Today's politics recap
- The House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection has issued new subpoenas to 10 former Trump administration officials, including senior adviser Stephen Miller. The chair of the select committee, Bennie Thompson, said the officials would be able to shed light on what happened at the White House as the Capitol attack unfolded on 6 January.
- Joe Biden pitched the benefits of his economic agenda for “ordinary Americans” in an interview with a local Cincinnati news station. The president’s Monday interview with the Local 12 station came three days after the House passed the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Biden celebrated the bill’s passage while downplaying his sinking polling numbers, saying, “I didn’t run because of the polls.”
- House speaker Nancy Pelosi said the chamber will pass Democrats’ reconciliation package next week. Speaking at a press conference while attending the Cop 26 climate change summit in Glasgow, Pelosi told reporters, “We intend, that is our plan, to pass the bill the week of November 15, as was indicated in our statements that were made at the time of passing the infrastructure bill.”
- The White House condemned Republican congressman Paul Gosar for tweeting a violent video about Biden and congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The altered video depicted Gosar striking Ocasio-Cortez with a sword and appeared to attack Biden. “There is no place for any type of violence or that type of language in the political system,” the deputy White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said. “It should not be happening, and we should be condemning it.” House members have called for an ethics committee investigation of Gosar.
- New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu announced he will not run for the US Senate next year. The announcement will come as a major disappointment to Senate Republican leaders, given that Sununu was considered to be the party’s top recruit for the midterms.
Updated
Loved ones reunited at US-Mexico border as Covid travel restrictions lifted
Trisha Garcia in El Paso:
Oralia Perez waited nervously and excitedly on the US side of the border from Mexico for the chance to hug her sister and mother for the first time in almost 20 months.
One minute after midnight east coast time, ie the first moments of Monday – which was actually still Sunday night, 10.01pm local time, in El Paso, west Texas, where she was – the US government lifted pandemic restrictions on non-essential cross-border travel for those who are vaccinated.
As soon as the deadline passed, Oralia’s sister Guadalupe Perez and their mother Lorena Hernandez were among the first to rush by foot across one of the international bridges linking Mexico and the US, and in the late fall chill and the darkness, they flung themselves into each other’s arms.
The last time the three had been together was February 2020.
“As soon as we found out they were being allowed to pass, we couldn’t wait for today,” Oralia said. “They were very difficult months.”
Hernandez said she had been afraid the authorities would decide yet again it wasn’t time to reopen the border. But having crossed successfully she stroked Oralia’s hair and beamed.
The women repaired for the night and on Monday morning they had a celebratory breakfast together at the American chain staple, International House of Pancakes (Ihop), in El Paso. Then they went shopping, thrilled to be back in each other’s company, Oralia told the Guardian.
The US temporarily limited inbound border crossings from Canada and Mexico to only “essential travel” from 21 March 2020. Restrictions were extended again and again, finally coming to an end at the start of this week.
In El Paso, the city and county authorities, the police department and the federal Customs and Border Protection agency coordinated to oversee the clusters of people eager to cross by foot or car into the US for the first time in almost 20 months.
Read more:
Updated
Biden strikes down Trump-era plan to remove northern spotted owl habitat
Gabrielle Canon and agencies:
In a victory for the northern spotted owl, the Biden administration has struck down a Trump-era plan that would have removed more than 3.4m acres of critical habitat for the imperiled bird and opened the old-growth forests where it lives to logging.
The population of the small chocolate brown owl, which lives in forested areas in Washington, Oregon, and northern California, has been in decline for decades and has already lost roughly 70% of its habitat. Its numbers have plummeted 77% in Washington state, 68% in Oregon, and close to half in California, according to studies by the US Geological Survey, and biologists fear that further habitat reduction would put them on the path to extinction.
A controversial decision made by Trump’s interior secretary just five days before leaving office was widely viewed as a parting gift to the timber industry. The Fish and Wildlife Service has since found that there was “insufficient rationale and justification” to reduce the threatened owl’s habitat.
Under the new plan, roughly 204,000 acres – approximately 2% of the 9.6m acres designated as habitat for the owls in 2012 – will be made available for development while more than 3m will be restored and protected. The agency claims the exclusion of those lands from habitat designation will enable federal land managers to meet obligations to the logging industry and help limit catastrophic wildfires that continue to threaten forests in the west.
Read more:
Updated
‘We’re redefining what leadership looks like’: Asian Americans show rapid rise in US politics
After a series of historic wins across the US last week, Asian Americans will now serve as mayors and city council members in large cities including Boston, Seattle, Cincinnati and New York, signalling the rapid rise in Asian American political power.
