Closing summary
We’re closing the US politics blog now, following Joe Biden’s announcement in Iowa seeking to lower gas prices amid the nation’s worst inflation crisis in more than 40 years.
The president said the move to allow sales of higher ethanol E15 gasoline this summer, following the relaxing of federal laws, could save families 10 cents a gallon, although the fuel will not be widely available nationwide.
Thanks for joining us today. Our live blog on the New York subway shooting will continue for a while here, and you can follow developments in the Ukraine-Russia war on our 24-hour live blog here.
Here’s where else our day went:
- Biden and British prime minister Boris Johnson spoke by phone to assert their joint commitment to support Ukraine with humanitarian aid and military equipment.
- Biden was briefed on the New York subway shooting before he boarded Air Force One to Iowa, with press secretary Jen Psaki tweeting that senior administration officials are offering local authorities their support.
- The Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt signed a law outlawing abortion in the Republican state.
- New York’s lieutenant governor Brian Benjamin was arrested for bribery and wire fraud.
Biden seeks lower gas prices with waiver for summer E15 sales
Joe Biden is preparing to speak at a bioprocessing plant in Menlo, Iowa, to announce that he’s waiving a federal rule banning summer sales of E15 gasoline - fuel with a higher blend of ethanol than regular gas - in an effort to bring down prices at the pump.
The president is pledging to lower energy costs after blaming the Ukraine war, and in particular the Russian president Vladimir Putin, for soaring prices affecting American families. Earlier today, it was announced US inflation reached 8.5% in March, its worst level in more than 40 years.
Biden will speak after touring the plant in the corn-rich state, where even Republicans seem to be on board with his plans. Biden insists the sale of plant-based E15 during the summer, during which it is usually banned because it creates denser levels of smog in higher temperatures, could save families 10 cents a gallon.
“Homegrown Iowa biofuels provide a quick and clean solution for lowering prices at the pump, and bolstering production would help us become energy independent once again,” the Iowa Republican senator Chuck Grassley said, according to the Associated Press.
Grassley was among nine Republican and seven Democratic senators from midwestern states who sent Biden a letter last month urging him to allow year-round E15 sales, the AP said.
Industry groups, however, doubt the impact of the plan. E15, they say, will be available only at about 2,300 of the nation’s more than 100,000 gas stations, concentrated in the Midwest and the South, including Texas.
Three former Minneapolis police officers facing state charges over George Floyd’s death have rejected a plea deal with prosecutors, the Minnesota attorney general’s office told CNN.
Tou Thao, J Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane are scheduled to stand trial in June charged with aiding and abetting convicted murderer and fellow former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin while he knelt on Floyd’s neck for nine minutes in May 2020.
Floyd’s death sparked protests across the US and other countries through the summer of 2020, and contributed to the rise to prominence of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Chauvin was sentenced to 22.5 years for second degree murder after his trial last summer, while Thao, Kueng and Lane are free on bail following their conviction in February on federal charges of violating Floyd’s civil rights.
According to CNN, the officers were offered the plea deals on 22 March, the Minnesota attorney general’s office said. No details of the proposed plea deals have been made public, although they are expected to be revealed when the state trial gets under way.
CNN said it had contacted lawyers for all three former officers. Tom Plunkett, attorney for Kueng, declined to share details on why the offer was rejected. The network did not hear back from attorneys for the other two.
The South Dakota attorney general Jason Ravnsborg has been suspended pending the outcome of a state senate trial, after he was impeached Tuesday by the state’s legislature over a fatal 2020 road accident in which he originally claimed he had hit a deer.
Ravnsborg was fined $1,000 plus court costs, but avoided jail time last year when he pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor traffic charges in the death of pedestrian Joseph Boever, 55, as he drove home from a political event.
Investigators said the attorney general was browsing political websites immediately before the collision, and that he called 911 to say he had struck a deer. Boever’s body was found the next day, and his cellphone was discovered inside Ravnsborg’s car.
On Monday night, Ravnsborg wrote to lawmakers urging them to vote against impeachment, the Associated Press reported.
But in a 36-31 vote, the House rejected the recommendation of a GOP-backed majority report from a special investigative committee and sided with the state’s Republican governor Kristi Noem, who said Ravnsborg was guilty of lying to investigators.
