Closing summary
It’s 4pm eastern time. That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, and the US politics live blog today.
Here’s a recap of today’s developments:
Americans do not trust the government’s economic news – or the media’s reporting of it – according to a Harris poll conducted exclusively for the Guardian that presents the White House with a major hurdle as it pushes Joe Biden’s economic record ahead of next year’s election.
Prosecutors in the office of special counsel Jack Smith urged the judge overseeing his federal 2020 election interference criminal case to deny a request by Donald Trump to recuse herself from the case. There is “no valid basis” for US district judge Tanya Chutkan to remove herself from the case, Smith wrote.
Twitter gave the special counsel prosecuting Donald Trump for alleged election subversion access to at least 32 of the former president’s private messages. The company, now known as X, turned over the messages after receiving a search warrant, citing newly unsealed filings to the US circuit court of appeals.
Federal prosecutors secretly argued that informing Donald Trump about their efforts to access his Twitter account could “precipitate violence”, according to the newly unsealed court filings. Prosecutors worried that Trump would publicly announce the search warrant or his Twitter feed, as he did on his Truth Social platform when his Mar-a-Lago estate was searched by the FBI last year.
Joe Biden spoke out in support of auto workers as they launched a historic series of strikes after their union failed to reach an agreement with the US’s three largest vehicle manufacturers. “No one wants a strike, but I respect workers’ rights to use their options under the collective bargaining system, and [I] understand their frustrations,” the US president said in a brief, unscheduled appearance at the White House.
Joe Biden has declared a state of emergency in Maine as Hurricane Lee rapidly approaches the north-easternmost US state amid the likelihood of a landfall there or more likely in Canada over the weekend.
Donald Trump’s October trial in a civil case brought by the New York attorney general, Letitia James, could be delayed because the former US president has quietly sued the judge Arthur F Engoron.
Donald Trump said he would testify under oath denying he asked a staffer to delete surveillance footage at the center of an investigation into whether he mishandled classified documents. In an NBC interview, the former president said it is “very unlikely” he would pardon himself if he is re-elected in 2024.
The House oversight committee announced it will be launching a Republican-led investigation into the Biden administration’s response to the deadly wildfires in Hawaii, which killed at least 115 people last month.
The former New Jersey governor Chris Christie said he would drop out of the Republican presidential primary if he does not show well in New Hampshire.
A lawyer for Hunter Biden, who was indicted on Thursday over illegally possessing a firearm, said he expected the case “will be dismissed before trial”. The president’s son was indicted by special counsel David Weiss on three felony gun charges after a plea agreement he struck with prosecutors imploded in recent months.
Three men were acquitted in the final trial connected to a scheme to kidnap the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, a pandemic-era plot steeped in extremist politics and domestic terrorism that saw others imprisoned for lengthy terms.
About half of Americans are interested in getting an updated Covid-19 vaccine, according to a new poll, after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a series of Covid-19 booster vaccines amid rising coronavirus cases around the country.
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The House oversight committee announced it will be launching a Republican-led investigation into the Biden administration’s response to the deadly wildfires in Hawaii.
A joint statement by James Comer, the chair of the House oversight committee, and Pete Sessions, the subcommittee chair, reads:
The deadly wildfire in Maui shocked the nation and left many, especially those directly impacted by the tragedy, with serious questions that remain unanswered today. President Biden built his entire reputation on empathy and compassion but failed to deliver an appropriate response when it mattered most.
At least 115 people were killed in last month’s wildfires on the island of Maui. The fire nearly destroyed the town of Lahaina, and caused more than $5.5bn in damage, according to estimates by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The House oversight committee’s investigation into the fires is separate from a hearing by the energy and commerce committee, which will feature testimony from Hawaii utility and energy officials.
Updated
Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis has subpoenaed former justice department official Jody Hunt for an upcoming hearing to transfer Jeff Clark’s case to federal court.
From my colleague Hugo Lowell:
New: Fulton County DA Fani Willis has subpoenaed former DOJ official Jody Hunt to appear at the hearing on Monday to remove Jeff Clark’s case to federal court in Georgia, per filing. Hunt was head of DOJ Civil Division that Clark replaced and Cassidy Hutchinson’s ex-lawyer
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) September 15, 2023
Half of Americans interested in getting updated Covid-19 vaccine – poll
About half of Americans are interested in getting an updated Covid-19 vaccine, according to a new poll, after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a series of Covid-19 booster vaccines amid rising coronavirus cases around the country.
