Today's recap
The speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, announced that Republicans would open an impeachment investigation into Joe Biden over unproven allegations of corruption in his family’s business dealings. House Republicans have so far have not produced hard evidence linking the business dealings of Hunter Biden and his father.
The announcement by McCarthy kicks off what are expected to be weeks of Republican-led hearings intended to convince Americans that the president profited from the business dealings of his son Hunter Biden and other family members. While impeachment can be the first step to removing a president from office, that appears unlikely to happen.
A spokesperson for the Biden-Harris 2024 campaign said McCarthy has “cemented his role as the Trump campaign’s super-surrogate by turning the House of Representatives into an arm of his presidential campaign”. Donald Trump has been weighing in behind the scenes in support of the House GOP push to impeach his successor, according to a report.
Ian Sams, the White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations, described McCarthy’s announcement as “extreme politics at its worst”, adding that House GOP members had uncovered “no evidence of wrongdoing” in the months-long investigation into Joe Biden.
It is unclear if the GOP has the evidence to substantiate the long-running claims, or even the votes for impeachment. McCarthy plans to convene House GOP members behind closed doors this week to discuss the Biden impeachment.
James Comer, the chair of the House oversight committee leading the impeachment inquiry into Biden, spent “eight months of abject failure” in trying to prove the president guilty of wrongdoing, a watchdog released earlier this week said. The report by the Congressional Integrity Project offers an anatomy of a fake scandal, detailing a series of exaggerated assertions that have shriveled under scrutiny.
Vladimir Putin described the recent indictments of Donald Trump as “political persecution” as the Russian leader waded back into a US presidential campaign for the third consecutive election cycle. “I believe that everything happening at the moment is good. Because it demonstrates the rottenness of the American political system,” Putin remarked during an economic forum in the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok.
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The tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, has “had conversations” with No Labels, a group considering launching a third-party candidate in the 2024 election. Names linked to a No Labels candidacy have included Joe Manchin, the Democratic senator from West Virginia, and Larry Hogan, a former Republican governor of Maryland.
You can read the full report on the impeachment inquiry here:
Almost all the Republicans running for the presidential nomination have endorsed the impeachment inquiry.
Donald Trump is notably the only one who’s called impeachment outright. Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, Mike Pence, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy have all expressed support for the inquiry.
Meanwhile, Chris Christie said he supports investigations, but noted, “I think we’re cheapening impeachment by doing that kind of thing.”
Will Hurd, meanwhile said an investigation was warranted, but warned that if no evidence is found “I worry Republicans are walking into a political trap.”
Women challenge abortion bans in three states after emergency care denied
Women who say they were denied abortions in medical emergencies have taken legal action in Idaho, Oklahoma and Tennessee, in the latest attempt to challenge abortion bans that, abortion patients and doctors say, prevent people from getting care even when their health is in danger.
The lawsuits in Idaho and Tennessee, along with a federal complaint against a hospital in Oklahoma, were filed on Tuesday by the Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed a similar lawsuit on behalf of women in Texas earlier this year. Tuesday’s filings were first reported by the Washington Post.
“I can’t stop bad things from happening to people’s pregnancies,” Jennifer Adkins, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit filed in Idaho, told the Post. “But I want other Idahoans to feel safe and cared for.”
After the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade last year, states across the south and midwest enacted near-total abortion bans, many of which only allow abortions in cases of medical emergencies. However, doctors have repeatedly said that these bans, which contain non-medical language drafted by politicians, are too vague for medical providers to interpret. Instead, they are forced to wait until their patients get sick enough for them to intervene.
Read more:
Interim summary
It’s been a busy Tuesday so far. Here’s where things stand:
The speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, announced that Republicans would open an impeachment investigation into Joe Biden over unproven allegations of corruption in his family’s business dealings. House Republicans have so far have not produced hard evidence linking the business dealings of Hunter Biden and his father.
The announcement by McCarthy kicks off what are expected to be weeks of Republican-led hearings intended to convince Americans that the president profited from the business dealings of his son Hunter Biden and other family members. While impeachment can be the first step to removing a president from office, that appears unlikely to happen.
A spokesperson for the Biden-Harris 2024 campaign said McCarthy has “cemented his role as the Trump campaign’s super-surrogate by turning the House of Representatives into an arm of his presidential campaign”. Donald Trump has been weighing in behind the scenes in support of the House GOP push to impeach his successor, according to a report.
Ian Sams, the White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations, described McCarthy’s announcement as “extreme politics at its worst”, adding that House GOP members had uncovered “no evidence of wrongdoing” in the months-long investigation into Joe Biden.
It is unclear if the GOP has the evidence to substantiate the long-running claims, or even the votes for impeachment. McCarthy plans to convene House GOP members behind closed doors this week to discuss the Biden impeachment.
James Comer, the chair of the House oversight committee leading the impeachment inquiry into Biden, spent “eight months of abject failure” in trying to prove the president guilty of wrongdoing, a watchdog released earlier this week said. The report by the Congressional Integrity Project offers an anatomy of a fake scandal, detailing a series of exaggerated assertions that have shriveled under scrutiny.
Vladimir Putin described the recent indictments of Donald Trump as “political persecution” as the Russian leader waded back into a US presidential campaign for the third consecutive election cycle. “I believe that everything happening at the moment is good. Because it demonstrates the rottenness of the American political system,” Putin remarked during an economic forum in the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok.
The tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, has “had conversations” with No Labels, a group considering launching a third-party candidate in the 2024 election. Names linked to a No Labels candidacy have included Joe Manchin, the Democratic senator from West Virginia, and Larry Hogan, a former Republican governor of Maryland.
Donald Trump has been weighing in behind the scenes in support of the House GOP push to impeach Joe Biden, including regularly speaking with a member of leadership in the lead up to Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s announcement on Tuesday, according to a Politico report.
Trump has been speaking on a weekly basis with House GOP conference chair Elise Stefanik, who was the first member of Republican leadership to come out in support of impeachment, the report says.
The former president had dinner on Sunday night with the far-right congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor Greene, at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where the topic of impeachment was discussed, the report says.
Two Ron DeSantis hats put up for auction at a Republican dinner in Florida at the weekend received precisely no bids, according to local party officials, suggesting his presidential campaign in his home state is going as badly as it is nationwide.
Details come in this story by Newsweek, which says nobody signed up to bid on either of the red and white caps at the St Johns county GOP founders dinner in Ponte Vedra Beach on Saturday. St Johns is where the Florida governor was born.
Wow. Not a single person bid on the DeSantis hats at the St. Johns GOP meeting. St. Johns County, FL is literally his home county. Sad! pic.twitter.com/ENuNp2XKbW
— Caroline Wren (@CarolineWren) September 10, 2023
A photo of the barren sign-up sheets was posted to X, formerly Twitter, by Republican fundraiser Caroline Wren, the image taken two and a half hours after the event began.
Blake Paterson, chair of the county’s Republican party, confirmed to Newsweek that the hats had attracted no bidders, though he characterized the event as a giveaway in exchange for donations rather than an auction.
Those in attendance at the dinner appeared to be overwhelmingly supporters of Donald Trump, DeSantis’s rival for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. They included Florida congressman Byron Donalds, a vocal Trump acolyte, and extremist conspiracy theorist Kari Lake, failed candidate for governor of Arizona in last year’s election.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy plans to convene House GOP members behind closed doors this week to discuss the Biden impeachment, amid uncertainty over whether he even has the support of rank-and-file Republicans behind him.
McCarthy is launching the impeachment inquiry on his own and without a House floor vote, as he may not have enough support from his slim GOP majority, AP reported.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has warned House Republicans off the effort, but on Tuesday he said:
I don’t think Speaker McCarthy needs advice from the Senate.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reacts to possible Biden impeachment inquiry:
— The Recount (@therecount) September 12, 2023
“I don’t have any advice to give to the House. They’ve got a totally different set of challenges … So I think the best advice for the Senate is to do our job and we’ll see how this plays out.” pic.twitter.com/lBzmvy6Yum
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer called the impeachment inquiry “absurd”. He told reporters:
The American people want us to do something that will make their lives better, not go off on these chases and witch hunts.
House GOP members have found an “overwhelming” amount of evidence showing Joe Biden “lied to the American people about his knowledge and participation in his family’s influence peddling schemes”, according to a joint statement by James Comer, Jim Jordan and Jason Smith.
Comer, Jordan and Smith chair the three committees expected to take the lead in the impeachment inquiry into the president. They are: the House committee on oversight and accountability, committee on the judiciary, and the committee on ways and means.
The statement says the investigation into Biden uncovered “bank records, suspicious activity reports, emails, texts, and witness testimony” that showed the president “allowed his family to sell him as ‘the brand’ around the world”.
Based on the evidence, we support the opening of an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. The House Committees on Oversight and Accountability, Judiciary, and Ways and Means, will continue to work to follow the facts to ensure President Biden is held accountable for abusing public office for his family’s financial gain. The American people demand and deserve answers, transparency, and accountability for this blatant abuse of public office.
House Republicans have so far have not produced hard evidence linking the business dealings of Hunter Biden and the president.
Updated
Senate Republicans are unhappy with House speaker Kevin McCarthy’s decision to open an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden and concerned that it will backfire on the party, according to the Hill.
A Senate Republican, speaking on condition on anonymity, told the newspaper that even if the House did vote to impeach Biden after an inquiry, there is no way the Democrat-controlled Senate would vote to convict. Reports indicate McCarthy does not yet have enough votes in support of impeaching Biden.
“It’s a waste of time. It’s a fool’s errand,” the GOP senator was quoted as saying.
We know how this is going to end. It just creates tumult within the conference. I can see it already how people are going to react when they send a message over if they go that far.
They noted that all the internal polling they had seen suggested GOP primary voters do not see impeachment as a priority. The senator added:
It seems like we’re spending a lot of time on things that matter to them that don’t matter to the people I want to have a positive opinion of Republicans next November … This is not driving [general election] turnout.
“They’re all acting like children,” the GOP senator added.
Here’s a statement from Jamaal Bowman, a Democratic congressman from New York, who accused House speaker Kevin McCarthy of announcing a “sham” impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden in order to “bring attention away from the failures of House Republicans to be able to pass a budget and avoid a government shutdown”.
