Closing summary
There appears to be a shift in sentiment towards Israel’s invasion of Gaza in Washington DC, particularly among Senate Democrats. A group of 13 lawmakers has signed on to a joint statement calling for a humanitarian pause in Israel’s campaign to root out Hamas, and in a visit to Tel Aviv, secretary of state Antony Blinken made a similar request. The Senate now seems to be on a collision course with the House, which last night passed a bill to send Israel military assistance while also slashing funding to the IRS tax authority. That’s a nonstarter for Democrats, and their Senate leader, Chuck Schumer, says the measure won’t be considered in the chamber, while minority leader Mitch McConnell also seems uncomfortable with it.
Here’s what else happened today:
Next Tuesday is election day for off-year contests, including in Ohio, where voters will be asked to protect abortion access in the state constitution, and Virginia, where Democrats hope to defang Republican governor Glenn Youngkin.
House Democrats are also expressing concerns publicly over the number of civilians killed in Israel’s invasion of Gaza, including California progressive Ro Khanna.
George Santos will run for re-election next year, even if he is expelled from the House, he told CNN.
Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary and first openly gay person to serve in a president’s cabinet, condemned Republican House speaker Mike Johnson’s history of anti-LGBTQ+ statements.
Got questions about Israel and Palestine? The Guardian has answers.
Updated
It’s not just Senate Democrats who are questioning Israel’s handling of its invasion of Gaza.
House Democrats are also publicly worrying over the mounting civilian death toll. Here’s California progressive Ro Khanna telling CNN that while he supports Israel’s right to defend itself, he believes too many civilians are dying in its invasion:
Let me be clear: The bombing of innocent women and children must stop. Today. pic.twitter.com/EOFaDHdBzD
— Rep. Ro Khanna (@RepRoKhanna) November 3, 2023
Joe Biden has arrived in Lewiston, Maine, site of a mass shooting last week that left 18 people dead.
He is currently visiting Schemengees Bar and Grille, one of two locations where army reservist Robert Card opened fire:
In Lewiston, Maine, @POTUS and @FLOTUS leave flowers and pay their respects at a memorial outside the Schemengees Bar & Grille, one of the sites where a gunman killed 18 people last month. pic.twitter.com/5D3HWJkHjs
— Toluse Olorunnipa (@ToluseO) November 3, 2023
Biden is expected to meet with first responders in Lewiston, as well as survivors of the attack and family members of the victims, before heading to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware for the weekend.
In the weeks since the killings, reports have emerged that people who knew Card tried to sound the alarm about his behavior. Here’s more on that:
First openly gay cabinet secretary Buttigieg condemns House speaker Johnson's anti-LGBTQ+ statements
Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, the first openly gay man to serve in a US president’s cabinet, condemned Republican House speaker Mike Johnson for his history of making anti-LGBTQ+ statements.
In an interview with CNN, Buttigieg said, “I will admit it’s a little bit difficult driving the family minivan to drop our kids off at daycare, passing the dome of the Capitol knowing the speaker of the House, sitting under that dome, doesn’t even think our family ought to exist.”
Here’s more from Buttigieg:
“It's a little bit difficult…to drop our kids off at daycare, passing the dome of the Capitol, knowing that the Speaker of the House...doesn't even think our family ought to exist.”
— The Recount (@therecount) November 3, 2023
— Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg condemns Speaker Johnson’s anti-LGBTQ comments and views pic.twitter.com/HAGkX5U8kK
Johnson has a long history of disparaging same-sex couples, including in 2004, when he wrote a newspaper op-ed saying homosexuality was “inherently unnatural”. Since being elected speaker last month, he has avoided making similar statements, telling Fox News commentator Sean Hannity in an interview that he “genuinely love[d] all people regardless of their lifestyle choices.”
“Go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it – that’s my worldview”, he added. Here’s some further reading on that:
With Chuck Schumer saying he will ignore a House Republican bill to give Israel military assistance while cutting funding to the IRS, it seems likely Senate Democrats will soon propose a measure that lines up with Joe Biden’s demands.
The president last month asked lawmakers to approve aid to both Israel and Ukraine, and money for border security. At a press conference earlier today, the Democratic House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said that proposal would be welcomed by his lawmakers:
“We'll look at any bipartisan product that comes out of the Senate in good faith.”
