Closing summary
The Republican speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, says the party will soon decide on whether to continue its impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, but all indications point to the GOP pressing on. Republicans have been showing off evidence they say proves the president received money from a Chinese company, but the White House says Biden merely received a loan repayment from his brother during the period when he was out of office. Elsewhere in the House, George Santos survived a removal attempt, while Marjorie Taylor Greene is furious at some of her Republican colleagues for refusing to support her resolution to censure progressive Democrat Rashida Tlaib, which died on the House floor last night.
Here’s what else happened:
The White House said Biden would veto the House GOP’s proposal to send Israel security assistances while slashing funding to the IRS, and Senate leader Chuck Schumer said he would not bring the bill up for a vote anyway.
Jamie Raskin, a Democrat who voted against expelling Santos, said he did so over concerns for due process.
Biden appeared to endorse “a pause” in Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
The Minnesota supreme court began hearing a case in which voters want to keep Donald Trump off the ballot for his involvement in an insurrection.
Indiana’s supreme court found that the state’s Republican attorney general, Todd Rokita, “engaged in attorney misconduct” for comments he made about an obstetrician-gynecologist who performed an abortion for a 10-year-old rape survivor.
Updated
Indiana’s supreme court has found that the state’s Republican attorney general, Todd Rokita, “engaged in attorney misconduct” for comments he made to Fox News about a doctor in the state who performed an abortion on a 10-year-old girl who had traveled from Ohio, the Indianapolis Star reports.
The incident was one of the first high-profile examples of the fallout from the supreme court decision in June 2022 to overturn Roe v Wade and allow states to ban abortion entirely. In Ohio, a state law immediately went into effect that cut off access to the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy, but it was later halted by a court ruling.
The Indiana supreme court took issue with Rokita’s description of Caitlin Bernard, an obstetrician-gynecologist, as an “abortion activist acting as a doctor – with a history of failing to report” in a Fox News interview in July 2022. In September, the supreme court’s disciplinary commission filed charges against Rokita, saying he violated professional conduct rules, and three of the state’s five supreme court justices agreed in today’s ruling. The court has ordered that Rokita receive a public reprimand and pay a $250 fine, though the two justices who dissented said the punishment was too lenient.
Ohio voters will next week decide on a ballot measure to enshrine abortion access in the state’s constitution. Here’s the latest on that, from the Guardian’s Carter Sherman:
Updated
The Senate’s Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, now says the House GOP’s Israel aid proposal will not be put up for a vote in his chamber:
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
That means that even if the House approves the bill, the Senate will not send it to Joe Biden’s desk – whose administration said he will veto it anyway.
Updated
White House threatens to veto Republican bill to help Israel while excluding Ukraine, border security
Joe Biden would veto a proposal by House Republicans to send military aid to Israel while slashing funding for the IRS tax authority, White House national security council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at today’s briefing.
“The president would veto an only Israel bill. I think we’ve made that clear,” Kirby said.
Biden last month requested a $106b security measure to help Israel respond to Hamas’s terrorist attack, shore up Ukraine’s defenses against Russia’s invasion and improve border security. Led by speaker Mike Johnson, House Republicans responded by offering to approve Israeli security assistance, while considering funding for Ukraine and the southern border at a later date. Johnson has billed cutting the IRS as a way to pay for the cost of the foreign assistance, but an analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office yesterday found it would actually cost the government money because it would lower tax revenues.
The White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said that a call by Joe Biden on Wednesday evening for a pause in fire by both Israel and Hamas in Gaza “does not mean we are calling for a general ceasefire”.
At the daily press briefing from the west wing, Kirby asked rhetorically whether the White House thought a strategic and temporary “pause by both sides” was a good idea to help facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza and the evacuation of foreign citizens and hostages taken by Hamas from southern Israel on 7 October. Kirby answered himself: “You betcha we do.”
He went on to explain why the US is willing to accept Qatar’s assistance with the passage of Americans and hostages out of Gaza, despite the small Arab country’s harboring of Hamas members, including the leader Ismail Haniyeh. Reporters questioned Kirby about this at the daily briefing at the White House moments ago.
“Qatar has lines of communication with Hamas that almost no-one else has,” Kirby said.
A reporter asked why the US was not asking Qatar to hand over the Hamas chief. Kirby said the US was busy working with Qatar on evacuations “and we are also helping Israel go after Hamas”.
Kirby also said the US supports pauses in hostilities, not just a single pause. This is a point he’s made before.