The Reuters/Ipsos nationwide poll found that almost 30% of respondents were “very interested” in getting the vaccine and another 24% were “somewhat interested”.
On Monday, the FDA approved Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines that target a recently circulating Omicron subvariant of the coronavirus.
The results of the poll suggest that more Americans are willing to get a booster shot than a year ago. According to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one in six Americans opted for an updated shot.
About 14% of those who said they were not interested in getting the booster said it was because they had Covid-19 already, while another 14% said they believed their previous vaccinations provided sufficient protection.
Updated
Chris Christie says he'll drop out of GOP race if he doesn't do well in New Hampshire
The former New Jersey governor Chris Christie said he would drop out of the Republican presidential primary if he does not show well in New Hampshire.
“I can’t see myself leaving the race under any circumstances before New Hampshire,” he told the New York Times. “If I don’t do well in New Hampshire, then I’ll leave.”
As the Times pointed out, Christie is following the playbook he used in 2016, when his run for the Republican nomination focused on New Hampshire … and ended after it, after he finished sixth in the primary.
Christie then became the first major figure to endorse Donald Trump in his insurgent run to the White House.
Christie planned the transition at Trump Tower, only to be brutally (if of course metaphorically) defenestrated by Jared Kushner, whose father Christie put in jail back when he was a prosecutor in New Jersey. That didn’t stop Christie supporting Trump, and nor did Trump’s part in Christie ending up in the ICU with Covid. It took January 6 to finally propel Christie away from Trump, whose unfitness to govern the former governor is now dedicated to exposing.
As the Times reported, Christie is portraying the Republican primary as an existential matter for the country:
‘The future of this country is going to be determined here,’ Mr Christie told a crowd this week at a local brewery, clutching an IPA. ‘If Donald Trump wins here, he will be our nominee. Everything that happens after that is going to be on our party and on our country. It’s up to you.’”
The Times also noted the current state of play in primary polling:
Though Mr Christie has improved in recent polls, he still trails Mr Trump in New Hampshire by double digits, and by much more in national polls and surveys of Iowa, the first nominating state.
Christie told the Times he wanted to emulate John McCain, the Arizona senator who “broke late” in New Hampshire in 2000, ending up winning the state.
McCain, of course, did not win the Republican nomination in 2000. George W Bush did. McCain did win it in his second attempt, eight years after his first. He was then heavily beaten in the general election, by Barack Obama.
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An exhaustive manifesto for the next conservative US president produced by Project 2025, an initiative led by the hard-right Heritage Foundation, uses “dehumanising language” about LGBTQ+ Americans too extreme even for candidates currently seeking the Republican presidential nomination, a leading advocate said.
“The dehumanising language is consistent with the way the right talks about LGBTQ+ people overall,” said Sasha Buchert, director of the Non-Binary and Transgender Rights Project for Lambda Legal.
“They’re never talking about transgender people or gay and lesbian people, it’s always referring to them as an ideology of some kind, or an ‘ism’. There’s no humanity involved … Not even the presidential candidates in the Republican debates are embracing this kind of rhetoric.”
Donald Trump is the clear leader of that Republican race, despite facing 91 criminal indictments and multiple civil suits. Primary candidates have eagerly embraced anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, particularly over state anti-trans laws and the place of LGBTQ+ issues in public education. This summer, however, Trump’s closest polling rival, Ron DeSantis, was forced on to the defensive over an online video that used harsh imagery and language to accuse Trump of being too soft on LGBTQ+ issues.
By its own description, Project 2025 is the work of “a broad coalition of over 70 conservative organisations”, aiming to shape the presidential transition should a rightwing candidate beat Joe Biden next year.
In the words of Paul Dans, its director, Project 2025 is “systematically preparing to march into office and bring a new army, aligned, trained, and essentially weaponised conservatives ready to do battle against the deep state”.
Such language may echo conspiracy-tinged rants by Trump and his supporters, but that “army” has produced something solid: Mandate for Leadership: the Conservative Promise, a 920-page document that sets out policy wishes across the breadth of the federal government.
