Closing summary
Joe Biden traveled to Florida to survey the destruction wrought by Hurricane Ian alongside Republican governor and White House critic, Ron DeSantis, with whom a temporary political truce had been declared. But bad news came from abroad, when the Opec+ grouping of oil producers agreed to slash production, potentially driving gas prices higher just as American voters cast ballots in the midterms.
Here’s more about what happened today:
The Opec+ production cut comes as the oil cartel’s leader Saudi Arabia appears to be cultivating warmer ties with Russia, in spite of Riyadh’s alliances with many western countries.
Gas prices may indeed rise, but not necessarily by a huge amount.
The justice department won yet another legal battle over the Mar-a-Lago documents, though the case is far from over.
One of the unanswered questions of the January 6 insurrection was whether senator Ron Johnson, a conservative Republican representing Wisconsin, was involved in the plot to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s win.
In the fourth hearing of the congressional committee investigating the attack held in June, it was revealed that a staff member for the senator contacted vice-president Mike Pence’s legislative affairs director, asking how to get fake slates of electors from Johnson to Pence, who was to preside over the certification of Biden’s election victory that day. The documents never got to the vice-president, but the January 6 committee detailed the attempt during a hearing dedicated to exploring the legal efforts made by Donald Trump’s allies to interfere with Biden taking office.
NBC News reports that Johnson told his side of the story during an appearance in Wisconsin on Tuesday, where he’s in a tough re-election battle against Democrat Mandela Barnes. Here’s what he had to say:
Of the electors scheme, Johnson said he communicated with Jim Troupis, a Wisconsin-based attorney who led legal efforts for Donald Trump in a recount of the state’s 2020 results.
“What would you do if you got a text from the attorney for the president of the United States?” Johnson said. “You respond to it.
“I got a text from the president’s lawyer asking if we could deliver something to the vice president and if I could have a staff member handle it,” Johnson said. Asked whether he knew what it was he was being asked to deliver, he said: “No. I had no idea.”
Johnson said he turned it over to his chief of staff, who was new at the time. “Next thing I know he’s letting me know the vice president’s not accepting anything, so I just texted back ‘no, we’re not delivering it,’ end of story. Nothing happened. I had no idea there were even an alternate slate of electors.”
That Biden even brought up climate change is bound to infuriate some Republican elected officials and conservative commentators, who see any mention of the scientific reality as cover for a wider liberal agenda.
DeSantis may be among them. “What I’ve found is, people when they start talking about things like global warming, they typically use that as a pretext to do a bunch of left-wing things that they would want to do anyways. We’re not doing any left-wing stuff,” the governor said at a speech last year, according to Florida Phoenix.
DeSantis has grown popular among Republicans for standing up to Democrats and their perceived ideologies, and those comments may be seen as a classic example of his success. But as governor, DeSantis has backed some efforts to help his famously low-lying state deal with the climate crisis. Last year, he signed a bill to strengthen Florida’s resiliency against sea level rise, and has also publicly uttered the words “climate change” - a break from his Republican predecessor Rick Scott, who reportedly banned some state employees from using the terms.
Hurricane Ian ended 'discussion about whether or not there's climate change': Biden
The destruction wrought by Hurricane Ian in southwest Florida is proof that climate change is hitting the United States and must be addressed, president Joe Biden said following a tour of areas damaged by last week’s storm.
Referring to Ian as well as the drought striking the southwestern United States and drying up the Colorado River, Biden said, “There’s a lot going on, and I think the one thing this has finally ended is a discussion about whether or not there’s climate change. We should do something about it.”
It was a rare potentially controversial remark in a trip that has otherwise been marked by bonhomie between Biden, a Democrat, and Ron DeSantis, Florida’s conservative Republican governor who has a top critic of the president. Speaking just before him, DeSantis spoked positively of the federal response to the hurricane and thanked Biden personally.
“Mr. President, welcome to Florida. We appreciate working together across various levels of government,” the governor said.
The president’s speech is ongoing, and you can watch it below:
A new report from Bloomberg appears to reveal a hole in one of Donald Trump’s explanations for how classified materials made it from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Trump has said that it was the General Services Administration (GSA) that packed boxes of records from the White House, and therefore he can’t be held responsible if classified materials were improperly taken after he left office. But Bloomberg reports that it appears GSA merely coordinated logistics for shipping boxes that were already packed from Washington to Florida.
