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      Mitt Romney says Alejandro Mayorkas’s actions do not merit impeachment

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      Alejandro Mayorkas is not guilty of a high crime or misdemeanour, the Republican senator Mitt Romney said, making clear he will not vote to remove the US homeland security secretary from office if his impeachment goes to a trial.“Secretary Mayorkas is following the position of his party and of the president who was elected,” Romney, from Utah and his party’s nominee for president in 2012, told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday.“We have pointed out that President Biden is for open borders, as are the Democrats, and Mayorkas is simply following that policy. It’s the wrong policy, it has a huge damaging effect on the country – but it’s not a high crime or misdemeanour.”Republicans have zeroed in on undocumented migration and the southern border as campaign issues in an election year.House Republicans impeached Mayorkas in February but have not yet formally sent the articles of impeachment across the Capitol to the Senate. On Tuesday, John Kennedy, a Republican senator from Louisiana, told reporters that process would now be delayed until Monday.Under article two, section four of the US constitution, “the president, vice-president and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanours”.Debate over what exactly constitutes “high crimes and misdemeanours” is a constant of US political life.Impeachment is meant to be rare: from the founding until Donald Trump only two presidents were impeached and both, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, were acquitted at trial.Donald Trump, however, was impeached twice: first for seeking to blackmail Ukraine for dirt on political rivals, second for inciting an insurrection, the attack on Congress of 6 January 2021.Romney was the only Republican to vote to convict both times. Now a lonely anti-Trump Republican voice, he will quit Congress this year.Democrats control the Senate, making conviction and removal of Mayorkas a near impossibility. But Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, must still decide what to do. Republicans are pressing for a trial. Schumer has indicated Democrats will do so, though they do not have to.Romney said: “Precedent is a matter of interpretation in this case. There have been impeachments that have been brought forward that did not go to trial in part because the people left office.”The last impeachment of a cabinet official concerned William Belknap, secretary of war to President Ulysses S Grant, in 1876. Belknap resigned, was tried anyway on charges of corruption, and acquitted.Romney did not say if he would vote to table the articles of impeachment, thereby avoiding a trial.“What does one do will depend on what the legal options are,” he said. “When to vote and how is uncertain at this stage. I believe a high crime or misdemeanour has not been alleged.” More

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      Senator Raphael Warnock: ‘The Bible doesn’t need Trump’s endorsement’

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      Donald Trump’s decision to sell Bibles branded under his name is “risky business”, the Democratic US senator Raphael Warnock said on Sunday, as the former president stands accused of having few moral scruples in four separate criminal indictments pending against him.“The Bible does not need Donald Trump’s endorsement,” Warnock, the pastor of Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist church, said to CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday. Speaking on Easter, one of Christianity’s holiest celebrations, Warnock added: “It’s a risky bet because the folks who buy those Bibles might actually open them up, where it says things like thou shalt not lie, thou shalt not bear false witness, where it warns about wolves dressed up in sheep’s clothing.“I think you ought to be careful. This is risky business for somebody like Donald Trump.”Warnock’s comments to CNN came days after the Republican who is running against Joe Biden for a second presidency in November presented an offer for the public to buy Trump-endorsed Bibles for $59.99. “Let’s Make America Pray Again”, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, a clear reference to the “Make America Great Again” slogan that he rode to the White House in 2016.But indeed more than 80 criminal charges filed against Trump over the previous 12 months – including in Warnock’s home state of Georgia – charge the former president with behaving in ways that many true Bible devotees would frown upon.Trump has pleaded not guilty to allegations that he tried to unduly overturn the outcome of the 2020 election that he lost to his Democratic rival Biden, improperly retained classified government materials after his presidency, and illicitly covered up hush-money payments to an adult film actor who has claimed to have engaged in extramarital sex with him.He is also facing multimillion-dollar civil penalties for business practices deemed fraudulent and an allegation that he raped a woman – a claim that a judge has determined to be substantially true.Warnock on Sunday said he wasn’t surprised Trump had turned to selling Bibles to help raise funds for his soaring legal bills as well as his presidential campaign. The senator alluded to Trump’s history of hawking – among other things – Trump-branded steaks, non-accredited business school degrees and, more recently, $399 gold sneakers.“Now he’s trying to sell the scriptures,” said Warnock, who was first elected to the US Senate in 2020. “At the end of the day, I think he’s trying to sell the American people a bill of goods.”Warnock went out of his way to mention that Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton in 2016, but recognized that his tact allowed him to triumph in the electoral college. But Warnock remarked: “It did not work in 2020,” when Trump lost both the popular and electoral college votes.“And,” the senator said,” I don’t think it’s going to work in 2024.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionDuring his interview on CNN, Warnock also addressed criticism from Trump and his Republican allies that Biden recognized Transgender Day of Visibility – which falls annually on 31 March – as scheduled on Sunday, even though this year it coincided with Easter.The Republican US House speaker, Mike Johnson, notably asserted that Biden had “betrayed the central tenet of Easter”, something that he called “outrageous and abhorrent”.Warnock, who is part of a succession of Ebenezer Baptist church pastors that includes the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, said the fabricated controversy was another instance of people “who do not know how to lead us trying to divide us”.“Apparently, the speaker finds trans people abhorrent, and I think he ought to think about that,” Warnock said. “The fact of the matter is … March 31 has been a day to lift up transgender people who endure violence and bigotry.“But this is just one more instance of folks … who do not know how to lead us trying to divide us. And this is the opposite of the Christian faith. Jesus centered the marginalized. He centered the poor. And in a moment like this, we need voices, particularly voices of faith, who would use our faith not as a weapon to beat other people down, but as a bridge to bring all of us together.” More

