Today's politics recap
- The Federal Reserve has announced it is winding down the massive stimulus program it put in place at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic amid fears that the central bank may have to raise rates soon to control rising inflation. Fed officials have been debating for months over whether and when to taper the stimulus programs that it set up to head off the economic headwinds caused by the pandemic. They announced on Wednesday that they would begin cutting that stimulus by $15bn a month but left interest rates unchanged.
- Phil Murphy won re-election and kept his seat as New Jersey governor in a tight race that was widely viewed as a referendum on the Democrat’s leadership throughout the pandemic. The governor issued stringent health orders to slow the spread of Covid-19 and has earned high marks from constituents for his leadership during the pandemic. He was one of the first governors who required Covid-19 vaccinations for public school teachers. But his opponent Jack Ciattarelli, like many Republican politicians across the US, seized on growing backlash and frustrations over mask mandates, school closures and other pandemic restrictions.
- Democrat Terry McAuliffe formally conceded the race for the governorship of Virginia to his Republican rival Glenn Youngkin. The latter pulled off a stunning upset last night that is deemed by many as an ominous sign for the ultimate success of Joe Biden’s administration and presidency.
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi put a paid family leave provision back into their $1.75 trillion social and environmental spending bill that’s the flagship of Biden’s Build Back Better legislative agenda. Democratic US Senator Joe “everyone’s a president” Manchin of West Virginia is opposed to that, which bodes ill in the upper chamber. Speaking to reporters in the bowels of the Capitol moments ago, he said the new proposal lacked detail and the Build Back Better agenda is already a “mammoth” rejigging of “the whole entire tax code”.
Updated
In Buffalo, NY – the socialist rising star who appeared poised to take the mayor’s seat has conceded to an incumbent governor running a write-in campaign.
India Walton, the democratic socialist who gained national attention when she defeated mayor Byron Brown in the primaries, was the only mayoral candidate printed on the ballot Tuesday. But Brown, who distributed more than 100,000 stamps bearing his name so that voters could press it onto their ballots, appears poised to win back his seat.
Brown, who was supported by the progressive senators Bernie Sanders and Elizibeth Warren, and joined on the campaign trail by the representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, appears to have floundered due to a lack of support from the state’s Democratic establishment.
Ahead of the election, Jay S Jacobs, the chair of the New York State Democratic Committee, declined to endorse her. He said in a Spectrum News interview: “Let’s take a scenario, very different, where David Duke — you remember him, the grand wizard of the KKK — he moves to New York, he becomes a Democrat, he runs for mayor in the city of Rochester ... I have to endorse David Duke? I don’t think so. Now, of course, India Walton is not in the same category.”
Critics including Brown and his supporters characterized Walton, a registered nurse and political newcomer, as an inexperienced, radical choice, echoing Republican critiques of progressive Democrats.
Today, Walton wrote on Twitter: “It seems unlikely that we will end up with enough votes to inaugurate a Walton administration in January.”
“Every dirty trick in the book was tried against us,” she wrote. “We knew that would be the case. When you take on the corrupt and the powerful you can’t expect them to play fair.”
Updated
‘Super polluters’: the top 10 publishers denying the climate crisis on Facebook
My colleague Kari Paul reports on Facebook and the climate crisis:
Misinformation about the climate crisis runs rampant on Facebook, a new study has found, and comes mostly from a handful of “super polluter” publishers.
Ten publishers are responsible for 69% of digital climate change denial content on Facebook, a new study from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) has found. The outlets, which the report labels the “toxic ten”, include several conservative websites in the US, as well as Russian state media.
- Breitbart, a far-right news site once run by former Trump strategist Steve Bannon
- Western Journal, a Conservative news site
- Newsmax, which has previously been sued for promoting election fraud conspiracies
- Townhall Media, founded by the Exxon-funded Heritage Foundation
- Media Research Center, a “thinktank” that received funding from Exxon
- Washington Times, founded by self-proclaimed messiah Sun Myung Moon
- The Federalist Papers, a site that has promoted Covid misinformation
- Daily Wire, a conservative news site that is of the most engaged-with publishers on Facebook
- Russian state media, pushing disinformation via RT.com and Sputnik News
- Patriot Post, a conservative site whose writers use pseudonyms
The Center for Countering Digital Hate used NewsWhip, a social media analytics tool, to analyze 6,983 climate crisis denial articles that were featured in Facebook posts in the last year.
The articles included condemnations of the “cult of ‘climate change’” whose “worship” risks people’s future or told readers not to “worry too much about CO2 baking the planet”. Together, the posts raked up 709,057 interactions.