Here’s more from the report, which is based on emails obtained by the agency:
Former President Donald Trump publicly said that one reason that the FBI found boxes of classified documents improperly stored at his Florida estate was that federal workers had packed up the White House after his 2020 defeat.
But documents obtained by Bloomberg News under a Freedom of Information Act request suggest a different story. More than 100 pages of emails and shipping lists between White House and transition staff and the US General Services Administration describe the minutiae of moving the Trump White House from Washington, DC, to Florida, down to how many rolls of bubble wrap and tape, all within a plan signed by then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
One thing is clear: The boxes were packed when the movers got there.
While the records don’t specify what the boxes contained, they provide the most detailed account to date of how the GSA assisted the outgoing administration between January and September 2021.
After the FBI’s unprecedented Aug. 8 search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, the former president and his allies, including Fox News’s Sean Hannity, Stephen Bannon’s Breitbart News and former Trump defense official Kash Patel, have claimed that Trump can’t be held legally responsible for the dozens of boxes of highly classified documents found around Mar-a-Lago because the GSA — essentially the federal government’s office and property manager — was in charge of filling boxes and shipping them.
Here’s more from Hugo Lowell on Donald Trump’s petition to the US supreme court yesterday, as the legal wrangling over the August search of his Mar-a-Lago resort continues:
Donald Trump on Tuesday asked the US supreme court to partially reverse an appellate court decision that prevented the special master, reviewing for privilege protections materials seized by the FBI from his Mar-a-Lago resort in August, from examining 100 documents with classification markings.
The motion to vacate the ruling by the US appeals court for the 11th circuit represents the former president’s final chance to reinsert the 100 documents into the special master review – and potentially exclude some from the investigation into whether he illegally retained national defense information
In the emergency request, Trump’s lawyers argued that the appellate court lacked jurisdiction to overrule the trial judge and decide that the justice department should regain access to the 100 documents and that the special master should be prohibited from examining them in the review.
Vice president slams supreme court abortion decision, with national and international impact
Kamala Harris has blamed the rightist US supreme court’s gutting of abortion rights for undermining America’s place as a role model for democracy in the world.
The vice president was speaking at a reproductive rights round table in Connecticut a few minutes ago, with local congresswoman Jahana Hayes and Planned Parenthood president Alexis McGill Johnson and once again excoriated the highest US court for its decision in the Mississippi Dobbs case in June that overturned Roe v Wade.
“You can talk about what it means to be a strong democracy and have that standing to talk about human rights and the rule of law … we were thought of as a role model of democratic principles,” Harris said.
“But now the highest court in our land took away a fundamental right from the people of America,” she added.
She pointed out that other world leaders watch everything the US does and the Dobbs decision stokes, she said: “My fear that autocratic governments can say to their people ‘you want to be a democracy, look what the US just did,’ so the impact of this quite literally will impact people around the world.”
The US supreme court is now dominated by a six-three conservative majority on the nine-judge bench and despite a majority of Americans who are polled saying they support the kind of abortion rights afforded by the Roe ruling in 1973, the court overturned that decision this summer in a shocking blow to reproductive choice.
The vice-president also spoke on the topic at an event at the White House yesterday, where she said the decision had created a healthcare crisis in the US.
Reproductive health care is an issue that impacts your freedom and liberty. All women should have the freedom to make decisions about their own bodies—not the government.
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) October 4, 2022
Joe Biden, despite his often-demonstrated personal faith as a Catholic, has also spoken out increasingly strongly in favor of abortion rights.
Both the president and the vice president are urging Congress to codify the rights of Roe in legislation, though that it unlikely to get through Congress at the moment.
The decision overturning Roe v. Wade was never going to stop with a woman's right to choose.
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 5, 2022
It extends to the right to privacy itself.
And like clockwork, we're already seeing the criminalization of doctors and threats to block access to contraception.
Updated
Appeals court grants DoJ expedited appeal in Trump case
A US appeals court on Wednesday granted the justice department’s request to expedite its appeal of a lower court order appointing a special master to review records the FBI seized from former president Donald Trump’s Florida estate in August.
The decision by the US court of appeals for the 11th circuit to fast-track the government’s appeal represents a setback for Trump, who had opposed the request, Reuters reports.
Last week, the Department of Justice (DoJ) had asked the 11th circuit to address concerns it still has with US district judge Aileen Cannon’s appointment of senior judge Raymond Dearie, who is tasked with reviewing more than 11,000 records the FBI found inside Mar-a-Lago, in order to weed out anything that may be privileged.