Democrats also had pushed for impeachment, arguing that he was not “forthcoming” to law enforcement officers and had abused the power of his office, the AP reported.
The White House has set out some details of Joe Biden’s upcoming address in Iowa, where he will speak at a bioprocessing plant in rural Menlo later today about measures to combat soaring inflation and reduce the price of gas at the pump.
“The administration’s strategy to spur the development of homegrown biofuels is critical to expanding Americans’ options for affordable fuel in the short-term and to building real energy independence in the long-term by reducing our reliance on fossil fuels,” a fact sheet released by the White House says.
To that end, Biden will announce that the environmental protection agency (EPA) will issue an emergency waiver allowing E15 gasoline, fuel containing 15% ethanol, to be sold during the summer.
In ordinary times, sales of E15, which the White House says is on average 10 cents a gallon cheaper than regular gas, but which some analysts say is more harmful to the environment because of its smog-producing ingredients, is not permitted in the summer months.
“An emergency waiver can help increase fuel supplies, give consumers more choice to get lower prices, and provide savings to many families,” the White House release says.
“Allowing higher levels of blending will also reduce our dependency on foreign fuels as we rely more heavily on home-grown biofuels. This will help us bridge towards real energy independence.”
The president will also expand on his administration’s financial investment in alternative energy, including more than $800m for the biofuel industry from pandemic assistance programs.
Biden has attracted criticism for expanding the fossil fuel industry, despite his investments in green energy. In this opinion piece for the Guardian last month, climate scientist and author Peter Kalmus took the administration to task:
Jen Psaki also spoke briefly about the New York subway attack, confirming that White House “senior staff” were in contact with officials in Brooklyn, and that Joe Biden was being kept informed of developments.
There was a possibility the president would speak later in Iowa about the situation, she said.
“We’ve offered everything we can provide,” Psaki said, noting that Biden’s senior aides had spoken directly with the New York mayor Eric Adams and city police commissioner Keechant Sewell.
“I just spoke with the president about it earlier on the plane and he reiterated his request… anything they need, anything they want, we are here to help them and provide that to them,” she said.
Biden and Johnson 'commit to support Ukraine'
The White House has announced that Joe Biden spoke by phone with the British prime minister Boris Johnson earlier today, affirming their “commitment” to support Ukraine.
Few details were contained in the readout of the call, which the White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced during Biden’s flight to Iowa, where he will later speak about inflation and reducing gasoline prices.
The statement said:
President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. spoke today with Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom about the Prime Minister’s recent visit to Ukraine. The leaders affirmed their commitment to continue providing security and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine in the face of ongoing atrocities by Russia.
They also welcomed ongoing cooperation with allies and partners to impose severe costs on Russia for its unprovoked and unjustified war.
Psaki was asked about Ukraine during a press “gaggle” aboard Air Force One, her answers barely decipherable on the extremely broken live audio feed.
She said there had been “no confirmation” of earlier reports that Russia had used a chemical weapon in eastern Ukraine, but that the Biden administration expected the Russian president Vladimir Putin to step up his military’s attacks in the east, following their withdrawal from around the capital Kyiv.
“We expect Russia will continue to launch air and missile strikes to the rest of the country to cause military and economic damage and cause terror, because Russia’s goal in the end is to weaken Ukraine as much as possible,” she said, pledging a continuation of US support in humanitarian aid and weapons systems.
“We also expect that this stage of the conflict could last a long time. We should have no illusions that Russia will adjust tactics. So of course the focus is on continuing to provide a range of security assistance. We essentially look at and review requests made by Ukrainian leaders.”
Updated
In one of the final acts in a 24-year political career, the Republican chief justice of the Ohio supreme court is defying her party and refusing to let them distort electoral districts to their advantage, a move that has some fellow Republicans calling for her impeachment.
Full story:
Interim summary
It’s been a busy Tuesday so far. Here’s where things stand midway through the day:
- Joe Biden is on his way to Iowa, where he will deliver remarks later this afternoon about how he plans to bring down raging inflation and reduce gas prices.