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      Ted Cruz, US senator mocked for flight to Cancún, seeks airport police escorts

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      The Texas Republican senator Ted Cruz, who achieved viral infamy in 2021 when he was seen at Houston airport for a flight to Cancún even as his state faced a historic and deadly spell of cold weather, this week moved a step closer to securing police escorts for lawmakers at airports.Under an amendment to the Federal Aviation Authority Reauthorization bill introduced by Cruz, members of Congress and other prominent officials, and some family and staff members, will be offered security escorts if they are deemed “currently … or previously … the subject of a threat, as determined by such applicable federal protective agency”.If passed by the House and Senate, the bill will fund the FAA for four years.But given Cruz’s scrape with viral fame over his flight to Mexico in February 2021 – a trip to join a family vacation he abandoned after one day, admitting his “obvious mistake” as tweets and memes proliferated – the senator faces criticism and mockery over his attempt to secure security guards for future airport trips.“Cancún Cruz wants to flee Texas in secret,” said Lose Cruz, a Democratic political action committee supporting Colin Allred, an NFL player turned US congressman now challenging Cruz for his Senate seat.Matt Angle, founder of the Lone Star Project, an anti-Republican Texas group, said: “Ted Cruz is still chapped over being caught sneaking to Cancún. He can’t get a damn thing done to improve the border or keep kids safe, but Ted figures out how to get private security covered by taxpayers. Self-serving. Soulless. Worthless.”Insisting the amendment was needed, Cruz told Politico of “serious security threats facing public officials”, adding: “It’s important that we take reasonable measures to keep everyone safe.”There have been prominent cases of lawmakers being accosted at airports. But Kevin Murphy, of the Airport Law Enforcement Agencies Network, told Politico Cruz’s amendment would prove “a burden to airport police agencies” he said were not adequately funded.Melissa Braid, a spokesperson for Senate commerce committee Republicans, among whom Cruz is the ranking member, told the Dallas Morning News: “The airport security amendment was drafted in a bipartisan manner to address the growing number of serious threats against justices, judges, public officials and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.“It passed out of committee unanimously by voice vote and was included in the Senate’s bipartisan FAA Reauthorization bill.“With rising security incidents at airports, this amendment ensures that when law enforcement determines a threat exists, reasonable security measures will be taken to keep everybody safe.”Still, Cruz’s trip to Cancún seems sure to play a prominent campaign role.Earlier this week, Allred said: “We don’t need to ask where Ted Cruz stands when he’s challenged. We know. He stood in the airport lounge waiting to fly to Cancún while Texans froze in the dark. It’s time for him to go on a permanent vacation from the Senate.” More

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      Bernie Moreno says he fled socialism in Colombia for the US in 1971. What does history say?