Facebook strongly rejected the study in a statement, with a spokesman saying the analysis from CCDH “uses a flawed methodology designed to mislead people about the scale of climate misinformation on Facebook”.
He added that the 700,000 interactions mentioned in the report on climate denial represent 0.3% of the over 200m interactions on public English-language climate change content from pages and public groups over the same time period.
Read more:
And more on Cop26:
Updated
Analysis: Glenn Youngkin’s victory comes as the president’s agenda has stalled and danger looms for the party in Congress.
Joe Biden exuded confidence. “We’re going to win,” the US president told reporters before departing Cop26 in Glasgow. “I think we’re going to win in Virginia.”
But as Biden returns to Washington, he faces questions about why his prediction was so wrong – and whether Democrats’ loss in the most important election of the year will send his presidency into a downward spiral.
Republican Glenn Youngkin’s surprise victory over the Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the race for governor of Virginia is a brutal rebuke for Biden, who had personally invested in the race, twice making the short trip from Washington to campaign for McAuliffe at rallies.
It will particularly sting because Donald Trump, whom he defeated in Virginia by 10 percentage points in last year’s presidential election, will doubtless seek to claim credit for the result and savor his revenge.
But the truth is that this election was more about the current president than the spectre of the last one.
Biden’s ambitious agenda has stalled in Congress. By his own admission, the inertia has sucked oxygen away from priorities such as a police reform and voting rights, disillusioning the activists who fuel Democratic turnout. Inflation and gasoline prices are up. Global supply chains are buckling. And Biden’s sunny predictions for post-withdrawal Afghanistan were as off the mark as his predictions for Virginia.
The president’s sagging approval rating of 42% combined with historical headwinds to drag McAuliffe down. Nothing energizes a political movement like opposition: the president’s party has lost every election for governor of Virginia over almost half a century – the exception was McAuliffe himself in 2013.
But this time McAuliffe failed to inspire. The chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential primary campaign had a distinct whiff of Clinton 2016: a career politician imbued with a sense of entitlement who constantly found himself on the defensive against an upstart candidate drawing bigger crowds.
Read more:
Updated
Murphy won reelection following a tight race that was widely viewed as a referendum on the Democrat’s leadership throughout the pandemic
The governor issued stringent health orders to slow the spread of Covid-19 and has earned high marks from constituents for his leadership during the pandemic. He was one of the first governors who required Covid-19 vaccinations for public school teachers. But his opponent Jack Ciattarelli, like many Republican politicians across the US, has seized on growing backlash and frustrations over mask mandates, school closures and other pandemic restrictions.
With his narrow victory, Murphy became the first Democratic governor to win reelection in New Jersey in 44 years. A former executive at Goldman Sachs and ambassador to Germany, Murphy has the advantage of Democrats’ 1.1m registered voters. That the race remained so close well into Wednesday evening is likely to be an encouraging sign for Republicans ahead of the midterms, especially taken with the party’s victory in Virginia’s gubernatorial election.
Updated
Democrat Phil Murphy wins New Jersey governorship
Phil Murphy has won re-election and will be keeping his seat as New Jersey governor.
The AP called the race just now.
BREAKING: Democrat Philip Murphy wins reelection for governor in New Jersey. #APracecall at 6:26 p.m. EDT. #Election2021 #NJelection
— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) November 3, 2021
Updated
After Senate Republicans filibustered the John R Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Joe Biden issued a statement imploring: “Let there be a debate and let there be a vote.”
The bill wasn’t expected to go far in the Senate, where Republicans have made clear they would block it. But Democrats put it forward anyway, as a way to pressure West Virginia moderate Joe Manchin.
My colleague Sam Levine explains:
There was never any serious prospect of the bill passing – only one Republican senator, Lisa Murkowski, supported it. The vote in the Senate was 50-49 in favor of advancing the bill (two-thirds of senators would have had to agree in order for the bill to go forward).
But Wednesday’s vote was targeted towards Manchin, who supports the filibuster, showing him that passing voting rights legislation is not possible while the filibuster remains in place.
Many Democrats hope it will be the final straw for Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, an Arizona Democrat, who is also a staunch defender of the filibuster. Republicans have successfully filibustered voting rights bill three times already this year, including once just two weeks ago.
Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, said Wednesday’s filibuster was a “low, low point in the history of this body”.
Read more:
Updated
At least six candidates who won elections yesterday attended the “Stop the steal” rally on 6 January, the AP reports:
At least 13 candidates on Tuesday’s ballots for state or local offices were in Washington, D.C., for the rally promoting the lie that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from Trump, according to a list compiled by BuzzFeed News. None of them have been charged with any crimes in connection with the Jan. 6 riot or accused of entering the Capitol that day.
