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      ‘Rigged’: Trump attacks judge and courts in first post-conviction rally

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      In his first campaign rally after being convicted of 34 felonies, former president Donald Trump recalled how he just went through a “rigged” trial with a “highly conflicted” judge despite there being “no crime”.The court cases Trump faces have become a mainstay of his campaigning throughout the last year, where he frequently tells his followers that the charges are a form of election interference and designed to tamp down the Maga movement.“Those appellate courts have to step up and straighten things out, or we’re not going to have a country any longer,” he said.Trump spoke at a Turning Point Action event in sweltering Phoenix, at Dream City church, a megachurch where he and Turning Point have held rallies in the past. The extreme heat led to some waiting outside for the venue to open to need medical attention for heatstroke.Trump held a rally at the same church in 2020, during the height of the pandemic, when church leaders claimed to have an air-purification system that killed 99% of the Covid-19 virus. Turning Point Action is the campaign arm of Turning Point, the conservative youth group founded by Charlie Kirk, a figure in the Maga movement.The former president also took aim at Joe Biden’s recent executive order limiting asylum seekers, which Trump called “bullshit” and said he would rescind on his first day in office, should he win. He condemned Biden on immigration and ran down Trump administration border policies, saying his Democratic rival could solve immigration problems by reinstating all of his old policies.“Arizona is being turned into a dumping ground for the dungeons of the third world,” Trump said.While immigration is a top issue for voters nationwide, it is especially acute in a border state like Arizona, which Trump hit on in his speech. He wistfully recalled the days of former Maricopa county sheriff Joe Arpaio, infamous for his strict immigration policies that led to frequent lawsuits and financial settlements, and brought Arpaio on stage for impromptu remarks.Trump kissed Arpaio on the cheek, then said: “I don’t kiss men, but I kissed him. We had a real border with this guy.” Arpaio called Trump his hero.Arizona is a key battleground this year, as Trump tries to win back the once solidly red south-western state from Biden, who beat him by about 10,500 votes. Election denialism has gripped the state for years – some Republicans who lost their races in 2022 midterms still have not conceded and have filed lawsuits to try to reverse the results.The Democratic National Committee put up a billboard in Phoenix on Thursday that is the first paid ad from the party to focus on the former president’s convictions, Meidas Touch News reported. The ad says: “Trump already attacked Arizona’s democracy once. Now he’s back as a convicted felon. He’s out for revenge and retribution. Trump: unfit to serve.”For the Trump faithful, the convictions have become a point of ire against the other side and something akin to pride. Shirts and signs at the Phoenix rally said “I’m voting for the convicted felon”.View image in fullscreenTrump repeated claims of a stolen election, saying the Democrats “used Covid to cheat” in 2020. He welcomed Kari Lake, the losing gubernatorial candidate in 2022 who is now running for Senate, and Abe Hamadeh, the losing attorney general candidate now running for Congress, claiming that they won their races but their elections were rigged.He directed people to a “Swamp the Vote” website after talking about how certain groups need to vote more consistently, such as gun owners and evangelicals. The site, paid for by the Republican National Committee, includes links for people to register and pledge to vote. “Do your part to guarantee we win by more than the Margin of Fraud by casting your vote and taking responsibility for ensuring every Republican and Trump voter in your household casts theirs too,” the site says.The end of the campaign event included a Q&A with audience members, who asked about border issues, drugs and cost-of-living issues. He said he would “get rid of inflation” in part by drilling to bring energy prices down. Cost-of-living concerns come up with voters frequently, Trump said; he used a regular-size container of Tic Tacs beside a mini version to demonstrate the effects of inflation.“People that made the same amount of money live half as well because the inflation is so high,” he said, adding that inflation is a “country-buster”.Trump’s answers often implored his supporters to vote him back in to solve whatever issue they were facing, though they were scant on details. How would he help restore access to healthcare in rural areas in Arizona, where the nearest hospital can be more than an hour away? He’ll handle it, because rural America loves him, he said.One woman who said she works with senior citizens who struggle to pay their bills and must choose between food or medication asked Trump what he would tell them.“Vote for Trump,” he responded. More