Read on…
As the old saying goes, “where there’s smoke there’s fire”: the Colorado Republican congresswoman Lauren Boebert’s claim not to have been vaping during a theatrical performance in Denver from which she and a male companion were ejected has been proven false.
In an episode that generated widespread headlines, the far-right controversialist was escorted out of a performance of the Beetlejuice musical at the Buell Theatre last weekend.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a woman who sat behind the congresswoman told the Denver Post: “These people in front of us were outrageous. I’ve never seen anyone act like that before.”
The woman, who is pregnant, said she asked Boebert to stop vaping.
Boebert said simply: “No.”
Boebert and her companion were eventually escorted from the theatre. Boebert’s office confirmed the incident but denied the congresswoman had been vaping, even though such behaviour was detailed in a widely cited incident report.
Surveillance footage obtained by 9News, an NBC affiliate, disproved Boebert’s claim.
More:
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Donald Trump has widened his lead in the Republican presidential primary in the three weeks since the first GOP primary debate – in which he did not take part, according to a new poll.
The Fox News poll showed 60% of potential Republican primary voters support Trump, up from 53% in a survey taken before the 23 August debate in Milwaukee. The report said:
Some of Trump’s biggest gains come from women (+10), voters under age 45 (+9), White evangelicals (+8), and White men without a college degree (+8).
Trump’s closest rival, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, has seen his support drop since the debate, the results showed. The survey found 13% of GOP voters back DeSantis in the primary, down three points. Vivek Ramaswamy held his third-place slot at 11%
Melania Trump, Donald Trump’s wife, may be back on the Republican presidential candidate’s campaign trail with him “pretty soon”, he said.
In an interview with Meet the Press, moderator Kristen Welker asked the former president, “we’ll get her on the trail soon?” Trump replied:
Yes. Soon? Yeah, pretty soon. When it’s appropriate, but pretty soon. She’s a private person, a great person, a very confident person and she loves our country very much.
He added:
Honestly, I like to keep her away from it. It’s so nasty and so mean.
The former first lady was a prominent fixture in Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and throughout his presidency, but she has rarely been spotted by her husband’s side since leaving the White House. Most notably, she did not appear at any of his court appearances.
Updated
Joe Biden appeared to support the auto workers strike in strong comments made during his White House address this afternoon. He said:
No one wants a strike, but I respect workers’ right to use their options under the collective bargaining system.
“I understand the workers’ frustration,” he added.
Record corporate profits ... should be shared by record contracts for the UAW.
My colleague Maya Yang is covering the strike on our dedicated UAW strike blog.
Updated
The team of special counsel Jack Smith obtained a search warrant in January directing Twitter, now known as X, to produce “data and records” related to Donald Trump’s Twitter account as well as a non-disclosure agreement prohibiting Twitter from disclosing the search warrant.
Court filings last month showed Twitter delayed complying with the warrant, leading to a federal judge holding the company in contempt and fining it $350,000.
The filing said prosecutors got the search warrant after a court “found probable cause to search the Twitter account for evidence of criminal offenses”.
The court found that disclosing the warrant could risk that Trump would “would seriously jeopardize the ongoing investigation” by giving him “an opportunity to destroy evidence, change patterns of behavior”, according to the filing.
Updated
Prosecutors warned Trump's knowledge of Twitter search warrant could 'precipitate violence' – court filings
Federal prosecutors secretly argued that informing Donald Trump about their efforts to access his Twitter account could “precipitate violence”, according to newly unsealed court filings.
Prosecutors working for special counsel Jack Smith worried that Trump would publicly announce the search warrant or his Twitter feed, as he did on his Truth Social platform when his Mar-a-Lago estate was searched by the FBI last year.
Informing Trump about the Twitter search warrant “could precipitate violence as occurred following the public disclosure of the search warrant executed at Mar-a-Lago,” the prosecutors warned. The news was first reported by Politico.
Prosecutors argued for keeping Trump in the dark about the Twitter search warrant was necessary because they said the former president presents a “significant risk of tampering with evidence, seeking to influence or intimidate potential witnesses, and ‘otherwise seriously jeopardizing’ the Government’s ongoing investigations.”
“These are not hypothetical considerations in this case,” the prosecutors wrote.
Following his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, the former President propagated false claims of fraud (including swearing to false allegations in a federal court filing), pressured state and federal officials to violate their legal duties, and retaliated against those who did not comply with his demands, culminating in violence at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
In response, Twitter said the prospect of violence was “facially implausible” and argued that Trump already knew many details about Smith’s investigation. US district court judge Beryl Howell ultimately rejected the social media company’s arguments.
