Closing summary
The Democrats’ already difficult road to keeping their Senate majority in next year’s elections just got even more difficult after West Virginia’s Joe Manchin announced he would not run again. He would have faced a tough re-election contest in the deeply red state and the GOP is almost certain to claim the seat. Democrats must now focus on winning key elections in Ohio, Montana, Arizona and a handful of swing states, along with the White House, if they want to control Congress’s upper chamber. Meanwhile, the US government is once again days away from shutting down, and there’s no sign of an agreement in Congress to prevent it. House Speaker Mike Johnson reportedly wants a short-term measure that funds the government for varying periods of time, though many lawmakers view that as excessively complex, and the chamber’s minority leader Hakeem Jeffries says Democrats will not support it.
Here’s what else has happened today:
Kevin McCarthy said there should be consequences for Matt Gaetz, the Republican lawmaker who led the charge to remove him as speaker of the House.
Joe Biden squabbled with a Fox News reporter over his age, polling and abortion access.
Vivek Ramaswamy defended his attacks on fellow Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley in last night’s debate.
Progressive congresswoman Cori Bush called Israel’s decision to pause its bombing campaign in Gaza for brief periods every day “heartless”.
Ohio’s imperiled Democratic senator Sherrod Brown appealed for donations in the wake of Manchin’s decision to step down.
In the statement announcing he would end his Senate career, Joe Manchin said “I will not be running for re-election to the United States Senate, but what I will be doing is traveling the country and speaking out to see if there is an interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle and bring Americans together.”
That line stoked speculation he could launch a third-party presidential run next year, perhaps with the help of centrist group No Labels. Democrats have been fretting over that possibility for months, as a Manchin candidacy could swing voters away from Joe Biden, whose re-election campaign has been dogged by worrying poll numbers.
At the Capitol, Politico says some of Manchin’s counterparts don’t believe he has presidential ambitions:
There are two main Republicans vying for West Virginia’s Senate seat, which Democrat Joe Manchin just said he would not stand for again.
The first is governor Jim Justice, who in 2017 left the Democratic party and joined the GOP at a rally for Donald Trump. “Senator Joe Manchin and I have not always agreed on policy and politics, but we’re both lifelong West Virginians who love this state beyond belief, and I respect and thank him for his many years of public service,” Justice said in a statement after Manchin’s announcement.
The second is Alex Mooney, a fifth term House lawmaker representing the northern half of the state. He is what he had to say about Manchin’s departure:
The state’s primary elections are scheduled for 14 May of next year.
Minutes after Joe Manchin announced he would not run for re-election, Ohio’s Democratic senator Sherrod Brown made a veiled reference to the West Virginia senator’s decision:
Brown represents Ohio, which has supported Republican candidates in the past two presidential elections, albeit by a much smaller percentage than West Virginia. With Manchin gone and almost certain to be replaced by a Republican, Brown’s victory next year is essential if the party has any chance of staying in the majority in the Senate.
Following Joe Manchin’s decision not to seek re-election, the Cook Political Report has changed its rating of the race to “solid Republican”.
That’s the same rating given to Senate races in other deep-red states like Nebraska, Tennessee and Wyoming:
In the 2020 election, West Virginia voted more than 68% for Donald Trump, his second biggest-margin of victory after Wyoming.
Joe Manchin first arrived in the Senate in 2010 after a stint as West Virginia’s governor, but the peak of his political power came in the first two years of the Biden administration.
Democrats held a 50-seat majority in the Senate those two years, meaning the party had to vote unanimously on legislation that Republicans would not support. While Manchin backed most of Joe Biden’s agenda, he flexed his muscles in the negotiations over Build Back Better, an expansive plan to fight climate change and invest in a host of social programs that the president wanted approved.
Manchin opposed several of its measure, including continuing the expanded child tax credit that was credited with cutting child poverty in half in 2021. Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema, then a member of the Democratic party, also rejected tax changes to offset some of the bill’s costs. Negotiations over the legislation dragged all through 2021 and into 2022, and appeared to have stalled completely by that summer.