The victories mark a significant step forward for a diverse community that has seen historically low representation in political offices and in the last two years has borne the brunt of a rising tide of pandemic-driven anti-Asian sentiments.
Last Tuesday night, voters chose Boston city councilor Michelle Wu to serve in the city’s top political office. The 36-year-old Taiwanese American who was Boston’s first Asian American city councilor will serve as the city’s first mayor of color.
“Growing up, I never ever thought that I would or could or should be involved in politics. I didn’t see anyone who looked like me in spaces of power. We are redefining what leadership looks like,” Wu told reporters.
In Cincinnati, Aftab Pureval made history by defeating former Democratic Congressman David Mann, making the 39-year-old the first Asian American to hold the city’s mayoral post.
The son of a Tibetan mother and Indian father, Pureval addressed a crowd saying: “Cincinnati is a place where no matter what you look like, where you’re from, or how much money you have, if you come here and work hard you can achieve your dreams.”
Meanwhile in Seattle, Bruce Harrell, 69, who is of mixed heritage, is projected to become the city’s first Asian American mayor and second Black mayor. In New York City, five Asian Americans were elected to the city council, the most the council has ever had. The record-breaking group includes the first Korean Americans, first South Asian Americans and first Muslim woman to be elected to the council.
Read more:
The 10 Trump officials targeted in the latest round of subpoenas reflect a new strategy adopted by House investigators in recent weeks to target aides in Trump’s direct orbit, as well as their aides in turn, who are less able to attempt to claim executive privilege and stonewall the inquiry.
Aides such as Molly Michael, the Oval Office operations coordinator, may similarly have learned of information not covered by executive privilege even as the select committee issued her a subpoena as she was involved in sending materials about election fraud at Trump’s direction.
The select committee also appears to think Christopher Liddell, a former White House deputy chief of staff around Trump on 6 January, may be inclined to cooperate with the investigation because he “considered resigning on that day but stayed on ‘after a great deal of persuasion’”.
Cassidy Hutchinson, the former assistant to the president for legislative affairs, was subpoenaed since she was at the White House on 6 January, along with Nicholas Luna, the personal assistant to Trump, who was also in the Oval Office when Trump that morning told Pence not to certify. The select committee issued an additional subpoena to Kenneth Klukowski, former senior counsel to assistant attorney general Jeffrey Clark, who pressured the then-acting attorney general Jeff Rosen to attest to lies about election fraud, according to a Senate judiciary committee report.
Klukowski, the select committee said referring to the report, was involved in drafting a letter that urged certain state legislatures to delay certification of the election. His subpoena comes after Clark refused to comply with an earlier subpoena from the select committee.
Read more:
Updated
Jury watches drone footage of Kyle Rittenhouse shooting man dead
The jury at Kyle Rittenhouse’s murder trial on Tuesday watched drone footage that showed Rittenhouse shooting Joseph Rosenbaum at close range during a night of protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last August.
The video, zoomed in and slowed down by a forensic imaging specialist, was played as the prosecution finished presenting its case, after a week of testimony in which some witnesses seemed to bolster Rittenhouse’s claim of self-defense.
Rittenhouse is a former police youth cadet from Antioch, Illinois. On the night in question he went to Kenosha with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle and a medical kit, in response to a militia that called for protection for businesses against protesters supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.
The 18-year-old is charged with two counts of homicide, one of attempted homicide and two of recklessly endangering safety, for firing his weapon near others. He is also charged with possession of a dangerous weapon by a minor, as he was 17 at the time. He has pleaded not guilty.
The drone footage shown in court on Tuesday showed Rosenbaum, 36, following Rittenhouse before Rittenhouse suddenly turned and fired his rifle. Rosenbaum was shown to fall as Rittenhouse ran around a car.
Dr Doug Kelley, a forensic pathologist with the Milwaukee county medical examiner’s office, said Rosenbaum was shot by someone within 4ft. Rosenbaum’s hand, he said, was “in close proximity or in contact with the end of that rifle”.
Kelley said Rosenbaum was shot four times: in the groin, hand and thigh as he faced Rittenhouse and then in the back. Prosecutor James Kraus called that the “kill shot”.
Moments later, Rittenhouse, then 17, killed Anthony Huber, 26, who was seen on bystander video hitting Rittenhouse with a skateboard. Rittenhouse also wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, a protester and volunteer medic who carried a gun of his own.
On Monday, Grosskreutz told jurors he was armed because he “believe[s] in the second amendment” but that he did not shoot Rittenhouse because “that’s not the kind of person that I am … and definitely not somebody I would want to become”.
