Closing summary
The Senate will meet this weekend to begin considering Democrats’ marquee spending plan to fight climate change and lower healthcare costs, which is the culmination of more than a year of fitful negotiations. Meanwhile in Texas, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban pitched his far-right vision of America and Europe’s future to an audience of conservatives.
Here’s a rundown of what else happened today:
- The justice department has filed charges against four current and former Louisville police officers over the death of Breonna Taylor.
- A court in Russia sentenced American women’s basketball star Brittney Griner to nine years in prison after finding her guilty of drug smuggling. President Joe Biden said Griner is “wrongfully detained”.
- Alex Jones’s defamation trial continued after yesterday’s shock revelation that his attorneys shared Jones’ phone data with lawyers for the people suing him.
- The White House declared monkeypox a public health emergency as the virus spread across the United States.
- House speaker Nancy Pelosi visited South Korea, as China expressed its rage at her stop in Taiwan by launching military exercises.
- New York Democratic House representative Carolyn Maloney continues to do damage control after suggesting Biden won’t stand for a second term, although she apparently hasn’t completely backed down from the comment.
It looks like the Senate will convene this weekend to vote on Democrats’ plan to fight climate change, lower healthcare costs and tweak the tax code, CNN reports:
Schumer says the Senate will vote on the motion to proceed to the reconciliation bill on Saturday afternoon
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) August 4, 2022
After that, 20 hours of debate. After debate time or if time is yielded back, it’s vote-a-rama time. Then final passage. All at simple majority
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) August 4, 2022
The bill, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, has no support from Republicans, and will require the votes of every Democrat to pass the evenly divided Senate. The House of Representatives, where the party has a slim majority, will then need to approve it before it goes to Joe Biden for his signature.
Orban wrapped up his speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference by declaring, “We must take back the institutions in Washington and in Brussels”, and saying the two capitals “will define the two fronts in the battle being fought for Western civilization”.
After defeating Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, “Now the West is at war with itself,” Orban said. “We have seen what kind of future the globalist ruling class has to offer. But we have a different future in mind. The globalists can all go to hell, I have come to Texas.”
A who’s who of American conservatives will appear at CPAC over the next two days, before Donald Trump makes the event’s closing remarks on Saturday evening.
Orban didn’t mention Joe Biden directly, but appealed to the audience of conservatives for “strong leaders” - by which he presumably was not referring to the Democrats in control of the White House and Congress.
He cited the impacts of the war in Ukraine on Hungary, which he notes has received one million refugees.
“In my view, the globalist leaders’ strategy escalates and prolongs war and decreases the chance of peace. Without American-Russian talks there will never be peace in Ukraine. More and more people will die and suffer and our economies will come to the brink of collapse,” Orban said.
“We in the neighborhood of Ukraine are desperately in need of strong leaders who are capable of negotiating a peace deal. Mayday, mayday, please help us. We need a strong America, with a strong leader.”
Texas is a major crossing point for undocumented immigrants entering the United States, which Republicans have said is a “crisis” that president Joe Biden deserves blame for.
Orban must realize this. He’s giving examples of “how to fight back by our own rules” and detailing to the conservative audience his own hardline policies against migrants, particularly from Syria.
“We were the first ones in Europe who said no illegal migration and stop the invasion of illegal migrants,” he said. “We believe that stopping illegal migration is necessary to protect our nation.”
Orban went on to attack American liberals, saying they tried to stop his speech and calling for unity between conservatives in the United States and in Hungary.
“They hate me and slandered me and my country as they hate you and slander you and America’s transformation. We all know how this works. Progressive liberals didn’t want me to be here because they knew what I will tell you,” Orban said.
“I’m here to tell you that we should unite our forces... because we Hungarians know how to defeat the enemies of freedom on the political battlefield.”
Orban appears to be responding to the recent news of a top adviser resigning and accusing him of using “pure Nazi” rhetoric by arguing that his administration is misunderstood.
Hungary “introduced a zero-tolerance policy on racism and antisemitism. So accusing us is fake news, and those who make these claims are certainly idiots. They are the industrial fake news corporation,” Orban said.
Updated
Hungarian PM Orbán speaks at CPAC summit
Orban has opened his speech in Texas by saying that “Hungary is the Lone Star state of Europe”.
He described Hungary as “under the siege of progressives, liberals day by day”, and noted that he was “the only anti-migration political leader on our continent”, which was greeted with applause.
Updated
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán is minutes away from starting his speech to the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, held this year in Texas.
According to its agenda, Orbán will give a talk titled “How We Fight”. The leader has faced intensifying criticism for his far-right rhetoric, and last month, one of his longtime advisers resigned in protest over what she called his “pure Nazi” speech.
