Closing summary
The supreme court will decide whether Donald Trump can be prosecuted on election interference charges. The court set an expedited schedule to hear the immunity issue, with oral arguments during the week of 22 April.
With government funding partially expiring on Friday, House and Senate negotiators have reached an agreement to prevent a shutdown. Congressional leaders of both parties said that negotiators have already reached a deal on six full-year spending bills for agriculture, and the remaining six bills are expected to be finalized before 22 March.
Mitch McConnell will step down as Republican leader in the Senate at the end of this year. The 82-year-old is the longest-serving Senate leader in history, a highly divisive figure in a bitterly divided country and the subject of fierce speculation, after recent public health scares.
Senate Republicans have blocked legislation that would protect Americans’ access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment after an Alabama supreme court ruling that frozen embryos are children led to the closure of a number of infertility clinics in the state.
Joe Biden continues to be “fit for duty and fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations”, his physician has said after the president’s annual physical exam.
A New York appeals judge has denied Donald Trump’s request to pay just $100m of the $454m judgment for his New York fraud trial.
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The supreme court’s decision to take up the case of whether Donald Trump can be prosecuted on election interference charges marks a significant victory for the former president.
As my colleague Hugo Lowell writes, Trump might be the luckiest criminal defendant in the history of criminal defendants.
Trump might be the luckiest criminal defendant in the history of criminal defendants. And of course if he wins the election — the particularly perilous Special Counsel cases go away
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) February 28, 2024
The White House’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, has responded to the announcement by top congressional leaders that they have reached a deal to prevent a government shutdown.
In a statement posted to social media, she said:
As the President and Congressional leaders made clear at yesterday’s meeting, we cannot allow a government shutdown. The bipartisan agreement announced today would help prevent a needless shutdown while providing more time to work on bipartisan appropriations bills and for the House to pass the bipartisan national security supplemental as quickly as possible.
As the President and Congressional leaders made clear at yesterday’s meeting, we cannot allow a government shutdown. The bipartisan agreement announced today would help prevent a needless shutdown while providing more time to work on bipartisan appropriations bills and for the… https://t.co/Yo8PnekSiV
— Karine Jean-Pierre (@PressSec) February 28, 2024
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Senate Republicans have blocked legislation that would guarantee Americans’ access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) despite widespread backlash to a recent ruling by the Alabama supreme court that designated frozen embryos as ‘children’.
Democratic senator Tammy Duckworth, who used IVF treatments to have her two children, sought an immediate vote by the Senate on Wednesday on her Access to Family Building bill.
Her move for a vote, which required unanimous consent by all 100 senators, was promptly blocked by Mississippi’s Republican senator Cindy Hyde-Smith.
Hyde-Smith, speaking on the Senate floor, said the bill was a “vast overreach that is full of poison pills that goes way too far, far beyond ensuring legal access to IVF”. She added:
I support the ability for mothers and fathers to have total access to IVF and bringing new life into the world. I also believe human life should be protected.
She defended the Alabama supreme court’s ruling, pointing out that it originated with a pair of wrongful death cases brought by three couples who had frozen embryos destroyed in an accident at a fertility clinic.
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Congressional leaders reach deal to avert government shutdown
Congressional leaders said they have reached a deal to advance appropriations bills in March for fiscal year 2024, averting a government shutdown for now.
A joint statement from Democratic and Republican leaders including Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and House speaker Mike Johnson reads:
We are in agreement that Congress must work in a bipartisan manner to fund our government.
Negotiators have come to an agreement on six bills: Agriculture-FDA, Commerce-Justice and Science, Energy and Water Development, Interior, Military Construction-VA, and Transportation-HUD. After preparing final tect, this package of six full year Appropriations bills will be voted on and enacted prior to March 8. These bills will adhere to the Fiscal Responsibility Act discretionary spending limits and January’s topline spending agreement.
The remaining six Appropriations bills – Defense, Financial Services and General Government, Homeland Security, Labor-HHS, Legislative Branch, and State and Foreign Operations – will be finalized, voted on, and enacted prior to March 22.
A shutdown would have forced many federal employees to go without pay until Congress passed another funding bill, and while that disruption has been avoided for now, the threat will arise again in the coming weeks.
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The US supreme court will decide whether Donald Trump can be prosecuted on election interference charges, indicating it will move quickly in the immunity case.
Trump’s appeal to the nation’s highest court marks the final challenge the former US president can make on the immunity issue related to his federal criminal case.
