Category Archives: US Politics

Ginni Thomas reportedly urged Arizona Republicans to overturn 2020 result

Posted on by

Wife of supreme court justice Clarence Thomas emailed six days after election already called for Joe Biden

Ginni Thomas, the wife of the US supreme court justice Clarence Thomas, pressed Republicans in Arizona to overturn Joe Biden’s victory there in 2020, the Washington Post reported.

Repeating Donald Trump’s lie that the vote had been marred by fraud, Thomas wrote: “Please stand strong in the face of political and media pressure. Please reflect on the awesome authority granted to you by our constitution. And then please take action to ensure that a clean slate of electors is chosen for our state.”

Continue reading...

Trump pays $110,000 in fines after being held in contempt of court – live

Posted on by

The Washington Post said Friday it had obtained emails showing that Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the conservative activist and wife of supreme court justice Clarence Thomas, pressed Arizona lawmakers to set aside Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in the state and choose “a clean slate of electors”.

Thomas wrote to two unidentified lawmakers on 9 November 2020, the newspaper says, six days after the general election, arguing they needed to intervene because the vote had been marred by fraud.

Continue reading...

Tucker Carlson tried to use Hunter Biden to get his son into Georgetown

Posted on by

Emails reveal the ‘extent’ which Carlson was willing to turn on Biden’s son since the 2020 election, Washington Post says

As Tucker Carlson asked Hunter Biden for help getting his son into an elite Washington university in 2014, the Fox News host’s wife, Susie, reportedly wrote in an email: “Tucker and I have the greatest respect and admiration for you. Always!”

Since the 2020 election, however, Carlson has fueled rightwing attacks on Joe Biden’s son, particularly over business affairs in which he allegedly benefited from his father’s position.

Continue reading...

Senate bill will help food aid recipients find baby formula amid shortage

Posted on by

Wic voucher requirements are being waived to allow holders to purchase any brand of infant formula as it becomes available

The Senate approved a bill Thursday aimed at easing the baby formula shortage for families participating in a government assistance program that accounts for about half of all formula purchased in the US.

The House passed the bill the day before, so it now goes to Joe Biden to be signed into law.

Continue reading...

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gets engaged to longtime partner Riley Roberts

Posted on by

Democratic congresswoman confirms engagement to Roberts, whom she met as a student at Boston University

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took a break between visiting Amazon union workers and endorsing progressive candidates to get engaged to her longtime partner Riley Roberts.

Ocasio-Cortez, 32, confirmed to Insider on Thursday that she and Roberts, who met while both were at Boston University, got engaged last month while visiting her parents’ home town in Puerto Rico.

Continue reading...

Oklahoma Republican-led legislature passes nation’s strictest abortion ban

Posted on by

Bill bans abortion at conception and if signed into law it would allow citizens to sue anyone who ‘aids or abets’ a patient

Oklahoma’s Republican-led legislature passed the nation’s strictest abortion ban on Thursday. The bill, if signed into law, would allows citizens to sue anyone, anywhere who “aids or abets” a patient in terminating a pregnancy.

The bill bans abortion from conception, even before an egg implants in the uterus, and would go into effect immediately if signed by Republican governor, Kevin Stitt. Abortion providers expect he will do so before the coming week.

Continue reading...

US withdrawal triggered catastrophic defeat of Afghan forces, damning watchdog report finds

Posted on by

Report by special inspector general blames Trump and Biden administrations, as well as the Afghan government of Ashraf Ghani

Afghan armed forces collapsed last year because they had been made dependent on US support that was abruptly withdrawn in the face of a Taliban offensive, according to a scathing assessment by a US government watchdog.

A report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (Sigar) on the catastrophic defeat that led to the fall of Kabul on 15 August, blamed the administrations of Donald Trump and Joe Biden as well as the Afghan government of Ashraf Ghani.

Continue reading...