— The Recount (@therecount) November 3, 2023
— Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), when asked how House Democrats would respond to a Senate Israel aid bill that includes changes to border policy and asylum laws pic.twitter.com/yhuaJVoL4k
The bigger question is what Republican House speaker Mike Johnson will do with it, and whether it would have the votes to pass Congress’s lower chamber, where a growing faction of GOP members are opposed to aiding Ukraine.
The day so far
There appears to be a shift in sentiment towards Israel’s invasion of Gaza in Washington DC, particularly among Senate Democrats. A group of 13 lawmakers has signed on to a joint statement calling for a humanitarian pause in Israel’s ongoing invasion to root out Hamas, and in a visit to Tel Aviv, secretary of state Antony Blinken made a similar request. The Senate now seems to be on a collision course with the House, which last night passed a bill to send Israel military assistance while also slashing funding to the IRS tax authority. That’s a nonstarter for Democrats, and their Senate leader Chuck Schumer says the measure won’t be considered in the chamber, while minority leader Mitch McConnell also seems uncomfortable with it.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
Next Tuesday is election day for off-year contests, including in Ohio, where voters will be asked to protect abortion access in the state constitution, and Virginia, where Democrats hope to defang Republican governor Glenn Youngkin.
George Santos will run for re-election next year, even if he is expelled from the House, he told CNN.
Got questions about Israel and Palestine? The Guardian has answers.
Proceedings are done for the day in the Trump Organization civil fraud trial in New York, where Eric Trump testified again.
Here’s a taste of Lauren Aratani’s report:
Eric Trump, one of the two sons trusted to run Donald Trump’s real estate empire, testified on Friday that he was not involved with the financial documents a judge has ruled to be fraudulent, in a trial that threatens to hobble his family’s business.
In a second day on the witness stand, the former US president’s second son said he relied on outside accountants and lawyers to check financial documents. His older brother Donald Trump Jr made the same argument in his testimony earlier this week.
Prosecutors presented evidence that showed Eric Trump had signed off on documents that estimated the value of trophy properties such as the Trump Seven Springs estate north of New York City and the Trump National Doral golf club in Florida.
That undercut his testimony on Thursday that he knew nothing about those estimates, which Judge Arthur Engoron found were fraudulently inflated to win favorable terms from lenders and insurers.
And here’s Lauren’s report in full.
And here’s some further reading, by me, about the Trump boys’ tactics in court:
Thirty-one Democrats voted not to expel the Republican lawmaker George Santos from the US House of Representatives because he has not been convicted of any crime and to eject him would set a dangerous precedent for Republicans to expel their ideological opponents, a leading congressman said.
“For me this was an easy call,” said Jamie Raskin of Maryland, a law professor and influential progressive who sat on the January 6 committee and was lead manager in Donald Trump’s impeachment for inciting the attack on Congress.
Santos “hasn’t been convicted of anything yet, and he has not been convicted of anything in our ethics process”, Raskin told Mother Jones.
“The history is very telling. We’ve expelled five people in the history of the US House of Representatives. Three of them were Confederate traitors and the other two had other federal criminal convictions.”
James A Traficant, an Ohio Democrat, was the last House member to be expelled, in 2002 and after being convicted of crimes including conspiracy to commit bribery, obstruction of justice and racketeering. After seven years in jail, he attempted to run for re-election.
Raskin continued: “For us to take the step of expelling someone who had not been convicted of anything would be a really dangerous manoeuvre, especially with the Republicans in control of the House.”
Read on:
And also, as a footnote, some recommended reading, in the form of the great David Grann on the curious case of James A Traficant, for the New Yorker. This is just a taste – you really owe it to yourself to buy Grann’s book of New Yorker pieces, The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness and Obsession, before today is through…
George Santos, the New York fabulist, part-time drag enthusiast, accused fraudster and congressman, told CNN earlier he would “absolutely” run for re-election next year even if he is expelled from Congress over his criminal charges.
Santos survived an expulsion vote, over 23 federal criminal charges to which he pleaded not guilty, on a motion brought by members of his own party this week. He could face another such vote after a House ethics committee investigation concludes later this month.
Here’s his conversation with the great corridor-haunter himself, Manu Raju, CNN chief congressional correspondent:
Raju: “So, if they expel you, and then they put someone else in the seat, you’re going to run in 2024?
Santos: “Absolutely.”
