Closing summary
It’s slightly past 4pm in Washington DC. Here’s where things stand:
Former transportation secretary Elaine Chao has spoken out against former president Donald Trump who has repeatedly issued racist remarks towards her. Chao, who is Asian American, told Politico, “When I was young, some people deliberately misspelled or mispronounced my name…He doesn’t seem to understand that, which says a whole lot more about him than it will ever say about Asian Americans,” she added.
In an address in Springfield, Virginia on Thursday, president Joe Biden hit back against Republican fiscal policies and vowed to not let a national debt default happen. “They’re threatening to have us default on the American debt, the debt that has been accumulated for over 230 years … we’ve never ever done that…Why in God’s name would Americans give up the progress we made for the chaos they’re suggesting? I don’t get it … I will not let that happen, not on my watch,” he said.
Biden also reaffirmed his administration’s fight against global warming by “finally making sure the biggest corporations just begin to pay a little bit. The days are over where corporations pay zero in federal taxes.”
San Francisco superior court judge Stephen Murphy has ordered footage of the attack on former House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband to be released. In addition to home surveillance footage, Murphy ordered the public release of police body camera footage, 911 audio calls, as well as audio from police interviews with David DePape, the suspect who broke into Pelosi’s San Francisco home last October in attempts to kidnap the former speaker.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis called for a change in leadership of the Republican National Committee in an interview on Thursday morning. “I think we need a change, and I think we need to get some new blood in the RNC. I like what Harmeet Dhillon has said about getting the RNC outside of DC – why would you want to have your headquarters in the most Democrat city in America?,” DeSantis said on the Charlie Kirk Show, referring to the lawyer who is currently the foremost challenger of RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel’s position.
The National Archives has officially requested that former US presidents and their vice presidents check to establish whether they have any classified documents or other presidential records. The request comes amid the ongoing but increasingly surreal scandal tangling up Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Mike Pence.
Hard right congresswoman and conspiracy-booster Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia, has “no chance” of being stated-2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump’s vice presidential choice, despite aspiring to it, a source tells Guardian US.
Meta, Facebook and Instagram’s owner, is reportedly ready to allow Trump to post on the platforms his ongoing attacks on the results of the 2020 presidential election, where he lost to Joe Biden but claims he really won. But if Trump posts misinformation about upcoming elections, including the 2024 presidential, it will take some unspecified action to restrict his messaging. Meta has reinstated Trump to the platforms after a two-year ban, but he hasn’t posted yet.
The decision to allow Trump back onto Facebook and Instagram is infuriating many, including some civil rights groups (though not the ACLU) and Democratic politicians. The move has been called dangerous by some.
That’s it from me, Maya Yang, as we wrap up today’s US politics blog. Thank you for following along. We’ll be back on Friday.
Updated
Former transportation secretary Elaine Chao has spoken out against former president Donald Trump who has repeatedly issued racist remarks towards her.
Chao, who is Asian American, told Politico, “When I was young, some people deliberately misspelled or mispronounced my name… Asian Americans have worked hard to change that experience for the next generation.”
“He doesn’t seem to understand that, which says a whole lot more about him than it will ever say about Asian Americans,” she added.
Earlier this week, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “Does Coco Chow have anything to do with Joe Biden’s Classified Documents being sent and stored in Chinatown?” he wrote. “Her husband, the Old Broken Crow, is VERY close to Biden, the Democrats, and, of course, China,” he added.
Trump has also previously referred to Chao, who is married to Mitch McConnell, as “China’s loving wife.”
“We have more work to do but we’re on the right track… I’ve never been more optimistic about America’s future than I am today…and nothing is beyond our capacity if we work together,” said Biden in his closing remarks.
“Unemployment is the lowest it’s been in 50 years,” said Biden since taking office two years ago.
“We created nearly 11 million jobs, including 750,000 manufacturing jobs…the unemployment rate is near record lowest for Black and Hispanic workers and the lowest ever recorded for people with disabilities,” he added.
