Summary
Here is a wrap-up of the day’s key events:
Anti-abortion activists gathered in Washington DC on Friday as part of the March for Life campaign. The rally comes ahead of the 51st anniversary of Roe v Wade, which brought national reproductive rights to the country, and ahead of the two-year anniversary of the supreme court’s decision to strike it down.
Donald Trump has renewed his mistrial request in E Jean Carroll’s defamation case against him. In a letter to Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is overseeing the case, Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said that Carroll’s actions “severely prejudices the president Trump’s defense [sic] since he has been deprived of critical information relating to critical evidence which plaintiff has described to the jury”.
In response to whether the White House would publicly support a testimony from the defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, before the House Armed Services Committee over his recent hospitalization, White House spokesperson John Kirby said: “That’ll be a decision for the secretary of defense and he has to make that decision … I’m not going to get into personal and private discussions that the secretary has had with the president of the United States.”
Joe Biden has signed a stopgap government funding bill. The bipartisan legislation narrowly avoided a government shutdown at the 11th hour.
South Carolina’s Republican senator Tim Scott will endorse Donald Trump, according to a new report from the Hill. On Friday, a source familiar with Scott said that the senator, who pulled out of the 2024 presidential race last fall, will endorse Trump on Friday evening.
Joe Biden has approved the debt cancellation for another 74,000 student loan borrowers across the country. The latest announcement brings the total number of people who have had their debt cancelled under the Biden administration to 3.7 million.
Former 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang has endorsed the presidential bid of Minnesota’s Democratic representative Dean Phillips. Calling himself a former “campaign surrogate for Joe [Biden]” at a campaign event on Thursday, Yang said: “Dean Phillips is the only one with the courage, the character and conviction to go against the grain, to go against the legion of followers in Washington DC.”
Donald Trump is trying to convince allies of Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis that the Republican race for a presidential nominee is over, according to a new report by Vanity Fair. As Trump continues to face mounting legal troubles, the ex-president is reported to have been pressuring Haley and DeSantis to drop out of the race.
Updated
Maryland’s Democratic representative Jamie Raskin has pushed back against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal for a Palestinian state, writing in a statement on X:
Ideological extremism is destroying prospects for peace. Most Americans will support a pragmatic peace strategy to free the hostages, provide aid to the population of Gaza, launch the two-state solution and put Hamas terror & right-wing fanaticism behind us.
Updated
The Guardian’s Carter Sherman is at the March for Life rally in Washington DC where anti-abortion activists are protesting ahead of the 51st anniversary of Roe v Wade.
Here are some of her dispatches:
Right after this chant, someone started a chant of “LET’S GO BABIES!” pic.twitter.com/haLTONex3X
— Carter Sherman (@carter_sherman) January 19, 2024
Some signs: pic.twitter.com/NxBos8rnef
— Carter Sherman (@carter_sherman) January 19, 2024
Donald Trump renews mistrial request in E Jean Carroll defamation case
Donald Trump has renewed his mistrial request in E Jean Carroll’s defamation case against him.
In a letter to Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is overseeing the case, Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said that Carroll’s actions “severely prejudices the president Trump’s defense [sic] since he has been deprived of critical information relating to critical evidence which plaintiff has described to the jury”.
Earlier this week, Trump complained loudly in the Manhattan courthouse during Carroll’s testimony, making comments including “It is a witch-hunt” and “It really is a con job” to his lawyers.
In turn, Kaplan threatened to remove Trump from the courtroom, to which Trump replied: “I would love it, I would love it.”
Updated
While speaking at a briefing, White House spokesperson John Kirby answered a question on whether the White House would publicly support a testimony from defense secretary Lloyd Austin before the House Armed Services Committee over his recent hospitalization.
Kirby said:
That’ll be a decision for the secretary of defense and he has to make that decision … I’m not going to get into personal and private discussions that the secretary has had with the president of the United States. They have spoken as recently as late last week. As you have heard the president say himself, he has full trust and confidence in Secretary Austin and his leadership at the Pentagon and that will continue.
In a letter to Austin on Thursday, Mike Rogers, a Republican representative from Alabama who chairs the committee, said that he is “alarmed” over Austin’s recent hospitalization.
He added: “I expect your full honesty and cooperation in this matter. Anything shot of that is completely unacceptable.”
Updated
Interim summary
Here is where the day stands:
Joe Biden has signed a stopgap government funding bill. The bipartisan legislation narrowly avoided a government shutdown at the 11th hour.