The new filings also show Twitter turned over at least 32 direct messages from Trump’s account, @realDonaldTrump, to prosecutors. Prosecutors also obtained data that could show his location at the time certain tweets were sent, or if anyone else was accessing his account.
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Twitter handed over at least 32 direct messages from Trump account to prosecutors - court filing
Twitter handed over at least 32 direct messages from Donald Trump’s account to special counsel Jack Smith earlier this year in the justice department’s investigation into the 2020 election subversion case, according to newly unsealed court filings.
In the new filings, Smith’s team revealed “the materials Twitter produced to the Government included only 32 direct-message items, constituting a minuscule proportion of the total production”.
From Politico’s Kyle Cheney:
MORE: Prosecutors also revealed that Trump's twitter account had 32 direct messages. https://t.co/ZXY8gK2wf6 pic.twitter.com/zy1f7qGQEU
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 15, 2023
Updated
A prominent New York progressive is warning that mayor Eric Adams’s hostile comments about the rising number of migrants in the city are “dangerous” and risk inciting violence against the new arrivals and other immigrants.
Tiffany Cabán, aiming for re-election to the city council this November and long endorsed by leading leftwing figures, including US senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, attacked as “irresponsible” the mayor’s remarks last week that the sharp increase in migration to New York would “destroy” the city.
Cabán told the Guardian:
The idea that new arrivals would destroy New York City is absurd to me. New arrivals, immigrants, made our city.
“I think there’s a real possibility of his rhetoric fomenting violence, and that’s the last thing we need,” Cabán, a former public defender, added.
New York and other Democratic-led cities have received hundreds of thousands of people who crossed the US-Mexico border to request asylum since last year.
More than 110,000 migrants have arrived in New York, most making their own way but many also bussed by Texas authorities, without liaison. Officials say they are struggling to provide for nearly 60,000 migrants currently in the city’s care.
Joe Biden is currently delivering remarks on the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike, launched after the union failed to reach agreement with the US’s three largest manufacturers over a new contract.
We have a live blog covering Biden’s speech about the most ambitious industrial labor action in decades.
Three men cleared of plotting to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer
The last three men to stand trial in connection with a plan to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer were found not guilty on all counts on Friday.
William Null, twin brother Michael Null and Eric Molitor were among a group of 14 men charged in state and federal court over an alleged plot to kidnap the governor at her vacation home in northern Michigan in 2020.
The three men were found not guilty of providing support for a terrorist act and a weapon charge, AP reported. Nine others were convicted and now five have been cleared. The key players, Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr, were convicted of a kidnapping conspiracy last year in a different court.
Prosecutors said the plot was fueled by rumors that the 2020 presidential election would be stolen and restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic imposed by Whitmer’s administration.
Updated
US ambassador to Moscow visits jailed WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich
The US ambassador to Moscow, Lynne Tracy, has visited Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is being held in pre-trial detention on charges of espionage, according to Russian state media.
Gershkovich, 31, is being held in the notorious Lefortovo prison in Moscow and is the first American journalist to be held in Russia on spying charges since the end of the cold war. He was detained in the Urals city of Ekaterinburg while on a reporting trip at the end of March.
For more updates on the Russia-Ukraine war, do follow our live blog.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has confirmed it is responding to violents threats made against officials in Fulton county in connection to the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump and 18 allies.
A statement from the FBI reads:
Each and every potential threat brought to our attention is taken seriously. Individuals found responsible for making threats in violation of state and/or federal laws will be prosecuted.
Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis, who is prosecuting Trump and the 18 other co-defendants, has said she received racist threats after her decision to bring charges against the former president.
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Hunter Biden's lawyer says gun possession case 'will be dismissed before trial'
A lawyer for Hunter Biden, who was indicted on Thursday over illegally possessing a firearm, said he expects the case “will be dismissed before trial”.
“On the facts, we think we’ll have a defense,” Abbe Lowell told ABC News in an interview on Good Morning America.
Hunter Biden, 53, was indicted by special counsel David Weiss on three felony gun charges after a plea agreement he struck with prosecutors imploded in recent months.