US primary elections: Dr Oz tied with McCormick in test of Trump’s influence on Republicans – live

Posted on by

Joe Biden will welcome the prime minister of Sweden, Magdalena Andersson, and the president of Finland Sauli Niinistö to Washington tomorrow.

It will be a very visual symbol of US support for those two European, Russia-adjacent nations joining the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato).

Continue reading...

US sues casino mogul Steve Wynn to compel him to register as an agent of China

Posted on by

Justice department says Wynn lobbied the Trump administration for China to protect his business interests in Macau

The US Department of Justice on Tuesday sued Steve Wynn, the billionaire former casino mogul and senior Republican fund raiser, to compel him to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act as an agent of China.

The department said Wynn, 80, had contacted then-US president Donald Trump and members of his Republican administration in 2017 to convey China’s request to cancel the visa of or otherwise remove a Chinese businessperson who had sought political asylum in the United States.

Continue reading...

House panel not planning to seek Trump’s testimony on Capitol attack

Posted on by

After months of uncertainty, chairman says it is ‘not our expectation’ that investigators will summon former president

The House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol is not expecting to call Donald Trump to testify about potentially unlawful schemes to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election win, its chairman said on Tuesday.

The panel has been weighing for months whether to seek voluntary cooperation or subpoena the former president in its wide-ranging inquiry in an effort to obtain his insight into unlawful schemes to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

But Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the select committee, told reporters on Capitol Hill that it was “not our expectation” to demand testimony from Trump.

Continue reading...

Wisconsin electors and voter file lawsuit against fraudulent 2020 Trump electors

Posted on by

Suit seeks fines and damages from those casting fake ballots and prohibition from serving the future

Two of Wisconsin’s presidential electors and a voter in the state filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to punish a group of Republicans who tried to cast fake electoral votes for Donald Trump in 2020, asking a state court to order them to pay up to $2.4m collectively in damages and bar them from ever serving as legitimate electors in a presidential election.

Wisconsin was one of seven states Trump lost in 2020 where allies cast an alternative set of electoral votes as part of his effort to overturn the election. The suit, filed by Law Forward and the Georgetown Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (Icap) on behalf of the legitimate electors, is the first of its kind seeking civil punishments against the electors. Federal prosecutors and the January 6 commission are reportedly also reviewing the fake slates.

Continue reading...

Biden tells Buffalo shooting mourners: ‘Evil will not win. Hate will not prevail’ – as it happened

Posted on by

My colleague Ed Helmore is at the site of Saturday’s mass shooting in Buffalo, and sent this dispatch about the importance to the predominantly Black community of the supermarket where it happened:

Tops Friendly on Jefferson Avenue in East Buffalo was more than just a grocery store. It served as community center, a place to hang out, a source of employment – and a spot for healthy sustenance unavailable at bodega stores in an area described as the oasis in a food desert.

Continue reading...

Pro-Israel lobbying group Aipac secretly pouring millions into defeating progressive Democrats

Posted on by

American Israel Public Affairs Committee has disguised its efforts to undermine pro-Palestinian candidates

The US’s most powerful pro-Israel lobby group is pouring millions of dollars into influencing Democratic congressional primary races to counter growing support for the Palestinian cause within the party, including elections today in Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s money is focused on blocking female candidates who, if elected, are likely to align with “the squad” of progressive members of congress who have been critical of Israel.

Continue reading...

Senate to vote on $40bn Ukraine aid bill initially blocked by Rand Paul – live

Posted on by

A preliminary vote on military, humanitarian and economic aid to Kyiv is expected today, setting up a final vote on Wednesday

• Scrutiny of Republicans who embrace ‘great replacement theory’ after Buffalo massacre

A group of voters who challenged extremist congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s eligibility to run for re-election have filed an appeal of the Georgia secretary of state’s decision that she can appear on the ballot.