Read more:
Today so far
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- The House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection has issued new subpoenas to 10 former Trump administration officials, including senior adviser Stephen Miller. The chair of the select committee, Bennie Thompson, said the officials would be able to shed light on what happened at the White House as the Capitol attack unfolded on January 6.
- Joe Biden pitched the benefits of his economic agenda for “ordinary Americans” in an interview with a local Cincinnati news station. The president’s Monday interview with the Local 12 station came three days after the House passed the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Biden celebrated the bill’s passage while downplaying his sinking polling numbers, saying, “I didn’t run because of the polls.”
- House speaker Nancy Pelosi said the chamber will pass Democrats’ reconciliation package next week. Speaking at a press conference while attending the Cop 26 climate change summit in Glasgow, Pelosi told reporters, “We intend, that is our plan, to pass the bill the week of November 15, as was indicated in our statements that were made at the time of passing the infrastructure bill.”
- The White House condemned Republican congressman Paul Gosar for tweeting a violent video about Biden and congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The altered video depicted Gosar striking Ocasio-Cortez with a sword and appeared to attack Biden. “There is no place for any type of violence or that type of language in the political system,” the deputy White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said. “It should not be happening, and we should be condemning it.” House members have called for an ethics committee investigation of Gosar.
- New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu announced he will not run for the US Senate next year. The announcement will come as a major disappointment to Senate Republican leaders, given that Sununu was considered to be the party’s top recruit for the midterms.
Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Updated
Donald Trump attacked the House select committee’s investigation as politically motivated, after the panel subpoenaed 10 of his former aides.
“The Unselect Committee of politically ambitious hacks continues to subpoena people wanting to know about those protesting, on January 6th, the insurrection which took place during the Presidential Election of November 3rd,” the former president said in a statement.
Of course, it is not at all accurate to describe the January 6 insurrection as a “protest”. It was a pro-Trump attack on the Capitol that resulted in five deaths.
And it is also entirely false to describe the 2020 presidential election as an “insurrection”. Trump has never presented any valid evidence of widespread fraud in the election, which Joe Biden won fairly.
One of the Trump administration officials who was subpoenaed by the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection is John McEntee, the former White House personnel director.
In his new book, “Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show,” ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl details how McEntee used his post to enforce White House staffers’ loyalty to Donald Trump and bolster the president’s baseless claims of a stolen election.
Karl writes in an excerpt for the Atlantic:
McEntee and his enforcers made the disastrous last weeks of the Trump presidency possible. They backed the president’s manic drive to overturn the election, and helped set the stage for the January 6 assault on the Capitol. Thanks to them, in the end, the elusive ‘adults in the room’—those who might have been willing to confront the president or try to control his most destructive tendencies—were silenced or gone. But McEntee was there—bossing around Cabinet secretaries, decapitating the civilian leadership at the Pentagon, and forcing officials high and low to state their allegiance to Trump.
When Trump wasn’t happy with the answers he was getting from White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, McEntee set up a rogue legal team. This back-channel operation played a previously unknown role in the effort to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the vote. Just days before January 6, McEntee sent Pence’s office an absurd memo making the case that Pence would be following Thomas Jefferson’s example if he used his power to declare Trump the winner of the 2020 election.
More than anyone else in the White House, McEntee was Trump’s man through and through—a man who rose to power at precisely the moment when American democracy was falling apart.
Donald Trump has suffered a series of legal setbacks and more loom, as he wages a court battle to thwart a House committee from obtaining White House records for its inquiry into the 6 January Capitol assault and a new grand jury begins hearing evidence about possible crimes by his real estate firm.
Former justice officials and legal scholars say Trump’s long-standing penchant for using lawsuits to fend off investigations and opponents is looking weaker now that he’s out of the White House and facing legal threats on multiple fronts.
The list of significant legal setbacks is lengthy for the former president and real estate mogul who has long had a reputation for threatening to sue his foes.
Early this year, for example, Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr won a lengthy legal fight to obtain Trump’s tax returns, and in July charged two Trump companies and the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer with a 15 year tax fraud scheme, which the companies and the CFO have denied in pleas.
On 4 November, a second grand jury was convened by Vance to hear more evidence about the financial practices of the Trump Organization and possibly bring more charges, according to the Washington Post.
Read the full report:
Updated
The new round of subpoenas from the House select committee comes one day after the panel subpoenaed six of Donald Trump’s allies, who were reportedly involved in efforts to block the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
Those subpoenas – which were sent to former national security adviser Michael Flynn and conservative lawyer John Eastman, among others – indicated the committee’s interest in meetings held by Trump associates at the Willard Hotel in the days leading up to the insurrection.