Arizona Republican Rusty Bowers has lost his primary and won’t return to his post as speaker of Arizona’s House of Representatives after defying Donald Trump’s efforts to meddle in the state’s election results. As Martin Pengelly reports, Bowers has no regrets about how it ended:
Rusty Bowers, the Arizona Republican who defied Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn his defeat in the state then testified to the House January 6 committee, has no regrets despite losing his bid for a state senate seat.
“I would do it again in a heartbeat,” he told the Associated Press. “I’d do it 50 times in a row.”
Term limits meant Bowers could not mount another house run. On Tuesday he was trounced in a primary by David Farnsworth, a Trump-endorsed former state senator.
Trump was the first Republican to lose a presidential race in Arizona since Bill Clinton won there in 1996. Clinton was re-elected anyway. Trump wasn’t.
After departing Taiwan following a visit that enraged China, House speaker Nancy Pelosi went to South Korea, where she visited the demilitarized zone separating it from North Korea.
It was a special honor to engage with General LaCamera and other @USForcesKorea servicemembers on the ground at the DMZ/JSA and Osan Air Base. pic.twitter.com/Yi2u8YMXyS
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) August 4, 2022
We conveyed the gratitude of the Congress and the Country for the patriotic service of our servicemembers, who stand as sentinels of Democracy on the Korean Peninsula. pic.twitter.com/SIz284fSWh
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) August 4, 2022
Beijing has meanwhile started a series of live-fire drills in the waters around Taiwan, underscoring its fury over Pelosi’s trip to an island it considers a breakaway province. The Guardian has is keeping a live blog covering the ongoing spike in tensions:
The White House is weighing a public health emergency declaration as monkeypox spreads across the country, according to media reports:
The Biden administration plans to declare the US monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency as soon as Thursday, the Washington Post reported, citing unidentified sources.
The declaration would come from Xavier Becerra, the health secretary, who was expected to discuss the plan at an afternoon briefing, the Post said.
Citing two unnamed officials, the newspaper said Becerra planned to empower US officials to expedite countermeasures including vaccines and treatments, allowing for greater flexibility in the administering the supply of vaccines.
Access to vaccines has been a consistent problem as the number of US monkeypox cases has risen. States and cities including New York and San Francisco have issued declarations of emergency.
Updated
As the US continues to digest primary results in key states this week, here’s a taste of our regular Fight to Vote email, which you can subscribe to via the link below…
One of the most consequential results on Tuesday was in Arizona, where Mark Finchem, a state lawmaker, easily won the Republican nomination to run for secretary of state, a position from which he would oversee elections.
Few in Arizona have fought as aggressively to overturn the 2020 election as Finchem has – he first tried to block Congress from recognizing Joe Biden’s legitimate victory in the state, and has since sought to spread misinformation and decertify the election, which is not possible.
Finchem now joins Kristina Karamo in Michigan, Jim Marchant in Nevada, and Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania as Republican nominees on the verge of claiming offices where they would have enormous power over elections. (Karamo and Marchant are running for secretary of state, Mastriano is running for governor, where he would get to appoint the secretary of state).
So far, three of the four secretary of state candidates Trump has endorsed have won (the one exception came in Georgia).
“Having even one election denier in a statewide office would be a five-alarm fire for our elections,” Joanna Lydgate, CEO of States United Action, which is tracking election deniers running for office, said in a statement.
“Recent primaries – particularly in Arizona and Michigan – should worry all of us as Americans. But voters have the power here. They can slow this trend in the primaries to come, and they can stop it in its tracks in the general election.”
More:
Biden still Covid positive, doctor says
We have an update on Joe Biden’s health, after he suffered a “rebound” case of Covid-19. Biden tested positive for Covid again today, the White House says.
In a letter released to the press, Biden’s physician, Dr Kevin O’Connor, says the president “feels very well today. He is still experiencing a very occasional cough, but the cough is improving … his lungs remain clear”.
Biden will continue in “strict isolation measures”, working from the executive residence, where his doctor says he “continues to be very specifically conscientious to protect” staff members in his vicinity.
Here’s another look at the New York Democrat Carolyn Maloney’s prediction that Joe Biden will not run for re-election in 2024 – a prediction given even while apologising for saying the same thing previously but also saying she would support the president if he did run again.
Speaking to CNN, the congresswoman said: “Mr President, I apologise.”
She was referring to her remark during a primary debate on Tuesday, when she said she did not “believe” Biden would seek a second term.
On CNN, she added: “I want you to run.”
