Category Archives: Joe Biden

Joe Biden says mass shootings plague the US ‘every damn day’ – as it happened

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President makes speech in Connecticut at summit marking passage of tougher gun control law last year

The Minneapolis police force use excessive force and discriminate against marginalized groups, including Black and Native Americans and people with behavioral issues, attorney general Merrick Garland said as he announced the findings of the justice department’s investigation following George Floyd’s death.

“We found that MPD … engages in a pattern or practice of using excessive force, unlawfully discriminating against Black and Native American people in enforcement activities, violating the rights of people engaged in protected speech and discriminating against people with behavioral disabilities and … when responding to them in crisis,” Garland said.

The city council approved the court-enforceable agreement on Friday on an 11-0 vote, but not before several members expressed harsh criticism of the Minneapolis police department and other city leaders over the years.

“The lack of political will to take responsibility for MPD is why we are in this position today,” council member Robin Wonsley said.

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Donald Trump indictment: Merrick Garland defends special prosecutor Jack Smith in first comments on charges – live

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US attorney general praises Smith’s independence and accountability; Republican senators step up threats over Trump charges

Joe Biden has refused to publicly comment on the federal charges leveled against his predecessor Donald Trump over allegedly hoarding government documents from his time in the White House, and Politico reports the president has also instructed Democratic party offices to do the same.

While many top Democratic lawmakers have condemned the allegations against Trump, neither Biden nor top officials at the White House or his re-election campaign have spoken out about the indictment and his arraignment in Miami yesterday. Politico reports that some Democrats – none of whom would allow their names to be used – believe the strategy is a missed opportunity to cast Trump as reckless and boost Biden’s re-election chances.

Biden has privately told aides that he is disgusted by Trump’s behavior but is adhering to his promise that the Department of Justice would have independence from the White House. The DNC, meanwhile, has advised members of Congress seeking guidance on what to say that they should not comment on the Trump probes if they are speaking publicly in their role as Biden campaign surrogates.

While Biden has framed his stance as in line with longstanding tradition, it is not uncommon for presidents to occasionally weigh in on ongoing criminal investigations. Biden has at times done so himself – including weighing in before the verdict was announced in the 2021 trial of the white Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd.

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Donald Trump arrives in Florida on eve of arraignment; Miami police say they can handle crowds of up to 50,000 – live

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Former US president lands in Miami ahead of court appearance on Tuesday; Miami officials detailed security measures in press briefing

The White House said Joe Biden will not be under anesthesia during his root canal today, meaning the 25th amendment won’t be invoked.

Ratified in 1967, the amendment is one of the most recent additions to the constitution, and outlines the procedure for the vice-president to temporarily assume the president’s duties at the chief executive’s request. In November 2021, Biden used its authority to hand power to Kamala Harris while he underwent a colonoscopy.

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Donald Trump kept boxes with US nuclear program documents and foreign weapons details, indictment says – as it happened

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Indictment accuses former president of risking national security, foreign relations, safety of US military and intelligence gathering

The US senate judiciary committee chairman, Dick Durbin, has said the investigation led by special counsel Jack Smith should be allowed to continue “without interference”.

In a statement on Friday, Durbin added that Donald Trump “should be afforded the due process protections that he is guaranteed by our constitution, just like any other American”.

I think before the sun sets today, the attorney general of the United States should be standing in front of the American people, should unseal this indictment, should provide the American people with all the facts and information here.

And the American people be able to judge for themselves whether this is just the latest incident of weaponization and politicization at the justice department or it’s something different.

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Mike Pence: ‘Trump asked me to choose him or the constitution – I chose the constitution’ – as it happened

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Former US vice president says was proud to stand by Trump but goes on to criticise attempts to overturn election result in Iowa campaign launch

We’re about an hour away from Mike Pence’s campaign launch in Iowa, and a CBS News reporter at the event noticed something telling in his campaign’s arrangements for the media.

As noted below, the password for the wifi provided to journalists seems to be a reference to Pence’s refusal to go along with Trump’s demand that he block Congress’s certification of Joe Biden’s election win on January 6:

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Mike Pence officially enters 2024 US presidential race, pitting himself against former boss Donald Trump – as it happened

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Former vice president filed papers on Monday; Democrats criticise Haley on abortion stance after CNN town hall

Donald Trump’s lawyers are at the justice department today to argue to top officials that the former president should not be charged over the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago, the Washington Post reports.

The attorneys at the meeting include John Rowley and James Trusty, who last month sent a letter to attorney general Merrick Garland, asking for a meeting and complaining about the investigation into Trump, which is led by special counsel Jack Smith.

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Biden signs debt ceiling bill after months-long standoff, avoiding default

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Kevin McCarthy, the House speaker, secured a number of cuts on federal spending, with the borrowing limit suspended until 2025

Joe Biden signed a bill on Saturday to suspend the US debt ceiling, ending a months-long standoff with the Republican House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, and averting a federal default that could have upended the world economy.

Economists warned that a default could have caused the US unemployment rate to double while significantly damaging gross domestic product.

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Biden praises passage of debt ceiling bill in Oval Office address ahead of signing it

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President described how ‘no one got everything they wanted, but the American people got what they needed’ during brief speech

Joe Biden celebrated Congress’s approval of a debt-ceiling suspension in a speech delivered from the Oval Office on Friday night, a day after the Senate passed the compromise bill brokered by the president and the Republican House speaker, Kevin McCarthy.

Biden described the bill’s enactment as “essential to the progress we’ve made over the last few years” in “keeping full faith and credit of the United States of America and passing a budget that continues to grow our economy and reflects our values as a nation”.

