Blow to Biden as poll shows Trump in lead for 2024 presidential election

Trump ahead 47% to 43%, worrying some Democrats as others caution avoiding ‘mad poll disease’

Donald Trump has nudged ahead of Joe Biden in national polling for the 2024 presidential election, a survey published on Saturday revealed, a day after the US president branded his predecessor as “despicable” at an event in California.

The Wall Street Journal poll shows Biden with the lowest approval rating of his presidency, a finding broadly in line with other recent studies that have sparked concern in Democratic circles less than a year before voters go to the polls.

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Blow to Trump as court upholds most of gag order in election interference case

Federal appeals court rules Trump free to speak about special counsel Jack Smith but maintains other restrictions

Donald Trump may now assail the special counsel who brought the federal criminal case against him over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, in addition to being free to criticize the judge, the justice department, the Biden administration and the case as politically motivated.

The former president remains barred, however, from attacking potential trial witnesses, court staff or the special counsel’s staff, as well as the family members of any court staff or the special counsel’s staff.

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Record $15.9bn in US political ad spending expected for 2024

Assessment by GroupM expects spending totals for presidential election year to be up 30% on 2020 election cycle

With little more than a month to go before the US presidential election season kicks off in Iowa, a new projection of political spending says a record $15.9bn will be spent on advertising, up more than 30% up on the 2019-2020 election cycle.

The assessment, by GroupM, one of the world’s largest paid advertising agencies, suggests total political ad revenue could add a billion more to reach a total of $17.1bn, if including direct mail pitches.

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Why are third party candidates a threat to Biden in 2024? – podcast

This week, Joe Biden admitted that he probably would not be running for re-election if Donald Trump was not likely to be the Republican candidate. The thoughts of a rehashed presidential race in 2024 has many Americans dreading next year, and some are looking to third-party or independent candidates as potential alternatives.

So why hasn’t an outsider been more successful in the past? Is running independently of the Democrat and Republican parties a legitimate offer to voters, or nothing more than an election spoiler? And if the answer is the latter, why should the president be the one to worry?

This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks to Nitish Pahwa of Slate about why Democrats are worried that Biden could suffer the same fate as Hilary Clinton in 2016

Archive: CNN, CSPAN, CBS News, AP News

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Hunter Biden indicted on tax charges in California in new criminal case

Charges come in addition to federal firearms charges and intensify pressure on president’s son ahead of 2024 election

Hunter Biden has been indicted on nine tax charges in California, becoming the second indictment against the president’s son, adding fuel to a scandal that Republicans have been seizing on in the lead-up to the 2024 election.

The state charges on Thursday follow federal firearms charges in Delaware alleging Biden unlawfully obtained a revolver in October 2018 after he falsely stated he was not using narcotic drugs.

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US university presidents face firestorm over evasive answers on antisemitism

Congressional testimony on campus policies by heads of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and MIT draws criticism

The presidents of three of the nation’s top universities are facing intense backlash, including from the White House, after they appeared to evade questions during a congressional hearing about whether calls by students for the genocide of Jews would constitute harassment under the schools’ codes of conduct.

In a contentious, hours-long debate on Tuesday, the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) sought to address the steps they were taking to combat rising antisemitism on campus since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war. But it was their careful, indirect response to a question posed by the Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik of New York that drew scathing criticism.

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Jamaal Bowman on his censure: ‘This Republican House is unserious and unproductive’ – as it happened

This live blog is now closed. You can read our full report here:

Here is the moment House speaker Mike Johnson announced the votes on the censure of New York’s Democratic representative Jamaal Bowman:

The House has voted to censure Jamaal Bowman with 214 yeas and 191 nays.

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Democrats decry House censure vote as ‘attempt to silence’ Jamaal Bowman

Republican-led resolution against Democrat who pulled fire alarm called a waste of time and another attack on person of colour

Democrats accused Republicans of wasting time and pursuing “another attempt to silence a person of colour”, after the New York progressive Jamaal Bowman was formally censured for pulling a fire alarm in a congressional office building.

“This censure of Representative Bowman is yet another attempt to silence a person of colour in this chamber,” the Michigan representative Rashida Tlaib said.

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Georgia prosecutors predict jail sentences in Trump 2020 election case

Exclusive: Fulton county prosecutors say in emails their legal careers will continue long after defendants go to jail

Fulton county prosecutors have signaled they want prison sentences in the Georgia criminal case against Donald Trump and his top allies for allegedly violating the racketeering statute as part of efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, according to exchanges in private emails.

“We have a long road ahead,” the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, wrote in one email. “Long after these folks are in jail, we will still be practicing law.”

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Kevin McCarthy, ousted House speaker, says he will leave Congress at end of the year – US politics live

McCarthy, who was ousted from the House weeks ago, said in his announcement, ‘I’m leaving the House but not the fight’

Former speaker Kevin McCarthy has announced that he will resign from the House at the end of the year.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed published on Wednesday and titled “I’m leaving the House but not the fight,” McCarthy said that he had decided to depart the House at the end of this year and “serve America in new ways”.

I know my work is only getting started. I will continue to recruit our country’s best and brightest to run for elected office. The Republican Party is expanding every day, and I am committed to lending my experience to support the next generation of leaders.”

“I never could have imagined the journey when I first threw my hat into the ring. I go knowing I left it all on the field—as always, with a smile on my face. And looking back, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Only in America.”

“Common sense should dictate that we need to secure our own border in addition to helping Ukraine and Israel secure theirs. In the greatest country on Earth, we do not have to choose between protecting our homeland and defending our allies.