Five of the 13 were running for seats in the Virginia House of Delegates, which Democrats and Republicans are battling to control. Three of the five, including two incumbent legislators, won their races on Tuesday.
The House remained up for grabs Wednesday, with a handful of competitive races still too early to call.
The list of losing candidates who attended the “Stop the Steal” rally included Oath Keepers member Edward Durfee Jr., who ran for the New Jersey General Assembly. He finished third behind two Democrats. Durfee worked a security detail for the Oath Keepers outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, Gothamist reported, but he isn’t accused of joining other members of the far-right paramilitary group in storming the building.
The three rally attendees who won their Virginia House races were incumbents Del. Dave LaRock and Del. John McGuire and Marie March, who won an open seat. The two losers in Virginia were Philip Hamilton and Maureen Brody. BuzzFeed News reported that Hamilton and Brody were at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Elsewhere, “Stop the Steal” attendees winning local races included candidates for seats on the City Council in Nampa, Idaho, the Borough Council in Watchung, New Jersey, and the Board of Commissioners in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, according to published reports. Apparent losers included candidates for county executive in Pennsylvania and for the City Council in Mason, Ohio.
Pointed questions suggest US supreme court ready to ease restrictions on guns
Adam Gabbatt and agencies report:
The supreme court appeared poised to ease gun control regulation, after several justices expressed scepticism on Wednesday over a New York law that places restrictions on who can carry concealed firearms.
The case could lead to more guns on the streets of New York and California, and affect restrictions on carrying firearms in airports, bars, churches and schools.
The case centers on a New York law that prohibits people from carrying a concealed handgun in public unless they can demonstrate a need to carry the weapon.
Several members of the conservative-dominated court, including Samuel Alito and the three justices nominated by Donald Trump, appeared to question whether the law was constitutional.
The case, which comes after a spate of mass shootings and a rise in gun violence, has been brought by two private citizens and the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, an affiliate of the National Rifle Association. The NRA is a gun rights lobbying group that has received tens of millions of dollars in donations from the gun manufacturers.
The NYSRPA argues that the New York law is too restrictive, and that the two citizens had their applications to carry handguns at all times unfairly denied. Should the court decide in the gun organization’s favor, it could dramatically increase the number of people eligible to carry concealed firearms as they go about their daily lives.
Under the New York law, people applying for a license to carry firearms at all times must prove they have a “special or unique danger to their life”.
Read more:
Today so far
Hello live blog readers, we’ll hand over to our colleague Maanvi Singh on the US west coast now, who’ll steer you through the next few hours of politics news. It’s been a very lively day with no sign of things letting up, so please stay tuned!
Here’s where things stand:
- The US Federal Reserve has announced it is winding down the massive stimulus programme it put in place at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic amid fears that the central bank may have to raise rates soon to control rising inflation.
- New Jersey’s governor’s race is close to fruition and, although it has not be called yet, Democrat Phil Murphy has inched ahead of his Republican rival.
- Democrat Terry McAuliffe formally conceded the race for the governorship of Virginia to his Republican rival Glenn Youngkin, who pulled off a stunning upset last night that is deemed by many an ominous sign for the ultimate success Joe Biden’s administration and presidency.
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi led Democrats in the House in putting a paid family leave provision back into their $1.75 trillion social and environmental spending bill that’s the flagship of Joe Biden’s Build Back Better legislative agenda.
Updated
Donald Trump this afternoon rejected an accusation he was deliberately trying to avoid being questioned under oath in a defamation lawsuit by a former contestant on TV’s “The Apprentice” who claimed he sexually assaulted her.
Reuters reports:
In a filing with a New York state court in Manhattan, Trump said a claim he used “delay tactics” to keep his accuser Summer Zervos from deposing him by a court-ordered Dec. 23 deadline “patently absurd, disingenuous, and entirely unfounded.”
Lawyers for Zervos did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Zervos has accused Trump of harming her reputation by claiming she lied by accusing him during his 2016 presidential campaign of subjecting her to unwanted kissing and groping in 2007, two years after she was on his reality television show.
The lawsuit seeks a retraction or apology, plus compensatory and punitive damages. Trump has denied Zervos’ claims and called her case politically motivated.
On Oct. 18, Trump asked for court permission to countersue Zervos for wrongly interfering with his right to speak freely.
The former president cited a 2020 New York state law, known as an “anti-SLAPP” law, meant to deter lawsuits designed to harass defendants for speaking out on public issues.