Trump’s team had thought for months that the appeal would probably fall short on the law but would be an effective way to delay the impending trial, which had been due to begin in early March.
The court on Wednesday agreed to decide Trump’s claim of immunity on charges brought by a special counsel involving his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, again thrusting the nation’s top judicial body into the election fray as Trump seeks to regain the presidency.
The justices put on hold the criminal case being pursued by special counsel Jack Smith and will review a lower court’s rejection of Trump’s claim of immunity from prosecution because he was president when he took actions aimed at reversing Joe Biden’s election victory over him.
Trump’s lawyers had requested a stay of that ruling, warning of dire consequences for the presidency absent such immunity.
Trump has made it no secret that his overarching legal strategy is to seek delays, ideally beyond the 2024 election in November, in the hopes that winning re-election could enable him to potentially pardon himself or direct his attorney general to drop the charges.
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The supreme court’s announcement that it will decide whether Donald Trump has immunity from prosecution adds a new hurdle to a trial focused on the former president’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
In a statement, the supreme court said it will consider “whether and if so to what extent does a former President enjoy presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office”.
The court said it would hear arguments and issue a ruling on the immunity claim. In the meantime, the case is on hold, meaning no trial can take place.
Updated
Supreme Court to decide Trump immunity claim in 2020 election case
The US supreme court has agreed to decide Donald Trump’s claim of immunity from prosecution on charges brought by a special counsel involving his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
The justices’ order maintains a hold on preparations for a trial focused on Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss.
The court has agreed to expedite the case and hear arguments the week of 22 April. A decision is likely to come no later than the end of June.
BREAKING: US Supreme Court agrees to hear Trump immunity claim in the federal 2020 election interference case, oral argument set for April 22 pic.twitter.com/Lm58G1jI1v
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) February 28, 2024
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Democratic Illinois senator Tammy Duckworth, speaking on the Senate floor, warned that the “first domino has fallen” after an Alabama supreme court ruling that frozen embryos are children led to the closure of a number of infertility clinics in the state.
It could only be a matter of time before more state courts issue similar rulings, and more hospitals and organizations will have to stop providing IVF treatment, Duckworth said. She said:
Think about what’s at stake. State courts simply can strip away access to IVF. Think about how many would-be moms might never be able to hear their child’s first laugh.
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Republican senator blocks vote on IVF protections
The Republican senator for Mississippi Cindy Hyde-Smith has blocked passage of a bill to protect Americans’ access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment.
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Congressional leaders have reportedly struck a deal to extend funding to six agencies including the departments of agriculture, energy and water, veteran affairs with a 8 March deadline.
The House plans to vote tomorrow on the one-week stopgap measure to avert a partial government shutdown, CNN reports, citing a Republican aide.
Under the agreement, funding for six agencies including the departments of agriculture, transportation, veteran affairs, housing and urban development will expire on 8 March, a week later than planned.
Funding for the rest of the government, including defense and state departments, would be extended until 22 March.
Biden 'fit for duty', doctor says after annual physical
Joe Biden continues to be “fit for duty and fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations”, his physician has said.
A summary of Biden’s annual physical states:
President Biden is a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief.
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Senate Democrats to bring bill on protecting IVF access nationwide
The Democratic senator from Illinois Tammy Duckworth will speak on the Senate floor and lead Senate Democrats in calling on Republicans to pass her bill to protect the right to access in vitro fertilization (IVF) and other fertility treatments in the wake of a ruling by the Alabama supreme court that frozen embryos are “extrauterine children”.
To all those Republicans who suddenly claim to support IVF—today would be a great day to get out of the way and let the Senate pass my bill to protect access to IVF nationwide.
— Tammy Duckworth (@SenDuckworth) February 28, 2024
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Joe Biden has said he and Mitch McConnell could “always speak with each other honestly and put the country ahead of ourselves” in a statement following McConnell’s announcement that he will step down as the Senate Republican leader in November.
Describing McConnell as a “friend”, Biden said he was proud that the pair have been able to work together to find common ground on behalf of the American people despite “many political disagreements”. He added:
Mitch has lived the American dream, overcoming polio and going on to become the longest-serving Senate leader in American history. Jill and I wish the best to Mitch and Elaine.
New York appeals judge denies Trump bid to pay $100m of $454m judgment
A New York appeals judge has denied Donald Trump’s request to pay just $100m of the $454m judgment for his New York fraud trial.