Cannon’s order blocks the justice department from relying on those records for its ongoing criminal investigation until Dearie’s review is complete.
In its filing, the justice department said this prohibition is hampering its investigation, and that it needs to be able to examine non-classified records that may have been stored in close proximity to classified ones.
Those non-classified records, the department said, “may shed light” on how the documents were transferred to, or stored at, the Mar-a-Lago estate, and who might have accessed them.
Separately, yesterday, Trump asked the US supreme court to partially reverse an appellate court decision that prevented the special master, reviewing the seized materials for privilege protections, from examining 100 documents with classification markings.
Updated
The day so far
Joe Biden has just touched down in Florida to tour the damage caused by Hurricane Ian alongside the conservative Republican governor Ron DeSantis, with whom a temporary political truce appears to be in effect. But bad news has come from abroad, when the Opec+ grouping of oil producers agreed to slash production, potentially driving gas prices higher just as American voters cast ballots in the midterms.
Here’s what has happened today thus far:
The Opec+ production cut comes as the oil cartel’s leader Saudi Arabia appears to be cultivating warmer ties with Russia, in spite of Riyadh’s alliances with many western countries.
Gas prices may indeed rise, but not necessarily by a huge amount.
DeSantis and Biden have put their political rivalry to the side before when dealing with disasters in Florida.
Speaking aboard Air Force One, the White House press secretary said the production cut by Opec+ indicates the oil cartel has sided with Russia in the global standoff over energy price and supply.
“It’s clear that Opec+ is aligning with Russia with today’s announcement,” Karine Jean-Pierre said during president Joe Biden’s trip to Florida. Russia is not a member of Opec, but the press secretary noted the link between the production cut and the dire energy situation facing many countries globally due to the ripple effects of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We’re dealing with a time where… the global markets or the global economy is responding to Putin’s war,” Jean-Pierre said. “And so by making this decision, it is going to have an effect on low and middle… income countries.”
Updated
The Opec+ production cut comes as the oil cartel’s leading member Saudi Arabia courts closer ties with Russia, worrying western countries that consider Riyadh an ally, The Guardian’s Martin Chulov reports:
They both started wars in neighbouring countries, hold significant sway over energy markets, are known to brook no dissent and to covet spots in history. Russia’s embattled president, Vladimir Putin, and Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, seem to have a lot in common.
Nearly eight months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, relations between Riyadh and Moscow are at a high point. As much of Europe, the US and the UK double down on attempts to combat an ever more menacing Russian leader, Prince Mohammed has instead chosen to deepen ties.
An Opec+ meeting in Vienna on Wednesday is the latest landmark in a growing relationship that is increasingly defying the demands of Riyadh’s allies and appearing to give Putin comfort at a critical juncture in the war. Both countries are likely to seek to raise oil prices by cutting global supply by 1-2m barrels a day.
Such a move would follow widespread disruption to gas supplies to Europe caused by the war and predictions of a worsening energy security crisis as the northern winter approaches. It would also alienate Washington, an ally that has tried to recruit Riyadh to the cause of decreasing supply pressures by opening valves to its enormous reservoirs.
Instead, Joe Biden finds himself staring down a partner in the Middle East whom he had personally visited during the summer as the extent of the supply crisis became apparent. Biden walked away empty-handed and, as a result, faces the uncomfortable prospect of taking high bowser prices to midterm elections. Perhaps more importantly for the US president, a rise in oil prices could be seen as helping fund Putin’s war effort.
At a press conference during his visit to Chile, secretary of state Antony Blinken had little to say about Washington’s reported efforts to convince Opec+ countries not to cut production.
Other than to say that Biden administration officials have been talking to them. Here’s CSPAN’s clip of Blinken:
.@michaelcrowley asks about OPEC agreeing to oil production cut of two million barrels a day and appeal hearing for negotiations with Russia regarding Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan.
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 5, 2022
.@SecBlinken: "When it comes to OPEC, we’ve made clear our views to OPEC members." pic.twitter.com/poyv8zVRGt
Updated
White House condemns Opec+ production cut
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and director of the White House’s National Economic Council Brian Deese have objected to the decision by the Ooec+ bloc of oil-producing states to slash production.