The charges date back to October 2018, when Hunter Biden allegedly lied about his drug use when he bought a firearm. He has publicly acknowledged struggling with crack cocaine addiction around that time.
Lowell suggested that charges could be unconstitutional, citing a recent appeals court ruling that drug use alone should not automatically prevent someone from obtaining a gun. He said:
The only change that has occurred between when they investigated [this alleged crime] and today is that the law changed. But the law didn’t change in favor of the prosecution. The law changed against it.
“The US attorney’s office has known about this for years,” he added.
What changed? Not the facts, not the law, but all the politics that have now come into play.
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Wisconsin’s top elections official suffered another blow on Thursday when the Republican-controlled state senate voted to fire her by a party-line vote of 22 to 11. Meagan Wolfe’s status as elections administrator will now probably be determined in court.
Legal experts and the Wisconsin attorney general have disputed the move by Republican senators to remove Wolfe, a respected and accomplished non-partisan leader. Her removal would affect the administration of elections in 2024 and illustrates the increasingly wide reach of election deniers and rightwing conspiracy theorists in Wisconsin politics.
Before she became a lightning rod for conspiracy theories and criticism surrounding the 2020 election, Wolfe enjoyed wide support from Republicans in the state legislature. Appointed to head the Wisconsin elections commission in 2018, she was confirmed by a unanimous vote in the state senate in 2019.
It was only after the 2020 election, which Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden by just over 20,000 votes in Wisconsin, that complaints about the non-partisan administrator began to circulate. Groups and individuals that spread falsehoods about widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election have obsessed over Wolfe, publishing missives in Gateway Pundit, a site that peddles misinformation, and earning a warning from state capitol police for allegedly stalking her.
During the floor session on Thursday, the Democratic senate minority leader, Melissa Agard, described the move to oust Wolfe as one of many “shameless continued attacks on our elections”.
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The recusal motion by Donald Trump’s lawyers “cherry-picks” portions of US district judge Tanya Chutkan’s statements and “fails to establish any bias by the court”, prosecutors wrote in a court filing late on Thursday.
The justice department said the statements that Trump’s lawyers had cited showed the judge simply doing her job – responding to an argument raised by Capitol attack defendants who tried to minimize their own culpability by point the finger at the form president. Prosecutors wrote:
Although the defendant tries to claim otherwise, the Court’s statements about which he complains are core intrajudicial statements — statements that the Court made while performing its official duties, in direct response to the arguments before it, and which were derived from knowledge and experience the Court gained on the bench.
They added:
As such, to mount a successful recusal claim based on the cited statements, the defendant must show that they display a deep-seated animosity toward him. The defendant cannot meet this heavy burden.
Updated
The motion by Donald Trump’s legal team seeking to remove US district judge Tanya Chutkan from his case argued that previous public comments she made about the former president’s culpability in the January 6 Capitol attack were disqualifying.
Trump’s lawyers identified two episodes where the judge remarked on her opinion about the former president’s responsibility in instigating the attack. 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 prejudgment 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 transfer of power.
Special counsel fights Trump's attempt to remove judge in January 6 case
Prosecutors in the office of special counsel Jack Smith urged the judge overseeing his federal 2020 election interference criminal case to deny a request by Donald Trump to recuse herself from the case.
Trump’s legal team on Monday asked US district judge Tanya Chutkan to remove herself, arguing that her previous public comments about the former president’s culpability in the January 6 Capitol attack were disqualifying.
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.
In a blistering 20-page motion filed on Friday, Smith wrote:
There is no valid basis, under the relevant law and facts, for the Honorable Tanya S. Chutkan, United States District Judge for the District of Columbia, to disqualify herself in this proceeding.
In seeking Chutkan’s recusal, Trump “both takes out of context the Court’s words from prior judicial proceedings and misstates the proper legal standards governing judicial recusals”, prosecutors wrote.
Updated
The last-minute legal challenge by Donald Trump’s lawyers takes aim at the judge overseeing the civil fraud suit – Manhattan supreme court Justice Arthur Engoron.
Thursday’s court filing claims Engoron and New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, are both acting to defy appellate orders that could narrow James’ $250m lawsuit, the Daily Beast reported.
The lawsuit against Engoron, filed under a provision of state law known as Article 78, is the former president’s latest attack on judges presiding over his many legal cases.
