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      Mitch McConnell did not have stroke or seizure, Capitol doctor says

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      Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the US Senate, is not evidently suffering from “a seizure disorder”, a stroke or a “movement disorder such as Parkinson’s disease”, the congressional physician said on Tuesday.The doctor’s remarks came a little less than a week after the 81-year-old senator suffered a second worrying freeze in front of reporters.Last week, the physician, Brian P Monahan, cleared McConnell to return to work after the freeze in Kentucky on Wednesday. Monahan said McConnell might have been suffering from the effects of concussion sustained in a fall in March, or perhaps dehydration.In a letter released on Tuesday, Monahan referred to the senator’s “brief episode” and said he had carried out “several medical evaluations”, including “brain MRI imaging, EEG [electroencephalogram] study and consultations with several neurologists for a comprehensive neurology assessment”.“There is no evidence that you have a seizure disorder or that you experienced a stroke, TIA [transient ischemic attack] or movement disorder such as Parkinson’s disease,” Monahan’s letter asserted. “There are no changes recommended in treatment protocols as you continue recovery from your March 2023 fall.”That fall also resulted in a rib injury, keeping McConnell away from the Capitol.Speculation about his future as Republican leader is bound to continue despite Monahan’s assurances. After McConnell’s first freeze in front of reporters, at the Capitol in late July, other falls including a “face plant” at an airport were widely reported.Senate Republicans have avoided openly questioning their leader’s fitness to serve but some, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said it is increasingly at issue.Senators returned to Washington on Tuesday for a month packed with political problems, including a push by Republican extremists in the House to impeach Joe Biden, shut down the government or both.On Tuesday afternoon, McConnell delivered remarks on the Senate floor.Alluding to his freeze in Kentucky as a moment in the Senate summer recess that “received its fair share of attention in the press”, he pivoted to discussing constituency business and work to come.“The Senate returns with our work cut out for us and a deadline fast approaching,” he said, referring to the 30 September deadline for continuing government funding.Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator from Connecticut, told CNN: “I’ve had the chance to interact with Senator McConnell and find him to be very much still in charge of that [Republican] caucus … I think it’s a decision that his caucus is going to have to make as to whether he continues. It certainly appears that he can continue to be able to do that job.”Public polling shows that most Americans think their leaders are becoming too old, with majorities in favour of upper age limits.Majorities also think that at 80, Biden is too old to run for re-election as president. Smaller majorities are concerned about the age of his likely challenger, Donald Trump, who at 77 has 14 fewer years on the clock than he faces criminal indictments.In the Senate, the oldest on record, the evidently deteriorating health of the 90-year-old senior Democrat from California, Dianne Feinstein, has long been a subject of controversy, particularly during her own lengthy, health-enforced absence.Feinstein will retire next year. McConnell has repeatedly said he intends to complete his seventh term in office, which ends in 2026.If the seat became vacant, Kentucky state law says the Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, must pick a Republican replacement. Asked if he would seek a way round that requirement, Beshear has avoided comment. More

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      Proud Boys former leader Enrique Tarrio awaits sentencing for January 6 conspiracy – live

