Closing summary
That concludes today’s US politics live blog.
Here’s what happened today:
Biden announced several student loan forgiveness proposals during remarks in Madison, Wisconsin. One of his biggest proposals will cancel debt for those with more than $20,000 in interest or anyone who started paying off student loans more than two decades ago.
Former vice-president Mike Pence criticized Trump’s stance on abortion, calling it a “slap in the face” to the anti-abortion movement. In a lengthy post to Twitter/X, Pence said that Trump had previously sent Roe v Wade “to the ash heap” by securing supreme court judges who were anti-abortion, but criticized his “retreat” from “pro-life Americans” with his latest decision.
Jake Sullivan will host a meeting at the White House on Monday for families of US hostages held in Gaza, Punchbowl News reported. The latest meeting comes amid ongoing attempts to bring hostages home.
Trump indicated that he will sue the judge overseeing his hush money trial in New York City, the New York Times first reported. Trump is accused of forging financial records to cover up a sex scandal. The trial is set to begin 15 April.
Senator Lindsey Graham denounced Trump’s position on abortion and vowed to continue advocating for a 15-week abortion ban. In a statement Monday, Graham said he “respectfully [disagrees]” on Trump’s stance that abortion is an issue of states’ rights.
Thank you for following along.
Updated
Vice-president Kamala Harris said that Trump would sign off on a national abortion ban, when asked about Trump’s statement that abortion access should be left up to the states.
While talking with reporters before boarding Air Force 2, Harris said:
Let’s all be very clear – if he were to be put back in a position where he could sign off on a law, he would sign off on a national abortion ban. Let’s be very clear about that.
From CBS News:
Before boarding Air Force 2 heading to Philadelphia, @VP responded to Trump’s video posted this morning indicating abortion policy should be left to states.
— Nidia (@NidiaCavazosTV) April 8, 2024
“Let’s all be very clear - if he were to be put back in a position where he could sign off on a law, he would sign off on… https://t.co/xrD2izyM6v
Updated
Polls, polls, polls
Americans – and the rest of the world – are keeping an eye on the state of the US presidential race. Almost every day multiple new polls emerge and they nearly all agree – this race is close. Two more polls came on Monday, one (from I&I/TIPP) had Joe Biden up by three points, while the other (from Emerson) had Trump winning by one.
Go back a little further and over the last nine polls Biden has been winning in five of them, three of them had Trump ahead and one was a tie. The overall average still has Trump slightly ahead by just 0.3 points. That seems to represent a pattern of the last few weeks – Biden is ticking very slowly up. Of course, the vagaries of the US election system and its electoral college mean the polls are no straight predictor of a winner. Trump has (recently) been stronger in core battleground states.
Updated
Pence blasts Trump’s abortion position
Former vice-president Mike Pence has blasted his old boss’s position on abortion, saying that it is a “a slap in the face” of many anti-abortion campaigners.
The Hill reports that Pence tweeted in the wake of Trump saying the issue should be decided by individual states – a blow to those who hoped he might back some form of more national ban.
“President Trump’s retreat on the Right to Life is a slap in the face to the millions of pro-life Americans who voted for him in 2016 and 2020,” Pence wrote in his post, before praising the steps their administration took to further the anti-abortion effort.
Pence tweeted: “By nominating and standing by the confirmation of conservative justices, the Trump-Pence Administration helped send Roe v. Wade to the ash heap of history where it belongs and gave the pro-life movement the opportunity to compassionately support women and unborn children.”
Updated
Biden commented on attempts from Republican lawmakers and the US supreme court to end his loan forgiveness program.
“But then some of my Republican friends and elected officials [in] special interest sued us. And the supreme court blocked us,” Biden said, as the crowd booed.
“But that didn’t stop us,” Biden added.
Read about the supreme court’s actions against student loan forgiveness here:
Updated
Biden’s student loan forgiveness proposals have already gotten a nod of endorsement from top Democrats.
