Category Archives: US Politics

Obama says Trump violated ‘core tenet’ of democracy with election ‘hooey’ – as it happened

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– Maanvi Singh and Vivian Ho

As the United States has become more diverse, it has also become more racially segregated, according to a new nationwide analysis from researchers at the University of California, Berkeley.

More than 80% of America’s large metropolitan areas were more racially segregated in 2019 than they were in 1990, the researchers found, even though explicit racial discrimination in housing has been outlawed for half a century. The levels of residential segregation appeared highest not in the American south, but in parts of the north-east and midwest: the most segregated metropolitan area in the US according to the study is New York City, followed by Chicago, Milwaukee and Detroit.

Related: ‘Where you live determines everything’: why segregation is growing in the US

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Obama: Trump broke ‘core tenet’ of democracy with ‘bunch of hooey’ over election

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Ex-president calls for action to stop ‘delegitimizing of democracy’ during redistricting fundraiser

Barack Obama said on Monday that his successor in office, Donald Trump, violated a “core tenet” of democracy when he made up a “bunch of hooey” about last year’s election and refused to concede he lost.

Speaking at his first virtual fundraiser since the 2020 election, the former Democratic president said former Republican president’s claims undermined the legitimacy of US elections and helped lead to other anti-democratic measures such as efforts to suppress the vote.

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New Michael Wolff book reports Trump’s confusion during Capitol attack

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Mark Meadows reportedly said ‘We can’t organize that’ after Trump told supporters he’d march, according to Landslide

Donald Trump told supporters he would march on the Capitol with them on 6 January – then abandoned them after a tense exchange with his chief of staff, according to the first excerpt from Landslide, Michael Wolff’s third Trump White House exposé.

Related: Top US general got into shouting match with Trump over race protests – report

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‘He’s phoning it in’: why Biden is losing the voting rights fight

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Activist say the president and Democrats have failed to stop Republican efforts to curtail the vote

For months, Biden and other Democrats have raised alarm about efforts to restrict the vote. Republicans have succeeded nonetheless.

Since January, Republican lawmakers in Georgia, Florida, Iowa, Arkansas and Montana have all enacted new legislation that impose new barriers to voting. The successful Republican filibuster this week – which stalled the sweeping voting rights legislation, the For the People Act – only underscored how Democrats have failed to stop GOP efforts to curtail the vote.

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‘Republicans are defunding the police’: Fox News anchor stumps congressman

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The Fox News anchor Chris Wallace made headlines of his own on Sunday, by pointing out to a senior Republican that he and the rest of his party recently voted against $350bn in funding for law enforcement.

Related: Keith Ellison urges Congress to act on stalled police reform after Chauvin sentencing

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Republicans will ‘move forward’ on infrastructure after Biden veto threat

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A lead Republican negotiator has welcomed Joe Biden’s withdrawal of his threat to veto a $1.2tn bipartisan infrastructure bill unless a separate Democratic spending plan also passes Congress.

Related: White House seeks to put infrastructure deal back on track after Biden blunder

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Romney: Trump’s lie that he lost 2020 election from voter fraud ‘like WWF’

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‘It’s entertaining. But it’s not real’, says Utah senator, referring to artificial world of professional wrestling

Donald Trump’s “big lie” that he lost the 2020 US election because of voter fraud is “a bit like WWF”, Mitt Romney said on Sunday, referring to the gaudy and artificial world of professional wrestling, an arena in which Trump starred before entering politics.

Related: ‘First of all, I’m taller’: AOC dismisses Greene’s ‘little communist’ attack

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‘He’s not a quitter’: faithful out in force as Trump gets back to the campaign trail

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Thousands of adoring fans turned out in Ohio to remind America that Trump’s cult of personality never went away

There were raucous cheers and boos. There were Secret Service agents and metal detectors, food trailers in long grass and loudspeakers booming songs by Elton John and Dolly Parton. There were flags, hats, and T-shirts proclaiming Donald Trump the true winner of the 2020 election – or the man to beat in 2024.

And flying overhead was a small plane trailing a banner that proclaimed: “Ohio is Trump country.”

