Chris Christie says he’s anti-Trump – but did he secure a presidential pardon for a crony?

Ethics expert says ex-New Jersey governor must answer questions over George Gilmore, pardoned on Trump’s last day in office

A leading US ethics expert said the former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who this week launched a presidential campaign aimed at taking down Donald Trump, owes the American public an explanation of why and how he secured a pardon for a powerful New Jersey Republican, issued on Trump’s last day in the White House.

“We just don’t know the answer to that,” Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew), said. “And I think we should.”

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Alarm at rightwing push to reverse clean-energy success in Texas and beyond

Supporters of clean energy say they expect further battles ahead to prevent state’s progress in solar and wind from being unwound

In the scramble before the end of Texas’s legislative session last week, a must-pass bill was amended to impose new costs upon renewable energy. This came amid a barrage of anti-solar and wind power measures pushed forward by Republicans to reshape a state that has become the US’s powerhouse of clean energy.

But the conservative lawmakers had help.

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

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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Chris Christie, ex-New Jersey governor, launches 2024 presidential run

Pugilistic politician joins Republican primary with singular focus – to take the fight to Donald Trump

The former New Jersey governor Chris Christie announced his bid for for the Republican presidential nomination at a New Hampshire town hall.

In an unconventionally contrite speech, Christie said: “I can’t guarantee you success in what I’m about to do. But I guarantee you that at the end of it. You will have no doubt in your mind, who I am and what I stand for and whether I deserve it.”

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Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie announces 2024 presidential run – as it happened

House Republicans say they plan to vote on holding FBI director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress for declining to turn over a document outlining an unverified allegation of corruption against Joe Biden.

As the Associated Press reports, Republican House oversight committee chair James Comer along with GOP senator Chuck Grassley last month said they had heard the FBI possesses a document detailing “an alleged criminal scheme” “relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions” between a foreign national and Biden when he was vice-president. While Comer and other Republicans have played up the allegation, they haven’t offered any proof to substantiate it.

Three months before saboteurs bombed the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline, the Biden administration learned from a close ally that the Ukrainian military had planned a covert attack on the undersea network, using a small team of divers who reported directly to the commander in chief of the Ukrainian armed forces.

Details about the plan, which have not been previously reported, were collected by a European intelligence service and shared with the CIA in June 2022. They provide some of the most specific evidence to date linking the government of Ukraine to the eventual attack in the Baltic Sea, which U.S. and Western officials have called a brazen and dangerous act of sabotage on Europe’s energy infrastructure.

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

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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Chris Christie just wants to ‘bludgeon’ Trump, Fox News’s Hannity complains

Sean Hannity says ex-New Jersey governor lacks ‘inspiring agenda’ as he prepares new presidential run

Chris Christie has promised to take the fight to Donald Trump when he launches a long-shot Republican presidential campaign next week, but he seems likely to have to do so without help from one key voice at Fox News.

The former New Jersey governor just wants to “bludgeon” Trump, the primetime host and close Trump ally Sean Hannity said on Friday, adding that he did not want to give Christie any airtime.

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

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

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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Chris Christie will reportedly announce 2024 presidential bid next week

Former New Jersey governor, who ran for Republican nomination in 2016, intends a ‘more hopeful note’ as he takes on Trump

The former New Jersey governor Chris Christie will reportedly announce a second run for president next week, seeking to take the political fight over the 2024 Republican nomination to Donald Trump.

The news site Axios said Christie, 60, would launch his campaign in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Tuesday.

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

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

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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McCarthy insists Republican support for debt deal ‘easy’ despite vocal opposition

House speaker says he isn’t worried the agreement will fail as prominent rightwinger Chip Roy calls it a ‘turd sandwich’

The Republican speaker of the US House, Kevin McCarthy, insisted on Tuesday that supporting the debt ceiling deal would be “easy” for his party and it was likely to pass through Congress despite one prominent rightwinger’s verdict that the proposed agreement is a “turd sandwich”.

Amid loud denunciations from the Republican right and also from closer to the centre, McCarthy said he was not worried the agreement would fail, or that it would threaten his hold on the speaker’s gavel.

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

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

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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Impeachment proceedings against scandal-hit Texas attorney general begin

Republican-led state house of representatives to debate whether to impeach Ken Paxton over allegations of bribery

Texas’s Republican-led house of representatives launched historic impeachment proceedings against attorney general Ken Paxton on Saturday as the scandal-plagued lawyer called on supporters to protest a vote that could lead to his ouster and Donald Trump came to his defense.

The house convened on Saturday afternoon to debate whether to impeach and suspend Paxton from office over allegations of bribery, abuse of public trust and that he is unfit for office. They’re just some of the accusations that have trailed Texas’s top lawyer for most of his three terms.

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Judge pauses South Carolina abortion ban; emerging debt ceiling agreement ‘has fewer cuts than expected’ – live

Temporary block on restrictions until state supreme court can review; Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy reportedly closing in on a deal

A judge has blocked a South Carolina law enacted this week that bans most abortions past the six-week mark, a point at which most women are not yet aware they are pregnant, the Associated Press reports.

The ruling by judge Clifton Newman is the latest complication conservative state lawmakers have faced as they move to cut off abortion access following the supreme court’s decision last year overturning Roe v Wade and allowing states to restrict the procedure entirely. Newman ordered the law put on hold until the state supreme court can review it, in a ruling that came 24 hours after the law was signed by governor Henry McMaster, the AP reports.

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Biden ‘optimistic’ of debt ceiling deal as Yellen extends deadline to 5 June

Lawmakers on call over Memorial Day weekend as treasury secretary revises estimate of when US will run out of money

Unless Congress raises the debt ceiling, the US will run out of money to pay its bills by 5 June, the treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, said on Friday as Democratic and Republican negotiators struggled to reach a deal.

Failure to raise the debt celling could trigger a default that could wreak havoc on the economy and global markets. Yellen’s announcement gives negotiators a little more time to come to an agreement.

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Texas panel recommends impeaching state attorney general Ken Paxton

Republican-led house unanimously recommended impeaching state’s top lawyer on 20 articles including bribery and abuse of public trust

The Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, teetered on the brink of impeachment Thursday after years of scandal, criminal charges and corruption accusations.

In an unanimous decision, a Republican-led House investigative committee recommended impeaching the state’s top lawyer on 20 articles, including bribery, unfitness for office and abuse of public trust.

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Debt ceiling deal within sight as Biden and Republicans continue to negotiate

House adjourned for holiday weekend, but lawmakers could be recalled to vote on deal if agreement is reached

Joe Biden and Republican lawmakers on Thursday appeared to be nearing a deal to cut spending and raise the debt ceiling, with little time to spare to avoid a potential default that could wreak havoc on the economy and global markets.

The deal under consideration by negotiators would raise the government’s $31.4tn debt ceiling for two years while capping spending on most items, a US official told Reuters. It would also increase funding for discretionary spending on military and veterans while essentially holding non-defense discretionary spending at current year levels, the official said.

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