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      Bernie Moreno, the Republican candidate for US Senate in Ohio who expected to mount a stern challenge to Sherrod Brown, the incumbent leftwing Democrat, says his family fled socialism when they came to the US from Colombia in 1971, when he was four years old.Though such statements formed a central part of Moreno’s campaign message on his way to securing the Republican nomination with support from Donald Trump, they do not withstand historical scrutiny.In an interview in 2020, about his success as a car dealer in Ohio, Moreno described himself as “somebody who moved to this country a long time ago to escape what happens in most South American countries, which is socialism and the absolute prison of those ideas”.In 2021, as Moreno moved into national politics with a first run for a Senate nomination, the Cleveland Plain Dealer said he “says he came to the United States as a child with his mother and siblings to flee socialism in their native Colombia. He believes that same ideology is rising in the United States, and he wants to fight back.”But when Moreno was born, on 14 February 1967, Colombia was nine years into the 16-year period of National Front government, in which conservative and liberal parties alternated being in power as a way to avoid violence between the two factions.Furthermore, the first leftwing Colombian government in modern times is the current one, headed by Gustavo Petro and in power since 2022.Colombia has long been home to leftwing guerrilla groups. As described by the US Congressional Research Service, when Moreno lived there, the country was home to “leftist, Marxist-inspired insurgencies … including the Farc, launched in 1964, and the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN), which formed the following year”.Such groups, the CRS says, “conducted kidnappings, committed serious human rights violations, and carried out a campaign of terror that aimed to unseat the central government in Bogotá”.Moreno, however, has described an early childhood far removed from such worries.By his own description, his father was secretary of health under Misael Pastrana, a conservative and the last National Front president between 1970 and 1974.“We had a very, very, very, very incredible lifestyle in Colombia,” Moreno said in 2019, at a business event in Cleveland, adding that his mother moved the family to the US – initially against his father’s wishes – because she “didn’t want us to be raised as pampered indoor cats”.The move was “a jump”, Moreno said, “but it was this idea of no fear”.Contacted for comment on Wednesday, Moreno’s communications director, Reagan McCarthy, said: “No where in the [first] quote cited does Bernie say his family came to America because Colombia was a socialist country or that his family was escaping a socialist country at the time.“He very clearly was stating that many South American countries fell to socialism and his parents came to America to ensure their kids would grow up in a free society, out of fear that Colombia would eventually move towards socialism.”As indicated by McCarthy’s reference to “many South American countries [falling] to socialism”, Moreno has also spoken of a fear of being “surrounded” by socialist governments.In 2021, writing in the Toledo Blade, he said: “I was born in South America, surrounded by socialist ideology.”The same year, Moreno told the Landscape, a Cleveland podcast: “I think the [US is] going off [in] a very dangerous direction. It’s a direction I recognise. I grew up surrounded by socialist ideology, whether it’s Venezuela or Cuba [or] now Peru, and I know where this movie ends.”And in a campaign ad, also from 2021, Moreno said: “I came from a country surrounded by the ideology of radicals like Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, who promised to give everyone all they needed and solve all their problems, just like [Vermont senator] Bernie Sanders and AOC [New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] are doing today.”Such claims also shake under scrutiny.Cuba has indeed been governed from the left since 1959, when Castro and the Communist party took power after a long fight. Castro was assisted by Guevara, a revolutionary from Argentina – who was killed in October 1967, when Moreno was eight months old.In the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Moreno was a young child in Colombia, Venezuela was governed by Rafael Caldera, a Christian Democrat who moved to end conflict with leftwing guerrillas. Ecuador, which also borders Colombia, was also governed by a centrist at that time.Between 1968 and 1975, Peru was led by Juan Velasco Alvarado, a general who seized power in a coup d’état but governed from the political centre. The current president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, is a former member of a Marxist party now governing with the support of rightwingers.Between 1970 and 1973, Chile – more than a thousand miles south of Colombia – was governed by Salvador Allende, its first socialist president. He died on 11 September 1973 as the rightwing Chilean military led by Gen Augusto Pinochet attacked the presidential palace, in a coup backed by the CIA.After coming to the US in 1971, Moreno became a US citizen at 18. In her statement on Wednesday, McCarthy, the Moreno aide, accused the Guardian of failing to celebrate “what could potentially be the first South American-born senator”.The National Republican Senatorial Committee and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Brown declined to comment. More