"We can do something about it," says Biden about global warming
“If you don’t think we have a climate crisis, come travel with me around the country,” says Biden, adding, “We have enormous drought, now we have these super storms in the west…folks, there is a thing called global warming and it’s real but we can do something about it.”
“Families are going to save more than $1,000 on tax credits on these [energy efficient] vehicles when they purchase one, and energy efficient appliances like refrigerators and washing machines…and we’re paying for all of this by finally making sure the biggest corporations just begin to pay a little bit. The days are over where corporations pay zero in federal taxes,” he added.
Updated
'I will not let that happen,' says Biden about national debt default
“They’re threatening to have us default on the American debt, the debt that has been accumulated for over 230 years … we’ve never ever done that,” Biden said, referring to fiscal policies proposed by Republicans.
“Why in God’s name would Americans give up the progress we made for the chaos they’re suggesting? I don’t get it … I will not let that happen, not on my watch,” he said.
“I will veto everything they send,” he added.
Updated
“We’re moving in the right direction, now we have to protect those gains…from the MAGA Republicans… This ain’t your father’s Republican party… They want to pass legislation to do the following things…they want to raise your gas prices…cut taxes of your billionaires…and they want to impose a 30% national sales tax on food…clothing…house, cars… They want to eliminate the income tax system,” Biden said.
“We’ve achieved a lot…economic growth is up, stronger than experts expected…jobs are the highest in American history and wages are up. In the past six months, inflation has gone down each month,” Biden said in his address at Springfield, Virginia.
San Francisco superior court judge Stephen Murphy has ordered footage of the attack on former House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband to be released.
In addition to home surveillance footage, Murphy ordered the public release of police body camera footage, 911 audio calls, as well as audio from police interviews with David DePape, the suspect who broke into Pelosi’s San Francisco home last October in attempts to kidnap the former speaker.
Unable to find Nancy Pelosi, the alleged perpetrator instead beat her 82-year old husband with a hammer.
Murphy’s decision comes amid calls from numerous news agencies that seek the release of the footage and evidence.
“You don’t eliminate the public right of access just because of concerns about conspiracy theories,” said Thomas Burke, a lawyer who represented the Associated Press and other media organizations in their attempt to gain access to the footage, the AP reports.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis called for a change in leadership of the Republican National Committee in an interview on Thursday morning.
“I think we need a change, and I think we need to get some new blood in the RNC. I like what Harmeet Dhillon has said about getting the RNC outside of DC – why would you want to have your headquarters in the most Democrat city in America?,” DeSantis said on the Charlie Kirk Show, referring to the lawyer who is currently the foremost challenger of RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel’s position.
He added:
“We’ve had three substandard election cycles in a row – ’18, ’20, and ’22 – and I would say of all three of those, ’22 was probably the worst given the political environment of a very unpopular President in Biden.”
DeSantis’s comments come amid growing concerns from some RNC members that McDaniel has not done enough to push back against Donald Trump from forming a third political party if he does not secure the Republican presidential nomination during the next election cycle.
Interim summary
Hello again, US politics live blog readers. It’s been a lively day in the news from Washington so far and there’ll be more to come. Joe Biden is due to leave the White House shortly en route to a union office in Springfield, Virginia, where he’s scheduled to give a speech at 2.45pm ET on the economy (and what he sees as Republican plans to block his economic agenda).
Here’s where things stand:
The National Archives has officially requested that former US presidents and their vice presidents check to establish whether they have any classified documents or other presidential records, amid the ongoing but increasingly surreal scandal tangling up Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Mike Pence.
Hard right congresswoman and conspiracy-booster Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia, has “no chance” of being stated-2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump’s vice presidential choice, despite aspiring to it, a source tells Guardian US.
