Pennsylvania Republicans have selected a woman who turned an old house into a "shrine" to former President Donald Trump and believes the 2020 election was stolen from him as the GOP nominee for an open state legislative seat.
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Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden’s nominee for attorney general, vowed on Monday to prioritize civil rights, combat extremist attacks and ensure the Justice Department remains politically independent. A federal appeals court judge who was snubbed by Republicans for a seat on the Supreme Court in 2016, Garland appeared Monday before the Senate Judiciary Committee and is widely expected to sail through his confirmation process with bipartisan support. “The attorney general represents the public interest, particularly and specifically as defined by the Constitution and the statutes of the United States,” Garland said.
The justices offered no public explanation for their rejection of the cases, but one member of the court dissented.
Disaster in Texas was not caused by Biden policies
Appeals turned down in efforts to overturn results in Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin
As the attorney general nomination hearing opens, Grassley offers no remorse about 2016, when Obama tried to fill Scalia's seat with Garland.
Scores of Republicans are bolting the party in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. But they’re discovering there’s really no place to go.
On Monday, it falls to Judge Merrick Garland to start to answer them. Biden's nominee for attorney general faces questions before the Senate Judiciary Committee on cases and topics that are largely inherited but no less relevant because of that. Garland himself is cognizant of the larger significance of the moment, even leaving aside the off fact that this same committee refused to even consider his nomination to the Supreme Court five years ago.
Just one year ago, America had no idea. The coronavirus still felt like a foreign problem, even as U.S. authorities recorded the country’s first known death from the virus. Precisely a year later, America is hurtling toward a horrifying milestone of 500,000 deaths from COVID-19.
Mr Miller is the architect behind Donald Trump’s immigration policy
Decision serves a post-presidency defeat to Trump and paves the way for prosecutors to review his long-sought financial records
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Unnamed source tells news site Axios Trump’s speech to the rightwing event will have the message ‘I’m still in charge’US politics – live coverage Donald Trump addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland in 2020. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock Donald Trump will reportedly tell the Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida this week he is Republicans’ “presumptive 2024 nominee” for president. Trump will address CPAC on Sunday, his subject the future of the party he took over in the 2016 primary then led from the White House through four tumultuous years. On Monday, citing anonymous sources, the news site Axios reported his plan to assume the mantle of challenger to Joe Biden – or another Democrat, should the 78-year-old president decide not to run for a second term. An unnamed “longtime adviser” was quoted as saying Trump’s speech to the rightwing event will be a “show of force” with the message: “I may not have Twitter or the Oval Office, but I’m still in charge.” A named source, close adviser Jason Miller, said: “Trump effectively is the Republican party. The only chasm is between Beltway insiders and grass-roots Republicans around the country. When you attack President Trump, you’re attacking the Republican grass roots.” Thousands have left the party since the Capitol riot of 6 January, which Trump incited in his attempt to overturn an election defeat he has not conceded, and in which five people including a police officer died. Trump lost his Twitter account, his favoured means of communication throughout his time in office, and access to other social media over his lies and inflammatory behaviour before, during and after the attack on Congress. Polling of Republicans who have not left the party, however, shows the former president with a clear lead over a range of potential 2024 candidates, supportive of him or not, in a notional primary. Ten members of the House voted to impeach Trump a second time over the Capitol attack and seven senators voted with Democrats to convict. That was short by 10 votes of the majority needed but it made it the most bipartisan impeachment ever. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell voted to acquit but then turned on Trump, branding him responsible for events at the Capitol. But House leaders have not followed suit, as they deal with vocal extremists in their caucus and the loyal party base. As Trump lashed out at McConnell, calling him “a dour, sullen and unsmiling political hack”, so Republicans in the House and Senate who turned against Trump have been censured by state parties and reported vitriol aimed their way from the grassroots – and even family members. Trump’s grip on his party is clear. New polling from Suffolk University and USA Today showed 46% of Trump voters would follow him if he formed his own party while 42% said his impeachment had strengthened their support. The same poll said 58% of Trump voters subscribed to an outright conspiracy theory: that the Capitol riot was “mostly a [leftwing] antifa-inspired attack that only involved a few Trump supporters”. In reality, many of more than 250 individuals charged over the attack have been found to have links to far-right groups. On Sunday a key member of House leadership, Steve Scalise, repeatedly refused to say Trump lost the election or bore responsibility for the Capitol breach. The former Republican strategist Stuart Stevens said Scalise was “saying that America isn’t a democracy. That’s become the new standard of the Republican party. Not since 1860s has a large part of the country refused to accept election. The Republican party is an anti-democratic force”. Scalise also told ABC News he had visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort. “I noticed he was a lot more relaxed than in his four years in the White House,” he said. “He still cares a lot about this country and the direction of our country. But, you know, it was a conversation more about how he’s doing now and what he’s … planning on doing and how his family is doing.” Axios cited an unnamed source as saying some potential 2024 contenders have sought Trump’s endorsement. It also noted that the former president, who would be 78 on election day and faces considerable legal threats now he has left office, may be planning to string the party along but ultimately not to run. Funds raised around Trump’s lie about his clear election defeat by Joe Biden being the result of fraud may be ploughed into funding primaries against those who have crossed him. Either way, CPAC has obligingly moved close by, from its usual venue in Maryland. Party moderates and figures who have criticised Trump, among them Maryland governor Larry Hogan and former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, have not been invited to speak. Mike Pence, the vice-president whose life was placed in danger during the Capitol attack, reportedly turned down an invitation. Crowds at the conservative event were initially suspicious of Trump when he emerged on the national Republican scene, but came to embrace his flag-hugging displays with evangelical fervour. Axios’s source reportedly said: “Much like 2016, we’re taking on Washington again.”