Zervos, who sued Trump in January 2017, had said allowing the countersuit would delay Trump’s deposition, adding to delays that have already caused her “significant prejudice.”
But Trump said Zervos knew on Sept. 30 of his planned countersuit, “which she has no legitimate basis to oppose,” and is herself “unnecessarily delaying” the case by objecting.
The case is unresolved in part because Trump argued while in the White House that a sitting president could not be sued.
That became moot after Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election and Trump became a private citizen. New York’s highest court dismissed Trump’s latest appeal in March.
The elections director in Georgia’s most populous county, which has been under intense scrutiny for its handling of elections, will step down at the end of the year, county officials said this afternoon.
The Associated Press reports:
Fulton County Registration & Elections Director Rick Barron submitted his resignation, effective December 31, Fulton County Board of Commissioners Chair Robb Pitts said during a news conference.
The announcement came a day after municipal elections that saw short lines and few problems.
But the county, a Democratic stronghold that includes most of the city of Atlanta, has a history of electoral problems and has long been a target of Republicans, who have complained of sloppiness and mismanagement.
It became a favorite target of Donald Trump, who blamed unproven allegations of fraud in the county for his narrow loss in Georgia last year.
Barron said in his resignation letter: “Under the intense scrutiny of the last year, I believe our team has performed with grace and professionalism. Even in the midst of threats to our personal safety, we have continued to make the interests of Fulton County voters our highest priority.”
Pitts and Fulton County Registration and Elections Board Chair Cathy Woolard sang Barron’s praises as they announced his departure.
“Mr. Barron was not forced to resign,” Pitts said. “I want to make that crystal clear. It was voluntary.”
Pitts said he and Woolard had breakfast with Barron a few days ago and talked about this with “mutual consent and agreement.” Barron’s continued presence would be “a distraction,” not because of any wrongdoing on his part but because of “naysayers” who continue to criticize the county no matter what it does, Pitts said.
“That kind of pressure, that kind of scrutiny for that long would wear on anybody,” Pitts said. “You have the former president and his minions, the secretary of state and his minions, daily blasting you.”
In addition to a torrent of insults from Trump, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has repeatedly called for a change in leadership for Fulton County elections.
After a problem-plagued primary election in June 2020, when some Fulton County voters never received requested absentee ballots and others waited hours in line to vote, an independent monitor was appointed as part of an agreement with the State Election Board. The monitor, Carter Jones, observed the county’s elections operations from October 2020 through January.
He reported that he saw “sloppy processes” and “systemic disorganization” but did not witness “any illegality, fraud or intentional malfeasance.”
Amid a flood of criticism, the county election board voted in February to fire Barron, only to have its decision rejected by the Board of Commissioners.
The Guardian’s Sam Levine reported very recently on the crushing pressure on elections officials in a febrile, partisan and at times dangerous atmosphere. Read his report here.
Joe Biden is speaking now on the eligibility of Americans ages five to 11 to receive the Covid-19 vaccine. Young children could start receiving the vaccine today.
“For parents all over this country, this is a day of relief and celebration,” he said. “After almost 18 months of anxious worrying every time a child had a sniffle or a cough, now you can protect them from this virus.”
Biden said that the authorization of the vaccine for young children means that 28m more Americans can receive the vaccine now. He added that the country has enough vaccine supply for every child in the age range to receive the vaccine, which will be specially formulated to accommodate younger children.
Updated
A report from a justice department watchdog said that the US drone strike that killed 10 civilians in August during the final days of the war in Afghanistan was not caused by misconduct or negligence, according to the Associated Press, which spoke to an anonymous senior defense official familiar with the report.
Air force Lt Gen Sami Said, an inspector general of the Air force, authored a report that said that while there were breakdowns in communication during the identification and confirmation of targets during the air strike, there were measures to ensure civilian deaths were prevented.
The report notes that the context of the air strike is important as US forces during that time were overwhelmed with information about civilians and troops trying to leave Afghanistan.
Updated
After last night’s election, Republicans are warning Democrats that they could lose at least 60 seats during the midterm elections next year.
For the record — clip and save. McCarthy said that he thinks Democrats could lose more than 63 seats in 2022.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) November 3, 2021
Pelosi lost 63 in 2010 when Rs last took the majority.
House minority leader Kevin McCarthy said that Democrats should take the election as a warning “to abandon their extremist agenda.”
Today should be a wake-up call for Washington Democrats. They must abandon their partisan, extremist agenda of big-government programs that cost trillions of dollars we don’t have for programs we don’t want.
