Category Archives: US Politics

‘We’re going to get this done’: Biden on Capitol Hill to push infrastructure package – live

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  • President to discuss massive $3.5tn plan over lunch with Democrats
  • Senate minority leader McConnell hits back at Biden on voting rights

Joe Biden is meeting with a bipartisan group of mayors and governors to discuss the bipartisan infrastructure framework.

Among the attendees are New Jersey governor Phil Murphy and Illinois governor JB Pritzker, both Democrats, as well as Vermont governor Phil Scott, a Republican.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi announced her appointees to the January 6 select committee earlier this month, after the chamber voted in favor of forming the panel.

In addition to Republican Liz Cheney, Pelosi named Democrats Bennie Thompson, Elaine Luria, Jamie Raskin, Stephanie Murphy, Pete Aguilar, Adam Schiff and Zoe Lofgren to the committee. Thompson, who chairs the House homeland security committee, will serve as chairman.

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Biden condemns Trump’s claim of voter fraud: ‘The big lie is just that, a big lie’ – live

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  • President deflects questions over the filibuster in voting rights speech
  • Biden: ‘The 21st century Jim Crow assault is real. It’s unrelenting’
  • Lawmakers arrive in DC to call for legislation to strengthen voting rights
  • Explainer: why did Democratic lawmakers flee Texas?

Texas Democratic lawmakers have fled their state in a desperate attempt to stop the Republican-run legislature from passing laws they say will suppress the vote of people of color.

The extreme move – which saw dozens of Democrats leave via planes and head to Washington DC – is the latest and wildest escalation in a fight over voting rights in the state and in America more broadly.

Related: Why did Democratic lawmakers flee Texas over voter restrictions?

As fires propagate throughout the US west on the heels of record heatwaves, experts are warning that the region is caught in a vicious feedback cycle of extreme heat, drought and fire, all amplified by the climate crisis.

Firefighters are battling blazes from Arizona to Washington state that are burning with a worrying ferocity, while officials say California is already set to outpace last year’s record-breaking fire season.

Related: American west stuck in cycle of ‘heat, drought and fire’, experts warn

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Drunken Giuliani urged Trump to ‘just say we won’ on election night, book says

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As key states started to slip away from Trump, Rudy Giuliani repeatedly urged former president to lie, according to new book

A drunken Rudy Giuliani repeatedly urged Donald Trump to “just say we won” on election night last November, according to a new book, even as key states started to slip away from the president and defeat by Joe Biden drew near.

Related: Landslide review: Michael Wolff’s third Trump book is his best – and most alarming

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Biden to denounce Trump’s lies about stolen election in Tuesday speech

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Jen Psaki said he will also ‘decry efforts to strip the right to vote’ as Republican state legislatures pass voter suppression bills

Joe Biden, who has been criticised for failing to use his “bully pulpit” to defend voting rights, is set to deliver on Tuesday an aggressive denunciation of Donald Trump’s “big lie” about a stolen election.

After months of sidestepping acrimony with his predecessor in a bid to lower the political temperature, Biden will argue that Trump’s false conspiracy theories led to the 6 January insurrection and a rash of voter restrictions, the White House said.

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Kamala Harris faces scrutiny and tests in first six months as vice-president

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The vice-president was handed what some saw as a poisoned chalice of leading the southern border response and faces ‘unique hurdles’ in the administration

Kamala Harris looked glad to be back at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington. “The first office I ever ran for was probably the most difficult campaign I’ve ever been in,” she recalled with laughter, “and that was freshman class representative of what was then called the liberal arts student council.”

Related: How Trump’s big lie has been weaponized since the Capitol attack

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Biden balancing act with the left put to the test as he pushes key legislation

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  • Democratic progressives urge Biden to go big on infrastructure
  • Regular meetings with left but moderates remain powerful

It is one of the most delicate balancing acts in American politics: how to keep together a Democratic party whose lawmakers range from the democratic socialism of the New York congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez to the staunch conservatism of the West Virginia senator Joe Manchin.

But as Joe Biden’s administration has pushed both parts of his ambitious infrastructure plan through Congress, top Democratic officials and aides have made a point of working hard to keep the fractious sects of the party on Capitol Hill in check.

