Category Archives: US Politics

Biden honors Liz Cheney and Bennie Thompson with presidential medal

Posted on by

President bestows medals upon congressman and ex-congresswoman who led investigation into Capitol attack

Joe Biden has bestowed the second highest civilian medal on the Democratic congressman Bennie Thompson and the Republican former congresswoman Liz Cheney, who led the bipartisan congressional investigation into the deadly 6 January 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol by Donald Trump supporters intent on overturning his election defeat by Biden.

Trump, who takes office again on 20 January after winning November’s election, has said the leaders of that committee, which published its conclusions in December 2022 after a series of high-profile public hearings, should be jailed, not rewarded.

Continue reading...

Chief justice Roberts warns intimidation and violence risk judicial independence

Posted on by

In sobering year-end report, chief justice laments litany of threats judges face, which he says put the rule of law at risk

Violence, intimidation, disinformation and threats to disobey lawful court rulings are putting the United States’s revered principle of judicial independence in jeopardy, the chief justice of the US supreme court, John Roberts, has warned.

In a sobering end of year report, Roberts – seen as the leading rightwinger on the court’s current six-to-three pro-conservative majority – laments a litany of threats contemporary judges face in America’s increasingly polarised political climate, which he says are putting the rule of law at risk.

Continue reading...

Trump appoints aide behind biggest campaign stunts to White House job

Posted on by

President-elect hails Justin Caporale for Madison Square Garden rally and McDonald’s ‘shift’

Donald Trump has appointed Justin Caporale, the man credited with some of his most eye-catching campaign gambits on the path to his second presidential election victory, to a White House role, signalling that high-profile publicity stunts are likely to be a key feature of his second presidential term.

Posting on his Truth Social platform, the president-elect said Caparole would assume the role of executive producer for “major events and public appearances” after he returns to the Oval Office on 20 January.

Continue reading...

North Carolina governor commutes 15 death row sentences on last day in office

Posted on by

Roy Cooper’s historic clemency action comes a week after Biden’s resentencings shielded dozens from execution

The governor of North Carolina has granted commutations to 15 people on death row on his final day in office, changing their sentences to life without the possibility of parole.

Roy Cooper, a Democrat, announced his clemency action on New Year’s Eve, prompting praise from opponents of capital punishment, who have advocated for mass commutations to thwart executions.

Continue reading...

Republican support wavers for Mike Johnson’s re-election as House speaker

Posted on by

Despite Donald Trump’s endorsement, Johnson is facing criticism for his handling of the government budget battle

A senior Texas Republican congressman has said that the House speaker, Mike Johnson, does not yet have the votes to be re-elected to the speakership ahead of an election to be held later this week.

Representative Chip Roy told Fox Business’s Varney & Co that he was undecided on supporting the Louisiana Republican, despite Donald Trump issuing a full-throated endorsement of Johnson on Monday.

Continue reading...

Jimmy Carter to be honored in Washington funeral and laid to rest in Georgia

Posted on by

State funeral to be held for former president on national day of mourning before he is buried next to wife in Plains

Jimmy Carter, the former US president who died at age 100 on Sunday, will be honored with a state funeral before being laid to rest in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, next to his wife, Rosalynn.

The state funeral for Carter will be held in Washington DC on Thursday, 9 January. The date has also been declared a national day of mourning in the United States.

Continue reading...

Havana syndrome patients reportedly promised healthcare that never came

Posted on by

Letter allegedly written by US official shows contradictions in how government handled mysterious health incidents

A leaked letter purportedly written by a senior US military official and published on social media on Monday highlights stark contradictions in the government’s approach to victims of Havana syndrome – a mysterious series of health incidents affecting personnel at embassies and consulates overseas.

The letter, dated 24 March 2024 and signed by air force Brig Gen Shannon O’Harren, reassures victims of the “anomalous health incidents” (AHIs) that the defense department believed that their experiences and symptoms were real while promising them quality healthcare that never came.

