
Closing summary
Pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University were given an ultimatum to abandon their encampment or risk suspension, after the breakdown of talks aimed at having it removed voluntarily. The ultimatum, setting a Monday deadline of 2pm, has passed. Protesters overwhelmingly voted to defy the order and stay.
Texas governor Greg Abbott said no encampments will be allowed after at least five people were arrested by dozens of law enforcement officers, many in riot gear, at a protest at the University of Texas at Austin on Monday afternoon.
The Portland State University (PSU) will “pause” accepting donations from Boeing after students called on the school to cut ties with the manufacturer amid the war in Gaza, one of the first from university administrators to distance their school from a major weapons manufacturer.
Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House who visited the Columbia University campus last week, reiterated his threat to revoke visas from foreign students involved in protests, and cut funding to universities that do not protect Jewish students.
Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House minority leader, released a letter to Johnson requesting consideration of a bipartisan bill to counter antisemitism.
Joe Biden and Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador pledged to search for new ways to decrease border crossings by undocumented migrants, as the US president faces pressure to crack down on the issue of immigration ahead of the November elections.
Anyone who thinks Marjorie Taylor Greene will drop her threat to force the removal of Johnson is “high, drunk, or simply out of their mind”, a senior aide to the far-right Georgia congresswoman said.
The Biden administration announced that it “strongly opposes” a group of Republican-backed bills expected to be considered by the House this week that will target its environmental regulations.
Joe Biden is scheduled to travel to the key battleground state of North Carolina on Thursday, the White House has said.
Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis met on Sunday for a golf course breakfast in an apparent attempt to thaw their relationship after the Republican primary.
Texas governor says 'no encampments will be allowed' after arrests made at UT Austin
The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, has said no encampments will be allowed after at least five people were arrested at a protest at the University of Texas at Austin on Monday afternoon.
No encampments will be allowed.
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) April 29, 2024
Instead, arrests are being made. https://t.co/GlmMXxAuqY
Demonstrators gathered on campus to protest against the conflict in Gaza and demand the university divest from companies that manufacture machinery used in Israel’s war efforts, carrying signs and chanting.
Dozens of local and state police – including some in riot gear – were seen encircling the encampment. Several protesters have been seen being treated for heat-related illnesses, according to local media.
Last week arrests were made at the Austin campus at the request of university officials and Governor Abbott, who said the protesters “belonged in jail”. In a post to X last week, he wrote:
Students joining in hate-filled, antisemitic protests at any public college or university in Texas should be expelled.
The response from Portland State University (PSU) is one of the first from university administrators to distance their school from a major weapons manufacturer.
Though hundreds of students across the country have been protesting on their campuses, setting up encampments demanding divestment from weapons manufacturers and companies with ties to Israel, many universities have repeatedly said they will not divest from Israel or manufacturers.
Colleges and universities in the United States have endowments that they often use as financial buffers. Harvard, which has the largest endowment at $51bn, said that it “opposes calls for a policy of boycotting Israel and its academic institutions”. The University of California, which has an endowment of $169bn for its 10 campuses, also said that it “opposed calls for boycott against any divestment from Israel”.
A university in Portland, Oregon will “pause” accepting donations from Boeing after students called on the school to cut ties with the manufacturer amid the war in Gaza.
In addition to setting up an encampment on campus, students also addressed a letter to Ann Cudd, the president of Portland State University (PSU), demanding the university cut ties with Boeing.
In a campus-wide message, Cudd said she had been motivated by “the passion with which these demands are being repeatedly expressed by some in our community”. She wrote in her memo:
PSU will pause seeking or accepting any further gifts or grants from the Boeing Company until we have had a chance to engage in this debate and come to conclusions about a reasonable course of action.
Cudd reiterated that the university “has no investments in Boeing but accepts philanthropic gifts from the company and, given that Boeing is a major employer in the region, many of our alumni work there”.
At least five people have been arrested after setting up a pro-Palestinian encampment and protest at the University of Texas in Austin, according to local media reports.
