Closing summary
The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, made his conservative bona fides clear yesterday when he proposed a bill that would send about $14bn in aid to Israel and pay for it by cutting funding to the IRS tax authority. The White House responded by accusing Johnson of “politicizing national security”, and today, its Democratic allies in the Senate said the speaker’s proposal will not fly. What’s not clear is if the political will exists to approve the combined $106bn Joe Biden wants to spend on both Israel and Ukraine’s defenses and US border security. Johnson and secretary of state Antony Blinken met at the Capitol to discuss the president’s funding request, but we don’t know yet if a compromise is within reach.
Here’s what else happened today:
Blinken’s testimony to a Senate committee considering the foreign military aid request was interrupted repeatedly by protesters calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Biden and China’s president Xi Jinping will meet in San Francisco next month, the White House confirmed.
Arab Americans appear to be turning on Biden over his steadfast support of Israel.
A small but bipartisan group of House lawmakers asked Johnson to bring the Biden administration’s request for aid to Israel and Ukraine up for a vote.
Gavin Newsom, California’s Democratic governor, traveled to China to tackle rising tensions, but instead ended up tackling a child.
Updated
Also at her press briefing, Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about Dean Phillips, the Democratic congressman who last week announced he would challenge Joe Biden for the party’s presidential nomination.
As you might expect, Jean-Pierre was mum about his candidacy, only reminding the press that Phillips was a supporter of most of Biden’s policies.
Jean-Pierre on Rep Dean Phillips: "We are very proud, very thrilled and thankful to the congressman for voting with the president nearly 100% of the time over the last three years."
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) October 31, 2023
Indeed, the third-term Minnesota lawmaker hasn’t said much about what he disagrees with the president about, instead pitching his candidacy as a response to Biden’s low poll numbers and advanced age.
Here’s the Guardian’s Rachel Leingang with more about Phillips’s campaign:
The little-known Democratic congressman Dean Phillips has launched a campaign to challenge sitting President Joe Biden, leaving many of his supporters and colleagues confused, if not outright upset.
After weeks of speculation and behind-the-scenes manoeuvreing, Phillips finally publicly announced he’s running in an interview on CBS.
He filed paperwork in New Hampshire on Friday morning and posted a lengthy explanation of his bid for the presidency on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying his campaign would focus on the economy and safety, but also generational change.
“I didn’t set out to enter this race,” he wrote. “But it looks like on our current course, the Democrats will lose and Trump will be our president again. President Biden is a good man and someone I tremendously respect. I understand why other Democrats don’t want to run against him, and why we are here. This is a last-minute campaign, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and courage is an important value to me.”
Updated
White House confirms that Biden will meet with China's Xi in San Francisco
At her briefing this afternoon, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Joe Biden and China’s president, Xin Jinping, would meet in San Francisco:
On the Biden / Xi meeting, “it’s happening,” @PressSec says. "It's going to be in San Francisco.” pic.twitter.com/qyUHmVYp0d
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) October 31, 2023
The two leaders last met in November 2022 in Bali, Indonesia. Biden recently invited Xi to the November Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the northern California city, and, given Jean-Pierre’s comment, it seems he accepted the invitation.
Here’s more on what we can expect from the meeting, which was preceded by several rounds of high-level diplomacy between the countries:
Updated
Twelve arrests made in protest that disrupted Blinken's testimony on Ukraine, Israel aid - police
US Capitol police confirmed to the Guardian’s US politics live blog that 12 people were arrested for disrupting Antony Blinken’s testimony to the Senate appropriations committee today.
The US secretary of state spoke to the panel about the Biden administration’s request for more than $100b in security assistance to Ukraine and Israel, as well as to fortify the border with Mexico. As his testimony began, he was repeatedly interrupted by protesters organized by the antiwar group Code Pink, who called for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Updated
On the other side of the Capitol, Senate Democrats announced plans to issue subpoenas to three wealthy Republicans who were involved in organizing luxury trips for conservative supreme court justices, sparking an ethics scandal:
Senate Democrats plan to subpoena Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow and conservative activist Leonard Leo to quiz them about their roles in organizing and paying for lavish perks for justices on the hard-right wing of the US supreme court.
The announcement by Democrats on the Senate judiciary committee came on Monday amid a storm of controversy that has blown up in recent months about conservative justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito not only accepting but also not disclosing free travel and other luxury favors provided or facilitated by influential public figures.