Then, suddenly, Manchin and the Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer announced they had reached an agreement on a different bill called the Inflation Reduction Act, which included some measures to fight climate change and lower prescription drug costs, but lacked some of Build Back Better’s most expansive proposals.
For climate activists who blamed the West Virginia senator and coal businessman for defanging attempts to lower America’s carbon emissions, it was a surprising change in course. Here’s more from the Guardian’s Oliver Milman’s piece from last year analyzing Manchin’s role in the agreement:
Climate advocates reacted with surprise and delight to Joe Manchin’s decision to back a sweeping bill to combat the climate crisis, with analysts predicting the legislation will bring the US close to its target of slashing planet-heating emissions.
The West Virginia senator, who has made millions from his ownership of a coal-trading company, had seemingly thwarted Joe Biden’s hopes of passing meaningful climate legislation – only to reveal on Wednesday his support for a $369bn package to support renewable energy and electric vehicle rollout.
The move by the centrist Democrat shocked many of Manchin’s colleagues, who despaired after more than 18 months of seemingly fruitless negotiations with the lawmaker, a crucial vote in an evenly divided Senate.
“Holy shit,” tweeted Tina Smith, a Democrat from Minnesota. “Stunned, but in a good way.”
Should the bill pass both chambers of Congress and be signed by Biden, it will be the biggest and arguably first piece of climate legislation ever enacted by the US. The world’s largest historical carbon polluter has repeatedly failed to act on the climate crisis due to missed opportunities, staunch Republican opposition and the machinations of the fossil fuel lobby.
The climate spending, part of a broader bill called the Inflation Reduction Act, “has the potential to be a historic turning point” said Al Gore, the former vice-president.
Manchin exit makes Democrats' quest to keep Senate majority even harder
Joe Manchin’s decision not to seek re-election makes Democrats’ quest to preserve their majority in the Senate even more difficult.
Manchin was one of three Democratic senators representing red states who are facing voters next year, and the party is not viewed as having a strong replacement candidate in West Virginia, a deeply Republican state.
The focus now shifts to Montana’s Jon Tester and Ohio’s Sherrod Brown, both of whom have said they will stand again, but face difficult paths to victory. There is also the question of whether Kyrsten Sinema, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, will stand again in purple state Arizona, or if she will be replaced by a Democrat. The GOP may also launch offensives against incumbent Democratic senators in swing states Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and try to win the open Senate seat in Michigan.
Even if Democrats fail in West Virginia but win all the other races, they could still lose their Senate majority. That best-case scenario would give the party only 50 seats, one short of a majority, and control of the chamber would come down to whether Joe Biden wins re-election, or is replaced by a Republican.
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Israel’s decision to allow hours-long pauses to its bombing campaign in Gaza is “heartless” and falls far short of what is necessary to protect civilian life in the territory, said Congresswoman Cori Bush, a Missouri Democrat who is the lead sponsor of a ceasefire resolution.
The White House said on Thursday that Israel has agreed to four-hour daily humanitarian pauses in its bombardment of northern Gaza, part of a negotiated deal to allow aid and assistance to flow to the enclave’s increasingly desperate population of 2.3 million.
“How dare we treat humans in that way,” Bush said, her voice rising with anger. “How dare we be so careless and so inhumane and heartless to decide that four hours is enough time to get you some stuff so that you can live a little bit longer until the bombs hit. How dare we? How dare we treat humans as if we don’t understand what it’s like to be human.”
“That’s not the way,” Bush added. “We don’t want four hours. We don’t want 16 hours. We don’t want 22 hours. We want a ceasefire now.”
The Israeli military has said it has not agreed to a ceasefire but that it will continue to allow “tactical, local pauses” to let in humanitarian aid. It comes as Biden administration officials push Israel to agree for a longer stoppage in the fighting as part of an effort to free the hostages held by the militant group.
Asked about the prospect of a formal ceasefire on Thursday, Biden said that there was “no possibility” at the moment.
His response angered a group of veterans gathered with Bush on Capitol Hill to call for an end to the hostilities. Drawing on their own recollections of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, they said peace and security could only be won through diplomacy.
