Closing summary
It is nearly 5pm in Washington DC. Here is a wrap-up of the day’s key events:
In an impassioned address in Jacksonville, Florida, vice president Kamala Harris vowed to fight against the Florida’s education board’s decision to teach students that Black people somehow benefited from slavery. Harris took aim at right-wing Republicans whom she called “extremist so-called leaders” and accused them of waging a “national agenda” on attempting to rewrite American history.
Advocacy groups have denounced the Florida curriculum changes for providing a sanitized version of history. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Florida Education Association, and Center for K-12 Black History and Racial Literacy Education are among some of the numerous groups across the country that have condemned the new changes.
The justice department has told Texas governor Greg Abbott that it intends to file legal action over a floating barrier wall he erected in the Rio Grande River to block migrants from entering Texas from Mexico. The letter, obtained by CNN, reads: “The State of Texas’s actions violate federal law, raise humanitarian concerns, present serious risks to public safety and the environment, and may interfere with the federal government’s ability to carry out its official duties.”
Democratic presidential hopeful Robert F Kennedy Jr appeared on Thursday before a hearing convened by House Republicans, where he sought to portray himself as a victim of censorship by social media and members of his party. Kennedy declared he is neither an antisemite nor a racist, days after he was filmed falsely suggesting that the coronavirus could have been “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.
The grandson of former president John F Kennedy ridiculed Robert F Kennedy’s 2024 White House bid, joining other members of the Kennedy family in condemning the Democratic presidential hopeful’s false remarks that Covid-19 was engineered to target some ethnic groups and spare others. In a video posted to his Instagram, Jack Schlossberg endorsed Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, saying he was on the way to becoming “the greatest progressive president we’ve ever had” who “shares my grandfather’s vision for America.”
The Biden administration has secured voluntary commitments on “responsible innovation” from the seven US companies that are driving innovation in artificial intelligence, Joe Biden said. He said AI brings “incredible opportunities” as well as risks to society and economy.
The federal judge overseeing former president Donald Trump’s trial on his mishandling of classified documents case has set a trial date for 20 May 2024. The ruling from US district judge Aileen Cannon places Trump’s criminal trial less than six months ahead of the November 2024 presidential election.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis threatened the parent company of Bud Light with legal action for sponsoring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. In a letter to Florida state’s pension fund manager, CNN reported, DeSantis alleged that AB InBev had decided to associate with “radical social ideologies” and “may have breached legal duties owed to its shareholders.”
That’s it from me, Maya Yang, as we close the blog for today. Thank you for following along.
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Harris takes aim at 'extremist so-called leaders' who 'push propaganda to our children' in speech on slavery teaching change
In an impassioned address in Jacksonville, Florida in front of a crowd of teachers, lawyers, lawmakers and activists, vice president Kamala Harris vowed to fight against the Florida’s education board’s decision to teach students that Black people somehow benefited from slavery.
Harris took aim at right-wing Republicans whom she called “extremist so-called leaders” and accused of waging a “national agenda” on attempting to rewrite American history.
“Extremist so-called leaders for months have dared to ban books…and now they want to replace history with lies… They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us and we will not have it. We will not let it happen,” she said.
She went to accuse them of daring to “push propaganda to our children,” citing other highly restrictive laws in Florida including the so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ ban, prohibition of certain books in classrooms, as well as voting and reproductive rights.
Harris called the recent decision by the state’s education board “outrageous,” saying that it is “an abject and purposeful and intentional policy to mislead our children,” as well as a broader attempt to create “unecessary debates [and] to divide our country.”
She went on to urge Americans to unite the coalition of “all people who believe in our foundational and fundamental truths.”
“Let us stand always for what we know is right. Let us fight for what is right. And when we fight, we win,” Harris said in her closing remarks.
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“Let us not be distracted by what they’re trying to do, which is to create unnecessary debates, to divide our country. Let’s not fall in that trap,” said Harris.
