Afternoon summary
The politics liveblog is closing for the day. For updates on the situation in the Middle East, please follow our live coverage here.
The White House said it is “currently reviewing” a ceasefire deal Hamas said it has accepted. This proposal was announced as Israel began to strike targets in Rafah, the southern Gaza city where more than a million Palestinians have sought refuge.
The White House said Biden was clear and consistent in a phone call with Netanyahu that the US did not approve of Israeli military operations that would put civilians in Rafah at risk, but he refused to clarify if the US would support a smaller-scale operation.
A US soldier was detained in Russia over the weekend, according to a report confirmed by several US media outlets.
Speaker Johnson and Congresswoman Greene are meeting on Capitol Hill as she vows to press ahead with an effort to remove him from office. She was joined by congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky who supports Greene’s call for Johnson’s ouster.
Columbia University canceled its main commencement ceremony amid turmoil over pro-Palestinian campus protests.
NBC is reporting that a US soldier was detained in Russia over the weekend, citing three US officials.
According to the report, which Kirby would not confirm during the White House press briefing moments ago, the solider had been stationed in Korea and traveled to Russia on his own and not apart of official military business.
Details are scant, but NBC says he is accused of stealing from a woman. He is one of several Americans held in Russia, among them Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, and former Marine Paul Whelan.
Jean-Pierre was also asked about the South Dakota governor’s suggestion that president’s dog, a known biter named Commander, “be put down”.
The White House press secretary reiterated her dismay at the story of the governor shooting and killing her 14-month old dog, Cricket, and then boasting about it in her book and subsequent interviews.
“This is a country that loves dogs, and you have a leader talking about putting dogs down, killing them. That’s a disturbing statement,” Jean-Pierre said.
She added that Noem “should probably stop digging herself in a hole.”
After roughly two-dozen biting incidents, Commander was sent to live with Biden family members in Delaware, Jean-Pierre said.
Jean-Pierre was asked how the president would address the Holocaust while criticize his administration for being complicit in a military operation that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. She emphasized that the president has his “fingers on the pulse as far as what people are feeling.”
“Tune in,” she said.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, is now at the podium. She previews Biden’s Holocaust Remembrance day remarks, which he will deliver tomorrow: “During these sacred days of remembrance we honor the memory of the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust and we recommit to heeding the lessons of this dark chapter. Never again.” She said he would address the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October and the administration’s efforts to combat antisemitism.
She also touted a nationwide drop in violent crime to a “nearly 50-year low.” She attributed the decline to actions the president has taken to crackdown on illegal guns and his efforts to bolster law enforcement.
Asked if the White House is concerned about the situation on college campuses, Jean-Pierre quoted from the president’s remarks last week in which he said he supports free speech but draws a line when it crosses into vandalism or violence.
Responding to Columbia’s decision to cancel its main commencement ceremony, Jean-Pierre said: “It is unfortunate that a small group of people went too far and cost their classmates this important day. … We feel for each of the graduates.”
Kirby said the US does not support Israel’s decision to shutter local operations of Al Jazeera, the influential Qatari-based news network.
“We don’t support that at all,” Kirby said. This was not something the president raised with Netanyahu this morning, he said.
Kirby refuses to confirm that US halted large weapons shipment to Israel
Kirby wouldn’t confirm reporting that the Biden administration halted a large shipment of offensive weapons to Israel, ahead of what appears to be a looming invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
NBC reported that the shipment included “2,000-pound bombs and other ammunition that would likely be used in Rafah”, citing to senior administration officials said. Axios was first to report the news.
“Our security commitments to Israel are iron-clad,” Kirby said, noting that Biden pushed for the foreign assistance package that passed Congress and included additionally military funding for Israel.
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In a back-and-forth with a CNN reporter, Kirby was evasive when pressed on whether the White House would support a “limited” invasion of Rafah. Kirby repeatedly stated that Biden “doesn’t want to see operations in Rafah that put at greater risk the more than a million people that are seeking refuge there”.
Asked if that meant the president could support a smaller-scale operation in the city, he replied: “I think I’ve answered the question.”
He later added: “We don’t want to see operations in and around Rafah that make it harder for the people that are seeking refuge there and shelter to be safe and secure. We have made that case privately to the Israelis. The president did it again today. We’ve certainly made it publicly.”
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In an interview with NBC that aired over the weekend, the director of the World Food Program, Cindy McCain, said northern Gaza was experiencing a “full-blown famine” that is rapidly spreading throughout the territory.