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      From 2h agoHere’s more from the Guardian’s Richard Luscombe on the sentencing of the two Proud Boys militia group members last Friday:Two members of the far-right Proud Boys militia group who took part in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol with the intention of keeping Donald Trump in the White House were sentenced to lengthy prison terms on Friday.Ethan Nordean, described by prosecutors as a leader of the extremist group, received an 18-year sentence for crimes that included seditious conspiracy, committed when thousands of Trump supporters overran the Capitol building.Dominic Pezzola, who attacked a police officer and was filmed using the officer’s shield to smash a window, got 10 years from the federal judge Timothy Kelly in Washington DC, following his conviction in May for assault and obstructing an official proceeding.Prosecutors had sought terms of 27 and 20 years, respectively, for Nordean and Pezzola.The pair, described by prosecutors as “foot soldiers of the right [who] aimed to keep their leader in power”, were part of a mob seeking to disrupt the certification by a joint session of Congress of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. Nine deaths have been linked to the riot, including law enforcement suicides.With Mark Meadows’s plea, all but one of the defendants in the Georgia election subversion case have pleaded not guilty and opted to skip tomorrow’s arraignment in Atlanta.The lone holdout is Misty Hampton, the former elections supervisor for Coffee county, Georgia, who was present when a Trump-aligned group sought to illegally access voting machines in search of fraud, and directed much of the group’s search.Mark Meadows, who served as Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff during the period when he lost re-election to Joe Biden, has pleaded not guilty to charges related to trying to overturn Georgia’s election result, Reuters reports.Meadows was among the 19 people indicted last month by Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis for the campaign to keep Biden from collecting the swing state’s electoral votes three years ago. By entering his plea, Meadows has opted to skip the arraignment scheduled for tomorrow in Atlanta. Trump, along with several other defendants including attorney Rudy Giuliani, have also entered not guilty pleas.Republican lawmakers have been on a losing streak lately, as judges strike down congressional maps drawn by the party that disadvantage Black lawmakers, the Guardian’s Michael Sainato reports:A judge in Florida has ruled in favor of voting rights groups that filed a lawsuit against a congressional redistricting map approved by Ron DeSantis in 2022. Voting rights groups had criticized the map for diluting political power in Black communities.In the ruling, Leon county circuit judge J Lee Marsh sent the map back to the Florida legislature to be redrawn in a way that complies with the state’s constitution.“Under the stipulated facts (in the lawsuit), plaintiffs have shown that the enacted plan results in the diminishment of Black voters’ ability to elect their candidate of choice in violation of the Florida constitution,” Marsh wrote in the ruling.The ruling is expected to be appealed by the state, likely putting the case before the Florida supreme court.The lawsuit focused on a north Florida congressional district previously represented by the Democrat Al Lawson, who is Black. Lawson’s district was carved up into districts represented by white Republicans.DeSantis vetoed a map that initially preserved Lawson’s district in 2022, submitting his own map and calling a special legislative session demanding state legislators accept it. Judge Marsh rejected claims from Florida Republicans that the state’s provision against weakening or eliminating minority-dominant districts violated the US constitution.“This is a significant victory in the fight for fair representation for Black Floridians,” said Olivia Mendoza, director of litigation and policy for the National Redistricting Foundation, an affiliate of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, in a statement.A three-judge federal court panel struck down Alabama’s new congressional map, saying the Republican-dominated state again violated the Voting Rights Act. The judges wrote that they were “deeply troubled” the state’s effort to redraw its map did not fix issues it identified.The supreme court had in June ruled that Alabama must draw a second majority Black congressional district, which would likely give Democrats another seat on the southern state’s congressional delegation. But rather than go along, GOP lawmakers attempted to sidestep the ruling by approving new maps that still included only one district where a majority of voters are Black – an effort the federal judges just rejected.Meanwhile, in Texas, the state senate will today begin considering whether to impeach attorney general Ken Paxton, a staunch conservative who used his office to try to stop Joe Biden’s 2020 election win but has now attracted the ire of his fellow Republicans over corruption allegations.Texas’s house of representatives impeached Paxton in May, and he’s been suspended without pay ever since. If a two-thirds majority of senators convicts him, he will be removed from his position, but they will need to take another vote to decide whether to permanently bar Paxton from office, the Associated Press reports.Here’s more from the AP on what we can expect from his trial, which is expected to last between two and three weeks:
      Paxton is only the third sitting official in Texas’ nearly 200-year history to be impeached. The House vote suspended the 60-year-old from the office he used in 2020 to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn President Joe Biden’s electoral defeat of Donald Trump.