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      Joe Lieberman, former US senator and vice-presidential nominee, dies at 82

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      The former US senator Joe Lieberman, who ran as the Democratic nominee for vice-president in the 2000 election and became the first Jewish candidate on a major-party ticket for the White House, alongside presidential candidate Al Gore, has died at the age of 82.Lieberman died in New York due to complications from a fall, according to a statement from his family. He was a Connecticut senator for four terms.Lieberman took one of the most controversial arcs in recent US political history. Though he had the status of a breakthrough candidate for America’s Jewish community as Gore’s running mate, his support for president George W Bush’s Iraq war heralded a rightward journey that saw him anger many Democrats.Lieberman sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 but his support for the war in Iraq doomed his candidacy with voters, amid increasing anger at the invasion and its bloody aftermath. It also meant Lieberman was rejected by Connecticut’s Democrats when he ran for a fourth Senate term there in 2006.However, in what he said was a vindication of his positions, he kept his Senate seat by running as an independent candidate, with substantial support from Republican and independent voters.By 2008, Lieberman was a high-profile supporter of Republican senator John McCain in his bid to defeat Democrat Barack Obama’s quest to become America’s first Black president.Thus Lieberman did manage to both impress and offend people across party lines. He expressed strong support for gay rights, civil rights, abortion rights and environmental causes that often won him praise of many Democrats, and he frequently fit mould of a north-east liberal. He played a key role in legislation that established the US Department of Homeland Security.He was also the first national Democrat to publicly criticize President Bill Clinton for his extramarital affair with then White House intern Monica Lewinsky. He scolded Clinton for “disgraceful behavior”, earning the ire of his party – though his position has become much more standard in the wake of the #MeToo movement.As he sought a political home outside Democratic politics, Lieberman’s close friend in the Senate John McCain was leaning strongly toward choosing him as vice-president for the 2008 Republican ticket, but Lieberman’s history of liberal policies were seen as too unpopular for McCain to pull off such a move with his conservative base. He plumped for Sarah Palin instead.In announcing his retirement from the Senate in 2013, Lieberman acknowledged that he did “not always fit comfortably into conventional political boxes” and felt his first responsibility was to serve his constituents, state and country, not his political party.Harry Reid, who served as Senate Democratic leader, once said that while he didn’t always agree with the independent-minded Lieberman, he respected him.“Regardless of our differences, I have never doubted Joe Lieberman’s principles or his patriotism,” Reid said. “And I respect his independent streak, as it stems from strong convictions.”After leaving the Senate, Lieberman joined a New York law firm and took up company boards – as is common for retiring senators. But his public positions continued to be a mish-mash of liberal and rightwing views.View image in fullscreenHe endorsed Donald Trump’s controversial decision to move the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and was a public supporter of Trump’s rightwing education secretary Betsy DeVos – a hated figure for many liberals. But at the same time, he endorsed Hilary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020 in their runs for the White House.Lieberman continued to push his message of compromise with his 2021 book The Centrist Solution, comparing far-right extremists to progressive leftists in a Guardian interview at the time, saying: “The divisive forces in both of our two major parties have moved further away from the centre. But I believe those more extreme segments of both parties are in the minority in both parties.”He also said he was optimistic that “more mainstream, centrist elements” in the Republican party would take over again.He remained active in recent years as the founding chairman of No Labels, an organization to encourage bipartisanship but which is currently exploring backing a third-party bid for the presidency as Trump and Biden face off again. Faced with criticisms that the group’s efforts could boost Trump’s chance at victory, Lieberman said last year he did not want to see Trump re-elected, but that he believed Democrats would fare better if Biden was not running. In recent weeks, No Labels has struggled to find a candidate as ballot deadlines near.Lieberman grew up in Stamford, Connecticut, where his father operated a liquor store. He was the eldest of three siblings in an Orthodox Jewish family. A Yale law school graduate, Lieberman went on to serve as Connecticut attorney general in 1983, before defeating the incumbent Republican, Lowell Weicker, to earn his Senate seat in 1988.Tributes poured in from both sides of the aisle on Wednesday night. Chris Murphy, a US senator from Connecticut, said in a statement that his state was “shocked by Senator Lieberman’s sudden passing”, adding: “In an era of political carbon copies, Joe Lieberman was a singularity. One of one. He fought and won for what he believed was right and for the state he adored.”Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa and oldest sitting senator at 90, recalled working with Lieberman on whistleblower initiatives, saying in a statement: “Joe was a dedicated public servant working [with] anyone regardless of political stripe.”Gore published a tribute praising Lieberman as a “truly gifted leader, whose affable personality and strong will made him a force to be reckoned with”, recounting his former running mate’s support of the 1960s civil rights movement.Obama wrote that he and Lieberman “didn’t always see eye-to-eye”, but commended the former senator for supporting the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” and the passage of the Affordable Care Act: “In both cases the politics were difficult, but he stuck to his principles because he knew it was the right thing to do.”Paul Harris and the Associated Press contributed to this report More