“Whenever you have conflicts like this, and emotions rage high, and things happen in a war, famine happens. And so, what I can explain to you is [that] there is full-blown famine in the north, and it’s moving its way south,” McCain said.
On Monday, Kirby pushed back slightly, saying the UN had not declared a famine in Gaza “writ large”. But he added that he did “not want to understate the degree of need here and the dire situation that so many people in Gaza are in, particularly with respect to food and water.”
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Biden told Netanyahu US doesn't want 'major ground operations'
Kirby said the president was “very direct” in his conversation with Netanyahu this morning, warning the prime minister again that “we don’t want to see major ground operations in Rafah that put these people at risk.”
“We’ve been very direct and very consistent in our views of concerns about operations in Rafah,” he said.
He also said Netanyahu had committed to opening the Kerem Shalom crossing today, but was not sure if it had been opened yet as of 2.30 EST.
He also noted that when the two leaders spoke earlier, Hamas had not yet announced its response.
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US 'reviewing' ceasefire proposal Hamas has accepted
The national security spokesperson, John Kirby, is at the podium taking reporters’ questions for the daily briefing.
Kirby said the US was “currently reviewing” the ceasefire deal that Hamas has said it accepted.
“We’re discussing it with our partners in the region,” he said, and noted that CIA director William Burns was in the region working to reach a deal to temporarily halt the hostilities.
Kirby added that he wouldn’t be able to comment any further on this “until we know where things stand”.
“We want to get these hostages out. we want to get a ceasefire in place for six weeks, we want to increase humanitarian assistance and the last thing that I want to do is say anything at this podium that’s going to put that process at risk,” he said.
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Hamas accepts an Egyptian-Qatari ceasefire proposal
Here’s the latest from the Guardian’s Middle East blog: Hamas says it has accepted an Egyptian-Qatari ceasefire proposal to halt seven-month war with Israel.
The militant group issued a statement Monday saying its supreme leader, Ismail Haniyeh, had delivered the news in a phone call with Qatar’s prime minister and Egypt’s intelligence minister.
The two Middle Eastern nations have been mediating months of talks between Israel and Hamas. There was no immediate comment from Israel. The US was reportedly waiting to see the terms of the agreement. White House press secretary is due to brief reporters any minute.
For developments on the Middle East crisis, follow the link below.
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Interim summary
Attention will turn to Congress this afternoon, ahead of an expected summit between Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and House Speaker Mike Johnson. Greene has threatened to trigger a vote on Johnson’s removal, but Democrats are expected to provide enough support to keep him in power. Still, Johnson would rather head off a vote if possible and will likely try to persuade Greene against moving forward with the so-called motion to vacate. Greene has not said when she plans to trigger the vote.
Columbia University has canceled its main commencement ceremony planned for next week as pro-Palestinian protests roil the Ivy League institution. Smaller school-level ceremonies will still take place.
Speaker Johnson called on Columbia’s board of trustees to remove the president Minouche Shafik, echoing calls by conservative lawmakers and antiwar protesters furious over her handling of the situation on campus.
A New York judge held Trump in contempt of court, again, slapping him with a fine and threatening jail time if the former president continues to breach his gag order.
Joe Biden spoke with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu this morning. The White House said Israel was committed to ensuring a key crossing into Gaza, Kerem Shalom, was open for trucks carrying humanitarian assistance.
The former lieutenant governor of Georgia, Republican Geoff Duncan, will support Joe Biden in the November presidential election.
“Unlike Trump, I’ve belonged to the GOP my entire life,” Duncan writes in an op-ed for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “This November, I am voting for a decent person I disagree with on policy over a criminal defendant without a moral compass.”
Earlier this year Duncan ruled out an independent presidential run under the No Label’s banner.
In the piece, he wrote that he is disappointed that the majority of his fellow Republicans have chosen to fall in line behind Trump, including some of his “fiercest detractors”. He expands on his concerns about Biden and the Democrats’ agenda, but says Trump has “disqualified himself through his conduct and his character.” He cited the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, his role in the January 6th assault on the US Capitol as well as his handling of the pandemic and his “incendiary” response to moments of national turmoil.
“Trump has shown us who he is,” Duncan writes. “We should believe him. To think he is going to change at the age of 77 is beyond improbable.”
Nathan Wade, the former Fulton County special prosecutor whose affair with District Attorney Fani Willis, said he regrets that their relationship has become a distraction from the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump.
“I hate that my personal life has begun to overshadow the true issues in the case,” he told ABC News in his first interview since resigning from the case.