      Paxton decried the impeachment as a “politically motivated sham” and said he expects to be acquitted. His lawyers have said he won’t testify before the Senate, but the trial remains fraught with political and legal risk.
      The attorney general is under federal investigation for the same conduct that prompted his impeachment, and his lawyers say removal from office would open the door to Paxton taking a plea in a long-stalled state fraud case.
      Here’s what Paxton is accused of and how the trial will work.
      WHY WAS PAXTON IMPEACHED?
      At the center of Paxton’s impeachment is his relationship with a wealthy donor that prompted the attorney general’s top deputies to revolt.
      In 2020, the group reported their boss to the FBI, saying Paxton broke the law to help Austin real estate developer Nate Paul fight a separate federal investigation. Paul allegedly reciprocated, including by employing a woman with whom Paxton had an extramarital affair.
      Paul was indicted in June on federal criminal charges that he made false statements to banks to get more than $170 million in loans. He pleaded not guilty.
      Paul gave Paxton a $25,000 campaign donation in 2018 and the men bonded over a shared feeling that they were the targets of corrupt law enforcement, according to a memo by one of the staffers who went to the FBI. Paxton was indicted on securities fraud charges in 2015 but is yet to stand trial.
      The eight deputies who reported Paxton — largely staunch conservatives whom he handpicked for their jobs — went to law enforcement after he ignored their warnings to not hire an outside lawyer to investigate Paul’s allegations of wrongdoing by the FBI. All eight were subsequently fired or quit and four of them sued under the state whistleblower act.
      Paxton is also accused of pressuring his staff to intervene in other of Paul’s legal troubles, including litigation with an Austin-based nonprofit group and property foreclosure sales.
      Jury selection has started today in the trial of Peter Navarro, a former aide to Donald Trump who was indicted for contempt of Congress after defying subpoenas from the January 6 committee, Politico reports:Last week, a judge rejected Navarro’s argument that Trump had asserted executive privilege in the case, clearing the way for him to stand trial.Trump confidant Steve Bannon was convicted of similar charges last year, after declining to cooperate with subpoenas from the committee investigating the insurrection at the Capitol. He is appealing the verdict.Yesterday, the White House announced that first lady Jill Biden had tested positive for Covid-19, but the president appears to have avoided the virus.“This evening, the first lady tested positive for Covid-19. She is currently experiencing only mild symptoms. She will remain at their home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware,” her communications director Elizabeth Alexander said in a statement.“Following the first lady’s positive test for Covid-19, President Biden was administered a Covid test this evening. The president tested negative. The President will test at a regular cadence this week and monitor for symptoms,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said minutes later.Both Joe and Jill Biden came down with Covid-19 in the summer of 2022, and recovered without side effects.Here’s more from the Guardian’s Richard Luscombe on the sentencing of the two Proud Boys militia group members last Friday:Two members of the far-right Proud Boys militia group who took part in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol with the intention of keeping Donald Trump in the White House were sentenced to lengthy prison terms on Friday.Ethan Nordean, described by prosecutors as a leader of the extremist group, received an 18-year sentence for crimes that included seditious conspiracy, committed when thousands of Trump supporters overran the Capitol building.Dominic Pezzola, who attacked a police officer and was filmed using the officer’s shield to smash a window, got 10 years from the federal judge Timothy Kelly in Washington DC, following his conviction in May for assault and obstructing an official proceeding.Prosecutors had sought terms of 27 and 20 years, respectively, for Nordean and Pezzola.The pair, described by prosecutors as “foot soldiers of the right [who] aimed to keep their leader in power”, were part of a mob seeking to disrupt the certification by a joint session of Congress of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. Nine deaths have been linked to the riot, including law enforcement suicides.Good morning, US politics blog readers. The comeuppance continues today for the the Proud Boys, a rightwing militia group whose members are blamed for organizing and perpetrating some of the violence on January 6, and have been convicted of serious federal crimes. The Proud Boys former leader Enrique Tarrio will be sentenced today after being found guilty of seditious conspiracy, and prosecutors are asking he receive a 33-year prison term.Last week, a judge handed down an 18-year sentence to Ethan Nordean, a leader of the group, and a 10-year term for Dominic Pezzola – both penalties that were less than prosecutors had requested. We’ll see if that pattern continues when Tarrio goes before a judge in Washington DC.Here’s what else is going on today:
      The first big book providing an insider account of Joe Biden’s presidency is out today, and appears to be full of scoops.
      The Senate is back to work for the first time since July, and will today consider Philip Jefferson’s nomination as vice-chair of the Federal Reserve
      White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and national security adviser Jake Sullivan brief reporters at 1pm eastern time. More