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      D-day: Biden calls for supporting Ukraine in struggle against ‘dark forces’

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      Joe Biden has marked the 80th anniversary of the D-day landings in Normandy with an impassioned call to western allies to continue supporting Ukraine in the face of the “unending struggle between dictatorship and freedom”.Speaking on Thursday at a ceremony at the Normandy American cemetery attended by his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, and dozens of surviving veterans from the second world war, Biden drew parallels between the Allied troops who fought to free Europe and the alliance of nations that came together to defend Ukraine against Russian aggression.The president warned that democracy was under great threat than at any time since the end of second world war. Describing Vladimir Putin as a “tyrant bent on domination”, Biden said the Russian leader and “the autocrats of the world are watching closely to see what happens in Ukraine, to see if we let this illegal aggression go unchecked.“To surrender to bullies, to bow to dictators, is simply unthinkable,” Biden said. “If we do, Ukraine will be subjugated and it will not end there, Ukraine’s neighbours will be threatened, all of Europe will be threatened.”Biden honoured the American second world war veterans who, alongside allied soldiers, stormed the beaches of Normandy to drive out the forces of Nazi Germany.“We know the dark forces that these heroes fought against 80 years ago. They never fade,” he said.This D-day milestone carried particular significance as it was likely the last major ceremony attended by significant numbers of veterans, many of whom are aged 100 or more.“On behalf of the American people and as commander-in-chief, it’s the highest honour to be able to salute you here in Normandy,” Biden told them.Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden, greeted the veterans one by one and thanked them for their service. During the ceremony, Macron bestowed the Legion of Honour, France’s highest award of merit, to 11 American veterans and one from Britain in recognition of their sacrifice. The ceremony was attended by more than 150 members of Congress and dozens of members of the French parliament.On Wednesday, Biden arrived in Paris for the start of a five-day visit in France, during which he will underscore the US’s steadfast commitment to European security and contrast his foreign policy vision with his 2024 election opponent, Donald Trump.“Isolationism was not the answer 80 years ago and is not the answer today,” Biden said, in a veiled reference to Trump’s American First doctrine. “Real alliances make us stronger, a lesson that I pray we Americans never forget.”While in Normandy, Biden will hold talks with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to discuss “how we can continue and deepen our support for Ukraine”, the White House said. Biden is also expected to visit a cemetery where American soldiers who died in the first world war are buried. Trump opted not to visit the same site during a 2018 trip to France, citing bad weather, a move that drew intense criticism at the time.More than 25 heads of state are attending D-day commemorations in Normandy, including the Ukrainian president, Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz, and Britain’s prime minister Rishi Sunak and members of the royal family, as part of Europe is in the grip of the largest war since 1945. Russia will not be represented at Thursday’s ceremonies. More

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      Why are Democrats blindly embracing Netanyahu? | Jo-Ann Mort