.@ABC NEWS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Former special prosecutor Nathan Wade speaks out.
— Good Morning America (@GMA) May 6, 2024
“I hate that my personal life has begun to overshadow the true issues in the case.”https://t.co/9cZIiUDeqc pic.twitter.com/ii0zFP63VT
A judge ruled in March that Willis could continue to head the prosecution, as long as Wade stepped aside due to a “significant appearance of impropriety” that stemmed from their romantic relationship. They testified that their relationship began in early 2022 and ended in the summer of 2023.
“Workplace romances are as American as apple pie,” Wades said in the interview. “It happens to everyone. But it happened to the two of us.”
Wade resigned following the judge’s ruling, allowing Willis to stay on the case.
Asked in the interview he regretted the affair, Wade said: “I regret that that private matter became the focal point of this very important prosecution. This is a very important case.”
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The Texas senator Ted Cruz is no stranger to scrutiny of his campaign finance affairs.
In 2022, for one rather famous example, the rightwing-dominated supreme court ruled in his favour in a case over whether candidates could fully recoup money loaned to their own campaigns.
Last month, meanwhile, two advocacy groups filed a complaint over how a super pac backing Cruz’s re-election bid this year received more than $630,000 in ad revenue from the senator’s own podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
On a somewhat smaller scale, the Guardian noticed a potential anomaly in Federal Election Commission filings by Cruz’s leadership committee, Jobs, Freedom and Security PAC, that show a January payment of $22,900 to WPA Intelligence for “survey research”.
Noting many similar if larger payments to the same polling firm by Cruz’s campaign committee over the past few years, the Guardian sought expert advice.
That advice indicated that if such a payment by Cruz’s leadership committee was deemed to represent support to his campaign committee, it would be in excess of contribution limits for transactions between such bodies.
One expert said: “This would be an in-kind contribution if the leadership pac is paying for a poll and giving the results to the campaign.”
Importantly, the expert added: “However, it could also be that the [leadership] pac is using the same vendor for polls it legitimately wants for its own work … as long as the pac has a bona fide use for a poll, it’s also allowed to split the costs of a poll with the campaign.”
The Guardian asked spokespeople for Cruz about the purpose of the payment from the leadership committee to WPA Intelligence.
A spokesperson said “it was not for Senator Cruz’s race”, then added a jibe against a super pac backing Cruz’s Democratic opponent, the NFL player turned congressman Colin Alred, saying: “You don’t have to push Lose Cruz propaganda.”
Citing Cruz’s work with Maria Cantwell, a Washington state Democrat, on the Federal Aviation Authority Reauthorization Act, the spokesperson said they would be “happy to help” the Guardian “cover all of the good things that bill does for Texas and the country”.
Asked what the payment was for if it was not for Senator Cruz’s re-election race, the spokesperson did not answer.
WPA Intelligence did not respond to a request for comment.
Biden spoke to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone this morning after hopes of a temporary ceasefire appeared to collapse and an Israeli military invasion of Rafah looms.
According to a readout of their call, Biden updated Netanyahu on “efforts to secure a hostage deal, including through ongoing talks today in Doha, Qatar. The Prime Minister agreed to ensure the Kerem Shalom crossing is open for humanitarian assistance for those in need. The President reiterated his clear position on Rafah.”
Kerem Shalom is the main crossing used to deliver humanitarian aid into Gaza. It was closed yesterday after a rocket attack claimed by Hamas killed three soldiers, the Israeli military said, with a reprisal strike on a house in Rafah reportedly killing at least three Palestinians.
An invasion of Rafah appears imminent: the Israeli military on Monday urged 100,000 people in the southern Gaza city to evacuate. The Biden administration has repeatedly expressed its disapproval of Israeli military plans for a full-scale invasion of Rafah, where more than one million Palestinians displaced by Israel’s bombardment of Gaza have been sheltering.
Also during the call, held on Holocaust Remembrance day, the leaders “discussed the shared commitment of Israel and the United States to remember the six million Jews who were systematically targeted and murdered in the Holocaust, one of the darkest chapters in human history, and to forcefully act against antisemitism and all forms of hate-fueled violence.”
Bernie Sanders, the progressive senator from Vermont and two-time White House hopeful, announced his intention to run for re-election at 82. He is an independent who caucuses with Democrats.
