other swing states.
      The grand jury also subpoenaed South Carolina U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s top allies in the U.S. Senate, and attorney and podcast host Jacki Pick Deason.
      The subpoenas, were filed July 5 and signed off by Fulton Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who is overseeing the special grand jury. Unlike subpoenas issued to Georgians, the summons were required to receive McBurney’s blessing since they are for people who reside outside the state.Viewers of the January 6 committee’s hearings will remember Eastman, the lawyer who, according to testimony from witnesses before the lawmakers, worked with Trump on his plot to undermine the results of the 2020 election. Eastman is among those who asked Trump for a pardon before he left office.At the press conference, investigators said the suspect Robert E Crimo III, 21, had legally bought the rifle allegedly used in the shootings and recovered at the scene – a high-powered rifle styled after an AR-15 – along with at least one more, as well as some pistols.The attack had evidently been planned for weeks, said Covelli, though investigators had not been tipped off to the social media videos posted by the suspect before the shooting.Authorities have still not said what charges Crimo faces, though another press conference is scheduled for later today.All six people killed were adults, Covelli said, and more than 30 others went to hospitals with bullet wounds.Covelli said there is no indication targets were picked out based on race, religion or any other federally protected status.The suspect in the 4 July shootings in Highland Park pre-planned the attack for several weeks, according to officials, and wore “women’s clothing” in what investigators said they believed was an effort to conceal his identity.According to Chris Covelli, the leader of a police taskforce investigating major crimes in the Illinois county that includes Highland Park, local officers recognized the suspect in surveillance footage they reviewed after the shooting, which helped them track him down. The suspect has prominent facial tattoos. Details continue to emerge about the mass shooting in a Chicago suburb yesterday, while two new polls paint a grim picture of Americans’ views of President Joe Biden, his handling of the economy, and the country’s institutions in general.Here’s a rundown of what’s happened so far today:
      A Chicago Sun-Times journalist wrote a harrowing account of the mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, that killed six during an Independence Day parade.
      Biden awarded the Medal of Honor to four army veterans who fought in Vietnam.
      The head of Planned Parenthood talked to the Guardian about how the group will continue working to help women get abortions.
      Inflation and the overall cost of living remains Americans’ top concern, according to a poll released today that casts doubt on Democrats’ hopes that concerns about abortion and gun access will reverse Biden’s poor approval ratings.
      But if Biden is unpopular, he’s not alone. Americans’ confidence in almost all of their institutions has declined compared with last year, according to a different poll.
      High inflation is just one reason why economists are worrying that the United States is poised to enter a recession.But if the economy does contract, The Wall Street Journal reports that it may not look like more recent downturns such as at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic or the global financial crisis. One key difference is that waves of layoffs that accompanied those downturns may not occur.From their article exploring the “very strange” situation the world’s largest economy finds itself in:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} Today, something highly unusual is happening. Economic output fell in the first quarter and signs suggest it did so again in the second. Yet the job market showed little sign of faltering during the first half of the year. The jobless rate fell from 4% last December to 3.6% in May.
      It is the latest strange twist in the odd trajectory of the pandemic economy, and a riddle for those contemplating a recession. If the U.S. is in or near one, it doesn’t yet look like any other on record.
      Analysts sometimes talked about “jobless recoveries” after past recessions, in which economic output rose but employers kept shedding workers. The first half of 2022 was the mirror image—a “jobful” downturn, in which output fell and companies kept hiring. Whether it will spiral into a fuller and deeper recession isn’t known, though a growing number of economists believe it will.