The latest round of subpoenas demonstrates that the committee is also interested in what unfolded at the White House as a pro-Trump mob attacked the Capitol.
During the select committee’s first public hearing in July, vice-chair Liz Cheney underscored the importance of learning what took place at the White House during the insurrection.
“We must also know what happened every minute of that day in the White House – every phone call, every conversation, every meeting leading up to, during, and after the attack,” Cheney said at the hearing. “Honorable men and women have an obligation to step forward.”
Updated
Here are all 10 of the former Trump administration officials who have just received subpoenas from the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection:
- Nicholas Luna, the former personal assistant to Donald Trump.
- Molly Michael, Trump’s former Oval Office operations coordinator.
- Benjamin Williamson, former senior advisor to Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows.
- Christopher Liddell, the former White House deputy chief of staff.
- John McEntee, the former White House personnel director.
- Keith Kellogg, the national security adviser to former Vice-President Mike Pence.
- Kayleigh McEnany, the former White House press secretary.
- Stephen Miller, Trump’s former senior adviser who is best known for crafting the administration’s widely criticized immigration policies.
- Cassidy Hutchinson, Trump’s former special assistant for legislative affairs.
- Kenneth Klukowski, the former senior counsel to assistant attorney general Jeffrey Clark, who refused to answer the select committee’s questions about the insurrection last week.
Capitol attack committee subpoenas 10 former Trump staffers, including Stephen Miller
The House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection has issued new subpoenas to 10 former Trump administration officials, including senior adviser Stephen Miller.
“The Select Committee wants to learn every detail of what went on in the White House on January 6th and in the days beforehand,” select committee chair Bennie Thompson said in a statement.
BREAKING: The Select Committee has issued subpoenas to ten former administration officials, including individuals who served on the White House staff at the time of the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. https://t.co/dEs1NRYhFO
— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) November 9, 2021
“We need to know precisely what role the former President and his aides played in efforts to stop the counting of the electoral votes and if they were in touch with anyone outside the White House attempting to overturn the outcome of the election,” the Democratic chair added.
“We believe the witnesses subpoenaed today have relevant information and we expect them to comply fully with the Select Committee’s investigation as we work to get answers for the American people, make recommendations on changes to the law to protect our democracy, and help ensure that nothing like January 6th ever happens again.”
The news comes one day after the committee announced it had issued subpoenas to six of Donald Trump’s allies who were reportedly involved in efforts to prevent the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election.
House progressives are expressing concern about the timing of passing the reconciliation package, after centrists forced a delay of the scheduled vote last week.
A handful of centrists in the House Democratic caucus have said they will not support the $1.75tn reconciliation package until the Congressional Budget Office releases its analysis of the bill’s true cost.
And the CBO said this morning that it could not provide a date for when the cost estimate of the entire bill will be available, although the agency plans to release calculations about portions of the package this week.
Translation: Build Back Better act is not gonna happen next week and everyone should have seen that coming when we decoupled the bills. https://t.co/yKyRIWbiDa
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) November 9, 2021
Progressive congresswoman Ilhan Omar said of the CBO’s statement, “Translation: Build Back Better act is not gonna happen next week and everyone should have seen that coming when we decoupled the bills.”
Omar was one of the six House progressives who voted against the bipartisan infrastructure bill on Friday night because they had previously demanded that the reconciliation package must be approved at the same time.
Joe Biden praised former Senator Max Cleland as “an American hero whose fearless service to our nation, and to the people of his beloved home state of Georgia, never wavered”.
The president noted that he and Cleland served together in the US Senate for six years, until they both left the chamber in 2009. (Cleland had lost his 2008 re-election bid, and Biden made the move to the White House as Barack Obama’s vice-president.)
“He was a man of unflinching patriotism, boundless courage, and rare character,” Biden said of Cleland. “I was proud to have Max by my side. He will be remembered as one of Georgia’s and America’s great leaders.”
Updated
Former Georgia senator Max Cleland dies at 79
In case you missed it this morning: Max Cleland, the former US senator from Georgia who lost three limbs in the Vietnam War, died today. He was 79.
The AP reports:
Cleland died at his home in Atlanta from congestive heart failure, his personal assistant Linda Dean told The Associated Press.
Cleland, a Democrat, served one term in the U.S. Senate, losing a 2002 re-election bid to Republican Saxby Chambliss. He also served as as administrator of the U.S. Veterans Administration, as Georgia Secretary of State and as a Georgia state senator.