Trump’s lawyers had asked the appeals court to halt the collection of the rest of the amount, along with the judgment’s ban on Trump securing new loans from New York bans, until the appeal goes through.
On Wednesday, Judge Anil Singh appeared to have some sympathy for Trump, staying the ban over Trump taking out loans from New York banks and another on him serving as an officer of a New York company, both for the next three years.
Trump’s lawyers Clifford Robert, Alina Habba and Michael Farina wrote:
The exorbitant and punitive amount of the judgment, coupled with an unlawful and unconstitutional blanket prohibition on lending transactions, would make it impossible to secure and post a complete bond.
The New York attorney general’s office said the appeals court should deny Trump’s request as Trump has not said he does not have the assets to fulfil the judgment’s full amount.
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Here’s more on the news that congressional leaders have reportedly struck a deal to prevent a government shutdown, according to Politico.
Negotiators reached an agreement on six appropriations bills, assigning them a deadline of 8 March, according to the report.
Leaders are aiming to release text by this weekend and clear the spending bills next week, the report says.
The remaining fiscal 2024 measures will get a new deadline of 22 March, according to Politico.
Updated
Congressional negotiators strike deal to prevent government shutdown - report
With government funding partially expiring Friday, House and Senate negotiators have reached an agreement to prevent a shutdown, Politico reports:
NEWS: Congressional leaders HAVE STRUCK a govt funding deal, per senior leadership source. Announcement imminent
— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) February 28, 2024
6 approps bills next week: AG, CJS, Energy&Water, Interior, Milcon, THUD w/ March 8 deadline. Other 6 will be March 22. Vote on a CR by week's end.
StoryTK @politico
Funding for some federal departments will expire after Friday, while the rest face an 8 March deadline. Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress met with Joe Biden yesterday at the White House, where all sides expressed their desire to avoid a shutdown that the president warned would damage the economy.
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In a statement marking Mitch McConnell’s decision to leave Senate Republican leadership, House speaker Mike Johnson made a point of mentioning McConnell’s role in confirming conservative justices to the supreme court.
“Mitch McConnell rose from humble beginnings, overcoming polio to become one of the most consequential Senate leaders in history. He started his Senate career as a legislative aide and ended up in charge of the upper chamber,” Johnson said.
“No member of Congress has played a greater role in reshaping the federal judiciary than Mitch. I join my colleagues in saluting his historic contributions to the Republican party and to the Congress. His legacy will endure for generations.”
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Senators on Wednesday heard from Allie Phillips, a Tennessee woman denied an abortion under the state’s post-Roe law.
In searing testimony, Phillips told the Senate budget committee about her experience – almost exactly one year ago – of being told at an anatomy scan that her 19-week-old fetus – a girl she had already named Miley – was “not compatible with life”.
Phillip’s doctor told her she could either leave the state to receive an abortion or remain pregnant in Tennessee.
“Then the doctor warned that the longer I stayed pregnant, the worse Miley’s condition would get and the more at risk my health would become,” Phillips said.
She described the disorienting scramble to find an appointment at a clinic that could care for her – and her family’s struggle to scrape together the money to afford flights, a hotel, ground transportation, childcare for her daughter. Only thanks to a GoFundMe effort was she able to afford it.
Only patients were allowed into the clinic she found, for security reasons. After an ultrasound showed there was no longer a heartbeat, Phillips was rushed into surgery.
“I went to surgery alone and I sat in recovery alone. I grieved her loss alone in a city I’ve never been in, far away from the comfort of my home, my family, my friends,” Phillips said. “No one should be treated this way.”
Phillips is now running for office in Tennessee, determined to keep telling her story until the laws are changed.
Later on the panel, a witness invited by the Republican senators suggested procedures such as the one performed on Phillips were not technically abortions and that her experience was rare.
“My procedure was an abortion. It is on my medical paperwork,” Phillips responded later.
“I would like to ask the people to remember my story and to remember that I am one of thousands if not millions of people in this country that need or needed abortion access,” she said.
Read more about Phillips story:
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Florida Democratic congressman Jared Moskowitz has been a vocal critic of Republican efforts to impeach Joe Biden, and has been having fun mocking the process on X, including from inside the hearing room where Hunter Biden is giving testimony.
The House oversight committee member linked in one post to his morning interview on MSNBC, in which he appeared in a black suit and tie resembling mourning clothes. “Dressed today for the death of the Biden impeachment inquiry,” he wrote.