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      US Senate passes $1.2tn spending package to avert government shutdown

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      The Senate has passed a $1.2tn package of spending bills, a long overdue action nearly six months into the budget year that will push any threats of a government shutdown to the fall. The bill now goes to President Joe Biden to be signed into law.The vote was 74-24. It came after funding had expired for government agencies at midnight, but the White House sent out a notice shortly after the deadline announcing the Office of Management and Budget had ceased shutdown preparations because there was a high degree of confidence that Congress would pass the legislation and the president would sign it on Saturday.“Because obligations of federal funds are incurred and tracked on a daily basis, agencies will not shut down and may continue their normal operations,” the White House statement said.Prospects for a short-term government shutdown had appeared to grow Friday evening after Republicans and Democrats battled over proposed amendments to the bill. Any successful amendments to the bill would have sent the legislation back to the House, which had already left town for a two-week recess.But shortly before midnight Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer announced a breakthrough.“It’s been a very long and difficult day, but we have just reached an agreement to complete the job of funding the government,” Schumer said. “It is good for the country that we have reached this bipartisan deal. It wasn’t easy, but tonight our persistence has been worth it.”The news came hours after the House voted 286 to 134 to pass the bill, which will fund the departments of state, defense, homeland security and others through September.Biden has already said he will sign the bill “immediately” once it reaches his desk. The president signed a spending bill covering the rest of the federal government earlier this month, so all agencies are now funded for the rest of the fiscal year, eliminating any threat of a shutdown until October.The bill’s approval brings an end to a tumultuous appropriations process that forced Congress to pass four stopgap funding bills, known as continuing resolutions, since the fiscal year began in October. Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the Democratic chair of the Senate appropriations committee, praised the lawmakers who helped bring the process to a close but lamented the considerable delay in reaching a resolution.“It should never have taken us this long to get here,” Murray said in a floor speech on Friday. “We should not teeter on the verge of a shutdown and lurch from one CR to another.”The Senate vote came down to the wire. Members had to unanimously agree on fast-tracking the bill’s passage, and some Republicans raised objections to the expedited process, insisting on taking up amendments to the proposal.Senator Rand Paul, a Republican of Kentucky, attacked congressional leaders for releasing the lengthy bill in the early hours of Thursday morning and holding a final vote one day later.“Why are we up against a deadline? Because they didn’t give us the 1,000-page bill until 2.30 in the morning on Thursday,” Paul said in a floor speech. “You think we ought to read it? You think we ought to know what’s in it?”Paul warned the bill was “teeming with about $2bn worth of earmarks at a time when we can’t afford the additional debt”, calling on colleagues to block the proposal.Rejecting that line of criticism, the senator Susan Collins of Maine, the top Republican on the Senate appropriations committee, reminded colleagues that members of both chambers spent months negotiating over funding levels.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“Every single bill – each and every one of them – was subject to robust debate and amendments. Many of them passed unanimously,” Collins said. “No one can say that they were not available for scrutiny, since we reported the last of them from committee way back in July.”Murray blamed hard-right Republicans for repeatedly jeopardizing the federal government’s functionality and urged her colleagues to “learn from the hard lessons of the past few months about how we do get things done in a divided government”.“The far-right elements who forced this dysfunction claim to care a lot about fiscal responsibility, but the constant chaos that they create is the opposite of fiscal responsibility,” Murray said. “Working together, focusing on solutions, solving problems for people back home: that is the responsible way to get things done.”With Associated Press More