South Carolina’s Republican senator Tim Scott will endorse Donald Trump, according to a new report from the Hill. On Friday, a source familiar with Scott said that the senator, who pulled out of the 2024 presidential race last fall, will endorse Trump on Friday evening.
Joe Biden has approved the debt cancellation for another 74,000 student loan borrowers across the country. The latest announcement brings the total number of people who have had their debt cancelled under the Biden administration to 3.7 million.
Former 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang has endorsed the presidential bid of Minnesota’s Democratic representative Dean Phillips. Calling himself a former “campaign surrogate for Joe [Biden]” at a campaign event on Thursday, Yang said: “Dean Phillips is the only one with the courage, the character and conviction to go against the grain, to go against the legion of followers in Washington DC.”
Donald Trump is trying to convince allies of Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis that the Republican race for a presidential nominee is over, according to a new report by Vanity Fair. As Trump continues to face mounting legal troubles, the ex-president is reported to have been pressuring Haley and DeSantis to drop out of the race.
Updated
Anti-abortion activists are gathering in Washington DC today for the annual March for Life campaign.
This time the event takes place ahead of the 51st anniversary, on Monday, of the supreme court’s ruling in Roe v Wade in 1973 that brought in the national right to an abortion in the US, and ahead of the two-year anniversary of the current, right-leaning supreme court striking down Roe in 2022.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris plan to highlight the depletion of reproductive rights, which is proving a vote-loser for Republicans, on the 2024 campaign trail next week, amid high Democratic party spending on related ads, Axios reports.
The Guardian’s Carter Sherman is in the cold and snowy capital and will be sending a dispatch. Meanwhile, she’s on X/Twitter with vignettes.
I’m at the National Mall, covering the March for Life.
— Carter Sherman (@carter_sherman) January 19, 2024
The March was founded with the goal of overturning Roe v Wade. Now that Roe is gone, the March is still trying to make a case for itself. Frankly, it’s less well-attended than in past years. (It IS freezing cold and snowy.) pic.twitter.com/XsS67pDW6l
Updated
Biden signs stopgap government funding bill - White House
The move follows the House of Representatives passing the short-term spending bill late on Thursday, sending the legislation to the president’s desk with just two days left before government funding was to run out, in the latest nail-biter.
The bipartisan legislation averted a government shutdown that would have begun at one minute past midnight tonight.
The bill, which represents the third stopgap spending measure of this fiscal year, will extend government funding at current levels until 1 March for some government agencies and until 8 March for others.
The US House approves a stopgap bill to fund the federal government through March, avoiding a partial shutdown https://t.co/RLn1YmmNLg pic.twitter.com/T9oTNjH4G4
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 19, 2024
The House vote came hours after the Senate approved the bill in a vote of 77 to 18, following bipartisan negotiations that stretched into late Wednesday evening. The Senate majority leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer, praised the bill as a vital measure that would allow lawmakers more time to negotiate over full-year appropriations bills.
“Avoiding a shutdown is very good news for the country, for our veterans, for parents and children, and for farmers and small businesses – all of whom would have felt the sting had the government shut down,” Schumer said in a floor speech. “And this is what the American people want to see: both sides working together and governing responsibly. No chaos. No spectacle. No shutdown.”
You can read more on the passage of the legislation last night, from my colleague Joanie Greve, here.
Updated
The Associated Press is also now reporting that Tim Scott of South Carolina is expected to endorse Republican frontrunner Donald Trump for president ahead of Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary. It would be a blow to Scott’s fellow South Carolinian Nikki Haley, who was Trump’s pick for ambassador to the United Nations during his presidency.
The New York Times was first to report the story today, noting it would “spur more talk” of Scott’s prospects as Trump’s vice-presidential pick.
The AP news agency also further reports:
A person familiar with Scott’s plans confirmed Friday to The Associated Press that Scott would travel from Florida to New Hampshire with the GOP front-runner.
The person spoke on the condition of anonymity due to not being allowed to discuss the plans publicly.
Scott launched his own bid to challenge Trump last May before shuttering his effort about six months later. Trump has been appearing on the campaign trail with several other former rivals who have endorsed him, including North Dakota governor Doug Burgum and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
Scott’s endorsement was sought by the remaining major contenders in the Republican primary, particularly ahead of South Carolina’s February 24 primary, which has historically been influential in determining the eventual nominee.
Haley appointed Scott to the Senate in 2012.
Updated
Tim Scott to endorse Donald Trump - report
South Carolina’s Republican senator Tim Scott will endorse Donald Trump, according to a new report from the Hill.
On Friday, a source familiar with Scott said that the senator, who pulled out of the 2024 presidential race last fall, will endorse Trump on Friday evening.