Meta, Facebook and Instagram’s owner, is reportedly ready to allow Trump to post on the platforms his ongoing attacks on the results of the 2020 presidential election, where he lost to Joe Biden but claims he really won. But if Trump posts misinformation about upcoming elections, including the 2024 presidential, it will take some unspecified action to restrict his messaging. Meta has reinstated Trump to the platforms after a two-year ban, but he hasn’t posted yet.
The decision to allow Trump back onto Facebook and Instagram is infuriating many, including some civil rights groups (though not the ACLU) and Democratic politicians. The move has been called dangerous by some.
At a press briefing with the US attorney general Merrick Garland earlier, FBI director Christopher Wray warned, amid the scandal of classified documents turning up in the possession of Donald Trump and Joe Biden, that people with access to such material should be more “conscious of the rules.”
“Obviously I can’t comment on any specific investigation, but we have had, for quite a number of years, any number of mishandling investigations,” Wray told reporters at the briefing that was chiefly called to talk about the Department of Justice seizing a website used by a ransomware outfit.
“That is, unfortunately, a regular part of our counterintelligence division, counterintelligence programs work,” Wray added. “And people need to be conscious of the rules for classified information and appropriate handling of it. Those rules are there for a reason,” Wray said.
Today FBI Director Christopher Wray weighed in on the classified doc drama, I believe for the first time, saying in part, "people need to be conscious of the rules regarding classified information and appropriate, handling of them...those rules are there for a reason."
— Evan Lambert (@EvanLambertTV) January 26, 2023
It’s hard to know whether to laugh or cry at this point. But, again, there is a vast difference between what appears to be a careless oversight by Joe Biden, followed by an infuriating and outrageous information blackout before the public were told, and the case of Trump, who refused to hand over boxes of classified and secret documents to the government after leaving the White House and had to be raided by the FBI last summer.
Updated
National Archives asks former presidents to check for possession of classified documents
The National Archives has officially requested that former US presidents and their vice presidents do a sweep or a re-sweep, if they’ve checked before, to establish whether they have any classified documents or other presidential records among their personal records, amid the rumbling scandal, CNN reports.
The call comes as Donald Trump is being investigated by a special counsel appointed by the Department of Justice (DoJ) for withholding many boxes of material, including top secret documents, Joe Biden is being investigated by a separate special counsel after it was discovered that there were a few classified documents outstanding from his time as vice president, which he’s handed over, and that Mike Pence had some documents, too.
The National Archives and Records Administration is an independent federal agency within the executive branch. The agency sent a letter today to representatives of former presidents and vice presidents from, according to CNN, the last six administrations covered by the Presidential Records Act (PRA).
“The letter, which was reviewed by CNN, requests that they check their files to ensure that material thought to be personal does not “inadvertently” contain presidential records that are required by law to be turned over to the Archives,” the cable news channel reports.
The report continues: “The Archives sent the letter to representatives for former Presidents Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, and former Vice Presidents Pence, Biden, Dick Cheney, Al Gore and Dan Quayle.
Representatives for the four former presidents have all so far told CNN they do not have any classified records in their possession.”
Here again, FYI, is the Guardian’s great explainer on the fundamental differences between the Trump and Biden cases.
Obama, Dubya, Clinton, Cheney, Gore, Quayle (and president Jimmy Carter, aged 98, who hasn’t been mentioned in this latest sweep), are still alive.
Updated
Trumpworld source: 'No chance' MTG is VP pick
NBC News made a splash on Wednesday with a report that said Marjorie Taylor Greene wants to be Donald Trump’s pick for vice-president in 2024.
Greene, from Georgia, is a far-right controversialist and conspiracy theorist who was barred from House committees by Democrats but is now suddenly strongly allied with Republican leaders, after supporting Kevin McCarthy through his 15-vote ordeal to be elected speaker.
Steve Bannon, Trump’s former campaign chair and White House strategist, now a far-right media figure (and accused fraudster), told NBC Greene saw herself “on the short list for Trump’s VP”.