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      When Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, feels squeezed at home – and trapped by a Democratic White House – he turns to his most trusted consigliere, Ron Dermer, to fix things. Dermer, an American-born Israeli who functions like a Republican party operative, is the Bibi whisperer on Capitol Hill. His official title in the Netanyahu government is minister of strategic affairs. In practice, he is a Republican fixer.During a previous US administration, Dermer was the one who worked with the then Republican House speaker, John Boehner, to have his boss address a joint session of Congress, infuriating Barack Obama and his then vice-president, Joe Biden, by going behind their backs. That time it was to try to derail the Obama-initiated Iran nuclear agreement.This time, Dermer has schemed with the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, to invite Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress before the end of this summer session. Once Johnson accepted this idea, both Chuck Schumer, Senate majority leader, and Hakeem Jeffries, House minority leader, felt obliged to fall in line, even after Schumer gave a well-publicized speech on the Senate floor calling for new elections in Israel. Their agreeing to the Republican ploy was a mistake, but it can be rectified.The Republicans are convinced that Israel is a wedge issue, and that Jewish voters who traditionally vote Democratic will turn on the Biden-Harris ticket if the president – the most supportive president that Israel has had perhaps since Harry Truman – appear to be “anti-Israel”. So, they keep trying to weaponize Israel. But today, especially in the current Israeli political climate, there is a profound difference between being pro-Netanyahu and pro-Israel. That same difference is matched among American voters, both Jewish and non-Jewish.Amir Tibon wrote about Congress’s invitation recently in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, where he is a diplomatic correspondent. If the invite goes through, Tibon wrote: “It will be made possible thanks to the weakness and shallowness of certain Democratic politicians who have no real understanding of Israeli politics and society, and mistakenly think it is ‘pro-Israel’ to cooperate with Netanyahu – a man despised by at least half of his country.” (Tibon himself was rescued from Hamas attackers on 7 October not by the IDF or any action of the Netanyahu government, but by his father, a retired army officer who drove on his own to save the lives of his son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren.)Support for Israel is not synonymous with support for Netanyahu; to the contrary, the majority of Jewish Americans don’t vote on blind support for Israel. Dermer, especially, knows this. For years, he has been counseling Netanyahu and others who will listen that Israeli rightwing leaders should strengthen a bloc of support in the US composed of conservative and evangelical Christian voters.Dermer knows that Jewish voters continue to be among the most loyal Democratic voters. They won’t fall in line behind far-right Israeli policies. An April 2024 Pew study found that “about seven-in-10 Jewish voters (69%) associate with the Democratic party, while 29% affiliate with the Republican party. The share of Jewish voters who align with the Democrats has increased 8 percentage points since 2020.” The same poll found that Jewish Republicans are about twice as likely as Democratic-identifying Jews to say they have a favorable view of the current Israeli government (85% v 41%).Moreover, 53% of Jewish Americans ages 50 and older said Biden was striking the right balance in his handling of the war. Younger Jews, like other younger voters, are less enthusiastic about Biden’s policies – but that isn’t because they are swinging Republican.Netanyahu is a profoundly weak leader right now. Every Israeli poll since the 7 October attack against Israel and the ensuing war between Israel and Hamas has shown the Netanyahu government losing its governing majority and Netanyahu without majority support for his own leadership. And Israelis poll all the time, usually one or more polls a week.There are growing calls inside Israel for a ceasefire and an agreement with Hamas that will stop the war and bring home the remaining hostages. No current member of the governing coalition can appear in good faith before an Israeli hostage family. Nor have most of them even reached out to the hostage families. Meanwhile, Biden, the White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, and numerous other Biden officials have met multiple times with hostage family members.Netanyahu himself is so weak inside his own coalition that Biden rightly chose to try to force Netanyahu’s hand on the latest Israeli proposal from Israel to Hamas, by announcing it himself – and announcing it when the Israeli government would be caught off guard during the Jewish Sabbath. Biden knew full well that the extreme rightists in the Netanyahu government would try to knock the proposal out of the running. That’s what is happening right now.Ideally, liberal or progressive members of Congress who do support Israel can find plenty of ways to show their support without being part of a staged show produced by Netanyahu, Dermer and Johnson. Those members of Congress who truly care about Israel, at the very least, must agree that before Netanyahu speaks at Congress, he has to wholeheartedly accepted the Biden-announced proposal for an agreement with Hamas, that was, after all, already endorsed by the Netanyahu government.Better yet just say no. So far, Senator Bernie Sanders has said he’ll skip the speech. That’s not surprising. But, Jan Schakowsky, the Illinois congresswoman who has significant liberal Jewish support, has also said she won’t attend. It’s anticipated that more Jewish and non-Jewish members will find other things to do that day (the date is now in flux due to the congressional calendar). That’s good. Back in 2015, 50 Democratic house members and eight senators skipped the Netanyahu speech. It would be important to raise these numbers this time.Blind embrace of a leader who is profoundly unpopular in his own country and who has repeatedly attacked the current US government and US foreign policy is a cynical use of the congressional stage. It must not be rewarded.
      Jo-Ann Mort is co-author of Our Hearts Invented a Place: Can Kibbutzim Survive in Today’s Israel? She writes frequently about Israel for US, UK and Israeli publications More