“We will stand united as a country. We know our collective history. It is our shared history. We are all in this together…
And we will not allow them to suggest anything other than what we know. The vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us.
And so let us stand always for what we know is right. Let us fight for what is right. And when we fight, we win,” Harris said in her closing remarks.
“We fought a war to end the sin of slavery. People died by the untold numbers in that war, many of whom fought and died because of their belief that slavery was a sin against man, that it was inhumane,” said Harris.
“So who then would dare deny this history? Who would dare then deny that these lives were lost and why they were lost in what was the cause that they were fighting for and what they were fighting against.
They weren’t fighting and dying because they thought people were going to be okay with this thing. It’s because they knew that it had to end because it was so criminal…
We know the history and let us not let these politicians who are trying to divide our country because you see what they are doing by creating these unnecessary debates.
To debate whether inslaved people benefited from slavery? Are you kidding me?” Harris added.
“History has shown us that in our darkest moments, we have the ability to unite and to come out stronger,” said Harris.
“Our history as a nation is born out of tragedy and triumph. That’s who we are. Part of that is what gives us our grit, knowing where we came from, knowing the struggles that we have come through and being stronger in our dedication to saying no more and not again.
It is part of what makes up the character of who we are as America so let’s reject the notion that we would deny all of this in terms of our history. Let us not be seduced into believing that somehow we will be better if we forget,” she added.
“This is not the first time in history that we’ve come across this kind of approach. This is not the first time that there are powerful forces that have attempted to distort history for the sake of political ends,” said Harris.
“I have done an exercise of looking to see from where we are seeing these attacks on things like voting rights, LGBTQ rights, a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body. You will not be surprised to know, a lot of them revert to the same source so let’s think about this then as an opportunity to build back up the coalition of all people who believe in our foundational and fundamental truths,” she added.
“Teachers want to teach the truth…and so they should not be then told by politicians that they should be teaching revisionist history in order to keep their jobs,” said Harris.
“What is going on? Teachers fear that if they teach the truth, they may lose their job. As it is, we don’t pay them enough.
And these are the people, these extremist so-called leaders who all the while are also the ones suggesting that teachers strap on a gun in the classroom,” Harris added.
Harris: saying slavery had some benefit is false and propaganda being pushed on children
“The myth that there was some benefit is not only misleading, it is false and it is pushing propaganda,” said Harris.
“People who walk around and want to be praised as leaders…[are] pushing propaganda on our children…
It is a reasonable expectation that our children will not be misled and that’s what’s so outrageous about what is happening right now – an abject and purposeful and intentional policy to mislead our children,” she added.
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“Adults know what slavery really involved. It involved rape, it involved torture, it involved taking a baby from their mother. It involved some of the worst examples of depriving people of humanity in our world,” said Harris.
“It involves subjecting people to the requirement that they would think of themselves and be thought of as less than human. So in the context of that, how could anyone suggest that in the midst of these atrocities that there was any benefit to being subjected to this level of dehumanization?” said Harris, her voice rising as the crowd applauded.
“These extremist so-called leaders should model what we know to be correct and the right approach if we really are invested in the wellbeing of our children,” said Harris.
“Instead, they dare to push propaganda to our children. This is the United States of America. We’re not supposed to do that,” she added.
“When I think about what is happening here in Florida, I am deeply concerned because let’s be clear. I do not believe this is not only about the state of Florida. There is a national agenda,” Harris said.
“Extremist so-called leaders from months have dared to ban books…and now they want to replace history with lies…
They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us and we will not have it. We will not let it happen,” she added.
Harris: US children won't know their history when the rest of the world does
“All the folks that we would go out and send out children to go and meet around the world are clear about our history, and we…send our children now to not know what it is?” said Harris.
“Building in a handicap for our children, that they are going to be the ones in the room who don’t know their own history when the rest of the world does?” she added.
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“The thing about being a role model is that when you’re a role model, people watch what you do to see if it matches what you say,” said Harris.
“So understand the impact that this…has, not only for the children of Florida and our nation, but potentially people around the world.