The statement reads:
Speaker McCarthy and the dysfunctional Republican party are wasting time with their comical impeachment inquiry into President Biden instead of focusing on passing appropriations bills. We’re just 3 weeks away from a government shutdown where millions of government employees won’t get paid, small businesses won’t be able to apply for federal loans, the NIH has to shut down most medical research, and more. We should be focused on doing our job by helping the American people & funding critical services, not forcing a shutdown & plotting baseless impeachment inquiries.
It goes on:
This is yet another example of Republican dysfunction and continues to show why many across the country do not want to trust or participate in our government.
To the supposed Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy,
— Rep. Jamaal Bowman Ed.D. (@JamaalBowmanNY) September 12, 2023
You are the worst coward, man.
You’re opening an inquiry into President Joe Biden for one reason only:
You are afraid of the extremists and terrified they will strip your power and you’re trying to district Americans from… pic.twitter.com/xGwRnbJOAB
Updated
Ken Buck, a Republican congressman for Colorado and House Freedom caucus member, has previously expressed skepticism about an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden.
On Sunday, Buck said any evidence linking the president to any high crime or misdemeanor “doesn’t exist right now”. His recent comments against the House GOP’s investigative efforts and track record of bucking his own party have put a target on his back, according to a CNN report.
A serious effort is now under way to find a candidate to mount a primary challenge against Buck in his eastern Colorado seat, the news channel reported, citing sources.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right congresswoman from Georgia and ally of House speaker Kevin McCarthy, told the channel there is an “unbelievable” level of frustration with Buck inside the House GOP. Greene added that she didn’t think he should remain in his role on the House judiciary committee or the GOP whip’s team.
“This is the same guy that wrote a book called ‘Drain the Swamp’, who is now arguing against an impeachment inquiry,” Greene said.
I really don’t see how we can have a member on Judiciary that is flat out refusing to impeach … It seems like, can he even be trusted to do his job at this point?
Updated
Kevin McCarthy 'doing Trump's bidding' by calling for Biden impeachment inquiry, says Biden campaign
A spokesperson for the Biden-Harris 2024 campaign released a statement in response to House speaker Kevin McCarthy’s announcement backing a formal impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden.
McCarthy has “cemented his role as the Trump campaign’s super-surrogate by turning the House of Representatives into an arm of his presidential campaign”, the statement by Ammar Moussa reads.
11 days ago, McCarthy unequivocally said he would not move forward with an impeachment inquiry without holding a vote on the House floor. What has changed since then?
The Biden-Harris campaign added:
Several members of the Speaker’s own conference have come out and publicly panned impeachment as a political stunt, pointing out there is no evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden as Republicans litigate the same debunked conspiracy theories they’ve investigated for over four years.
A Virginia Democrat running in a closely contested legislative election has denounced reports that she and her husband engaged in sex acts livestreamed on an online platform in exchange for “tips”.
Susanna Gibson, a nurse practitioner and a first-time candidate seeking a seat in Virginia’s house of delegates, shared the videos on a platform called Chaturbate.
The videos, which were first reported by the Washington Post and then confirmed by the Associated Press, show Gibson urging viewers to provide tips in the form of Chaturbate tokens in exchange for her performance of specific sex acts with her husband. The videos were archived in 2022, though it is unclear when the live streams occurred.
According to the Post’s report, a Republican operative first alerted the newspaper to the existence of the videos, which had been archived on another site. In a statement, Gibson denounced the report as a form of “gutter politics” and “an illegal invasion of my privacy designed to humiliate me and my family”.
“It won’t intimidate me and it won’t silence me,” Gibson said.
My political opponents and their Republican allies have proven they’re willing to commit a sex crime to attack me and my family because there’s no line they won’t cross to silence women when they speak up.
A lawyer representing Gibson, Daniel P Watkins, told the Post that the videos may have violated Virginia’s revenge porn law, adding: “We are working closely with state and federal law enforcement.”
Gibson’s district, located just north-west of Richmond, is considered one of just a handful of competitive seats in the race to control Virginia’s house of delegates. In the last legislative session, Republicans narrowly controlled the chamber, while Democrats maintained a slim majority in the state senate.
Peter Navarro’s contempt of Congress conviction has “everybody in that frigging White House” feeling as if they are grappling with “massive legal bills and … prison time”, the ex-Donald Trump administration official said on Monday.
Navarro’s remarks came in an interview with the far-right media outlet Newsmax in which he used the term “SOBs” – short for sons of bitches – to refer to the US justice department prosecutors who secured a guilty verdict against him last week.
Lamenting that prosecutors had pushed to “stick me in leg irons … [and] with half a million dollars of legal bills”, Navarro pledged to seek a reversal of his conviction from an appellate court. Navarro told the host Eric Bolling:
We’re gonna win this fight – that’s why God created the appeals court.
Navarro served as a senior trade adviser during Trump’s presidency, which ended in the Republican’s defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Congress subpoenaed him in February 2022 to answer questions about why Trump supporters attacked the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, temporarily delaying certification of Biden’s electoral victory.
A House committee convened to investigate the attack suspected Navarro had more information about any connection between false claims of voter fraud in that election which Trump allies had pushed and the assault on the Capitol. But Navarro refused to testify while also declining to turn over any emails, reports or notes.
Navarro’s attorney argued that the defendant asked the committee to talk to Trump to see what information he wanted protected under executive privilege, which never happened. Prosecutors countered that Navarro should have handed over the materials he had while labeling those he believed were privileged.