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      Putin says Trump conviction ‘burns’ idea of US as leading democracy

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      Vladimir Putin has described the recent criminal conviction of Donald Trump as politically motivated and claimed that it had “burned” the idea that the US was a leading democracy.Trump last week became the first former US head of state ever convicted of a felony crime after a New York jury found him guilty of 34 charges over efforts to conceal a sexual liaison with an adult film actor, Stormy Daniels, in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.In a press conference on Wednesday, Putin said: “It is obvious all over the world that the prosecution of Trump – especially in court on charges that were formed on the basis of events that happened years ago, without direct proof – is simply using the judicial system in an internal political struggle.”“Their supposed leadership in the sphere of democracy is being burned to the ground,” Putin said.Putin has previously described the four separate criminal cases against Trump as “political persecution”.His comments echoed Trump’s own response to the conviction. The former president has repeatedly attacked the criminal justice system and claimed, without evidence, that the verdict was orchestrated by Joe Biden.Speaking earlier this week, the former White House Russia specialist Fiona Hill warned that Putin was likely to see Trump’s conviction as a chance to undermine the US’s global influence and boost his own standing.“What mischief does he have to make when you have people within the American system itself denigrating it and pulling it down?” Hill, a former senior adviser to three US presidents – including Trump – said to AP.Putin, she said, was probably “rubbing his hands with glee” at Trump’s attacks on the US criminal justice system.In his 25-year rule, Putin has repeatedly used the Russian court system to impose long prison terms to crack down on dissent and expand political control, transforming the country from once tolerating some dissent to ruthlessly suppressing it. The Russian rights group OVD-Info estimates that more than 1,000 people are currently behind bars on politically motivated charges.Earlier this year, Putin said he would prefer to see Biden re-elected in remarks that were met with skepticism by many Russia watchers who believe his intention may be to use his notoriety to boost Trump. Trump, on his part, has frequently voiced admiration for the Russian leader.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“Basically, we don’t care,” Putin said when asked what this year’s US elections would mean for relations with Moscow. “We will work with any president the American people elect.” He added that he “never had any special ties with Mr Trump”.Trump and Putin have been entangled on the world stage for nearly a decade amid warnings of Russian interference in US elections. Moscow was accused of meddling in the 2016 election with the aim of boosting Trump and damaging Hillary Clinton’s candidacy.A 2019 special counsel investigation of Russian election interference and links between Trump and Moscow ended with multiple indictments and extensive evidence of attempted obstruction by Trump, but no proof of collusion.Last month, Trump boasted that he would quickly free the jailed US journalist Evan Gershkovich from Russia if he wins the election. Putin “will do that for me, but not for anyone else”, he wrote on his Truth Social platform, prompting fresh allegations of collusion. The Kremlin, in turn, denied discussing the case with Trump.“There aren’t any contacts with Donald Trump,” the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters. More

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      Andy Kim wins Democratic primary in race for Bob Menendez’s Senate seat