Dressed today for the death of the Biden impeachment inquiry @Morning_Joe pic.twitter.com/9GCgIO5jbk
— Congressman Jared Moskowitz (@RepMoskowitz) February 28, 2024
Once the hearing got under way, Moskowitz had more thoughts. “Sitting in the Depo now. BORING!” he added in another tweet.
And in a third, he’s posted a picture of a distraught scientist amid the smoking wreckage of an experiment that appears to have gone badly wrong… intended as an analogy for the effort led by Republican committee chair James Comer to turn up any damaging evidence against the president. “Live picture from inside the Hunter Biden Deposition,” he wrote.
Live picture from inside the Hunter Biden Deposition. pic.twitter.com/rBArCacp9k
— Jared Moskowitz 🟧 (@JaredEMoskowitz) February 28, 2024
Moskowitz and Comer have a long history of clashing over the impeachment inquiry, including this VERY heated exchange between the pair last year, in which Comer angrily denounced as “bullshit” allegations he had himself improperly loaned money to family members.
There’s an interesting Democratic primary developing in New York’s first congressional district, a seat in the rather Jaws-ish bit of Long Island the party hopes will present a mortal threat to one of a number of endangered Republicans come November.
Jim Gaughran, a state senator, has suspended his campaign and endorsed John Avlon, the former Daily Beast editor and CNN analyst and anchor who announced his own run last week.
Calling Gaughran “a lifelong Long Islander who has won tough races against GOP incumbents”, Avlon’s campaign released a statement in which Gaughran said: “John Avlon is the only Democrat in this race who can build a winning coalition of Long Island families from the heart of Huntington to the tip of Montauk and bring responsible, common sense leadership to Washington. He has my wholehearted endorsement because I know he will defend reproductive rights, combat climate change, and deliver the resources our communities need to thrive.”
Avlon said Gaughran had “devoted his life to public service for Suffolk county and Long Island and I am so proud and honored to have his endorsement.
“I am running for Congress because we need leaders in Washington like Jim who are focused on common sense problem solving for Suffolk county families like fixing our border, rebuilding the middle class, protecting reproductive freedom and keeping citizens safe – all fighting back against the Trump-LaLota extremist Maga agenda.”
Nick LaLota is the Republican incumbent Avlon wants to take down. Avlon is campaigning with appeals for a return to civility in politics but the rivalry got off to a predictably testy start, after spokespeople for LaLota and congressional Republicans slammed Avlon as an “elitist”, a “smug liberal hack” and an out-of-towner who, they claimed, really lives in Manhattan.
Avlon hit back, telling the Guardian in the interview that follows, “They’re scared”:
For some further further reading, here’s Lauren Gambino’s look at what a recent Democratic win in New York – in the third district, the seat formerly occupied by the indicted fabulist and rare expelled congressman George Santos – might mean for the party and candidates such as Avlon:
Asked for his thoughts on Mitch McConnell’s plans to depart Senate Republican leadership, Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House oversight committee, said he blamed him for not voting to convict Donald Trump following the January 6 insurrection.
The House impeached Trump after the attack by his supporters on the Capitol, but McConnell voted against convicting him in the Senate. Seven Republicans ultimately broke ranks and voted with Democrats to sustain the charges, but McConnell’s opposition was seen as crucial to discouraging enough Republicans that the two-thirds majority threshold for conviction was not reached.
Raskin makes that point here:
.@RepRaskin on Sen. McConnell: "He didn't show the ultimate courage which would have been to vote to convict and to find enough other Senators so we that wouldn't be back in this nightmare again with Donald Trump." pic.twitter.com/n7gRFtHGwE
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 28, 2024
Biden says he's 'sorry to hear' that McConnell is stepping down
Joe Biden said he was “sorry to hear” that Mitch McConnell planned to leave his post as the top Senate Republican, remembering him as an antagonist who “never, never misrepresented anything”.
“He and I have trust, we’ve got a great relationship, we fight like hell but he never, never, never misrepresented anything,” the president said at a White House event on his administration’s crime-fighting efforts. “I’m sorry to hear he’s stepping down.”
Biden and McConnell served in the Senate together for 24 years.
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When Republicans controlled the Senate in 2016, Mitch McConnell refused to consider Democratic president Barack Obama’s nominee for a vacant supreme court seat, but later confirmed three conservative justices to the bench whom Donald Trump had nominated.