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) November 3, 2021
Join @HouseGOP and me for a news conference: https://t.co/eeIXPF6OGm
In response to McCarthy’s prediction, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Sean Maloney said: “I’ll take that bet.”
Updated
Jacob Frey, mayor of Minneapolis, just won a reelection campaign for his second term even after he came under criticism for his handling of protests after the killing of George Floyd in summer 2020.
Frey won the vote within the city’s second round of ranked-choice voting, where Frey received 49% of the votes, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The mayor’s challengers, including former Minnesota legislator Kate Knuth, encouraged voters not to rank Frey on their ballots for not implementing changes to policing in the city after the protests.
The mayor has argued that police reform has been happening under his leadership and that he is looking to hold officers accountable rather than support movements to defund the police.
“There was this push to defund the police,” Frey told supporters on Tuesday. “That movement has been roundly rejected, all of us now, can stop with the hashtags and the slogans and the simplicity and say, ‘Alright, let’s all unite around things that we all agree on.’”
The Guardian’s voting rights reporter Sam Levine has a quick update on the voting rights bill that the Senate is considering right now:
Senate Republicans officially have enough votes to filibuster a Democratic voting rights bill that would restore a critical provision of the Voting Rights Act.
Democrats hope the filibuster, the fourth time Republicans have deployed the procedure to block voting rights legislation since the beginning of the year, will be the final straw that pushes Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to favor changing the filibuster.
Updated
A 97-year-old man was reelected as mayor of a New Jersey town last night.
Vito Perillo is set to serve his second term as mayor of Tinton Falls, New Jersey, a town south of New York City.
“They tell me I’m the oldest mayor in the country,” Perillo told NJ Advance Media“I’m feeling pretty good, and I think everybody in the borough feels good, too. They were all happy for me this morning.”
Perillo is a veteran of World War II and has six great-grandchildren. He bested three opponents who were trying to oust him out of office.
Perillo told NJ Advance Media that he feels “really good” and that his family physician told him he won’t have to come back for another two years.
Here are some pictures of Perillo a few years ago with New Jersey governor Phil Murphy, who is currently in a close reelection race himself.
Loved spending time with Tinton Falls Mayor and World War II veteran Vito Perillo and hearing about his time in the service.
— Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) May 25, 2018
At the age of 93, he is the second oldest mayor in the country! pic.twitter.com/XBGijhVk3z
Updated
Fed to wind down Covid-19 stimulus programme
The US Federal Reserve has announced it is winding down the massive stimulus programme it put in place at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic amid fears that the central bank may have to raise rates soon to control rising inflation.
Fed officials have been debating for months over whether and when to taper the stimulus programmes that it set up to head off the economic headwinds caused by the pandemic. They announced on Wednesday that they would begin cutting that stimulus by $15bn a month but left interest rates unchanged.
“With progress on vaccinations and strong policy support, indicators of economic activity and employment have continued to strengthen,” the Fed wrote in a statement. “The sectors most adversely affected by the pandemic have improved in recent months, but the summer’s rise in Covid-19 cases has slowed their recovery. Inflation is elevated, largely reflecting factors that are expected to be transitory.”
In March 2020 as the pandemic brought the global economy to a shuddering halt, the Fed moved to prop up the US economy by cutting interest rates to close to zero and started buying $120bn a month in Treasury- and mortgage-backed securities.
The initiative appears to have helped the US bounce back from a potential economic catastrophe. The unemployment rate has dropped from a record high of 14.7% in April 2020 to 4.8% in September.
But now the central bank is wrestling with concerns that its stimulus efforts, combined with cash injections from Washington, pent-up consumer demand and the unprecedented impact of the pandemic on the global supply chain, are driving up inflation.
Updated
This is Lauren Aratani taking over for Joanna Walters.
Last night was a big night for women in politics, with multiple historic wins around the country for women running for office.
In Boston, Michelle Wu became the first woman and person of color elected to be mayor of the city. Elaine O’Neal was elected to be the first Black woman to serve as mayor of Durham, North Carolina. The majority of the members on the New York City council will be women for the first time in the history of the city council, which is the largest in the country. Winsome Sears, a Republican, is projected to be the first woman to serve as lieutenant governor of Virginia.
Many of the candidates acknowledged their historic victories as signs of progress.
ELECTION NIGHT HISTORY IN DURHAM
— Joel Brown (@JoelBrownABC11) November 3, 2021
“Together you have given me the honor and trust of being your next mayor — the first Black woman mayor of Durham.”