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Donald Trump returns to campaign trail with rally targeting Ohio Republican

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As New York legal troubles mount, ex-president hints at 2024 run and targets those who voted for impeachment

Donald Trump was set to return to the campaign trail with a rally in Ohio on Saturday night, campaigning against a Republican who voted for his impeachment and trailing his own candidacy for president in 2024.

Related: Trump Organization could face criminal charges in New York next week

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Kamala Harris takes heat from both sides in daunting border visit

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Vice-president faced with colossal task as migrants live with brutal reality of arduous journey and border restrictions

The sun beat down on the 30ft border fence that separates El Paso, Texas from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, as temperatures headed towards 100F on the southern border that stands as a symbol for so much in American politics.

Related: Kamala Harris says US-Mexico border situation is ‘tough’ but claims progress

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How Mitch McConnell has unified Republicans as a red wall against Biden’s agenda

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The Senate minority leader has filibustered voting rights legislation, halted a pay gap measure and threatened to block a supreme court nominee

It was a glimpse of Washington past. Beneath the vaulted ceiling and stained glass windows of the national cathedral, Joe Biden greeted Mitch McConnell and other senators in the pews, then offered a hymn to bipartisanship.

“Empathy is the fuel of democracy,” the US president told mourners on Wednesday at the funeral of John Warner, a Republican senator he praised for working across the aisle. “The willingness to see each other as opponents, not as enemies. Above all, to see each other as fellow Americans even when we disagree.”

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Justice department sues state of Georgia over laws that ‘deny the right to vote’ – video

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The justice department is suing the state of Georgia over the new voting laws it says violate the Voting Rights Act and suppress Black Americans' right to vote.

Attorney General Merrick Garland made the announcement after the justice department scrutinized a wave of new laws in Republican-controlled states that tighten voting rules.

Under the bill, the legislature gave itself power to remove local election officials deemed to be underperforming and added a voter ID requirement for mail ballots. It will result in fewer ballot drop boxes in metro Atlanta

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Pence breaks from Trump and calls bid to reverse election result ‘un-American’ – live

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Vice-president Kamala Harris is visiting the Southern border today amid ongoing criticism from Republicans about Harris’s absence from traveling there yet.

VP Kamala Harris boards AF2 to El Paso for her first visit to the border as VP. She was greeted by Sec. Mayorkas, Sen. Durbin and Rep. Escobar, all of whom are joining her on her trip. pic.twitter.com/GFr44Lw62Y

Vice President Kamala Harris will be in El Paso on Friday, where she will tour a Customs and Border Protection processing facility, meeting with advocates and NGOs. She will also be delivering remarks on her visit.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who has been helping with negotiations on immigration legislation on Capitol Hill, and Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, will be accompanying Harris and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on the trip.

Excerpts from a new book about Donald Trump’s presidency includes details about the 45th president’s increasingly violent language in the oval office.

CNN reports:

...the book reveals new details about how Trump’s language became increasingly violent during Oval Office meetings as protests in Seattle and Portland began to receive attention from cable new outlets. The President would highlight videos that showed law enforcement getting physical with protesters and tell his administration he wanted to see more of that behavior, the excerpts show.

“That’s how you’re supposed to handle these people,” Trump told his top law enforcement and military officials, according to Bender. “Crack their skulls!”

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Kamala Harris heads for political minefield on visit to US-Mexico border

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  • Vice-president to visit migrant processing center in El Paso
  • Rises in families and unaccompanied children migrating

Kamala Harris faces the most politically challenging moment of her vice-presidency on Friday when she visits Texas as part of her role leading the Biden administration’s response to recent increases in families and unaccompanied children migrating across the US-Mexico border.

While in El Paso, Texas, she will tour a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) processing center near the international bridge that connects the western city with its twin city, Juárez, across the Rio Grande in Mexico.