Dozens of Texas state troopers in riot gear arrived at the campus on Monday afternoon and were seen forming a circle around the encampment, along with university police officers and Austin police officers, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
Update: @lilykepner and I have confirmed a few arrests. Police brought bolt cutters. It appears some of the picnic tables are chained together. Video here of police attempts to cut the chain and wrestling tables from the circle. @statesman https://t.co/AGVgcUgevb pic.twitter.com/PJHsqTsaSg
— Chase Rogers (@ChaseRogersAAS) April 29, 2024
More arrests are happening as police seek to break up the circle pic.twitter.com/YANx8GrcIF
— Lily Kepner (@lilykepner) April 29, 2024
LATEST FROM UT Austin: Austin police have more joined the law enforcement response as arrests continue. Several protesters have been treated for heat-related illnesses. A sheriff’s transport bus also has arrived. pic.twitter.com/CduZLSpgFS
— Tony Plohetski (@tplohetski) April 29, 2024
It comes less than a week after 57 people were arrested and charged with criminal trespassing at an anti-war protest on campus. All of those protesters were later released from jail, and all charges were dropped.
Updated
Republican House speaker Johnson again threatens universities dealing with pro-Palestinian protests
Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House who visited the Columbia University campus last week, reiterated his threat to revoke visas from foreign students involved in protests, and cut funding to universities that do not protect Jewish students:
We cannot allow the lawlessness we’ve seen recently on college campuses.
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) April 29, 2024
Congress will take action to protect Jewish students and hold these pro-Hamas protestors accountable. pic.twitter.com/uItxqD051a
Activists condemned Johnson last week, after he said Hamas “backed” the protesters. While the group has praised the demonstrations, there is no evidence they have been involved in their organization.
Columbia University administrators have said they will not call police on protesters again, NBC New York reports.
However, protesters appear to be ready for another attempt to remove them. Here’s footage of faculty members linking arms to protect students:
Columbia University faculty members link arms and form a wall in front of the entrance to the on-campus encampment in support of Gaza.
— The Recount (@therecount) April 29, 2024
The university warned that students who remained in the encampment could face disciplinary action after 2 p.m. pic.twitter.com/qG1mzgT1wd
And here’s a protester explaining why they are making their stand:
“If we are truly standing in solidarity with Gaza, we have to be a little bit more brave... Even though it’s very scary...we are part of an historic moment.”
— The Recount (@therecount) April 29, 2024
— Protester vows not to vacate the campus encampment in support of Gaza ahead of Columbia’s 2 p.m. deadline to clear out. pic.twitter.com/zBK7iMlk8g
Updated
Tensions high at Columbia University after protesters defy 2pm deadline to leave
Pro-Palestinian protesters remain on Columbia University’s campus in New York City, defying an ultimatum from its administrators to leave by 2pm ET or face suspension.
The demonstrators are asking college leaders to divest from Israel, which they have declined to do. Earlier today, Columbia’s president Minouche Shafik said negotiations with protest leaders to dismantle their encampment on the college campus had broken down:
Please visit the link to read the complete statement from President Shafik: https://t.co/aOqZVezkfe pic.twitter.com/G82lD4I9JS
— Columbia University (@Columbia) April 29, 2024
Columbia had earlier in the month called police to disperse protesters, resulting in more than 100 arrests and leading to accusations Shafik and the college’s leaders were cracking down on free speech. Here’s more on today’s deadline, and the ongoing protests at campuses nationwide:
White House says it does not support reported ICC investigation targeting Israel
At her ongoing briefing to reporters, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Biden administration does not support the international criminal court’s reported investigation into officials from Israel and Hamas.
Jean-Pierre said:
We’ve been really clear about the ICC investigation. We do not support it. We don’t believe that they have the jurisdiction.
She did not elaborate further.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested that charges could be imminent in the investigation launched three years ago, which covers events since 2014. Here’s more:
Johnson calls reports of ICC considering charges against Netanyahu and Israeli officials 'disgraceful'
Republican House speaker Mike Johnson has condemned the international criminal court amid reports that it is considering bringing charges against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials over their handling of the situation in Gaza.
“It is disgraceful that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is reportedly planning to issue baseless and illegitimate arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials,” Johnson said in a statement.
“Such a lawless action by the ICC would directly undermine U.S. national security interests. If unchallenged by the Biden administration, the ICC could create and assume unprecedented power to issue arrest warrants against American political leaders, American diplomats, and American military personnel, thereby endangering our country’s sovereign authority.”
Updated
White House announces opposition to slew of House GOP bills targeting environmental regulations
The Biden administration announced that it “strongly opposes” a group of Republican-backed bills expected to be considered by the House this week that will target its environmental regulations.
The White House office of management and budgeted targeted six bills proposed by Republicans, including measures to remove gray wolves from the list of endangered species, open up land in Alaska to oil production, and allow mining in a federal wilderness area in Minnesota.
