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      Georgia special grand jury recommended charges against Lindsey Graham and former senators – live

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      From 1h agoThe special grand jury investigating the attempt to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results recommended bringing charges against the state’s former senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler as well as the current South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham.None of the three were named in the indictment Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis unveiled last month, which targeted Donald Trump and 18 others with racketeering charges related to their attempt to stop Joe Biden from collecting Georgia’s electoral votes despite his victory there.According to the report, the jurors recommended the three senators be charged over “the national effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election”.All told, the special grand jurors in Georgia recommended charges against 39 people for trying to overturn the state’s elections, but Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis’s indictment only targeted 19 people, Donald Trump among them.Among those who were named in the report, but not charged:David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler were Georgia’s Republican senators, until both were ousted from office by the Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in elections held the day before the January 6 insurrection.The special grand jury in Fulton county recommended that Perdue be charged “over the persistent, repeated communications directed to multiple Georgia officials and employees between November of 2020 and January of 2021” – the period when Donald Trump was trying to overturn his election loss. The vote was 16 jurors in favor, one against, and one abstention.The jurors also recommended charges against both Loeffler and Perdue for “the national effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election”. However there was more dissent on this count. For Perdue, the vote was 17 in favor and four against, while for Loeffler, the vote was 14 in favor, 6 against, and one abstention.Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis ultimately did not indict either of the former lawmakers.Lindsey Graham’s name appeared early as Donald Trump’s attempts to stay in the White House began shortly after his re-election defeat in November 2020.Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger told the press that the South Carolina senator had called him to ask if it was possible to throw away mail-in ballots in counties crucial to Joe Biden’s win in Georgia. From the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino’s report at the time:
      Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, has said that Senator Lindsey Graham asked whether it was possible to invalidate legally cast ballots after Donald Trump was narrowly defeated in the state.
      In an interview with the Washington Post, Raffensperger said that his fellow Republican, the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, questioned him about the state’s signature-matching law and asked whether political bias might have played a role in counties where poll workers accepted higher rates of mismatched signatures. According to Raffensperger, Graham then asked whether he had the authority to toss out all mail-in ballots in these counties.
      Raffensperger was reportedly “stunned” by the question, in which Graham appeared to suggest that he find a way to throw out legally cast absentee ballots.
      “It sure looked like he was wanting to go down that road,” he said.
      Graham confirmed the conversation to reporters on Capitol Hill but said it was “ridiculous” to suggest that he pressured Raffensperger to throw out legally cast absentee ballots. According to Graham, he only wanted to learn more about the process for verifying signatures, because what happens in Georgia “affects the whole nation”.
      “I thought it was a good conversation,” Graham said on Monday after the interview was published. “I’m surprised to hear he characterized it that way.”
      Trump has refused to accept results showing Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election, falsely blaming rampant fraud and irregularities that election officials in both parties have dismissed as meritless.
      The special grand jury investigating the attempt to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results recommended bringing charges against the state’s former senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler as well as the current South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham.None of the three were named in the indictment Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis unveiled last month, which targeted Donald Trump and 18 others with racketeering charges related to their attempt to stop Joe Biden from collecting Georgia’s electoral votes despite his victory there.According to the report, the jurors recommended the three senators be charged over “the national effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election”.The full report of the special grand jury whose investigation led to the indictment of Donald Trump and 18 others for trying to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election result has been released.We’re digging into it and will let you know what it says.The special grand jury report that was used in the indictment of Donald Trump and 18 others in Georgia for trying to overturn the state’s 2020 election results is expected to be released any minute now.While parts of it have already been unsealed, we will finally be getting a look at the full report by the jurors empaneled by Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis. There are two main pieces of news expected from the report:
      Whether the grand jurors recommended charges be brought against people who Willis ultimately opted not to pursue.
      The vote counts for each person the jurors said should be indicted, and whether there were any significant splits within the panel.