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      Democratic congressman Andy Kim has won New Jersey’s Senate primary, putting him in strong position for the general election in the blue-leaning state, though the win comes a day after Democratic senator Bob Menendez filed to run as an independent amid his federal corruption trial.Menendez, who has denied allegations that he accepted bribes to promote the interests of the Egyptian government, has chosen not to seek the Democratic Senate nomination. Kim’s win comes after a bruising battle that led New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy to withdraw from the race in March.But Menendez has not opted out of the Senate race entirely, as he officially filed for re-election as an independent candidate on Monday, allowing him to continue raising money, which can be used to help cover his hefty legal bills, but his chances of victory in November appear non-existent. According to a poll conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson University last month, Menendez is only attracting 6% or 7% of the vote in hypothetical general election match-ups.In the Republican Senate contest, hotelier Curtis Bashaw defeated Mendham Borough mayor Christine Serrano Glassner.Bashaw centered his campaign in part on ending “one-party monopoly” in New Jersey, where state government is led entirely by Democrats, and on sending a conservative to Washington. It’s unclear whether that message will resonate with general election voters, who have not elected a Republican to the Senate in more than five decades. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by about 1 million in New Jersey.Menendez’s legal troubles have also jeopardized the political future of his son, freshman congressman Rob Menendez. Hoboken’s mayor, Ravi Bhalla, has launched a primary challenge against Rob Menendez in New Jersey’s eighth congressional district, and the two candidates have nearly matched each other in fundraising hauls. Though Rob Menendez has not been implicated in his father’s alleged crimes, Bhalla has focused his campaign messaging on the need to crack down on corruption and to “return power to the people”. The winner of the primary is overwhelmingly favored to win the general election in November, as the Cook Political Report rates the district as solidly Democratic.New Jersey voters were also picking House candidates, with some of the most closely watched races having some tie to Menendez.In the eighth district, US representative Rob Menendez, the son of Senator Menendez, won his Democratic primary over Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla.Rob Menendez said Bhalla’s heavy focus on his father showed he was afraid to take on the representative directly.Menendez, an attorney and former Port Authority of New York and New Jersey commissioner, first won election in northern New Jersey’s eighth district in 2022, succeeding Albio Sires.He has been a lonely voice of support for his father amid his legal woes.The eighth district includes parts of Elizabeth, Jersey City and Newark.In the third district, Assemblyman Herb Conaway won the Democratic primary to succeed Kim.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionBeyond New Jersey, four other states – Iowa, Montana, New Mexico and South Dakota – and Washington DC have primary elections on Tuesday. In Iowa, two House Republicans – Mariannette Miller-Meeks in the first district and Randy Feenstra in the fourth district – have drawn primary challenges. Feenstra’s district is viewed as safely Republican in the general election, but the Cook Political Report rates Miller-Meeks’ seat as likely Republican, creating a potential opportunity for Democrats in November.In Montana, the Republican governor, Greg Gianforte, faces a primary challenger, and the winner of that race will likely compete against first-time Democratic candidate Ryan Busse, a former firearms executive turned gun industry critic, in November. But Busse will face an uphill battle in the gubernatorial race, as Donald Trump won Montana by 16 points in 2020.Despite Montana’s Republican leanings, Democratic incumbent Jon Tester is keeping the Senate race close as he seeks a fourth term. In the general election, Tester will likely compete against Republican Tim Sheehy, a businessman and former Navy Seal who is widely expected to win his party’s Senate nomination on Tuesday.New Mexico’s incumbent Democratic senator, Martin Heinrich, is running unopposed in his primary, and he will go on to face off against Republican Nella Domenici, former chief financial officer of the hedge fund Bridgewater Associates. The Cook Political Report rates New Mexico’s Senate race as solidly Democratic, but one of the state’s House races is viewed as among the most competitive in the nation. Freshman Democratic congressman Gabe Vazquez will have a rematch against former Republican congresswoman Yvette Herrell in New Mexico’s second congressional district, after he defeated the then incumbent by less than one point in 2022. Both Vazquez and Herrell are running unopposed in their primaries, so they are already gearing up for the general election.While much attention will be paid to congressional primaries on Tuesday, all five voting states and Washington DC will simultaneously hold their presidential primaries as well. Biden and Trump have already secured enough delegates to lock up their parties’ nominations, but the results on Tuesday will offer some of the first insight into Republican primary voters’ views following the former president’s felony conviction in New York last week.Although former UN ambassador Nikki Haley dropped out of the Republican presidential primary in March, she has continued to win support in recent contests. In Maryland’s Republican presidential primary last month, Haley won nearly 23% of the vote. Leaders of both parties will be watching closely to see how Haley’s vote share might rise – or fall – after Trump’s conviction, and her performance could offer significant clues about the electorate heading into the general election.Associated Press contributed to this report More