JUST IN: White House's John Kirby says, "We're really not just talking about like one pause, what we're trying to do is explore the idea of as many pauses as might be necessary."pic.twitter.com/d9hO8cuFH5
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) November 2, 2023
Kirby said the White House “has not seen evidence that Hezbollah is ready to go full force”. Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia militant group, said it had attacked 19 positions in Israel on Thursday evening in the latest escalation on Israel’s northern border. The Guardian’s report is here.
The Guardian’s global live blog with all the details on the crisis in Gaza and the Israel-Hamas war is here.
Updated
Antony Blinken has urged Russia to hold to its commitment not to resume nuclear weapons testing, Reuters reports.
The secretary of state said the US is deeply concerned by Moscow’s planned action to withdraw its ratification of the comprehensive test ban treaty (CTBT).
“Unfortunately, it represents a significant step in the wrong direction,” Blinken said in a statement released by the state department.
The latest development happened this last month, when, the Guardian’s Julian Borger reported, a senior Russian diplomat said that Moscow will revoke its ratification of the CTBT, in a move Washington denounced as jeopardising the “global norm” against nuclear test blasts.
Mikhail Ulyanov, the Russian representative to the international nuclear agencies in Vienna, was speaking after Vladimir Putin suggested Moscow might resuming testing for the first time in 33 years, signalling another downward turn in relations between the world’s two biggest nuclear powers.
Ulyanov said on X, formerly known as Twitter: “Russia plans to revoke ratification (which took place in the year 2000) of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.
“The aim is to be on equal footing with the #US who signed the Treaty, but didn’t ratify it. Revocation doesn’t mean the intention to resume nuclear tests.”
The US signed the CTBT in 1996 but the Senate did not ratify the treaty. Successive US administrations however have observed a moratorium on testing nuclear weapons.
Any Russian nuclear test would be the first since 1990, the last conducted by the Soviet Union. Renewed testing by a nuclear superpower would undo one of the principal advances in non-proliferation since the cold war.
Since the all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Putin and other Russian officials have frequently drawn attention to the country’s nuclear arsenal, the biggest in the world, in an attempt to deter other countries from helping Ukraine resist the invasion.
Updated
US says 74 dual citizens have been allowed to leave Gaza
The US has been able to get 74 Americans with dual citizenship out of Gaza, Joe Biden said at the White House a little earlier, one day after evacuees began crossing into Egypt, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, talked to reporters before leaving Washington for a flight to Israel and said the US is determined to prevent escalation of the war there on all fronts, including southern Lebanon, the West Bank or elsewhere in the region.
He will be talking to the Israeli government “and partners” in the region, he said.
You can follow more details on all the developments in the crisis in Gaza and the Israel-Hamas war in our global live blog, here.
This post was updated at 2.56pm ET to reflect a clarifying detail in a later wire piece by Reuters to specify that the 74 dual citizens Biden referred to were Americans with dual citizenship.
Updated
The day so far
The Republican speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, says the party will soon decide on whether to continue their impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, but all indications point to them pressing on. The GOP has been showing off evidence it says proves the president received money from a Chinese company, but the White House says the president merely received a loan repayment from his brother during the period when he was out of office. Elsewhere in the House, George Santos survived a removal attempt, while Marjorie Taylor Greene is furious at some of her Republican colleagues for refusing to support her resolution to censure progressive Democrat Rashida Tlaib, which died on the House floor last night.
Here’s what else is going on:
Jamie Raskin, a Democrat who voted against expelling Santos, said he did so over concerns for due process.
Biden appeared to endorse “a pause” in Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
The Minnesota supreme court began hearing a case in which voters want to keep Donald Trump off the ballot for his involvement in an insurrection.
Updated
All signs point to the House GOP continuing its impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden.
Yesterday, the oversight committee, one of three bodies tasked with handling the effort, published an infographic purporting to show how the president received money from a Chinese company that was funneled through his family members:
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) November 1, 2023
They even have an image of the check:
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) November 1, 2023
The White House replied by saying that the money was a loan repayment to Biden from his brother, James, and it all took place in the period after Biden concluded his term as vice-president, and before he returned to the White House in 2021.
As Ian Sams, the Biden administration spokesman handling the GOP’s inquiries, put it:
https://t.co/Lo3f4WYxrj pic.twitter.com/9sbqHeMf9E
— Ian Sams (@IanSams46) November 1, 2023
This post has been corrected to say Biden received the loan repayment from his brother James.