      Some companies, especially in the tech sector, have given indications that they’re pulling back on hiring, though across the broad economy the job market has rarely looked stronger.Also unpopular with Americans: the country’s institutions.Gallup has today released a poll showing a decline in confidence for most of the 16 institutions they track, in particular the supreme court and the presidency.Americans’ confidence in major U.S. institutions has dropped to the lowest point in Gallup’s more than 40-year trend. https://t.co/G2frb7HXxk pic.twitter.com/OyWfUwXmjp— GallupNews (@GallupNews) July 5, 2022
      In the yearly survey, confidence in the supreme court dropped 11 percentage points from 2021 to 25 percent, while the presidency suffered a 15 point decline to 23 percent. The least popular institution was Congress, in which only seven percent of respondent had confidence, down five points from last year. Just above them was television news, in which only 11 percent of Americans had confidence. Small businesses were the most popular institution of those surveyed, with 68 percent confidence, a decline of only two percentage points from last year. The military was up next with 64 percent confidence, followed by the police, with 45 percent confidence. More

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      Bipartisan gun control law sent for Biden’s signature after House vote

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      Bipartisan gun control law sent for Biden’s signature after House voteFourteen Republicans vote with majority for first major gun reform legislation in nearly 30 years The US House on Friday passed a bipartisan bill to strengthen federal gun regulations, bringing an end to decades of congressional inaction and sending the historic legislation to Joe Biden’s desk.US supreme court overturns New York handgun law in bitter blow to gun-control pushRead morePassage of the bill came a day after the supreme court overturned a New York law regulating handgun ownership, a significant blow for proponents of gun reform.Nonetheless, advocates celebrated passage of the first major gun-control legislation passed by Congress in nearly 30 years despite hundreds of mass shootings happening in the US every year.Just last month, 10 people were killed in a racist attack at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, and 19 children and two adults were killed at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.The House passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act by a vote of 234-193, 14 Republicans joining every Democrat in supporting the bill. It came a day after the Senate approved the bill 65-33, following weeks of negotiations.The law will establish enhanced background checks for those under 21 attempting to buy a gun and expand restrictions for people convicted of domestic abuse.The law will also provide funding to implement crisis-intervention policies, including so-called “red-flag laws”, which allow courts to restrict gun access for those considered a danger to themselves or others.Additional funds will be made available for community violence intervention programs and mental health services for children and families.Democrats took a victory lap after the House vote, promising that the law, if not perfect, would help combat gun violence in America.“While it isn’t everything we would have liked to see in legislation, it takes us down the … path to more safety [and] saving lives,” said the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi. “Let us not judge the legislation for what it does not do but respect it for what it does.”Kris Brown, president of the gun-control group Brady, said: “This is a watershed moment for gun violence prevention and for the nation, and one that would not be possible if not for the decades of action from activists and organizers, particularly Black and brown activists, and the millions of voters who elected gun violence prevention majorities to both chambers of Congress.”Echoing Pelosi, Brown added: “While this bill is not perfect, it takes a comprehensive approach and is a significant and a meaningful step forward.”The bill falls far short of legislation passed by the House earlier this month, which would have raised the minimum age required to buy a semiautomatic rifle from 18 to 21 and implemented severe restrictions on buying and possessing large-capacity magazines.That bill, the Protecting Our Kids Act, was a nonstarter in the evenly divided Senate, where Democrats needed the support of at least 10 Republicans to pass gun-control legislation.The proposal sent to Biden’s desk represents the culmination of weeks of debate among a bipartisan group of senators that sought to craft a consensus gun-control bill in the wake of the Uvalde and Buffalo shootings.After the Senate passed the bill on Thursday night, the majority leader, Chuck Schumer, applauded the “amazing courage” of Republicans who helped lead the negotiations, despite the political risks of doing so.John Cornyn was booed at the Texas Republican convention last week over his role as one of the chief negotiators.“This is not a cure-all for all the ways gun violence affects our nation but it is a long-overdue step in the right direction,” Schumer said.“It was so, so significant that we let the process work instead of just having one vote which would divide us and not accomplish anything. And I hope that portends doing it again, on guns and on other issues as well.”On Friday, the significant accomplishment of passing the bipartisan bill was overshadowed by the release of the supreme court decision overturning Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling that established the right to abortion.As the country braced for the end of nearly 50 years of federal protections for abortion access, Biden prepared to leave the US to attend the G7 summit in Germany and the Nato summit in Spain.When he returns, he will have a very significant bill to sign.TopicsUS gun controlUS CongressHouse of RepresentativesUS politicsJoe BidenUS SenatenewsReuse this content More

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      The US supreme court just made America a more dangerous, violent place | Jill Filipovic

