Closing summary
Women’s basketball star Brittney Griner is on her way back to the United States from a prison in Russia after the Biden administration brokered her release in exchange for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout. While Joe Biden hailed the deal, Republicans condemned his failure to get Moscow to turn over Paul Whelan, another American jailed in the country. In Congress, the House passed the Respect for Marriage Act, which protects same-sex and interracial couples’ abilities to wed. It now heads to Biden for his signature.
Here’s what else happened today:
21 December is the day the January 6 committee plans to release its report, the bipartisan panel’s chair said.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE took credit for mediating the deal that led to Griner’s release, though the White House denied any such efforts.
Most House Republicans opposed the Respect for Marriage Act, but some broke with the party’s traditional hostility towards LGBTQ+ rights to vote for it.
Eric Holder, a former attorney general who oversaw Bout’s prosecution, said the prisoner exchange was the best deal possible in the circumstances.
Newly elected House Democrat Maxwell Frost tweeted that he’s having trouble finding somewhere to live in Washington DC, which highlighted both his modest means and the nationwide affordable housing crisis.
The big news on Tuesday was Democrat Raphael Warnock’s victory in Georgia’s run-off election for Senate, but that wasn’t the only race decided that day. Richard Luscombe reports on the 18-year-old who won election as mayor of a small town in Arkansas:
It is not even a year since Jaylen Smith was learning the power of the youth vote as a student government leader at his high school in Arkansas. Now the pioneering teenager is about to put his knowledge into practice as the youngest elected Black mayor anywhere in the US.
On Tuesday, as the Georgia Senate runoff was capturing the attention of the nation, Smith, 18, was steadily amassing the votes he needed to become the next leader of the small city of Earle, population 1,785.
“You have to start somewhere, you really do,” Smith, who graduated from Earle high school last summer after three years as Student Government Association president, told the Washington Post.
“I didn’t want to be 30 or 40 and become a mayor when I could be one right now.”
The House ethics panel is investigating progressive Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over an undisclosed violation, the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports:
The New York Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is under investigation by the House of Representatives’ ethics committee, the leaders of the panel said.
The Democratic acting chair, Susan Wild of Pennsylvania, and acting ranking member, Michael Guest, a Mississippi Republican, released a statement on Wednesday.
They said: “The matter regarding Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez … was transmitted to the committee by the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) on 23 June.”
The subject of the investigation was not revealed.
Footage has emerged of the exchange of Brittney Griner for Viktor Bout on the grounds of Abu Dhabi’s airport.
The Financial Times reports the video was shot by Russia’s FSB security service and distributed through “propaganda outfit” Tass:
Russian state propaganda outfit Tass shares FSB video footage of today’s prisoner exchange of Brittney Griner and Viktor Bout. pic.twitter.com/5xx4tW4VA5
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) December 8, 2022
The attorney general who handled the arrest and prosecution of Viktor Bout has weighed in on Joe Biden’s decision to release him in exchange for Brittney Griner.
Republicans have attacked Biden for agreeing to the trade, arguing that Bout remains a security threat. However, Eric Holder, who served as the country’s top law enforcement official under Barack Obama, said the exchange was necessary, given the circumstances:
— Eric Holder (@EricHolder) December 8, 2022
An evangelical minister told the House judiciary committee earlier that for 20 years he recruited “stealth missionaries” to the supreme court, aiming to establish friendships with conservative justices and thereby “bolster” their views on religion.
The minister, Rev Rob Shenck, made headlines last month when he told the New York Times he “was told the outcome” of a 2014 case about access to contraception “weeks before it was announced”, information he used “to prepare a public relations push” and to “tip off the president of Hobby Lobby, the craft store chain owned by Christian evangelicals that was the winning party in the case”.
That story created considerable controversy over whether Samuel Alito, the conservative justice who wrote the Hobby Lobby opinion, had been part of leaking it. Questions and investigations continue about the leak earlier this year of the draft decision in Dobbs v Jackson, the ruling which removed the right to abortion, which Alito also wrote.
Alito angrily denied any involvement in leaks.