On Thursday, a jury convicted Navarro of two misdemeanor charges of contempt of Congress, each of which is punishable by between 30 days and a year in prison. His sentencing has tentatively been scheduled for 12 January.
Updated
From the White House, Ian Sams, spokesperson for oversight and investigations, emails the statement he tweeted earlier.
Rather than recap it, as it is currently pinned above, I shall merely note that the Guardian style guide says “flip-flopped” takes a hyphen. So it goes.
The White House also wants reporters to note quotes from six House Republicans who have said or indicated they are not convinced an impeachment inquiry is merited.
The group ranges from Ken Buck of Colorado, a strong conservative, to Mike Lawler of New York, the sort of blue-state relative moderate pollsters think might be endangered if voters do not take kindly to the move against Biden.
It’s worth remembering of course that McCarthy only has a five-seat majority, pending any House vote to impeach the president.
The White House also sent a couple of recent quotes in which McCarthy said an inquiry should be the result of a vote, not “through a declaration by one person”.
As described by Politico, the speaker has now performed “a neat bit of hypocrisy after he excoriated then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi for pulling the same move against Donald Trump in 2019”.
We should expect a lot more of this sort of thing to come, obviously.
Republican reaction to House speaker Kevin McCarthy’s endorsement of an impeachment inquiry continues to roll out – or click out? – of the corridors of Capitol Hill.
John Thune of South Dakota, the No 2 Republican in the Senate: “My solution to changing things around here is to win elections. I think we ought to be focused on that, but [McCarthy] is under a lot of pressure over there from members of his caucus.
“One thing I do know is I don’t think it’d be advantageous, obviously, if this thing went further [eg, to the Senate for trial], with all the other things that we have to do … I think you got to win elections. That’s how, in my view, you change the direction of the country.”
Mitt Romney of Utah, 2012 Republican nominee for president and only senator to vote to convict Donald Trump in both his impeachment trials: “There’s been no allegation of a high crime or misdemeanor that would meet the constitutional test. So that’s a very different matter. We’ll see if that arises.”
Updated
News that Kevin McCarthy had endorsed an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden landed while Wes Moore, the Democratic governor of Maryland, was speaking at an event in Washington DC, hosted by Semafor.
Moore, 44 and a combat veteran and Rhodes scholar who was elected last year as the first Black governor in the 246-year history of his state, is widely regarded as a potential candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination next time around, in 2028, or after.
That didn’t stop the governor’s host at the Gallup building on F Street, Semafor editor-at-large Steve Clemons, opening with: “Democrats say, ‘President Biden has set us up, given us a bad choice. Why don’t you get Wes Moore to primary him?’ Any interest in higher office?
To laughter, Moore said: “Good morning, everybody. And no, none.”
Later, around the time McCarthy was speaking to the press at the Capitol, not too far to the east, Moore outlined why he supports Biden wholeheartedly for another term.
“You are not going to find a more vocal support person like me,” he said. “And the reason I say this because I’m on the ground. I see the work.”
Detailing benefits to Maryland he said were owed to partnership with the Biden administration, Moore added: “So frankly, I can get the arguments when people say, ‘Well, we need to get excited because democracy is on the line.’ And all that is very true. I mean, you don’t need to look much further into what’s going on right now. I understand that democracy actually is on the line. I get that.
“But I’m not excited to support President Biden because I’m fearful about what the alternatives [might be]. I’m excited to support President Biden because, look at the first nine months” of the Moore administration. “Imagine if you give me four years.
“… The president has been to our state, to multiple locations. That’s the partner I want. And that’s the partner that I need.”
Here’s some more on Moore, to the Guardian, before his election last year:
Updated
Just over an hour before Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced he would direct his committees to open a formal impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, Senator Lindsey Graham reportedly told journalists:
The way to make inquiry legitimate is to have a vote as to whether or not you should have one at all, rather than just the leadership deciding.
From CBS News’ Alan He:
Lindsey Graham to Senate reporters at 10am
— Alan He (@alanhe) September 12, 2023
“The way to make inquiry legitimate is to have a vote as to whether or not you should have one at all, rather than just the leadership deciding.” https://t.co/sJFBohVavm
As we reported earlier, House speaker Kevin McCarthy said less than a fortnight ago that an impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden would only move forward if there is a formal House vote.
In 2019, McCarthy posted a tweet warning his predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, that she could not call on an impeachment probe against Donald Trump without a House vote. He wrote:
Speaker Pelosi can’t decide on impeachment unilaterally. It requires a full vote of the House of Representatives.
Here are the facts:
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) September 24, 2019
1. Speaker Pelosi can't decide on impeachment unilaterally. It requires a full vote of the House of Representatives.
2. The House has voted three times on articles of impeachment. Each vote failed.
3. For Dems, this is all about politics. Not about facts.
Updated
White House spokesperson blasts McCarthy’s move as 'extreme politics at its worst'
Ian Sams, the White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations, has also responded to Kevin McCarthy’s announcement.
Posting to Twitter, Sams described the House speaker’s move as “extreme politics at its worst”, adding that House GOP members have uncovered “no evidence of wrongdoing” in the months-long investigation into Joe Biden.