Let me thank the people of Vermont, from the bottom of my heart, for giving me the opportunity to serve them in the United States Senate. It has been the honor of my life.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) May 6, 2024
Today, I am announcing my intention to seek another term. Here is why: pic.twitter.com/cfO8MF4Cep
“In recent years, working together, we have made important progress in addressing some very serious challenges,” Sanders said in a video to Vermont voters. “But much much more needs to be done if we are to become the state and the nation our people deserve.”
As chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee he has held several high-profile hearings on prescription drug pricing and workers’ rights.
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As Donald Trump spews all-caps anger on his social media feed, he’s selling the Good Word for a profit. Our very own Adam Gabbatt purchased Trump’s “patriotic” retelling of the holy text for a cool $59.99 and offered this review.
“All Americans need a Bible in their home, and I have many. It’s my favorite book,” Trump declared in March, in a video posted on Truth Social. “I’m proud to endorse and encourage you to get this Bible. We must make America pray again.” …
Well, who am I to defy a one-term, twice-impeached, former president who is currently on trial over hush-money payments to a porn star. I bought it.
Buying something from Donald Trump is fraught with danger. Trump is known for not following through on business agreements: in the run-up to the 2016 election, literally hundreds of people, including lawyers, carpenters and painters, came forward to accuse Trump of not paying them for their work.
Happily the Bible, which cost $83.37 after tax and shipping, eventually arrived. I eagerly tore open the packaging, held the bag upside down, and out plopped what is essentially a Christian nationalist’s fantasy: a Bible that is all American flags and bald eagles, with founding documents and lyrics to a patriotic anthem slotted in alongside the holy text.
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Johnson calls on Columbia’s Board of Trustees to 'immediately remove' university president
Right on cue, Johnson has released a statement responding to the news that Columbia University is canceling its main commencement ceremony, in which he condemned both the university president and protesters.
“President Shafik and Columbia University administrators have displayed a shocking unwillingness to control their campus,” he said. “They’ve allowed outside agitators and terrorist-sympathizing students and faculty to rewrite campus rules and spew vile, anti-Jewish aggression. Now, thousands of students who’ve worked hard to achieve their degrees will not get the recognition they deserve.”
Johnson called on Columbia’s Board of Trustees to “immediately remove” Shafik and appoint a new president who will crackdown on the protests.
Since her appearance before a Republican-led Congressional committee last month, Shafik has been facing calls for her resignation from all sides. As she delivered testimony in Washington that remarks that some students and free speech advocates saw as far too acquiescent of Republican talking points, protesters set up a pro-Palestinian solidarity encampment on Columbia’s campus.
Shafik called on the NYPD to remove the protestors, a move that resulted in more than 100 arrests and sparked solidarity protests across the US. Last week, protesters occupied Columbia’s Hamilton Hall for hours before police in riot gear cleared the building and arrested more than 100 demonstrators.
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Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene will meet privately with the House speaker this afternoon, CNN’s Haley Talbot reports. Greene, Talbot said, requested the meeting.
The reported summit comes as Greene is pressing ahead with a removal vote against Johnson, who is all-but certain to survive with the help of Democrats. Greene has been vague on when exactly she would trigger the motion.
House speaker Mike Johnson will meet privately with Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene at 3:30pm today as she has vowed to trigger a motion to oust him this week
— Haley Talbot (@haleytalbotcnn) May 6, 2024
The timing for when she will trigger the motion is still unclear
During the meeting, Johnson will conceivably try to persuade Greene of what he has argued publicly: that the vote won’t end in his removal and is only likely to inflict further political damage on their already turbulent majority.
Even though Johnson’s job is likely safe, for now, remaining in power with the help of Democrats is only likely to make hardliners angrier, fueling their grievance that he has abandoned his conservative principles since becoming Speaker.
Only three House Republicans have publicly stated their support for Johnson’s ouster, it is possible that number could grow if Greene forces a vote.
Johnson has tried to turn attention away from the party’s infighting by focusing on an issue that unites his members: fury toward the college campus protests.
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Trump held in contempt, again
Juan Merchan, the judge in Trump’s hush money criminal trial, has again held the former president in contempt of court, fining him another $1,000 for violating the terms of his gag order and threatening him with the possibility of jail time for future violations.
“As much as I do not want to impose a jail sanction ... I want you to understand that I will, if necessary, and appropriate,” Merchan warned Trump.
On social media and in his public comments, Trump has leveled repeated attacks on the trial, the jury, the judge, the lawyers and even the witnesses, including his former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen.
Follow those developments at the link below.
Sunday show recap: over the weekend, elected elected officials weighed in on a variety of matters.