“The President is disappointed by the shortsighted decision by Opec+ to cut production quotas while the global economy is dealing with the continued negative impact of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine,” according to a statement released by the White House. “At a time when maintaining a global supply of energy is of paramount importance, this decision will have the most negative impact on lower- and middle-income countries that are already reeling from elevated energy prices.”
They noted the recent nationwide decline in gas prices, and said the energy department will release another 10 million barrels from the strategic petroleum reserve onto markets next month, in a bid to lower prices. Deese and Sullivan also hinted at congressional action to address the production cuts. Here’s the rest of their statement:
The President is also calling on U.S. energy companies to keep bringing pump prices down by closing the historically large gap between wholesale and retail gas prices -- so that American consumers are paying less at the pump.
In light of today’s action, the Biden Administration will also consult with Congress on additional tools and authorities to reduce OPEC’s control over energy prices.
Finally, today’s announcement is a reminder of why it is so critical that the United States reduce its reliance on foreign sources of fossil fuels. With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the U.S. is now poised to make the most significant investment ever in accelerating the clean energy transition while increasing energy security, by increasing our reliance on American-made and American-produced clean energy and energy technologies.
Updated
The oil market trackers at GasBuddy conclude that the recent Opec+ production cut will increase pump prices for US drivers – but not catastrophically.
Here’s the estimate from GasBuddy’s Patrick De Haan:
As a result of OPEC's production cut, I estimate U.S. #gasprices will be impacted by roughly 15-30c/gal
— Patrick De Haan ⛽️📊 (@GasBuddyGuy) October 5, 2022
Updated
In an interview with a conservative media outlet yesterday, Florida governor Ron DeSantis claimed the “national regime media” was rooting for Hurricane Ian to strike the Tampa Bay area.
A catastrophe in the state’s third-most-populous metropolitan area would have been used to “advance their agenda,” the governor said. Hurricane Ian ultimately struck the Fort Meyers area further south. Here’s a clip of his remarks:
Desantis says the “national regime media” was rooting for the hurricane to hit the Tampa area so it would cause maximum destruction and death, which they could use against him politically. pic.twitter.com/qXOJhIaWhR
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) October 5, 2022
DeSantis is speaking with Brendon Leslie, founder and editor in chief of Florida’s Voice, who also said he was part of the mob that entered the Capitol on January 6. Here’s a link to Leslie’s full interview with DeSantis:
Joe Biden has started his journey with a helicopter flight to Joint Base Andrews outside Washington, where he’ll board Air Force One for the trip to Florida.
He did not have much to say about the OPEC+ production cut, according to a Fox News reporter at the White House:
Update: pool deciphered the audio and POTUS said he “needed to see details” https://t.co/rWVlYOO4Qm
— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) October 5, 2022
Following the OPEC+ production cut, Democratic House representative Ro Khanna has hit out at Saudi Arabia, accusing the country of undermining the US economy and calling on the White House to retaliate.
“This is beyond the pale,” Khanna told CNN in an interview. “They are actively fleecing the American people and destabilizing the economy. That’s just outrageous. Who do they think they are?”
Saying Saudi Arabia should be “dealt with harshly,” the California lawmaker said the Biden administration should cut off Saudi Arabia’s supply of aviation parts and prevent American aerospace firms from doing business with them. “They are a third-rate power. We are the most powerful country in the world. I don’t know why we kowtow to them.”
Biden’s relationship with Riyadh has grown complicated in recent months. As a candidate for office, he pledged to make Saudi Arabia a “global pariah” amid outrage over the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. But as oil prices spiked this summer, Biden visited the kingdom in what was widely seen as a bid to get Saudi Arabia to raise production – and fist-bumped Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom US intelligence concluded ordered Khashoggi’s murder.
Opec+ oil production cut threatens to hike US gas prices ahead of midterms
After declining through much of the summer, gas prices may be set to increase again in the weeks before the midterm elections, after the Opec+ group of oil producing nations agreed to a deep cut in crude production today.
Reuters reports that the cut is the deepest since the Covid-19 pandemic struck in 2020, and is intended to push oil prices higher, despite the White House pressuring the bloc not to go through with it. Higher oil prices globally mean higher prices at gas stations across the United States, further squeezing the wallets of Americans grappling with inflation that has climbed at rates not seen since the 1980s. Yesterday, gasoline market analyst Patrick DeHaan predicted a production cut could undercut the recent downward trend in pump prices:
Bad news: the rally in oil prices is continuing with OPEC poised to cut production. WTI $85.55/bbl but gasoline up nearly 4% or 9.5c/gal. Our chances of seeing a sub-$3 national average by EOY are rapidly disappearing.