House Republicans have been investigating the President for 9 months, and they've turned up no evidence of wrongdoing
— Ian Sams (@IanSams46) September 12, 2023
His own GOP members have said so
He vowed to hold a vote to open impeachment, now he flip flopped because he doesn't have support
Extreme politics at its worst
Updated
John Fetterman, the Democratic senator for Pennsylvania, was asked to respond to House speaker Kevin McCarthy’s announcement.
Here’s the clip from NBC’s Liz Brown-Kaiser:
.@SenFettermanPA reacts to Speaker McCarthy moving forward with a House impeachment inquiry into POTUS…
— Liz Brown-Kaiser (@lizbrownkaiser) September 12, 2023
(Just watch) pic.twitter.com/jg3aeyDW7F
Fetterman had previously dared Republicans to impeach the president, saying that doing so could end up hurting the GOP.
Updated
Just earlier this month, Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he wouldn’t move forward with an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden without a floor vote.
In an interview with Breitbart published on 1 September, McCarthy made clear that the move would come not as an announcement from him or anyone else, but from a formal vote on the floor of the House. He said:
To open an impeachment inquiry is a serious matter, and House Republicans would not take it lightly or use it for political purposes. The American people deserve to be heard on this matter through their elected representatives.
That’s why, if we move forward with an impeachment inquiry, it would occur through a vote on the floor of the People’s House and not through a declaration by one person.
He now appears to have changed his mind.
Updated
A spokesperson for Speaker Kevin McCarthy said the House is not expected to vote on the impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, Reuters is reporting.
Updated
Biden impeachment effort ‘eight months of abject failure’ – watchdog
James Comer, the chair of the House of Representatives’ oversight committee leading the Republican charge for an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, spent “eight months of abject failure” in trying to prove the US president guilty of wrongdoing, according to a watchdog report released on Monday.
In June, Comer and Senator Chuck Grassley, investigating Hunter Biden’s work for the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, began touting potential audio tapes supposedly proving that Biden accepted a $5m bribe from the energy firm during the Barack Obama administration. But Comer later admitted: “We don’t know if they are legit or not” during a Newsmax interview just five days later.
In July, after weeks of hype from Comer about “bombshell testimony”, a business associate of Hunter Biden named Devon Archer appeared before the House oversight committee. But Archer failed to offer any evidence of a conflict of interest between the president and his son’s business ventures.
Comer made much of a portion of testimony by Archer suggesting that Biden joined Hunter on speakerphone while talking with business associates up to 20 times. The report says:
The reality, however, was that Archer’s testimony referred to approximately 20 instances over the span of a decade in which Hunter indicated Joe Biden was merely present; Archer did not testify that President Biden was directly involved in business discussions beyond ‘the brand’ – only that he held casual conversations about ‘the weather’ and ‘fishing’.”
Comer himself was not even present for the testimony. One anonymous Republican source was quoted as saying:
It was like following a general into battle, but the general decided to stay home instead of fight.
In early August, Comer released a memo that attacked Biden for supposedly receiving bribes from foreign countries. It was widely derided by factcheckers. The Politico website reported:
But the memo, the third Comer has released so far this year, also doesn’t show a direct payment to Joe Biden.
Updated
Donald Trump, who faces 91 criminal charges in four jurisdictions, has urged Republicans in Congress to impeach Joe Biden or “fade into oblivion”.
The former president, who was impeached twice himself, told Real America’s Voice:
I don’t know actually how a Republican could not do it. I think a Republican would be primaried and lose immediately, no matter what district you’re in.
In a post on his Truth Social platform last month, Trump wrote:
Biden is a Stone Cold Crook — You don’t need a long INQUIRY to prove it, it’s already proven. These lowlifes Impeached me TWICE (I WON!), and Indicted me FOUR TIMES – For NOTHING! Either IMPEACH the BUM, or fade into OBLIVION. THEY DID IT TO US!”
McCarthy vows to 'go wherever the evidence takes us' as he formally endorses Biden impeachment inquiry
McCarthy said his decision to direct a House committee to formally open a formal impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden was not taken lightly.
The House speaker said he believed that the president “would want to answer these questions and allegations” and that this “should concern all Americans” regardless of who they voted for.
The American people deserve to know that the public offices are not for sale and that the federal government is not being used to cover up the actions of a politically associated family.
I would encourage the president and his team to fully cooperate with this investigation in the interests of transparency. We are committed to getting the answers for the American public – nothing more, nothing less. We will go wherever the evidence takes us.
"These allegations paint a picture of a culture of corruption."
— The Recount (@therecount) September 12, 2023
— Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) endorses a House GOP-led impeachment inquiry into President Biden. pic.twitter.com/4VzUpq2UWQ
Updated
House investigation found a 'culture of corruption' around Biden family, says McCarthy
House speaker Kevin McCarthy said Republican-led investigations into Joe Biden “paint a picture of a culture of corruption”.
He said:
Through our investigations we have found that President Biden did lie to American people about his own knowledge of his family’s foreign business dealers. Eye witnesses have testified that the president joined on multiple phones and had multiple interactions, dinners that resulted in millions of dollars into his son and his son’s business partners.
McCarthy claimed bank records showed nearly $20m in payments were directed to the Biden family members and associates “through various shell companies”. He went on:
Despite the serious allegation, it appears that the president’s family has been offered special treatment by Biden’s own administration treatment that otherwise would not have received.