Shaking with anger, Brittany Ramos DeBarros, a combat veteran and former army captain, addressed Biden directly.
“Mr President, you are the commander in chief of one of the most powerful militaries on the face of this planet in the history of the world,” she said. “How can you be so powerful and so weak as to say that you are incapable of negotiating peace?”
Bush was also joined by congresswomen Summer Lee of Pennsylvania and Delia Ramirez of Illinois, who are among the 18 Democratic sponsors of the ceasefire legislation.
Bush vowed to keep up the pressure on the White House to advocate for a ceasefire.
“If that is his position today, there is also a this afternoon and a tonight. There is a tomorrow. There is a Saturday and a Sunday,” she said. “I expect that there will be change. There will be change because … the people that elected this president are screaming out saying we want a ceasefire now.”
In response to the announcement from West Virginia’s Joe Manchin that he will not seek Senate re-election in 2024, the National Republican Senatorial Committee said:
“We like our odds in West Virginia.”
West Virginia's Joe Manchin will not seek Senate re-election
West Virginia’s Democratic senator Joe Manchin has announced that he will not seek re-election in the Senate.
In a statement released on Thursday, Manchin, who has held his Senate seat since 2010, said:
“After months of deliberation and long conversations with my family, I believe in my heart of hearts that I have accomplished what I set out to do for West Virginia. I have made one of the toughest decisions of my life and decided that I will not be running for re-election to the United States Senate, but what I will be doing is traveling the country and speaking out to see if there is an interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle and bring Americans together.
To the West Virginians who have put their trust in me and fought side by side to make our state better – it has been an honor of my life to serve you. Thank you.
Every incentive in Washington is designed to make our politics extreme. The growing divide between Democrats and Republicans is paralyzing Congress and worsening our nation’s problems. The majority of Americans are just plain worn out…
Public service has and continues to drive me every day. That is the vow that I made to my father 40 years ago, and I intend to keep that vow until my dying day.”
Iowa’s Republican governor Kim Reynolds said that “it feels good to get in the game” after endorsing Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis for president.
The Associated Press reports:
After seven months of hosting Republican presidential candidates in Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds said it “feels good to get in the game” with her endorsement of of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
But the popular Iowa governor declined to say whether other candidates should concede and throw their support behind him as well, even as she acknowledged that a wider field could advantage former President Donald Trump.
“At some point, if we don’t narrow the field, it’s going to be hard to ... maybe, you know, that helps Trump,” Reynolds said in an interview with The Associated Press. “But I think that is for them to decide.”
In making the endorsement earlier this week, Reynolds broke with a longstanding tradition of Iowa governors staying neutral in their party’s presidential contests, the first in the GOP nomination calendar…
Still, Reynolds said DeSantis is best poised for victory in the general election, a race she doesn’t think Trump can win without attracting voters beyond his base. DeSantis “won in demographics that Republicans have never really won in Florida,” she said.
Missouri’s Democratic representative Cori Bush has responded to Israel’s agreement to implement a four-hour humanitarian pause in Gaza daily, saying:
“The idea that we get a break for four hours. A break so that we can have food… And then we go back to bombing? So absolutely not four hours… What we need is to stop the bombing… We want a ceasefire now.”
The day so far
The US government is once again days away from shutting down, and there’s no sign of an agreement in Congress to prevent it. House Speaker Mike Johnson reportedly wants a short-term measure that funds the government for varying periods of time, though many lawmakers view that as excessively complex, and the chamber’s minority leader Hakeem Jeffries says Democrats will not support it. Outside of Washington DC, reproductive rights advocates are looking to put abortion on the ballot in several states nationwide, after voters in red-leaning Ohio on Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment protecting the procedure.
Here’s what else has happened today:
Kevin McCarthy said there should be consequences for Matt Gaetz, the Republican lawmaker who led the charge to remove him as speaker of the House.
Joe Biden squabbled with a Fox News reporter over his age, polling and abortion access.
Vivek Ramaswamy defended his attacks on fellow Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley in last night’s debate.