An unnamed source “who has advised Greene said her ‘whole vision is to be vice president’.”
So the Guardian asked its own anonymous source, a veteran Trumpworld insider, if there was any chance Trump would pick Greene.
The source said: “No chance. She might want it but it’s not real.”
So there’s that.
There’s also this, an interview with Robert Draper of the New York Times about his fascinating book about Republican dysfunction and, in particular, the rise of Marjorie Taylor Greene:
The Guardian’s David Smith earlier this month ran through some of Trump’s options in the veepstakes, including Taylor Greene. You can read it here.
Updated
The US economy expanded at a 2.9% annual pace from October through December, ending 2022 with momentum despite the pressure of high interest rates and widespread fears of a looming recession, the Associated Press reports.
Thursday’s estimate from the Commerce Department showed that the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP)— the broadest gauge of economic output — decelerated last quarter from the 3.2% annual growth rate it had posted from July through September.
Most economists think the economy will slow further in the current quarter and slide into at least a mild recession by midyear. The housing market, which is especially vulnerable to higher loan rates, has already been badly bruised.
And consumer spending, which fuels roughly 70% of the entire economy, is likely to soften in the months ahead, along with the still-resilient job market.
The economy’s expected slowdown is an intended consequence of the Federal Reserve’s aggressive series of rate hikes. The Fed’s hikes are meant to reduce growth, cool spending and crush the worst inflation bout in four decades. Last year, the Fed raised its benchmark rate seven times. It is set to do so again next week, though this time by a smaller amount.
The resilience of the U.S. job market has been a major surprise. Last year, employers added 4.5 million jobs, second only to the 6.7 million that were added in 2021 in government records going back to 1940. And last month’s unemployment rate, 3.5%, matched a 53-year low.
But the good times for America’s workers aren’t likely to last. As higher rates make borrowing and spending increasingly expensive across the economy, many consumers will spend less and employers will likely hire less.
The Fed has been responding to an inflation rate that remains stubbornly high even though it has been gradually easing.
US president Joe Biden is due to give a speech on the economy, in Virginia this afternoon.
Last quarter, our economy grew at a 2.9% annual pace – solid growth, even as we continue to bring inflation down.
— President Biden (@POTUS) January 26, 2023
Our economic plan worked. And it still is.
As well as trumpeting achievements on the economy, Biden is expected to attack Republicans – as part of a stepped up strategy by the White House to go after the GOP explicitly of late – for revving up to a seeming showdown over the federal debt limit where they may do more than bluster and actually block vital spending measures (eg on US social benefits or more weaponry to Ukraine in its effort to resist Russia’s invasion) in return for approving more debt capacity. My colleague Joan E Greve explains further on that issue.
Updated
Showbiz icon Bette Midler is not thrilled at the prospect of Donald Trump returning to mainstream social media.
Wow. POS #META, parent of #Facebook and #Instagram will let that sorry excuse for a human being back on their platforms. He should be banned permanently; he’s a menace to society. They must be desperate. #repulsive
— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) January 26, 2023
Here’s former New York City mayoral candidate and progressive Maya Wiley.
#Meta appears to now be helping hate and disinformation to metastasize. Removing the tumor can help control the cancer.
— Maya Wiley (@mayawiley) January 25, 2023
There are also a mix of opinions about the American Civil Liberties Union praising last night’s decision by Meta to lift the ban on Donald Trump using its Facebook and Instagram platforms.
Here’s one member of the public:
The public has been hurt BADLY by NOT President Trump due to his actions on Twitter. BTW! Why is The ACLU calling Donald Trump "President"??? Joe Biden is! 🤬 #ACLU #PresidentTrump #Twitter #Facebook #Trump #Meta #NewYorkTimes #DonaldTrump https://t.co/ZRLGXgHcLZ
— Melissa D Brown (@MelissaDBrown7) January 26, 2023
Jameel Jaffer, executive director at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and a former American Civil Liberties Union official, defended the reinstatement, saying it was the “right call.” He had previously endorsed the company’s decision to suspend Trump’s account.