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      Nikki Haley calls US Senate ‘most privileged nursing home in the country’

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      The US Senate is “the most privileged nursing home in the country”, the Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said.The former South Carolina governor and ambassador to the United Nations, 51, was speaking to Fox News a day after the Republican leader in the Senate, 81-year-old Mitch McConnell, suffered a second freeze in a month, this time while speaking to reporters in Kentucky.“What I will say is, right now, the Senate is the most privileged nursing home in the country,” Haley said. “I mean, Mitch McConnell has done some great things, and he deserves credit. But you have to know when to leave.”On Thursday, the congressional physician said McConnell was clear to work, perhaps while suffering the after-effects of concussion, sustained in a fall in March, or dehydration. Other falls have been reported, including a “face plant” at a Washington airport, but McConnell has said he will complete his current six-year term, his seventh, which ends in 2026.It was reported on Thursday that some Republican senators were discussing whether to force a confrontation on the issue of their leader’s health.Haley said: “No one should feel good about seeing [McConnell’s freezes] any more than we should feel good about seeing Dianne Feinstein, any more than we should feel good about a lot of what’s happening or seeing Joe Biden’s decline.”Feinstein, 90, is a Democrat and the senior senator from California. Her health and mental capacity long in question, she has said she will retire next year.Biden, 80, is the oldest president ever elected and would be 86 by the end of his second term if he wins re-election. A recent poll showed that more than 75% of Americans think he is too old to run again. This week, the Guardian reported a claim in a new book that Biden has privately admitted he is occasionally tired.The current Senate is the oldest in US history. An old political saying, that the word “Senate” comes from the same Latin word as “senile”, is circulating again.Polling shows support for upper age limits for elected officials. Haley has called for mental competency tests for candidates over 75, though aiming such remarks more at Biden than Trump, the 77-year-old Republican frontrunner.“I wouldn’t care if they did [tests] over the age of 50,” Haley told Fox News. “But these people are making decisions on our national security. They’re making decisions on our economy, on the border.“We need to know they’re at the top of their game. You can’t say that right now, looking at Congress.”Haley is not at the top of Republican primary polling, which Trump dominates despite facing 91 criminal charges and other forms of legal jeopardy including being adjudicated a rapist.Haley performed strongly in the first debate, in Wisconsin last week. She was also among candidates who indicated they would support Trump as the nominee even if he was convicted on criminal charges. More

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      Mitch McConnell cleared for work by congressional doctor after freezing

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      Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the US Senate, was given a clean bill of health by the congressional physician, a day after freezing in front of reporters for the second time in a month.In a short statement, the physician, Brian P Monahan, said he had consulted with McConnell and told him “he is medically clear to continue with his schedule as planned”.At the same time, however, it was reported that a “handful” of Republican senators were weighing an attempt to force the party to confront the issue of their 81-year-old leader’s uncertain health and ability to fulfill the role.In Covington, Kentucky, on Wednesday, McConnell appeared to freeze during questions from reporters. He was eventually escorted away. It followed a similar incident in Washington in July, at the US Capitol. McConnell then returned to resume the session, saying he had been “sandbagged” – a reference to a fall suffered by Joe Biden at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado in May.Four months previously, in March, McConnell fell himself, sustaining a concussion and a rib injury that kept him away from Congress. After his first freeze, other falls were reported.On Wednesday, a spokesperson for McConnell said the senator had felt lightheaded and would consult a doctor. On Thursday, Monahan said: “Occasional lightheadedness is not uncommon in concussion recovery and can also be expected as a result of dehydration.”But with the health of ageing politicians increasingly at issue in Washington – also over reports of Biden, 80, feeling “tired” and the California Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein appearing confused at 90 – McConnell’s health remains in the spotlight.Polling shows majorities of voters believe many politicians stay in their jobs too long. More than half support maximum age limits for elected officials.Frank Luntz, a leading Republican pollster, told CNN: “It’s one of the problems that we have with Washington, which is that there is a time to lead and a time to pass on the torch to another generation.”Calling the response by McConnell’s office to his Wednesday freeze “insufficient”, Luntz added: “I understand why the public is saying about some of these people – give somebody else the chance to do the job.”Three Johns – Thune of South Dakota, Cornyn of Texas and Barrasso of Wyoming – are in line to contest the Republican succession when McConnell does step down. All have avoided stoking speculation. Thune is 62, Cornyn and Barrasso both 71.On Wednesday, it was widely reported that McConnell had sought to reassure those three and other Republican senators about his fitness to lead to the end of his seventh six-year term, in 2026.A Thune aide told news outlets McConnell “sounded like himself and was in good spirits”. Jim Banks, a House Republican running for Senate in Indiana, posted a photo with McConnell, saying they “enjoyed a wide-ranging discussion” that evening. Banks told Axios: “He was engaging. Very dialed in on my race and following closely.”The next day, Politico reported the discussions among Republicans about whether to move to confront the issue of McConnell’s health. But the only senator who was quoted, speaking anonymously, predicted any attempt to move McConnell aside would fail, just as a direct challenge from Rick Scott of Florida failed conclusively last year.“If a handful goes down that path, it will be a rerun of the last time,” the unnamed senator was quoted as saying.Scott told CBS News: “I expect [McConnell will] continue to be the Republican leader through this term … We’ll have another election after the 2024 elections.”Elected in 1984, McConnell is the longest-serving party leader in Senate history, having taken charge of the minority in 2007. As majority leader, between 2015 and 2021, he presided over a radical reshaping of the federal judiciary, stocking lower courts with conservatives and installing three rightwingers on the supreme court.Memorably, McConnell described himself as “stronger than mule piss” in support of Brett Kavanaugh, the second of those supreme court justices whose confirmation was rocked by allegations of sexual assault.Despite McConnell’s long record as a ruthless political warrior, he has maintained at least superficially friendly relations with Joe Biden, who sat alongside him for 23 years as a senator from Delaware.On Thursday, Biden told reporters: “I spoke to him today. He was his old self on the telephone.”The president, who suffered two brain aneurysms in 1988, added: “It’s not at all unusual to have the response that sometimes happens to Mitch when you’ve had a severe concussion. It’s part of the recovery. I’m confident he’ll be back to his old self.” More