The supreme court is now being pressed to adopt an ethics code – a move that has been publicly endorsed by three of the nine justices amid the rows about ethical controversies, including the risks of outside influence corrupting the court.
The committee could act as soon as next week to authorize Illinois senator Dick Durbin, the panel’s chairman, to issue subpoenas to Crow, Leo and another wealthy donor, Robin Arkley II.
Top US diplomat Blinken meets with speaker Johnson at Capitol amid disagreement over Israel, Ukraine aid
Reporters at the Capitol caught secretary of state Antony Blinken leaving his meeting with Republican speaker of the House Mike Johnson this afternoon:
.@SecBlinken met with @SpeakerJohnson for 25 mins this afternoon.
— Kyle Stewart (@KyleAlexStewart) October 31, 2023
“A very positive meeting,” Blinken said when asked how the meeting went. “I really appreciate the opportunity.”
W/ @scottwongDC pic.twitter.com/90BhyjUD7k
Now to see what progress their conversation made have produced towards resolving the disagreement between Johnson and the Democrats over Joe Biden’s proposal for about $100b in military aid for Ukraine and Israel, as well as to bolster the southern border. Johnson’s counteroffer is around $14b in aid for Israel alone that will be paid for by cutting the budget of the IRS – a non-starter for Democrats.
Gavin Newsom has finished his weeklong trip to China, which was meant to tackle rising tensions between the two nations and push for climate crisis solutions. But some of the headlines the Democratic California governor garnered were less about tackling diplomacy - and more about tackling a child.
Viral footage shows Newsom playing basketball with a group of children for a photo-op, and in the process appearing to stumble while dribbling and then falling on top of a boy.
FOUL! California Gov. Gavin Newsom plows into child while playing basketball in China. https://t.co/MRLhmrAUgm pic.twitter.com/etjjuEoo11
— KTLA (@KTLA) October 30, 2023
Rightwing media and critics of the governor have had a field day with the clip of Newsom “steamrolling” and “plowing through a small child”. “CA. GOV NEWSOM DESTROYS KID” was probably not a news line that Newsom, with his widely reported presidential ambitions, was hoping for.
Fortunately, however, the LA Times reports that the “cringey moment… didn’t cause injuries”.
Read more on the substance of Newsom’s trip here:
Wisconsin’s Democratic governor Tony Evers has engaged in a courtroom fight with the state’s Republican-controlled legislature for its alleged obstruction of basic government functions, including delivery of pay raises for university employees that were previously approved.
Evers says it’s “just bullshit” and “a bridge too far” that lawmakers were holding out on 35,000 University of Wisconsin employees, and is taking his lawsuit direct to the state’s supreme court, the Associated Press reports.
“You can’t do that. That’s why we’re suing and that’s why we’re going to win,” Evers said at a news conference in Madison on Tuesday, accusing Republicans of also blocking state conservation programs, updates to the state’s commercial building standards and ethics standards for licensed professionals.
Wisconsin senate majority leader Devin LeMahieu and assembly speaker Robin Vos, both Republicans, did not immediately return emails seeking comment on Tuesday, the AP said.
The legislature included a 6% pay raise for university employees over two years in the state budget passed earlier this year that Evers signed, but the measure will not be finalized until signed off by a Republican-controlled committee of legislative leaders.
Vos has said he opposes spending at the university because of its diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Tucker Carlson “got too big for his boots” at Fox News and was fired in part for alienating “large swaths” of the company, according to a revelatory new account of the downfall of the network’s biggest star.
Carlson, a rightwing conspiracy theorist who was dismissed in April despite his status as the most-watched cable TV personality, believed himself to be irreplaceable, the journalist Brian Stelter says in his new book Network of Lies, reported on Tuesday by Vanity Fair.
But ultimately Carlson’s escalating toxicity, which included an undercurrent of white supremacy and a penchant for demeaning women and minorities, led Lachlan Murdoch, the then chief executive of Fox Corp, to pull the plug, the book says.
“He committed the cardinal Fox sin of acting like he was bigger than the network he was on,” Stelter said.
“His brand, weird as it was, revolved around the idea that he could call anyone the C-word, or anything else, at any time. He could say anything, do anything, and never be held accountable, so long as he commanded the attention and affection of millions.
“Carlson was believed to have Trump-like hypnotic power over the GOP base. He was believed to be irreplaceable. But that impression was, in large part, a creation of Carlson’s. In truth, Carlson had alienated so many people, instigated so many internal and external scandals, fanned so many flames of ugliness, that his firing was inevitable.