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‘We’ve struck a deal’: Biden says agreement reached on infrastructure plan – live

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  • Republican and Democratic senators have reached deal – president
  • Speaker: ‘It is imperative that we seek the truth as to what happened’
  • Giuliani’s New York law license suspended ‘effectively immediately’
  • Biden urges unvaccinated to get shots as ‘deadlier’ Delta strain spreads

Here’s some more on Rudy Giuliani losing (potentially temporarily) his law licence in New York today, from my colleague Sarah Betancourt:

Giuliani, 77, helped lead Trump’s legal challenge of his election loss as his personal attorney. He argued without evidence that voter fraud was rampant in Georgia, and that voting machines in the state and others were rigged. He urged Georgia’s Republican electors to vote for Trump, despite the state’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, and secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, countering there was no evidence of fraud.

Related: Rudy Giuliani barred from practicing law in New York over election lies

Biden has pumped the brakes just a little on the infrastructure bill, saying it must be paired with a larger spending bill, which will likely only be supported by Democrats, if he is to sign it.

“If they don’t [both] come, I’m not signing it. Real simple,” Biden said.

Biden says bipartisan infrastructure deal has to be paired with D-only reconciliation bill.

"If this is the only thing that comes to me I'm not signing. It's in tandem."

Asked about Pelosi plan to hold first bill in House until second bill arrives, says he supports it.

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Kamala Harris to visit US-Mexico border for first time as vice-president – live

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Rising homicide rates and gun violence has become a major issue in local political races, including in the New York mayoral primary elections.

For Joe Biden, rising concern about crime has proved to be a politically convenient opportunity for him to boost gun control reforms he touted as a candidate. But the president’s wide-ranging policy proposals are sure to divide Democrats.

We can't let legitimate concerns about shootings and homicides undermine momentum to overhaul law enforcement. We can't repeat the mistakes of the past and think that we can arrest our way out of rising gun violence. https://t.co/0ifVpEJCFE

Biden is speaking at the White House to explain his administration’s plans to address crime and gun trafficking.

My colleague David Smith is covering the event live:

Joe Biden: “Crime historically rises during the summer.” As we open after the pandemic; the summer spike might be higher than usual. pic.twitter.com/XfWoQ0JGQd

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Democrats seek way forward after voting rights bill hits Senate roadblock

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The White House warned democracy was ‘in peril’ but while key Democrats stay committed to the filibuster, progress looks difficult

After nearly six months of watching Republicans relentlessly make it harder to vote in the US, Democrats suffered a major blow on Tuesday after GOP senators used a legislative maneuver to halt a sweeping voting rights and ethics bill.

The vote doesn’t kill the bill, but it marks one of the most significant setbacks for Democrats in Joe Biden’s presidency so far. Democrats heralded the legislation as their No 1 priority, even knowing they were unlikely to get any Republican votes for it. The bill would amount to the most significant expansion of the right to vote in a generation, requiring early voting and automatic and same-day registration, while prohibiting excessive manipulation of electoral district boundaries, a process often called gerrymandering.

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Ex-police captain Eric Adams takes early lead in New York mayoral primary

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  • Centrist Democrat claims most first-choice ballots
  • Ranked-choice voting means primary winner due on 12 July

Brooklyn’s borough president, Eric Adams, appeared to take a fragile lead in New York’s Democratic mayoral primary on Tuesday, but it could be weeks before it becomes clear who is on top in the first citywide election to use ranked choice voting.

As ballot counting began, more Democrats ranked Adams as their first choice in the race than any other candidate.

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Democrats present united front in For the People Act vote – video

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Democrats demonstrated unity in the US senate as the West Virginia senator Joe Manchin said he would vote in favor of advancing voting rights legislation known as the For the People act to the debate stage.

The Republican Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, denied any voter suppression was happening despite around 400 bills introduced in more than 43 states which could restrict the right to vote. The legislation would remove hurdles to voting.

In the evenly split Senate, Republican votes mean the bill will not garner the necessary 60 votes to advance.

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Republicans set to sink Democrats’ effort to advance key voting rights bill – live

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Good morning, live blog readers. Yesterday may have been the longest day of the year but today may feel longer for Democrats as tension builds in Washington towards the big vote on whether to advance legislation on massive voting rights reforms. It’s going to be a lively day, so let’s get started.

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