Updated
Republican House speaker Johnson says decision will come ‘very soon’ on Biden impeachment
The Republican speaker of the House Mike Johnson said a decision will be made “very soon” on whether to push forward with the effort to impeach Joe Biden.
His predecessor Kevin McCarthy announced the inquiry into the president’s conduct in September, weeks before rightwing Republicans and Democrats removed him from the speaker’s post. The investigation centers on allegations of corruption surrounding the president and his family, particularly his son Hunter Biden.
Republicans held a single committee hearing into the matter, which was widely seen as a flop after their witnesses said the investigation had merit but there was still no evidence the president broke the law. Another blow to the effort came when Ken Buck, a conservative Republican who yesterday announced he would not seek re-election in 2024, wrote a column in the Washington Post to argue that impeaching Biden was a bad idea.
The investigation was put on pause for weeks while the House grappled with McCarthy’s ouster, and whether and how to continue it is one of the major issues Johnson has to decide. Here’s what the speaker had to say when asked about it at a press conference today:
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), when asked if there's enough evidence for the House to draft articles of impeachment against President Biden:
— The Recount (@therecount) November 2, 2023
“As we stand here today, I'm not predetermined that, but I do believe that very soon we are coming to a point of decision on it.” pic.twitter.com/LZSvatxBA1
Updated
Israel’s conflict with Hamas continues as its troops push deeper into the Gaza Strip.
We have a separate live blog covering it, and you can read it here:
Joe Biden was in Minnesota yesterday, where he appeared to call for a “pause” in Israel’s attack against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Here’s more on that from the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly:
Joe Biden called for a “pause” in the Israel-Hamas war on Wednesday, in response to a call from the crowd during remarks in Minneapolis.
A rabbi, who later identified herself as Jessica Rosenberg, called out: “Mr President, if you care about Jewish people, as a rabbi, I need you to call for a ceasefire.”
Biden said: “I think we need a pause. A pause means giv[ing] time to get the prisoners out.”
Israel says more than 1,400 people were killed, and more than 5,400 injured, after Hamas launched surprise attacks on 7 October. More than 240 hostages were taken.
Israeli strikes in response, predominantly in Gaza but also in the West Bank, have killed more than 9,000, according to the Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas. The same source says nearly 24,000 Palestinians have been injured.
Israel says 16 of its soldiers have been killed.
Biden has been under pressure to call for a ceasefire or a meaningful humanitarian pause in Israel’s campaign.
Updated
Speaking of insurrections, the Minnesota supreme court is today hearing a case in which voters want Donald Trump removed from the state’s ballots for participating in an insurrection – which would be the January 6 attack on the Capitol, and the broader effort to overturn the 2020 election. A similar case was heard in Colorado earlier this week, and legal experts believe the US supreme court may eventually have to decide the issue. Here’s the Guardian’s Rachel Leingang with the latest on the Minnesota effort:
Attorneys at the Minnesota supreme court will argue on Thursday that former President Donald Trump should not be allowed to appear on the state’s ballots for president because of his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and role in the insurrection.
A group of voters wants the courts to weigh a clause in the 14th amendment, which disqualifies an “officer of the United States” who has taken an oath to defend the constitution from holding office if they have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the country. In dozens of pages in their initial court filing, they cite examples of Trump’s election interference, from the fake electors scheme to his comments to rioters on 6 January 2021.
“Despite having sworn an oath to support the Constitution of the United States, Trump ‘engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or [gave] aid or comfort to the enemies thereof,’” the voters argue.
The lawsuit is one of several the former president faces in his bid to return to the White House, not to mention the various criminal and civil actions he is currently defending against. A similar petition is the subject of a trial in Colorado this week. Legal experts say the Reconstruction-era clause is ripe for the courts, though it has never been used to forestall a presidential candidate in this way.
Free Speech for People, a left-leaning group, represents the voters in the case, who include the former Minnesota secretary of state Joan Growe and the former Minnesota supreme court justice Paul H Anderson.
Trump’s attorneys and the Republican party have fought back against the suit, claiming the matter is a political question instead of a legal one. Trump’s campaign also claims there’s “no evidence that President Trump intended or supported any violent or unlawful activity seeking to overthrow the government of the United States, either on January 6 or at any other time.
“This request is manifestly inappropriate,” Trump’s team wrote in a brief. “Both the federal Constitution and Minnesota law place the resolution of this political issue where it belongs: the democratic process, in the hands of either Congress or the people of the United States.”