Updated
Returning to reaction to the decision by Meta to allow Donald Trump back on Facebook and Instagram, our own star columnist, Berkeley professor and former US labor secretary, Robert Reich, is not impressed by Mark Zuckerberg’s social media behemoth.
“Why the hell is Zuckerberg giving Donald Trump a free pass to lie and incite violence? The last time Trump’s election lies went unchecked, he abused his massive online megaphone to incite the violent January 6th insurrection — which led to his ban in the first place,” Reich tweeted.
Why the hell is Zuckerberg giving Donald Trump a free pass to lie and incite violence?
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) January 26, 2023
The last time Trump’s election lies went unchecked, he abused his massive online megaphone to incite the violent January 6th insurrection — which led to his ban in the first place.
And here’s former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, who was part of the team of special counsel Robert Mueller who investigated allegations that Trump’s 2016 election campaign colluded with Russia to swing opinion against his rival Hillary Clinton, and then obstructed justice.
What's the Meta theory here: yes, you incited an insurrection to overthrow democracy, but let's let bygones be bygones? Or, to quote Susan Collins, do you think he has learned his lesson? We know from DJT's false statements since then that is not true.
— Andrew Weissmann 🌻 (@AWeissmann_) January 26, 2023
Updated
US attorney general Merrick Garland is taking questions from reporters at a media appearance called ostensibly to talk about the fact that the FBI has seized a website used by the so-called Hive ransomware group.
But he just took a question from a reporter who asked if he was considering an effort to coordinate the work of the special counsels appointed by him to investigate, respectively, the classified documents found in a raid by federal agents on Donald Trump’s Florida residence last summer. The former president refused to return material to the government taken by him from the White House after he lost the 2020 election, and investigate the much smaller number of classified documents found at Joe Biden’s Delaware home and a former related-office in Washington, and subsequently voluntarily handed over.
The reporter asked Garland if there was likely to be an coordination on timing of the conclusions of those respective investigations or issuing of any reports or announcement of actions as a result.
Garland appointed special counsel Jack Smith last November to determine whether Trump should face criminal charges stemming from his alleged mishandling of national security materials, as well as his role in the 6 January, 2021, attack on the US Capitol in the dying days of his one-term presidency when he didn’t want to give up the White House to Joe Biden. Garland wanted to step away from the investigation after Trump announced he was running for the presidency in 2024, to try to avoid a political quagmire.
Earlier this month, Garland named Robert Hur as special counsel to investigate Biden’s retention of classified documents from his time as vice-president and as a US Senator.
Garland said, moments ago: “I do not want to talk about particulars of investigations, particularly not a special counsel investigation.
“As a general matter, people we choose for special counsel are experienced prosecutors with experience in the Justice Department. They know how the justice department works, they know what the department’s practices are and I’m fully confident that they will resolve these matters one way or the other in the highest traditions of the department.”
Here’s the Guardian’s great explainer on the differences between the Trump and Biden cases.
Not forgetting that two days ago it emerged that classified documents have now also been found at former vice president Mike Pence’s home in Indiana. No special counsel in that case, yet, as DoJ scrutinizes.
Talking of Adam Schiff, he was out of the gate early last night to blast social media giant Meta for its decision to allow Donald Trump back onto its platforms Facebook and Instagram, two years after the company suspended the former US president over inflammatory misinformation.
Schiff said that Meta is now putting profits over the public interest with an “inexplicable” and “tragic” decision.
“It represents, in my view, a total caving in and copping out,” he told Joy Reid, the host of the ReidOut show on MSNBC, adding: “The only motive I can see is a profit motive here.”