That created a six-justice conservative supermajority, which has been responsible for overturning Roe v Wade, weakening gun-safety and environmental laws, and a host of other decisions with national impact. He also killed legislation passed by Democrats when they controlled the House, and led the GOP’s campaign against Joe Biden’s plans to revitalize the economy following the Covid-19 pandemic, and to fight climate change.
Despite all that, McConnell’s record is not conservative enough for some. The Kentuckian is one of the most vocal Republican supporters of aid to Ukraine, a fact cited by the hard-right House Freedom Caucus as they bid him, essentially, good riddance:
Our thoughts are with our Democrat colleagues in the Senate on the retirement of their Co-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (D-Ukraine).
— House Freedom Caucus (@freedomcaucus) February 28, 2024
No need to wait till November… Senate Republicans should IMMEDIATELY elect a *Republican* Minority Leader.
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California’s Democratic representative Adam Schiff criticized Mitch McConnell’s political track record following the senator’s resignation announcement.
Pointing to McConnell’s victory in helping to create a 6-3 conservative majority in the supreme court, Schiff said:
Mitch McConnell stacked the Court, undermined our democracy, and enabled Donald Trump.
And yet – in his absence – the @SenateGOP will invariably select someone more extreme.
With our democracy more fragile than ever, we must select and elect leaders committed to protecting it.
Mitch McConnell stacked the Court, undermined our democracy, and enabled Donald Trump.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) February 28, 2024
And yet – in his absence – the @SenateGOP will invariably select someone more extreme.
With our democracy more fragile than ever, we must select and elect leaders committed to protecting it.
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Chuck Schumer on McConnell resignation: "I am very proud that we both came together"
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, has responded to Mitch McConnell’s decision to step down from his position, saying in a statement:
During my years in the Senate, Mitch McConnell and I rarely saw eye to eye when it came to our politics or our policy preferences. But I am very proud that we both came together in the last few years to lead the Senate forward at critical moments when our country needed us, like passing the CARES Act in the early days of the COVID pandemic, finishing our work to certify the election on January 6th, and more recently working together to fund the fight for Ukraine.
I know it’s been a difficult year for him and his family and I wish them the very best.
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South Carolina’s Republican senator Lindsey Graham has released a statement following Mitch McConnell’s resignation announcement, calling it a “passing of the torch moment”.
Hailing McConnell as “one of the most effective leaders in the history of the US Senate”, Graham said:
No one in the Republican Party has echoed the themes of peace through strength – the Reagan model of national security – better than Senator Mitch McConnell …
I look forward to continuing to work with Senator McConnell in the coming days and months as we address major challenges like securing the southern border and helping our friends in Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
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Here is more from the statement Mitch McConnell delivered on the Senate floor regarding his resignation announcement:
I love the Senate. It has been my life. There may be more distinguished members of this body throughout our history, but I doubt there are any with more admiration for it.
After all this time, I still get a thrill walking into the Capitol and especially on this venerable floor knowing that we – each of us – have the honor to represent our states and do the important work of our country.
But Father Time remains undefeated.
I am no longer the young man sitting in the back, hoping colleagues would remember my name. It is time for the next generation of leadership …
So time rolls on. There will be a new custodian of this great institution. Next year, I intend to turn this job over to a Republican majority leader. I have full confidence in my conference to choose my replacement and lead our country forward.
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Interim summary
Here is where the day currently stands:
The Republican Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, will step down from his position in November, the 82-year-old Kentucky senator announced on Wednesday. “One of life’s most underappreciated talents is to know when it’s time to move on to life’s next chapter,” he said.
The office of the House speaker, Mike Johnson, has responded to a letter from 23 global parliament leaders, urging him to allow a vote on US military aid to Ukraine. “While Speaker Johnson believes we must confront [Vladimir] Putin, and is exploring steps to effectively do so, as he said at the White House, his immediate priority is funding America’s government and avoiding a shutdown,” his office said.
Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House’s oversight committee, has called the Republican impeachment investigation into Joe Biden a “comedy of errors”. Addressing reporters, Raskin said: “We are still waiting for our Republican friends to articulate what they think the high crime and misdemeanor is in this case.”
Addressing the House oversight and judiciary committees, Hunter Biden said that his father has “never” been involved in his business dealings. He continued: “For more than a year, your committees have hunted me in your partisan political pursuit of my dad.”
Updated
Who will succeed McConnell?
Three Republicans are thought to be potential successors to Mitch McConnell as the party’s leader in the Senate.
They are:
John Cornyn of Texas, the former whip during periods when Republicans held the majority in the Senate. In 2022, he worked with the Democrats to pass modest gun safety reforms following the Uvalde school shooting.
