Texas Republicans will use federal funds to help pay exorbitant energy bills hitting ordinary Texans after a deep freeze crippled the state this week, a senior congressman said on Sunday.
Related: Texans rally to help neighbors amid big freeze as officials are caught cold
Continue reading...Former president Donald Trump will address the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, in Florida next week, about the future of the Republican party and the conservative movement, a source familiar with the plan told Reuters on Saturday.
Related: Trump ally Nunes sees CNN Ukraine lawsuit thrown out by New York judge
Continue reading...A defamation lawsuit brought against CNN by the California Republican Devin Nunes, a leading ally of former president Donald Trump, was tossed out by a Manhattan judge on Friday.
Related: Icy blast of anti-Ted Cruz outrage shows little sign of abating
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More details on Cancun-gate: Ted Cruz’s office reportedly contacted the Houston Police Department to request security assistance at the airport yesterday.
The HPD told ABC News that its officers “monitored his movements through the terminal.” Cruz then boarded a flight to Cancun, as his state deals with a winter storm and widespread blackouts.
JUST IN from @houstonpolice, via @emcabcnewsprod:
"Cruz’s staff contacted HPD personnel at IAH on Wednesday ... and requested assistance upon the Senator’s arrival at the airport."
"HPD officers monitored his movements through the terminal."
In case you missed it this morning: the number of initial weekly jobless claims in the US rose to 861,000 last week, the labor department announced.
The number represents an increase of 13,000 from the previous week, the latest sign that the US economy continues to suffer as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Continue reading...Analysis: The president stressed a willingness to work with Republicans – but some say his outreach has its limits
Joe Biden and his team have promised to extend the bipartisan olive branch like no previous administration in a move that on the surface appears to match the new president’s long political history of seeking support from Republicans.
Since taking office, the Biden administration has stressed a willingness to work with Republicans on its major initiatives like a Covid relief bill. Behind the scenes, it has initiated a broad push to reach out to as many congressional offices as possible, getting in contact with both former and current Republican lawmakers and their staffs, and hosting a high-visibility meeting between almost a dozen Republican senators and Biden himself.
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Joe Biden had an hour-long conversation with Benjamin Netanyahu today, the Israeli prime minister said.
In a tweet, Netanyahu’s office shared a photo of the prime minister on the phone with Biden. Netanyahu said the conversation was friendly, and the two leaders committed to strengthening the alliance between their nations.
ראש הממשלה בנימין נתניהו שוחח הערב עם נשיא ארה"ב ג'ו ביידן.
השיחה הייתה ידידותית וחמה ביותר ונמשכה כשעה. שני המנהיגים ציינו את הקשר האישי רב השנים ביניהם ואמרו שיפעלו יחד להמשך חיזוק הברית האיתנה בין ישראל לארה"ב pic.twitter.com/8LolsBhi0r
Related: Call me maybe? Disquiet in Israel that Biden has yet to phone Netanyahu
Jill Biden will soon sit down with Kelly Clarkson for her first solo television interview since Joe Biden was sworn in, the first lady’s office announced today.
A spokesperson for Jill Biden said the interview will be aired next Thursday, on “The Kelly Clarkson Show: White House Edition with the First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden”.
NEW! @FLOTUS will sit down with @KellyClarkson for her FIRST solo TV interview, when @KellyClarksonTV comes to the White House! “The Kelly Clarkson Show: White House Edition with the First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden” will air Thursday, Feb. 25 #kellyoke
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The White House briefing has now concluded. Here’s where the day stands so far:
White House press secretary Jen Psaki would not say when specifically Joe Biden will address a joint session of Congress for the first time as president.
Biden said last month that he would lay out his Build Back Better plan in a February address to Congress.
Continue reading...Democrats and Republicans both voice support for panel to ‘make sure it never happens again’
Democratic and Republican lawmakers have issued fresh calls for a bipartisan 9/11-style commission to investigate why government officials and law enforcement failed to stop the attack on the US Capitol in January, following Donald Trump’s acquittal in his impeachment on charges that he incited the insurrection.
The commission would be modeled after a panel created in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks, which reviewed what caused the atrocity and laid out recommendations on how to foresee and prevent any future incursions.
Continue reading...‘We needed more senators with spines,’ said Stacey Plaskett after vote to convict fell short of two-thirds majority needed
Democrats defended their prosecution of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial on Sunday and hinted at the possibility of criminal charges, after failing to convince enough senators the former president was guilty of inciting the deadly Capitol attack.
