Summary
That’s all the live coverage for today – thanks for tuning in. Some key updates and developments from the day:
The House of Representatives passed a resolution to avoid a government shutdown early evening on Tuesday.
The final vote count was 336 to 95, surpassing the two-thirds majority threshold required for adoption. Nearly all Democrats supported the measure.
Matt Gaetz, the architect of Kevin McCarthy’s downfall as speaker, filed an ethics complaint against him over this morning’s alleged assault on Tennessee congressman Tim Burchett.
The White House said Joe Biden won’t be afraid to take on the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, “where confrontation is needed” during their meeting on Wednesday.
Biden unveiled a $6bn effort to bolster climate resilience across the country as his administration released the government’s fifth annual national climate assessment.
A former fundraiser for Republican congressman George Santos pleaded guilty to a federal charge of wire fraud, which could put him behind bars for more than two years.
Read about the House vote here:
Updated
The final vote count: 336 to 95
A total of 336 representatives voted in favor of the resolution to avert the government shutdown slated for this weekend, while 95 voted against it.
The measure needed a two-thirds majority support to pass. A total of 209 Democrats supported the measure, and two Democrats opposed it – Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts and Mike Quigley of Illinois. NBC News notes that Quigley was the only Democrat to vote against the resolution in September to avoid a shutdown.
On the Republican side, 127 lawmakers voted in favor of the resolution, and 93 voted against it. The House Freedom Caucus, a hard-right group of conservatives, said earlier today that it would not support the resolution, saying in a statement: “It contains no spending reductions, no border security and not a single meaningful win for the American people.” That group includes lawmakers who helped lead the revolt against the previous stopgap measure, a dispute which ended in the ouster of former House speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, has said he supports the measure and is hoping to have a vote soon.
Updated
House passes bill to avert shutdown
The House has passed speaker Mike Johnson’s bill to avert a government shutdown, with more than two-thirds of members voting to approve it. The measure is now headed to the Senate, and then to President Joe Biden, who has until Friday night to sign it and avoid the shutdown.
Voting begins on government funding bill to avert shutdown
The House of Representatives is beginning its vote on speaker Mike Johnson’s bill to keep the government operating beyond the Friday deadline.
The unconventional two-tier funding bill of the new speaker would avoid a shutdown set to start this weekend and extend the US government’s funding into the new year. Democratic leadership in the House and Senate have signaled support for the measure. It requires two-thirds majority support to pass.
Follow along here for updates and more details on what’s in the bill from our earlier coverage:
Updated
What happens if the government shuts down?
As we approach the vote on the resolution to avoid a shutdown, check out our coverage from September below on the ramifications of a shutdown for government workers and citizens.
Thousands of workers would be placed on unpaid furlough, while certain jobs deemed essential, such as air traffic controllers, would continue, but without pay until the shutdown ends. If a shutdown extends for a long period, national parks could be shuttered and research at national institutes could be paused. During the September shutdown talks, the Biden administration warned that food safety inspections could stop. More here:
Updated
Attacker of Nancy Pelosi's husband testifies
David DePape, the man facing trial for attacking the husband of former US House speaker Nancy Pelosi, testified in court today, saying he entered the Pelosis’ home as part of a plan to end corruption and that he intended to interrogate her on video.
DePape cried in front of jurors talking about how his political leanings took a rightward shift after reading a comment on YouTube, the AP reports. He testified that he went to the Pelosis’ San Francisco home with plans to talk to her about Russian involvement in the 2016 election. He also said he had planned to wear an inflatable unicorn costume and publish footage online of his interrogation of the congresswoman.
DePape has pleaded not guilty to attempted kidnapping of a federal official and assault on the immediate family member of a federal official with intent to retaliate against the official for performance of their duties. He has not, however, denied attacking Paul Pelosi during his testimony.
Full story here:
House Democratic leadership support bill to avert shutdown
House Democratic leadership have released a joint statement to support the resolution to avert the government shutdown:
House Democrats have repeatedly articulated that any continuing resolution must be set at the fiscal year 2023 spending level, be devoid of harmful cuts and free of extreme right-wing policy riders. The continuing resolution before the House today meets that criteria and we will support it.”
Earlier, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said he and the White House support the resolution.