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont called the proposals a “big deal”, emphasizing that millions of Americans face “outrageous [levels] of student debt”.
At a time when young people across the country are struggling economically, President Biden’s decision to reduce the outrageous level of student debt they face will be extremely helpful. Millions will now be in a better position to start families & buy homes. This is a big deal.
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) April 8, 2024
Biden announced several major actions with regards to student loans during his speech.
Biden said his administration will propose a new rule to cancel up to $20,000 in interest for people who owe more than when they began paying their off loan.
Biden will also cancel student debt for those who started paying their student loans more than two decades ago.
“This relief can be life-changing,” Biden said.
Updated
Biden has begun his remarks on student loan forgiveness, discussing the impact that it has on millions of Americans.
“A lot can’t repay for even decades after being [out of] school,” Biden said.
“Too many people feel the strain and stress … because even if they get by, they still have this crushing, crushing debt,” he added
Biden added that student debt also negatively impacts the local economy, as many people are unable to afford homes.
Updated
Biden’s remarks on student loan forgiveness are set to begin shortly in Madison, Wisconsin.
Stay tuned for updates!
More Democrats have warned that Trump will sign a national abortion ban if elected president in 2024.
Elizabeth Warren said Trump bragged he’s “proudly the person responsible” for overturning Roe.
“He’d sign a national abortion ban as president, & his allies plan to get it done even without Congress,” the Massachusetts senator added.
Trump just bragged he’s “proudly the person responsible” for overturning Roe. He’d sign a national abortion ban as president, & his allies plan to get it done even without Congress. But if we re-elect @JoeBiden with a Democratic Congress, we can secure abortion rights nationwide.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 8, 2024
Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, noted that Trump’s stance on abortion has frequently changed, alluding that it could become more hard line.
Let’s wait a few weeks and see what his new position will be. https://t.co/UNZBznv78Y
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) April 8, 2024
Updated
The White House has not been briefed on the date of Israel’s invasion of Rafah, Reuters reports.
State department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday that the White House has not received a date for the military operation after Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu said that a day has been chosen.
Miller emphasized that the US does not support an invasion of Rafah, where many people in Gaza are currently displaced amid the ongoing genocide in the territory.
Jake Sullivan will host a meeting at the White House on Monday for families of US hostages held in Gaza, Punchbowl News reported.
The national security adviser will also meet with Israeli opposition Yair Lipid, who is visiting Washington this week.
Earlier today, White House spokesperson John Kirby said that Hamas is currently considering a deal that could release more hostages and lead to a six-week ceasefire.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan will be meeting tonight at the White House with family members of U.S. hostages in Gaza, per NSC spokesman John Kirby
— John Bresnahan (@bresreports) April 8, 2024
Updated
The day so far
Trump’s position on abortion sparked a myriad of reactions from both sides of the political aisle. On Monday, Trump said that abortion is an issue of states’ rights, refusing to back a 15-week abortion ban that is popular amid Republicans.
Democrats have warned that Trump will sign a national abortion ban, further limiting reproductive rigts. Meanwhile, anti-abortion advocates and GOP members have publicly criticized Trump for refusing to support an national limit.
Biden squarely blamed Trump “for creating the cruelty and the chaos that has enveloped America since the Dobbs decision”.
Here’s what else has happened today:
Biden is on route to Madison Wisconsin, where he will deliver remarks on his latest student loan forgiveness plan. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Biden will continue “fighting on behalf of borrowers” despite pushback from “Republican officials”.
Trump has indicated that he will sue the judge overseeing his hush money trial in New York City, the New York Times first reported. Trump is accused of forging financial records to cover up a sex scandal.
The White House announced that Hamas is reviewing a proposal that could lead to the release of hostages and a six-week ceasefire amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Ahead of Biden’s speech on student loans, Jean-Pierre said that Biden will continue to pursue student loan forgiveness despite pushback from “Republican officials”.