These are allegations of abuse of power, obstruction and corruption and they warrant further investigation by the House of Representatives.
He announced that he is directing the House committee to open a formal impeachment inquiry into the president, describing it as a “logical next step” that will give the committees “the full power to gather all the facts and answers for the American public”.
Updated
Kevin McCarthy calls for Biden impeachment inquiry
House speaker Kevin McCarthy has called for an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
Speaking to reporters, he said:
I am directing our House committee to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
More to follow.
Updated
Impeachment would require a majority vote in the House – where Republicans have a slim advantage – to formally charge Joe Biden, then a two-thirds vote in the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats, to convict him. It is therefore extremely unlikely to succeed.
Far-right Republicans in the House have agitated for impeaching the president but those who could face tough re-election battles next fall have been more skeptical.
“So the question to me right now is: do the investigations … are they producing enough facts and evidence that warrant taking it to the next step?” Mike Lawler, a New York Republican in a highly competitive district, told NBC News in August.
I don’t think it’s there at the moment, but these committees are doing their job.
In the Senate, some more moderate Republicans have also expressed skepticism about impeachment. Mitt Romney of Utah told HuffPost last week:
I haven’t seen any evidence at this stage to suggest he’s met the constitutional test for impeachment.
Even on the right of the Republican Senate caucus, enthusiasm for impeachment is scarce. Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville, a leading Trump ally, told reporters last week he was “not for going through another damn trial to be honest with you. [We] did that here with Trump.”
The report by the Congressional Integrity Project offers an anatomy of a fake scandal, detailing a series of exaggerated assertions that have shriveled under scrutiny.
They include James Comer, the chairman of the House of Representatives’ oversight committee, saying at his first press conference that he had evidence of “federal crimes committed”, relentlessly invoking “deep state” conspiracy theories and claiming that his whistleblowers “fear for their lives”.
The report states:
After months of political stunts, dozens of hearings, transcribed interviews, and memos, and despite hours on Fox peddling conspiracy theories, Comer and his Maga crew have failed to find a single shred of evidence linking President Biden to any of their lurid accusations.
In fact, Republicans have been forced to walk back claim after claim.
For months, the report says, Comer talked to the media about four individuals he claimed were “whistleblowers”, a term increasingly hijacked by the right. It adds:
Problem is – they weren’t whistleblowers and there were only two people.
Comer was eventually factchecked by his own colleague on the House oversight committee. Democrat Jamie Raskin wrote to him:
The two individuals your staff specifically identified as the individuals they understood to have been referenced during your March 6 Fox News interview, are not whistleblowers … Your repeated statements about ‘four people’ suggest that either you have intentionally misrepresented the Committee’s investigative progress to your conservative audience or that key investigative steps have been deliberately withheld from Committee Democrats.
Kevin McCarthy and the GOP House leadership scheduled a closed-door session for Thursday morning so that members could get an update on the investigations by House judiciary committee chair Jim Jordan and House oversight committee chair Jamie Comer, according to the Punchbowl News report.
On Monday, a report by the Congressional Integrity Project said Comer has spent “eight months of abject failure” in trying to prove Joe Biden guilty of wrongdoing. Comer has repeatedly overhyped allegations of bribery and corruption against Biden without once producing hard evidence, the report said.
Comer has been leading an aggressive investigation into unsubstantiated claims that Biden was involved in his son Hunter Biden’s foreign business affairs during his time as vice-president.
A CNN/SSRS poll this week found that 61% of Americans believe that Biden did play such a role, including 42% who think he acted illegally. But establishing the link between father and son has proved an elusive holy grail.
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We’re currently waiting for House speaker Kevin McCarthy to deliver an expected statement endorsing an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden.
McCarthy “has been moving in the direction of an impeachment inquiry, calling it a ‘natural step forward’ for the House GOP to gather more facts", according to NBC News.
Yet this morning, Punchbowl News reported that McCarthy is set to tell House Republicans later this week that an impeachment inquiry is the “logical next step” in the GOP’s investigations into the president and his son, Hunter Biden.
Kevin McCarthy to give statement ahead of expected endorsement of Biden impeachment inquiry
House speaker Kevin McCarthy plans to tell Republicans that the House has enough evidence to justify impeachment proceedings against Joe Biden, according to multiple reports.
McCarthy plans to tell his conference the impeachment inquiry is the “the logical next step” in order to obtain bank records and other documents from the president and his son, Hunter Biden, Punchbowl News reported.
In recent weeks, McCarthy has privately told Republicans he plans to pursue an impeachment inquiry into Biden and hopes to start the process by the end of September, sources told CNN.
As Donald Trump faces four separate criminal cases, House Republicans have floated the impeachment of Biden as they investigate his son Hunter’s business dealings. Republicans have been unable to substantiate wrongdoing by either Biden.
McCarthy suggested last month the House would pursue impeachment if it did not obtain access to certain documents, even though Republicans had never asked for some of the documents at issue, according to the Hill.
McCarthy is expected to give a press conference at 11am ET. We will be following it live here.
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Kevin McCarthy faces a 'perfect storm' as a shutdown looms
The House returns from its summer recess today as the speaker, Kevin McCarthy faces a collision course of difficult challenges – avoiding a costly government shutdown, and addressing growing calls on the right to launch an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden.