In separate report released by Vanity Fair on Friday, multiple sources said that Trump has been calling Scott in attempts to win his endorsement ahead of next month’s primary in South Carolina, which is also the home state of Trump’s opponent Nikki Haley, who was previously the state’s governor.
The report of Scott’s endorsement of Trump comes as the ex-president prepares to rally in New Hampshire this weekend ahead of the state’s primary next week.
Updated
Nikki Haley has responded to Donald Trump’s attacks against her in which he said that she will be unable to win the White House.
Speaking to Fox, Haley said:
Everybody is talking about the fact, ‘Is she a conservative?’ … How am I not conservative? I was a Tea Party governor, I passed voter ID, I passed the toughest illegal immigration law in the country, I cut taxes, I passed tort reform …
Just because the media says it, because Donald Trump says it, it’s wrong. We’ve got to start telling the truth. The problem with Donald Trump and Joe Biden is, they think if they tell Americans something, that it’s the truth. But the problem is, both of these guys are lying to the American people.
There are multiple instances that we need to start asking Donald Trump the questions and stop taking what he’s saying to be golden … I think it’s important that the media be responsible … But the fact that Donald Trump’s lying, it’s another reason why he won’t debate me because he knows I’ll call him out on it.”
“There are multiple instances that we need to start asking Donald Trump the questions and stop taking what he's saying to be golden ... I think it’s important that the media be responsible...”
— The Recount (@therecount) January 19, 2024
— Nikki Haley, when asked to respond to Donald Trump attacking her on Fox News pic.twitter.com/P7luakacY1
Updated
A handful of Jewish members of Congress have issued a statement in response to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal of a Palestinian state.
On Friday, representatives including Jerry Nadler, Jake Auchincloss, Becca Balint, Suzanne Bonamici, Steve Cohen, Daniel Goldman, Seth Magaziner, Mike Levin, Dean Phillips, Jamie Raskin, Jan Schakowsky, Adam Schiff, Kim Schrier, Brad Sherman and Elissa Slotkin said:
We strongly disagree with the prime minister. A two-state solution is the path forward.
Updated
Following Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s public rejection of US calls for a Palestinian state, Waleed Shahid, Democratic strategist and former spokesperson of Justice Democrats, released the following statement:
With his approach to climate, student debt, and economic policy, [Joe] Biden has broken in important ways with the Democratic party establishment from the Clinton and Obama presidencies.
On Israel-Palestine, on the other hand, Biden and the Democratic party have doubled down on a set of failed policies, and do so even as any of the predicates of that policy – namely, the existence of an Israeli government interested in peace and Palestinian statehood – have vanished.
If Biden continues to unconditionally fund Israel’s war in Gaza, he will break a fundamental trust with many Democrats, and little lecturing about the greater evil in 2024 will repair it.
The future of American democracy is at stake; we need Democrats – Muslim Americans and young people – to turn out in record numbers in states like Michigan and Georgia.
I pray, for all our sakes, that Biden corrects course – because our country cannot afford to pay the bill for disregarding Palestinian lives should it come due in November.
Updated
Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren has hailed Joe Biden’s latest student debt cancellation, writing on X:
Woo-hoo! President Biden is cancelling $4.9 billion more in student debt, including for 44,000 public servants - teachers, nurses, and firefighters - who’ve devoted their lives to service.
I’ll keep working to deliver as much student debt relief to as many people as possible.
Woo-hoo! President Biden is cancelling $4.9 billion more in student debt, including for 44,000 public servants - teachers, nurses, and firefighters - who’ve devoted their lives to service.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) January 19, 2024
I’ll keep working to deliver as much student debt relief to as many people as possible. https://t.co/AEEyiMDH20
Updated
Joe Biden approves debt cancellation of 74,000 student loan borrowers
Joe Biden has approved the debt cancellation for another 74,000 student loan borrowers across the country.
The latest announcement brings the total number of people who have had their debt cancelled under the Biden administration to 3.7 million.
Out of the 74,000 borrowers that were approved for relief, nearly 44,000 of them are teachers, nurses, firefighters and other individuals who earned forgiveness after 10 years of public service.
Additionally, close to 30,000 of them are people who have been in repayment for at least 20 years but never got the relief they earned.
In a statement released on Friday, Biden said:
From day one of my administration, I vowed to improve the student loan system so that a higher education provides Americans with opportunity and prosperity – not unmanageable burdens of student loan debt.
I won’t back down from using every tool at our disposal to get student loan borrowers the relief they need to reach their dreams.