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      Merrick Garland hits back at Trump and Republicans: ‘I will not be intimidated’

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      US attorney general Merrick Garland has defended his stewardship of the justice department in a combative display on Capitol Hill that saw him accusing Republicans of attacking the rule of law while telling them he “will not be intimidated.”Testifying before the House judiciary committee, Garland accused GOP congressmen of engaging in conspiracy theories and peddling false narratives.“I will not be intimidated,” Garland told lawmakers. “And the justice department will not be intimidated. We will continue to do our jobs free from political influence. And we will not back down from defending our democracy.”Garland’s fiery speech pushed back hard on the claim that the prosecution of Donald Trump – in the hush-money case that last week resulted in the president being convicted of 34 felony charges – was “somehow controlled by the justice department”.He described Republican attacks on the justice department under his watch as “unprecedented and unfounded”, vowing not to allow them to influence his decision-making.Garland also upbraided Trump for claiming the FBI had been “authorized to shoot him” dead when they raided his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida to retrieve classified documents in 2022.“This is dangerous,” Garland told the committee. “It raises the threats of violence against prosecutors and career agents. The allegation is false.”Garland, 71, is currently overseeing special prosecutor Jack Smith’s investigations into Trump, and a prosecution of Joe Biden’s son Hunter. He was summoned to testify amid Republican assertions that the justice department had been “weaponised” against the former president, a claim Trump has stoked.His appearance came as he faces the likelihood of being held in contempt of congress for declining to hand over audio recordings of an interview between another special prosecutor, Robert Hur. Hur was appointed by Garland to investigate Joe Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified documents, an offence similar to some of those for which Trump is being investigated.Hur concluded that Biden had committed no crime but raised questions about Biden’s age and allegedly poor memory.Referring to Republican threats to hold him in contempt, Garland said: “I view contempt as a serious matter. But I will not jeopardize the ability of our prosecutors and agents to do their jobs effectively in future investigations.”A full transcript of Biden’s interview with Hur was made public. But the White House rejected Republican demands for the audio to be released, arguing that it served no useful purpose other than to enable the president’s opponents to splice the recording to make him appear confused, perhaps by emphasizing his stammer.Garland said releasing the audio could have the effect of deterring future witnesses from cooperating in justice department investigations if they thought their words might be made public.In his opening statement, he said the Republicans were “seeking contempt as a means of obtaining – for no legitimate purpose – sensitive law enforcement information that could harm the integrity of future investigations”.“This effort is only the most recent in a long line of attacks on the justice department’s work,” he added.The committee chairman, Jim Jordan – a rightwinger Republican from Ohio – set the tone for the hearing, saying: “Justice is no longer blind in America. Today it’s driven by politics. Example number one is President Trump.”Matt Gaetz, another hard-right Republican from Florida, accused Garland of dispatching a former justice department official, Matthew Colangelo, to Manhattan, where he now serves as assistant district attorney and helped prepare the case against Trump.Garland replied: “That is false. I did not dispatch Colangelo.” More

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      Benjamin Netanyahu set to address joint session of US Congress for fourth time