John Barasso of Wyoming, who currently chairs the Senate Republican Conference, making him the third-highest ranking GOP lawmaker.
John Thune of South Dakota, who, as minority whip, is McConnell’s chief deputy in the chamber.
Whoever takes over from McConnell may also end up with a different title: majority leader. In order for Democrats to maintain their current control of the chamber, incumbents representing red states of Ohio and Montana will have to win re-election, or the party will have to oust established Republicans in hostile territory like Florida and Texas – both tall orders.
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Mitch McConnell just ended his remarks on the Senate floor to applause.
Lawmakers are coming to shake his hand, including the chamber’s leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer.
McConnell makes planned departure as Senate Republican leader official in floor speech
Speaking on the Senate floor, Mitch McConnell just formally announced his plan to depart as the chamber’s top Republican in November.
“This will be my last term as Republican leader. I’m not going anywhere, anytime soon. I’ll complete my job. My colleagues have given me until we select a new leader in November and they take the helm next January. I’ll finish the job that people Kentucky hired me to do as well – albeit from a different seat,” McConnell said.
Updated
Republican Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell is speaking on the floor of the chamber now.
He’s expected to announce his plans to step down from his leadership position, which he’s held longer than any other lawmaker.
Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell will step down in November
Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate minority leader who has made a lasting imprint on conservative politics in the United States, will step down from his leadership post in November, the Associated Press reports.
“One of life’s most underappreciated talents is to know when it’s time to move on to life’s next chapter,” McConnell will say in remarks from the Senate floor today, according to the AP. “So I stand before you today … to say that this will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate.”
McConnell plans to serve out his term representing Kentucky, which ends in January 2027.
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Democrats on Wednesday are moving to push through the Senate a bill that would protect Americans’ access to in vitro fertilization after an Alabama court ruled that frozen embryos are children, which led to the closure of a number of fertility clinics in the state.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, said the bill was unlikely to receive unanimous consent from the chamber to rush the bill through. While many Republican lawmakers registered disappointment over the Alabama ruling, at least one conservative senator was expected to object.
Blumenthal said Democrats would not be deterred. He would not say what the next legislative steps would be but he said Democrats, who control the Senate, would look for other ways to protect IVF and reproductive healthcare.
“The IVF dilemma for Republicans is they are down a path that is not only unpopular, it’s untenable as a matter of constitutional law and basic moral imperative and we’re going to pursue it vigorously,” Blumenthal said.
“Today’s vote, the effort to seek a unanimous consent, we know is unlikely to be successful. Failing today is only the prelude to a fight ahead on women’s reproductive care centered on IVF and other steps that have to be taken to protect basic rights.”
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House speaker remains noncommittal on Ukraine aid after open letter from global parliament leaders
The leaders of 23 parliaments across the world have signed a letter to Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, urging him to allow a vote on more military aid to Ukraine.
“We believe that thanks to your personal leadership, the Congress will demonstrate historic bipartisan unity in support of the collective effort to assist Ukraine; therefore we ask you to take the next step toward adopting a historic decision on HR815 that will secure US assistance to foreign countries and provide Ukraine with the necessary funds to continue its fight,” reads the letter, which was organized by Ruslan Stefanchuk, the chair of Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada.
It has been signed by the leaders of several European parliaments and legislatures, including in France, Spain, Austria and Italy.
Johnson has been noncommittal about holding a vote to approve Ukraine aid after earlier this month killing a bipartisan Senate deal that would have authorized assistance to Kyiv as well as Israel and Taiwan in exchange for stricter immigration policies.
In response to the letter from the parliaments, Johnson’s office said:
While Speaker Johnson believes we must confront Putin, and is exploring steps to effectively do so, as he said at the White House, his immediate priority is funding America’s government and avoiding a shut down.
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Hunter Biden’s deposition is happening with the oversight and judiciary committees behind closed doors, so we don’t know what he’s telling the lawmakers, or what they are asking him.
But Florida Democratic congressman Jared Moskowitz says that it has thus far been “BORING”:
Sitting in the Depo now. BORING! https://t.co/6kwtsIBG7v
— Jared Moskowitz 🟧 (@JaredEMoskowitz) February 28, 2024
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The top Democrat on the House oversight committee, Jamie Raskin, described the Republican impeachment investigation into Joe Biden as a “comedy of errors”, and said the GOP has failed to prove its corruption allegations against the president.