Speaking of Kevin McCarthy, CNN sat down with the former House speaker, who called for Matt Gaetz, the ringleader of the successful effort to remove him from his job, to face consequences:
Most House Republicans supported McCarthy staying on as speaker, but he was removed thanks to the votes of Gaetz and seven other Republicans, as well as the Democrats.
Some House lawmakers have proposed changing the rules of the chamber to prevent such a vote from occurring again, or even expelling Gaetz from the House Republican Conference. No decision on that has yet been made.
A solution to the government shutdown threat that Republican House speaker Mike Johnson is reportedly thinking about is a so-called “laddered CR”.
That’s code for a continuing resolution that would fund the government over the short term, but with the funding expiring at different times. House lawmakers on both sides of the aisle worry that would be far too complex a proposition, and at his press conference today, Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic minority leader, said his party would not support it:
The GOP controls the House but by a slim five-vote majority. The short-term funding bill that Kevin McCarthy succeeded in getting approved in September (which resulted in him losing his job as speaker) passed with a mixture of both Democratic and Republican votes.
In comments to reporters earlier today, Joe Biden put the blame on the Republican-dominated House for again bringing the government to the brink of shutdown:
He also mentioned his proposed $106bn security package, which would pay for assistance to Ukraine and Israel, as well as improved border security. House Republicans have shown a willingness to fund Israel, but are skeptical about Ukraine aid, and it’s unclear what will become of Biden’s request.
The president is spending today in Illinois, where he’s meeting with United Auto Workers members and their president, Shawn Fain, and holding a campaign reception.
Updated
US government days away from shutting down – again
Once again, the US government is a few days away from shutting down after its authorization to spend money expires, and there’s no sign of an agreement in Congress to continue its operations.
The government is funded only through 17 November, and continuing its operations will require an agreement between both the Democratic-led Senate and the Republican-controlled House that is signed by Joe Biden. If this all sounds familiar, that’s because it is – a shutdown was narrowly avoided at the end of September when the House’s then-speaker Kevin McCarthy proposed a short-term funding measure that lacked the broad spending cuts conservative Republicans had demanded. Days later, he was voted out of the speaker’s post by a small group of far-right lawmakers and Democrats, leading to Mike Johnson’s rise.
But Johnson faces much of the same obstacles in getting a funding measure passed that McCarthy did, even as many Republicans say they don’t think there is anything to gain from government funding lapsing and a wide range of services being temporarily taken offline.
Fox News has a good primer on what may happen next. Take a look:
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Israel was a major topic of discussion in last night’s debate of Republican presidential candidates (excluding the frontrunner Donald Trump, who did not attend). The five candidates on stage all vowed to continue supporting the country, and backed varying degrees of hardline measures against Hamas. Here’s more on that from the Guardian’s Richard Luscombe:
The Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and other foreign policy issues dominated Wednesday’s fiery third debate of Republican presidential hopefuls in Miami. Candidates pledged wholehearted support for Israel’s military response following last month’s Hamas attacks, and clashed over Ukraine, China and immigration.
The debate, minus Donald Trump, the runaway favorite for the party’s 2024 nomination who was hosting his own private rally elsewhere in the area, was a more bitter affair than its predecessors in Wisconsin and California. Lively verbal sparring sometimes regressed into insults, with Nikki Haley at one point calling one of her rivals “scum”.
The candidates also grappled over immigration, the devastatingly bad night for Republicans in Tuesday’s elections, and the party’s staunchly anti-abortion stance on abortion that analysts say was the reason.
Discussion over Israel’s actions in Gaza were, however, most prominent.
Our live coverage of the invasion of Gaza continues, with today’s main story being the White House’s announcement that Israel will observe brief pauses in the fighting.
Read more about it here:
During Florida’s Democratic state representative Angie Nixon’s tearful plea for a ceasefire in Gaza, she also asked how many dead Palestinians will be enough.
In response, an individual that has been reported to be Republican state representative Michelle Salzman, shouted, “All of them.”
“One of my colleagues just said ‘all of them.’ Wow,” said Nixon in disbelief.