      Yesterday, Ron DeSantis had a testy exchange with an audience member who accused the Republican governor of backing policies in Florida that enabled violence against Black people – such as last month’s shooting by a racist gunman in Jacksonville:Clearly smarting over the exchange, DeSantis later went on Fox News to call the questioner a “nutjob”:While Joe Biden is in India for a meeting of G20 leaders, Republicans angling to replace him next year are continuing their campaigns, including Ron DeSantis – who may have done himself more harm than good by skipping a meeting with the president after a hurricane struck Florida. Here’s the story, from the Guardian’s Richard Luscombe:One reality of Florida politics is that a bad hurricane for the state traditionally blows good fortune for its governor. It was true for Rick Scott, elected a senator in November 2018, one month after guiding Florida through Category 5 Hurricane Michael; and again for Ron DeSantis, whose landslide re-election last year followed his much-praised handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Ian.This year, however, DeSantis is struggling to shake the dark clouds of Hurricane Idalia, as his return to the national stage to try to rescue his flailing presidential campaign after an 11-day break has been further scarred by his “petty and small” snub of Joe Biden’s visit to Florida last weekend to survey the storm’s damage.Opponents seized on it as a partisan politicization of a climate disaster, contrasting the Republican Florida governor’s approach to a year ago after Ian, when DeSantis and Biden put their differences aside to praise each other and tour the worst-affected areas with their respective first ladies.“Your job as governor is to be the tour guide for the president, to make sure the president sees your people, sees the damage, sees the suffering, what’s going on and what needs to be done to rebuild it,” Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, and a rival for the Republican presidential nomination, told Fox News Radio’s Brian Kilmeade.“You’re doing your job. And unfortunately, he put politics ahead of his job,” added Christie, who was applauded by Democrats and savaged by Republicans for working closely with Barack Obama after superstorm Sandy mauled his state in 2012.The Twitter/X account of Joe Biden, who is currently flying on Air Force One to New Delhi for a summit of G20 nations, just released video showing him touring the renovated situation room.That’s the space in the White House where the president goes to handle emergencies or highly sensitive operations:Perhaps the most famous appearance of a president in the situation room is Barack Obama’s from 1 May 2011, as he watched US soldiers kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. His photographer Pete Souza captured the scene:Yesterday, Donald Trump indicated he may ask that his trial in the Georgia election subversion case be moved to federal court, which the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reported could have a number of advantages for the former president:Donald Trump’s lead defense lawyer notified a judge in Fulton county on Thursday that he could soon seek to remove to federal court the racketeering prosecution charging him with attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia.The unusual filing, submitted to the Fulton county superior court judge Scott McAfee, said only that the former president “may seek removal of his prosecution”, stopping short of submitting a formal motion to transfer the trial venue.Trump has been weighing for weeks whether to seek removal to federal court and, according to two people familiar with deliberations, is expected to make a decision based on whether his former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is successful in his own effort.The idea with waiting on a decision in the Meadows case, the people said, is to use him as a test. If Meadows is successful in transferring to federal court, the Trump legal team is intending to repurpose the same arguments and follow a similar strategy.To have the case moved to the US district court for the northern district of Georgia, Trump would have to show that the criminal conduct alleged in the indictment involved his official duties as president – he was acting “under color of office” – and cannot be prosecuted at the state level.The rationale to seek removal to federal court is seen as twofold: the jury pool would expand beyond just the Atlanta area – which skews heavily Democratic – and a federal judge might be less deferential to local prosecutors compared with judges in the Fulton county superior court.The Georgia special grand jury report that is expected to be released at 10am ET today could reveal whether the investigative panel thought anyone else besides Donald Trump and his 18 co-defendants should face charges for meddling in the state’s election result three years ago.Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis convened the panel and used its subpoena power to compel witness testimony, and portions of its final report have already been released. The special grand jury did not indict Trump – that was done by one of the regular grand juries she convened in August.Good morning, US politics live blog readers. It’s going to be another big Friday in one of the criminal cases against Donald Trump, while US president Joe Biden is in India for G20 and a crucial bilateral with the prime minister, Narendra Modi.Here’s some of what’s ahead:
      The report of the special grand jury in Georgia that investigated Trump in the election subversion case – where the now-former president attempted to overturn the 2020 election in the swing state – is expected to be unsealed today.
      Biden is due to touch down in New Delhi, India, in under two hours, a day before the start of the G20 summit there. He and Modi will hold a bilateral meeting shortly after the US president arrives. The specter of Russia’s war in Ukraine looms over the event.
      Speaking of criminal cases against former US presidents, on this day 49 years ago Republican president Gerald Ford granted a “full, free, and absolute pardon” to former president Richard Nixon covering his entire term in office, the AP notes.
      Trump will attend a rally tonight in South Dakota and the state’s rightwing governor Kristi Noem is expected to endorse his run for the 2024 Republican nomination for the White House. Noem is considered a vice-presidential hopeful. More