Continue reading...

Son of US senator jailed for 28 years over chase and crash that killed police officer

Posted on by

Ian Cramer, 43, son of North Dakota senator Kevin Cramer, sentenced over incident last year in which he fled hospital

The adult son of the Republican North Dakota US senator Kevin Cramer has been sentenced to serve 28 years in prison in connection with a wild chase in which he fled from a hospital and drove into a deputy’s vehicle, killing the deputy.

Ian Cramer, 43, pleaded guilty in September to all of the charges against him, including homicide while fleeing a peace officer, preventing arrest, reckless endangerment, fleeing an officer and drug- and driving-related offenses. Those charges related to the chase and crash in December last year that killed the Mercer county sheriff’s deputy Paul Martin, 53.

Continue reading...

Trump endorses Mike Johnson for another term as House speaker

Posted on by

President-elect gives ‘total endorsement’ amid discontent among fellow Republicans with speaker’s leadership

Donald Trump has endorsed Mike Johnson for another term as speaker of the House of Representatives, following intense speculation that the Louisiana congressman could face a challenge amid unhappiness with his leadership among fellow Republicans.

The president-elect – whose own continued support had appeared uncertain – trumpeted his backing in a social media post that appeared to assure Johnson’s re-election speaker after the new Congress is sworn in on Friday.

Continue reading...

Jimmy Carter’s death comes at a time when rancour and uncertainty prevail

Posted on by

The ex-president died as Biden, a fellow one-term president heads for the door and chaos agent Trump returns to power

Early in Mike Bartlett’s 2022 stage play, The 47th, the funeral of former US president Jimmy Carter is held at Washington National Cathedral. Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W Bush and Bill Clinton are all in attendance. Donald Trump is not invited but turns up anyway – and late. “He’s here to pay his disrespects, and use / A funeral for self-promotion,” Kamala Harris observes.

Life – or rather death – is about to imitate art as Washington prepares to bid farewell to Carter, who died at home in Georgia on Sunday at the age of 100. He was the longest-lived president in US history and the first Democratic president to die since Lyndon Johnson more than half a century ago.

Continue reading...

‘We lost a giant’: public figures pay tribute to Jimmy Carter

Posted on by

Democrats and Republicans commemorate former US president after his death at age of 100

After news broke that Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, died on Sunday at 100 years old, many fellow politicians, friends, and family members spoke out in remembrance of the longest-lived president in US history.

Chip Carter, the former president’s son, called his father a “hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love”, in a statement.

Continue reading...

Republican congressman says party should drop ‘food fight’ over leadership

Posted on by

Mike Lawler says Mike Johnson should remain speaker as cracks appear between Trump’s team and far right

The US House member Mike Lawler attempted on Sunday to tease out two pressing issues facing the new Congress beginning in 2025, telling an American political talkshow that this was not the moment for his fellow Republicans to have a “food fight” over leadership in Capitol Hill and that the country “needs an immigration system that works”.

Both issues have dominated political headlines in recent days, as potential policy splits become apparent between far-right congressional Republicans and the executive team being assembled for their party leader Donald Trump’s second presidency beginning in January.

Continue reading...

Trump sides with Musk on support for H-1B visas for foreign tech workers

Posted on by

Remarks follow social media posts from Tesla and SpaceX CEO, who vowed to go to ‘war’ to defend program

Donald Trump on Saturday sided with Elon Musk, a key supporter and billionaire tech CEO, in a public dispute over the use of the H-1B visa, saying he fully backs the program for foreign tech workers opposed by some of his supporters.

Trump’s remarks followed a series of social media posts from Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, who vowed late Friday to go to “war” to defend the visa program for foreign tech workers.

Continue reading...

Dean Phillips, early Democratic critic of Biden, reflects on party’s presidential loss

Posted on by

Outgoing representative, whose assessment of campaign now feels prescient, saddened to be vindicated

Dean Phillips, the Democratic representative from Minnesota who bucked his party to become the only elected official to challenge Joe Biden for the Democratic primary earlier this year, has said he is “saddened” by the accuracy of his prediction at the time that the outgoing president could not win re-election.