— Patrick De Haan ⛽️📊 (@GasBuddyGuy) October 4, 2022
The economy is expected to play a major role in the midterm elections, where Joe Biden’s Democratic party is fighting to retain control of the Senate and House of Representatives. The importance of oil to public opinion was illustrated over the summer, when a spike in gasoline prices pushed Biden’s approval rating even further into unpopular territory.
Updated
Florida is a well-known retirement destination, but Michael Sainato reports Hurricane Ian has caused many elderly residents to reconsider living there:
Joy McCormack had just retired and moved to a mobile park in Fort Myers near the Sanibel Island causeway before Hurricane Ian hit Florida last week. Her entire community was wiped out and her mobile home is still flooded.
She had managed to evacuate before Ian arrived with just her car and a few belongings, spending the night in a two-story office building inland. “You don’t expect it to be anything, because we’ve never been hit that hard,” said McCormack.
She is far from alone. In a state like Florida – popular with retirees seeking warm weather, cheap property and beautiful beaches – hurricanes hit the elderly hard. According to US census data, 40.5% of residents in Charlotte county, 33.1% of residents in Collier county and 29.1% of residents in Lee county are age 65 or older, nearly twice the percentage of the US population. Fema has cautioned residents to “make informed decisions” about rebuilding in areas hit by natural disasters.
In the days since the neighborhood where McCormack lives has seemed like a war zone. Electricity and internet access in the area are still spotty, boil water advisories remain in effect in Lee county, gas stations have long lines and information is sparse. She’s still waiting on her pharmacy to open to refill medical prescriptions.
“I can’t get into any of my accounts because of the internet, it’s really hard, you can’t do anything. It’s like living in a war zone,” added McCormack. “I’ve lived here for 20 years and there’s no reason for me to stay in the state of Florida any longer.” She plans to move up north to be closer to family rather than try to get a new home in the area.
For an idea of how the encounter between president Joe Biden and Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis will go today, consider what happened last time they met.
The occasion was the deadly collapse of an oceanfront condominium building in Surfside, close to Miami, which killed 98 people. “You recognized the severity of this tragedy from day one, and you’ve been very supportive,” DeSantis told the president, while Biden remarked, “You know what’s good about this? The way we’re cooperating. We’re letting the nation know we can cooperate.”
Expect something similar to play out in Fort Meyers today.
“I can tell you there’s one fellow that just hates Florida: his name is Joe Biden,” governor Ron DeSantis declared in a February speech to a major gathering of conservatives.
Widely seen as a potential heir to the Republican throne in 2024 if Donald Trump decides not to run or is rejected by voters, DeSantis has spent much of his time as governor signing legislation that’s enraged progressives, or engaging in other antics such as the transportation of migrants from Texas to Massachusetts. The president has served as a convenient punching bag for DeSantis, particularly as Biden’s approval ratings tanked over the course of last year. Beyond whatever political aspirations he may have, DeSantis has good reason to remind Floridians of all the reasons he believes Biden is failing: Florida is still considered a swing state, with electoral votes that are coveted by any presidential aspirant.
The two men are to meet today in Fort Meyers, one of the communities hardest hit by Hurricane Ian last week. They’ve temporarily called off their feud ever since the storm truck, and the truce is expected to last through the visit – but probably not much beyond that.
Biden heads to Florida to survey hurricane damage alongside GOP rival DeSantis
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Joe Biden will visit Florida today to see for himself the damage wrought by Hurricane Ian, where he’ll be greeted by governor of the state and foe of Democrats Ron DeSantis. Don’t be surprised if the two men are sparring on a presidential debate stage in two years time, but today, partisanship is expected to take a backseat to their common goal of helping the state’s west coast recover from the deadly storm. Biden delivers remarks at 3.15pm ET in Fort Meyers.
Here’s what else is happening today:
As if one sitting president and one potential presidential aspirant weren’t enough, former president Donald Trump is scheduled today to speak in Miami to a group of Hispanic conservatives, according to USA Today.
Congress is adjourned but Democratic House representative Joaquin Castro is presenting a report at the National Press Club on the underrepresentation of latinos in media at 10am.
Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, seems set to buy Twitter – and potentially allow Trump back on the platform he was ejected from after the January 6 insurrection.
