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Continue reading...Line are drawn between the extremist wing and those who distance themselves from portraying the rioters as ‘sightseers’
Some Republicans have rebuked efforts by Donald Trump and Fox News host Tucker Carlson to whitewash the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, underscoring a significant split in the party over attempts to downplay the events of the day.
Kevin McCarthy, the speaker of the House, turned over more than 40,000 hours of security footage from the Capitol to Carlson earlier this year. This week, Carlson aired selectively edited portions of that footage, falsely claiming the rioters were “sightseers” and “not insurrectionists”. At least 1,000 people have been arrested for their role in the January 6 attack. Five people died as a result of it.
Continue reading...Former national security adviser tells podcast ‘we didn’t feel we would get support’ from president during Russia investigation
Donald Trump’s third national security adviser, John Bolton, did not brief the president on suspicions Russia might be behind mysterious “Havana syndrome” attacks on US diplomats because he did not think Trump would support him.
“Since our concern was that one of the perpetrators – maybe the perpetrator – was Russia,” Bolton said, “we didn’t feel we would get support from President Trump if we said, ‘We think the Russians are coming after American personnel.’”
Continue reading...Ex-Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson: man facing charge over porn star payment should ‘respect institution of the presidency’
Donald Trump should quit the race for the Republican nomination in 2024 if he is indicted in New York over a hush money payment to a porn star during his victorious run in 2016, a prospective rival said.
“It doesn’t mean that he’s guilty of it or he should be charged,” said Asa Hutchinson, a former governor of Arkansas. “But it’s just such a distraction that would be unnecessary for somebody who’s seeking the highest office in the land.”
Continue reading...Former vice-president, speaking at Gridiron dinner, says it ‘mocks decency’ to portray January 6 as anything other than a ‘disgrace’
Mike Pence has offered a rebuke of his one-time boss Donald Trump, saying history will hold the former president accountable for his role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
Pence, then vice-president, was in the Capitol when thousands of Trump supporters breached the building in an attempt to stop Congress certifying the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden.
Reuters contributed reporting
Continue reading...Signing off on the Willow plan would place the president’s political career in conflict with climate-minded Democrats
The Biden administration has denied reports that it has authorized a key oil drilling project on Alaska’s north slope, a highly contentious project that environmentalists argue would damage a pristine wilderness and gut White House commitments to combat climate crisis.
Late Friday, Bloomberg was first to report citing anonymous sources that senior Biden advisers had signed off on the project and formal approval would be made public by the Interior Department next week.
Continue reading...Joe Biden continues his attacks on the GOP’s far right wing. Following his remarks earlier on this month’s strong jobs figures, he’s taken to Twitter.
“Extreme Maga [Make America Great Again] House Republicans are showing us what they value: tax breaks for the rich. They demand the biggest Medicare benefits cut in decades, ship jobs overseas, defund law enforcement, devastate our national and border security. It’s a gut punch to the middle class,” the US president tweeted earlier this afternoon.
Continue reading...Rightwing governor of Florida – and most likely rival to Trump for the 2024 nomination – promotes his book in the early voting state
The Republican Ron DeSantis greeted fans in Iowa on Friday, marking the Florida governor’s first visit this election cycle to the early voting state and intensifying speculation over when he might announce his 2024 presidential bid.
DeSantis delivered remarks to a full crowd at a casino in Davenport on Friday morning, and later appeared in Des Moines with the governor of Iowa, Republican Kim Reynolds, to promote his new book, The Courage to be Free.
Continue reading...Local official tells panel of chaotic response Ohio derailment and operator’s chief executive makes first appearance before Congress
Norfolk Southern’s decision to call for the burning of five derailed train cars in East Palestine, Ohio, was “jaw-dropping” and a consequence of poor communication by the railroad, a local emergency management official told a Senate panel on Thursday.
Eric Brewer, director and chief of hazardous materials response for the emergency services department in Beaver county, Pennsylvania, just over the state line from East Palestine, described to the chamber’s environment and public works committee an initially chaotic response to the 3 February derailment.
Continue reading...Republican Senate leader ‘tripped at a hotel during a private dinner’ and is receiving treatment, according to a spokesperson
The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, was taken to hospital in Washington DC on Wednesday night after he tripped and fell at a hotel, a spokesperson said.
David Popp said McConnell, 81, fell “during a private dinner”.
Continue reading...Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw said, “We are committed to the legislative intent to make rail safer,” without specifically indicating whether he would commit to supporting the bipartisan Railway Safety Act.
“We can always get better and that is my intent to continue to invest and continue to improve” in industry safety standards, he added.
Continue reading...Markwayne Mullin, a former MMA fighter, argues with union’s Sean O’Brien as Bernie Sanders seeks order in Senate hearing
A Republican senator who once had to reassure voters he didn’t think he was “Rambo” and was a mixed martial arts fighter before entering politics got into a vocal brawl with a union boss during a public congressional hearing, saying: “You need to shut your mouth.”
Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma exchanged verbal fire with Sean O’Brien, president of the Teamsters, during a hearing staged on Wednesday by the Senate health, education, labor and pensions committee.
Continue reading...Proposal will creating ‘a little bit more breathing room’ for American families, Biden says – but Republicans dismiss his plans
Joe Biden on Thursday unveiled his budget, a sprawling policy vision that the president says reflects his commitment to building a fairer economy while drawing a sharp contrast to Republicans who are demanding steep cuts to federal spending programs.