Appearing before the House panel to describe a campaign he said was called Operation Higher Court, Schenck said: “Our overarching goals were to gain insight into the conservative justices’ thinking and to shore up their resolve to render solid, unapologetic opinions.”
Schenck was questioned by panel members including the chair, the New York Democrat Jerry Nadler, and the incoming chair, Jim Jordan of Ohio.
As the Washington Post reports, the Republican, a fiery conservative and supporter of Donald Trump, “sought to undermine Schenck’s credibility as a witness by getting him to admit that some details in a book [he] wrote about the court were inaccurate.
“You got the key detail wrong and now you remember an additional detail,” Jordan said. “We’re supposed to take your word over Justice Alito’s word?”
The hearing continues.
After starting his morning off by announcing the release from Russian custody of jailed women’s basketball star Brittney Griner, Joe Biden is now speaking about his efforts to preserve the pensions of unionized workers.
You can watch the speech live here:
Our Washington bureau chief, David Smith, analyses the typically tough choice Joe Biden faced when Vladimir Putin agreed to swap Brittney Griner for a major arms dealer – without releasing Paul Whelan, another American held in Russia.
Last month, the Russian parliament mounted an unusual art exhibition with subjects ranging from the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin to a sentimental image of a kitten. They had been produced in prison by Viktor Bout, serving 25 years in America.
History has shown that a sideline as an amateur artist is not much guarantee of moral integrity. Bout, known as “the merchant of death”, was the world’s most notorious arms dealer, selling weapons to rogue states, rebel groups and murderous warlords in Africa, Asia and South America.
That, for many, was what made his release on Thursday in a prisoner swap for US basketball star Brittney Griner difficult to stomach. Joe Biden has done a deal with the devil. But he may also have saved a woman’s life. As the president found in Afghanistan, the big decisions are seldom morally clearcut.
On the credit side, Griner’s release is spectacularly good news. She was arrested in February after vape canisters containing cannabis oil were found in her luggage. Against the backdrop of war in Ukraine, her nine-year prison sentence was wildly disproportionate. Her transfer to a penal colony, with its promise of sexism, racism and homophobia in medieval conditions, raised fears for her survival.
But on the debit side, despite Vladimir Putin’s effort to portray Bout as painter and classical music lover with a sensitive soul, the arms dealer has blood on his hands. He armed militias in Sierra Leone, the Liberian war criminal Charles Taylor and the Taliban in Afghanistan. His life helped inspire the 2005 Hollywood film Lord of War, starring Nicholas Cage.
Bob Menendez, chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, captured the ambivalence in a statement on Thursday. The Democrat welcomed Griner’s release as a “moment of profound relief” but warned that “releasing Bout back into the world is a deeply disturbing decision”.
He added: “We must stop inviting dictatorial and rogue regimes to use Americans overseas as bargaining chips, and we must try do better at encouraging American citizens against traveling to places like Russia where they are primary targets for this type of unlawful detention.”
White House: 'No mediators' in Griner exchange deal
The White House is rejecting an apparent effort by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to claim some of the credit for the prisoner swap deal that secured Brittney Griner’s release, Richard Luscombe writes.
A somewhat ambiguous joint statement from the countries issued earlier today said their governments thanked “the governments of the US and Russia for their cooperation and response, and for the joint mediation efforts made by the leaderships of the two countries”.
The exchange of Griner for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout took place at Abu Dhabi airport, but the role of the Saudis was unclear. Unidentified “specialists from the UAE and Saudi Arabia” were present at the handover, the two nations insisted.
Jean-Pierre: "The only countries that negotiated this deal were the United States and Russia. There were no mediators."
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) December 8, 2022
In remarks Thursday, US secretary of state Antony Blinken thanked “our Emirati friends,” but only for their assistance in the transfer itself, and neither he nor Joe Biden made reference to any Saudi role.
“The only countries that negotiated this deal were the United States and Russia. There were no mediators,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, told reporters at her afternoon briefing.
Jean-Pierre said when Griner arrived home in the coming hours, she “she will be offered appropriate care and support by the US government… the president made a promise and he kept his promise.”