Because on a more specific point in that regard, we want to know that we are sending our children out as role models of democracy…”
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“I am a product of teachers and and educational system that believed in providing the children with the full expanse of information, that allowed them to then reach their own conclusions.” said Harris.
“When I think about where we are today… I know…we share in common a deep love for our country and the responsibility we each have to then fight for its ideals,” she added.
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'You're not alone', Harris tells Jacksonville audience opposing curriculum changes
“You are not alone,” Kamala Harris said in her opening remarks as she addressed a crowd of educators, lawyers, politicians and activists in Jacksonville who are opposing the recent changes.
“You’re not out here fighting by yourselves. We believe in you and we believe in the people of Florida,” she said.
Updated
Kamala Harris due to speak in Florida amid outcry over change in teaching of slavery at schools
Vice-President Kamala Harris is due to speak soon in Jacksonville, Florida, about the state board of education’s curriculum updates that mean public school students will now be taught that some Black people received “personal benefit” from slavery – because it taught them useful skills.
We’ll bring you the latest updates so stay tuned.
Updated
Advocacy groups have denounced the Florida curriculum changes for providing a sanitized version of history.
In a statement, Derrick Johnson, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), said:
Today’s actions by the Florida state government are an attempt to bring our country back to a 19th-century America where Black life was not valued, nor our rights protected.
Our children deserve nothing less than truth, justice and the equity our ancestors shed blood, sweat and tears for.
The Florida Education Association, a union representing more than 150,000 educators, called the new curriculum a “disservice to Florida students” and a “big step backwards”. Andrew Spar, the FEA president, said:
Florida’s students deserve a world-class education that equips them to be successful adults who can heal our nation’s divisions rather than deepen them.
The changes to the state curriculum came a year after the Republican Florida governor, the presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis, enacted the Stop Woke Act, Time reported.
The law prohibits teaching students or employees about anything that could cause them to “feel guilt, anguish or any form of psychological distress” because of their race, color, national origin or sex.
LaGarrett J King, director of the Center for K-12 Black History and Racial Literacy Education at the University of Buffalo, said the updates to the Florida curriculum were “anti-Black”.
Students of Florida, King said, will be “extremely ignorant about the history of this country.
For those who are going to college, there’s going to be a lot of correction. Especially if they go outside of the state. For those who don’t go to college, they’re going to hold these inaccurate perceptions about Black people throughout their years, if they don’t get any correction.
Kamala Harris to oppose Florida schools teaching that Black people ‘benefited’ from slavery
Kamala Harris was due to visit Florida on Friday, to respond to the state board of education’s controversial new standards for Black history education which include the contention that some Black people benefited from being enslaved.
The vice-president, the first woman of color to hold that role, headed to Jacksonville in order to discuss ways to “protect fundamental freedoms, specifically, the freedom to learn and teach America’s full and true history”, NBC reported, citing a White House official. Harris was also set to meet civil rights leaders, educators, elected officials and other community members, NBC said.
On Wednesday, the Florida board of education approved new standards for how public schools should teach Black history. According to a 216-page document, public school students will now be taught that some Black people received “personal benefit” from slavery – because it taught them useful skills. One curriculum benchmark said:
Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.
The new curriculum also says Black people perpetrated violence during some race massacres, including the 1906 Atlanta race riot and the 1921 Tulsa massacre.
On Thursday, while giving remarks at a conference for the Black sorority Delta Sigma Theta, Harris condemned the updated education standards as “revisionist history”.
“Just yesterday in the state of Florida, they decided middle school students will be taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery,” the vice-president said.
They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us and we will not stand for it.
Updated
The justice department has told Texas Governor Greg Abbott that it intends to file legal action over a floating barrier wall he erected in the Rio Grande River to block migrants from entering Texas from Mexico.
The letter, obtained by CNN, reads:
The State of Texas’s actions violate federal law, raise humanitarian concerns, present serious risks to public safety and the environment, and may interfere with the federal government’s ability to carry out its official duties.