The full statement from House Democratic leaders here:
NEW statement from Dem leadership backing CR: “The continuing resolution before the House today meets that criteria and we will support it.” pic.twitter.com/iocqtIiFFe
— Heather Caygle (@heatherscope) November 14, 2023
Judge rejects effort to remove Donald Trump from Michigan ballot
A Michigan judge rejected an effort to remove Donald Trump from the state’s primary ballot, a blow to advocates who were arguing that his role in the January 6 insurrection made him ineligible for the presidency.
The AP reports that James Redford, a court of claims judge in the key swing state, has ruled that the former president will remain on the ballot:
Redford wrote that, because Trump followed state law in qualifying for the primary ballot, he cannot remove the former president. Additionally, he said, it should be up to Congress to decide whether Trump is disqualified under a section of the US constitution’s 14th amendment that bars from office a person who ‘engaged in insurrection’.
Redford’s further wrote, “The judicial action of removing a candidate from the presidential ballot and prohibiting them from running essentially strips Congress of its ability to ‘by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such a disability.’”
The effort to disqualify Trump was citing a civil war-era constitutional clause.
Earlier analysis from our voting rights reporter Sam Levine here:
Updated
House vote imminent on bill to avert government shutdown
The House of Representatives is expected to vote within the next hour on new speaker Mike Johnson’s unconventional two-tier funding bill that will keep the government operating beyond the current shutdown deadline of Friday.
Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, has expressed confidence the bill will pass, despite a declaration by the 50-strong House Freedom Caucus that it does not support it. The speaker told reporters earlier that there appears to be enough of a groundswell of members on either side of the aisle who want to get a deal done and “get home” for next week’s Thanksgiving holiday.
The bill was filed under an expedited process that removes certain procedural obstacles but requires a two-thirds majority of House members – 290 votes – to pass.
I’m handing over the blog to my colleague Sam Levin on the west coast to guide you through the rest of the day. Thanks for joining me.
While we wait for the vote, here’s Lauren Gambino’s report of what to expect, and why Johnson says he’s confident of passing his first real test as speaker.
Santos associate guilty of fraud
A person connected to the fabulist New York congressman George Santos pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a charge of wire fraud relating to the politician’s campaign finances.
Samuel Miele, 27, pleaded guilty in federal court in Islip to impersonating a House staffer while soliciting funds for Santos, the New York Times reported.
Last month Nancy Marks, a former aide to Santos, pleaded guilty to embellishing campaign finance reports with fake loans and donors.
Santos is facing a House ethics committee investigation, and survived a House vote to expel him earlier this month.
He has pleaded not guilty to 23 federal charges accusing him of multiple frauds, including making tens of thousands of dollars in unauthorized charges on credit cards belonging to some of his campaign donors.
Miele’s lawyer, Kevin Marino, said that his client accepted responsibility but declined to say whether the plea included an agreement with federal prosecutors to testify against Santos, the Times reported.
Updated
The “elbowgate” episode involving former speaker Kevin McCarthy wasn’t the only hint of violence on Capitol Hill on Tuesday: a heated discussion in a Senate committee almost turned into a physical fight after a verbal argument escalated between Oklahoma Republican Markwayne Mullin and Teamsters president Sean O’Brien.
During a hearing for the Senate’s Help (health, education, labor and pensions) panel, Mullin began reading a social media post in which O’Brien had criticized him.
“Quit[e] the tough guy act in these senate hearings. You know where to find me. Anyplace, Anytime cowboy,” O’Brien had written, according to Politico.
“This is a time, this is a place to run your mouth. We can be two consenting adults, we can finish it here,” Mullin said before standing up from his chair to confront O’Brien.
“You want to do it now?” Mullin demanded, to which O’Brien said he did. Both then taunted each other to “stand your butt up”.
“You’re a United States senator. Sit down please,” committee chair Bernie Sanders chided Mullin, and urged the pair to focus on the economic issues at hand. The argument lasted several minutes.
Politico has video of the confrontation here.
Updated
Matt Gaetz files ethics complaint against McCarthy over Burchett incident
Matt Gaetz, the architect of Kevin McCarthy’s downfall as speaker, has now filed an ethics complaint against him over this morning’s alleged assault on Tennessee congressman Tim Burchett.
The firebrand Florida congressman, leader of the group of eight Republicans who sided with Democrats to oust McCarthy last month, says there’s “substantial evidence” that the California lawmaker breached an obligation to act with decorum.
“This incident deserves immediate and swift investigation by the ethics committee,” Gaetz wrote, reported on X, formerly Twitter, by Politico reporter Olivia Beavers.