- US inflation climbed to 8.5% in March, the highest level for more than 40 years. The White House says the war in Ukraine is largely responsible for “Putin’s price hike”.
- Biden was briefed on the New York subway shooting before he boarded Air Force One, with press secretary Jen Psaki tweeting that senior administration officials are offering local authorities their support.
- The Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt has signed a law outlawing abortion in the Republican state.
- New York’s lieutenant governor Brian Benjamin has been arrested for bribery and wire fraud.
Updated
The Russian people know little about Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine because Putin has blocked their access to the truth, substituting propaganda and lies.
Years ago, pundits assumed the internet would open a new era of democracy, giving everyone access to the truth. But dictators like Putin and demagogues like Donald Trump have demonstrated how naive that assumption was.
At least the US responded to Trump’s lies. Trump had 88 million Twitter followers before Twitter took him off its platform – just two days after the attack on the Capitol, which he provoked, in part, with his tweets. (Trump’s social media accounts were also suspended on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitch and TikTok.)
These moves were necessary to protect American democracy. But Elon Musk – the richest man in the world, with 80 million Twitter followers – wasn’t pleased. Musk tweeted that US tech companies shouldn’t be acting “as the de facto arbiter of free speech”.
Musk continues to tell his 80 million followers all sorts of things. I disagree with many of his positions, but ever since I posted a tweet two years ago criticizing him for how he treated his Tesla workers he has blocked me – so I can’t view or post criticisms of his tweets to his followers.
Seems like an odd move for someone who describes himself as a “free speech absolutist”. Musk advocates free speech but in reality it’s just about power.
Read on:
Donald Trump is “very intent on bringing my brother down”, Joe Biden’s sister said.
“The only race I wasn’t enthusiastic about Joe getting involved in was the 2020 presidency,” Valerie Biden Owens told CBS News.
“Because I expected, and was not disappointed, that it would be ugly and mean, and it would be an attack on my brother, Joe, personally and professionally, because the former president is very intent on bringing my brother down.”
A year and a half into his presidency, Biden is battling crises at home including inflation and the coronavirus pandemic and abroad, over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Trump dominates the Republican party, propagating the “big lie” about voter fraud in his defeat by Biden which fueled the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, continuing to attack Biden as incapable of the demands of office, flirting with a third White House run and dispensing endorsements to candidates in the midterm elections.
On Sunday, the Republican House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, claimed Republicans would not swiftly impeach Biden “for political purposes”, should as expected the party take the House in November.
Biden Owens helped raise her brother’s children after his first wife and daughter were killed in a car crash and has worked on all his campaigns. She has written a book called Growing Up Biden: A Memoir.
“I assumed from the beginning that the former president and his entourage would attack my brother by going and attacking my family,” she said.
Read more here:
A vast majority of Americans no longer consider the Covid-19 pandemic a ‘crisis’, according to an Axios-Ipsos poll published on Tuesday.
Instead, more than three-quarters of the population think coronavirus is a “manageable problem,” while one in six people do not consider it a problem at all, the poll found.
The news that fewer than one in 10 Americans thinks the pandemic is still a crisis comes as the Covid-19 subvariant BA.2 continues to spread across the nation, and Philadelphia became the first major city in the US to reimpose an indoor mask mandate.
CDC figures show daily case numbers beginning to increase again after a massive fall following the Omicron variant peak at the beginning of this year.
“People aren’t following the Covid case numbers on a daily basis,” Ipsos pollster and senior vice president Chris Jackson said.
“People see coverage and ... assume the trend line is continuing even if it doesn’t.”
Read more:
Updated
Oklahoma makes abortion provision illegal
The Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt has signed a law that makes it a felony to perform an abortion, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, further advancing the push in numerous Republican states to curtail or eliminate abortion rights.
Legal challenges are certain to follow as the law, approved by state legislators a week ago, is set to take effect 90 days after the state’s legislature adjourns next month. That will likely be ahead of the expected decision by the US supreme court this summer that could overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade ruling that protected a woman’s right to the procedure.
“We want to outlaw abortion in the state of Oklahoma,” Stitt said during a signing ceremony for the bill, flanked by anti-abortion lawmakers, clergy and students, according to the Associated Press.
