Category Archives: US Politics

‘I’m not walking anything back’: Biden defends comment that Putin can’t stay in power – US politics as it happened

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The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack is expected to discuss Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, tonight, before it officially considers holding in criminal contempt of Congress two of Donald Trump’s most senior White House advisers, Dan Scavino and Peter Navarro.

The move to initiate contempt proceedings against the two Trump aides amounts to a biting rebuke of their refusal to cooperate with the inquiry, as the panel deploys its most punitive measures to reaffirm the consequences of noncompliance.

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Biden targets America’s wealthiest with proposed minimum tax on billionaires

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Tax on households over $100m aims to ensure wealthiest Americans no longer pay lower rate than teachers and firefighters

Joe Biden proposed a new tax on America’s richest households when he unveiled his latest budget on Monday.

The Biden administration wants to impose a 20% minimum tax on households worth more than $100m. The proposal would raise more than $360bn over the next decade and “would make sure that the wealthiest Americans no longer pay a tax rate lower than teachers and firefighters”, according to a factsheet released by the White House.

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Republican senator says tax rises in own plan are ‘Democratic talking points’

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Rick Scott of Florida grilled on Fox News Sunday about suggested income tax rise and letting social security and Medicare fall

A Republican senator and reputed presidential hopeful found himself in a tough spot when he claimed tax rises contained in his own “11 point plan to rescue America” were “Democratic talking points” instead.

“No, no, it’s in the plan!” his interviewer exclaimed, on Fox News Sunday. “It’s in the plan!”

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Capitol attack panel expects to hear how militia groups coordinated plans before insurrection

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Testimony could play a major role in establishing whether Trump oversaw a criminal conspiracy in efforts to overturn 2020 election

Behind closed doors in a nondescript conference room at the foot of Capitol Hill, the House select committee investigating 6 January next week expects to hear testimony about the connections between the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys militia groups and the Capitol attack.

The panel expects to hear how the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys coordinated their plans and movements in the days before the insurrection to the same level of detail secured by the justice department and referenced in recent prosecutions for seditious conspiracy.

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Republican won’t say whether Capitol attack panel will question Ginni Thomas

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Adam Kinzinger vows to ‘get to the bottom’ of insurrection after Clarence Thomas’s wife reportedly urged White House to overturn Trump’s election defeat

Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republican members on January 6 committee, on Sunday vowed to “get to the bottom” of events surrounding the 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol but refused to reveal whether the panel intends to question Ginni Thomas – wife of US supreme court justice Clarence Thomas – over reports of her urging the White House to overturn Donald Trump’s election defeat.

Senior Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar said Clarence Thomas must recuse himself from relevant cases and warned the integrity of the supreme court is at stake.

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Taliban reversal on girls’ education derails US plan for diplomatic recognition

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Joint event had been planned ahead of Doha Forum that would have set process in motion to grant group diplomatic recognition

The US was poised to set the Taliban on the path to diplomatic recognition before the plan was derailed by the Afghan rulers’ sudden U-turn on a promise to allow girls’ education, the Guardian understands.

The group prompted international outrage and confusion on Wednesday when it reneged on a deal to allow teenage girls to go to secondary school, just a week after the education ministry announced that schools would open for all students.

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Chris Wallace: working at Fox News became ‘unsustainable’ after election

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Journalist’s new show begins on archrival CNN’s streaming service after nearly 20 years with the right-leaning cable channel

Chris Wallace has said working at Fox News became “increasingly unsustainable” before he jumped ship to CNN last December after almost 20 years with the right-leaning cable channel.

His departure dealt a blow to Fox’s news operation at a time when its opinion side had become preeminent. The veteran journalist’s new show begins on archrival CNN’s streaming service this week and the 74-year-old spoke to the New York Times.

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US congressman Jeff Fortenberry resigns after conviction for lying to FBI

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Nebraska Republican Jeff Fortenberry stepped down after concerted pressure from both Washington and his own state

The Nebraska congressman Jeff Fortenberry has resigned from office after a California jury convicted him of lying to federal authorities about an illegal campaign donation from a foreign national.

In a letter to the House on Saturday, nine-term Republican Fortenberry said he was resigning from Congress, effective 31 March.

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‘Smartest one gets to the top’: Trump again praises Putin at Georgia rally

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Ex-president also had warm words for Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un at event as primary races heat up before midterms elections

Donald Trump chose a rally in Georgia on Saturday night once again to praise Vladimir Putin, calling the Russian president “smart” even as he said the invasion of Ukraine amounted to a “big mistake”.

The Republican former president also had warm words for China’s president Xi Jinping and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and referred to such leaders collectively by saying: “The smartest one gets to the top.”

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Biden in Poland for meetings on Ukraine refugee crisis – US politics as it happened

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Joe Manchin is back in the headlines with an apparent offer to revive Democrats’ climate and social spending plans – aims he had a lot to do with thwarting in December.

The Washington Post cites two sources in saying the West Virginia senator, who holds outsized power as a centrist swing vote in the 50-50 chamber, “wants the bill to take an ‘all-of-the-above’ approach to energy policy … and that it’s still possible to reach a deal that includes billions of dollars’ worth of provisions to tackle climate change, cut prescription drug costs and update the tax code.