INBOX: “Congressman Matt Gaetz Files Ethics Complaint Against Kevin McCarthy for Assaulting Tim Burchett” pic.twitter.com/dgkdXY02wc
— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) November 14, 2023
“While Rep Burchett is within his rights to decline to press charges against Rep McCarthy, [the House ethics] committee does have a duty to investigate breaches of the binding code of official conduct, whose first rule is that ‘a member … shall behave at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House’.
“There is substantial evidence Rep McCarthy breached this duty.”
Gaetz, one of the brashest and loudest members of the Republican House caucus, claims that he himself has “been a victim of outrageous conduct on the House floor as well, but nothing like an open and public assault on a member committed by another member”.
Updated
White House Biden 'ready to confront' Xi where needed
Joe Biden won’t be afraid to take on Chinese president Xi Jinping “where confrontation is needed” during their meeting on Wednesday, the White House says, but is confident of a productive bilateral summit addressing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
The two leaders will talk during the Asia-Pacific economic cooperation (Apec) summit in San Francisco and have a “full agenda”, John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator for the national security council just told reporters aboard Air Force One:
These are two leaders that know each other well, [have] known each other a long, long time. They can be frank and forthright with one another. I fully expect that that’ll be the case.
The table has been set over the course of many weeks for what, what we hope will be a very productive, candid and constructive conversation here. The president wants to make sure that we’re handling this most consequential of bilateral relationships in the most responsible way forward.
Kirby wouldn’t be drawn on exactly what the discussions will look like, but expanded on “confronting” Xi where Biden thought fit:
He means to compete with China. He’s coming into this discussion with the wind at his back from an economic perspective. We think the US well poised in that competition with China.
He’s not going to be afraid to confront where confrontation is needed on certain issues where we don’t see eye to eye with President Xi and the PRC, but we’re also not going to be afraid, nor should we be afraid, as a competent nation to engage in diplomacy on ways which we can cooperate with China on climate change, for instance, and clean energy technology. There’s going to be an awful lot on the agenda.
Other areas of possible cooperation, Kirby said, were Ukraine and Israel:
The president will make clear that we’re going to continue to support Ukraine against Russia’s aggression, and that China could play a role here in helping us support Ukraine but also to helping advance [Ukraine president Volodymyr] Zelenskiy’s vision of a just peace here for when the conflict is over.
I won’t speak for the Chinese but I have every expectation that the fighting in Ukraine will come up.
Updated
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has begun her “gaggle” with reporters aboard Air Force One.
Jean-Pierre began by sharing achievements made by the Biden administration on climate change, including Biden signing legislation on climate action as well as protecting lands and waters.
Jean-Pierre’s announcements comes after a new federal report shows that climate change is impacting every area of the US and will worsen in the next 10 years.
The report also details that extreme weather events are happening every three weeks, costing the US $1bn.
Read more on the federal report here.
Updated
House Democrats seem prepared to help the GOP spending bill pass amid faltering support from far-right Republicans, Politico reports.
In a private meeting on Tuesday, the House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries outlined why the spending bill was a win for Democratic party, highlighting that the bill did not come with spending cuts or any “poison pill” additions, Politico reported.
Other ranking House members have similarly colored the bill as a win for Democrats given the lack of cuts or attempts to insert Republican legislative priorities.
“I think those are very significant wins for us,” Washington representative Pramila Jayapal said to Politico, noting that the bill did not contain cuts or other insertions.
Jeffries did not instruct members on how to vote for the bill, which is scheduled for a floor vote on Tuesday afternoon.
But many Democrats have privately noted that support for the GOP spending bill could be high, as members of the Republican House Freedom Caucus have opposed the measure.
Updated
Chuck Schumer says he and White House support Johnson's stopgap funding bill
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has said that he and the White House support the stopgap funding bill, as the deadline to avoid a shutdown approaches.
Schumer told reporters on Tuesday that the bill achieves the main aim of avoiding a government shutdown, Politico reported.
“We all want to avoid a shutdown. I talked to the White House and both of us agree, the White House and myself, that if this can avoid a shutdown it’ll be a good thing,” Schumer said to reporters.
Schumer added that the latest bill also does not cut spending, a demand coming from far-right representatives.
We have until Friday to avert another unnecessary government shutdown.
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) November 14, 2023
The House proposal does two things that Democrats have pushed for:
It will avert a shutdown, and it will do so without making hard right cuts that the extreme MAGA wing demands.