The city’s next mayor greets supporters after her general election win becomes official. #abc11 pic.twitter.com/TzqEOpF0Yk
Interim summary
It’s been an incredibly lively morning in US politics and the blog is bursting at the seams with news, so do stay with us. My colleague Lauren Aratani will take you through the next couple of hours and later the east coast team will hand over to our co-workers in California to report all the latest.
Here’s where things stand so far:
- The New Jersey governor’s race is one step closer to fruition and, although it has not be called yet, Democrat Phil Murphy has inched ahead of his Republican rival.
- But in a disastrous result for Democrats in Virginia, and Joe Biden’s future prospects, Democrat Terry McAuliffe formally conceded he lost the race for the governorship of Virginia to his Republican rival Glenn Youngkin.
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today led Democrats in the House in putting a paid family leave provision back into their $1.75 trillion social and environmental spending bill that’s the flagship of Joe Biden’s Build Back Better legislative agenda.
- Oregon Democratic US Senator Jeff Merkley plans to oppose Joe Biden’s nomination of former Obama senior aide and Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel to become the US representative to Japan.
Conservative US supreme court justices appeared willing today to strike down New York state’s limits on carrying concealed handguns in public, in a major firearms rights case that could imperil certain restrictions nationally.
The justices heard about two hours of arguments in an appeal by two gun owners and the New York affiliate of the National Rifle Association, the influential gun rights group closely aligned with Republicans, of a lower court ruling throwing out their challenge to the state’s law, enacted in 1913, Reuters writes.
The news agency adds:
Lower courts rejected the argument by the plaintiffs that the law violates the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. The lawsuit seeks an unrestricted right to carry concealed handguns in public.
The Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority is considered sympathetic to an expansive view of Second Amendment rights.
New York’s law requires applicants to state a specific reason for needing a gun for self-defense.“Why isn’t it good enough to say ‘I live in a violent area and I want to defend myself?’” conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh asked.
Conservative Justice Samuel Alito wondered why only “celebrities, state judges and retired police officers” should be able to carry concealed guns as opposed to “ordinary, law-abiding” citizens.Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts raised doubts about New York’s practice of giving unrestricted licenses more freely in more rural areas compared to densely populated centers like Manhattan given that the Second Amendment has been found to protect the right to self-defense.
“How many muggings take place in the forest?” Roberts asked New York Solicitor General Barbara Underwood, who was defending the law.
Underwood highlighted the need to regulate concealed guns to promote public safety, noting that the prospect of proliferating firearms in the New York City subway system “terrifies” a lot of people.
Conservative Justice Samuel Alito pushed back on her argument, contenting that there are people with illegal guns already on the subway and other public areas. “But ordinary hard-working people ... they can’t be armed,” Alito said.
New York’s law requires a showing of “proper cause” for carrying concealed handguns. To carry such a weapon without restrictions, applicants must convince a state firearms licensing officer of an actual, rather than speculative, need for self-defense.
A ruling striking down the New York law would lead to new legal questions in the future including how local governments can regulate firearms in sensitive places such as government buildings, public transit, sports stadiums, schools, universities, sites of protests and drinking establishments.
Paul Clement, the lawyer for the challengers, said prohibitions at government buildings and schools probably would pass muster but others would have to be examined on a case-by-case basis.
Some justices voiced concern about whether a ruling against New York might restrict states and localities from imposing prohibitions at sensitive locations. Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett wondered about New York City’s massive annual celebration in Times Square on New Year’s Eve.
The court’s three liberals signaled concern about expanding gun rights.
Updated
Democrat Phil Murphy pulls ahead in New Jersey governor's contest
The New Jersey governor’s race is one step closer to fruition and, although it has not be called yet, Democrat Phil Murphy has inched ahead of his Republican rival and there is an air of expectation that he has squeaked a win...
News agency Reuters currently has this headline: Republicans jolt Biden with Virginia win, fall just short in New Jersey.
On screen, CNN is showing Murphy, the incumbent, at 49.9% and challenger Jack Ciattarelli at 49.3% with 86% of the vote tallied.
And Reuters adds this situation has developed even though registered Democratic voters outnumber Republicans in New Jersey by more than a million.
Both parties saw strong gains in the suburbs from independent voters who had been turned off by Donald Trump’s style of politics.
The results in states that Biden won easily in 2020 (eg Virginia and New Jersey) suggest that Democrats’ razor-thin majorities in Congress are highly vulnerable in the 2022 mid-term elections.
Democrat McAuliffe officially concedes in Virginia governor's race
Terry McAuliffe just formally conceded he lost the race for the governorship of Virginia to his Republican rival Glenn Youngkin.