Even if they clear the House, the bills are unlikely to go anywhere in the Democratic-led Senate.
When he is not hobnobbing with Donald Trump, the administration of Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s is disenrolling children from a health insurance program for low-income residents, the Guardian’s Richard Luscombe reports:
Florida is continuing to “callously” strip healthcare coverage from thousands of children in lower-income households in defiance of a new federal law intended to protect them.
Since 1 January, more than 22,500 children have been disenrolled from Florida KidCare, its version of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (Chip) that is jointly subsidized by states and the US government for families with earnings just above the threshold for Medicaid.
Florida healthcare officials admit at least some were removed for non-payment of premiums, an action prohibited by the “continuous eligibility” clause of the 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act that took effect at the beginning of this year. The clause secures 12 months of cover if at least one premium payment is made.
Last week, the administration of Republican governor Ron DeSantis challenged the rule in federal court Tampa, arguing it makes Chip an entitlement program that illegally overrides a state law requiring monthly payment of premiums.
Joe Biden is scheduled to travel to the key battleground state of North Carolina on Thursday, the White House has said.
Biden will visit Wilmington to talk about how his agenda is “rebuilding our infrastructure and creating good-paying jobs in Wilmington and across the country,” the White House said in a statement.
Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis met on Sunday for a golf course breakfast in an apparent attempt to thaw their relationship after the Republican primary.
The meeting in Hollywood, Florida, was first reported by the Washington Post. Steve Witkoff, a Trump ally, New York and Florida real estate developer, and donor who testified at the former president’s civil fraud trial in New York, reportedly brokered the meeting.
The Florida governor was once considered the former president’s top rival in the Republican presidential primary dominated by Trump, with a platform that rested primarily on fighting the “woke” cultural forces of diversity, inclusion and tolerance.
However, a bungled presidential run meant DeSantis left the race after the Iowa caucus in January at the beginning of the primary. That left him in need of repairing his relationship with Trump – now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee – after aiming attacks at him for months.
Relations have been frosty between DeSantis and Trump since the primary began. However, Trump has proven to be transactional with rivals when necessary, and the former president also stands to benefit from improved relations with DeSantis.
The Florida governor developed a network of wealthy donors to back his presidential run, moneyed supporters Trump needs to woo if he hopes to catch up to the fundraising of Joe Biden, the Democratic incumbent seeking a second term in the presidency.
Matt Gaetz, the far-right Florida Republican congressman, has drawn a last-minute primary challenger, after a former naval aviator filed to run as a Republican in Gaetz’s district last Friday.
Aaron Dimmock is a retired navy officer who serves as the director of the Missouri Leadership Academy in Missouri, the Hill reported. In a statement to the outlet, Gaetz called Dimmock a “Missouri-based DEI instructor”. Gaetz wrote:
Aaron is not in Kansas City anymore. This is Trump Country. Our pronouns are USA and MAGA. I’m a proud Trump Republican. I stand shoulder to shoulder with President Trump to defeat Joe Biden, secure our border, restore our economy, and support our veterans.
The primary challenge comes as tensions remain high between Gaetz and Kevin McCarthy, months after the former speaker was ousted from his post with the help of Gaetz. Allies of McCarthy have been working to recruit challengers to Gaetz, the Washington Post reported.
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More than 100 rights groups have sent a letter demanding Congress and Joe Biden reinstate funding to the UN relief agency for Palestinians (Unrwa).
The letter comes after the president signed a $95bn foreign aid package that finalized the Biden administration’s suspension of US funding to the UN agency, a “lifeline for the Palestinian people in Gaza” that Israel has sought to disband.
An independent review published last week said that Israel had yet to present evidence of its claims that employees of the relief agency are affiliated with terrorist organizations.
On Wednesday, Germany, Unrwa’s second-biggest donor after the US, announced that it will resume cooperation and funding to Unrwa operations in the Gaza Strip.
The letter by more than 100 immigrant, refugee, human rights and humanitarian organizations, seen by HuffPost, reads:
Cutting off funding to Unrwa completely erodes the international community’s ability to respond to one of the worst humanitarian crises of our time.
It added that international non-governmental organizations and other UN agencies have “repeatedly stated that they do not have the personnel, resources, or infrastructure to respond to the humanitarian needs in Gaza appropriately.”