Updated
Summary
It’s lunchtime, so time to take stock of where we are on a busy Tuesday in US politics:
Mike Johnson, the House speaker, says he’s “confident” his bill that would keep the government funded and open beyond 17 November will pass a vote scheduled for about 4.20pm ET. The Louisiana Republican made a case to colleagues that the “clean” bill he’s proposing will allow the party to “stay in the fight” for spending battles ahead.
But the House Freedom Caucus, an alliance of about 50 hard-line Republicans, said it cannot support the bill, leaving Johnson dependent on support from Democrats to get it over the finish line.
Former speaker Kevin McCarthy, ousted last month by rebel Republicans for working with Democrats to pass the previous stopgap funding bill, elbowed one of them in a hallway assault, one of them claims. Tim Burchett of Tennessee says McCarthy gave him a sharp dig in the kidney then ran off with his security detail. McCarthy denies the allegation.
Joe Biden is on his way to San Francisco and a meeting with China’s premier Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
At the White House earlier, Biden unveiled a $6bn package of spending to bolster climate resilience, coinciding with the release of the government’s fifth annual national climate assessment.
Still to come: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, and strategic communications coordinator to the National Security Council John Kirby will “gaggle” with reporters aboard Air Force One en route to the west coast.
Former speaker Kevin McCarthy, accused of a devious elbow in the back of Tennessee congressman Tim Burchett earlier Tuesday, has form, it seems.
The ousted Republican delivered more than one “shoulder charge” on another rebel who displeased him, the former Illinois congressman Adam Kinzinger, according to a book Kinzinger released last month.
In it, he calls the California lawmaker “notably juvenile” for his treatment of Liz Cheney, the former Wyoming congresswoman who like Kinzinger served on the 6 January House committee investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
And he detailed two times he says McCarthy physically “checked” him, “as soon as I started speaking the truth about the president who would be king,” Kinzinger wrote.
“Once, I was standing in the aisle that runs from the floor to the back of the [House] chamber. As he passed, with his security man and some of his boys, he veered towards me, hit me with his shoulder and then kept going.
“Another time, I was standing at the rail that curves around the back of the last row of seats in the chamber. As he shoulder-checked me again, I thought to myself, ‘What a child.’”
McCarthy has denied he elbowed Burchett, one of eight Republicans who voted to oust him from the speaker’s chair last month. But the circumstances of that alleged assault and the ones Kinzinger describes in his book are almost identical: a sharp dig then scurrying off with his security detail.
McCarthy, Kinzinger said, is “an attention-seeking high school senior who readily picked on anyone who didn’t fall in line”.
Updated
Biden heads for meeting with China's Xi
Joe Biden has just boarded Air Force One at Maryland’s Join Base Andrews, on his way to the Asia-Pacific economic cooperation (Apec) summit in San Francisco.
While he’s in California, the president will meet Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to try to allay growing tensions between the two nations as global conflicts flare in Ukraine and Gaza.
The Guardian’s Amy Hawkins says their meeting, which could last several hours, is the culmination of months of lower level dialogues which took place over the summer, with Washington sending more delegates to China than Beijing did to the US.
Read more:
Updated
Donald Trump’s disdain for Letitia James, the New York attorney general who brought a $250m fraud case against the former president, and Arthur Engoron, the judge adjudicating it, is pretty well known. Trump was fined twice last month for breaching a gag order.
On Tuesday, Trump ramped up the rhetoric further, promoting a post on his Truth Social network calling for a citizen’s arrest of the pair “for blatant election interference and harassment”.
Yep he did. Sooo based upon that and what we’ve all witnessed, we could make a citizen’s arrest of Trump pic.twitter.com/kzLtEHJ19X
— Outspoken™️ (@Out5p0ken) November 14, 2023
The frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination has long insisted that the case, and three other lawsuits against him totaling 91 separate indictments including payments to an adult movie star and attempting to overturn his 2020 election defeat, are politically motivated.
But amplifying a post calling for the arrest of a sitting judge and attorney general “Lititia [sic] James” will be seen as a dangerous development further testing the boundaries of the limited gag order against Trump concerning court officials.
The Manhattan trial, in which Engoron has already ruled Trump fraudulently overestimated the value of his properties to secure favorable terms on loans and insurance, is nearing its conclusion.
Trump and three of his children Eric, Donald Jr and Ivanka, have given testimony, and at stake is Trump’s ability to continue to conduct business in the state of New York.