Raju: “Uh-huh. Can you win a primary, given of all these things that are lined up against you…”
Santos: “Yes. Yes.”
Raju: “… and the general election?”
Santos: “Well…”
Raju: This is a Biden-leaning district. And you have all these issues against you.
Santos: “Could I have won the general election last time? Nobody said I could. But I survived.”
Raju: “It was a different situation.”
Santos: “No, I understand. But elections are tricky. There’s no predetermined outcome.
Raju: “Your voters thought they were electing one person.”
Santos: “Manu, nobody elected me…”
Raju: “And that wasn’t true.”
Santos: “Nobody elected me because I played volleyball or not. Nobody elected me because I graduated college or not.
“People elected me because I said I’d come here to fight the swamp, I’d come here to lower inflation, create more jobs, make life more affordable, and the commitment to America. That’s why people voted for anybody. To say that they voted based on anybody’s biography, I can beg you this. Nobody knew my biography. Nobody opened my biography who voted for me in the campaign.”
Unfortunately for Santos, once he got to Congress, lots of reporters did open his biography. And, explaining the volleyball reference, a lot of it turned out not to be true.
And that was before the criminal charges.
Shifting back to Israel’s ongoing invasion of Gaza, here’s Connecticut’s Democratic senator Chris Murphy on why he is now calling for a temporary pause in the fighting.
Murphy and 12 other Democratic senators signed onto a statement advocating for a “short-term cessation of hostilities” to get hostages out of Gaza and humanitarian aid in. He elaborates on the call, in an interview with MSNBC:
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) explains why he’s calling for a “short-term cessation of hostilities” in Gaza:
— The Recount (@therecount) November 3, 2023
“I simply believe that the current level of civilian casualties inside Gaza is too high, both from a moral perspective and a strategic perspective.” pic.twitter.com/6rMgr3cfjU
Also happening next Tuesday are legislative elections in Virginia, where Republicans hope to take full control of Senate and empower GOP governor Glenn Youngkin to enact his agenda unimpeded. The Guardian’s Joan E Greve reports on how a Democratic congresswoman who conquered new territory for the party five years ago is working to help state-level candidates do the same:
As two dozen volunteers prepared to knock doors on an unseasonably warm afternoon in late October, Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger reminded them that their work helped flip her battleground House seat in 2018. She predicted it would pay off again for Virginia Democrats this year.
“It is how we have won in hard races across Virginia and across the country, and it is certainly why I feel confident that we are on the right path headed towards November 7,” Spanberger said, speaking to campaign volunteers in a sunny parking lot in Manassas.
Spanberger has played an active role in boosting Virginia Democrats’ hopes for election day, as the party looks to flip control of the house of delegates and maintain their majority in the state senate. The stakes are high: Republicans would achieve a legislative trifecta in Richmond if they take control of the state senate, allowing them to enact controversial policies like banning abortion after 15 weeks and limiting access to the ballot box.
With her carefully crafted political persona as a centrist Democrat, Spanberger may be the right person to deliver her party’s closing message in the final stretch of the campaign. In Manassas, Spanberger laid out her vision for how Virginia Democrats would succeed on 7 November, saying: “There is nothing more important than helping people believe that the policies and the government – whether it be in Richmond or on Capitol Hill – that they want is possible.”
The results on Tuesday could affect Spanberger’s own future as well; the congresswoman has reportedly told multiple people that she intends to run for governor in the battleground state. If she is successful, her victory would allow Democrats to take back the Virginia governorship, which is now held by Republican Glenn Youngkin, in 2025.
It’s not 2024 yet, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any important elections happening this year. Indeed, next Tuesday is election day in several states nationwide for off-year contests over ballot initiatives, governor’s mansions and other key questions. Here’s the Guardian’s Alice Herman with some troubling news out of Ohio, where voters will decide on whether to protect abortion access in the state constitution:
Ohio’s Republican secretary of state quietly canceled the voter registrations of more than 26,000 voters in late September, less than two weeks before the deadline to register to vote in next week’s hotly contested abortion referendum in the state.
Voting rights advocates say the process lacked transparency and departed from Frank LaRose’s usual practice of alerting groups before removing registrations from the rolls. And it comes as LaRose campaigns hard against the 7 November constitutional amendment vote – when Ohio voters will decide whether to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution – as well as a vote on a separate measure to legalize marijuana.
