Category Archives: US Politics

Why the collapse of Biden’s Build Back Better would be a major blow to the climate fight

Posted on by

It would be almost impossible for the US to comply with its greenhouse gas reduction pledges without the $1.75tn package that Manchin refuses to support

The collapse of Joe Biden’s Build Back Better legislation would have disastrous consequences for the global climate crisis, making it almost impossible for the US to comply with its greenhouse gas reduction pledges made under the Paris accords.

The US president’s sweeping economic recovery and social welfare bill is in serious trouble after the Democratic senator Joe Manchin announced his opposition to the $1.75tn spending package that includes the country’s largest ever climate crisis investment.

Continue reading...

Michael Flynn sues Capitol attack committee in bid to block subpoena

Posted on by

Lawsuit filed by longtime adviser to Donald Trump is the latest in a flood of litigation by targets of the committee

Michael Flynn, a longtime adviser to Donald Trump, has sued the congressional committee investigating the deadly 6 January attack on the US Capitol in hopes of blocking it from obtaining his phone records.

Flynn alleged in a lawsuit, filed in federal court in Florida, that a subpoena issued to him by the House of Representatives select committee was too broad in scope and punishes him for constitutionally protected speech as a private citizen.

Continue reading...

Republican congressman refuses to cooperate with Capitol attack panel

Posted on by

Scott Perry is first sitting member of Congress to get request for interview as Trump announces 6 January press conference

Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican and the first sitting member of Congress to be requested to provide documents and sit for an interview with the committee investigating the Capitol riot, said on Tuesday he would not comply with the panel.

The news came shortly after Donald Trump provocatively announced that he will hold a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort on 6 January, the first anniversary of the deadly attack on Congress.

Continue reading...

Trump’s Peace review: dysfunction and accord in US Israel policy

Posted on by

Barak Ravid has written a fascinating account of four chaotic years in which some progress was nonetheless made

Trump’s Peace is a blockbuster of a book. Barak Ravid captures the 45th president saying “Fuck him” to Benjamin Netanyahu and reducing American Jews to antisemitic caricatures. Imagine the Republican reaction if Barack Obama had done that. Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham would plotz. But Trump? Crickets.

Ravid also delivers a mesmerizing tick-tock of the making of the Abraham Accords, the normalization of Israel’s relations with four non-neighboring Arab states.

Continue reading...

White House rebukes Manchin after ‘no’ to Biden spending plan deals huge blow

Posted on by
  • $1.75tn domestic spending plan all but dead in the water
  • Senator accused of ‘breach of commitment’ to president

The West Virginia senator Joe Manchin dealt a huge blow to Joe Biden on Sunday, saying “no” to the $1.75tn Build Back Better domestic spending plan. The White House issued a stinging rebuke in return, stoking a bitter war of words in a party sharply divided between moderates and progressives.

The White House accused Manchin of going back on his word.

Continue reading...

Joe Manchin says he ‘cannot get there’ on Build Back Better bill – video

Posted on by

Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat who is key to President Joe Biden's hopes of passing a $1.75tn domestic investment bill, has said he will not support the package.

Manchin has been a key holdout on the White House's Build Back Better plan, which aims to bolster the social safety net and fight climate change, and is the cornerstone of Biden's legislative agenda.

'I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation,' Manchin told Fox News, citing concerns about inflation. 'I just can't. I have tried everything humanly possible.'

Continue reading...

Fauci: Omicron ‘raging through the world’ and travel increases Covid risks

Posted on by

The Omicron variant of Covid-19 has “extraordinary spreading capabilities”, the top US infectious diseases expert said on Sunday, and promises to bring a bleak winter as it continues “raging through the world”.

Dr Anthony Fauci’s warning came ahead of the busy holiday travel period, which he said would elevate the risk of infection even in vaccinated people.

Continue reading...

Republicans are shamelessly working to subvert democracy. Are Democrats paying attention?

Posted on by

Voting rights activists say the country has not fully awakened to the threat

A dry run. A dress rehearsal. A practice coup. As the first anniversary of the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol approaches, there is no shortage of warnings about the danger of a repeat by Republicans.

But even as Donald Trump loyalists lay siege to democracy with voting restrictions and attempts to take over the running of elections, there are fears that Democrats in Washington have not fully woken up to the threat.

Continue reading...

Kamala Harris concedes White House ‘didn’t see’ Delta and Omicron coming

Posted on by

Vice-president’s candid admission on Covid variants came in wide-ranging interview with the Los Angeles Times

Kamala Harris has conceded that the Biden administration was blind to the emergence of the Delta and Omicron variants of Covid-19, and said she fears “misinformation” over vaccines will prolong the pandemic well into a third year.

The candid admission came in a wide-ranging interview with the Los Angeles Times, which followed reports that the vice-president was “struggling” to make a mark as Joe Biden’s No 2 and was keen for a more prominent role.

Continue reading...

Rahm Emanuel leads confirmed Biden nominees in late-night logjam break

Posted on by

Ex-Obama chief of staff will go to Japan after deal for vote on Russia pipeline sanctions ends Republican Senate resistance

The former Obama White House chief of staff and Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel was among more than 30 ambassadors and other Biden nominees confirmed by the Senate early on Saturday.

The Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, broke a Republican-stoked logjam by agreeing to schedule a vote on sanctions on the company behind the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that will deliver natural gas from Russia to Germany.

Continue reading...