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      The US supreme court just made America a more dangerous, violent placeJill FilipovicThis nihilistic decision will propel the US further toward mass gun violence and a culture of death The conservative justices of the US supreme court just made America an even more dangerous, even more violent place.The decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn, Inc v Bruen took on a simple and commonsense New York state law requiring individuals to have a license in order to own a gun, and requiring people who want to carry a concealed pistol or revolver out in public to demonstrate a particular need to be toting a secret gun around. That law has been on the books in New York since the early 1900s.Sotomayor accuses supreme court conservatives of dismantling church-state separationRead moreThe supreme court just invalidated it in a decision that is an extreme expansion of the largely invented and now near-limitless individual right to own and carry deadly weapons. And it doesn’t bode well for future efforts to impose any restrictions on guns whatsoever – to make it as difficult to get a gun as to get, say, a driver’s license or an abortion. This radical, nihilistic decision potentially calls a great many state gun laws into question – and will propel the US further toward mass gun violence and a culture of death.The case was brought by two New York men who, according to the opinion, “both applied for unrestricted licenses to carry a handgun in public based on their generalized interest in self-defense”. The court, in an opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas, held that “New York’s proper-cause requirement violates the Fourteenth Amendment by preventing law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in public for self-defense”.Only in America does a “generalized interest in self-defense” give an individual the nearly unlimited right to own a deadly weapon and the right to put everyone else in a community at risk; only in America is the supposed right to carry a hidden deadly weapon in public an “ordinary self-defense need” that supersedes the rights of everyone else to be safe from gun violence.In no other wealthy democracy is any of this “ordinary”.And in no other wealthy democracy are America’s rate of gun violence ordinary.This case comes on the tail of two decades of an increasingly conservative supreme court radically expanding access to guns. And as gun access has radically expanded, so has gun violence. Last year saw a staggering number of gun deaths: more than 20,700, and that’s excluding suicides, which in 2020 accounted for more than half of gun deaths. There were hundreds of mass shootings last year and a far greater number of the handgun killings that have now simply become part of the fabric of American culture, so commonplace that they often don’t even make the nightly news.What’s particularly striking about this case, though, is that the court largely sets aside any concern for public safety. After all, there are good public safety reasons why a state may not want to grant any individual the legal right to carry a concealed gun in public for no reason other than they want one. More guns equal more gun violence – that’s a clear calculus, bolstered by decades of research, at this point undeniable (except by the people who are politically motivated to deny facts and reality).New York has long concluded, pretty reasonably, that it does not want any random person carrying a gun on the subway, or into a school, or into a grocery store. Having a bunch of armed people around increases the chances of any conflict turning deadly; it increases the chances of an accident turning deadly; it just about guarantees that people with no need for a gun who are simply macho, insecure, paranoid and prone to violence will be able to get their hands on one and enjoy the freedom of carrying it anywhere they wish.The supreme court, in an opinion signed by the institution’s self-styled “states’ rights” conservatives, has said that states do not have the right to regulate guns in this way.This decision comes roughly a month after a man armed with a weapon of war murdered 19 children and two adults in Uvalde, Texas, as the police sat impotently outside. It comes roughly a month after the murder of 10 people at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store by a white supremacist. In the wake of those two shootings – simply the latest mass slaughters of African Americans and schoolchildren – American politicians have done absolutely nothing to rein in our out-of-control gun culture and our astounding rates of gun violence.More Americans have been killed by guns since 1968 than soldiers have died in all of America’s wars combined. An astounding 1.5 million Americans died by gunfire between 1986 and 2017. In the US, nearly 80% of homicides are gun-related; in the UK, it’s 4%. And for every 100 US residents, there are more than 120 guns – the highest rate of civilian gun ownership anywhere in the world (Yemen, with about 53 guns for every 100 people, ranks a distant second).Over and over again, the US relives the now-famous headline from the Onion: “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.”The reality is that while mass shootings are devastating and shocking, handguns toted around by individual citizens wreak more widespread, if quieter, havoc. Part of what the New York law is trying to prevent is the violent escalation of the kinds of altercations that have already become much more pitched during Covid: People screaming at customer service workers; aggressive drivers fueling road-rage incidents; patients and family members threatening and attacking healthcare workers; adults losing their minds at school board meetings. These kinds of rage incidents are typically not pre-planned, but they can turn deadly fast if one party (or more) is armed. A law may not keep a gun out of the hands of a careful and premeditated killer. But a law like New York’s has kept guns out of the hands of average if violence-inclined citizens while they are in public. That reality is no longer.The devastating truth is that the current court is made of up of a majority of nihilistic rightwing radicals seeking to impose their vision of a heavily armed male-dominated Christian theocracy on the rest of us. This gun case is only a taste of where we’re headed: toward more violence, more death and fewer individual rights – aside, of course, from the ability to own, conceal, and carry just about anywhere as many weapons of death and destruction as one pleases.