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

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

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      White House set for Hunter Biden battle as Republicans look to pounce

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      The White House is bracing for political trench warfare after prosecutors pursuing Joe Biden’s son on a gun possession charge said they would seek a criminal indictment by the end of September.The prospect of Hunter Biden standing trial is likely to energise Republicans preparing to launch an impeachment inquiry into the president even as Congress tries to avert a government shutdown.The White House has reportedly set up a “war room” of two dozen lawyers and aides to combat the Republican effort, partly by studying how Bill Clinton turned his 1998 impeachment to his political advantage.Long a political liability for his father, Hunter Biden bought a pistol in 2018 and allegedly lied on a federal form by stating he was not a drug user at the time. In a Wednesday court filing, the special counsel David Weiss said the government would seek a grand jury indictment before 29 September.The development followed the collapse of a plea deal under which Hunter Biden would have entered into a deferred prosecution agreement over the gun charge and pleaded guilty to tax charges too. The younger Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, insists the deal is still in effect.“We believe the signed and filed diversion agreement remains valid and prevents any additional charges from being filed against Mr Biden, who has been abiding by the conditions of release under that agreement for the last several weeks,” Lowell said.The case has become a political lightning rod. Republicans accused the justice department of concocting a “sweetheart deal” and raised the prospect of impeaching the president over unsubstantiated claims that he played a role in his son’s foreign business affairs during his time as vice-president.Hunter has been the target of congressional investigations since Republicans gained control of the House in January. Three committees are pursuing lines of inquiry. They have obtained thousands of pages of financial records from members of the Biden family through subpoenas to the treasury department and financial institutions.But Republicans have failed to produce evidence that Biden directly participated in his son’s work, though he sometimes had dinner with clients or greeted them on calls.Dan Goldman, a Democratic congressman from New York, told reporters gathered by the Congressional Integrity Project watchdog: “Yes, there are bank records, there are emails, there are text messages. So in that regard, the Republicans are correct. The Republicans are incorrect, however, in asserting that any of those documents provides a link to President Biden or demonstrates any kind of misconduct.”Goldman, who before running for office was lead counsel in the first impeachment of Donald Trump, added: “Whatever misconduct Hunter Biden may have done is being dealt with by the Department of Justice. But there is no evidence in any way, shape or form that links President Biden to anything that Hunter Biden was doing. And so here we are heading into a so-called impeachment inquiry based on fiction.”Although Senate Republicans have voiced scepticism, the momentum behind an impeachment inquiry in the House may prove unstoppable. The speaker, Kevin McCarthy, told Fox News recently: “If you look at all the information we have been able to gather so far, it is a natural step forward that you would have to go to an impeachment inquiry.”Trump – the clear frontrunner for the presidential nomination in 2024 despite facing 91 criminal charges in four jurisdictions and civil lawsuits too – is urging Republicans to move quickly. He told Real America’s Voice: “I don’t know actually how a Republican could not do it. I think a Republican would be primaried and lose immediately, no matter what district you’re in.”The White House is preparing for battle, its “war room” of lawyers, legislative aides, messaging experts and others ready to counter the Republican narrative. Their work includes studying past impeachments to help establish effective strategies.Clinton’s impeachment for perjury and obstruction of justice over his affair with Monica Lewinsky came to be seen by many voters as a case of Republican overreach. Clinton’s approval rating soared above 70%, the highest of his presidency. Biden’s rating is in the low 40s.An unnamed White House aide was quoted by NBC as saying: “Comparing this to past impeachments isn’t apples to apples, or even apples to oranges; it’s apples to elephants. Never in modern history has an impeachment been based on no evidence whatsoever.”An impeachment inquiry would be sure to enflame America’s bitter political divisions ahead of next year’s presidential election, a likely Biden-Trump rematch. Trump faces criminal and civil trials of his own.It would also collide with efforts to prevent a shutdown of the federal government. The House is scheduled to meet for just 11 days before the fiscal year ends on 30 September. Members are under pressure to come up with short-term funding to keep government offices functioning and provide emergency funding for Ukraine and disaster relief.McCarthy faces resistance from fellow Republicans, including far-right members who have threatened to shut the government unless they get the impeachment they crave. Marjorie Taylor Greene posted a video, declaring she “will not vote to fund the government” unless the House holds a vote to open an impeachment inquiry.Some have threatened to oust McCarthy if he stands in the way. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, admitted last week: “Honestly, it’s a pretty big mess.” More