David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, sees a possible seismic shift in the conservative news landscape.
‘Any assertion that the Secret Service employed private citizens to perform those functions is false,’ US Secret Service says
Neighbors have banded together to help an Asian American family rest peacefully at night after being continuously harassed by teens at their home in Ladera Ranch, Orange County, California. Several teens have reportedly terrorized Haijun Si’s home by throwing rocks at it, shouting racial slurs, pounding the door and running away, and at one point, leaving a pornographic picture in front of his door, according to KCAL9. Si had already called the authorities on the culprits and the sheriff came to his home seven times.
A new poll that was conducted last week indicates that a large number of Republicans would rather back Donald Trump than the establishment GOP.
The largest conservative caucus in the House is sharing a new playbook with members outlining plans to fight back against President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill by exposing all of the “liberal goodies” hidden within the package, according to a new report. The three-page memo created by the Republican Study Committee lists “all the left-wing items Democrats are hoping the public won’t find out about,” according to Fox News. “The RSC is leading conservatives inside and outside the Beltway in opposition to this so-called ‘relief package.’ The more we learn about it, the worse it sounds,” Representative Jim Banks (R., Ind.), the chairman of the RSC, told Fox News. “That’s why we’ve put together a fact sheet to educate Americans exactly how their taxpayer dollars are being spent by Democrats.” The conservatives are hoping to draw attention to a number of left-wing provisions, including mixed-status families with undocumented immigrants’ eligibility to receive $1,400 stimulus checks and Planned Parenthood’s eligibility to receive funds from the Paycheck Protection Program that are intended to aid small businesses. Other areas of concern include nearly $600 million for additional emergency paid family leave for federal employees and U.S. Postal Service workers; subsidies and loan forgiveness to farmers and ranchers on the basis of race and ethnicity; allowing colleges with partnerships with Chinese-controlled companies and Confucius Institutes to receive COVID funding; and allocations of $50 million for environmental-justice-grant programs, which the RSC calls “a thinly-veiled kickback to leftist environmental groups.” The memo draws attention to provisions in the bill that would extend PPP business funding to owners who could have a felony record, including “violent criminals,” and extend Medicaid eligibility for incarcerated inmates during the 30 days prior to their release. The memo comes as the House Budget Committee is set to take up the 591-page COVID-relief plan on Monday, with a full House vote on the legislation possible later this week. Meanwhile, Democrats have argued that Americans urgently need the economic relief offered in the bill, including an extension of the federal unemployment boost through August 29, increased from $300 per week to $400 per week as well as $1,400 stimulus checks to adults and their dependents. Individuals making less than $75,000 and married couples earning less than $150,000 would receive the full amount, after which the checks would phase out and cut off at incomes greater than $100,000 for individuals and $200,000 for couples filing jointly. The Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program would also be extended from 24 to 48 weeks while the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program would extend from 50 to 74 weeks.
German special forces soldiers on a training mission in the US nearly caused a diplomatic incident earlier this month, it has emerged. The German unit’s insistence on secrecy went badly wrong when a local hospital contacted the FBI over fears they could be extremists planning a terror attack. Germany’s Special Forces Command (KSK) holds regular freefall parachute training in the small Arizona town of Eloy, just south of Phoenix, because of the clear weather conditions. The training takes place with the agreement of the US authorities and the German army has posted several videos from previous years on social media. But the fact the training is not a top secret mission does not appear to have fully registered with two of the special forces soldiers. The soldiers in question were sent to the local hospital to inquire about medical facilities in the event any member of the unit was injured. But when they were asked to show their IDs they refused and instead produced Nato movement orders, which alarmed the hospital staff.