In response to a question from Fox News’s Peter Doocy on why people should be more concerned about abortion access than his age, Joe Biden said, “I don’t think it’s a comparable comparsion.”
Doocy went on to ask Biden, “Why do you think it is that you’re trailing [Donald] Trump in all these swing states?”
In response, Biden said, “Because you don’t read the polls… There are ten polls – eight of them I’m beating him in those states. Eight of them. You guys only do two. CNN and New York Times. Check it out. We’ll get you copies of all the [other] polls.”
Joe Biden hails SAG-AFTRA tentative deal: "Collective bargaining works"
Joe Biden has hailed the tentative deal reached between SAG-AFTRA and television studios on Wednesday.
In a statement released by the White House on Thursday, Biden said:
Collective bargaining works. I applaud SAG-AFTRA and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers for working together in good faith towards an agreement that allows our entertainment industry to continue telling the stories of America.
When both sides come to the table to negotiate in earnest they can make businesses stronger and allow workers to secure pay and benefits that help them raise families and retire with dignity.
Over the last three years, workers have won historic victories that ensure record pay, record benefits, and an economy that grows from the middle out and bottom up. SAG-AFTRA members will have the final say on this contract, but the sacrifices they’ve made will ensure a better future for them, their families, and all workers who deserve a fair share of the value they helped create.
Vivek Ramaswamy defends his heated exchange with Nikki Haley by mentioning Hunter Biden
Vivek Ramaswamy made an odd defense of his heated exchange last night with Nikki Haley by name-dropping Hunter Biden.
Speaking on Fox News, Ramaswamy defended his actions during last night’s debate in which he called Haley “Dick Cheney in 3 inch heels” and mentioned her daughter on TikTok, while Haley called him “scum.”
“She called me four-letter words in each of the last two debates… The reality is this – the Republican party has appropriately I think had scrutiny of Hunter Biden for years. I mean, you know, not only the media but even Republican politicians, correctly,” said Ramaswamy.
“In the last debate…she said, ‘I feel dumber every time I hear you speak’… For using TikTok, the criticism wasn’t of Nikki Haley’s daughter. It was of Nikki Haley for having been completely oblivious to where the next generation of Americans is actually getting their information,” he added.
Updated
Republican presidential candidate and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie got into a heated exchange with MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski on abortion rights.
In the Thursday interview, Brzezinski said, “We can debate abortion but there isn’t abortion in the ninth month.”
Christie replied, “Mika, you’re the one who’s not being honest. I did not say there was abortion in the ninth month. What I said was that the law in New Jersey and New York and Illinois and California permits it and you can’t deny that that’s the truth because it is.”
The conversation between Christie and Brzezinski continued to get heated and culminated when Christie said, “Don’t mess with me on the law, Mika.”
In response, Brzezinski said, “Don’t mess with me on how women feel about using the ninth month argument on the issue of abortion.”
• This post was amended on 10 November 2023. An earlier version incorrectly referred to Chris Christie as a former New Jersey mayor. He is a former governor of the state.
Updated
Here are some key takeaways from last night’s Republican presidential debate:
1. The Israel-Hamas war was top of mind – and the rhetoric turned ugly:
The candidates largely tried to one-up each other on their unequivocal support for Israel and its military response to the Hamas attacks on 7 October, with the exception of Vivek Ramaswamy, who said the US should not be as actively involved in regional wars.
2. Haley and DeSantis continued to battle for second place:
While neither Haley nor DeSantis are polling anywhere close to Trump, they stood out in the pack throughout the debate.
Haley focused on her experience in the UN and on foreign policy issues, and DeSantis on his tenure as Florida governor. Both seemed to try to remain more composed than usual, with Haley only reacting to barbs from Vivek Ramaswamy.
For the full takeaways, click here:
Updated
In an interview on Thursday with CNN, Illinois’s Democratic governor JB Pritzker criticized GOP presidential candidates after their debate, saying:
“What we saw last night were, of course, the same old right-wing, Maga talking points. These are folks that want to take away people’s rights. They want to lower wages, not raise them. They aren’t for working people and they demonstrated that throughout the entire debate, one after another. They’re going to take away a woman’s right to choose and each one of them, in turn, essentially, doubled down on it.