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

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

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      Presidential libraries call for US unity amid ‘perilous’ state of democracy

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      Concern for US democracy amid deep national polarization has prompted the entities supporting 13 presidential libraries dating back to Herbert Hoover to call for a recommitment to principles including the rule of law and respecting diverse beliefs.In a statement, the first such public declaration, the libraries said Americans have a strong interest in supporting democratic movements and human rights around the world because “free societies elsewhere contribute to our own security and prosperity here at home”.“But that interest is undermined when others see our own house in disarray.”The message emphasized the need for compassion, tolerance and pluralism while urging Americans to respect democratic institutions and uphold secure and accessible elections. Noting that “debate and disagreement” are central to democracy, the libraries also alluded to the coarsening of dialogue in an era when officials and their families are receiving death threats.“Civility and respect in political discourse, whether in an election year or otherwise, are essential,” the statement said.Polls show many Republicans still believe the lie perpetuated by Donald Trump that the 2020 election was stolen. Trump has also lashed out at the justice system as he faces indictments in four criminal cases, including two related to his efforts to overturn his loss to Joe Biden.The libraries’ statement did not name individuals.“I think there’s great concern about the state of our democracy at this time,” said Mark Updegrove, president and chief executive of the LBJ Foundation, which supports the Lyndon B Johnson library in Austin, Texas.“We don’t have to go much farther than January 6” – when Trump supporters attacked Congress – “to realize that we are in a perilous state.”Efforts to suppress or weaken voter turnout were of special interest, Updegrove said, given Johnson considered the Voting Rights Act his “proudest legislative accomplishment”.The bipartisan statement was signed by the Hoover Presidential Foundation, the Roosevelt Institute, the Truman Library Institute, the John F Kennedy Library Foundation, the LBJ Foundation, the Richard Nixon Foundation, the Gerald R Ford Presidential Foundation, the Carter Center, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, the George & Barbara Bush Foundation, the Clinton Foundation, the George W Bush Presidential Center and the Obama Presidential Center.Those organizations all support libraries created under the Presidential Library Act of 1955, along with the Eisenhower Foundation. That group said it “respectfully declined to sign this statement … we have had no collective discussion about it, only an invitation to sign”. The foundation also said each presidential entity had its own programs related to democracy.The push for the statement was spearheaded by David Kramer, executive director of the George W Bush Institute. Kramer said the former president “did see and signed off on this statement”.He said the aim was to send “a positive message reminding us of who we are and also reminding us that when we are in disarray, when we’re at loggerheads, people overseas are also looking at us and wondering what’s going on”. He also said it was necessary to remind Americans that democracy cannot be taken for granted.Kramer said he hoped the statement would generate wide support, but added: “It’s hard to say whether it will or not in these polarized times.”Melissa Giller, chief marketing officer at the Ronald Reagan Foundation and Institute, said the statement represented “everything our center will stand for”.“We need to help put an end to the serious discord and division in our society,” Giller said. “America is experiencing a decline in trust, social cohesion and personal interaction.”Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Barack Obama now the chief executive of the Obama Foundation, said the former president supported the statement.Saying Obama has led a democracy forum and is planning another this year in Chicago, Jarrett added: “I think part of it is recognizing that we are very fragile … the wheels on our democracy bus feel a little wobbly right now.” More