“That’s why Fox dropped Carlson. It wasn’t one thing. It was everything,” Stelter writes, as excerpted exclusively by Vanity Fair.
Read the full story:
Joe Biden calls Republican senate minority leader Mitch McConnell a good friend, and the pair appear to see eye to eye over passing an aid package that includes help for Israel and Ukraine.
On the chamber floor just now, McConnell made the same argument as the president did in his address to the nation earlier this month, linking Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the Hamas attacks on Israel, and calling them a threat to global democracy and peace.
MCCONNELL on the floor: "So at the risk of repeating myself, the threats facing America and our allies are serious and they're intertwined. If we ignore that fact, we do so at our own peril."
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) October 31, 2023
“The threats facing America and our allies are serious and they’re intertwined. If we ignore that fact, we do so at our own peril,” he said.
Politico has this report highlighting how McConnell’s stance on aid for both countries puts him at odds with new speaker Mike Johnson and a slew of other House Republicans.
Some of the discomfort has spread to the senate, where McConnell is facing increased pushback from a number of colleagues on the right over his efforts to keep aid for Israel and Ukraine together, according to The Hill.
The day so far
Republican House speaker Mike Johnson made his conservative bona fides clear yesterday when he proposed a bill that would send about $14b in aid to Israel and pay for it by cutting funding to the IRS tax authority. The White House responded by accusing Johnson of “politicizing national security”, and today, its Democratic allies in the Senate made clear the speaker’s proposal will not fly. But it’s unclear if the political will exists for the approximately $106b Joe Biden wants to spend on both Israel and Ukraine’s defense, as well as border security. Johnson is reportedly speaking with secretary of state Antony Blinken about the request today, and we’ll keep an eye out for what comes out of that.
Here’s what else is going on today:
Blinken’s testimony to a Senate committee considering the foreign military aid request was interrupted repeatedly by protesters calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Arab Americans appear to be turning on Biden over his steadfast support of Israel.
A small but bipartisan group of House lawmakers asked Johnson to bring the Biden administration’s request for aid to Israel and Ukraine up for a vote.
Joe Biden’s definitive backing of Israel in its conflict with Hamas and invasion of Gaza appears to be costing him support among Arab American voters, the Guardian’s Erum Salam reports:
Arab American support for Joe Biden has fallen in the wake of his response to the latest bout of violence between Israel and Hamas, a new poll from the Arab American Institute (AAI) shows. The same poll showed a sharp increase in reports of discrimination against members of the community.
Following Hamas’s deadly 7 October attacks, which killed 1,400 Israelis, Biden has repeatedly proclaimed the US’s “rock-solid and unwavering support” for Israel, which has responded by tightening its blockade and bombarding the Gaza Strip. More than 8,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to health officials in the coastal territory.
According to AAI, that response has prompted a “dramatic plummeting of Arab American voter support for President Biden”. There are roughly 3.7 million Arab Americans in the US.
“Support among Arab American voters for Biden has plummeted from 59% in 2020 to 17% today,” the poll analysis said.
Blinken, Johnson to discuss Israel, Ukraine aid - report
Secretary of state Antony Blinken and Republican House speaker Mike Johnson will talk today about the White House’s request for more than $100b in aid to Ukraine and Israel, and to fortify US border security, Politico reports:
Sen. Susan Collins says JOHNSON is speaking with BLINKEN today about aid.
— Daniella Diaz (@DaniellaMicaela) October 31, 2023
The newly elected Republican leader appears far from accepting the Democratic administration’s demands for a large package aimed at supporting two of Washington’s key allies while responding to the surge of people crossing into America from Mexico. We’ll see if any progress is made in their conversation.
Bipartisan group of House lawmakers call on Johnson to allow vote on aid to Israel, Ukraine, border security
A small group of Democratic and Republican lawmakers has released a letter calling on the GOP House speaker Mike Johnson to allow a floor vote on a measure to send aid to Ukraine and Israel, and improve US border security.
Johnson yesterday proposed a bill that would send about $14b in security assistance to Israel while cutting funding to the IRS. The White House and Senate Democrats have already rejected it, arguing that cutting the tax authority’s budget is irresponsible, and any legislation must also fund Kyiv’s defense against Russia’s invasion.