She also defended the deal that some have criticized for giving up a notorious arms dealer for a basketball player, while leaving a former US marine, Paul Whelan, still in Russian detention.
“This was not a choice for us of which American to bring home. It was a choice of bring home one American or bring home none,” Jean-Pierre said.
“This was not a decision the president made lightly but he believed it was the right thing to do to secure Brittney’s release.”
Read more:
Updated
Maxwell Frost, the Florida Democrat who made history last month as the first Gen Z congressman-elect, made waves this morning with a tweet in which he said he was struggling to find somewhere to live in Washington.
Frost wrote: “Just applied to an apartment in DC where I told the guy that my credit was really bad. He said I’d be fine. Got denied, lost the apartment, and the application fee. This ain’t meant for people who don’t already have money.”
He later added: “For those asking, I have bad credit cause I ran up a lot of debt running for Congress for a year and a half. Didn’t make enough money from Uber itself to pay for my living.”
In September, in an interview with Frost, the Guardian’s Andrew Lawrence described how he was financing his run for Congress:
Despite raising more than $1.5m for the campaign, more than any candidate in the race by a wide margin, Frost doesn’t come from means. To make ends meet, he drives for Uber. In between, he keeps fuelled with a steady diet of egg, cheese and avocado sandwiches …
Frost doesn’t just understand where young people are coming from; he’s in the same boat. He lives with his girlfriend and his sister. When they were priced out of their apartment last October, he couch-surfed and slept in his car for a month before he found a new place.
“I couldn’t go back home because my 97-year-old grandmother lives there, and this was in the middle of the Delta variant,” he says.
Now in a new apartment, he is splitting $2,100 a month rent, which is still too high, he says. He has made up his mind to move out when the lease expires in November, potentially leaving him unhoused on election day.
If he wins, he says he wouldn’t get paid until February at the earliest. Technically, he could take a stipend from his campaign fund now, but he would rather not give [his opponents] any ammunition. To soften the potential blow to come, he hit the Uber trail hard and completed 60 rides one weekend. This is in between pulling 70-hour weeks on the campaign.”
Today’s news, that Frost is struggling to secure a place to live in Washington, will likely add to his determination to address the affordable housing crisis afflicting young people in many parts of the US. After all, as Andrew wrote a few months ago: “So when he talks with urgency about the affordable housing crisis, it’s real.
“There’s still a lot of barriers for working-class people to run for office,” he says. “I want to be the voice who shows how messed up it is and help demystify the process.”
The day so far
Women’s basketball star Brittney Griner is on her way back to the United States from a prison in Russia after the Biden administration brokered her release in exchange for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout. While Joe Biden hailed the deal, Republicans condemned his failure to get Moscow to turn over Paul Whelan, another American jailed in the country. Meanwhile in Congress, the House passed the Respect for Marriage Act, which protects same-sex and interracial couples’ abilities to wed. It now heads to Biden for his signature.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
21 December is the day the January 6 committee plans to release its report, the bipartisan panel’s chair said.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE took credit for mediating the deal that led to Griner’s release.
Most House Republicans opposed the Respect for Marriage Act, but some broke with the party’s traditional hostility towards LGBTQ+ rights to vote for it.
Here’s the scene as House speaker Nancy Pelosi signed the Respect for Marriage Act in a ceremony following its passage:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signs the Respect for Marriage Act, which will codify federal recognition of same-sex and interracial marriages.
— The Recount (@therecount) December 8, 2022
It now goes to President Biden to be signed into law. pic.twitter.com/gYj6jzv2zC
That’s Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer next to her.
The real signature that matters is Joe Biden’s. The White House has not yet announced when the president will sign it.
Meanwhile, Barney Frank, a former Democratic congressman who was the best-known LGBTQ+ lawmaker during his time in the House, made some remarks about the bill’s passage. In particular, he compared it to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law that, among other provisions, banned federal recognition of same-sex marriages:
Former Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) celebrates the House's passage of the Respect for Marriage Act:
— The Recount (@therecount) December 8, 2022
"I was here for the birth of DOMA [Defense of Marriage Act], so I am very grateful to be able to be here for the funeral." pic.twitter.com/cJoKGk8G5L
It appears that the GOP will try to use frustration over Russia’s continued detention of Paul Whelan, and the deal that saw Brittney Griner released in exchange for arms dealer Viktor Bout, against Joe Biden.