I think what we saw last night was an ignorance of what happened on Tuesday night which was an affirmation of Joe Biden’s agenda for America.”
Illinois’s Democratic governor JB Pritzker has vowed to continue protecting abortion rights in his state following last night’s GOP presidential debate.
“I’ve said it loud and clear: Illinois will be a sanctuary for reproductive rights as long as I’m governor.
While the GOP presidential hopefuls debate how to take away your rights nationwide, I stand firm in my commitment to protect your freedoms.”
On Tuesday, voters in Ohio successfully voted to add abortion rights to the state constitution.
According to a new Axios report, Pritzker’s abortion rights group, Think Big America, has donated $1 million to an effort to put a measure similar to Ohio’s on Nevada’s ballot in 2024 and is also in talks with abortion rights groups across Arizona and Florida.
Planned Parenthood on GOP presidential candidates: 'They continue to push their lies'
Planned Parenthood, the country’s largest provider of reproductive rights organization, has slammed Republican presidential candidates over their anti-abortion views following last night’s debate.
“Did the #GOPDebate presidential candidates miss the election results last night? They continue to push their lies about abortion, but we know the truth: Abortion is safe, normal, and WINS ELECTIONS,” the group tweeted.
Planned Parenthood also criticized Nikki Haley’s calls for a consensus surrounding abortion access, saying:
“Nikki Haley, we already have a ‘consensus:’ Most Americans agree that abortion should be safe, legal, and not in the hands of politicians.”
Updated
Following the series of Democratic wins this week surrounding abortion rights, former president Barack Obama urged voters to “keep organizing, keep voting and keep making our voices heard” as the country heads into 2024.
“Once again, voters made it clear that they believe women should have the right to make decisions about their own bodies,” Obama said.
Here is more from the memo sent to Congress’s Republican lawmakers from Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B Anthony Pro-Life America:
“The GOP already tried the ‘ostrich strategy’ in 2022 of ignoring the issue and hoping it would go away. It didn’t work, and tonight’s results show that the issue is still salient with voters. It is long past due for the GOP to define where it stands on the issue nationally …
The GOP should contrast this stance of clarity and compassion with the Democrats, who do not support a single limit on abortion, celebrate abortion, and have long moved past the “pro-choice” position.
Referencing to Democrats gaining control of Virginia’s state legislature on Tuesday, Dannenfelser said:
“What yesterday’s election in Virginia also shows is that having a clear position and contrasting it isn’t enough – campaigns and the party must put real advertising dollars behind it, going toe-to-toe with the Democrats.”
Updated
Democrats rush to get abortion on ballots after victory in Ohio – report
Good morning,
Following a series of abortion wins for Democrats across the country on Tuesday, Democrats are reportedly rushing to get abortion on the ballot in swing states while Republican leaders struggle to figure out vote-winning stance.
With Ohio voting on Tuesday to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, there is “now added urgency” to put abortion rights on ballots in Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota, a new Axios report reveals.
“Winning in red states is inspiring. Ohio really has taken this ballot measure strategy to protect abortion rights to the next level,” Kelly Hall, executive director of progressive non-profit The Fairness Project, told Axios.
According to the report, abortion rights groups are also trying to enshrine abortion rights in Colorado’s state constitution. Moreover, Think Big America, an abortion rights group launched by Illinois’s Democratic governor, JB Pritzker, has donated $1m to an effort to put a measure similar to Ohio’s on Nevada’s ballot in 2024. The group is also in discussions with abortion rights groups in Arizona and Florida, a senior staffer told the outlet.
Meanwhile, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B Anthony Pro-Life America, told Congress in an internal memo on Wednesday: “Abortion will be an issue in every race in 2024, so the GOP must lean in and define this issue.”
Here are other developments in US politics:
Joe Biden will meet United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain in Illinois today to highlight the details from the tentative deal with Detroit automakers
US Senate Democrats are set to vote on Supreme Court ethics probe subpeonas involving GOP billionaire donor Harlan Crow and legal activist Leonard Leo
Updated