The letter was signed by Republican Joe Wilson, who chairs House foreign affairs subcommittee on the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia, as well as Democrats Marcy Kaptur, Brad Schneider and Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
You can read the letter in full here, and here’s the gist of its argument:
The United States must help secure Israel and the greater Middle East, Europe, and the IndoPacific so that our future generations can live free from the threats of totalitarianism and religious extremism. America can and will rise to these challenges. Although the vast majority of the price in blood and treasure will be born by our allies, Congress must do its part to make sure the citizen soldiers defending Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan have what they need to protect their democracies, and by extension, our national security.
That is why we beseech you not to separate aid for Israel’s fight to rescue its hostages and secure its borders from Ukraine’s fight to do the same, or from Taiwan’s efforts to deter a war. All are crucial priorities for the United States. The introduction of offsets, or the potential deferral of our commitments, threatens not only our national interest, but also our long-term fiscal health. It is far better and less costly in blood and treasure to ensure Russia, Iran, and Hamas are defeated in their current wars than it will be if they achieve strategic victories against Ukraine or Israel.
CNN rounded up a few Democratic and Republican senators’ views on the House GOP’s proposal to tie aiding Israel to cutting the IRS’s budget and considering Ukraine assistance separately.
As you can see, Democrats are opposed, while some Republicans seem more open to their House counterparts’ views, even while reiterating that they believe Ukraine needs support:
Uncertain how Congress will deal with Israel aid
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 31, 2023
Dems say House GOP plan is "dead-on-arrival" in Senate. Some on right in Senate break from McConnell push for Israel package to include Ukraine.
And No. 2 Senate R backs Ukraine aid, "but how that gets done is another question." pic.twitter.com/1ypr6iwrwa
Here’s more from Reuters on House Republicans’ plan to send aid to Israel in exchange for defunding the tax police:
Republicans in the US House of Representatives on Monday introduced a plan to provide $14.3bn in aid to Israel by cutting funding for the Internal Revenue Service, setting up a showdown with Democrats who control the Senate.
In one of the first major policy actions under the new House speaker, Mike Johnson, House Republicans unveiled a standalone supplemental spending bill only for Israel, despite Joe Biden’s request for a $106bn package that would include aid for Israel, Ukraine and border security.
Johnson, who voted against aid for Ukraine before he was elected House speaker last week, had said he wanted aid to Israel and Ukraine to be handled separately. He has said he wants more accountability for money that has been sent to the Kyiv government as it fights Russian invaders.
Dmytro Kuleba, the Ukrainian foreign minister, said on Monday he was confident the House would back a request for additional funds for Ukraine’s military.
“The main thing is the outcome – are there enough votes or not?” Kuleba told Ukrainian national television. “And at the moment we have every reason to believe that there are votes in the US House of Representatives for the bill providing Ukraine with additional support.”
Kuleba said he was aware of “considerable political resistance” to the bill’s provisions and that it would be a “sin” for US lawmakers not to use the legislation to further their own interests.
On the Senate floor, the chamber’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer slammed Republican House speaker Mike Johnson’s proposal to approve security assistance to Israel alone and pay for it by cutting funding to the IRS.
The money allocated last year to the agency is meant to improve its ability to crack down on tax cheats, and Schumer makes the case that cutting its funding would hurt the government’s budget and reward the wealthy. He also makes clear Johnons’s proposal will not pass the Senate:
Schumer slams House GOP Israel package for trying to “reward the ultra-rich” while including no funding for Ukraine or humanitarian aid for Gaza.
— The Recount (@therecount) October 31, 2023
“The new Speaker knows perfectly well if you want to help Israel, you can’t propose legislation that is full of poison pills.” pic.twitter.com/O0g7z6k341
Here’s more from activist group CODEPINK about their protest that disrupted secretary of state Antony Blinken’s testimony today before the Senate appropriations committee, which is considering the Biden administration’s request for more than $100b in aid to Israel and Ukraine, and for southern border security.
“We must stop giving Israel billions for weapons used to destroy the civilian population of Gaza,” said Ann Wright, a former diplomat and US army veteran who was among those arrested.
“Our partnership in genocide has turned Gaza into a giant death camp of over two million civilians, almost half of whom are children,” said David Barrows, who was also arrested.
The hearing if meanwhile ongoing, with Blinken and defense secretary Lloyd Austin taking questions from senators, many of whom want to know more about Israel’s conflict with Hamas. You can watch it here.
Secretary of state Antony Blinken has finally started his testimony to the Senate appropriations committee, which was delayed after protesters repeatedly interrupted him:
“Blinken, you have blood on your hands! Murderer!”