Updated
McCarthy 'in physical altercation' with rebel congressman
There appears to have been an unseemly physical confrontation between former speaker Kevin McCarthy and the Republican Tennessee congressman Tim Burchett in a hallway outside the House chamber.
According to Burchett, one of the eight Republicans who voted with Democrats to oust McCarthy from the speaker’s chair last month, the altercation came as he was giving a TV interview to Claudia Grisales of NPR.
Burchett told CNN:
She was asking me a question and at that time I got elbowed in the back, and it kind of caught me off guard because it was a clean shot to the kidneys. I turned back and there was Kevin.
I chased after him, and of course these guys, as I’ve stated many times, he’s a bully with a $17m security detail. He’s the type of guy that when you’re a kid would throw a rock over the fence and run home and hide behind his Mama’s skirt.
Have NEVER seen this on Capitol Hill:
— Claudia Grisales (@cgrisales) November 14, 2023
While talking to @RepTimBurchett after the GOP conference meeting, former @SpeakerMcCarthy walked by with his detail and McCarthy shoved Burchett. Burchett lunged towards me. I thought it was a joke, it was not. And a chase ensued...
McCarthy, according to the network, vehemently denies he assaulted anybody. Grisales, however, tweeted what CNN calls a “play-by-play” of the incident.
“Burchett’s back was to McCarthy and his detail walking by in the hallway, then the lunge. Burchett responded jokingly as McCarthy kept walking, ‘Sorry Kevin didn’t mean to elbow’, then seriously yelled, ‘why’d you elbow me in the back Kevin?! Hey Kevin, you got any guts!?’ Grisales wrote.
“Burchett then looked back at me and said, ‘jerk’ referring to McCarthy. I asked if he had done that before, Burchett said ‘no.’ That’s when the chase ensued. Burchett took off after McCarthy and his detail. I chased behind with my mic.
“[Burchett] yelled after catching up to McCarthy, ‘Hey Kevin, why’d you walk behind me and elbow me in the back?’ KM: ‘I didn’t elbow you in the back.’ Burchett: ‘You got no guts, you did so ...the reporter said it right there, what kind of chicken move is that ...’
“Burchett tells me that’s the first point of ‘communication’ with McCarthy since Burchett voted for McCarthy’s ouster as speaker last month: ‘That’s just it’ for communication since ouster vote, ‘He’s just a jerk. He’s just a childish little...’”
Burchett told CNN:
There are 435 congressmen. I was one of the eight that voted against him. That hallway, there’s plenty of room, you can walk four side by side. He chose to do what he did.
Updated
Biden details $6bn spending on climate resilience
Joe Biden has unveiled a $6bn effort to bolster climate resilience across the country as his administration released on Tuesday the government’s fifth annual national climate assessment.
“It’s most comprehensive assessment on state climate change in the history of America. And it matters. This assessment shows us, in clear scientific terms, that climate change is impacting all regions, all sectors in the United States,” the president said.
“It shows that communities across America are taking more action than ever to reduce climate risk. [But] it warns that more action is still badly needed. We can’t be complacent.”
The department of energy, he said, will spend $3.9bn from the bipartisan Infrastructure Act, to strengthen and modernize the nation’s electric grid.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will use $2bn from the Inflation Reduction Act to support community-driven projects that deploy clean energy, strengthen climate resilience, and build community capacity to respond to environmental and climate justice challenges, Biden added.
Other money will go to drought resilience projects and reducing flood risk in areas across the nation. Details are in the White House statement here.
Biden also used his address to take a swipe at Donald Trump:
It’s a simple fact that there are a number of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, Maga [make America great again] Republican leaders who still deny climate change, still deny it’s a problem.
My predecessor [Trump] and much of the Maga Republican Party feel very strongly. But anyone who willfully denies the impact of climate change is condemning the American people to a very dangerous future. The impacts we’re seeing are only going to get worse, more frequent, more ferocious and more costly.
None of this is inevitable
Here’s more of Republican speaker Mike Johnson explaining to reporters why a clean funding bill providing dollars only for essential functions of government is preferable to an “omnibus” bill that he says would further grow the national debt:
Just two weeks ago the treasury department announced we have to borrow $1.5tn over the next few quarters to keep the government going. We cannot do that any more. And so the laddered CR [continuing resolution bill], the two-step CR, everybody calls it something different, is a new innovation.