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      Mitch McConnell appears to freeze again for more than 30 seconds

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      The Republican leader in the US Senate, Mitch McConnell, experienced another public health scare on Wednesday when he appeared to freeze for more than 30 seconds while speaking to reporters in his home state, Kentucky.McConnell, 81, was eventually escorted away by staff, footage from an NBC News affiliate showed.Asked for his thoughts about running for re-election in 2026, McConnell laughed and said: “Oh, that’s a …” He then appeared to freeze.Coming to his side, an aide said: “Did you hear the question, senator? Running for re-election in 2026?”McConnell did not answer. The aide said, “All right, I’m sorry you all, we’re gonna need a minute.” Another aide exchanged quiet words with the senator, who said: “OK.” The first aide asked for another question, saying: “Please speak up.”The aide repeated questions loudly into McConnell’s ear. He gave quiet, halting answers.Told, “It’s a question about Trump,” McConnell said he would not comment on the presidential race “on the Democratic side or the Republican side”.The two aides then escorted McConnell away.The incident came a little more than a month after McConnell appeared to freeze while talking to reporters at the US Capitol in Washington.McConnell returned to answer questions then, saying he had been “sandbagged” – a reference to remarks by the 80-year-old president, Joe Biden, after he tripped and fell at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado in June.The Washington incident was followed by reports of McConnell suffering multiple falls, including one in March that left him with concussion and a rib fracture, keeping him away from Washington.Elected to the Senate in 1984, McConnell became Republican leader in 2006. Now the longest-serving Senate party leader in history, he has earned a reputation for ruthlessly partisan operations, memorably describing himself as “stronger than mule piss” when it came to stocking the supreme court with conservative justices.Aides have said McConnell will stay in his role as Republican leader until the end of his term, in 2026. Were he to vacate the role before that, his temporary replacement would be appointed by the governor of Kentucky. Andy Beshear is a Democrat but state law says he must pick from a shortlist named by the same party as the retiree. Democrats hold the Senate 51-49, with vulnerable senators up for re-election in Republican-run states next year.Public incidents involving McConnell and other ageing politicians, particularly the 90-year-old California Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein, have stoked growing public opinion that too many party leaders and grandees have put off retirement too long.Biden was 78 when he was inaugurated president, the oldest ever, and would be 86 at the end of his second term if he wins re-election next year. On Tuesday, the Guardian reported that a new book about Biden’s presidency, based on access to his trusted advisers, says Biden has often told aides he is tired.After the incident in Kentucky on Wednesday, the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said Biden, a senator from Delaware from 1973 to 2009, would wish McConnell well.Biden later told reporters he would try to get in touch with his “good friend” and would “wish him well”.A spokesperson for McConnell told reporters the senator had “felt momentarily lightheaded” and would consult a doctor before his next event.Dean Phillips, a Democratic congressman from Minnesota, said: “For goodness sake, the family, friends and staff of senators Feinstein and McConnell are doing them and our country a tremendous disservice. It’s time for term limits for Congress and the supreme court, and some basic human decency.” More