The veteran Democrat has released a statement. Youngkin was projected as the winner late last night.
McAuliffe said:
While last night we came up short, I am proud that we spent this campaign fighting for the values we so deeply believe in. We must protect Virginia’s great public schools and invest in our students. We must protect affordable health care coverage, raise the minimum wage faster, and expand paid leave so working families have a fighting shot.
We must protest voting rights, protect a woman’s right to choose and, above all else, we must protect our democracy. While there will be setbacks along thee way, I am confident that tghe long term path of Vifrginia is towards inclusion, openness and tolerance for all.
He then goes on to congratulate Youngkin, thank his wife, family and campaign team and his supporters, and adds that previously serving as the governor of Virginia was the honor of his life.
The Guardian’s David Smith has this blistering analysis of McAuliffe’s (and Biden’s) failure in this contest, here.
Talking (again) of Joe Manchin, he just “felt the Bern”, whether he knew it or not. Here’s the independent Senator from Vermont and former presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders on the governor’s races in New Jersey and Virginia.
Asked @BernieSanders for his reaction to yesterday’s elections:
— bryan metzger (@metzgov) November 3, 2021
“Uh, it appears that Gov. Murphy is going to win, and I guess be the first Democratic governor in 40 or 50 years to be re-elected.”
Asked him why he thinks McAuliffe lost VA:
“Ask the senator from Virginia.”
Democrat Terry McAuliffe lost the gubernatorial contest in the early minutes of this morning to Republican Glenn Youngkin in Virginia, a state won by 10 points by Joe Biden in the presidential election exactly a year ago today.
In New Jersey, Democrat Phil Murphy is on a knife-edge with his re-election bid.
Updated
House Democrats put paid family leave back into Build Back Better bill
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today led Democrats in the House in putting a paid family leave provision back into their $1.75 trillion social and environmental spending bill that’s the flagship of Joe Biden’s Build Back Better legislative agenda.
House Democrats know #PaidLeaveForAll is essential for getting children learning & parents earning – and that's why Paid Family & Medical Leave will be included in our House #BuildBackBetter bill!
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) November 3, 2021
Democratic US Senator Joe “everyone’s a president” Manchin of West Virginia is opposed to that, which bodes ill in the upper chamber.
Speaking to reporters in the bowels of the Capitol moments ago, he said the new proposal lacked detail and the Build Back Better agenda is already a “mammoth” rejigging of “the whole entire tax code”.
But Democratic US Senator Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas just told CNN that providing paid family and medical leave was part of a “a seismic change” for US laws, on a scale with FDR, that is “long overdue”.
She said reinserting the measure in the bill by the House was “an important step forward” in getting the legislation passed and, in response to Manchin’s call for greater clarify, Jackson Lee said: “We will provide clarity.”
The Associated Press adds:
Democrats had reluctantly dropped a scaled-back leave program to meet budget constraints, but Rep. Richard Neal, the Democratic chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, announced that the committee had agreed on a compromise that fully pays for a “means-tested program.”
“The Ways and Means Committee crafted a policy that will finally give workers and their families the peace of mind of knowing that when disaster strikes, they can rely on paid leave to avoid total crisis,” Neal said.
The inclusion of paid family leave comes as Democrats attempt to craft a final package that can pass both chambers...Democrats are rushing to overcome party battles and finish a final draft of Biden’s plan. Pelosi had hoped to wrap up the draft and pave the way for voting as soon as Thursday on the overall package, according to her remarks at a closed-door caucus meeting.
Fingers are pointing all around as negotiations over Biden’s ambitious package have dragged on, with Democrats unable to pass the bill.
“I think what most people think: The situation is like, ‘Okay, we elected Democrats to have the majority in the House, the Senate and the presidency. They should be getting things done,”’ Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria, who represents a swing district in Virginia, told reporters at the Capitol...
With Republicans staunchly opposed and no votes to spare, Democrats have been trying to unite progressive and centrist lawmakers around Biden’s vision.
The $1.75 trillion package would provide large numbers of Americans with assistance to pay for health care, education, raising children and caring for elderly people in their homes.
It also would provide some $555 billion in tax breaks encouraging cleaner energy and electrified vehicles, the nation’s largest commitment to tackling climate change.
Much of its costs would be covered with higher taxes on people earning over $10 million annually and large corporations, which would now face a 15% minimum tax in efforts to stop big business from claiming so many deductions they end up paying zero in taxes.
Some moderate Democrats in the House said they want to see the final assessment from the Congressional Budget Office on its entire budgetary costs, before taking the vote.