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Haiti requests US send troops after president’s assassination – live

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Haiti’s ambassador to the US has requested that the US State Department issue sanctions against the killers of Jovenel Moïse, the country’s president.

The Haitian government had also asked the FBI to intervene, saying it could “can play a critical role in rendering justice,” and called for sanctions on those who “are directly responsible or aided and abetted in the execution of the assassination of the president,” according to a letter from Haitian ambassador Bocchit Edmond to US secretary of state Antony Blinken, ABC News reports.

Related: Haiti requests US troops to protect infrastructure after assassination

Joe Biden has fired Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul, the Washington Post reported. Advocates for the elderly and the disabled had urged Biden to remove him due to his policies restricting benefits.

The Post reports:

Saul was fired after refusing a request to resign, White House officials said. His deputy, David Black, who was also appointed by former president Donald Trump, resigned Friday upon request.

Biden named Kilolo Kijakazi, the current deputy commissioner for retirement and disability policy, to serve as acting commissioner until a permanent nominee is selected.

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Biden says ‘I will not send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan’ – live

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Michael Avenatti, the former lawyer to Stormy Daniels who repeatedly clashed with Donald Trump during his presidency, has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for trying to extort Nike.

Reuters reports:

U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe in Manhattan said Avenatti, 50, ‘had become drunk on the power of his platform’ in betraying his client, a youth basketball coach, in order to obtain riches for himself.

The sentencing caps a precipitous downfall for a once-obscure lawyer who in 2018 became a cable news fixture, disparaging then-President Trump and even flirting with a White House run himself.

Joe Biden rejected comparisons between the end of the Vietnam War and the conclusion of the war in Afghanistan, insisting the two events are nothing alike.

However, some American veterans have said they feel the US military is leaving a job undone in Afghanistan, just as it did in Vietnam. Some also fear that Kabul will soon fall to the Taliban, as Saigon fell after US troops departed Vietnam.

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Trump told chief of staff Hitler ‘did a lot of good things’, book says

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  • Remark shocked John Kelly, author Michael Bender reports
  • Book details former president’s ‘stunning disregard for history’

On a visit to Europe to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the first world war, Donald Trump insisted to his then chief of staff, John Kelly: “Well, Hitler did a lot of good things.”

Related: Nightmare Scenario review: Trump, Covid and a lasting national trauma

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Ex-police captain Eric Adams wins Democratic primary for New York mayor

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Adams, who tacked to center in large field of candidates, is expected to win in general election

Eric Adams, a former police captain, has won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City after appealing to the political center and promising to strike the right balance between fighting crime and ending racial injustice in policing.

Adams would be the city’s second Black mayor if elected. He triumphed over a large field in New York’s first major race to use ranked-choice voting.

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Biden to discuss Covid response after US misses vaccination target – live

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Joe Biden will soon deliver remarks on his administration’s ongoing efforts to vaccinate more Americans against coronavirus.

The Biden administration has already said it will launch more targeted outreach efforts in communities with lower vaccination rates, amid concerns about the spread of the delta variant of the virus.

The Hillbilly Elegy author turned Republican Ohio Senate candidate JD Vance has apologised for a former political position: critic of Donald Trump.

“Like a lot of people, I criticised Trump back in 2016,” Vance told Fox News. “And I ask folks not to judge me based on what I said in 2016, because I’ve been very open that I did say those critical things and I regret them, and I regret being wrong about the guy.”

Related: Hillbilly Elegy author JD Vance sorry for since-deleted anti-Trump tweets

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Capitol attack: what Pelosi’s select committee is likely to investigate

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The body created by the speaker will have a broad mandate to examine the facts, circumstances and causes of the Capitol attack

Nancy Pelosi’s creation of a House select committee to investigate the 6 January insurrection reopens the possibility of a comprehensive inquiry into myriad security failures and the causes of the deadly attack on Congress by a pro-Trump mob.

Related: Nancy Pelosi signals hard line on formation of 6 January select committee

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Fourth of July: US celebrates but White House does not mandate masks or vaccines

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Coronavirus coordinator defends move at event: ‘You’re protected if you’re vaccinated. You’re not protected if you’re not’

Americans marked their nation’s 245th birthday on Sunday with fireworks, hotdogs, marching bands and a sense of great relief, after the coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of nearly all celebrations last year.