He made the remarks as Hunter Biden testified before the committee:
"This has been a comedy of errors from the beginning."@RepRaskin says there is no evidence that President Biden was involved in Hunter Biden's business dealings, that the impeachment inquiry does not meet the standard of high crimes and misdemeanors. pic.twitter.com/GDzUFBRr2I
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 28, 2024
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Hunter Biden took particular umbrage at the GOP’s reliance on discredited sources to attack him and his father.
The weaknesses of some of the evidence Republicans have used to claim corruption on his part and Joe Biden’s became apparent earlier this month when Alexander Smirnov, a former FBI informant, was indicted for lying to the government, and prosecutors later revealed that information he had provided about Hunter Biden came from Russian intelligence.
Here’s what Biden told the oversight and judiciary committees about that:
You have built your entire partisan house of cards on lies told by the likes of Gal Luft, Tony Bobulinski, Alexander Smirnov and Jason Galanis. Luft, who is a fugitive, has been indicted for his lies and other crimes; Smirnov, who has made you dupes in carrying out a Russian disinformation campaign waged against my father, has been indicted for his lies; Bobulinski, who has been exposed for the many false statements he has made, and Galanis, who is serving 14 years in prison for fraud. Rather than follow the facts as they have been laid out before you in bank records, financial statements, correspondence and other witness testimony, you continue your frantic search to prove the lies you, and those you rely on, keep peddling. Yes, they are lies.
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Hunter Biden says father was 'never' involved in businesses, attacks 'partisan political pursuit of my dad' - report
In his opening statement to the House oversight and judiciary committees, Hunter Biden said his father has “never” been involved in any of his business ventures, and decried the GOP’s campaign to impeach Joe Biden over unproven claims of corruption.
“I am here today to provide the Committees with the one uncontestable fact that should end the false premise of this inquiry: I did not involve my father in my business. Not while I was a practicing lawyer, not in my investments or transactions domestic or international, not as a board member, and not as an artist. Never,” Hunter Biden said in the statement obtained by Punchbowl News.
He then went on to attack the GOP for its pursuit of his father:
For more than a year, your Committees have hunted me in your partisan political pursuit of my dad. You have trafficked in innuendo, distortion, and sensationalism – all the while ignoring the clear and convincing evidence staring you in the face. You do not have evidence to support the baseless and MAGA-motivated conspiracies about my father because there isn’t any.
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Hunter Biden has arrived on Capitol Hill for his behind-closed-doors deposition before the Republican-led House oversight and judiciary committees, which are leading the impeachment of Joe Biden:
Hunter Biden arrives on Capitol Hill for closed-door deposition. pic.twitter.com/w5uO8lNJmX
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 28, 2024
Republicans have for years said Joe Biden illicitly benefited from his son Hunter’s business dealings overseas, but have yet to turn up any proof. Today, Republican oversight committee chair James Comer was asked about this, leading to a testy back and forth with a reporter:
.@RepJamesComer is asked about evidence relating to the Biden investigation.
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 28, 2024
Q: "I'm asking you to back up your evidence...You're not answering my question."
Comer: "No. I am answering your question. You don't understand what we've said over and over and over..." pic.twitter.com/fgtubPWZK2
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The Democratic party chair, Jaime Harrison, said he expects this year’s election in Michigan will be “close and tough” for Joe Biden, but the president will ultimately win the state:
For all the “but 2016 folks”, understand this… today’s MI Dem Party and DNC operations and infrastructure are in stark contrast to the ‘16 party operations & infrastructure. We have made great strides and improvements over the years and we will not take anything or any voter…
— Jaime Harrison (@harrisonjaime) February 28, 2024
Democrats have long counted on support from Michigan voters, but that faith was rattled in 2016, when Donald Trump won the state, part of a collapse in Democratic support along the Great Lakes that was crucial in putting him into the White House. Biden won Michigan back in 2020.
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Here’s more on the “uncommitted” campaign’s success in the Michigan Democratic primary, from the Guardian’s Oliver Laughland:
Standing before shimmering gold curtains on Tuesday evening, the mayor of Dearborn, Abdullah Hammoud, spoke with pride about his city.
“We had the audacity to choose people over political party,” he said. “We had the damn audacity to put people over president.”
For many gathered at this sprawling banquet hall in the heart of America’s most concentrated Muslim population, the outcome of last night’s Democratic primary in Michigan was beyond even the boldest of predictions.