Abbott announced in June that the state would install a barrier made of buoys along a section of the Rio Grande where people often wade or swim across the treacherous river from Mexico seeking refuge in the US.
The justice department’s actions are separate from the ongoing assessment of mistreatment of migrant, reports the department have described as “troubling”.
In response, Abbott said Texas has “sovereign authority” to defend its border.
Texas has the sovereign authority to defend our border, under the U.S. Constitution and the Texas Constitution.
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) July 21, 2023
We have sent the Biden Administration numerous letters detailing our authority, including the one I hand-delivered to President Biden earlier this year.
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Democratic presidential hopeful Robert F Kennedy Jr appeared on Thursday before a hearing convened by House Republicans, where he sought to portray himself as a victim of censorship by social media and members of his party.
Kennedy declared he is neither an antisemite nor a racist, days after he was filmed falsely suggesting that the coronavirus could have been “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.
Republicans have been eager to elevate Kennedy after he announced in April he was mounting a long-shot primary challenge to Joe Biden.
Jack Schlossberg and Robert F Kennedy Jr are first cousins, once removed. Schlossberg’s mother is Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of former president John F Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy.
Schlossberg is the latest member of the Kennedy clan to denounce Robert F Kennedy Jr’s presidential run. Earlier this week, his sister Kerry Kennedy publicly spoke out to say that she “strongly” condemned his remarks on Covid-19 and ethnic targeting.
Rory Kennedy, also Kennedy’s sister, also took a stand against her brother in an email to the Guardian. She said:
My feelings about my brother Bobby’s recent statement regarding Covid and ethnic targeting are very much aligned with my brother Joe, sister Kerry, and nephew Joe III – all of whom I admire for speaking out against him. There is a great deal of hate in the world and remarks like Bobby’s only serve to fuel that hate.
Such conspiracy mongering not only creates more divisiveness, it actually puts people’s lives in danger.
Their rebukes were echoed by the Democratic former Massachusetts congressman Joe Kennedy III, nephew of Robert F Kennedy Jr, who wrote in a tweet:
My uncle’s comments were hurtful and wrong. I unequivocally condemn what he said.
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Grandson of JFK calls Robert F Kennedy Jr's presidential bid an 'embarrassment'
The grandson of former president John F Kennedy ridiculed Robert F Kennedy’s 2024 White House bid, joining other members of the Kennedy family in condemning the Democratic presidential hopeful’s false remarks that Covid-19 was engineered to target some ethnic groups and spare others.
In a video posted to his Instagram, Jack Schlossberg endorsed Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, saying he was on the way to becoming “the greatest progressive president we’ve ever had” who “shares my grandfather’s vision for America”. He said:
Under Biden, we’ve added 13m jobs, unemployment is at its lowest in 60 years. Biden passed the largest investment in infrastructure since the New Deal and the largest investment in green energy ever. He’s appointed more federal judges than any president since my grandfather. He ended our longest war. He ended the Covid pandemic, and he ended Donald Trump.
These are the issues that matter. And if my cousin, Bobby Kennedy Jr, cared about any of them, he would support Joe Biden too.
Schlossberg, 30, went on to accuse his second cousin of “trading in on Camelot, celebrity conspiracy theories and conflict for personal gain and fame”.
I’ve listened to him. I know him. I have no idea why anyone thinks he should be president. What I do know is his candidacy is an embarrassment. Let’s not be distracted again by somebody’s vanity project. I’m excited to vote for Joe Biden in my state’s primary, and again in the general election. And I hope you will too.
Updated
The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, has said he will introduce legislation to regulate AI.
Schumer has held a number of briefings with government officials to educate senators about an issue that’s attracted bipartisan interest.
A number of technology executives have called for regulation, and several went to the White House in May to speak with Joe Biden, Vice-President Kamala Harris and other officials.
But some experts and upstart competitors worry that the type of regulation being floated could be a boon for deep-pocketed first-movers led by OpenAI, Google and Microsoft as smaller players are elbowed out by the high cost of making their AI systems known as large language models adhere to regulatory strictures.