Cleland was a U.S. Army captain in Vietnam when he lost an arm and two legs while picking up a fallen grenade in 1968. For years, Cleland blamed himself for dropping the grenade, but he learned in 1999 that another soldier had dropped it.
Cleland’s Senate seat is now filled by Jon Ossoff, who is the first Democrat to hold the position since Chambliss’ victory in the 2002 race.
Updated
'It should not be happening,' White House says of Gosar's tweet about AOC
The deputy White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, condemned Republican congressman Paul Gosar over his threatening tweet about progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“There is no place for any type of violence or that type of language in the political system,” Jean-Pierre said at the daily White House press briefing. “It should not be happening, and we should be condemning it.”
Gosar has been widely criticized for tweeting a video depicting him striking Ocasio-Cortez with a sword. The tweet also appeared to show Gosar threatening Joe Biden.
Twitter attached a hateful conduct warning to the tweet, and House members have now called for the ethics committee and law enforcement to investigate Gosar over the incident.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi has echoed calls for an investigation, and she urged Republican leader Kevin McCarthy to do so as well.
Pelosi said in a tweet, “Threats of violence against members of Congress and the president of the United States must not be tolerated. [McCarthy] should join in condemning this horrific video and call on the ethics committee and law enforcement to investigate.”
A reporter asked the deputy White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, about how the funds from the bipartisan infrastructure bill will be distributed.
Jean-Pierre would not get into specifics, saying that the distribution of funds will be determined by the transportation department, the department of energy and the department of commerce, among other government agencies.
While she would not go into specifics, Jean-Pierre said, “Transparency is going to be key here.”
It’s also worth noting that Joe Biden has not yet actually signed the bill, as he is waiting to do so until Democratic lawmakers return to Washington. (The House and the Senate are out of session this week.)
While emphasizing the importance of expanding access to affordable broadband, commerce secretary Gina Raimondo acknowledged it would take time to see the benefits of the funding from the infrastructure bill.
Raimondo said many infrastructure projects in the US are “shovel-ready,” but she noted that expanding broadband access would be a longer process. She said some broadband projects would not get underway until “well into next year”.
“I think people will see their state putting together a plan,” Raimondo said. “But you know, not everybody’s going to have broadband a year from now.”
Raimondo touts broadband funding in infrastructure bill: 'We have to close the digital divide'
Commerce secretary Gina Raimondo underscored the importance of funding to expand affordable broadband access, which is included in the infrastructure bill.
Raimondo argued that the coronavirus pandemic demonstrated “how essential broadband is,” as many families struggled to access online schooling or telehealth appointments because of unreliable Internet.
“The fact of the matter is, we have to close the digital divide,” Raimondo said.
The commerce secretary said the Biden administration is committed to expanding broadband access while ensuring it remains affordable, so all American families can benefit from the initiative.
“Broadband is the gateway to economic opportunity,” Raimondo said. “And so in order to open that gateway, we’re putting equity at the center of everything we do.”
The deputy White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, is now holding the daily briefing with reporters, and she is joined by commerce secretary Gina Raimondo.
Raimondo celebrated the “incredible accomplishment” of the House passing the bipartisan infrastructure bill last week, sending the legislation to Joe Biden’s desk.
Raimondo, who previously served as the governor of Rhode Island, noted that other administrations had repeatedly promised to sign an infrastructure bill but never followed through on those commitments.
“President Biden delivered,” Raimondo said. “None of this could have been done without his leadership.”
A last word, for now, on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the video tweeted by Paul Gosar in which the Arizona Republican is seen, as a mocked-up anime character, to hit her, in the same form, in the back of the neck with a sword.
Joanne Freeman is a Yale historian and the author of The Field of Blood, an extremely well-regarded history of violence in Congress before the civil war.
She has become a popular talking head in the media in the last couple of years, not least around the deadly attack on the US Capitol on 6 January.
Tensions and enmities in Congress itself have not reached the pitch or depths of the 1850s, when congressmen fought duels and a senator, Charles Sumner*, was viciously attacked by a southerner in his chair in the chamber, as the US tore itself apart over slavery. But parallels are there to be found and historians like Freeman are there, on Twitter, to comment.
Regarding Gosar’s tweet, Freeman wrote: “Threats of violence lead to actual violence. They clear the ground. They cow opposition. They plant the idea. They normalize it. They encourage it. They maim democracy. And run the risk of killing it.”
Here’s the story:
*By the by, seeing as we’re talking history: in the now infamous picture below, which shows a Capitol rioter with a Confederate battle flag in the Capitol on 6 January, the portrait looking on from the right is of Sumner, the senator from Massachusetts who was a passionate opponent of slavery. And, as it happens, the fellow portrayed at the left is John C Calhoun, vice-president, senator from South Carolina, passionate champion of slavery and, and this is true, possible model for Captain Ahab in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick…
So there you go.