“While we can’t prevent them from filing lawsuits against this plan, the president will never stop fighting on behalf of borrowers,” Jean-Pierre said.
Republican states have previously tried to fight Biden’s attempts to wipe student loan debt, even falsely claiming that they would be financially impacted by the loan forgiveness scheme.
Jean-Pierre had choice words for Trump and Senate Republicans about abortion following Trump clarifying his position.
Jean-Pierre blamed Republicans for “extreme abortion bans” happening in GOP-led states, during Monday’s gaggle.
“The only reason that extreme abortion bans are now in effect all over the country is because of the judges the previous president and Senate republicans put in the court,” Jean-Pierre said.
“The only reason that women are being [denied] life saving and even unrelated procedures and turned away from emergency rooms…is because of the judges the previous president and Senate republicans put in the court,” she added.
Jean-Pierre added that bans on IVF, a consequence of the Alabama state supreme court ruling, are because of judges selected by Trump.
“We need to be clear eyed here,” Jean-Pierre added, regarding the potential impact on reproductive rights if Trump is elected.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is hosting a gaggle aboard Air Force One, as Biden travels to Wisconsin to give remarks on student loan forgiveness.
Stay tuned for further updates.
Trump to sue judge in effort to avert hush-money trial
Donald Trump will sue the judge overseeing his hush money trial, which is over allegations that Trump forged financial records in an attempt to cover up a sex scandal, the New York Times first reported.
The latest lawsuit from Trump is a last-minute attempt to delay the trial, which is set to begin 15 April in New York City.
According to the Times, Trump’s legal team has now filed an action against Judge Juan Merchan, though the lawsuit itself is not public.
Two sources with knowledge on the suit told the Times on Monday that Trump’s attorneys are asking an appeals court to delay the trial and also attacking a gag order that Merchan placed on Trump.
Merchan previously denied Trump’s request to delay the trial until the US supreme court reviews his claims around presidential immunity involving a separate criminal case.
Updated
White House: Hamas reviewing latest ceasefire proposal
A White House spokesperson said that Hamas is reviewing a new proposal that could secure the release of hostages and a ceasefire, Reuters reported.
Spokesperson John Kirby said that the US is taking current negotiations seriously and hopeful about a possible release deal, which would lead to a six-week ceasefire.
Kirby added that 300 aid trucks entered Gaza on Sunday, but that the US is pressing Israel to allow more aid into the territory.
The latest negotiations come four days after Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, spoke on the phone after an Israeli air strike killing seven aid workers.
Updated
Ahead of Biden’s visit to Madison, Jamaal Bowman said that Biden’s response to Gaza will hurt his popularity among young voters ahead of the 2024 election, the Hill reported.
In an interview with MSNBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin on Sunday, the progressive representative said:
Yes, because we’ve always had a problem engaging voters of color, young people and certain demographics…
It’s going to be harder now because of how we respond — have pretty much not responded very well to what’s happening in Gaza
Nearly 50,000 Democrats cast “uninstructed” votes in the Wisconsin primary versus voting for Biden due to Biden’s response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Updated
Graham 'respectfully disagrees' on Trump's abortion stance
Senator Lindsey Graham criticized Trump’s position on abortion and vows to continue advocating for a 15-week abortion ban.
In a statement Monday, Graham said he “respectfully [disagrees]” on Trump’s stance that abortion is an issue of states’ rights.
“I will continue to advocate that there should be a national minimum standard limiting abortion at fifteen weeks because the child is capable of feeling pain, with exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother,” Graham added.
Graham said earlier this year that he would introduce legislation for a 15-week ban, but may not pursue the policy in Congress at this time, the Hill reported.
Graham’s split with Trump comes as Republicans are contending with how to handle abortion ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Updated
Here is more of Biden’s statement on Trump’s abortion position.
The statement is among Biden’s longer ones as Democrats work to establish that Republicans will further destroy abortion access.