“If what I feel now is vindication, it’s awfully unsatisfying,” Phillips told Politico, adding: “The fact was, he was not in a position to win. The fact was his approval numbers were historically low. The fact was his physical decline was real.”

Continue reading...

Biden reportedly regrets ending re-election campaign and says he’d have defeated Trump

Posted on by

President also regrets picking Merrick Garland for attorney general, as he was slow to prosecute Trump for January 6

Joe Biden regrets having pulled out of this year’s presidential race and believes he would have defeated Donald Trump in last month’s election – despite negative poll indications, White House sources have said.

The US president has reportedly also said he made a mistake in choosing Merrick Garland as attorney general – reflecting that Garland, a former US appeals court judge, was slow to prosecute Donald Trump for his role in the 6 January 2021 insurrection while presiding over a justice department that aggressively prosecuted Biden’s son Hunter.

Continue reading...

Trump tells 37 people on death row with commuted sentences to ‘go to hell’

Posted on by

On Truth Social, president-elect also lashes out at Chinese troops in Panama Canal and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau

Donald Trump has told 37 people on death row who had their sentences commuted by Joe Biden to “go to hell” in a lacerating Christmas Day social media post.

The president-elect – long a vocal advocate of capital punishment – lashed out at Biden’s decision on his Truth Social platform, after wishing a merry Christmas to political opponents he addressed as “Radical Left Lunatics”.

Continue reading...

Family detentions to return in migration crackdown, says Trump ‘border czar’

Posted on by

Tom Homan also said that undocumented parents of US-born children will be deported, with or without their kids

US immigration authorities will resume the controversial policy of putting families with children in detention centres as part of a drive to deport undocumented immigrants, the incoming Trump administration’s “border czar”, Tom Homan, has said.

Homan, regarded as the “architect” of the widely vilified family separation policy applied to undocumented immigrants in the first Trump administration, also said officials would not hesitate to deport parents whose children were American citizens because they had been born in the US.

Continue reading...

Trump nominates Miami-Dade official as Panama ambassador amid canal row

Posted on by

Announcement comes as Trump has threatened to reassert control over canal, which US handed to Panama in 1999

President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday nominated the Miami-Dade county commissioner Kevin Marino Cabrera to serve as ambassador to Panama.

Trump described Cabrera as “a fierce fighter for America First principles” who he said has been instrumental in driving economic growth and fostering international partnerships.

Continue reading...

US business leaders set to break record on donations to Trump inaugural fund

Posted on by

Donations, not restricted by campaign finance laws, come as industries seek favor with incoming administration

US business leaders are spending big on Donald Trump’s second inaugural fund, which is predicted to exceed even the record-setting $107m raised in 2017.

The donations, which are not restricted by campaign finance laws, come as industries and business leaders seek to curry favor with the incoming administration after the president-elect decisively won a second, non-consecutive term in November.

Continue reading...

Pete Hegseth says Donald Trump ‘supports us fully’ as he arrives on Capitol Hill to charm senators – US politics live

Posted on by

Trump’s Pentagon pick says president-elect spoke to him on Thursday morning as media reports say Hegseth faced HR investigation over Fox Christmas party antics

Pete Hegseth has continued promoting his nomination for defense secretary on X, writing:

Maybe it’s time for a [defense secretary] who has…

Led in combat. Been on patrol for days. Pulled a trigger. Heard bullets whiz by. Called in close air support. Led medevacs. Dodged IEDs.

We’re going to confirm @PeteHegseth !

The importance of a warrior for the war fighter cannot be overstated. The Secretary of Defense must be clear-eyed, mission-oriented, and vigilant on behalf of the men and women they lead. I appreciate @PeteHegseth’s willingness to serve. The scrutiny of the nomination process and transparency matter. I look forward to his hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Continue reading...