It’s going to change the way we’ve done this. We have broken the fever, we are not going to have a massive omnibus spending bill right before Christmas. That is a gift to the American people. Because that is no way to legislate. It is not good stewardship. It’s the reason we’re in so much debt.
Johnson dismissed questions about hard-right Republicans rejecting the bill because it didn’t contain spending cuts. He said it was not practical to make it a more-wide ranging bill that would have allayed some of their concerns:
I’m one of the arch conservatives OK? I want to cut spending right now and I would like to put policy writers on this, but when we have a three-vote majority, as we do right now, we don’t have the votes to be able to [address] that right now.
So what we need to do is avoid the government shutdown. Why? Because that would unduly harm the American people. Troops wouldn’t be paid … we know all the effects of that.
This allows us as conservatives to go into the fight, on the next stages of this, to talk about policies at the border, to talk about the oversight as necessary on additional Ukraine aid, and to get Israel done, all these other matters in the supplemental.
That puts us in the in the policy discussion and we’ll have stringent fights on principle and philosophy and costs as well.
You got to fight fights you can win, and we’re going to.
Updated
Johnson 'confident' government funding bill will pass
Mike Johnson has just been speaking at the Capitol about his funding bill proposal to keep the government open, which faces a House vote at about 4.20pm Tuesday.
The Republican speaker says his “clean” spending bill, excluding money for any other measures, is the best way forward, and a shutdown “would unduly harm the American people”:
We have governed by omnibus bills right before Christmas, it is a terrible way to run a railroad and the reason that we’re in such trouble with our with our federal debt is because Congress is addicted, obsessed with this deficit spending.
It took decades to get into this mess, right? I’ve been at the job less than three weeks. I can’t turn an aircraft carrier overnight. But this is a very important first step to get us to the next stage so that we can change how Washington works.
Johnson says he’s confident his two-tier bill – funding certain chunks of government operations separately until January and February – will pass:
We are on an unsustainable track with our debt. There’s no two ways about it. And I think everybody recognizes that we’ve got to get down to the matter of the heart of this, to change the way we do business.
Part of the reason I’m confident about this is I’ve been drinking from Niagara Falls for the last three weeks. This will allow everybody to go home for a couple of days for Thanksgiving, everybody to cool off.
Members have been here for 10 weeks. This place is a pressure cooker. So I think everybody can go home, we can come back, reset, we’re going to get our group together, we’re going to map out a plan to fight for those principles.
He’s also urging congress and the White House to pass aid for Israel, by way of supplemental appropriations bills. “We want to make it absolutely clear where America stands in that fight,” he said.
Updated
Joe Biden is in celebratory mood over at the White House: the president has released a statement hailing today’s inflation rate announcement of 3.2%.
It’s important because Republicans are banking that attacks on the incumbent’s handling of the economy will harm Biden as he seeks re-election next year.
Biden’s statement reads like a campaign speech:
At 3.2%, annual inflation is now down by 65% from the peak. Gas prices are below $3.40 per gallon, reflecting an average decline of $1.65 from the peak after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Inflation has come down while the unemployment rate has been below 4% for 21 months in a row – the longest stretch in more than 50 years – while wages, wealth, and the share of working-age Americans with jobs are all higher now than before the pandemic.
There’s still a year to go before the election of course, and Biden’s victory lap might seem a little premature.
But he seems to have wasted no time acting on research, presented to the White House and seen by the Guardian, urging him to make more of his economic successes.
Read more here:
An attorney for Donald Trump has told prosecutors in Georgia that one of the former president’s top aides told her in December 2020 that Trump was “not going to leave” the White House “under any circumstances”, despite having lost the election to Joe Biden.
The revelation from Jenna Ellis came during an interview with the Georgia district attorney’s office in Fulton County. Ellis is cooperating as part of a plea agreement in the Georgia election interference case against Trump and various allies.
Sections of the video recordings were published on Monday by ABC News and the Washington Post, along with excerpts from interviews with lawyer Sidney Powell and two other defendants who have reached plea agreements in the case in exchange for testifying.
Ellis said the longtime Trump aide – his deputy chief of staff, Dan Scavino – told her “the boss” would refuse to cede power. She also alluded to two other “relevant” instances for the case but did not disclose them in the video, apparently prevented from doing so by attorney-client privilege.