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      US House passes $1.2tn spending bill hours before shutdown deadline

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      The House voted on Friday to pass a $1.2tn spending package that would fund much of the federal government through September, with just hours left to avert a partial shutdown. The bill now advances to the Senate, which will have to act quickly to keep the government open.The House vote was 286 to 134, with 101 Republicans and 185 Democrats supporting the funding bill. Twenty-two Democrats and 112 Republicans opposed the proposal.The House speaker, the Republican Mike Johnson, introduced the bill under suspension of the rules, meaning that he needed the support of two-thirds of members to pass the proposal. The bill barely crossed that threshold, and Johnson did not win the the support of the majority of his conference as he had hoped, but the speaker voiced optimism after the successful vote.“House Republicans achieved conservative policy wins, rejected extreme Democrat proposals, and imposed substantial cuts while significantly strengthening national defense,” Johnson said in a statement. “The process was also an important step in breaking the omnibus muscle memory and represents the best achievable outcome in a divided government.”On the government funding front, the spending package now advances to the Senate, where members will have to unanimously agree on fast-tracking the bill’s passage to prevent a shutdown. If the Senate can pass the bill, Joe Biden has already said he will “immediately” sign it once it reaches his desk.The bill would fund about 70% of the federal government – including the defense, state, education and homeland security departments – for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends on 30 September. Earlier this month, Biden signed a separate spending bill that funded the rest of the federal government through September, so the bill’s passage would eliminate the threat of a shutdown until October.Although the bill passed the House, Johnson had to mostly rely on Democratic votes to get it across the finish line. The widespread opposition among House Republicans raised questions about the future of Johnson’s speakership, which began only five months ago.Just before the funding bill passed, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a hard-right Republican of Georgia, was seen giving a resolution to the House parliamentarian. Greene later confirmed the resolution was a motion to vacate Johnson from the speakership, but it remains unclear whether she would have the votes to remove him.Speaking to reporters after the vote, Greene described the resolution as “more of a warning than a pink slip” to Johnson, indicating she would not move immediately to oust the speaker.“I do not wish to inflict pain on our conference and throw the House in chaos,” Greene said. “But this is basically a warning, and it’s time for us to go through the process, take our time and find a new speaker of the House that will stand with Republicans and our Republican majority instead of standing with Democrats.”A number of hard-right Republicans had indicated before the final vote that they would oppose the bill, arguing the legislation does not go far enough in restricting immigration. Members of the hard-right House Freedom caucus expressed alarm over the bill’s price tag and the timing of its release on early Thursday morning, complaining that lawmakers were unable to sufficiently review the 1,000-page proposal.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionHouse Republican leaders typically give members 72 hours to review bills before a vote, but they ignored that guideline in this case because of the shutdown deadline. At a press conference held on Friday morning, House Freedom caucus members accused leadership of rushing through a massive spending package that is “chock full of crap”, in the words of Congressman Andy Biggs of Arizona.At least one freedom caucus member appeared to raise the idea of removing Johnson over the bill’s passage. The Louisiana congressman assumed the top job after the former speaker, the Republican Kevin McCarthy, was ousted over his decision to work with Democrats to prevent a government shutdown – just as Johnson did on Friday.“There’s some who will say that the Republicans are in the majority in the House, but it’s clear that the Democrats own the speaker’s gavel,” said Congressman Andy Ogles of Tennessee. “This bill, if it passes, will likely determine who controls the House of Representatives, and this bill will most certainly determine who the next speaker is.”If a vote is held on removing Johnson, he will only be able to afford a handful of defections within his conference and still keep the speaker’s gavel, assuming Democrats do not come to his aid. In the event that Johnson is removed, the House will be unable to conduct business until a new speaker is elected, plunging the lower chamber into chaos yet again. More

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

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