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      Russian strike on crowded Ukraine market leaves at least 17 dead

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      A Russian strike has hit a crowded market in the Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka, killing at least 17 people, as the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, was in Kyiv for an unannounced visit, his first for a year to the Ukrainian capital.Ukrainian officials said a further 32 people were wounded in the attack, one of Russia’s deadliest attacks in months, 12 miles (20km) from the frontlines in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.Video of the aftermath showed fires raging in destroyed buildings and soldiers carrying body bags away from the scene. The Ukrainian prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said a child was among those killed.“A regular market. Shops. A pharmacy. People who did nothing wrong. Many wounded,” the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, wrote in a post on Telegram.He called the strike “a terrorist attack” and said in a later press conference that it reflected the situation on the battlefield. “Whenever there are any positive advances by Ukrainian defence forces in that direction, Russians always target civilian people and civilian objects.”Russia also targeted Kyiv with ballistic missiles in the hours prior to Blinken’s arrival, with loud booms audible in the Ukrainian capital shortly before 6am, as his train was approaching.“It was clearly meant as a greeting to Blinken,” Mykhailo Podolyak, a key adviser to Zelenskiy, told the Guardian. “Russia is constantly showing that it will not abide by any rules,” Podolyak added.He said Russia had used Iskander missiles in the Kyiv attack, which was thwarted by Ukrainian air defences. Falling debris damaged building but there were no casualties, officials said.Blinken met his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, in Kyiv and held discussions with Zelenskiy. The two-day visit will include an overnight stay in the Ukrainian capital.While Blinken was in Kyiv, the US announced a new package of military assistance, including $100m (£80m) in financing for Ukraine’s long-term requirements and $175m in arms and ammunition drawn from US stockpiles, which included depleted uranium shells for the US M1 Abrams tanks that are due to be delivered by the end of this year.Depleted uranium shells are effective in piercing armour, but concerns have been raised over the incidence of cancer and birth defects in areas where they have been used. Because they have not definitively been identified as the cause, they are not banned under international law.The arms package also included components for air defence systems, guided multiple launch rocket systems, 155mm artillery and 105mm artillery ammunition.“I’m here in large part at the behest of President Biden to reaffirm our commitment to stand with you – to stand with you to help ensure that you succeed militarily in dealing with the aggression, but also to stand with you to make sure that your efforts to build a strong economy and a strong democracy succeed,” Blinken said, in remarks before a meeting with Shmyhal.The visit comes shortly after Zelenskiy fired his defence minister, and as Ukraine’s military counteroffensive grinds on in the south-east of the country. On Wednesday Ukraine’s parliament approved the appointment of Rustem Umerov as the new defence minister. He replaces Oleksii Reznikov, who was sacked after a number of corruption scandals linked to the defence ministry. Reznikov is tipped to become ambassador to Britain.Umerov was tasked with negotiations with Russia in the early stages of the war, before heading the state property fund, Ukraine’s main privatisation agency. “He has an impeccable reputation, and all political circles respect him,” said Podolyak. “He’s a consensus candidate, which is important.”In a statement posted to Facebook, Umerov promised to do “everything possible and impossible” to bring about Ukraine’s victory, saying: “42 million Ukrainians stand behind every solider. Behind every soldier is a ministry that will do everything to protect and provide for all our people.”Unnamed western officials have criticised the speed and tactics of Ukraine’s counteroffensive, which has irritated Ukrainian officials. The offensive has proceeded more slowly than expected, partly due to the extensive fortifications and minefields that Russian forces have built to defend their lines.“I understand that the further away you are from the war, sitting in your office, the better you understand the war, and if you’re 10,000km away then it’s the best place to understand what is happening,” said Podolyak, in a sarcastic aside.He criticised western officials who saw the war as “arrows on a map” rather than in terms of human lives, but said in recent months there had been an increased understanding of the task Ukraine faced in pushing through Russian lines.One senior western official said in a briefing to journalists on Wednesday that Ukraine was making “incremental but methodical progress” on parts of the southern and eastern fronts but accepted it was “slower than expected a couple of months ago”.This was due to the heavier than expected minefield belt laid by the Russians on the frontline, at times forcing Ukrainian soldiers to dismount and “crawl on their bellies to get through”, meaning that the pace of advance has been at best a few hundred metres a day.An unnamed US official told Reuters that Blinken wanted to get a first-hand assessment of the counteroffensive during the trip.“What’s most important is that we get a real assessment from the Ukrainians themselves,” the official said. “We want to see, hear how they intend to push forward in the coming weeks.” More