Ellis described Scavino’s response to her scepticism that Trump had any more legal avenues left to challenge his election loss, saying: “And he said to me, you know, in a kind of excited tone: ‘Well, we don’t care, and we’re not going to leave.’”.
Read the full story:
Here’s some Mike Johnson news that isn’t related to his government spending proposal: somewhat predictability, the Donald Trump loyalist has endorsed the former president’s 2024 White House run.
“I’m all in for President Trump. I expect he’ll be our nominee … we have to make Biden a one-term president,” the Louisiana Republican and House speaker told CNBC’s Squawk Box.
.@SpeakerJohnson: "I'm all in for President Trump. I expect he'll be our nominee...we have to make Biden a one term president." pic.twitter.com/oVtmkRkQVj
— MAGA War Room (@MAGAIncWarRoom) November 14, 2023
Johnson was nicknamed “Maga Mike” for his support of Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden, including being a chief planner of the scheme to block congressional certification of the electoral college results.
Updated
House Freedom Caucus opposes Johnson spending bill
It was a poison chalice for Kevin McCarthy, but his successor as House speaker Mike Johnson is calculating that working with Democrats to get a government spending bill through the chamber today will have a better personal outcome.
There were growing indications last night and Tuesday morning that Republican Johnson’s CR (continuing resolution) bill to keep the government funded beyond 17 November will be able to reach the 290-vote threshold it needs to pass.
That doesn’t mean his unconventional two-tier proposal – funding chunks of government operations separately until January and February – is wildly popular. The Republican House Freedom Caucus, which has roughly 50 members, announced on Tuesday morning it opposed the plan. And several senior Democrats are apprehensive, Maryland congressman Steny Hoyer calling it “a bad process” according to Punchbowl.
HFC Official Position on CR: No More “Rolling Over Today To Fight Tomorrow” pic.twitter.com/8rE2VbRCbe
— House Freedom Caucus (@freedomcaucus) November 14, 2023
Johnson’s decision to introduce the bill under what’s known as suspension of rules, bypassing traditional procedural hurdles but requiring a two-thirds majority to pass, also indicates underwhelming support from the Republican side.
Yet the speaker is sensing that enough members on either side want to get a deal done, and that there’s still enough goodwill from his own ranks to avoid McCarthy’s fate: his predecessor was ousted from the speaker’s chair by angry Republicans last month three days after his own stopgap spending bill passed with Democratic support.
Crucially, Tuesday’s statement from the House Freedom Caucus included the line: “… we remain committed to working with Speaker Johnson”.
The wider Republican House membership was also meeting on Tuesday morning to discuss its strategy.
We don’t know the likely timing of the vote yet, but we’ll bring you developments as they happen
While we wait, have a read of my colleague Chris Stein’s explanation of Johnson’s government spending bill here:
Updated
Big day for Mike Johnson as government funding bill faces vote in the House
It’s a big day, and the first real test, for Republican new House speaker Mike Johnson as the chamber votes on his proposal to keep the government funded.
He’ll need the help of Democrats to get his CR (continuing resolution) bill through and ensure there’s money to keep the wheels turning after 17 November. It’s an issue that helped topple Johnson’s predecessor Kevin McCarthy: Republicans angry at his consorting with the “enemy” to get a stopgap funding bill passed in September ousted him three days later.
There is, however, growing confidence that Johnson’s two-tier, “clean” CR bill (dealing only with government funding) will find enough favor on both sides of the chamber to reach the 290 votes it needs to pass.
Senior Democrats don’t love it, but also don’t want to shut down the government heading into the Thanksgiving break. House Republicans meet this morning to plan their strategy. Either way, it’ll make for a lively day.
Here’s what else we’re watching today:
Hardline Alabama Republican senator Tommy Tuberville’s ongoing blockade of military appointments over the Pentagon’s abortion policies for service members faces its Waterloo. The Senate’s rules committee takes up a measure to circumvent his obstruction and approve the appointments en bloc.
Senior politicians from both parties will join an estimated 60,000 people at a March for Israel rally at the Capitol scheduled for 1pm ET. Speakers include Johnson and Democrats Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, and Chuck Schumer, majority leader in the Senate.
We’re expecting to hear Joe Biden deliver remarks about his climate agenda a little after 10am ET. Later, the president will fly to California to join Vice-President Kamala Harris at a campaign event this evening.
There’s no formal White House briefing today, but press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, and strategic communications coordinator to the National Security Council John Kirby will “gaggle” with reporters aboard Air Force One en route to the west coast.
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