Majorie Taylor Greene is having quite the morning.
Last night, 23 Republicans voted with the Democrats to block a motion the rightwing Georgia lawmaker proposed to censure Rashida Tlaib, a progressive Democrat who is the only Palestinian American in the House. In return, Democrat Becca Balint pulled a separate resolution to censure Greene.
At this point, one could imagine a scenario where Greene calls a truce, realizing the chamber isn’t in the mood to censure lawmakers after weeks of chaos following Kevin McCarthy’s removal as speaker. But Greene isn’t interested.
She’s been raging on X (formally known as Twitter) all morning, with much of her ire directed at the Republicans who voted against her effort:
Our country is in the worst crisis in it’s history in every category and the Democrats are full blown communists and Republicans can’t even censure Rashida Tlaib.
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) November 2, 2023
Conservatives on this list hide behind excuses with their white wigs on and quote the constitution.
🧵1/11 pic.twitter.com/Z2hCB6nUw5
She is particularly upset at Chip Roy, a fellow conservative who voted against her motion because, he said, it accused Tlaib of participating in an “insurrection”, when she had done no such thing:
You voted to kick me out of the freedom caucus, but keep CNN wannabe Ken Buck and vaping groping Lauren Boebert and you voted with the Democrats to protect Terrorist Tlaib.
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) November 2, 2023
You hate Trump, certified Biden’s election, and could care less about J6 defendants being persecuted. https://t.co/OIgUvndXek
The insults grew more creative as the morning wore on:
Oh shut up Colonel Sanders, you’re not even from Texas, more like the DMV.
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) November 2, 2023
Chip Roy’s career exist of working for politicians, working for campaigns for politicians, and being a politician himself.
Unity Party all the way!
Which is why you will never hold anyone accountable. https://t.co/RejH3yDqdM
If you are wondering what Roy means by “Jewish space lasers”, you will find the answer in this article:
Here are some scenes from the House floor last night, as the chamber considered whether to expel George Santos.
The effort to boot him was introduced by five Republican lawmakers from New York, four of which occupy seats vulnerable to being taken by Democrats next year. Mike Lawler is among that group, and used his time on the floor to remind lawmakers that Santos lied about his mother dying in the 9-11 terrorist attacks, when she in fact died years later:
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), a key leader of the effort to expel Rep. George Santos (R-NY), slams Santos' lies about 9/11:
— The Recount (@therecount) November 1, 2023
“All of us being from New York remember that day precisely … This is not something you joke about, you lie about! It is unfit.” pic.twitter.com/BFJRdtlazJ
When it was Santos’s turn to speak, he warned lawmakers that expelling him would set a “dangerous precedent”:
“Now is not the time to set dangerous precedent ... The last time a member of Congress was expelled was in 2002, following a criminal conviction.”
— The Recount (@therecount) November 1, 2023
— Rep. George Santos (R-NY) pans the resolution to expel him from Congress, saying the move would circumvent his due process rights pic.twitter.com/X6VApgAIZq
Strangely, Santos opted to yield some of his time to Dan Goldman, a New York Democrat who spoke in favor of expelling him:
Rep. George Santos (R-NY) yields time to Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY):
— The Recount (@therecount) November 1, 2023
“Thank you very much, Mr. Santos. *2 seconds later* I rise today in support of this resolution to expel George Santos from Congress.” pic.twitter.com/xvqKsMwQUt
Who else was talking about due process last night? George Santos himself!
Here’s what he tweeted last night after surviving yet another brush with congressional death, figuratively speaking:
Tonight was a victory for due process not me.
— George Santos (@MrSantosNY) November 2, 2023
This was never about me, and I’ll never let it become about me.
We all have rights under this great Constitutional Republic and I’ll fight for our right to uphold them till my last dying breath.
Among the lawmakers who voted against removing George Santos from Congress was Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat who served on the January 6 committee.
After the vote, Raskin released a statement that articulated what are essentially due process concerns over removing Santos from his seat. While the New York Republican has admitted to telling an impressive number of lies to win his seat in Congress, Raskin argues that because Santos has not yet been convicted of any crime, expelling him would be premature and, could come back to haunt Democrats in the future.
Here’s Raskin’s statement, in full:
I’m a Constitution guy. The House has expelled five people in our history, three for joining the Confederacy as traitors to the Union and two after they were convicted of serious criminal offenses. Santos has not been criminally convicted yet of any of the offenses he has been indicted for that were cited in the Resolution nor has he been found guilty of ethics offenses in the House internal process.