Biden formally introduced his spending plan, which he has described as a “blue-collar blueprint”, in Pennsylvania, a battleground state that helped lift him to the White House in 2020. It was an unusually high-profile rollout for a budget proposal that is often greeted with a resounding thud on Capitol Hill.
Continue reading...Georgia Republican Barry Loudermilk denied giving tours related to the January 6 riots until video was released
Barry Loudermilk, the Republican representative from Georgia who has been accused of giving tours of the Capitol building days before the January 6 insurrection, will lead a new House committee that will investigate the Democratic-controlled January 6 select committee.
On Tuesday, Loudermilk criticized the select committee, saying: “The J6 committee chose to ignore the facts and pursue a particular political narrative. I will not do this.”
Continue reading...Press secretary criticizes Fox News host for depicting security footage as what he described as ‘peaceful chaos’
House Republicans convened their first hearing on what the committee chairman called the Biden’s administration’s “disastrous” withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.
Opening the House foreign affairs committee hearing earlier, the Texas congressman Michael McCaul called for a moment of silence for 13 US service members killed in a terrorist attack near the Kabul airport during the evacuation. More than 100 Afghan civilians were also killed in the attack.
“What happened in Afghanistan was a systemic breakdown of the federal government at every level,” McCaul said, vowing to hold to account officials responsible for what he said was the “abdication of the most basic duties of the United States government to protect Americans and leave no one behind”.
For nearly two weeks in August 2021, the world watched as harrowing scenes played out live on television, including desperate Afghans clinging to the underside of a US transport plane, after the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban.
In the chaos, McCaul said, the US left more than “1,000 American citizens” in Afghanistan as well as “almost 200,000” Afghan allies. To those “left behind,” the Republican chair said he was committed to getting them “the hell out of there”.
The ranking Democrat, Gregory Meeks of New York, said Joe Biden made the “right decision” to end a 20-year war which extracted a “great cost” on the nation.
Meeks acknowledged that “mistakes” were made during the evacuation but noted it was Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, who struck a deal with the Taliban for US forces to leave Afghanistan by May 2021.
To that end, Meeks urged the committee to use this opportunity to understand what went wrong, rather than to “score political points”.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has also announced that the Department of Justice (DoJ) will conduct a federal review of the Memphis police department in Tennessee, in particular its use of force, where resident Tyre Nichols died in hospital a few days after being brutally beaten and left for dead by a group of now ex-officers earlier this year.
In the wake of Tyre Nichols’s tragic death, the Justice Department has heard from police chiefs across the country who are assessing the use of specialized units and, where used, appropriate management, oversight and accountability for such units. The COPS Office [Community Oriented Policing Services] guide on specialized units will be a critical resource for law enforcement, mayors and community members committed to effective community policing that respects the dignity of community members and keeps people safe.”
Continue reading...Senate majority leader accuses host Tucker Carlson of ‘manipulating’ images of Capitol attack provided by House speaker Kevin McCarthy
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Democrats in Florida’s Republican-dominated House and Senate face a bruising legislative session, which began this morning. Outnumbered by a Republican supermajority in both chambers, the best the party’s members will be able to do on many pieces of legislation is to offer dissent.
Still, they’re as upbeat as they can be, and some are saying it with flowers. Here’s first-term state representative Christine Hunschofsky’s view as she prepares to do battle: caffeine, a desk fan and a colorful array of petals.
Continue reading...Bernie Sanders had threatened to subpoena Howard Schultz if he refused to appear while workers file unfair labor practice charges
The Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz, has agreed to testify before a Senate committee investigating the company’s intense opposition to national efforts to unionize its stores.
Senator Bernie Sanders had threatened to subpoena Schultz if he refused to appear before the US Senate health, education, labor and pensions (Help) committee. Sanders said Schultz had “refused to answer any of the serious questions we have asked” for over a year.
Continue reading...Condemnation of ‘so-called new network’ comes after Tucker Carlson shares footage from attack courtesy of Kevin McCarthy
The family of Brian Sicknick, the US Capitol police officer who died the day after the January 6 attack on Congress, condemned Tucker Carlson and Fox News as “unscrupulous and outright sleazy”, after the primetime host made his first use of security footage from the riot bestowed by Kevin McCarthy, the Republican House speaker.
A statement on Tuesday said: “The Sicknick family is outraged at the ongoing attack on our family by the unscrupulous and outright sleazy so-called news network of Fox News.”
Continue reading...Dana Hyde, 55, was flying from Maryland to New England and suffered blunt-force injuries from violent turbulence
A former official in the Bill Clinton and Barack Obama White Houses died last Friday after the private business jet that the prominent Washington attorney was on experienced stability issues and encountered severe turbulence mid-flight.
The National Transportation Safety Board has since started investigating “a reported trim issue that occurred prior to the in-flight upset” that affected the plane’s altitude control and may have caused the instability.
Continue reading...Joseph Hutchinson and Olivia Pollock, whose brother is also a January 6 defendant, had ankle monitors that were removed or altered
The FBI is searching for a Florida woman who was supposed to stand trial on Monday on charges stemming from the January 6 Capitol attack as well as another riot defendant who has also gone missing, officials said.
A federal judge in Washington issued bench warrants for the arrest of Olivia Pollock and Joseph Hutchinson III last week after the court was notified that they had tampered with or removed the ankle monitors that track their location, said Joe Boland, a supervisory special agent with the FBI’s Lakeland, Florida, office.
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