On Monday, Trump’s lawyers sought to disqualify another judge involved in a case against him: US district judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing his 2020 election subversion case. The former president’s legal team argued her previous public comments about the former president’s culpability in the January 6 Capitol attack were disqualifying.
Trump has also sought to remove the judge in his New York criminal trial. The former president’s lawyers argued Judge Juan Manuel Merchan should step aside because of what they say is bias and a conflict of interest arising from his daughter’s work for leading Democrats.
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Trump's New York fraud trial in limbo after last-minute legal challenge
A New York state appeals court judge put the civil fraud trial involving the New York attorney general’s office and Donald Trump and his company on temporary hold after a last-minute legal challenge by the former president’s legal team.
Justice David Friedman, a judge on the state’s intermediate appellate court, ordered a potential postponement of the non-jury trial, which had been scheduled to start on 2 October. The judge granted an interim stay of the trial and ordered the full appeals court to consider the lawsuit on an expedited basis.
The order came after an emergency request by lawyers for Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization, who accused the trial judge, Arthur Engoron, of repeatedly abusing his authority. The news was first reported by the Daily Beast. Trump lawyers cited Engoron’s “terse” refusal to grant their recent request for a three-week trial delay on the basis that it was “completely without merit”.
The full appeals court indicated it would issue a decision the week of 25 September – a week before the $250m fraud trial is set to go on trial.
The civil trial stems from a lawsuit brought by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, who has accused Trump, his business and members of his family of fraudulently overvaluing their assets by billions of dollars.
In a statement, James said:
We are confident in our case and will be ready for trial.
Trump has denied wrongdoing.
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Here’s our video report on Friday’s auto workers strike – the first one in the 88-year history of the United Auto Workers union (UAW).
About 13,000 workers have launched a series of strikes after their union failed to reach agreement with the US’s three largest manufacturers – Ford, General Motors, Stellantis – over a new contract.
Auto workers strike after contract talks with US car giants fail
About 13,000 auto workers launched a series of strikes after their union failed to reach agreement with the US’s three largest manufacturers over a new contract, kicking off the most ambitious industrial labor action in decades.
The deadline for talks between Ford, General Motors, Stellantis and the United Auto Workers (UAW) expired at midnight on Thursday, with the sides still far apart on the union’s new contract priorities.
The strike, which marks the first time all three of the Detroit Three carmakers have been targeted by strikes at the same time, kicked off at midnight at a General Motors plant in Wentzville, Missouri, a Stellantis plant in Toledo, Ohio, and a Ford assembly plant in Wayne, Michigan.
"WE ARE THE UNION! MIGHTY MIGHTY UNION! ALL THE WORKERS UNION! ASS-KICKING UNION!" #StandUpUAW #SolidaritySeason #Local900 pic.twitter.com/eWUIjXYYRb
— UAW (@UAW) September 15, 2023
Joe Biden is expected to speak on the strike later today. For more updates, my colleague Gloria Oladipo is covering the strike on our dedicated live blog.
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As well as being wrong about the unemployment data, respondents were unaware of, or chose to mischaracterize, other major economic data points.
The widest measure of economic growth – gross domestic product – increased at a 2.1% annualized rate last quarter and has been steadily improving since the Covid downturn. But more respondents (59%) believe that the US economy is shrinking this year than those who believe it is growing (41%). More Republicans (72%) and independents (63%) believe the economy is shrinking than do Democrats. But still, a sizeable 44% of Democrats believe the economy is shrinking.
The S&P 500 stock market index is up 16% so far this year. But 59% of respondents wrongly said they believe the S&P is down for the year compared with those who said they believe it is up (41%). The majority of all those asked said the S&P was down whether Republican (66%), independent (60%) or Democrat (52%).
US wages are, finally, growing faster than inflation. But 75% of those polled wrongfully believe that wages aren’t keeping up with inflation. That view is held by the majority of Republicans (84%), independents (75%) and Democrats (67%).
There was some good news for Joe Biden. The poll found that 75% of respondents support at least one of the four main branches of Bidenomics: improving infrastructure, attracting high-tech electronics manufacturing, building clean energy manufacturing facilities and attracting more high-paying union jobs.