This would be a terrible precedent to set, expelling people who have not been convicted of a crime and without internal due process. If and when Santos is convicted of these serious criminal offenses or ethics charges, I will certainly vote to expel him. Until then, it’s a very risky road to go down and we have to stick by due process and the rule of law, as obvious as the eventual result seems. In these times of war, chaos, insurrection, division and lawlessness, the rule of law is a lifeline for us.
I can think of four or five Democratic Members the Republicans would like to expel without any criminal conviction or adverse ethics findings tomorrow simply because they hate their politics. Indeed, the same New York Republicans who want to expel Santos now because he is a complete political albatross for them acted to vigorously defend him in the spring because they wanted his vote for their party on the floor. If Members are not going to be expelled for purely political reasons, we need to stick to due process and the rule of law.
Back in the spring, the Republicans promised action within 60 days on the sprawling Santos ethics investigation, but nothing has happened since then. Now, they are promising action by November 17. Good, it’s about time.
From Reuters, here’s the write-up of last night’s vote over whether to expel George Santos, where a diverse group of Democratic and Republicans lawmakers rejected booting the New York congressman and big-time liar from his job:
A vote to expel Republican lawmaker George Santos from the US House of Representatives failed on Wednesday when fewer than two-thirds of the chamber supported the resolution, preserving Republicans’ narrow 221-212 majority.
Santos on Friday pleaded not guilty to a 23-count federal indictment accusing him of crimes including laundering funds to pay for his personal expenses, illegally receiving unemployment benefits and charging donors’ credit cards without their consent.
Santos, who represents a small slice of New York City and parts of its eastern suburbs, would have been just the sixth to be expelled from the House in US history. Three of the five congressmen have been voted out for fighting against the US in the civil war.
Republican lawmakers from Santos’ state of New York said last month they would introduce a resolution to expel Santos, but the move was delayed by weeks when the House was leaderless following the ouster of Kevin McCarthy as speaker.
Republicans on 25 October elected Mike Johnson, who has said he does not support expelling Santos for being charged with a crime, to succeed McCarthy.
Focus now on ethics committee after Santos survives expulsion vote
That George Santos survived a vote to expel him from the House is not hugely surprising. The motion needed a massive two-thirds majority of lawmakers to pass, and Republicans were always unlikely to do anything to further reduce their mere four-seat majority in Congress’s lower chamber.
It is still possible that Santos leaves the House early, perhaps if he admits to any of the 23 federal crimes he is charged with as part of a plea deal. If that doesn’t occur, it’s hard to imagine Santos winning re-election in his suburban New York City district next year.
But before any of that happens, we should expect to hear from the ethics committee, which earlier this year opened an investigation into the New York congressman. On the eve of yesterday’s expulsion vote against Santos, the panel made an unusual public statement, where they promised a public update on their inquiry by 17 November. That’ll be something to look out for.
Santos survives expulsion vote, Greene rages after effort to censure progressive Democrat Tlaib rejected
Good morning, US politics blog readers. As evening arrived yesterday, lawmakers in the House of Representatives were presented with the opportunity to expel admitted fabulist George Santos, and censure both progressive Democrat Rashida Tlaib and rightwing Republican Marjorie Taylore Greene. But none of those things ended up happening. Despite the fact that Santos is facing 23 federal fraud charges, and lied about most his qualifications for the job, an ideologically mixed group of Democrats and Republicans voted against removing him from his seat. Many argued doing so would set a bad precedent since he has not been convicted of a crime – the usual bar for booting a lawmaker.
Meanwhile, several of Greene’s fellow Republicans joined with Democrats to oppose her resolution against Tlaib, which led Becca Balint, the Democratic sponsor of the measure to censure Greene, to withdraw her resolution. But that wasn’t enough for the Georgia lawmaker, who is spending her morning tweeting in fury at GOP colleagues she feels betrayed her. They may no longer be fighting over who their speaker should be, but the episode makes plain the House Republican conference remains a fractious place.
Here’s what else is going on today:
Minnesota’s supreme court will begin considering whether to remove Donald Trump from its presidential ballot for taking part in an insurrection.
Senators will vote on three high-ranking military officers whose promotions have been blocked for months by Republican Tommy Tuberville in protest of the Pentagon’s abortion policy.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and reporters meet at 1.30pm eastern time. National security council spokesman John Kirby will attend as well, and likely speak about the conflict in the Gaza Strip.