With just 12 legislative days left before the end of the fiscal year, the Republican-controlled House must quickly pass some kind of spending package to keep the federal government open after 30 September.
If it does not, the government will shut down for the first time in nearly five years, furloughing federal employees and stalling many crucial programs.
McCarthy has indicated his preference to pass a continuing resolution, but members of the hard-right House freedom caucus insist they will not back a continuing resolution unless the speaker agrees to several significant policy concessions, such as increased border security and an impeachment inquiry into Biden over the business dealings of the president’s son, Hunter Biden.
Given House Republicans’ narrow majority and a new rule allowing any single member of the chamber to force a vote on removing the speaker, McCarthy’s handling of this fraught situation could determine whether he loses his gavel after just eight months in power.
Ken Buck, a Colorado Republican congressman, said in Sunday interview with MSNBC’s Jen Psaki:
There’s a perfect storm brewing in the House in the near future, in September.
He added:
On the one hand, we’ve got to pass a [short-term funding bill]. And we also have the impeachment issue. And we also have members of the House, led by my good friend, Chip Roy, who are concerned about policy issues. So you take those three things put together, and Kevin McCarthy, the speaker, has made promises on each of those issues to different groups. And now it is all coming due at the same time.
Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang remains listed as the co-chair for the Forward Party, which he launched after leaving the Democratic party to become an independent in 2021.
Yang slammed the idea of the 2024 presidential election shaping up to be a Donald Trump vs Joe Biden rematch in the Politico interview, describing the situation as “terribly unrepresentative and borderline ridiculous” and pointing to their ages.
I mean, you’re talking about two guys whose combined age is 160. In a country of 330 million people, you would choose these two gentlemen at this stage? I mean, it makes zero sense.
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Andrew Yang has ‘had conversations’ with third-party No Labels group
Andrew Yang, the former Democratic presidential candidate, confirmed he has had “conversations” with the centrist group No Labels about its third-party presidential bid.
Yang, in a Politico interview published yesterday evening, said:
I’ve had conversations with various folks who are associated with No Labels.
He avoided directly answering if the group had specifically approached him about running as a possible presidential candidate, but said he and the group “have a lot of friends and people in common”.
Yang, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, said he is an “anyone-but-Trump guy”, adding:
I would not run for president, if I thought that my running would be counterproductive, or if it would increase the chances of someone like Donald Trump becoming president again.
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Should the US district judge Tanya Chutkan decline to remove herself from the case, legal experts said Donald Trump could seek to have the decision reviewed and petition the US court of appeals for the DC circuit for a writ of mandamus, a judicial order to a lower-court judge compelling an action such as recusal.
The appeal could be accompanied with a motion to stay Chutkan’s rulings pending appeal, which could delay the pre-trial process and push back the current trial date set for March 2024 while that litigation continues.
That kind of postponement would be beneficial to Trump, who has made clear that his overarching legal strategy for each of his criminal cases is to seek delay – preferably until after the 2024 presidential election as part of an effort to insulate himself from the charges.
The consequences of an extended delay could be far-reaching. If the case is not adjudicated until after the 2024 election and Trump is re-elected, he could try to pardon himself or direct the attorney general to have the justice department drop the case in its entirety.
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It was uncertain whether US district judge Tanya Chutkan’s two public statements would satisfy the high bar for removal from the 2020 election interference prosecution case.
Notably, the motion by Donald Trump’s legal team did not complain about any of Chutkan’s pre-trial rulings to date, perhaps because in a handful of instances, she has ruled against prosecutors.
The judge, an Obama appointee, came into the case with a reputation of being particularly tough in January 6-related prosecutions after she handed down sentences in some cases that were longer than had been requested by the justice department.
Still, Chutkan is far from the only federal judge in DC – or elsewhere in the country, for that matter – who has suggested Trump might have culpability for the Capitol attack during sentencing hearings.
Filing a recusal motion is not necessarily uncommon and federal judges tend not to take offense, former prosecutors and defense attorneys have said, even if Trump files them almost as a matter of routine. Recently, Trump sought to recuse the state court judge in his Manhattan criminal case, which was denied.
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Trump asks judge to recuse herself in federal 2020 election subversion case
Donald Trump’s legal team on Monday asked the federal judge overseeing the 2020 election interference prosecution against him to remove herself from the case.
Lawyers for the former president argued that previous public comments by the US district judge Tanya Chutkan about the former president’s culpability in the January 6 Capitol attack were disqualifying.
The recusal motion, filed to and against Chutkan, faces major legal hurdles: to succeed, Trump must show a “reasonable person” would conclude from just her remarks – but not any of her actual rulings – that she was unable to preside impartially.
Trump has long complained that the judge assigned to the case was biased against him because of her previous comments about Trump in other January 6 riot defendant cases and his legal team weighed filing the motion for weeks, two people familiar with deliberations told the Guardian.
The nine-page motion identified two episodes where Chutkan remarked on her opinion about Trump’s responsibility in instigating the Capitol attack, which Trump’s lawyers argued gave rise to the appearance of potential bias or prejudice against the former president.
The first instance came in October 2022 when she said, referring to January 6:
And the people who mobbed that Capitol were there in fealty, in loyalty, to one man … It’s a blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day.