Here’s the attack line, as articulated by top House Republican Kevin McCarthy:
"Merchant of Death"—That's the nickname of the prisoner Biden returned to Putin. He was convicted of conspiring to kill American law enforcement.
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) December 8, 2022
This is a gift to Vladimir Putin, and it endangers American lives.
Leaving Paul Whelan behind for this is unconscionable.
Whelan: 'I don't understand why I'm still sitting here'
Paul Whelan, the American left out of Thursday’s prisoner swap deal that saw Brittney Griner freed, has told CNN from his Russian prison cell that he is “disappointed” he wasn’t included.
“I don’t understand why I’m still sitting here,” the corporate security executive told network producer Jennifer Hansler.
“I am greatly disappointed that more has not been done to secure my release, especially as the four-year anniversary of my arrest is coming up. I was arrested for a crime that never occurred.”
Whelan has been in custody in Russia since December 2018 when he was arrested on espionage charges his family and the US government say are baseless.
He said he was in “a precarious situation” that Joe Biden needed to resolve “quickly”.
“I would hope that he and his administration would do everything they could to get me home, regardless of the price they might have to pay at this point,” he added.
CNN asked John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council, to respond to Whelan’s comments.
“We will work as hard today and tomorrow and the next day to get Mr Whelan home, as we have been working since he’s been in Russia wrongfully detained,” Kirby said.
“He’s never been off our minds. I can assure Mr Whelan, and certainly the Whalen family, that the focus of this administration, and this president in particular, will not waver, will not wane. We will continue to work on this.”
Courtesy of CNN, here are the names of House Republicans who voted for the Respect for Marriage Act:
RFMA passes in the House 258-169. These Republicans voted in favor of the bill. Rep. Owens voted PRESENT pic.twitter.com/kEDQ3LfXY1
— Kristin Wilson (@kristin__wilson) December 8, 2022
These include Elise Stefanik, the third-highest ranking Republican in the House, and Liz Cheney, whose sister Mary is lesbian.
Missing from that list is Kevin McCarthy, the top-ranking Republican in the chamber, who is facing opposition from rightwing lawmakers in his bid to become speaker of the House when Republicans take over the majority next year. CNN tried, and failed, to find out why he opposed the bill:
McCarthy voted against same-sex marriage bill. I asked him why just now and he didn’t respond. Here are the GOP ‘yes’ votes https://t.co/tCDDWPgaD1
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 8, 2022
Updated
January 6 committee report set for 21 December release
The January 6 committee’s report will be released on 21 December, Fox News says, citing chair Bennie Thompson:
1/6 cmte chair Thompson says to expect final report on Capitol riot on December 21.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) December 8, 2022
The bipartisan panel’s report will likely cover both the insurrection at the US Capitol and the broader plot by Donald Trump and his allies to interfere in the results of the 2020 election and stop Joe Biden from taking office.
Here’s the moment when House speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the Respect for Marriage Act had been approved by the chamber:
.@SpeakerPelosi: "The motion is adopted."
— CSPAN (@cspan) December 8, 2022
U.S. House votes to protect same-sex marriage, 258-169-1.
Goes now to the president. pic.twitter.com/QOH11zqLxK
Same-sex marriage bill heads to Biden's desk after House vote
The House broke into applause as it approved the Respect for Marriage Act protecting the right of same-sex and interracial couples to wed and sent the bill to Joe Biden for his signature, in a milestone for civil rights:
The House concurred in the S. Amd’t to H.R. 8404 – Respect for Marriage Act by a vote of 258-169 with one voting present. https://t.co/dOOJEd8p0B
— House Press Gallery (@HouseDailyPress) December 8, 2022
Democrats pushed for passage of the measure after conservative supreme court justice Clarence Thomas earlier this year mulled whether to revisit Obergefell v Hodges, the 2015 decision that allowed same-sex marriage nationwide.