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      Trump should drop out of 2024 presidential race, says Republican

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      Donald Trump should drop out of the 2024 race for the White House because polling shows the former US president trailing Joe Biden as he grapples with more than 90 pending criminal charges, according to the Republican US senator Bill Cassidy.Cassidy’s comments to the State of the Union host, Kasie Hunt, on Sunday were not the first time he has denounced Trump. About two months earlier, he went on CNN and predicted that Trump would lose if his party nominated him to run for the Oval Office again, citing the poor performance of his endorsed candidates during the 2022 midterms.“Obviously, that’s up to him … but he will lose to Joe Biden, if you look at the current polls,” Cassidy said of his fellow Republican and the ex-president on State of the Union.The Louisiana senator added that it would do their party no good if Trump “ends up getting the nomination but cannot win a general [election]” against the Democratic incumbent Joe Biden.Alluding to a Republican presidential candidates’ debate scheduled Wednesday in Milwaukee that Trump intends to skip, Cassidy said: “I want one of them to win.” But he passed on an opportunity to single out any of the expected debate participants as someone he supported and assured he would vote for “a Republican” if Trump stayed in the race.A poll by CBS News on Sunday showed Trump at the moment enjoys 62% support among Republicans, with many of them trusting him more than they do their friends, family and religious leaders. But polling for now shows Biden generally is ahead of Trump, whose next closest rival for the Republican nomination – Florida governor Ron DeSantis – is culling just 16% support among his party’s voters.Trump has established his domination so far in the Republican presidential primary despite facing 91 criminal charges across four separate indictments filed against him for his alleged 2020 election subversion, illicit retention of classified documents and hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.On Sunday’s edition of State of the Union, Cassidy said to him it seemed like the classified documents case was “almost a slam dunk”.“I’m not an attorney,” said Cassidy, who is a gastroenterologist. But, while referring to an audio recording of Trump discussing military secrets that he had not declassified at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club in 2021, Cassidy remarked: “The mishandling of the federal documents … seems … a very strong case.“They have a tape recording of him speaking of it. If that is proven, then we may have a candidate for president who has been convicted of a crime. I think Joe Biden needs to be replaced, but I don’t think Americans will vote for someone who’s been convicted. So, I’m just very sorry about how all this is playing out.”Cassidy joined six other Senate Republicans who voted to convict the former president when Trump was impeached after his supporters staged the US Capitol attack on 6 January 2021.Trump had more than enough votes to be acquitted at his impeachment trial despite the lack of support from Cassidy, whom the former president has previously dismissed as a “Rino”, the acronym meaning “Republican in name only”.Cassidy is in his second six-year term in the Senate and is not up for re-election until 2026. More

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      Marjorie Taylor Greene floats Senate run but hopes to be Trump’s vice-president

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      The rightwing extremist Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has not made up her mind about running for Senate in Georgia – in part because she hopes to be Donald Trump’s vice-president.“I haven’t made up my mind whether I will do that or not,” Greene told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, about a rumoured challenge to the current governor, Brian Kemp, in a Georgia Senate primary in 2026.“I have a lot of things to think about. Am I going to be a part of President Trump’s cabinet if he wins? Is it possible that I’ll be VP?”Trump faces 91 criminal charges – 13 of them in Georgia, over attempted election subversion – but nonetheless dominates polling for the Republican presidential nomination, nationally and in key states.Despite a string of controversies over voicing conspiracy theories, aggressive behaviour towards Democrats and progressives and recent squabbling with her fellow House extremist Lauren Boebert, and despite being “kicked out” of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, Greene remains influential in Republican ranks, close to the speaker, Kevin McCarthy.She told the AJC she would consider it an “honour” to be picked as Trump’s running mate to take on Joe Biden and Kamala Harris next year.She would consider such an offer “very, very heavily”, she said.Trump has encouraged Greene to harbour higher ambitions, saying in March he would “fight like hell” for her if she ran for Senate.Kemp is reported to be considering a run for Senate in 2026. On Wednesday, Greene rebuked Kemp for his own rebuke of Trump.Earlier this week, Trump and 18 allies were indicted in Georgia on charges including racketeering and conspiracy, regarding the attempt to overturn Trump’s defeat by Biden.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionIn response, Kemp said: “The 2020 election in Georgia was not stolen. For nearly three years now, anyone with evidence of fraud has failed to come forward – under oath – and prove anything in a court of law.”Greene told the AJC: “His message should have been against this, not arguing with President Trump about the election and making it about his own ego and pride over Georgia’s election. That’s a bad statement, and I was very upset over it.”Trump did not immediately comment about Greene’s wish to be vice-president. More