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Maryland judge rules Democratic-drawn electoral map is unconstitutional

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Legislature was accused of gerrymandering after substituting its own new district maps for ones drafted by outside commission

A Maryland judge ruled on Friday that the state’s new congressional map is unconstitutional, the first map by a Democratic-controlled state legislature to be struck down by a court this redistricting cycle.

So far courts have intervened to block maps they found to be GOP gerrymanders in North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania, infuriating Republicans and leading conservatives to push for the US supreme court to limit the power of state courts to overturn maps drawn by state legislatures.

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US congressman convicted of lying to FBI in campaign funds case

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Nebraska Republican Jeff Fortenberry found guilty in case involving illegal campaign contributions from foreign billionaire

A Nebraska congressman has been found guilty of three felonies for lying to the FBI about illegal campaign contributions from a foreign billionaire.

A federal jury in Los Angeles convicted Jeff Fortenberry, a nine-term Republican, on Thursday of concealing information and two counts of providing false statements to authorities.

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Ginni Thomas urged Trump’s chief of staff to overturn election results

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In texts to Mark Meadows, the wife of supreme court justice Clarence Thomas pushed Trump’s ‘big lie’

In the weeks following the 2020 election, the conservative activist Ginni Thomas – who is married to the supreme court justice Clarence Thomas – repeatedly implored Donald Trump’s chief of staff to help overturn the results, according to text messages obtained by the Washington Post and CBS News.

In one of 29 messages seen by the news outlets, Thomas wrote to Mark Meadows on 10 November: “Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!! … You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America’s constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History.”

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Violence in Mexico and Central America driving large waves of migration

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Biden administration will institute expedited processing – and sometimes removal – of asylum seekers to clear backlog

Waves of migration through Mexico and Central America, and people who go missing, will increase in 2022 due to high levels of violence in the region, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.

“In many countries, violence is wreaking more and more havoc, and that’s why there are more and more migrants,” ICRC representative Jordi Raich told Reuters in an interview Wednesday. “And it’s not a situation that is going to improve or slow down, not even in the years to come.“

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Mitch McConnell says he will not support Ketanji Brown Jackson nomination – as it happened

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The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the new sanctions on members of the Russian Duma would punish lawmakers who have “supported the Kremlin’s violations of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

“President Putin’s war continues to inflict horror and widespread suffering on the people of Ukraine,” Blinken said in a statement.

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US ‘will not entertain’ UK trade deal that risks Good Friday agreement

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US congressman Richard Neal says peace deal must not be held ‘hostage over domestic politics’

A bilateral trade deal between the US and the UK is “desirable” but will not progress while the Northern Ireland peace deal is being used for domestic political purposes, one of the most powerful American congressmen has warned.

Richard Neal, the chairman of the ways and means committee, has told the Guardian: “We will not entertain a trade agreement if there is any jeopardy to the Good Friday agreement.

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Madeleine Albright, first female US secretary of state, dies aged 84

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Former cabinet member was ‘a trailblazer’ as the highest-ranking woman in history when she was named to the role in 1996

Madeleine Albright, who came to the US as a refugee and made history as the first woman to be secretary of state, has died. She was 84.

A family statement read: “We are heartbroken to announce that Dr Madeleine Albright, the 64th US secretary of state … passed away earlier today.

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Republican says Trump asked him to ‘rescind’ 2020 election and remove Biden from office

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Mo Brooks of Alabama appeared at the rally before the Capitol assault and is under scrutiny by January 6 committee

The Alabama Republican congressman Mo Brooks said on Tuesday Donald Trump asked him to “rescind” the 2020 election, remove Joe Biden from the White House and reinstate Trump.

The extraordinary statement came in an angry response to a withdrawn endorsement in a US Senate race. Trump was angered that Brooks was insufficiently toeing his line on calling the 2020 election a fraud.

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‘A trailblazer’: political leaders pay tribute to Madeleine Albright

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Obama, Bush, Blair and others hail first female secretary of state: ‘She lived out the American dream’

Tributes flooded in on Wednesday to Madeleine Albright, the first woman to hold the position of US secretary of state, who has died at the age of 84.

“Madeleine Albright was a force,” said Joe Biden in a statement. “Hers were the hands that turned the tide of history.”

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Madeleine Albright, first female US secretary of state, dies at 84 – as it happened

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In a sign of life slowly returning to normal, public tours of the US Capitol will resume on Monday in a limited capacity for the first time since March 2020, when the building closed amid the coronavirus pandemic.

We are pleased to announce that on Monday, March 28, 2022, public tours of the Capitol will resume with a limited number of member-led, staff-led tours, and school groups,” sergeant-at-arms William Walker and attending physician Brian Monahan wrote in a memo to lawmakers and Capitol staff.

“Since March 2020, the US Capitol, and the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) has been closed to tours. The decision to reinstate limited tours has been made in coordination with Congressional Leadership, the US Capitol Police Board, the Attending Physician, Capitol Visitor Services, and the US Capitol Police. We appreciate your continued patience and cooperation as we work together to resume public tours of the Capitol for the American people in a way that protects the health and safety of visitors and institutional staff alike.”

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