The day so far
Congress is lurching back into gear, with the House convening to consider several pieces of legislation that amount to conservative messaging platforms with poor prospects in the Democratic-led Senate. One of the bills coming up would crack down on antisemitism by forcing the government to adopt a definition that has been criticized for equating condemnation of Israel with prejudice against Jews. The top House Democrat, Hakeem Jeffries, wrote to the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, asking him to hold a vote on a different piece of legislation that has bipartisan support – we’ll see if that goes anywhere. Speaking of Johnson, all eyes are on Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right congresswoman who is attempting to boot him from the speaker’s post for his collaboration with Democrats. She does not seem to have much support, but has reportedly vowed to press on.
Here’s what else is going on today:
Joe Biden and Mexico’s president Andrés Manuel López Obrador pledged to work together to deter migrants.
Campus protests over Israel’s invasion of Gaza showed no signs of ebbing over the weekend.
More grim poll numbers for Biden, including that voters increasingly view Donald Trump’s presidency as a success.
CNN came out this weekend with some familiar disquieting news for Joe Biden: the president trails Donald Trump in general election polling.
In a head-to-head matchup, CNN finds Trump leads Biden with 49% support against the president’s 43%. But there’s a caveat: the use of national polls is somewhat limited, given that a handful of swing states is what will decide the election (some polls have lately shown Biden struggling in these states, while others indicate the president is regaining momentum.) But the CNN survey is also a warning for Biden’s hopes to campaign on the economy’s recovery during his administration.
CNN find 55% of respondents see Trump’s presidency as a success, versus the 44% who regard it as a failure. In January 2021, after the January 6 attack and before Trump left office, it was about the opposite. As for Biden, 61% of respondents see his presidency as a failure, and 33% a success.
Updated
Last week, Joe Biden vowed to take another stab at convincing Congress to pass legislation that would allow him to tighten immigration policy and deter new migrants from entering the United States.
But Politico reports that nothing significant appears to be in the works – a consequences of the opposition from Donald Trump and his Republican allies in Congress that would likely kill any compromise reached on the highly divisive issue:
Talks around resuscitating the bipartisan border compromise that senators struck in February have been nonexistent in Washington. And despite the president’s proclamation, administration officials and immigration policy experts both say it’s highly unlikely any legislative momentum for border security materializes between now and November.
“They pulled a rabbit out of a hat on Ukraine, but there’s no chance they’re getting anything out of Mike Johnson’s House on border security,” said an immigration advocate familiar with the White House’s thinking, granted anonymity to discuss private conversations with administration officials. “They’ve known that since December, when they realized they had to count votes in the House. There’s no chance of legislation on this, and they know that. It’s rhetorical posturing.”
Biden’s comments last week underscored the administration’s desire to try and turn the politics of the border — long an albatross for Democrats — into something more advantageous. After former President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers tanked the compromise bill, the White House moved to put blame for the crisis at their feet. The president has openly weighed the possibility of taking executive action and, as he did upon signing the foreign aid bill, talked up the need to revisit the legislation.
“I proposed and negotiated and agreed to the strongest border security bill this country has ever, ever, ever seen,” he said last week, speaking about its exclusion from the foreign aid package. “It was bipartisan. It should have been included in this bill, and I’m determined to get it done for the American people.”
But, in reality, there’s been no behind-the-scenes jockeying from the White House to restart talks, in part because the White House believes that the migration crisis has temporarily stabilized, with illegal border crossings dipping again in March to 137,000.
Biden and Mexican president pledge to 'significantly reduce irregular border crossings'
Joe Biden and Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador have released a joint statement in which they pledged to search for new ways to decrease border crossings by undocumented migrants, as the US president faces pressure to crack down on the issue of immigration ahead of the November elections.
Polls have indicated that Americans are markedly concerned about migrants entering the country from Mexico, which have surged under Biden’s presidency. The president has called for Congress to change immigration policy to give him the power to turn back more arrivals, but the Senate rejected a recent bipartisan deal to do so in part due to the opposition of Donald Trump. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee allowed the separation of migrant families during his first four years in office, and is reportedly planning mass deportations of undocumented people if returned to the White House.
The statement from Biden and López Obrador did not specify what new measures the countries would together take, but could set the stage for the US president to use his powers to unilaterally attempt to deter migrants. Here’s what they said:
In the short term, the two leaders ordered their national security teams to work together to immediately implement concrete measures to significantly reduce irregular border crossings while protecting human rights. President Biden and President López Obrador also pledged to advance initiatives to address the root causes of migration throughout the Western Hemisphere, noting that increasing shared prosperity and security will be of critical importance in effectively addressing the migration challenge over the longer term.