— The Recount (@therecount) October 31, 2023
— Pro-Palestinian protesters interrupt Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s testimony to the Senate Committee on Appropriations pic.twitter.com/cYqnLZ6odn
Here’s a Capitol police officer escorting out one of the protesters:
Blinken's testimony interrupted multiple times by protesters calling for a ceasefire and an end to Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza pic.twitter.com/zvk6Sqq4IJ
— John Hudson (@John_Hudson) October 31, 2023
On Capitol Hill, protesters chanting “ceasefire now!” interrupted secretary of state Antony Blinken’s testimony before the Senate appropriations committee.
Blinken is testifying about the Biden administration’s request for $106b in aid for Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion, and for border security.
Here’s the scene as police removed the protesters, reportedly from anti-war group Code Pink, from the hearing room:
Israel’s invasion of Gaza is now under way, sparking warnings from humanitarian agencies that civilians are at terrible risk amid the fighting.
We have a separate live blog covering the latest in the conflict, and you can find it below:
The request for a funding bill that will send aid to Israel and Ukraine as well as improve border security stems from an Oval Office address Joe Biden made earlier this month. The president had just returned from Israel, which was at the time making preparations for a ground invasion of Gaza to retaliate against Hamas for the 7 October terrorist attack. Here’s the writeup from the Guardian’s David Smith on how Biden made the case that Ukraine and Israel were two worthy causes united by a common thread:
Joe Biden has drawn a direct, provocative link between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Hamas’s attack on Israel as he urged Americans not to walk away from their role as “a beacon to the world”.
In only the second Oval Office address of his presidency, Biden said he would ask Congress to provide aid for both Israel and Ukraine and denounced the scourge of antisemitism and Islamophobia at home.
The president’s 15-minute address sought to weave the Ukraine and Middle East conflicts together to convince war-weary voters and hardline Republicans of America’s obligations. It is a conflation that will make some uneasy, especially as Israel, with vastly superior military power, prepares for a ground invasion of Gaza.
“Hamas and Putin represent different threats, but they share this in common: they both want to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy,” said Biden, sitting at the Resolute desk with flags, family photos, gold curtains and a darkened window behind him.
Senate Democratic leader says cutting IRS funding makes Israel aid 'much harder to pass' - report
Yesterday, CNN heard from the Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who signaled that the cuts to the IRS proposed by Mike Johnson and the House Republicans would be unacceptable.
Schumer’s support is essential for getting any bill through Congress’s upper chamber. Joe Biden and his allies, along with some Republicans including Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, want aid for Israel and Ukraine approved in the same bill –not separately, as Johnson had proposed.
Here’s what Schumer had to say:
New -- House Rs unveil $14.3B aid package for Israel -- with rescission on IRS funding.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 30, 2023
Schumer just told us: "Obviously, a pay for like that makes it much harder to pass."
Spending cuts typically not part of emergency aid packages
Schumer says Ukraine should be included also pic.twitter.com/agFr7eVeqM
Battle brews over aid to Israel as White House accuses Republicans of ‘politicizing national security’
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Joe Biden and many lawmakers in Congress, Democrat and Republican alike, want to send Israel billions of dollars in aid to help its increasingly controversial fight against Hamas, but the request appears destined for Washington DC’s partisan meat grinder. Late yesterday, Mike Johnson, the newly installed Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, made good on expectations he would bring a far-right approach to the job by introducing a bill to send $14.3b to Israel that would be paid for by cutting from the Internal Revenue Service’s budget. You might remember that the tax authority received a big funding infusion last year from the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s signature legislative accomplishment, and Republicans have been trying to rescind that money ever since.
The proposal is sure to satisfy Johnson’s conservative supporters but will almost certainly be rejected by the Democratic-led Senate, where many Republicans may also vote against it because it lacks funding for Ukraine – as Biden had also requested. “Threatening to undermine American national security unless House Republicans can help the wealthy and big corporations cheat on their taxes – which would increase the deficit – is the definition of backwards,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said after the bill was released. Expect plenty of squabbling over this today and the days to come.
Here’s what else is going on:
The Democratic-led Senate judiciary committee said it would vote on sending subpoenas to Harlan Crow, Leonard Leo and Robin Arkley II, all conservatives who have been involved in organizing luxury trips for supreme court justices.
Earl Blumenauer, a longtime Democratic congressman from Oregon, announced he will step down when his term is up. He represents a strongly blue district around Portland.
Jean-Pierre will brief reporters at 1pm eastern time, along with National Security Counsel spokesman John Kirby.