Mark Meadows was at the center of the storm on 6 January. But only Trump could call it off

Posted on by

Trump’s former White House chief of staff has become a character of supreme interest to the Capitol attack committee, with a treasure trove of documents divulging golden nuggets of information

On the morning of 29 December, eight days before hundreds of Trump supporters and far-right extremists stormed the US Capitol in the worst domestic attack on American democracy arguably since the civil war, the White House chief of staff Mark Meadows fired off an email to the head of the justice department.

It was a strange message for Donald Trump’s right-hand man to send to Jeffrey Rosen, acting US attorney general, given that the material in it was written entirely in Italian. It attached a letter addressed to Trump from an Italian named Carlo Goria who said he worked for a US aerospace company and then went on to regurgitate a conspiracy theory that was doing the rounds, known as “Italygate”.

Continue reading...

Biden: ‘I’ve never seen anything like the unrelenting assault on the right to vote’ – live

Posted on by

During South Carolina State University’s commencement ceremony this morning, Joe Biden also received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from the historically Black college.

In his remarks at South Carolina State University’s commencement ceremony, Joe Biden also addressed Congress’ failure to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

Continue reading...

Joe Biden visits Kentucky after tornadoes kill at least 74 people – live

Posted on by

Joe Biden has arrived in Kentucky to survey the damage wrought by the tornadoes that swept through the state on Friday and killed at least 74 people.

Biden was greeted at Ft Campbell Airport by Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, First Lady Britainy Beshear and former Governor Steve Beshear, who is the father of Andy.

Continue reading...

Capitol attack a ‘coordinated act of terrorism’, says DC lawsuit against far-right groups – as it happened

Posted on by

Karl Racine, the attorney general of the District of Columbia, in filing federal suit against the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, states that: “The District seeks compensatory, statutory and punitive relief and, by filing this action, intends to make clear that it will not countenance the use of violence against the District, including its police officers.

The lawsuit filed in federal court moments ago lists as defendants not only the far right, white nationalist groups the Proud Boys (of Aubrey, Texas, per the suit) and Oathkeepers (of Las Vegas, Nevada), but also lists 32 individuals deemed to have associations to those groups, as well as noting there are 50 other unnamed defendants collectively referred to as “John and Jane Does 1 - 50”.

Continue reading...

Capitol attack panel recommends Mark Meadows for criminal prosecution

Posted on by

In a unanimous vote, the committee said Donald Trump’s former chief of staff attempted to obstruct the 6 January investigation

The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack on Monday voted to recommend the criminal prosecution for former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, punishing Donald Trump’s most senior aide for refusing to testify about the 6 January insurrection.

The select committee advanced the contempt of Congress report for Meadows unanimously, sending the matter to a vote before the full House of Representatives, which is expected to approve the citation as soon as Tuesday.

Continue reading...

Fauci urges Americans to get Covid booster as US nears 800,000 deaths

Posted on by

Leading infectious diseases official warns Omicron variant appears to be able to ‘evade’ protection of two initial doses

The US government’s leading infectious diseases official, Anthony Fauci, on Sunday stepped up calls for Americans to get a Covid-19 booster shot, as the US is approaching 800,000 lives lost to coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.

Fauci warned that the Omicron variant appeared to be able to “evade” the protection of two initial doses of the mRNA-type Covid vaccines – Pfizer/BioNTech’s and Moderna’s – as well as post-infection therapies such as monoclonal antibodies and convalescent plasma.

Continue reading...

Capitol attack panel obtains PowerPoint that set out plan for Trump to stage coup

Posted on by

Presentation turned over by Mark Meadows made several recommendations for Trump to pursue to retain presidency

Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows turned over to the House select committee investigating the 6 January Capitol attack a PowerPoint recommending Donald Trump to declare a national security emergency in order to return himself to the presidency.

The fact that Meadows was in possession of a PowerPoint the day before the Capitol attack that detailed ways to stage a coup suggests he was at least aware of efforts by Trump and his allies to stop Joe Biden’s certification from taking place on 6 January.

Continue reading...

Sotomayor decries abortion ruling but court’s conservatives show their muscle

Posted on by

The highest court in the US has been defied by a group of extremist Republicans openly flouting the court’s own rulings

Sonia Sotomayor, the liberal-leaning justice on the US supreme court, put it plainly. For almost three months, lawmakers in the Republican-controlled legislature of Texas had “substantially suspended a constitutional guarantee: a pregnant woman’s right to control her own body”.

“The court should have put an end to this madness months ago,” Sotomayor said.

Continue reading...

Biden faces vaccine mandate pushback from own party despite support of scientists

Posted on by

Two Democratic senators push back against president’s rules for large businesses as cases continue to rise in the US

Two Democratic senators have resisted Joe Biden’s vaccine-or-test mandate for large businesses, illustrating problems the US president faces even within a faction of his own party, despite having the support of scientists and public health experts.

The US Senate on Wednesday evening voted to overturn the mandate as new cases and hospitalizations continue rising in the country.

Continue reading...

Court rules against Trump effort to shield documents from Capitol attack panel – live

Posted on by

House speaker Nancy Pelosi said she considered it to be a point of pride that Bob Dole started his career in the lower chamber before being elected to the Senate.

Praising the former Republican senator’s “legendary service” and “inspiring resilience,” Pelosi said it was hard to think of another American more worthy of having a flag draped over his casket.

Continue reading...