After Hurricane Sandy, the senator opposed relief for New York and New Jersey. It’s one rule for Texas, another for the rest of usRobert Reich: Texas freeze shows chilling truth about the rich Ted Cruz speaks on Capitol Hill. Photograph: Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images Texas has been hit by a disaster of its own making and its Republican office holders expect the rest of the US to pay to clean up the mess. To quote Dana Bash of CNN questioning Michael McCaul, a veteran GOP congressman, on Sunday: “That’s kind of rich, don’t you think?” For all of their bravado and anti-government rhetoric, in the aftermath of calamities like last week’s deep freeze Lone Star Republicans make a habit of passing the plate. Their suffering is ours too. But when the shoe is on the other foot, they begrudge kindness to others. Said differently, Ted Cruz is merely a grotesque illustration, not an exception. Take a walk down memory lane. In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy hammered New York and New Jersey. As the north-east reeled, Texas Republicans stood back, treating the region as if it were another country. As if the civil war had not ended. After the turn of the year, Cruz, his fellow senator John Cornyn and 23 of two dozen Texas Republicans in the House gave a thumbs down to Sandy aid. Less reflexively hostile heads prevailed. The relief bill cleared Congress. But the GOP’s Texans had left their mark. Peter King, then a Republican representative from Long Island, understood malice and stupidity when he saw it. He called for a halt to donations to Republicans who opposed rescuing sister states. “These Republicans have no problem finding New York when they’re out raising millions of dollars,” King said. “What they did last night was put a knife in the back of New Yorkers and New Jerseyans. It was an absolute disgrace.” Ted Cruz is nothing if not performative, ever Janus-faced But Cruz in particular is nothing if not performative, ever Janus-faced. After Hurricane Harvey slammed Houston in 2017, he offered this explanation for his vote four years earlier: Sandy relief had become “a $50bn bill that was filled with unrelated pork”. Cruz also intoned: “What I said then and still believe now is that it’s not right for politicians to exploit a disaster when people are hurting to pay for their own political wishlist.” Other than possibly Cruz’s long-suffering wife, it is unclear whether anyone believed Flyin’ Ted even then. Cruz may have flown home alone, leaving his family in Cancún, but he is not alone among Texas Republicans in hating Blue America. He is just the most notorious. Unlike congressman Louie Gohmert, Cruz went to Princeton and Harvard. He should and likely does know better. In 2019, as part of Donald Trump’s overhaul of the tax laws, Kevin Brady, a Texan then chair of the House ways and means committee, virtually eliminated the deductibility of state and local taxes from federal tax returns, in order to pay for an upper-bracket and corporate giveaway. New York and New Jersey are still feeling the bite. Under Trump, the economy failed to pass 3% growth annually and a much-touted manufacturing renaissance failed to appear. Covid made a bad situation worse. And now, lo and behold, Texas is forced, cap in hand, to pucker up to a Democratic House, Senate and White House. Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader and a native of Brooklyn, must be suppressing a smile. To be sure, the federal government and Congress must help Texas. No ifs, ands or buts. Joe Biden is treating the state a whole lot better than Trump did Puerto Rico. That’s a good thing. Innocent lives have been lost and upended in the name of retrograde ideology masked as policy. Real people, families and business have been destroyed. Climate change denial comes with a high human cost. Standing apart from the national electric grid isn’t independence. It is a death wish by another name. Confederacy 2.0. Alexander Stephens, vice-president of the breakaway states, summed up this attitude in 1861: “If Charleston harbor needs improvement, let the commerce of Charleston bear the burden. If the mouth of the Savannah River has to be cleared out, let the sea-going navigation which is benefited by it, bear the burden.” Sounds familiar? Other than when it came to repelling Abraham Lincoln, the Confederacy was not a mutual assistance pact. Before this latest manmade debacle, Republicans were dreaming of drowning government in a bathtub. Hopefully, in Texas that may change.
You can not stop millions of people,’ said former North Miami Beach cop Nicholes Lentz. Another arrest has been made stemming from the deadly U.S. Capitol insurrection on January 6. Nicholes Lentz, a 41-year-old former North Miami Beach police officer, was arrested on Friday.