Senator Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona, warned that comments by Kari Lake, a Trump acolyte running for the state’s other Senate seat, could incite violence. Last month Lake told voters to “strap on a Glock” ahead of the 2024 elections. “It’s dangerous,” he told NBC News during an interview on “Meet the Press.” “What Kari Lake said could result in people getting hurt or killed.”
In an interview on CBS, South Dakota governor Kristi Noem would not say whether she met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un even though it appears she fabricated the encounter in her book. “I’m not going to talk about my specific meetings with world leaders. … This anecdote shouldn’t have been in the book and as soon as it was brought to my attention I made sure that was adjusted.”
Noem also doubled down on her decision to kill her 14-month old dog Cricket, despite widespread blowback. “The reason that this story is in the book — because people need to understand who I am and some of those difficult decisions,” she told CBS.
California congressman Ro Khanna, a Democrat who has been visiting colleges around the country during student protests, said the president should join him.
“I think the president should and will get out there on campuses,” he told CBS, adding: “This is a defining moment for this generation, similar to anti-Vietnam protests, anti-apartheid protests, anti-Iraq war protests and they’re telling us that over 30,000 people have died. It’s time for this war to end.”
Columbia cancels main commencement ceremony amid antiwar protests
Columbia University announced on Monday that it had canceled next week’s university-wide commencement ceremony amid pro-Palestinian protests that have roiled the campus and spread to colleges across the country. Instead, the university said it would hold smaller “school-level” ceremonies for students.
“Based on feedback from our students, we have decided to focus attention on our Class Days and school-level graduation ceremonies, where students are honored individually alongside their peers, and to forego the university-wide ceremony that is scheduled for May 15,” university officials said in a statement.
It continued: “These past few weeks have been incredibly difficult for our community. Just as we are focused on making our graduation experience truly special, we continue to solicit student feedback and are looking at the possibility of a festive event on May 15 to take the place of the large, formal ceremony.”
At Columbia, students set up an encampment on campus to protest Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the local health ministry. The protesters at Columbia and elsewhere have called on their universities to divest funds from companies or businesses that support the Israeli military and its operations in Gaza.
The decision comes after the University of Southern California canceled its main graduation ceremony amid campus-wide protests while allowing other commencement activities to continue.
“Security concerns were one of the main reasons for our decision on whether to hold a large commencement ceremony,” a university official said in a statement to The Guardian.
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Mike Johnson faces Republican-led ouster vote as Congress returns this week
Good morning and welcome to the politics liveblog.
Congress returns to Washington this week with all eyes on the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson is expected to face a vote over his ouster in the coming days.
House Democratic leaders have said their members would lend enough votes to shield Johnson from removal, an effort led by far-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
Though her drive to depose Johnson is almost certain to fail, Greene has said she plans to force the vote to show that the conservative speaker must rely on Democrats to keep his job. Republicans’ wafer-thin majority in the House gives any individual member with a grievance enormous leverage over the party’s agenda – and the fate of the Speaker.
Johnson has infuriated hardline conservatives after working across the aisle to pass a government funding measure and approve a foreign aid package with assistance for Ukraine. But many are reluctant to trigger a a repeat of last year’s ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, which plunged the chamber into chaos as they searched for his replacement.
So far, Greene is joined publicly by just two other House conservatives: congressmen Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Paul Gosar of Arizona.
Elsewhere in Washington:
Biden will return to the White House from his home in Wilmington, Delaware. At midday, he will present the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy to the US Military Academy Army Black Knights, before hosting King Abdullah II of Jordan for lunch. Later this evening, he will host a Cinco de Mayo reception in the Rose Garden with first lady Jill Biden.
Vice president Kamala Harris is headed to Detroit for the second stop on her “Economic Opportunity Tour”.
Donald Trump is back in a New York courtroom for his criminal trial involving a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniel. Proceedings are due to start around 9am in New York. Readers can follow here for updates.
Trump on Sunday night appeared to ride to the defense of Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar, who was recently indicted in a $600,000 bribery scheme involving Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank. Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, Cuellar a conservative Democrat in a swing district was a “Respected Democrat Congressman” and accused the Biden administration of targeting him because he tends to align with Republicans on border security: “They’re a bunch of D.C. Thugs, and at some point they will be paying a very big price for what they have done to our Country,” Trump wrote.
Politico reports that second gentleman Doug Emhoff will host a small group of Jewish college students at the White House amid the turmoil sweeping university campuses. Emhoff, who is Jewish, has led the White House’s fight against antisemitism.
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