.@RepAdamSchiff: "I think Facebook's decision to reinstate Donald Trump is inexplicable. It represents in my view a total caving in and copping out. The only motive I can see is a profit motive." #TheReidOut pic.twitter.com/gdzY7v2kGr
— The ReidOut (@thereidout) January 26, 2023
Separately, Schiff commented that: “Trump incited an insurrection. Giving him back access to a social media platform to spread his lies and demagoguery is dangerous.”
Updated
High-profile California congressman Adam Schiff has announced a run for the US Senate, putting him up against congresswoman Katie Porter in a race for a seat that is not vacant (yet).
The person occupying it, 89-year-old senator Dianne Feinstein, has not yet announced whether she’ll see reelection in 2024 when her latest term is up.
Schiff was an impeachment manager against Donald Trump and also served on the House special committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection and Trump’s role in that unprecedented and deadly chaos at the US Capitol.
The outspoken California Democrat is a regular on politics chat shows.
.@AdamSchiff announces Senate run, joining @katieporteroc in the race. @SenFeinstein, 89, hasn’t announced her intentions yet https://t.co/icI7xgvwCP
— John Bresnahan (@bresreports) January 26, 2023
California’s other senator, Alex Padilla, is not up for reelection until 2028. There have been lots of questions about the state of Feinstein’s health and fitness for the job.
Porter threw her hat in the ring earlier this month and is best known for sharp and clear attacks on greed and fraud in corporate America.
An “avalanche” of candidates is expected for Feinstein’s seat, my colleague Maanvi Singh writes.
Updated
Trump can attack 2020 results, but 2024? Not so much - Facebook
Facebook and Instagram’s owner, Meta, is reportedly ready to allow Donald Trump to post on the platforms by continuing his attacks on the results of the 2020 presidential election, the company told CNN.
The former president continues to insist in public that he won the election but that widespread fraud and conspiracies denied him his victory and wrongly awarded the White House to Democrat Joe Biden. He also encourages political candidates who parrot this lie, although that didn’t work out so well in the midterm elections last November.
A swath of prominent “election deniers” lost their bids for offices ranging from congressional seats to governorships and attorney general and secretary of state posts that would have had a huge influence on voting laws in those states.
But CNN reports that a Meta spokesperson last night told Oliver Darcy for his Reliable Sources news letter that Trump “will be permitted to attack the results of the 2020 election without facing consequences from the company. However, the spokesperson said, if Trump were to cast doubt on an upcoming election — like, the 2024 presidential race — the social giant will take action. In those cases, Meta might limit the distribution of the violative post or restrict access to advertising tools.”
Minutes after Meta announced it will allow Trump back, the ex-president was on his Truth Social app posting about supposed fraud in the 2020 election. Meta tells me posts attacking 2020 will be allowed, but posts attacking 2024 are a different story. More: https://t.co/Svno2MENlx
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) January 26, 2023
Well that sounds rock solid from Meta…to be clear, Trump hasn’t been readmitted to the platforms yet, it’s expected some time soon, and since being readmitted to Twitter last year under its new owner, Elon Musk, he hasn’t tweeted.
Prior to Musk’s awkward takeover of Twitter, the platform had declared on January 8, 2021, that Trump’s account was permanently suspended, citing his repeated violations of the company’s rules and his inflammatory tweets risking risks “further incitement of violence” after he encouraged the insurrection by his supporters on January 6.
At the time, Twitter assessed two tweets sent by Trump after the Capitol attack as “highly likely to encourage and inspire people to replicate the criminal acts that took place at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021”, the company said in a statement. Plans for “future armed protests” were at the time spreading on Twitter and elsewhere, the company warned.
Some free speech advocates have agreed with Meta, saying it is appropriate for the public to have access to messaging from political candidates.
Jameel Jaffer, executive director at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and a former American Civil Liberties Union official, defended the reinstatement. He had previously endorsed the company’s decision to suspend Trump’s account.
“This is the right call – not because the former president has any right to be on the platform but because the public has an interest in hearing directly from candidates for political office,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.