The software trade group BSA, which includes Microsoft as a member, said on Friday that it welcomed the Biden administration’s efforts to set rules for high-risk AI systems. The group said in a statement:
Enterprise software companies look forward to working with the administration and Congress to enact legislation that addresses the risks associated with artificial intelligence and promote its benefits.
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Here’s a bit more the AI guidelines brokered by the Biden administration and announced by the White House this morning.
The news comes as critics charge AI’s breakneck expansion threatens to allow real damage to occur before laws catch up. The voluntary commitments are not legally binding, but may create a stopgap while more comprehensive action is developed.
A surge of commercial investment in generative AI tools that can write convincingly human-like text and churn out new images and other media has brought public fascination as well as concern about their ability to trick people and spread disinformation, among other dangers.
The voluntary commitments are meant to be an immediate way of addressing risks ahead of a longer-term push to get Congress to pass laws regulating the technology.
Some advocates for AI regulations said Biden’s move is a start but more needs to be done to hold the companies and their products accountable.
A statement from James Steyer, founder and CEO of the non-profit Common Sense Media. said:
History would indicate that many tech companies do not actually walk the walk on a voluntary pledge to act responsibly and support strong regulations.
These commitments by top players in AI development are “real and concrete” and will help “develop safe, secure and trustworthy” technologies that benefit society and uphold values, Biden says.
AI will “transform the lives of people around the world”, Biden says, adding that it is “astounding” how quickly technology will change.
The group of seven US companies “will be critical in shepherding that innovation with responsibility and safety by design to earn the trust of Americans”, he says.
Americans are seeing how advanced artificial intelligence and the pace of innovation have the power to disrupt jobs in industries.
These commitments are a promising step that we have a lot more work to do together.
Updated
Biden says he is pleased to announce that the seven US companies – Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Facebook parent company Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI – have agreed to these voluntary commitments for responsible innovation.
These “real and concrete” commitments underscore three fundamental principles – safety, security and trust, Biden says.
First, companies have an obligation to make sure their technology is safe before they release it to the public. This means testing the capabilities of the systems, assessing their potential risks, and then making publicthe results of these assessments.
Companies must also safeguard their models against cyber threats, and share best practices and industry standards.
Biden says companies have a duty to empower users to make informed decisions labelling content that has been altered or AI generated, screening out bias and discrimination, strengthen privacy protections and shielding children from harm.
Finally, these companies have agreed to find ways for AI “to help meet society’s greatest challenges, from cancer to climate change, and invest in education and new jobs”, he says.
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Biden: AI brings 'incredible opportunities' as well as risks
The Biden administration has secured voluntary commitments on “responsible innovation” from the seven US companies that are driving innovation in artificial intelligence, Joe Biden says.
He says AI brings “incredible opportunities” as well as risks to society and economy.
Biden says he met with leaders of the US companies two months “to underscore their responsibility” and to make sure their products are safe.
Since then, Biden says he has met with some of America’s top minds and technology to hear the range of perspectives and possibilities and risks of AI.
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Biden to deliver speech on AI after tech giants sign up to attempt to control dangers of new technology
Joe Biden is expected to deliver remarks at 1.30pm EST on artificial intelligence.
The president’s speech comes after the White House announced on Friday morning that the administration has secured voluntary commitments from top players in the development of artificial intelligence to ensure their AI products are safe before they release them.
Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Facebook parent company Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI will announce new safeguards for the fast-moving technology, brokered by the Biden administration.
Among the guidelines are watermarks for AI content to make it easier to identify and third-party testing of the technology that will try to spot dangerous flaws.
We will be following Biden’s speech live on the blog.
Updated
A biographer whose Pulitzer prize-winning book inspired the new movie Oppenheimer has expressed support for a US senator’s attempt to bar the use of artificial intelligence in nuclear weapons launches.
“Humans must always maintain sole control over nuclear weapons,” Kai Bird, co-author of American Prometheus, said in a statement reported by Politico.