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      ‘Unprecedented, stunning, disgusting’: Clarence Thomas condemned over billionaire gifts

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      Conservative US supreme court justice Clarence Thomas has been condemned for maintaining “unprecedented” and “shameless” links to rightwing benefactors, after ProPublica published new details of his acceptance of undeclared gifts including 38 vacations and expensive sports tickets.Pramila Jayapal, a Washington state Democrat and chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, rendered an especially damning verdict.“Unprecedented. Stunning. Disgusting. The height of hypocrisy to wear the robes of a [supreme court justice] and take undisclosed gifts from billionaires who benefit from your decisions. 38 free vacations. Yachts. Luxury mansions. Skyboxes at events. Resign,” she posted.From the Senate, Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Democratic judiciary committee chair, said: “The latest … revelation of unreported lavish gifts to Justice Clarence Thomas makes it clear: these are not merely ethical lapses. This is a shameless lifestyle underwritten for years by a gaggle of fawning billionaires.”The ProPublica report followed extensive previous reporting, by the non-profit and competitors including the New York Times, of undisclosed gifts to Thomas from a series of mega-rich donors.Supreme court justices are nominally subject to ethics rules for federal judges but in practice govern themselves.Durbin said Thomas and Samuel Alito, another arch-conservative justice who did not declare gifts, had “made it clear they’re oblivious to the embarrassment they’ve visited on the highest court in the land.“Now it’s up to Chief Justice [John] Roberts and the other justices to act on ethics reform to save their own reputations and the court’s integrity. If the court will not act, then Congress must continue to” do so.Roberts has rejected calls to testify, saying Congress cannot regulate his court. Durbin has advanced ethics reform but its chances are virtually nil, with Republicans opposed in the Senate and in control of the House.Thomas denies wrongdoing, claiming never to have discussed with his benefactors politics or business before the court and to have been wrongly advised about disclosure requirements. Nonetheless, condemnation was widespread.Adam Schiff, a House Democrat running for Senate in California, said: “The scope of Justice Thomas’ undisclosed receipt of luxury vacations from billionaires takes your breath away. As does this court’s arrogant disregard of the public. Every other federal court has an enforceable code of ethics – the supreme court needs the same.”Thomas joined the court in 1991, becoming the second Black justice in place of the first, Thurgood Marshall.Sherrilyn Ifill, former director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) legal fund, said Thomas had created “a crisis and we need to start treating it as such. Our profession, the Senate judiciary committee, newspaper editorial boards, and the chief [justice] will need to summon the courage needed to call for what, by now, should be the obvious next step.”Robert Reich, a former US labor secretary now a Berkeley professor and Guardian columnist, pointed to what that “next step” might be, saying Thomas “must resign or be impeached if [the supreme court] is going to retain any credibility”.Only one justice, Samuel Chase, has ever been impeached – in 1804-05. He was acquitted in the Senate. In 1969, the justice Abe Fortas resigned under threat of impeachment, over his acceptance of outside fees.Now, Republican control of the House renders impeachment vastly unlikely. Nor is Thomas likely to resign, particularly as Democrats hold the Senate, able to reduce conservative dominance of the court should a rightwinger vacate the bench.Nonetheless, calls for Thomas to go continued.Ted Lieu, a California congressman, said Thomas “has brought shame upon himself and the United States supreme court … no government official, elected or unelected, could ethically or legally accept gifts of that scale. He should resign immediately”.Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a campaign group, said: “If three times makes a pattern, what does 38 times make? We’ll tell you: the fact that Clarence Thomas has taken 38 luxury trips with billionaires without disclosing them means this kind of ethical lapse is part of his lifestyle. He needs to resign.” More