“I promised Oklahomans that I would sign every pro-life bill that hits my desk, and that’s what we’re doing here today.”
Under the bill, anyone convicted of performing an abortion would face up to 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine. It does not authorize criminal charges against a woman for receiving an abortion, the AP said.
Read more here:
New York's deputy governor indicted for fraud
New York’s lieutenant governor Brian Benjamin was arrested Tuesday for bribery and wire fraud, among other charges, as part of a federal corruption investigation.
The US attorney’s office in Manhattan unsealed an indictment accusing Benjamin, a Democratic former state senator, of conspiring to obtain campaign contributions from a real estate developer in exchange for helping guide a $50,000 grant to a nonprofit the developer controlled, according to the Associated Press.
Benjamin turned himself in this morning, and is expected to appear in federal court in New York City later today, NBC News reported.
The investigation by the FBI and federal prosecutors in Manhattan has been ongoing since at least November, according to WNBC New York, two months after he joined the administration of the incoming New York governor Kathy Hochul.
The channel said the inquiry was sparked by the indictment for fraud and identity theft of developer Gerald Migdol, Benjamin’s long-term fundraiser, last year.
The Harlem state senator was, at that time, “not suspected” of any wrongdoing, prosecutors said.
Today’s indictment alleges that Benjamin and Migdol: “falsified campaign donor forms, misled municipal regulators and provided false information in vetting forms Benjamin submitted while he was being considered to be appointed as lieutenant governor.”
A spokesperson for Benjamin has been approached for comment, CNN said, adding that Damian Williams, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is expected to hold a press conference later.
Joe Biden has been briefed on Tuesday’s subway shooting in New York city, the White House press secretary Jen Psaki has said.
According to her tweet, sent as the president prepares to travel to Iowa later this morning aboard Air Force One to give an address on inflation, Biden’s aides have spoken with the New York mayor Eric Adams and police commissioner Keechant Sewell.
@POTUS has been briefed on the latest developments regarding the New York City subway shooting. White House senior staff are in touch with Mayor Adams and Police Commissioner Sewell to offer any assistance as needed.
— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) April 12, 2022
“White House senior staff are in touch with Mayor Adams and Police Commissioner Sewell to offer any assistance as needed,” Psaki wrote.
Read more here:
“I haven’t been in court for a few years, so excuse me if I’m a bit rusty,” said Doug Emhoff. “You know, not too much has changed in my life – except for the Secret Service, Air Force Two, the selfies, the cameras following me everywhere, and oh: my wife is the vice-president of the United States.”
The theatre erupted in whoops and clapping. Kamala Harris, sitting in the fifth row with her sister Maya, blew kisses through a black face mask and applauded her husband.
It was one of those only-in-Washington moments. On Monday, the Shakespeare Theatre Company hosted a “mock trial” inspired by William Shakespeare’s romantic comedy Much Ado About Nothing and presided over by retiring supreme court justice and good sport Stephen Breyer.
Much Ado is best known for Beatrice and Benedick, two proud intellects who only fall in love after others play Cupid. That seemed fitting for Harris and Emhoff, who were set up on a blind date by a mutual friend and married just shy of their 50th birthdays.
But the question before the not-so-serious court was: should Margaret be held liable for Don John’s defamation of Hero? Emhoff, who was a prominent entertainment lawyer for nearly 30 years, was lead advocate on Margaret’s behalf.
The event, full of inside-the-Beltway topical gags, had been due to take place last month but was postponed after the second gentleman came down with coronavirus.
“I thank your honours for granting my motion for a continuance due to plague,” began Emhoff, wearing a dark suit, blue shirt and blue tie, and standing at a lectern under bright stage lights. “The White House apothecary told me my symptoms would be wild but – whew!”
The mock trial is a longstanding Shakespeare Theatre Company tradition but had gone virtual for the past couple of years, due to the pandemic. Monday marked a return to an in-person audience at the Sidney Harman Hall but it was also livestreamed.
Emhoff, an amiable and slightly goofy presence, remarked: “My parents tonight are watching the livestream but I might have told them that I was arguing in front of the United States supreme court so, cameraperson, can you just keep a very tight shot … ?”