“This technology is too dangerous to gamble with. This bill will send a powerful signal to the world that the United States will never take the reckless step of automating our nuclear command and control.”
In Washington on Thursday, Bird met Ed Markey, the Democratic Massachusetts senator who is attempting to add the AI-nuclear provision to a major defense spending bill.
Markey, Politico said, was a friend of Bird’s co-author, the late Tufts University professor Martin J Sherwin.
A spokesperson for the senator told Politico Markey and Bird “shared their mutual concerns over the proliferation of artificial intelligence in national security and defense without guardrails, and the risks of using nuclear weapons in south Asia and elsewhere.
“They also discussed ways to increase awareness of nuclear issues among the younger set.”
Full story:
Michael Cohen has told Reuters that his lawsuit with Trump Organization has been resolved.
In a statement, Donald Trump’s former fixer said:
This matter has been resolved in a manner satisfactory to all parties.
NBC is also reporting that Donald Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen is expected to settle his lawsuit with the Trump Organization, confirming a New York Times report.
NBC News confirms: Michael Cohen is expected to settle with the Trump Organization in his fight for $1.3 million in legal fees. @NBCNews
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 21, 2023
A Donald Trump aide who was with the former president for much of the day on 6 January 2021 appeared before a federal grand jury investigating the 2020 election aftermath on Thursday.
William Russell was a White House special assistant and the deputy director of presidential advance operations, who now works for Trump’s 2024 campaign. He has made prior appearances before the grand jury, according to the Washington Post.
During his testimony on Thursday, Russell was asked multiple questions about interactions he had with Trump while he was still in office, according to CNN. The line of questioning reported led Russell to leave and seek counsel from his attorney, Stan Woodward, multiple times.
The grand jury hearing evidence in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation met for more than six hours, CNN wrote.
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Former Trump aide Michael Cohen expected to settle lawsuit with Trump Organization – report
Donald Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen, who was set to go to trial next week against his former boss’s company in a dispute over legal fees, is expected to settle his lawsuit with the Trump Organization, according to a New York Times report.
Cohen’s civil lawsuit, initially filed in 2019, accused the Trump Organization of failing to make good on a promise to pay legal costs resulting from his work, leaving him with $1.3m unpaid bills.
Jury selection for the trial began earlier this week, and opening arguments were scheduled for Monday.
The proposed settlement, which has not been finalized and the terms of which will be confidential, will probably become public at a court hearing on Friday morning, the Times said, citing two people with knowledge of the matter.
Cohen served for years as Trump’s personal attorney and fixer, but split with the former president in 2018 after the FBI raided his home and office while investigating him for multiple crimes that led him to plead guilty to multiple charges that year.
Separately, Cohen is expected to be a key witness against Trump in a Manhattan criminal trial over allegations the former president tried to cover up past extramarital affairs during his first White House campaign.
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As charges against Donald Trump mount, any distinction between the former president’s White House bid and his criminal defense is vanishing, according to a Washington Post report.
The paper writes:
Fighting those prosecutions is increasingly dominating his time, resources and messaging, making the centerpiece of his candidacy an appeal to stay out of prison. As he forges ahead, much of the Republican base appears to be cheering him at each turn.
What is likely to come is a campaign like the country has never seen before: A candidate juggling multiple criminal indictments while slashing the Department of Justice and his opponents, shuttling between early primary states for rallies and courtrooms for hearings, and spending his supporters’ money on both millions of dollars’ worth of campaign ads and burgeoning legal bills.
Just over half of the money he raised last quarter went to the Save America Pac, which has spent millions on lawyers representing Trump and allies in the multiple ongoing cases, the report says.
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Donald Trump’s rivals are upping the pressure on him to take part in next month’s GOP primary debate, although he is expected to be a no-show.
Trump, who has emerged as the clear frontrunner in the Republican race, has signaled that he will not participate in the party’s first 2024 election primary debate, hosted by Fox News in Milwaukee on 23 August.