Although Joe Biden took the state, it was the hastily organized but committed grassroots campaign against the president’s support for the Israeli government’s war with Gaza that took the night. Organizers with Listen to Michigan, a group that urged voters to withdraw support for Biden and instead vote uncommitted, had hoped for a showing of 10,000 votes. They returned more than 100,000 – a clear demonstration of the growing fractures among the diverse coalition that brought Biden to power in 2020.
It is a warning shot to the Democratic party, and shows more signs of expanding than diminishing as the primary season wears on.
Also declaring victory is Abandon Biden, a group opposed to the president for his support of Israel.
“In Michigan’s primary last night, we witnessed not just a rejection of Joe Biden but a searing condemnation of his presidency’s moral vacuity. Election results reveal that precincts with Arab and Muslim American populations have gone from supporting Biden by 90% in 2020 to thoroughly rejecting Biden,” the group said in a press release.
It continued:
Our call to ‘Abandon Biden’ wasn’t just heard; it roared across Michigan, echoing our refusal to stand with a president whose policies reek of genocide.
The unprecedented support for ‘uncommitted’ in Michigan makes it clear that complicity in genocide isn’t up for debate. It also signals that what awaits Biden in November isn’t a guaranteed victory. And what awaits the Democratic Party is irrelevance.
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One of the most prominent backers of the “uncommitted” campaign is Abraham Aiyash, the Democratic majority leader of Michigan’s house of representatives.
Here’s what Aiyash, who Politico reports is the first Arab American to hold his leadership position in the country, had to say about the campaign’s performance last night:
Donald Trump is by far the worst and most reckless candidate running for president and Joe Biden hasn’t done enough to stop the mass slaughter and suffering of the Palestinians.
— Abraham Aiyash (@AbrahamAiyash) February 27, 2024
We can and will demand more from POTUS. #uncommitted
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'Uncommitted' campaign backers say they sent Biden a message with success in Michigan
A group supporting the campaign to vote “uncommitted” in Michigan’s Democratic primary in protest of Joe Biden’s policy towards Israel have claimed victory and said the president must back a ceasefire in Gaza to win their voters.
Here’s more from Listen to Michigan, one of the groups that organized the write-in campaign, which received about 13% of the vote statewide:
Our movement emerged victorious tonight and massively surpassed our expectations. Tens of thousands of Michigan Democrats, many of whom who voted for Biden in 2020, are uncommitted to his re-election due to the war in Gaza.
— #ListenToMichigan (@Listen2michigan) February 28, 2024
President Biden has funded the bombs falling on the family members of people who live right here in Michigan. People who voted for him, who now feel completely betrayed.
— #ListenToMichigan (@Listen2michigan) February 28, 2024
President Biden, listen to Michigan. Count us out, Joe.
Count Michigan uncommitted for funding of war and genocide in Gaza.
— #ListenToMichigan (@Listen2michigan) February 28, 2024
While we’ve noticed a small shift in language from Biden as a direct result of this campaign’s pressure, we know that his words are not enough. This isn’t a messaging problem, this is a funding bombs problem.
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Strong showing by Gaza protest vote adds to Biden's headaches in swing state Michigan
Good morning, US politics blog readers. On the surface, things went about as expected in Michigan’s primary last night. Donald Trump was the overwhelming pick of the state’s Republicans, who gave him more than 68% support compared to his sole challenger Nikki Haley’s nearly 27%. Among Democrats, Joe Biden won 81% of the vote – no surprise for a sitting president. But more than 13% of the party’s voters opted not to vote for Biden and rather write in “uncommitted” as part of a campaign to protest his administration’s support for Israel and refusal to press for a ceasefire in its invasion of Gaza. In Dearborn, home to large communities of Arabs and Muslims, the write-ins beat the president by more than 50 percentage points.
The general election is eight months away, but the protest was nonetheless another worrying sign for Biden, whose re-election campaign has been rattled by polls showing him down against Trump in several swing states, including Michigan. The president now seems tasked with not just winning over a state that was crucial both to his victory in 2020 and Trump’s in 2016, but winning back a community whose support could prove pivotal to deciding the election.
Here’s what else is going on today:
Hunter Biden will finally give behind-closed-doors testimony before the House committees trying to impeach his father, after much drama.
A government shutdown still looms, despite a meeting at the White House yesterday between Biden and the leaders of Congress, where all sides pledged to ensure it does not happen. They have until Friday to make good on that.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, duels with reporters at 2.30pm ET.
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