Speaking of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic congresswoman has warned that the US “has not recovered our moral authority” following the Donald Trump years.
Speaking at a sideline event at Cop26 in Glasgow, Ocasio-Cortez was among a group of Democrats who hailed Joe Biden’s efforts to tackle the climate crisis. But while she said America “is back” in the climate conversation, the congresswoman said this needs to be matched by actions.
“We have to deliver to get credit on climate change, it’s as simple as that,” she said.
Ocasio-Cortez was also asked if she had a message to young activists who have pressed governments to cut climate-damaging fossil fuel pollution.
She told reporters: “Well, I would say, ‘Stay in the streets. Keep pushing.’”
Ocasio-Cortez was one of a number of democrats who voted against Biden’s infrastructure bill, which passed last Friday night.
Pelosi wants investigation of Gosar AOC tweet
After Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused Republican leaders of “cheering on” a congressman who tweeted a video depicting him striking her with a sword – and said the incident showed how US institutions failed to protect women of color – Nancy Pelosi called for House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, to join her call for an ethics investigation.
Twitter attached a hateful conduct warning to the tweet by Paul Gosar, a hardliner from Arizona, which also showed the sword-wielding congressman appearing to threaten Joe Biden.
In a tweet, the speaker said: “Threats of violence against members of Congress and the president of the United States must not be tolerated. [McCarthy] should join in condemning this horrific video and call on the ethics committee and law enforcement to investigate.”
Twitter attached a hateful conduct warning to Gosar’s tweet.
“This tweet violated the Twitter Rules about hateful conduct,” Twitter’s message said. “However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the tweet to remain accessible.”
The video was also posted to Instagram
Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic congresswoman from New York, also called Gosar “just a collection of wet toothpicks anyway” who “couldn’t open a pickle jar or read a whole book by himself”.
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Joe Biden pitched the benefits of his economic agenda for “ordinary Americans” in an interview with a local Cincinnati news station. The president’s interview with the Local 12 station came three days after the House passed the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Biden celebrated the bill’s passage while downplaying his sinking polling numbers, saying, “I didn’t run because of the polls.”
- House speaker Nancy Pelosi said the chamber will pass Democrats’ reconciliation package next week. Speaking at a press conference while attending the Cop26 climate change summit in Glasgow, Pelosi told reporters, “We intend, that is our plan, to pass the bill the week of November 15, as was indicated in our statements that were made at the time of passing the infrastructure bill.”
- New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu announced he will not run for the US Senate next year. The announcement will come as a major disappointment for Senate Republican leaders, given that Sununu was considered to be the party’s top recruit for the midterms.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Some of the centrist members of the House Democratic caucus have said they will not vote for the reconciliation package until the Congressional Budget Office releases its analysis of the bill’s true cost.
CBO staffers are working frantically to provide members of Congress with their assessments, and the agency gave an update on its progress today.
CBO will release estimates for individual titles of H.R. 5376, the Build Back Better Act, as we complete them. CBO is aiming to release an estimate for the entire bill as soon as practicable. https://t.co/lBPHKoDL4c
— U.S. CBO (@USCBO) November 9, 2021
“The analysis of the bill’s many provisions is complicated, and CBO will provide a cost estimate for the entire bill as soon as practicable,” the agency said in a statement.
“We anticipate releasing estimates for individual titles of the bill as we complete them, some of which will be released this week.”
But the agency also noted that certain provisions will take longer to analyze, and officials do not yet have a planned release date for the cost estimate of the entire bill.
It’s unclear whether the partial estimates released this week will allay the centrists’ concerns, or if Democratic leaders will need to wait for the entire cost estimate before moving forward with a vote. Time will tell.
House Democrats intend to pass reconciliation bill next week, Pelosi says
House speaker Nancy Pelosi held a press conference in Glasgow today, as she and other members of Congress attended the Cop26 climate change summit.
A reporter asked the speaker when House Democrats planned to pass their $1.75tn reconciliation package, after centrist members of their caucus forced a delay of the scheduled vote last week.
.@SpeakerPelosi to @MrDanZak on Build Back Better: "Yes, we intend, that is our plan, to pass the bill the week of November 15th." pic.twitter.com/ZfmuCsmFSM
— CSPAN (@cspan) November 9, 2021
“We intend, that is our plan, to pass the bill the week of November 15, as was indicated in our statements that were made at the time of passing the infrastructure bill,” Pelosi said.