But then Maloney said: “I happen to think you won’t be running. But when you run, or if you run, I will be there 100%. You have deserved it. You are a great president, and thank you for everything you’ve done for my state, and all the states, and all the cities in America. Thank you, Mr President.”
More:
The day so far
Whole lot of news today, but if you were looking for answers from the Senate, you won’t get any. It remains unclear whether Democrats have the votes to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, which has become the Biden administration’s top priority after more than a year of stop-and-start negotiations, though we may have a better sense of the balance of power later today.
Here’s a rundown of what has happened today:
- The justice department has filed charges against four current and former Louisville police officers over the death of Breonna Taylor.
- A court in Russia sentenced American women’s basketball star Brittney Griner to nine years in prison after finding her guilty of drug smuggling. President Joe Biden said Griner is “wrongfully detained”.
- Alex Jones’s defamation trial continues after yesterday’s shock revelation that his attorneys shared his phone data with lawyers for the people suing him.
- New York Democratic House representative Carolyn Maloney continues to do damage control after suggesting Biden won’t stand for a second term, although she apparently hasn’t completely backed down from the comment.
There are a lot of pieces moving right now in the Senate, as Democrats try to get lawmakers together to vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which will require the votes of every member of their party in order to pass:
CNN has a good rundown of all the outstanding issues:
Lots of uncertainty in the Senate over the next few critical days. Unclear on timing of first procedural vote and when amendment votes will be. Unclear on if Sinema will get to YES. And unclear when parliamentarian will rule and what could be dropped from the bill as a result
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) August 4, 2022
There’s not much Republicans can do to block the bill, which Democrats intend to pass using the Senate’s reconciliation procedure to avoid a filibuster by GOP lawmakers. But the Senate parliamentarian might complicate its passage by ruling that some of its provisions can’t be approved via reconciliation - which could upend the Democrats’ consensus around the bill:
Sen. Mike Crapo, ranking R on Finance, told me Rs are challenging "every piece that we can" with parliamentarian, contending they don't meet budget rules they are required to meet in order to pass by simple majority. "We are challenging as much as we can across the entire bill”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) August 4, 2022
Enigmatic Arizona Democrat Kyrsten Sinema still hasn’t said if she’ll support the bill, but there are signs she will demand tweaks to its tax provisions and more funding to fight drought:
It’s still unclear when the parliamentarian will rule, but she is hearing more arguments today and tomorrow. And Sinema has indicated she won’t take a position on the bill until after the ruling. So timing is in flux
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) August 4, 2022
Declaring, “Breonna Taylor should be alive today”, attorney general Merrick Garland has given a briefing outlining the charges against the four current and former Louisville police officers involved in her death.
He alleged that they conspired to tell a false story to investigators, and one officer opened fire through a window during the raid that killed Taylor, even though he couldn’t see through it because the blinds were drawn:
AG Merrick Garland announces bombshell charges against police officers involved in the search warrant that led to the killing of Breonna Taylor.
— The Recount (@therecount) August 4, 2022
He says defendants "took steps to cover up their unlawful conduct" and "met in a garage where they agreed to tell ... a false story." pic.twitter.com/nEuvdkbJfl
AG Merrick Garland announces a separate indictment against an officer involved in the police raid on Breonna Taylor's apartment for "unconstitutionally excessive force."
— The Recount (@therecount) August 4, 2022
In closing, he declares "Breonna Taylor should be alive today." pic.twitter.com/Bg20KM3xhH
Four officers arrested, face civil rights charges over Breonna Taylor death
Reuters reports that the justice department has brought charges against four current and former Louisville police officers over the death of Breonna Taylor, revitalizing a case that became a flashpoint for the racial justice protests in 2020:
The FBI on Thursday arrested and brought civil rights charges against four current and former Louisville police officers for their roles in the 2020 fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman who was shot in her home in a case that rocked the US.
Taylor, 26, was killed in Louisville, Kentucky in March 2020, when police executed a no-knock warrant in a botched narcotics raid.
Police shot Taylor multiple times after her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired at them on the assumption that they were intruders.
Federal charges against former officers Joshua Jaynes, Brett Hankison and Kelly Goodlett, along with Sgt Kyle Meany were announced by Merrick Garland, the US attorney general, on Thursday.
The Guardian’s Andrew Roth in Moscow has the latest on the verdict in the Griner case and what it means for already fraught US-Russia relations:
A Moscow court has convicted US basketball star Brittney Griner on drug charges and sentenced her to nine years in prison and a 1m rouble fine in a politically charged verdict that could lead to a prisoner swap with the United States.