Here’s what Donald Trump doesn’t understand: When he ripped away Roe v. Wade, he ripped away a fundamental right for the women of America that the United States Supreme Court had affirmed and reaffirmed for 50 years.
As a fundamental right, it didn’t matter where you lived. It was granted to you as an American, not as a resident of any state. Generations of women had come to rely on that right. Now we’re in the extraordinary position where women today have fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers.
That has never happened before in America. And it cannot be allowed to stand. I am determined to restore the federal protections of Roe v. Wade. So it won’t matter where you live in America: The fundamental right to choose for women will once again be the law of the land. If you give me and Vice President Harris a Democratic Congress, that is exactly what we will do.
Trump is simply lying. There was no groundswell of support in America for overturning Roe. In fact, support for Roe is higher today in America than it has ever been. The real truth is Trump made a political deal in 2016. He promised to appoint a Court that would get rid of Roe. And he had to make good on that debt. So he did. It was never about public policy or what was right or what Trump believed. It was always about politics.
Trump admits as much in his statement today. Having created the chaos of overturning Roe, he’s trying to say, ‘Oh, never mind. Don’t punish me for that. I just want to win.’
Trump is scrambling. He’s worried that since he’s the one responsible for overturning Roe the voters will hold him accountable in 2024. Well, I have news for Donald. They will. America was built on personal freedom and liberty. So, there is nothing more un-American than having our personal freedoms taken away. And that is what Donald Trump has done.
As I have said many times since the Dobbs decision, Donald Trump and all those responsible for overturning Roe don’t have a clue about the power of women in America. But they are about to find out.
Updated
Biden warns Trump will sign national abortion ban if elected
Joe Biden cautioned that Trump will sign a national abortion ban if elected, following Trump’s latest remarks on his abortion stance.
In a Monday statement, Biden said that Trump is “responsible for creating the cruelty and the chaos that has enveloped America since the Dobbs decision”.
Biden said:
Trump once said women must be punished for seeking reproductive health care – and he’s gotten his wish. Women are being turned away from emergency rooms, forced to go to court to seek permission for the medical attention they need, and left to travel hundreds of miles for health care…
With all his empty words on fertility treatments, Trump doesn’t tell you the Maga Republicans he controls in Congress have put forward bills that could ban fertility treatments and that the Speaker of the House he empowered is one of the strongest supporters for a national abortion ban in the nation.
Let there be no illusion. If Donald Trump is elected and the MAGA Republicans in Congress put a national abortion ban on the Resolute Desk, Trump will sign it into law.
Biden added that he is “determined” to restore federal abortion protections if him and Kamala Harris get a “Democratic Congress”.
Updated
Defending Democracy Together, a conservative anti-Trump group, is mounting a new effort to stave off a change to Nebraska presidential election rules which pro-Trumpers hope will take a potentially crucial electoral college vote away from Joe Biden.
With Maine, Nebraska is one of two US states which splits its electoral college vote.
Under Nebraska law, two of five electoral college votes go to the candidate with most votes statewide, the others to the winners of three electoral districts.
That means that though Nebraska skews heavily Republican, it can split its vote.
It did so in 2008 and 2020, Democrats taking one electoral vote in the district centered on Omaha, the biggest city in the state.
In 2024, as Biden and Donald Trump square off in a tightly fought rematch, there is a scenario in which that one Nebraska vote could decide the whole election.
Exhorted by the hard-right podcaster Charlie Kirk, therefore, Trump supporters are trying to switch to a winner-takes-all model. The push failed to clear one legislative hurdle last week but it could be revived by Jim Pillen, the Republican Nebraska governor, in time to affect the November election.
Defending Democracy Together, which has strong links to the Bulwark, a never-Trump conservative news site, will therefore this week launch the first tranche of an ad campaign meant to persuade Nebraskans to oppose the change. Targeting Nebraska Republican lawmakers, the ads say:
Lawmakers in Lincoln want to change Nebraska’s independent electoral college vote and destroy your ability to decide the next president.