Updated
On Friday, protesters at the City University of New York heard a rare live address from one of the country’s best known incarcerated political activists, encouraging them to keep up their struggle, the Guardian’s Nina Lakhani reports:
In a powerful and rousing live address to students at the City University of New York (Cuny) on Friday night, the incarcerated Black political activist Mumia Abu-Jamal praised the pro-Palestinian movement growing at US colleges as being on the right side of history.
“It is a wonderful thing that you have decided not to be silent and decided to speak out against the repression that you see with your own eyes,” Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther, said while calling from Pennsylvania’s Mahanoy state prison. “You are part of something massive, and you are part of something that is on the right side of history.
“You’re against a colonial regime that steals the land from the people who are Indigenous to that area. I urge you to speak out against the terrorism that is afflicted upon Gaza with all of your might, all of your will and all of your strength. Do not bow to those who want you to be silent.”
As hundreds of students and supporters at the Cuny encampment in Harlem cheered, he continued, “This is the moment to be heard and shake the earth so that the people of Gaza, the people of Rafah, the people of the West Bank, the people of Palestine can feel your solidarity with them.”
Updated
Congress’s concern over antisemitism comes amid a wave of protests at college campuses over Israel’s invasion of Gaza that the Guardian’s Edward Helmore reports showed no signs of letting up over the weekend. Republicans have seized on these protests to argue universities are not doing enough to protect Jewish students, while supporters of the demonstrations argue they are merely drawing public attention to the devastation in Gaza, and asking campus administrators to cut ties with Israel:
Student protests on US university campuses over Israel’s war on Gaza showed little sign of letting up over the weekend, with protesters vowing to continue until their demands for US educational bodies to disentangle from companies profiting from the conflict are met.
In what is perhaps the most significant student movement since the anti-Vietnam campus protests of the late 1960s, the conflict between pro-Palestinian students and university administrators has revealed an entire subset of conflicts.
The drone of helicopters over New York’s Washington Square Park on Monday previewed the arrival of the strategic response group (SRG), the New York police department’s specialist counter-terrorism and political protests division, which set about arresting more than 120 New York University students and faculty members who had been circulating on a campus sidewalk to the chant of: “Israel bombs, NYU pays, how many kids have you killed today?”
Top House Democrat calls for vote on legislation to counter antisemitism
The Democratic House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries has released a letter to Republican speaker Mike Johnson requesting consideration of a bipartisan bill to counter antisemitism.
The chamber is expected this week to consider the Antisemitism Awareness Act, a different bill that would require the education department to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism – which has been criticized for equating criticism of Israel with prejudice against Jews.
In his letter, Jeffries asks Johnson to allow a vote on the Bipartisan Countering Antisemitism Act, which would create a federal coordinator to fight anti-Jewish sentiment.
It’s unclear if Johnson will take his Democratic counterpart up on his request. Here’s Jeffries’s letter:
Letter to Speaker Mike Johnson on the Bipartisan Countering Antisemitism Act. pic.twitter.com/z3weUD54zm
— Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) April 29, 2024
The first week of Donald Trump’s hush-money trial in New York centered on the testimony of David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer tabloid.
He elaborated on the tactic of “catch and kill”, which is when a publication negotiates exclusive rights to stories to prevent their publication, and whether or not Trump was attempting to carry out such a scheme ahead of his 2016 election victory.
For a look back at the first week of the trial, check out our Trump on Trial newsletter authored by the Guardian’s Cameron Joseph, which you can sign up to have delivered to your inbox here:
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One big story about which we do not expect any news today is Donald Trump’s trial on charges of falsifying business records in New York, which is taking Monday off. But as the Guardian’s David Smith reports, for the former president’s supporters, the trial may as well not be happening at all:
In one America, he cuts a diminished, humbled figure during coverage that runs from morn till night. “He seems considerably older and he seems annoyed, resigned, maybe angry,” said broadcaster Rachel Maddow after seeing Donald Trump up close in court. “He seems like a man who is miserable to be here.”
But in the other America – that of Fox News, far-right podcasts and the Make America Great Again (Maga) base – the trial of the former president over a case involving a hush-money payment to an adult film performer is playing out very differently.