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      Federal prosecutors seek new indictment against Hunter Biden

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      Federal prosecutors are seeking to bring a new indictment against Joe Biden’s son Hunter by the end of September, according to court documents filed on Wednesday.The exact charges the president’s son would face were not immediately clear, but he has been under investigation in Delaware on gun and tax charges.US attorney for Delaware David Weiss, newly named a special counsel in the case, referred to the new indictment in a status report required by Judge Maryellen Noreika.Defense attorneys have argued that an agreement sparing Hunter Biden from prosecution on a felony gun charge remains in place. It was part of a plea deal on misdemeanor tax offenses that fell apart during a court appearance in July. More

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      Democrats worried over Biden chances are ‘bedwetters’, ex-Obama adviser says

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      Democrats worried about Joe Biden’s re-election prospects are “fucking bedwetters” and should not worry so much, the former Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said.“Historically, we’re fucking bedwetters,” Messina told Politico. “We grew up in the 80s and 90s when Republicans won elections all the time. Democrats had their hearts deeply broken when Hillary [Clinton] lost [to Donald Trump in 2016] and people didn’t see that coming. And so, you know, we continually believe every bad thing people say.”Polling shows Trump is the clear leader in the Republican race to face Biden next year. Polling also shows Trump and Biden in a close race, and many more Americans are concerned about Biden, 80, being too old to be president, than about Trump, who is 77.Biden’s approval ratings remain stubbornly low, even regarding an economy most observers consider to be in good shape.Discussing “a new 22-slide presentation” that he shared with Politico, Messina said: “I thought it was important to say to my friends and clients and other people, ‘Let’s just take a step back and try to be really number-specific and really sort of who has what cards in their poker hand.“And you would just rather be Joe Biden than Donald Trump.’”Outlining Biden’s strengths, Messina cited the strong economy, the success of messaging about rightwing threats to abortion rights and the stark contrast between Biden, a centrist Democrat, and Trump, the leader of an extremist Republican party.“It’s a choice between two parties, two ideologies, between two people,” Messina said. “And that choice matters … People didn’t see the Democratic turnout in 2022 coming.”For Democrats, the 2022 midterms turned out better than expected, with Republicans in control of the House – setting up what is now a looming Biden impeachment – but only by a slim majority and with Democrats holding the Senate.Now 53, Messina worked in congressional politics before becoming chief of staff to Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign in 2008, defeating John McCain. Four years later, he managed Obama’s re-election victory over Mitt Romney.Messina has worked in other countries, including as a consultant to the Conservative party in the UK, helping David Cameron win an outright majority in the general election of 2015. He was less successful in 2017, when Theresa May was returned as prime minister but without a parliamentary majority.Speaking to Politico, Messina identified one major threat to Biden in a second presidential election against Trump: third-party candidates.“I don’t care what they do,” Messina said of efforts such as that mounted by No Labels, a big-money group threatening to run a centrist third-party pick, names in the frame including the Democratic West Virginia senator Joe Manchin and Larry Hogan, a former Republican Maryland governor.“I don’t care how much money they spend. I don’t care who their nominee is. They’re going to get zero electoral votes. The question is who do they take the votes from?“You just can’t split away votes if you want to beat Donald Trump. And I just cannot overstate how crucial it is to make sure that we don’t create a vehicle that takes enough votes up to elect Donald Trump.” More