Still, 51% of Americans believe that government spending under the current administration is having a negative impact on the US economy (Republicans: 72%, independents: 54%, Democrats: 30%) rather than a positive impact (21%) or no impact (28%). And only just over a third of Democrats (35%) believe it’s having a positive impact (Republicans: 11%, independents: 16%).
John Gerzema, the CEO of Harris Poll, said:
All these perceptual-reality gaps underscore Biden’s difficulty in claiming credit for economic gains. Americans either view the economy through their politics or aren’t feeling it in real life, or both.
The lack of confidence in the economy has many academics and politicians puzzled.
Some have blamed the US’s polarized politics and this was illustrated in the poll. But Harris’s data also shows that fears are widespread – and reinforced by disbelief of or ignorance about official figures and a mistrust of the media’s reporting of them.
Some 82% of Republicans and 66% of independents believe the economy is worse than the media’s portrayal. But nearly half of Democrats (49%) also said the media viewed the economy too favorably.
Overall, the poll found widespread despondency about the state of the economy. More than half of Americans (53%) believe the economy is getting worse instead of better or staying the same. Republicans and independents are more likely to think it’s getting worse (72% and 58%, respectively, v Democrats: 32%), while more Democrats think it’s getting better (32% v Republicans: 8%, independents: 13%).
The results paint a difficult picture for Joe Biden, who is making “Bidenomics” – his economic policy record – a central plank of his re-election platform. The views of those familiar with Bidenomics showed a perhaps unsurprising party split. Some 60% of Democrats believe his plans are improving the US economy overall compared with 12% of Republicans.
There is a widespread belief that Bidenomics is good in theory but isn’t being implemented well – something both Democrats and Republicans agree with (62% v 58%).
Biden supporters have just launched a $13m advertising campaign extolling the president’s economic achievements, which include a landmark $1.2tn infrastructure and climate bill, massive investment in domestic microchips production and green energy solutions. His legislative actions are predicted to create 1.5m jobs per year for the next decade.
That message may be hard to sell given the widespread disbelief of and ignorance about the health of the US economy highlighted by the poll.
Exclusive: US economy going strong under Biden – but Americans don’t believe it
Americans do not trust the government’s economic news – or the media’s reporting of it – according to a Harris poll conducted exclusively for the Guardian that presents the White House with a major hurdle as it pushes Joe Biden’s economic record ahead of next year’s election.
The US has roared back from the Covid recession by official measures. But two-thirds of Americans are unhappy about the economy despite consistent reports that inflation is easing and unemployment is close to a 50-year low. And the poll suggests many are unaware of or don’t believe the positive economic news the government has reported.
The results illustrate a dramatic political split on economic views – with Republicans far more pessimistic than Democrats. But unhappiness about the economy is widespread.
Two-thirds of respondents (68%) reported it’s difficult to be happy about positive economic news when they feel financially squeezed each month (Republicans: 69%, Democrats: 68%).
Two-thirds of Americans (65%) believe that the economy is worse than the media makes it out to be rather than better (35%).
In August the unemployment rate was 3.8%, close to a 50-year low. But the poll found that 51% wrongly believe that unemployment is nearing a 50-year high rather than those who believe it’s actually low (49%).
Trump says it's 'very unlikely' he'd pardon himself if elected
Donald Trump, in the NBC Meet the Press interview that will air on Sunday, said it is “very unlikely” he would pardon himself if he is reelected in 2024.
Trump, at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey, said:
I think it’s very unlikely. What, what did I do wrong? I didn’t do anything wrong. You mean because I challenge an election, they want to put me in jail?
The former president, who is the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, faces 91 criminal counts in four jurisdictions stemming from his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, retention of classified documents after leaving office, and hush-money payments made to an adult film star.
Trump continued:
People said, ‘Would you like to pardon yourself? I had a couple of attorneys that said, ‘You can do it if you want. I had some people that said, ‘It would look bad if you do it, because I think it would look terrible.
He claimed he told his attorneys that “the last thing I’d ever do is give myself a pardon”, adding:
On the last day, I could have had a pardon done that would have saved me all of these lawyers and all of this — these fake charges, these Biden indictments.
But he declined to completely rule out a self-pardon when pressed whether he might grant himself one “even if you were re-elected in this moment”.
EXCLUSIVE: Fmr. Pres. Trump tells Kristen Welker that he was “given an option to pardon” himself before leaving office.