Here, anger at what is seen as political persecution meets with another emotion: sublime indifference. Barely a handful of Trump supporters bother to protest each day outside the court in New York, a Democratic stronghold. The trial receives less prominence in conservative media, which prefers to devote airtime to other national news including protests on university campuses against the war in Gaza.
The divergence ensures that, with TV cameras not permitted in court, two rival narratives are forming around the first criminal trial of an ex-US president. In one telling, Trump is a philander who falsified business records to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election. In the other, he is the victim of a justice department conspiracy designed to rob the Republican nominee of victory in 2024.
Politico has attempted to get a sense of just what Marjorie Taylor Greene plans to do, and when she plans to do it.
They report that many senior House Republicans think Greene will ultimately drop her effort to boot Mike Johnson from the speaker’s chair, which drew a strong denial from a staffer to the Georgia congresswoman.
“That’s absurd,” her deputy chief of staff Nick Dyer told Politico, while declining to elaborate on when Greene would act.
He added:
Anyone who is saying she is backing down is high, drunk, or simply out of their mind.
Will far-right Republicans seek revenge on Mike Johnson for Ukraine, surveillance votes?
When the House gets back to work today, may find out whether Marjorie Taylor Greene’s push to remove Mike Johnson as speaker has any momentum.
The Georgia congresswoman made the proposal more than a month ago, after the speaker worked with Democrats to pass government funding bills that Greene objected to. In the weeks since, he has again worked with the House minority to pass legislation approving aid to Ukraine and Israel, and reauthorizing a controversial surveillance law.
Greene has continued tweeting her fury, but has not picked up much explicit support for removing Johnson so far. The only other lawmakers who have publicly signed on to the push are Kentucky’s Thomas Massie:
Speaker Johnson enlisted a majority of Democrats to override a majority of Republicans so he could:
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) April 28, 2024
1) pass an omnibus that spends more than Pelosi did, including a new FBI building.
2) reauthorize warrantless spying on Americans
3) send $60 billion to Ukraine
Unforgivable. pic.twitter.com/eSKWcJdu5t
And Arizona’s Paul Gosar:
My statement joining .@RepThomasMassie on cosponsoring .@RepMTG Motion to Vacate:
— Rep. Paul Gosar, DDS (@RepGosar) April 19, 2024
Gosar Statement on Supporting the Motion to Vacate the Speaker
Washington, D.C. -- Congressman Paul A. Gosar, D.D.S. (AZ-09), issued the following statement after cosponsoring H.Res. 1103,…
When Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker last year, it took the votes of eight Republicans (a group that did not include Massie or Green) and all Democrats. While such a coalition could still come together among the GOP to boot Johnson, it would run up against another problem: Democrats may not be interested in removing from office a speaker who worked with them to pass government funding and foreign aid bills, both priorities for Joe Biden’s allies.
This post has been corrected to note that Paul Gosar is also supporting the motion to remove Mike Johnson as speaker.
Updated
House Republicans convene to push immigration, environmental policies as Johnson ouster threat stagnates
Good morning, US politics blog readers.
The House of Representatives is back in business today and its Republican majority is trying to make the most of their time in control of Congress’s lower chamber, with plans to take up a host of bills reflecting conservative priorities on immigration and the environment. Among these is a resolution denouncing Joe Biden for the wave of undocumented people that have crossed the southern border during his presidency, and bills to allow oil production on protected land in Alaska and to remove the classification of gray wolves as an endangered species. While some Democrats may lend support from across the aisle, many of these proposals are simply messaging bills meant to impress GOP voters back home ahead of the November elections, and will probably be rejected by the Democratic-led Senate.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a work day for the House GOP without some infighting. Rightwing congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has proposed ousting speaker Mike Johnson from office, citing, among other things, his support for Ukraine. The warning has lingered for more than a month and only one other Republican has signed on, but Greene continues to insist that Johnson’s “days as Speaker are numbered” – we’ll see if she makes any progress when she returns to Capitol Hill today.
Here’s what else is happening:
Joe Biden is doing nothing public today, but White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will tango with reporters at her 1.30pm ET briefing.
Donald Trump’s trial in New York on charges related to allegedly falsifying business documents has the day off today, but will resume on Tuesday.
Secretary of state Antony Blinken is visiting Saudi Arabia, where he said “measurable progress” had been made in getting aid into Gaza. Follow our live blog for more.
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