Related: Delta variant will cause US Covid surges, Fauci says, as poll reveals vaccine resistance

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Republicans revive soft-on-crime rhetoric amid rise in US homicides

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Biden rolls out fresh policy proposals to try to counter rising crime as Democrats look to bat away Republican attacks

Rising crime rates in the US and efforts from the White House and in Congress to pass sweeping police reform legislation have thrust crime policy into the center of the national political debate.

In early mayoral, congressional and senatorial campaigns, attacks are flying back and forth over whether candidates are tough on crime or want to defund the police, often using blunt language that masks the nuances of a complicated issue.

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The new circus comes to town: fiery support for Donald Trump at rain-soaked Florida rally

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Fireworks, a Trump impersonator and undying belief in the former president at his second rally after leaving office

Their trust in Trump remains unshaken.

Supporters of Donald Trump, the former US president, gathered in their thousands at a rain-soaked rally in Florida on Saturday unmoved by criminal charges against his business.

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Fauci says regional vaccine disparities could create ‘two types of America’ – live

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  • Top expert encourages vaccination amid Delta variant spread
  • Defense secretary wants to remove decisions from commanders
  • President celebrates 3m jobs created since he took office
  • Trump financial chief Allen Weisselberg and company charged

Two-thirds of Americans believe democracy is under threat, polls finds

This is Lois Beckett, picking up our live US politics coverage from Los Angeles.

NEW: Two-thirds of U.S. adults believe that American democracy is under threat according to the latest @NewsHour/@NPR/@maristpoll. https://t.co/TnYS66pXqA

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Lois Beckett, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

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Joe and Jill Biden travel to Miami to meet with families of condo collapse victims – live

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Attorneys for Allen Weisselberg said the Trump Organization executive planned to plead “not guilty” to the charges he faces, per CNN.

Weisselberg’s lawyers also said he “will fight these charges in court.” The charges are likely linked to allegations that he failed to properly report company perks.

Weisselberg’s attorneys, Mary Mulligan and Bryan Skarlatos, said he plans to plead not guilty and “will fight these charges in court.”

The Guardian’s Dominic Rushe and agency report:

The Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, surrendered to the Manhattan district attorney’s office early on Thursday as he and the Trump family business prepare to face criminal charges in a tax-related investigation.

Related: Trump Organization executive surrenders to face charges in tax investigation

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Trump Organization executive surrenders to face charges in tax investigation

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Trump Organization’s CFO, Allen Weisselberg, is preparing to face charges in tax-related investigation that marks a turning point for former president

The Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, surrendered to the Manhattan district attorney’s office early on Thursday as he and the Trump family business prepare to face criminal charges in a tax-related investigation.

Weisselberg, who has worked for the Trump family for nearly 50 years, entered a building housing Manhattan’s criminal court, where he and a Trump Organization representative are expected to appear later in the day.

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House votes to set up select committee into 6 January storming of Capitol – as it happened

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Two Republicans – Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger – join Democrats in voting for panel to investigate attack – follow live

– Joan E Greve and Maanvi Singh

Sarah Betancourt reports:

South Dakota’s Republican governor, Kristi Noem, is deploying up to 50 national guard troops to the southern US border, responding to a call from the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, for help dealing with a rise in border crossing, although the majority of migrants have been sent back to Mexico.

Related: South Dakota governor uses private funds to send troops to Mexico border

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Biden to visit Miami on Thursday as 150 still missing after condo collapse – live

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Here’s where the day stands so far:

The mayor of Miami-Dade county said there were no new fatalities confirmed today, as search-and-rescue efforts continue at the site of the Surfside condo collapse.

The mayor, Daniella Levine Cava, added that each of the families of the 11 confirmed victims have been notified.

Miami-Dade County mayor updates on building collapse:

- No new fatalities confirmed since last briefing
- Families of all 11 deceased victims have been notified
- 210 people working on mound
- Pres. Biden to meet with families, first respondershttps://t.co/lHgwAdKz7Z pic.twitter.com/qC3naJmNti

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