Opposition to Rahm Emanuel being made US ambassador to Japan
Oregon Democratic US Senator Jeff Merkley plans to oppose Joe Biden’s nomination of former Obama senior aide and Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel to become the US representative to Japan.
Emanuel was rumored to be in the running previously for transportation secretary (with Pete Buttigieg ultimately anointed), which stirred controversy/outrage at the time about his record in Chicago and whether he should be joining a Biden cabinet.
Here’s Merkley’s statement, which he put out on Twitter:
“Black Lives Matter. Here in the halls of Congress, it is important that we not just speak and believe these words, but put them into action in the decisions we make. I have carefully considered Mayor Emanuel’s record—and the input of civil rights leaders, criminal justice experts, and local elected officials who have reached out to the Senate to weigh in—and I have reached the decision that I cannot support his nomination to serve as a U.S. Ambassador. While I respect Mayor Emanuel’s many years of service, and the points of view of my colleagues who have come to a different conclusion, I will be voting ‘no’ when his nomination comes before the committee.”
He’s just been backed by AOC in his opposition, and at least one journalist thinks that’s curtains for Emanuel in this venture.
Thank you @SenJeffMerkley. This was the courageous and right thing to do. https://t.co/ERbVQfRtPg
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 3, 2021
Emanuel was expected to seek a further term as mayor of Chicago, but did not do so, ultimately, and he was succeeded by Lori Lightfoot.
Our reporter Gloria Oladipo reported late last year that Emanuel was: a divisive figure who long ago upset liberals, most prominently in Washington, by discouraging Obama from pursuing what became his signature legislative achievement – healthcare reform via the Affordable Care Act – and then in myriad ways as mayor of Chicago from 2011 to 2019.
Prominent progressives in Chicago and elsewhere were livid that Biden would even give his name an airing, accusing Emanuel of exacerbating the city’s entrenched, acute inequalities and, most dramatically, botching the handling of Black teenager Laquan McDonald’s killing by a white police officer in 2014.
The long fight over the filibuster in the US senate is expected to finally reach a breaking point this afternoon.
That’s when the senate will hold a vote on a voting rights bill that would restore a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act - the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
The measure would set up a new formula to require certain states and other jurisdictions to get voting changes approved by the federal government before they go into effect if there is evidence they have discriminated against voters in recent years.
Just one Republican, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, supports the measure, all remaining GOP senators will likely vote against it.
That will successfully block the measure from advancing using the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to advance legislation. It will be the fourth time Republicans have filibustered a voting rights bill this year.
Democrats know that’s the likely outcome. But they’re hoping this will finally be enough to persuade Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, two Democrats who are the most reluctant to get rid of the filibuster, to support changing the rules.
Expect Democrats to make a much louder push to explicitly change the rules of the filibuster following Wednesday’s vote.
Joe Biden recently made headlines when he said he supported changing the rule to pass a voting rights bill, but he hasn’t explicitly said what changes he would support. We’ll likely be hearing a lot more about explicit changes soon.
Reuters just added that senate minority leader Mitch McConnell predicted this morning that the senate would reject the latest effort by Democrats to open debate on voting rights legislation, in the procedural vote.
Do the Democrats have it in New Jersey? Governor Phil Murphy has been on a knife edge all night in his bid for re-election over a Republican challenger.
Some politics watchers now think Murphy is over the line:
I've seen enough: Gov. Phil Murphy (D) defeats Jack Ciattarelli (R) in the New Jersey governor's race. #NJGOV
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) November 3, 2021
Democrats reeling in Virginia, on edge in New Jersey, celebrating new mayor in Boston
Good morning US live blog readers, Joe Biden arrived back in the US from the climate summit in Scotland and walked into a disastrous night for Democrats in Virginia as veteran party stalwart Terry McAuliffe lost the governor’s race to a Republican newcomer. There were lots of other interesting results and some hot stuff coming up on Capitol Hill later today, so please stay tuned.
- Democrats are reeling in Virginia after Glenn Youngkin won the gubernatorial election after a contest that pitted Democrats’ anti-Trump message against the Republicans’ provoking parents over school education.
- The New Jersey governor’s race is on a knife-edge this morning as Democrat Phil Murphy is on the brink.
- Boston has elected its first female mayor and person of color in the post after Michelle Wu pulled out a victory for Democrats, ending the city’s 200-year history of electing white men.
- In Washington DC, Senate Democrats are pushing for another vote on election reform this afternoon, on whether to advance to the debate step the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would replace part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that the supreme court struck down in 2013.
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