“We are disappointed in the secretary of state’s office’s authorization of the voter purge while voting for the November election was already (and still is) under way,” Kayla Griffin, of the voting rights group All Voting is Local, said.
Voter list maintenance is a standard, legally required part of the election process, and many if not most of these registrations are for people who have moved away, died or long since stopped voting. The state issues alerts by mail to voters whose registration is flagged for removal, leaving the chance to update or confirm their registration before being kicked off the rolls.
But it’s unusual to remove voter registrations this close to an election given the risk of disenfranchising people who intend to vote but simply missed the memo that they had been flagged for removal. In fact, if this was a national election rather than a state-level contest, what LaRose’s office has done would have been illegal. The National Voter Registration Act prohibits elections offices from systematically removing voters from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election.
One minute after the House approved an Israel aid package that excluded providing similar assistance to Ukraine, the top Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, tweeted this:
The U.S. has global interests and global responsibilities. Our support for Ukraine’s fight is leading the free world to make historic commitments to defense. Allies’ investments are helping grow the U.S. industrial base to meet future threats. But America has to lead by example.
— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) November 2, 2023
This what some would call a “subtweet”: McConnell does not mention the House proposal at all nor its architect, Republican speaker Mike Johnson, but he is clearly referring to the just-passed bill. While some Republicans are ready to cut off aid to Kyiv, McConnell remains a steadfast backer of the country’s defense against Russia.
Meanwhile, majority leader Chuck Schumer, the Democratic senator who calls the shots in the chamber, said he would not even consider the House bill:
The House is scheduled to vote today on the GOP’s unserious and inadequate aid package.
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) November 2, 2023
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported that this package will add billions to the deficit.
I'm glad @POTUS issued a veto threat over this stunningly unserious proposal.
Let me be clear: The Senate will not take up the House GOP's deeply flawed proposal
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) November 2, 2023
Instead we will work on our own bipartisan emergency aid package that includes funding for aid to Israel, Ukraine, humanitarian aid including for Gaza, and competition with the Chinese Government
House passes Israel security bill, but its prospects are grim
Yesterday evening, the Republican-led House of Representatives passed a bill to provide Israel with security assistance as it presses on with its invasion of Gaza and conflict with Hamas. But the measure is not expected to be considered by the Senate, and has attracted a veto threat from Joe Biden over provisions rescinding money from the IRS tax authority and driving up the US budget deficit.
Democrats are instead holding out for a larger package that would, as Biden has requested, pay for more military aid to Ukraine and improved border security in addition to aiding Israel, while also avoiding cuts to White House priorities like improving the IRS’s ability to crack down on tax cheats. Such a measure is expected to attract some support from Senate Republicans, most notably Mitch McConnell, who has remained a champion of Ukraine even as polls show many other Republicans are growing wary of paying for the country’s defense against Russia.
Back to the House vote, it was 226 to 196 in favor of passage, with all but two Republicans present voting yes and all but 12 Democrats in attendance voting against it. Several of the Democrats who voted for the bill had previously attacked it as inappropriately partisan, including Florida’s Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who said she nonetheless decided to support it due to her connection to Israel:
I urged many of my colleagues to vote against this bill because of the horrendous precedent it set and the urgent need to pass the full emergency supplemental proposed by President Biden.
— Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (@RepDWStweets) November 2, 2023
For me, as a Jew, as a Zionist and as the representative of a large Jewish community, I personally needed to cast my vote to stand by Israel, the homeland of the Jewish people, in this moment of crisis.
— Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (@RepDWStweets) November 2, 2023
I will continue to work closely with the White House, the Senate and bipartisan colleagues in the House to ensure America provides vital humanitarian aid and security assistance for our allies in Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan.
— Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (@RepDWStweets) November 2, 2023
The Guardian’s staff has put together a comprehensive look at the conflict between Israel and Palestine, which is experiencing of one of its worst spasms of violence in years after Hamas’s terrorist attack, which killed 1,400 people last month.