My support for Israel and Ukraine is unwavering but it does not supersede my commitment to my own country. We need major, structural reforms to limit the number of illegal crossings at our southern border and regain operational control.

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George Santos reportedly making six figures by selling Cameo videos

Disgraced lawmaker generating more income making personalized videos than previous salary as US congressman

The disgraced lawmaker George Santos is reportedly making six figures by selling videos on the platform Cameo, generating more income than his previous salary as a US congressman, Semafor first reported.

Santos, a former Republican representative from New York state, was expelled from Congress last Friday following a blistering ethics report that detailed his misuse of campaign funds.

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Biden ‘not sure he’d be running’ in 2024 if Trump wasn’t: ‘We cannot let him win’

President spoke about risks Trump poses to democracy at event amid fears a second term would be far more autocratic

The US president, Joe Biden, said on Tuesday that he is not sure he would be seeking re-election in next year’s election if he were not likely facing Republican Donald Trump.

“If Trump wasn’t running, I’m not sure I’d be running,” Biden said at a fundraising event for his 2024 campaign outside Boston. “We cannot let him win.”

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US imposes visa bans on Israeli settlers responsible for West Bank violence

‘We have underscored to the Israeli government the need to do more,’ Antony Blinken says during announcement

In a rare punitive move against Israel, the US has announced it will impose travel bans on extremist Jewish settlers implicated in recent attacks on Palestinians in theWest Bank.

The secretary of state, Antony Blinken, announced the decision on Tuesday after warning Israel last week that Joe Biden’s administration would be taking action over the attacks. Blinken did not announce individual visa bans, but officials said those would be coming this week and could affect dozens of settlers and their families.

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US ‘out of money’ for Ukraine: six things to know about the aid standoff

White House urges Congress to approve extra funding for war against Russia – but hard-right Republicans are holding out

The White House issued an urgent warning to Congress on Monday, predicting that Ukraine will soon lose ground in its war against Russia without another infusion of financial aid from the US.

“I want to be clear: without congressional action, by the end of the year we will run out of resources to procure more weapons and equipment for Ukraine and to provide equipment from US military stocks,” Shalanda Young, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote in her letter to congressional leaders.

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White House condemns protest targeting Philadelphia Jewish restaurant as ‘completely unjustifiable’ – as it happened

This live blog is now closed. You can read our full report below:

Back in Philadelphia, Brendan Boyle, a Democratic congressman representing the city, condemned the protest outside Jewish restaurant Goldie as “despicable”.

From his account on X:

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Members of Texas Republican party free to associate with Nazi sympathizers

Executive committee rejects banning members who ‘espouse or tolerate antisemitism’ and deny Holocaust, arguing clause is vague

Members of Texas’s Republican party are free to associate with Nazi sympathizers without worries of violating internal policy after they held a vote on Saturday.

In a 32-29 vote, the party’s executive committee decided against excluding from their organization those “known to espouse or tolerate antisemitism, pro-Nazi sympathies or Holocaust denial”. A proposal to ban such individuals was included in a resolution supporting Israel as it wars with Hamas in Gaza.

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HBO to develop George Santos’s ‘Gatsby-esque journey’ into movie – report

News that the book The Fabulist will be adapted into film comes after congressman was expelled last week

A book about the improbable rise and rapid fall of former congressman George Santos has been optioned by HBO Films, it was reported Saturday, and will be produced under the guidance of Frank Rich, a former New York Times columnist known for executive production credits on Emmy awards-winning Succession and Veep.

HBO reportedly optioned the rights to Mark Chiusano’s The Fabulist: The Lying, Hustling, Grifting, Stealing, and Very American Legend of George Santos, published last week.

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Muslim leaders in swing states pledge to ‘abandon’ Biden over his refusal to call for ceasefire

Warnings that president stance on the war risks losing support of community in states critical to his chances for re-election

Muslim community leaders gathered on Saturday in Dearborn, Michigan, home to the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the US, to protest President Biden’s refusal to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, reiterating that the president’s stance could affect his support in crucial swing states next year.

Jaylani Hussein, director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said that Biden’s unwillingness to call for a ceasefire had damaged his relationship with the American-Muslim community beyond repair. (Cair-Minnesota is not involved in his work on the Abandon Biden effort, which the organization said Hussein is doing in his personal capacity.)

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‘Moderate’ or Roe v Wade killer: can Trump have it both ways on abortion?

The former president is proud of appointing the supreme court justices who overturned the right to abortion – now the issue is a vote loser for Republicans

A few months ago, the former president Donald Trump accused the Republican party of speaking “very inarticulately” on abortion. And yet, for the GOP presidential frontrunner, inarticulateness seems to be a feature, not a bug, of his own approach to abortion.

Trump thinks he can run in 2024 as a “moderate” on abortion, Rolling Stone reported this week – even though he’s currently running ads in Iowa, a crucial state in the Republican primary, proclaiming himself “the most pro-life president ever”. It’s a title to which Trump has a legitimate claim: his three nominees to the supreme court not only handed the nation’s highest court a definitive conservative majority, but all three voted to overturn Roe v Wade in summer 2022.

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US House close to vote on Biden impeachment inquiry, speaker says

After months of Republican investigations, Mike Johnson told Fox he believed GOP conference has enough votes to launch

The US House speaker Mike Johnson signaled on Saturday that Republicans are nearing holding a formal vote to launch an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden.

“I think it’s something we have to do at this juncture,” Johnson said during a Saturday appearance on Fox and Friends Weekend.

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