“It’s better if the major social media platforms err on the side of leaving speech up, even if the speech is offensive or false, so that it can be addressed by other users and other institutions.”
American Civil Liberties Union executive director Anthony Romero said Meta was making “the right call” by allowing Trump back on to the social network.
“Like it or not, President Trump is one of the country’s leading political figures and the public has a strong interest in hearing his speech,” Romero said in a release.
The ACLU has filed more than 400 legal actions against Trump, according to Romero.
Trump has not indicated whether he will return to the platform but responded to the news with a short statement on Truth Social, saying that “such a thing should never happen again to a sitting president”.
You can read more of this report here.
Decision to allow Trump back on Facebook condemned as dangerous
Reactions to the decision by Meta to allow Donald Trump back on its Facebook and Instagram platforms is fierce.
The former US president was thrown off the platforms in relation to inflammatory posts about the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol as his extremist supporters tried (ultimately in vain) to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory over him.
Elon Musk allowed Trump back on Twitter, though has not tweeted since January 2021, and now Mark Zuckerberg’s social media giant has given Trump the green light there, too.
“Make no mistake – by allowing Donald Trump back on its platforms, Meta is refuelling Trump’s misinformation and extremism engine,” said Angelo Carusone, president and CEO of media watchdog Media Matters for America.
“When Trump is given a platform, it ratchets up the temperature on a landscape that is already simmering – one that will put us on a path to increased violence.”
Free Press Co-CEO Jessica J. González, described the announcement as a “cowardly and unethical decision” that “will cause incalculable harm”.
She urged Meta to reverse course and said Trump would only continue to use the company’s “powerful tools” to “spread lies and dangerous rhetoric, and incite violence targeted at disenfranchised communities and his ideological enemies”.
“Meta must bear full responsibility for any harm that results from today’s extremely reckless decision,” González said.
Last week we learned that the January 6th Select Committee found that Donald Trump’s social media posts helped incite an insurrection. They found that the threat of violence still exists today.
— Jessica González (@JGo4Justice) January 25, 2023
So what does Meta do? Reinstates him. This is peak greed.
She added:
There’s no claiming ignorance next time. Zuckerberg knows what the consequences are. He just doesn’t care.
— Jessica González (@JGo4Justice) January 25, 2023
Updated
Fury over decision to allow Trump back on Facebook
Good morning, US politics blog readers, we’re coming into a lively news day with colorful reactions to Meta’s move to allow former president Donald Trump back on Facebook despite his tendency to spread lies. And current president Joe Biden is revving up for a speech bashing Republicans over their expected hardball tactics on government spending that could affect everything from aid to Ukraine’s war effort to US social benefits money. Stick around.
Here’s what on the agenda so far:
Mark Zuckerberg’s social media giant Meta has said it will allow Donald Trump back on its Facebook and Instagram platforms following a two-year ban over his online behavior concerning the insurrection by his extremist supporters on January 6 at the US Capitol.
Several civil rights and online safety advocacy groups have slammed Meta’s decision as, variously, reckless and encouraging an increase in politics-fueled violence.
Politicians and commentators are weighing in, some pleased, some accusing Facebook of “caving” and calling the move dangerous.
Meta said Trump will be allowed to continue posting his claims that he didn’t lose the 2020 election to Biden but action will be taken if he casts doubt on the reliability of the 2024 presidential election, Meta told CNN.
The US economy slowed but still grew at 2.9% rate last quarter, ending 2022 with momentum despite the pressure of high interest rates and widespread fears of a looming recession, latest gross domestic product (GDP) stats show.
Joe Biden is heading to Springfield, Virginia, this afternoon and will give remarks at a union office about the economy.
The US president is expected to condemn the Republicans, in the shape of their narrow majority in House, for signaling they are serious about a showdown/staring contest over the administrations efforts to increase the debt ceiling, by bargaining with aces like blocking further aid to Ukraine and demanding cuts in social security and Medicare.