The hostilities in the heart of the Middle East is one of the few wars with implications that are felt worldwide, and particularly in Washington DC, where successive presidential administrations, Joe Biden’s included, have made Israel a top foreign policy priority. Read more about it below:
There are those who talk about Middle East policy, and there are those who carry it out – regardless of if they have they ability or authority to actually do so. Case in point: Ron DeSantis, Florida’s governor whose campaign for the Republican presidential nomination appears to be going nowhere. As the Guardian’s Richard Luscombe reports, he’s been trying to use his powers in the Sunshine State to respond to Hamas’s attack on Israel, or at least make voters think he is:
His pathway to the presidency looks more forbidding than ever, but tanking poll numbers and a stalled campaign have not dissuaded Ron DeSantis from running foreign policy as if he was the incumbent in the White House.
Florida’s Republican governor has raised eyebrows and hackles by using state resources for a series of actions and operations since the Israel-Hamas war began that come under the purview of the federal government.
They include “evacuating” hundreds of US citizens from Israel on charter flights; exporting humanitarian aid and claiming to have procured weapons; as well as activating Florida’s militarized state guard “as needed, to respond” to an overseas conflict.
Additionally, he has summoned Florida’s legislature for an emergency session next week that will, among other issues, seek to impose more state sanctions on Iran, a key ally of Hamas, replicating measures already in place at federal level for decades.
It’s not just senators who are weighing in on the war in Gaza, it’s also people who want to be senators. The Guardian’s Maanvi Singh reports that the conflict has exposed one of the few differences separating the three leading candidates to fill California’s open Senate seat next year:
As three leading California Democrats vie for a rare opening in the Senate, the Israeli offensive in Gaza has exposed rare fault lines in the candidates’ otherwise aligned platforms.
Following Hamas’s attack on Israel last month, all three leading candidates in the race to fill Dianne Feinstein’s seat – representatives Barbara Lee, Adam Schiff and Katie Porter – condemned the group’s actions. But as Israel ramped up its attacks on Gaza in retaliation, their divergent approaches to foreign policy became clear.
The fissures between the candidates are a reflection of debates within the broader Democratic party. But in California’s open primary, where voters will choose between leading Democratic candidates with nearly identical platforms, the issue could be a deciding factor for some voters.
“These candidates have regularly identified themselves as progressive candidates on a host of domestic policy issues – you can hardly tell the difference between them,” said Sara Sadhwani, a professor of American politics at Pomona College. But when it comes to Israel and Gaza, “from the get-go, we began to see some of these real distinctions”.
Lee, who was the sole member of Congress to vote against the authorization for the use of military force after 9/11 that gave the president broad power to wage war, has maintained her position as an unwavering anti-war progressive. She is the only leading candidate to have called for a ceasefire.
“I absolutely condemn all violence against civilians – including the horrific terrorist attacks by Hamas. Nothing is more valuable than human life,” she told the Guardian in an emailed statement. “And the surest way to mitigate the suffering in both Israel and Palestine is through a ceasefire.”
Democratic senators say 'much more must be done to protect civilian life' in Gaza war
Yesterday, 13 Democratic senators released a joint statement calling for “a short-term cessation of hostilities” in the Gaza Strip, with the goal of getting aid to civilians and releasing hostages taken by Hamas.
The letter was signed by Virginia’s Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Peter Welch of Vermont, Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Tina Smith of Minnesota, Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire.
Here’s what is said, in part:
As Senators, we have been closely monitoring the war in Gaza and believe that much more must be done to protect civilian life. We have been in ongoing dialogue with government officials in the United States, Israel and other nations in the region. We have communicated extensively with international aid officials doing work in Gaza, including those working together with the U.S. Agency for International Development. And we have talked at length with our own constituents who have family and friends in the region.
The failure to adequately protect non-combatant civilians risks dramatic escalation of the conflict in the region and imposes severe damage on prospects for peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians. Based on the consensus opinion of U.S. and international aid officials, it is nearly impossible to deliver sufficient humanitarian aid to protect civilian life under current conditions.
Thus, we join President Biden in his call for a short-term cessation of hostilities that pose high-risk to civilians, aid workers or humanitarian aid delivery in Gaza, in order to accomplish three goals:
Successful delivery of needed humanitarian aid to civilians under strict and necessary oversight
Increased focus on the release of all hostages kidnapped on October 7
Opportunity for broader discussion amongst Israeli and Palestinian leadership, together with regional and global partners, about long-term strategies to reduce decades-long conflict in the region.
In addition to US secretary of state Antony Blinken’s visit to Israel, the other big news in the Gaza conflict today is a speech by Hezbollah’s secretary general Hassan Nasrallah.