      Jill Filipovic is the author of OK Boomer, Let’s Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind
      TopicsUS supreme courtOpinionUS politicsUS gun controlcommentReuse this content More

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      Senate breakthrough clears way for toughening US gun laws

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      Senate breakthrough clears way for toughening US gun lawsBill’s passing hailed as ‘long overdue step’ while package falls far short of more robust restrictions Democrats sought The US Senate has easily approved a bipartisan gun violence bill that seemed unthinkable just a month ago, clearing the way for final congressional approval of what will be lawmakers’ most far-reaching response in decades to mass shootings.After years of GOP procedural delays that derailed Democratic efforts to curb firearms, Democrats and some Republicans decided that congressional inaction was untenable after last month’s rampages in New York and Texas. It took weeks of closed-door talks but a group of senators from both parties emerged on Thursday with a compromise embodying incremental but impactful movement to curb bloodshed that has come to regularly shock – yet no longer surprise – the nation.The $13bn measure would toughen background checks for the youngest gun buyers, keep firearms from more domestic violence offenders, and help states put in place red-flag laws that make it easier for authorities to take weapons from people judged to be dangerous. It would also fund local programs for school safety, mental health and violence prevention.Cruel timing for Biden as court’s gun ruling clouds breakthrough in CongressRead moreThe election-year package fell far short of more robust gun restrictions Democrats have sought for years, including bans on the assault-type weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines used in the slayings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas. Yet the accord let leaders of both parties declare victory and demonstrate to voters that they know how to compromise and make government work, while also leaving room for each side to appeal to its core supporters.“This is not a cure-all for all the ways gun violence affects our nation,” said the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, whose Democratic party has made gun reform a goal for decades. “But it is a long overdue step in the right direction. Passing this gun safety bill is truly significant, and it’s going to save lives.”The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, in a nod to the second amendment right to bear arms that drives many conservative voters, said: “The American people want their constitutional rights protected and their kids to be safe in school. They want both of those things at once, and that is just what the bill before the Senate will have accomplished.”The day proved bittersweet for advocates of curtailing gun violence. Underscoring the enduring potency of conservative clout, the right-leaning supreme court issued a decision expanding the right of Americans to carry arms in public. The justices struck down a New York law that has required people to prove a need for carrying a weapon before they get a license to do so.The vote on final passage was 65-33.Hours earlier, senators voted 65-34 to end a filibuster by conservative GOP senators. That was five more than the 60-vote threshold needed. The House planned to vote on the measure on Friday and approval seemed certain.On that vote, 15 Senate Republicans joined all 50 Democrats, including their two allied independents, in voting to move ahead on the legislation.Yet that vote highlighted the risks Republicans face by defying the party’s pro-gun voters and firearms groups like the National Rifle Association. Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Todd Young of Indiana were the only two of the 15 up for reelection this fall. Of the rest, four are retiring and eight don’t face voters until 2026.US supreme court overturns New York handgun law in bitter blow to gun-control pushRead moreTellingly, GOP senators voting “no” included potential 2024 presidential contenders like Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Ted Cruz of Texas, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Tim Scott of South Carolina. Some of the party’s most conservative members voted “no” as well, including Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah.While the Senate measure was a clear breakthrough, the outlook for continued congressional movement on gun curbs is dim.Less than a third of the 50 GOP senators backed the measure and solid Republican opposition is certain in the House. Top House Republicans urged a “no” vote in an email from the No 2 GOP leader, representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, that called the bill “an effort to slowly chip away at law-abiding citizens’ second amendment rights”.Both chambers – now narrowly controlled by Democrats – could be run by the GOP after November’s midterm elections.The president, Joe Biden, said in a statement that Uvalde residents told him when he visited that Washington had to act.“Our kids in schools and our communities will be safer because of this legislation. I call on Congress to finish the job and get this bill to my desk,” Biden said.Senate action came one month after a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde. Just days before that, a white man was accused of being motivated by racism as he killed 10 Black grocery shoppers in Buffalo. Both shooters were 18 years old, a youthful profile shared by many mass shooters, and the close timing of the two slaughters and victims with whom many could identify stirred a demand by voters for action, lawmakers of both parties said.Republican senator faces backlash for work on gun bill after school shootingRead moreThe talks were led by Democratic senators Chris Murphy and Kyrsten Sinema and Republicans John Cornyn and Thom Tillis. Murphy represented Newtown, Connecticut, when an assailant killed 20 students and six staffers at Sandy Hook elementary school in 2012, while Cornyn has been involved in past gun talks after mass shootings in his state and is close to McConnell.Murphy said the measure would save thousands of lives and was a chance to “prove to a weary American public that democracy is not so broken that it is unable to rise to the moment”.“I don’t believe in doing nothing in the face of what we saw in Uvalde” and elsewhere, Cornyn said.The bill would make the local juvenile records of people aged 18 to 20 available during required federal background checks when they attempt to buy guns. Those examinations, currently limited to three days, would last up to a maximum of 10 days to give federal and local officials time to search records.People convicted of domestic abuse who are current or former romantic partners of the victim would be prohibited from acquiring firearms, closing the so-called “boyfriend loophole”.That ban currently only applies to people married to, living with or who have had children with the victim. The compromise bill would extend that to those considered to have had “a continuing serious relationship”.There would be money to help states enforce red-flag laws and for other states without them for violence prevention programs. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have such laws.The measure expands the use of background checks by rewriting the definition of the federally licensed gun dealers required to conduct them. Penalties for gun trafficking are strengthened, billions of dollars are provided for behavioral health clinics and school mental health programs, and there is money for school safety initiatives, though not for personnel to use a “dangerous weapon”.TopicsUS gun controlUS SenateUS politicsUS domestic policynewsReuse this content More