Voting is still ongoing, but thus far not a single Democrat has come out against approving the Respect for Marriage Act.
Most Republicans oppose it, but some GOP members have overcome the party’s traditional wariness towards LGBTQ rights and voted for the bill, Axios reports:
GOP Rep. Mike Gallagher flips from “no” on Respect for Marriage Act in July to “yes” today.@Axios reported that his stated concern about polygamy was addressed, and he said he was “probably” going to vote for it: https://t.co/zUpjZVGPOW
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) December 8, 2022
Another GOP vote flip in the other direction: Utah Rep. Burgess Owens, who voted “yes” in July, is voting present.
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) December 8, 2022
Meanwhile in the Capitol, the House is voting on whether to approve the Respect for Marriage Act, which will protect the rights of both same-sex and interracial couples to wed.
The measure is expected to pass, and will head to Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.
Semafor reports that former Democratic House representative Barney Frank has come to the chamber for the vote. He was the first congressman to voluntarily come out as gay, and was one of the best-known LGBTQ lawmakers until he stepped down in 2013:
Spotted: Former Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is in the House (of Representatives)
— Joseph Zeballos-Roig (@josephzeballos) December 8, 2022
He tells me he’s here to “witness the death” of the Defense of Marriage Act, which he always opposed.
— Joseph Zeballos-Roig (@josephzeballos) December 8, 2022
“I was there for the birth and now I’m here for the funeral”
Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and the president of the United Arab Emirates have issued a joint statement acknowledging they led mediation efforts that resulted in the exchanged of arms dealer Viktor Bout for Brittney Griner, Reuters reports.
“The success of the mediation efforts was a reflection of the mutual and solid friendship between their two countries and the United States of America and the Russian Federation,” the countries.
It “highlighted the important role played by the leaderships of the two brotherly countries in promoting dialogue between all parties”.
Saudi Arabia has lately been involved in mediating the release of foreign fighters captured in Ukraine. Washington’s relationship with both countries has suffered in recent months after they supported a production cut by the OPEC+ group of oil producers, which the Biden administration said would needlessly drive up energy prices that had already risen due to Russia’s invasion of its neighbor.
Russia exchanged Brittney Griner for arms dealer Viktor Bout at Abu Dhabi airport, Politico reports, and the two walked past each other on the tarmac.
Biden said Griner would be back in the United States “in the next 24 hours”. According to Politico, Griner is heading to a military facility in San Antonio, Texas, to be evaluated.
Updated
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has cheered the release of Brittney Griner.
“Congress and the Country are overjoyed to learn that, thanks to the committed and focused leadership of President Biden, Brittney Griner is finally free. Today, our hearts are with her dear wife, Cherelle, and the entire Griner family as their beloved Brittney is safely on her way back to America and will be home for the holidays,” the Democratic leader said in a statement.
“For nearly ten long months, Brittney Griner suffered unthinkable trauma as she was wrongfully imprisoned by the Russian government. Putin’s cruelty against Brittney – and his monstrous actions against Ukraine – are staggering reminders of his brazen contempt for human rights, human dignity and the rule of law.”
Pelosi is in her final weeks leading Congress’s lower chamber, before the new Republican majority takes over next year. Her successor as leader of the House Democrats, Hakeem Jeffries, also hailed the Griner’s release:
Thankful that Brittney Griner is free and on the way home.
— Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) December 8, 2022
President Biden gets it done.
Again.
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Former Trump administration official Richard Grenell criticized Joe Biden for the terms of the prisoner swap that got Brittney Griner out of Russia:
Joe Biden admits Vladimir Putin dictated the exchange:
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) December 8, 2022
“This was not a choice of which American to bring home,” Biden said.
Putin wanted the Merchant of Death home in Russia and only offered a basketball player who carried pot in her luggage as a swap.@JakeSullivan46 fail!
Russia is stronger today because of Joe Biden.
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) December 8, 2022
Putin needed his expert arms smuggler home for his war with Ukraine.
Grenell served as US ambassador to Germany under Donald Trump, and was briefly the acting director of national intelligence in 2020.