Griner, a basketball talent who played in Russia during off-seasons from the Phoenix Mercury, was arrested for cannabis possession in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport in February.
Her arrest came just days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, launching frantic backdoor negotiations between the United States and Russian intelligence services as her trial played out in a small courthouse just outside the Moscow city limits.
Updated
Biden condemns Griner verdict
US president Joe Biden says Moscow “wrongfully detained” basketball star Brittney Griner, and vowed to do everything it can to win her release and that of Paul Whelan, another American detained in Russia.
“Today, American citizen Brittney Griner received a prison sentence that is one more reminder of what the world already knew: Russia is wrongfully detaining Brittney,” Biden said in a statement. “It’s unacceptable, and I call on Russia to release her immediately so she can be with her wife, loved ones, friends, and teammates. My administration will continue to work tirelessly and pursue every possible avenue to bring Brittney and Paul Whelan home safely as soon as possible.”
Griner has been sentenced to nine years in prison, Bloomberg reports:
BREAKING: A judge in Russia has sentenced American basketball player Brittney Griner on drug charges to nine years in prison https://t.co/udnKJZ4CSE
— Bloomberg (@business) August 4, 2022
US basketball star Brittney Griner found guilty by Russian court
A court in Russia has found Brittney Griner, an Americans women’s basketball star, guilty of drug smuggling, Reuters reports.
A prosecutor has called for Griner to receive a nine-and-a-half year sentence for bringing cannabis-infused vape cartridges into the country, but it’s possible Griner could be freed in a prison swap with Russia as the White House faces pressure to get detained Americans out of the country as tensions soar over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The defamation trial of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones resumes today in Texas, after it was revealed that his lawyers had accidentally sent a copy of Jones’ cellphone data to attorneys for the people suing him. Ramon Antonio Vargas reports on the shock development in the case:
Attorneys for Alex Jones “messed up” and sent to his legal adversaries “every text message” he had written in the past two years – contradicting claims Jones had nothing on his phone pertaining to the deadly Sandy Hook school shooting, which he long maintained was a hoax, it was revealed at his defamation trial on Wednesday.
The revelation surfaced during an exchange in an Austin, Texas, courtroom between Jones and Mark Bankston, a lawyer representing the parents of a six-year-old boy killed in the 2012 attack.
For years, Jones, a bombastic far-right conspiracy theorist, ranted to his millions of followers that the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting was a hoax, that children were not killed and that parents were “crisis actors” in an elaborate ruse to force gun control. The parents of six-year-old Jesse Lewis are seeking at least $150m (£123m) in a defamation trial brought against the prominent radio host.
Damage control continues for New York Democrat Carolyn Maloney, who earlier this week said she didn’t think Joe Biden would run for a second term.
Maloney, who is facing a tough primary challenge to keep her House seat representing parts of New York City, walked back the comment yesterday, and appeared on CNN today to directly apologize to the president for suggesting he’d opt out of a second term entirely:
After saying Biden won’t run in 2024, Rep Carolyn Maloney looks into @newday camera and says: “I apologize Mr. President…(even though) I happen to think you won’t be running.” @brikeilarcnn pic.twitter.com/KuLaBoGRX5
— New Day (@NewDay) August 4, 2022
She did, however, note that “I happen to think you won’t be running”.
Biden’s approval rating is deep underwater, fueling speculation he won’t stand for re-election.
McConnell sounds cautious note on Republicans reclaiming Senate
The November midterms may not return control of the Senate to Republicans, their leader in the chamber Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday, in an interview with Fox News.
While polls indicate the GOP has a commanding lead in races that will allow them to gain a majority in the House of Representatives, several of their Senate candidates are stumbling, and McConnell predicted whoever ends up controlling the upper chamber will likely do so only with a slim margin.
“I think it’s going to be very tight. We have a 50-50 Senate now, we have a 50-50 nation. And I think when this Senate race smoke clears, we’re likely to have a very, very close Senate still, with either us up slightly or the Democrats up slightly,” McConnell said.
A Republican majority in the House would nonetheless be enough to frustrate the Biden administration’s efforts to pass major legislation through Congress, though in the interview, McConnell signaled openness to working with the White House, to a degree.
“We’ll be looking for things that we can do for the country no matter who’s in the White House but I think you can say this: if there’s a Republican House and Senate next year, Joe Biden will finally become the moderate he promised the American people he would be when he ran for president, because he would have no choice,” McConnell said.