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      Benjamin Netanyahu is set to become the first foreign leader to address a joint session of the US Congress four times, despite deep differences with the Biden administration.The Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement that a date for his address to Congress had yet to be set, but that it would not take place on 13 June as had been reported, due to a Jewish holiday.The formal invitation came from congressional leaders of both parties within hours of Joe Biden’s disclosure of the terms of a new peace proposal for Gaza endorsed by Israel. Over the weekend, however, Netanyahu played down the significance of any Israeli concessions in the new plan, and insisted that any proposal for a lasting ceasefire without the destruction of Hamas as a military and governing force would be a “non-starter”.He also has suggested that Israel was under obligation only to carry out the first of the peace plan’s three phases, which may increase Hamas’s reservations of a deal. The White House says it is waiting for an official response from Hamas on the proposal.Netanyahu had earlier defied Biden by adamantly opposing any steps towards the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, and by pressing ahead with an offensive on the southernmost Gazan city of Rafah, despite repeated appeals not to from the Biden administration.Before this month’s scheduled appearance, Netanyahu was the only foreign leader apart from Winston Churchill to be accorded the honour of an address to a joint sitting of Congress three times. With his fourth address, he will outdo even Churchill in the record books.The invitation to Congress is a reminder than while Biden is seeking to influence Israeli politics to forge a peace agreement for Gaza and a broader long-term settlement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Netanyahu also has the means to sway US politics – and possibly hurt Biden’s re-election chances if he were to accuse the president of being insufficiently supportive.Netanyahu used an address to Congress in 2015 to speak out against the efforts of then President Barack Obama to reach an agreement with Tehran on Iran’s nuclear programme. The Israeli prime minister was highly critical of Biden last month when the president stopped a delivery of heavy bombs to Israel forces. More

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      Republican governors gather to attack Biden’s climate agenda

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      Republican governors gathered in the fossil-fuel rich state of Louisiana on Monday to rail against the Biden administration’s climate agenda and lay out plans to “unleash American energy”, alarming community advocates and climate experts.“President Biden has done nothing but attack American energy,” said the Louisiana governor Jeff Landry, who led the Wednesday press conference.Landry was joined by by Republican governors from Alaska, Georgia, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Virginia.Hours before the presser, the group sent a joint letter to Biden requesting pro fossil-fuel rules and regulations, including an “end [to] regulatory overreach that unnecessarily restricts domestic energy production”, speeding the approval of federal drilling permits, and ending the pause on new liquefied natural gas export licenses. The letter does not mention that US oil and gas production has soared under President Biden, reaching record levels in 2023.The meeting was held at the Chalmette oil refinery, which a September Environmental Protection Agency report found was out of compliance with federal benzene regulations. In 2020, fires at the facility caused releases of sulphur dioxide, sending foul odors across the region.The event was convened by the Republican Governors Public Policy Committee, which, documents show, has accepted funding from the US’s largest fossil-fuel trade organization, the American Petroleum Institute.The group is the policy arm of the corporate-backed Republican Governors Association (RGA), the main campaign arm tasked with electing Republican executives across the country, which has taken funding from Chevron, Exxon, Koch Industries and other fossil-fuel companies, and also has financial links to Leonard Leo, a key figure behind the conservative effort to move the judiciary to the right.At the press conference, the governors said pro-fossil fuel policies would benefit ordinary Americans. Governor Mike Dunleavy of Alaska said: “What we’re talking about here is … developing an energy policy for the single mom with three kids.”And Louisiana’s Landry said that “if the federal government took its foot off of the neck of American energy, we could absolutely lower the costs of everyday goods” – suggesting boosting oil and gas would lower inflation.But experts say boosting extraction in the US would not depress gas prices because fuel prices are set globally.Fossil fuel expansion would also be a “death sentence” for frontline communities worst affected by toxic industrial pollution, said the environmental justice activist Sharon Lavigne.“He is not for human lives,” Lavigne, who founded the local grassroots organization Rise St James, said of Landry.Since taking office earlier this year, Landry has appointed oil, gas and coal executives to Louisiana’s environmental posts, while targeting the state’s climate taskforce for possible elimination as part of a broader reorganization plan. He has repeatedly claimed to be fighting for “energy independence” – a term he repeated on Monday. Yet the US remains net exporter of oil and gas, meaning the nation already produces more energy than it consumes.Jackson Voss, who works on climate policy for the Louisiana-based environmental group Alliance for Affordable Energy, also noted the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries contribute more to toxic air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions than any other industry in Louisiana. The state also brings in less than 10% of its revenue from oil and gas.“Oil and gas benefits a great deal from Louisiana, through subsidies, through deregulation, through its attorney general challenging national policy,” he said. “But in terms of the benefits of getting back to Louisiana? I’d say they’re fairly minimal.” More