The House was able to give final approval to the bipartisan infrastructure bill on Friday night, but Democratic leaders’ plans to simultaneously pass the reconciliation package were scrapped because of centrists’ concerns about the cost of the bill.
The reconciliation package includes $555bn in funds to address the climate crisis, including tax credits for the purchase of electric vehicles and investments in clean energy technologies.
Padilla leads group of Senate Democrats asking Treasury to expand voter registration options
Senator Alex Padilla and 17 other Senate Democrats asked the treasury department on Tuesday to consider offering voter registration services at free tax assistance preparation centers, a move they said could help add thousands of new voters to the rolls.
The senators asked Treasury secretary Janet Yellen to consider giving people the chance to register at Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) centers, which offer free tax assistance to people who generally make less than $57,000 each year, or who have disabilities or limited English proficiency.
They cited a 2018 Brookings Institution experiment that found implementing such a program nationwide would add 115,000 people to the voter rolls, including 63,000 who otherwise would not register.
The study of just over 4,300 tax filers in Texas and Ohio found the program doubled the likelihood people would register to vote, and was particularly effective in getting younger voters on the rolls. Such a program could also successfully add many low income people who use VITA services to the rolls, the senators said.
Joe Biden issued an executive order earlier this year asking all federal agencies to submit proposals to expand voter access. The Senate Democrats said they were concerned that offering voter registration at VITA centers was not included in the proposal the Treasury Department submitted to the White House. “We believe this is a missed opportunity,” the senators wrote.
The letter comes as Biden and Democrats in the Senate face mounting pressure to pass voting rights legislation. Republicans have successfully used the filibuster four times this year to block voting rights bills. There is mounting pressure to get rid of the rule.
Updated
New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu said he did not give any advance notice to Senate Republican leaders about his decision to stay out of the 2022 race.
“I guess you will have to let them know. I haven’t talked to them,” Sununu told reporters in Concord.
The announcement will likely come as a surprise and a severe disappointment to Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, given that Sununu was considered one of the party’s top recruits for the midterms.
McConnell’s former chief of staff, Josh Holmes, summed up his response with one word: “Unbelievable.”
Unbelievable.
— Josh Holmes (@HolmesJosh) November 9, 2021
While announcing he would not run for the Senate, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu made it quite clear that he thinks very little of the institution.
The Republican governor noted he spoke to many senators about their duties as he made his decision about whether to jump into the race.
“The more I heard about the opportunities that would be there to lead – and there are opportunities, to be sure – what the day-to-day entails, it’s so different,” Sununu said.
“It doesn’t fit not just my style, but it clearly doesn’t fit the needs of the citizens.”
Updated
New Hampshire governor says he will not run for Senate, disappointing Republicans
Speaking of Republican Senate candidates: New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu has just announced that he is not going to be one.
Sununu, a three-term governor who was considered one of the Republican party’s top recruits for the 2022 midterms, made the announcement this morning. He said he would instead seek another two-year term as governor.
Explaining his decision, Sununu said the governorship has been “the most fulfilling opportunity” and he did not believe he could achieve the same kind of results in the Senate.
Gov. Chris Sununu (R-NH) announces he is NOT running for U.S. Senate:
— The Recount (@therecount) November 9, 2021
“I’d rather push myself 120mph delivering wins for New Hampshire than to slow down, end up on Capitol Hill debating partisan politics without results.” pic.twitter.com/4ho1GZw5tZ
“My responsibility is not to the gridlock and politics of Washington. It’s to the citizens of New Hampshire,” Sununu told reporters in Concord.
“And I’d rather push myself 120 miles an hour delivering wins for New Hampshire than to slow down, end up on Capitol Hill debating partisan politics without results. That’s why I’m going to run for a fourth term.”
The news will likely be reassuring to Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan, who is seeking a second term next year. Recent polls had shown Sununu and Hassan running neck and neck in a hypothetical match-up.
Also on Monday, the Hill reported that Sean Parnell, the Trump-endorsed candidate for Senate in Pennsylvania, was among candidates worrying senior Senate Republicans.
Another, the former NFL star Herschel Walker, has been endorsed by Donald Trump in Georgia but faces allegations of violence towards women. He has said his Christian faith helped quell such behaviour.
Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Trump ally, told the Hill Parnell had “to make a decision if he’s a viable candidate or not after the accusation. Again, it’s an accusation in family court. You take it seriously. He has a right to give his side of the story.”
John Cornyn of Texas said: “Parnell has a primary and after recent revelations I don’t know what his future is.”
Mitt Romney of Utah, a Trump foe, said: “I’m not going to give advice to President Trump on who and when he endorses but I know that for myself I try and wait as long as possible to determine who would be the best candidate and who has the best prospects for becoming a successful Republican nominee.”