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Joe Biden gives first Oval Office address ahead of signing debt ceiling deal – as it happened

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‘We averted an economic crisis and economic collapse,’ says president in address to the nation about deal, but will not sign bill before Saturday

Here’s more on how the debt ceiling crisis will impact the US’s credit rating, from the Guardian’s Joan E Greve.

The US is not yet out of the woods on a potential credit downgrade, even though Joe Biden is scheduled to sign the debt ceiling bill tonight to avert a federal default.

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Joe Biden hails ‘big win’ as bipartisan debt ceiling bill reaches his desk

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Compromise package to suspend debt ceiling passed US Senate late on Thursday with 63 votes to 36

The bipartisan bill to solve the US debt ceiling crisis just days before a catastrophic and unprecedented default was on its way to Joe Biden’s desk on Friday as the US president prepared to address the nation and hailed “a big win for our economy and the American people”.

The compromise package negotiated between Biden and the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, passed the US Senate late on Thursday.

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Biden falls on stage at air force academy ceremony; Senate blocks student relief program – live

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US president took a tumble at the end of a ceremony honoring air force graduates in Colorado; White House vows to use veto

Supreme court justices on Thursday took aim at pharmacies who overcharge the government for prescription drugs, their unanimous ruling reopening a pathway for legal action by individuals seeking to protect taxpayers’ money.

The case involves “whistleblowers” ostensibly acting for the government, whom a lower court said could not sue pharmacies claiming their own “objectively reasonable” reading of the law allowed them to overbill federal health programs including Medicare and Medicaid.

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House begins vote on debt ceiling bill amid resistance – live

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Moderate Republicans have touted the historic cuts while Democrats present the deal as a crucial compromise

Mike Pence is expected to launch his 2024 presidential bid within the next two weeks, The Messenger reports.

In a screenshot of an email sent by former Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake to delegates of the Georgia Republican Party, Lake wrote:

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US debt ceiling: Republican hard-right vows to sink deal hours before vote expected

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Freedom caucus has attacked House leader Kevin McCarthy’s deal with Joe Biden to raise the debt ceiling before the default deadline of 5 June

Members of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus have attacked the proposed spending cuts in the debt ceiling bill as woefully inadequate, and vowed to oppose the legislation when it hits the floor.

“We had the time to act, and this deal fails – fails completely,” Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, chair of the Freedom Caucus, said on Tuesday. “We will do everything in our power to stop it and end it now.”

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Tara Reade, who accused Joe Biden of sexual assault, defects to Russia

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Former Senate staffer who made claim in 2020 appears on Russian media alongside convicted Russian agent in US Maria Butina

Tara Reade, a former Senate staffer who in 2020 accused Joe Biden of sexual assault, said on Tuesday she had defected to Russia.

“I’m still kind of in a daze a bit but I feel very good,” Reade told Sputnik, a Russian press outlet supportive of President Vladimir Putin, while sitting with Maria Butina, a convicted Russian agent jailed in the US but now a member of parliament in Russia.

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US debt ceiling deal: House rules committee debates bill amid criticism on both sides – as it happened

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Committee debate comes amid opposition from both sides to agreement that would stave off a catastrophic default

Members of the House Freedom Caucus have said they will rethink the House speaker leadership if the debt ceiling agreement passes.

During a Tuesday press conference outside of the Capitol, several House Freedom Caucus members spoke out against the Biden-McCarthy deal.

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US political leaders push for lawmakers’ support on debt ceiling deal

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Some members of Congress question if they received enough concessions in Biden and McCarthy’s agreement

US political leaders appeared bullish on Monday that they can sell a bipartisan compromise debt ceiling deal to enough mainstream lawmakers – overcoming boisterous criticism from left and right – urgently enough to avert a first-ever national default on the $31.4tn the US owes creditors.

Despite a lot of diplomacy and even arm-twisting still to come on Capitol Hill in the next few days, Joe Biden left the White House to head to Delaware on Monday afternoon smiling and teasing reporters as he took questions, while the first lady, Jill Biden, waited on the lawn.

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Biden hails debt ceiling deal and urges lawmakers to pass agreement

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President says deal struck with Kevin McCarthy protects ‘historic economic recovery’ but it needs approval from a divided Congress

Joe Biden has said a bipartisan deal to raise the $31.4tn US debt ceiling and avoid a default is ready to move to Congress and urged lawmakers to pass the agreement he struck with Kevin McCarthy.

“This is a deal that’s good news for ... the American people,” the president said at the White House on Sunday night after a call with McCarthy to put the final touches to a tentative deal struck the previous day. “It takes the threat of catastrophic default off the table, protects our hard-earned and historic economic recovery,” he said.

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Biden and McCarthy reach ‘in principle’ deal to raise debt ceiling days before US default

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Agreement will reportedly raise debt limit for two years, but deal still needs approval from a divided US congress

Lawmakers in Washington were busily drafting legislation on Sunday after Joe Biden and the House Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy, reached a deal in principle on Saturday night to raise the federal government’s $31.4tn debt ceiling, with just days left before America was expected to default.

There was a slim chance that a bill could be finalized as early as Sunday and be presented on Capitol Hill, where it is expected to have a stormy passage in a divided Congress.

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Biden and McCarthy hold debt ceiling talks amid signs a deal is close

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Default deadline pushed to 5 June as work requirements for food aid recipients reportedly emerge as final sticking point

President Joe Biden and top congressional Republican Kevin McCarthy held a phone conversation on Saturday evening, according to a person familiar with their plans, amid signs that a deal in the ongoing debt ceiling negotiations was close to being struck.

McCarthy said earlier on Saturday that he was making “progress” in negotiations on raising the federal government’s debt ceiling, as the nation faced risk of default in little more than a week.

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