The Lebanon-based militia group is widely seen as considering entering the war by attacking Israel from the north. We have a separate live blog covering the latest in the conflict, and you can follow it here:
It’s not just Senate Democrats that are concerned about how Israel is carrying out its invasion of Gaza, and how that might reflect on the United States.
Yesterday, NBC News reported some Biden administration officials are also privately uneasy, despite the president’s embrace of Israel following Hamas’s 7 October attack.
Here’s more from their piece:
As the humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens and the death toll among Palestinian civilians continues to rise, there is growing concern among top Biden administration officials about how the Israelis are carrying out the war and uncertainty about whether they can be reined in, according to two current and two former senior U.S. officials familiar with the internal discussions.
Some administration officials also are worried that the U.S. could become more and more isolated on the world stage over President Joe Biden’s close alignment with Israel — and that he will be blamed for some of the Israeli military’s actions, according to three current and former officials.
Biden and his top aides have in the past week adjusted the administration’s public message to emphasize concern for Palestinian civilians and U.S. efforts to get them humanitarian relief. The shift follows growing criticism at home and abroad of Biden’s decision to swiftly and staunchly back Israel’s military response to Hamas while initially speaking less forcefully about protecting Palestinians; meanwhile, images of civilian casualties in Gaza continue to ricochet around the world.
“If this really goes bad, we want to be able to point to our past statements,” a senior U.S. official said. The official said the administration is particularly worried about a narrative taking hold that Biden supports all Israeli military actions and that U.S.-provided weapons have been used to kill Palestinian civilians, many of them women and children. The Defense Department has said the U.S. is not putting any limits or restrictions on the weapons it’s providing Israel.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered a planned, more strident message Thursday before he boarded his plane for a trip to Israel. “As we’ve said from the start, Israel has not only the right but the obligation to defend itself,” he told reporters. “We’ve also said very clearly and repeatedly that how Israel does this matters.”
He said his discussions with the Israelis would focus on “concrete steps” they can take to better protect civilians. “We’ve seen in recent days Palestinian civilians continuing to bear the brunt of this action, and it’s important that the United States is committed to making sure everything possible is done to protect civilians.”
Top US diplomat arrives in Tel Aviv to urge humanitarian pauses, aid
Secretary of state Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv earlier today with the goal of convincing Israel to ease the suffering of civilians caught up in its campaign against Hamas in Gaza.
Before arriving, Blinken said he would seek “concrete measures” from Israel intended to reduce civilian casualties, including allowing more aid into Gaza and the implementation of humanitarian pauses in the fighting. Blinken will simultaneously be looking to avoid saying anything that casts doubt on Israel’s right to defend itself, which Joe Biden said the United States supports.
Here’s more on Blinken’s visit, from the Guardian’s Patrick Wintour:
Democrats grow nervous over Israel conduct in war with Hamas
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Ever since Hamas’s 7 October attack against Israel, Joe Biden has projected steadfast support of the longtime US ally. But with Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip under way, the president’s Democratic allies are growing uneasy with the increasing toll of civilians killed or wounded. Dick Durbin became the first senator to call for a ceasefire yesterday, and later joined 12 other Democratic lawmakers in signing a letter asking for “a short-term cessation of hostilities” to facilitate the release of hostages taken by Hamas last month, and the delivery of humanitarian aid. Meanwhile, secretary of state Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv today to urge Israel’s leadership to show more restraint in its campaign in Gaza.
The shift in sentiment comes as Israel awaits a new infusion of military aid Biden requested after visiting the country last month, but which is currently caught up in Capitol Hill’s partisan meat grinder. The Republican-led House of Representatives yesterday approved $14b in aid to Israel while simultaneously cutting the budget of the IRS tax authority – a proposition unpalatable to most Democrats. The Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer says his chamber won’t consider the bill, and is instead working on its own broader package that will include aid to Ukraine and pay for increased security on the southern border. All these will be stories to watch today.
Here’s what else is happening:
Biden is this afternoon traveling to Lewiston, Maine, site of a mass shooting last week that killed 18 people. He will meet with first responders, as well as relatives of the victims.
Eric Trump is expected to return to the witness stand today to testify in the civil fraud trial of the family business, the head of which is, of course, Donald Trump.
The US economy added 150,000 jobs last month, according to just-released data that was weaker than months prior but also reflected the impact of the United Auto Workers strike.