Read David Smith’s sketch here:
Barack Obama is offering thoughts on the war in Ukraine, telling NBC in an interview to air Wednesday that “the danger was always there” in terms of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s “recklessness”.
The network launched a teaser of the 44th president’s remarks this morning, interviewer Al Roker noting that Obama was in the White House when Putin annexed Crimea in 2014.
According to the former president:
Putin has always been ruthless, against his own people as well as others. He has always been somebody who’s wrapped up in this twisted, distorted sense of grievance and ethnic nationalism. That part of Putin has always been there.
What we have seen, with the invasion of Ukraine, is him being reckless in a way that you might not have anticipated eight, 10 years ago, but you know, the danger was always there.
Obama’s stance towards Putin over his two terms of office has long been the subject of discussion. An interesting analysis published by the New York Times magazine quotes Fiona Hill, a former Russia adviser for multiple presidents, as not being particularly complimentary.
“He either didn’t understand the man or willfully ignored the advice,” Hill said after Obama described Putin as “looking like the bored kid in the back of the classroom” at a 2013 news conference.
“We said openly, ‘Don’t dis the guy - he’s thin-skinned and quick to take insults’,” Hill said.
In the NBC News interview, which will air tomorrow morning on the Today show, Obama likens events in Ukraine to attacks on democracy globally, including in the US:
What we’re seeing consistently is a reminder of why it’s so important for us not to take our own democracy for granted. Why it’s so important to stand for and align ourselves with those who believe in freedom and independence. I think the current administration is doing what it needs to be doing.
Other topics that the interview will cover, according to Roker: Obama’s recovery after he tested positive for Covid-19 last month, and the former president’s advice on “becoming an empty nester” after daughters Malia and Sasha left home.
US prices climb at highest rate in four decades, inflation at 8.5%
Prices in the US climbed at their highest rates since 1981, rising 8.5% over the year to the end of March as the war in Ukraine drove up energy costs for Americans, the labor department announced on Tuesday.
The latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) – which measures the prices of a basket of goods and services – comes after the index rose by 7.9% in the year through February, the fastest pace of annual inflation in 40 years.
Driven up by continuing supply chain issues, soaring demand and rising energy prices, inflation is now at levels unseen in the US since Ronald Reagan took the White House from Jimmy Carter.
The price increases are broad – with the cost of rent, gas and food causing particular hardship for lower income Americans and are a major blow to the Biden administration, already facing tough odds of retaining control of Congress in November’s midterm elections.
Soaring gas prices were the main driver of the rise. The gasoline index rose 18.3% in March and accounted for over half of the all items monthly increase. Gas prices have begun to fall, in a sign that some economists have argued may suggest inflation has reached its peak.
The White House warned it was expecting a bad set of figures ahead of the report. On Monday White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, told reporters that the labor department’s previous report had not included the majority of the jump in oil and gas costs caused by the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We expect March CPI headline inflation to be extraordinarily elevated due to Putin’s price hike,” Psaki said.
Read more here:
Good morning, welcome to the US politics blog, and happy Tuesday.
It’s not quite so happy for Joe Biden, given the soaring inflation figures released this morning but, as they say, he has a plan. The president is traveling to rural Iowa today and will announce later “actions to lower costs for working families, reduce the impact of ‘Putin’s Price Hike’ and ‘Build a Better America’,” which is expected to include new measures to help reduce gas prices.
The Guardian’s live 24-hour news blog is running here to bring you all the developments in the Russia-Ukraine war.
And here’s what else we’re watching in the US today:
- Philadelphia has become the first major city in the US to reinstate an indoor mask mandate as the Covid-19 subvariant BA.2 takes hold across the nation. Most Americans, however, no longer consider coronavirus a crisis, according to an Axios-Ipsos poll.
- White House press secretary Jen Psaki will host her daily briefing to reporters aboard Air Force One as the president travels to Iowa.
- The 6 January House inquiry is edging closer towards the finish line as it continues its investigation of Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, amid news that his daughter and former senior adviser Ivanka Trump gave testimony to the panel for more than eight hours last week.
- A Virginia police officer, Thomas Robertson, has been found guilty of six charges related to the 6 January attack. His was only the second jury trial regarding the riot, hundreds more defendants await justice.