The retiring Pennsylvania senator, Pat Toomey, did not comment. An unnamed senator said: “If you can only win a Republican primary and can’t win a general election, you don’t serve the purpose.
“Who the candidates are matter and we ought to always be doing everything we can to make sure we have the best candidates.”
The Republican in charge of attempts to win back the Senate was asked to give an opinion about a candidate in Pennsylvania who is both accused of strangling his wife and endorsed by Donald Trump. The senator chose not to do so.
The Pennsylvania contest is shaping up to be a key battle in the 2022 midterms. Republican control of either chamber of Congress would cripple Joe Biden’s domestic plans. Success in the Senate would let the GOP block any supreme court pick.
Trump’s endorsement carries huge weight. The Trump-endorsed candidate for the nomination to succeed the retiring Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania is Sean Parnell, an army veteran and conservative commentator.
Parnell’s estranged wife recently testified that he choked her until she bit him, hit their young child and called her a “whore” and a “piece of shit” while pinning her down. Parnell denied the claims, also under oath.
The chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Rick Scott of Florida, spoke to CNN on Monday.
“You are head of the NRSC, charged with getting Republicans elected to the Senate,” host Brianna Keilar said. “Sean Parnell is facing allegations from his wife he strangled her and abused one of their small children. Is he still the right candidate?”
“As you know,” Scott said, “we have Republican and Democrat primaries across the country and in Pennsylvania … both Republicans and Democrats have primaries, and so we’ll see who comes out of the primary. Facts will come out, we’ll find out what people think.
“I think what ultimately happens is people are going to look at somebody’s background and say is that the type of person they want and also are they talking about the issues I care about.”
Pressed, Scott said: “I’m not supporting or opposing people in primary.
“I’m the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. I’m going to help our incumbents, help our Republicans who get through the primaries, that’s what my focus is. The voters of each of the states will decide who the right candidates on the Republican and Democrat side are.”
Politico has reported that Donald Trump Jr pressed his father to endorse Parnell, in a process without sufficient vetting.
Even as Joe Biden and his team are selling the benefits of the infrastructure bill to the public, it’s unclear when exactly Americans will start to see the impact of the legislation.
Biden said on Saturday that he believed Americans would start seeing the benefits of the bill “within the next two to three months”.
But speaking to reporters yesterday, transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg acknowledged many infrastructure projects take years to complete.
“So, some things [will happen] soon. But again, this is about many, many, years ahead, starting now,” Buttigieg said.
Politically speaking, it may be difficult for Democratic candidates to sell the infrastructure bill to voters during the midterms next year if the effects are not yet being felt.
Democrats’ reconciliation package includes some more immediate benefits, such as the extension of the expanded Child Tax Credit. But the party has not yet been able to send that bill to Biden’s desk.
Joe Biden will also go to Baltimore, Maryland, tomorrow to continue selling the benefits of the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
According to the White House’s guidance on the trip, the president plans to visit the Port of Baltimore and “discuss how the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal delivers for the American people by upgrading our nation’s ports and strengthening supply chains to prevent disruptions”.
It’s worth noting that the president has not yet actually signed the bill, which the House passed on Friday night.
The deputy White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said yesterday that Biden was waiting to sign the bill until Democratic lawmakers return to Washington. (The House and the Senate are both out of session this week.)
“It’s urgent, but we also want to make sure that the people who spent the last couple of weeks, last couple of months just all in, delivering on this promise, are here for the signing as well,” Jean-Pierre told reporters.
Biden downplays sinking polls and sells infrastructure bill in local interview
Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.
Joe Biden sat down for a rare live interview yesterday with the Local 12 news station based out of Cincinnati, Ohio.
In the interview, the president celebrated the House passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill while downplaying his sinking polling numbers.
The FiveThirtyEight polling average now has Biden’s approval rating at 43%, down from 50% in August.
“The point is, I didn’t run because of the polls,” the president told WKRC’s Kyle Inskeep.
“I didn’t run because of the polls.” — President Biden answers @Local12's @Kyle_Inskeep’s question about polling and says his Build Back Better plan will help Americans. pic.twitter.com/HxG7AmkY8g
— The Recount (@therecount) November 9, 2021
Biden acknowledged there was “a lot of anxiety” in the country right now because of everything from high gas prices to coronavirus-related school closures.
But he optimistically predicted that the infrastructure bill, as well as the reconciliation package that Democrats are still trying to pass, will have a “significant impact on ordinary Americans” and help to turn things around.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