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) September 15, 2023
Trump: “I had a couple of attorneys that said, ‘You can do it if you want.’ … I said, ‘The last thing I’d ever do is give myself a pardon.’” pic.twitter.com/nrdUZJMFp8
Updated
Federal prosecutors expanded the indictment against Donald Trump in late July to include retaining national security documents and obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them.
The superseding indictment by special counsel Jack Smith accused Trump of attempting to destroy evidence and inducing someone else to destroy evidence, and named Mar-a-Lago club maintenance worker Carlos De Oliveira as the third co-defendant in the case. Trump’s valet Walt Nauta was previously indicted for obstruction with the former president in June.
The expanded indictment added a new section titled “The Attempt to Delete Security Camera Footage” that alleged in detail how Trump engaged in a scheme with Nauta and De Oliveira to wipe a server containing surveillance footage that prosecutors subpoenaed which showed boxes of classified documents being removed from the storage room.
According to the indictment, Trump seemingly instructed Nauta to unexpectedly travel to Mar-a-Lago to have the tapes destroyed. Nauta then enlisted the help of De Oliveira, and they walked to a security booth where the camera angles were displayed on monitors before walking down to the cameras and pointing them out with flashlights.
The following week, De Oliveira asked the director of IT at Mar-a-Lago, described as “Trump Employee 4” but understood to be Yuscil Taveras, how long surveillance footage was stored for and then told him “the boss” wanted the server deleted.
When the director of IT replied that he did not know how to delete the server and suggested De Oliveira ask the security supervisor at the Trump Organization, De Olivera again insisted that “the boss” wanted the server deleted, the indictment said.
Trump faces more than three dozen total charges in the case, including more than 30 violations of the Espionage Act.
Here’s Donald Trump’s full response to Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker when asked if he would testify under oath that he did not ask a staffer to delete surveillance footage at his Mar-a-Lago residence.
Look, it’s a fake charge by this deranged lunatic prosecutor who lost in the Supreme Court nine to nothing, and he tried to destroy lots of lives. He’s a lunatic. So it’s a fake charge.
But more importantly, the tapes weren’t deleted. In other words, there was nothing done to them. And they were my tapes. I could have fought them. I didn’t even have to give them the tapes, I don’t think. I think I would have won in court. When they asked for the tapes, I said, “Sure.” They’re my tapes. I could have fought them. I didn’t even have to give them. Just so you understand, though, we didn’t delete anything. Nothing was deleted.
Welker said: “So that’s false. The people who testified –”, to which Trump replied:
Number one, the statement is false. Much more importantly, when the tapes came, and everybody says this, they weren’t deleted. We gave them 100%.
Updated
'I'll testify': Trump denies he ordered Mar-a-Lago security video deleted
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Donald Trump said in an interview on Thursday that he would testify under oath denying he asked a staffer to delete surveillance footage at the center of an investigation into whether he mishandled classified documents.
The former US president, speaking to Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker, was asked whether he had asked a staffer to delete security camera footage at his Mar-a-Lago residence in an effort to obstruct a federal investigation into the records. Trump responded:
That’s false.
Pressed about whether he would testify to that under oath, the former president said:
Sure, I’m going to – I’ll testify.
“But more importantly, the tapes weren’t deleted,” he added.
In other words, there was nothing done to them. And they were my tapes. I could have fought them. I didn’t even have to give them the tapes, I don’t think.
WATCH: Former President Trump calls allegations that he asked a staffer to delete video evidence from Mar-a-Lago is “false.”
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) September 15, 2023
Kristen Welker: “Would you testify to that under oath?”
Trump: “Sure.” pic.twitter.com/PYqgS6O4Sn
In a superseding indictment filed by special counsel Jack Smith’s office in late July, Trump and his valet, Walt Nauta, and Mar-a-Lago property manager, Carlos De Oliveira, faced obstruction counts based on allegations that they instructed an unidentified Trump employee to delete surveillance video footage “to prevent the footage from being provided to a federal grand jury”.
“I think I would have won in court,” Trump told Welker.
When they asked for the tapes, I said, ‘Sure.’ They’re my tapes. I could have fought them. I didn’t even have to give them. Just so you understand, though, we didn’t delete anything. Nothing was deleted.
Here’s what else we’re watching today:
11.45am ET: Joe Biden will get his daily intelligence briefing.
1pm: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, will brief.
Updated