The United States killed al-Qaida’s leader Ayman al-Zawahiri over the weekend in a house in a posh neighborhood of Kabul - which, it turns out, used to be a home for US aid workers. The Guardian’s Emma Graham-Harrison spoke to one of its former residents for this remarkable report that shows how life in Afghanistan has changed in the year since the United States withdrew and the government it supported collapsed:
The balcony in Kabul where the head of al-Qaida was killed was a spot Dan Smock knew well. It used to be his – when he worked in Afghanistan on a US government aid project – and the views were spectacular.
Smock enjoyed starting the day looking out at the Afghan capital, as did the world’s most wanted terrorist, from the villa they both called home, several years apart.
“Reports said the CIA had intelligence that he liked to stand on the balcony, and I thought, ‘Of course he would, it was a nice balcony,’” Smock said in a phone interview.
Kansas voters’ decision to protect abortion rights was the biggest story out of Tuesday’s primary elections in five states, but Sam Levine reports the night was also a good one for 2020 election deniers:
Hello, and Happy Thursday,
I’m writing this as we’re still digesting the results of Tuesday’s primary elections in several states, the latest test of whether Republican candidates who have embraced lies about the 2020 election can get the backing of GOP voters. So far, the results only add to the considerable evidence showing election denialism remains remarkably powerful in Republican politics.
One of the most consequential results on Tuesday was in Arizona, where Mark Finchem, a state lawmaker, easily won the Republican nomination to run for secretary of state, a position from which he would oversee elections. Few people in Arizona have fought as aggressively to overturn the 2020 election as Finchem has – he first tried to block Congress from recognizing Joe Biden’s legitimate victory in the state, and has since sought to spread misinformation and decertify the election, which is not possible.
Speaking of vulnerable lawmakers, Wisconsin Republican senator Ron Johnson did himself no favors when he made comments that appeared to threaten social security and Medicare, giving Democrats an opportunity to attack a lawmaker holding a seat they see as a pickup opportunity in the November midterm elections. Martin Pengelly reports:
A swing-state Republican senator denied threatening social security and Medicare, after Democrats accused him of putting them “on the chopping block”.
Ron Johnson, who entered Congress on the Tea Party wave of 2010, is up for re-election in Wisconsin. As they attempt to keep hold of the Senate, Democrats think they have a chance of winning the seat.
In an interview with The Regular Joe Show podcast, Johnson said social security and Medicare, key support programs for millions of older and disabled Americans and their dependents, should no longer be considered mandatory spending.
Kyrsten Sinema was among the reasons why Joe Biden’s marquee spending package, Build Back Better, did not pass last year. The massive bill would have spent money on fighting climate change and poverty, creating more affordable housing and potentially even changing the immigration system. But with Republicans opposed, Democrats needed every single one of their 50 votes in the Senate to get it passed, and Sinema resisted increasing corporate taxes to pay for it. Negotiators couldn’t find a way to get her to agree with senator Joe Manchin, the other holdout vote, while a group of House Democrats demanding their own tax changes threatened to complicate its passage in that chamber. The whole effort collapsed in the final weeks of 2021.
The same cast of characters is back as Congress considers the Inflation Reduction Act, the surprise successor to last year’s effort that is dramatically slimmed down but, if passed, would nonetheless represent a major effort to reduce America’s emissions. This time, the dynamics are more favorable. Manchin has become a major booster for the bill, and Democrats in the House seem to be on board.
That leaves Sinema. The senator rarely talks to the press and has become a bit of an enigma in Washington - a vulnerable Democrat representing a swing state whose background as a Green Party member would make one think she’s a liberal, but who has instead turned out to be a fiscal hawk, resistant to raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy to pay for new spending. Those demands have reemerged when it comes to the Inflation Reduction Act, according to reports, with Sinema skeptical of its tax hikes on corporations and wealthy fund managers. We’ll see whether Democratic negotiators have better luck getting her to agree this time.
All eyes on Sinema as Senate Democrats looks to clinch climate deal
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Democrats are very close to passing consequential legislation to fight climate change in the Senate, but first must placate Kyrsten Sinema, the Arizona lawmaker whose hostility towards tax code changes have derailed such legislation in the past. Reports have emerged that Sinema wants tweaks to the Inflation Reduction Act, including the removal of certain tax provisions and money to fight drought in the southwest. With the Senate convening today and potentially beginning the delicate process of passing the bill with Democratic support alone, whether Sinema will vote for the legislation may finally become clear.
Here’s what else is going on today:
- The annual Conservative Political Action Conference kicks off in Dallas, with Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán speaking later today.
- The Senate judiciary committee will hear from FBI director Christopher Wray at 10am ET.
- Joe Biden will push for passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in a meeting with business and labor leaders at 1.45 pm eastern time.