The five voters from Greene’s district alleged that the rightwing Republican played a significant role in the 6 January Capitol attack, which they said put her in violation of a 14th amendment clause concerning insurrection and ineligibility for office.

Continue reading...

US gun violence over weekend puts focus on easy access to weapons

Posted on by

Violence includes Buffalo shooting that left 10 people dead, as well as two dead in Houston, one in Los Angeles and five in Chicago

America on Monday was picking up the pieces from a weekend of gun violence that – outside the cost of lives – has refocused the country’s leadership on the toxic interplay of political ideology and easy access to handguns and battlefield weapons.

In the most recent case, two people were killed Sunday and at least three others hospitalized after a shooting at a large Houston, Texas, flea market. In California, also on Sunday, at least one person died and five were wounded – including four listed in critical condition – after a shooting at a church with a predominantly Taiwanese congregation in Orange county, south of Los Angeles.

Continue reading...

Fauci says he will resign if Trump retakes the presidency in 2024

Posted on by

Fauci said ‘no’ when asked if he would stay on as National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases director under Trump again

The US’s top infectious disease expert has said he would resign if Donald Trump retakes the presidency in 2024.

Dr Anthony Fauci bluntly said “no” when CNN’s Jim Acosta asked him during an interview on Sunday if he would want to stay on as the director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases in the event that voters gave Trump a second stint as president.

Continue reading...

John Fetterman, Democratic Pennsylvania Senate candidate, suffers stroke

Posted on by

Lieutenant governor and frontrunner in Democratic primary says he’s recovering and insists ‘campaign isn’t slowing down one bit’

John Fetterman, the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania and frontrunner in the state’s Democratic US Senate primary, suffered a stroke Friday, and is recovering, he said in a statement.

“On Friday, I wasn’t feeling well, so I went to the hospital to get checked out. I didn’t want to go – I didn’t think I had to – but Gisele insisted, and as usual, she was right,” Fetterman said in a statement posted to Twitter, referring to his wife. “I hadn’t been feeling well, but was so focused on the campaign that I ignored the signs and just kept going.”

Continue reading...

Nancy Pelosi: supreme court ‘dangerous to families and to freedoms’

Posted on by

House speaker rails against conservative judges appointed by Trump as justices prepare to finalize draft abortion ruling

The supreme court is “dangerous to families and to freedoms in our country”, Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday, as justices prepare to finalize a draft ruling stripping almost have a century of abortion rights in the US.

The House speaker railed against conservative judges appointed by former president Donald Trump in an interview Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, in which she urged Democrats to keep their “eye on the ball” to protect other freedoms she sees under threat.

Continue reading...

‘A history maker’: Karine Jean-Pierre set for White House press secretary role

Posted on by

She will be the first Black openly gay woman to step into the role, a symbol of change after the Donald Trump era

This week the blue door will slide back, a Black woman will walk to the lectern and a piece of White House history will be made.

Karine Jean-Pierre, facing rows of reporters and cameras, will be making her briefing room debut as the first Black woman and first openly gay person in the role of press secretary. Not that there will be much time to stand on ceremony.

Continue reading...

Pro-choice demonstrators rally across the US over expected reversal of Roe v Wade – live

Posted on by

Thousands take to the streets in opposition to supreme court’s draft opinion scrapping constitutional right to abortion

• ‘We will not go back’: Thousands rally for abortion rights across the US

• Clarence Thomas calls leak of supreme court abortion draft ‘tremendously bad’

• ‘This is real’: in Oklahoma, a post-Roe world has arrived

State judicial races become increasingly politicized over issues such as abortion, partisan gerrymandering and gun rights.

Spending and campaigning around the judicial races could intensify if the US supreme court overturns Roe v Wade, which a leaked draft opinion indicates justices are prepared to do.

“State courts are going to be front-and-center in the fight over abortion access,” said Doug Keith, an attorney in the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program. “These races in some states are likely going to take a prominence that they’ve never had before.”

Continue reading...