Related: Boris Johnson calls Trump impeachment over Capitol attack 'kerfuffle'
Continue reading...Former president celebrates second impeachment acquittal as supporters and moderates prepare to contest party direction
Donald Trump emerged from his second impeachment trial almost completely politically intact. But amid widespread laments (or celebrations, depending on the affiliation of the speaker) about the former president’s grip on the Republican party, some prominent voices suggested a changing of the guard may still be due.
Related: Mitch McConnell's impeachment speech was just a hostage video | Lloyd Green
Continue reading...The Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, decried the decision to acquit Donald Trump of inciting a riot at the US Capitol on 6 January. House Democrats, who voted a month ago to charge Trump with ‘incitement of insurrection’, needed two thirds of the Senate, or 67 votes, to convict him. Only seven Republicans joined all 50 Democrats in voting to convict Trump.
The Democrats argued in the short trial that Trump caused the violent attack by repeating for months the false claims that the election was stolen from him, and then telling his supporters gathered near the White House that morning to ‘fight like hell’ to overturn his defeat. Five people died when they then laid siege to the Capitol.
Continue reading...The former president and his supporters are likely to claim victory as they did after his first impeachment trial a year ago
Donald Trump’s highly anticipated acquittal at his US Senate impeachment trial is the least surprising twist in American politics since … well, his acquittal at his first US Senate impeachment trial a year ago.
Related: Democrats fail to secure enough votes to convict Trump in historic second impeachment trial - live
Continue reading...Five Senate Republicans voted with the Democrats on Saturday, that the Senate should call witnesses in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump.
Before the 55-45 vote, Trump’s impeachment lawyer Michael van der Veen warned senators that if Democrats wished to call a witness, he would ask for at least 100 witnesses and insist they give depositions in person in his office in Philadelphia – a threat that prompted laughter from the chamber.
Continue reading...Republicans Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz and others unabashedly endorsed the former president’s assault on democracy
A desk in the US Senate was notably empty for chunks of Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Breakaway group would run on ‘principled conservatism’ platform, say those involved in discussions
Dozens of former Republican officials who view the party as unwilling to stand up to Donald Trump and his attempts to undermine US democracy are in talks to form a centre-right breakaway party, four people involved in the discussions have said.
The early stage discussions include former elected Republicans, former officials in the Republican administrations of Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, George W Bush and Trump, ex-Republican ambassadors and Republican strategists, the people involved told Reuters.
Continue reading...Analysis: faith in the US has been shaken and the impeachment trial is a test of accountability before a global audience
The Democratic congressman Jamie Raskin stood at the lectern, faced 100 senators and removed his black face mask to begin the historic second impeachment trial of former president Donald John Trump.
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The election arm of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), has brought out its final report on the US presidential election, concluding that it was well organised under the circumstances and there was no significant fraud.
The report also found that Donald Trump’s rhetoric and refusal to accept defeat undermined public faith in democratic institutions, and warned the US has long-term problems with providing equal voting rights for all.
Related: 'Jim Crow relic': Senate filibuster stands in way of Democratic voting rights push
Here’s where the day stands so far:
Continue reading...Democrats hope harrowing audio and video from Capitol attack will make plain what no legal argument might deny
The lethal Capitol invasion by Donald Trump supporters that is at the heart of the former president’s second impeachment trial happened more than a month ago. But Democrats leading the prosecution of Trump are counting on an element of surprise.
Surprise, the impeachment prosecutors are calculating, because while most Americans understand the broad outlines of what happened during the 6 January attack on the Capitol, relatively few have come to grips with the shocking audio and video footage from that day – portraying a cauldron of violence, vandalism, bloodlust and fear.
Continue reading...Anti-Trumpists are growing but very slowly – convicting Trump in his impeachment trial would help speed things along, says Flake
By now, Jeff Flake thought this would all be over.
Flake, the former Arizona Republican senator and outspoken critic of Donald Trump, concedes that he expected the ripple effects in the Republican party Trump’s loss of the White House to have been bigger by now.
Continue reading...Republican pointed to former president’s tweet attacking vice-president Mike Pence after Capitol insurrection began
Liz Cheney, the third most senior Republican in the House of Representatives, has raised the possibility of Donald Trump being criminally investigated for provoking violence during the 6 January US Capitol insurrection, pointing to a tweet attacking his own vice-president, Mike Pence, that was posted after the assault had begun.
Related: Liz Cheney censured by Wyoming Republican party for voting to impeach Trump
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