Updated
Pennsylvania senator John Fetterman said he plans to go to the floor next week to force a vote on his resolution that proposes international sanctions for senators indicted for crimes affecting national security.
Speaking to CNN’s Manu Raju and referring to New Jersey senator Bob Menendez, who was charged with acting as an agent for Egypt, Fetterman said:
We should have chucked that sleazeball long ago. But now we’re looking to move my resolution to the floor, and I’m going to call on unanimous consent so we can stop any senator that is being accused of being a foreign agent attending classified briefings.
Sen. John Fetterman told me he plans to go to floor next week to force a vote on his resolution that would bar senators indicted on national security issues from attending classified briefings — aimed at Bob Menendez. The move would force a member to object.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 19, 2024
“We should have…
Updated
Andrew Yang endorses Dean Phillips' Democratic presidential bid
Former 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang has endorsed the presidential bid of Minnesota’s Democratic representative Dean Phillips.
Calling himself a former “campaign surrogate for Joe [Biden]” at a campaign event on Thursday, Yang said:
Joe is a good decent man, a true public servant, has gotten a lot of things done. But I don’t think he is the right fit for 2024 as opposed to 2020 …
Joe Biden, who I supported last time, in my view, is going to deliver us to ‘Trump the Sequel’ … Dean Phillips is the only one with the courage, the character and conviction to go against the grain, to go against the legion of followers in Washington DC who would put their careers above their country, and say, ‘You know what? America deserves a choice. America deserves a choice in its leaders.’
“I was a campaign surrogate for Joe [Biden]. Joe is a good, decent man...But I don’t think he is the right fit for 2024, as opposed to 2020. In 2020, the Patriots were 12-4 & 1st in the AFC East. 2020 & 2024 are not the same years.”
— The Recount (@therecount) January 18, 2024
— Andrew Yang stumping for Dean Phillips in NH pic.twitter.com/ZFbSzDgMev
Updated
Ahead of his campaigning weekend in New Hampshire, Donald Trump unleashed another tirade on Truth Social – this time directed towards New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu, as well as Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis.
Misspelling Haley’s first name, Trump wrote:
Governor Chris Sununu, the now failing Governor of New Hampshire, where I am beating his endorsed candidate, Nimbra, by big numbers, and DeSanctimonious by even bigger numbers, should spend more time keeping Democrats from voting in the Republican Primary - How ridiculous is that? Anyway, it doesn’t matter, because Nimbra doesn’t have what it takes … ”
Updated
Donald Trump urging Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis allies that race is over - report
Donald Trump is trying to convince allies of Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis that the Republican race for a presidential nominee is over, according to a new report by Vanity Fair.
As Trump continues to face mounting legal troubles, the ex-president is reported to have been pressuring Haley and DeSantis to drop out of the race.
According to multiple sources who spoke to the outlet, Trump has also been calling South Carolina senator Tim Scott in attempts to win his endorsement ahead of the primary next month in Haley’s home state (Haley was formerly governor of South Carolina).
Meanwhile, according to a major poll from Suffolk University, the Boston Globe and NBC, Trump is enjoying a 16-point lead in New Hampshire ahead of the state’s presidential primary next Tuesday.
Trump is due to campaign in New Hampshire on Friday, writing on Truth Social: “BIG crowds tonight and Saturday!”
Updated
Good morning,
Donald Trump is quietly pressuring his Republican opponents to drop out of the 2024 presidential race amid his mounting legal troubles, according to reports.
The ex-president has been calling allies of Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley to convince them that the race is over, Vanity Fair reports.
“The plan is to back all the donors and Fox off [the other candidates] and close it out by next Wednesday,” a Republican source close to Trump told the outlet.
Reports of Trump pressuring rivals to drop out as he seeks a quick win in the race come amid his legal woes surrounding election interference, fraud, defamation and hush money payments, among other charges.
Earlier this week, Trump made a glowering appearance in a Manhattan courthouse as E Jean Carroll testified in her defamation trial against him. At one point, Trump responded to Judge Lewis Kaplan’s threat to kick him out of court by saying: “I would love it.”
Here are other developments in US politics:
Fulton county judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the 2020 racketeering case against Trump and his allies, has scheduled a hearing for next month over district attorney Fani Willis’s conflict-of-interest claims.
The upcoming 51st anniversary of Roe v Wade has become a focal point for both Democratic and Republican lawmakers as both sides once again turn up the heat on abortion-related campaigning.
Hunter Biden, who has insisted on testifying publicly, has agreed to appear before House Republicans for a private deposition next month.
Updated