Viewers are then encouraged to call their local Republican and voice their opposition.
Gunner Ramer, national spokesperson for Defending Democracy Together, said: “Nebraskans take pride in their ability to exercise their voting power to make their congressional district’s voice heard. When voters feel that their presidential vote truly matters, our democracy is better for it.
“That’s what makes Nebraska’s current system so powerful. Lawmakers in Lincoln need to uphold that pro-democratic principle.”
Updated
Trump’s comments on abortion come as Florida’s six week abortion ban is set to take effect in May.
The near-total ban will take place starting 1 May, but could be overturned by voters in November. Trump previously denounced near-total abortion bans in several GOP-led states.
Read more on Florida’s abortion ban from the Guardian’s Carter Sherman:
Florida, the last bastion of abortion access in the south-eastern United States, will ban abortion past six weeks of pregnancy starting next month, leaving abortion providers and their supporters in the state and across the country scrambling to deal with the fallout for patients.
On Monday, the Florida state supreme court upheld a 15-week abortion ban, a move that removed the barriers for a separate, six-week ban that takes effect on 1 May. In a separate ruling, the court also agreed to let Florida residents weigh in on the issue through a November ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution – a decision that opens a new front in an election that is already sure to be dominated by abortion politics.
“We’re all holding out hope for November, but realizing that from May to November, we’re going to be turning patients away at unprecedented rates,” said Dr Chelsea Daniels, a family medicine physician and abortion provider in Miami, Florida. “It feels like a punch to the gut.”…
Read the full article here.
Anti-abortion groups 'deeply disappointed' by Trump's position
Anti-abortion groups have slammed Trump’s stance on abortion, signaling the stark divide on the issue in GOP circles.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B Anthony Pro-Life America, said she was “deeply disappointed” in Trump’s position, in a statement to X.
We are deeply disappointed in President Trump’s position. Unborn children and their mothers deserve national protections and national advocacy from the brutality of the abortion industry…
Saying the issue is ‘back to the states’ cedes the national debate to Democrats who are working relentless to enact legislation mandating abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy….
Meanwhile, prominent Democrats have warned that Trump will pass a national abortion ban into law if elected president.
In a statement to X, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia said that Trump was “singularly responsible” for the end of federal abortion protections:
An old saying goes: “watch what they do, not what they say.” Donald Trump is singularly responsible for the overturning of Roe & ripping away women’s freedoms—& he “proudly” takes credit for it. He’d sign a national abortion ban into law—no matter how much he tries to deny it.
Updated
Trump’s stance on abortion comes after he previously suggested that he would support a 15-week ban with exceptions for rape, incest, or if the mother’s life was in danger.
In Monday’s video, Trump said he was “strongly in favor of exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother.” He did not say at what number of weeks into pregnancy he would support a ban.
Trump previously criticized near-total abortion bans passed in several Republican-led states as “terrible”.
His latest comments come as several GOP candidates struggle with the issue, particularly in competitive states.
Updated
Trump says states and 'will of the people' should determine abortion rights
Good morning.
Former president Donald Trump said that abortion rights should be determined by states and the “will of the people”, dodging calls for a national abortion ban.
On Monday, Trump, the Republican nominee for the 2024 presidential election, posted a video clarifying his position to his social media platform Truth Social.
“My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation, or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state,” Trump said.
“At the end of the day, this is all about the will of the people. You must follow your heart, or in many cases, your religion or your faith,” he added.
Trump noted that he also supports the availability of fertility treatments. His latest remarks comes after the Alabama supreme court ruled that frozen embryos are “children”, a win for the anti-abortion movement that forced many Republicans to explain their position on the popular procedure.
Here’s what else is happening today:
Joe Biden will speak in Madison, Wisconsin about student loan forgiveness for 23 million borrowers.