Trump’s lawyers argued that those remarks, which came during sentencing of a rioter who stormed the Capitol, suggested Chutkan believed Trump should have been prosecuted and jailed in a pre-judgement of guilt that alone was disqualifying.
The second instance was when the judge told another January 6 rioter in December 2021:
The people who exhorted you and encouraged you and rallied you to go and take action and to fight have not been charged.
She added, “I have my opinions,” but that was out of her control.
Trump’s lawyers argued that those remarks suggested Chutkan agreed with that rioter’s defense attorney, who had said Trump had falsely convinced his supporters that the 2020 election was fraudulent and that they needed to take steps to stop the peaceful transition of power.
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US intelligence officials have accused Vladimir Putin of personally authorizing influence operations against Democratic candidates in support of Donald Trump in both the 2016 and 2020 US presidential elections.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former Putin ally who also managed online influence operations, admitted in November that he had interfered in the US elections. He said in the run-up to the US midterms:
Gentlemen, we interfered, we are interfering and we will interfere.
Prigozhin was killed last month when his private jet crashed en route from Moscow to St Petersburg.
Putin made the remarks during an economic forum in the far eastern city of Vladivostok, where he is also due to hold meetings with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, this week.
Russian president Vladimir Putin, speaking earlier today, said significant changes in the US-Russia relationship were unlikely regardless of who wins next year’s presidential election.
What to expect from the future, no matter who the president is, it’s hard for us to say, but it’s unlikely that anything will change radically.
He claimed the Biden administration was “hammering into people’s heads” that Russia was an existential adversary and ”it will be very difficult for them to somehow turn this whole ship” in the other direction.
Speaking at an economic forum in Russia’s far-eastern city of Vladivostok, Putin also discussed Moscow’s “amazing” relations with Beijing and whether he would run for re-election in 2024. Please do follow our Russia-Ukraine war live blog for more.
Donald Trump, in an interview with Fox Business last month, boasted about his relationship with Vladimir Putin and claimed the Russian leader would have never gone into Ukraine if he was US president because he was “the apple of his eye”.
Trump said:
Putin would have never gone into Ukraine, but that was just on my relationship with him. My personality over his. [He] would have never gone in. I used to speak to him. I was the apple of his eye, but I said ‘Don’t ever do it.’ It was tough stuff there, but he would have never done it.
Trump says Putin "would have never gone into Ukraine" if he was still president, citing "my relationship with him" and because "I was the apple of his eye." pic.twitter.com/W8rPR8iPVp
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) August 18, 2023
In a previous interview with Fox News, Trump claimed he had a plan to stop the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking back the White House.
Trump said he had a good relationship with both Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and Putin. He said:
I would tell Zelenskiy, no more. You got to make a deal. I would tell Putin, if you don’t make a deal, we’re going to give him a lot. We’re going to [give Ukraine] more than they ever got if we have to. I will have the deal done in one day. One day.
Speaking earlier today in Vladivostok, the Russian leader said:
We hear that Mr Trump says that he will solve pressing problems in a few days, including the Ukrainian crisis. Well, this cannot but bring happiness. This is good.
Putin: Trump's prosecution 'good for Russia'
Here’s a clip of Russia’s president Vladimir Putin discussing the criminal cases against Donald Trump while at a forum in Russia’s far eastern city of Vladivostok.
Putin said the prosecution of the former US president was good from Russia’s point of view. He said:
As for the prosecution of Trump, for us what is happening in today’s conditions, in my opinion, is good because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others democracy.
He continued:
In this sense, if they are trying to fight us in some way, it’s good, because it shows who is fighting us. It shows, as they said back in Soviet times, ‘the bestial face of American imperialism, the bestial grin’.
Putin speaks out about the cases against Donald Trump:
— Matthew Luxmoore (@mjluxmoore) September 12, 2023
“This shows the whole rottenness of the American political system, which cannot claim to teach others about democracy. What’s happening with Trump is a persecution of a political rival with political motives.” pic.twitter.com/oouu6rQwyQ
Putin claims Trump's criminal cases show 'rottenness' of US politics
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Russian president Vladimir Putin waded into the debate over the criminal charges facing Donald Trump, saying that the cases against the former US president amount to political “persecution” that exposes the fundamental “rottenness” of the American political system.
Putin, speaking at an Eastern Economic Forum gathering in Russia’s Pacific coast city of Vladivostok on Tuesday, said the prosecution of Trump was good for Russia “because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others democracy”.
The Russian leader added:
Everything that is happening with Trump is the persecution of a political rival for political reasons. That’s what it is. And this is being done in front of the public of the United States and the whole world.
Trump currently faces a total of 91 charges across four criminal cases in Georgia, Florida, New York and Washington DC. Opinion polls indicate that he holds a commanding lead over his rivals to become the Republican party’s candidate in the 2024 presidential election.
Both during and after his four-year term in the White House, Trump repeatedly touted having a friendly relationship with Putin. Trump has also claimed he could end the war in Ukraine in a matter of days if re-elected president.
Here’s what else we’re watching today:
10am Eastern time. The Senate will meet and hold a confirmation for Tanya Bradsher’s nomination as deputy veterans affairs secretary.
12pm. The House will meet to take up various bills, including resolutions calling for the release of Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich in Russia.
3pm. The House rules committee meets to prepare the annual defense spending bill for the floor.
3pm. The House freedom caucus will hold a news conference on government funding.
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