CBS News reports that Paul Whelan’s brother has described the swap that freed Griner but left the detained American security executive behind as a “catastrophe”:
NEW: Paul Whelan's brother says the US government advised the Whelan family yesterday that he would not be part of the swap.
— Steven Portnoy (@stevenportnoy) December 8, 2022
"That early warning meant that our family has been able to mentally prepare for what is now a public disappointment for us. And a catastrophe for Paul."
NBC News reports that the sticking point with Whelan is that Russia believes he was spying:
NEW: A senior U.S. official tells @NBCNews they tried everything they could to get Paul Whelan out, but “they are treating him differently. They say he is an espionage case. They said the choice was either one [Griner] or none.”
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) December 8, 2022
CBS News has more details about how the swap for Griner came about:
After 5 months of stalled diplomacy and various potential swap arrangements — including a previously unreported offer by the US this past summer to send 2 prisoners back to Russia for Griner & Whelan — sources tell @cbsnews the 1-for-1 exchange came together over the last 2 weeks https://t.co/rEODmS71fp
— Sara Cook (@saraecook) December 8, 2022
The Biden administration made at least one concession by agreeing to reduce the swap to one American for one Russian. 5 former US officials told @cbsnews the agreement had been reached as of last Thursday. Former US Marine Paul Whelan remains in Russian custody.
— Sara Cook (@saraecook) December 8, 2022
.@CBSNews learned last Thursday that the Griner-for-Bout swap was likely imminent but agreed to a White House request to hold the reporting because officials expressed grave concern about the fragility of the then-emerging deal and Griner’s well-being.
— Sara Cook (@saraecook) December 8, 2022
Brittney Griner’s wife, Cherelle, shared a few words as Biden closed his speech.
“Over the last nine months, you all have been so privy to one of the darkest moments of my life,” Cherelle Griner said,” describing herself as “overwhelmed with emotions, but the most important emotion that I have right now is just sincere gratitude for President Biden and his entire administration.”
“Today my family is whole, but as you are all aware, there are so many families who are not whole,” she continued, saying she and Brittney will remain committed to “getting every American home, including Paul, whose family is in our hearts today.”
Updated
'Brittney will soon be back in the arms of her loved ones': Biden
Speaking at the White House, Joe Biden formally announced the release of Brittney Griner from detention in Russia, and pledged to continue working to bring home another American jailed in the country.
“Moments ago, standing together with her wife Cherelle in the Oval Office, I spoke with Brittney Griner,” Biden said. “She’s safe, she’s on a plane, she’s on her way home after months of being unjustly detained in Russia, held under intolerable circumstances. Brittney will soon be back in the arms of her loved ones, and she should have been there all along.”
He thanked officials in his administration who worked for her released, as well as the United Arab Emirates, “because that’s where she landed.” The president noted that “the past few months have been hell” for Griner, and her family and teammates.
He also mentioned the case of Paul Whelan, another American whose release from Russia he said he was working on. “We’ve not forgotten about Paul Whelan, who’s been unjustly detained in Russia for years.”
Joe Biden’s address on the release of Brittney Griner is expected to start any minute, and you can watch along live here:
Joe Biden has tweeted news of Brittney Griner’s release, sharing photos of him speaking with her wife, Cherelle Griner:
Moments ago I spoke to Brittney Griner.
— President Biden (@POTUS) December 8, 2022
She is safe.
She is on a plane.
She is on her way home. pic.twitter.com/FmHgfzrcDT
Also pictured is vice-president Kamala Harris and secretary of state Antony Blinken.
Biden to speak after Brittney Griner freed by Russia in prisoner swap
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Joe Biden is making a surprise speech at 8.30am eastern time, after reports emerged that women’s basketball star Brittney Griner has been freed from a Russian prison in a swap for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout. Follow this blog for the latest on his speech.
That’s not all that’s happening today:
The House will vote on the Respect for Marriage Act protecting same-sex and interracial marriage rights, putting it on the cusp of becoming law.
Negotiations in Congress will continue on a slew of other legislation the Democratic majority is trying to pass before the end of the year, including an annual defense spending bill and a measure to keep the government open.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre briefs reporters at 12:30 pm.