“When you have a big lead, you don’t do it,” he said during an interview on Fox News Sunday, adding, “I haven’t really made up my mind.”
Republican national committee chair, Ronna McDaniel, said earlier this week that Trump would be making “a mistake” if he opts out of the upcoming debate.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called on Trump to join the other candidates on the debate stage in an interview on Newsmax on Wednesday. “Nobody’s entitled to be nominated. You got to earn it,” DeSantis said.
Vivek Ramaswamy, when asked in April about the potential for Trump to sit out the debate, told NBC: “I’m not going to let him get away with that.”
David Hopkins, an associate professor of political science at Boston College, told the Hill:
Without Trump on the stage then it underscores the extent to which the rest of the candidates are in some sense in competition with each other to become the main alternative to Trump.
Trump’s rivals also want the former president to take part in the debate because it “juices interest and ratings” and they are hoping to attract some attention to themselves, he added.
Tim Burchett, the Republican congressman from Florida who is co-leading the UFO investigation, declared in early July that alien craft possess technology that could “turn us into a charcoal briquette”, while a Republican colleague suggested that extraterrestrial interlopers could actually be representatives of an ancient civilization.
In a briefing on Thursday, Burchett said he and his co-investigator Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican member from Tennessee, had been “stonewalled” by federal officials when asking about UFOs, and prevented from accessing some “information to prove that they do exist”. He said:
We’ve had a heck of a lot of pushback about this hearing. There are a lot of people who don’t want this to come to light.
Burchett said the US had evidence of technology that “defies all of our laws of physics”, and angrily railed against a “cover-up” by military officials.
He added:
We’re gonna get to the bottom of it, dadgummit. Whatever the truth may be. We’re done with the cover-up.
UFO claims to get their day in Congress
For decades, US politicians have been reluctant to get involved in the topic of UFOs and aliens.
After a series of disclosures in recent months, however, Republicans and Democrats now appear to be lining up to inquire into the question of extraterrestrial life, as the world seems closer than ever to finding out whether we are alone in the universe.
Next week, the House oversight committee will hold its first public hearing as part of its investigation into UFOs, weeks after a whistleblower former intelligence official went public with claims that the government has possession of “intact and partially intact” alien vehicles.
David Grusch’s allegations about the government harboring alien craft – he has since suggested that the US has also encountered “malevolent” alien pilots – sparked the 26 July hearing, and beyond that, appear to have lit a fire under the Washington establishment.
The Republican party has led the initial charge, with a series of claims about extraterrestrial life that, until recently, would have been seen as career-ending.
If the trial date holds, it would follow close on the heels of a separate trial for Donald Trump on dozens of state charges of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to a porn star.
It also means the trial will not start until deep into the presidential nominating calendar, coming amid multiple GOP presidential primaries.
From CNN’s Kaitlan Collins:
Whether this remains the date remains to be seen, but it’s after Super Tuesday and we’ll have a pretty good idea of whether Trump is indeed the GOP nominee by then. https://t.co/Kj4bFvMnX9
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) July 21, 2023
In pushing back the trial date to 20 May 2024, Judge Aileen Cannon wrote that “the Government’s proposed schedule is atypically accelerated and inconsistent with ensuring a fair trial”.
She agreed with defense lawyers that the amount of evidence that would need to be sifted through before the trial, including classified information, was “voluminous”.
She also said that the court will be “faced with extensive pre-trial motion practice on a diverse number of legal and factual issues, all in connection with a 38-count indictment”.
Trial in Trump classified documents case set for next May
The federal judge overseeing former president Donald Trump’s trial on his mishandling of classified documents case has set a trial date for 20 May 2024.
The ruling from US district judge Aileen Cannon places Trump’s criminal trial less than six months ahead of the November 2024 presidential election.
The trial had initially been scheduled for 14 August – a date that both the defense and prosecution opposed because they said they needed more time to prepare.
The new trial date is a compromise between a request from prosecutors to set the trial for this coming December, and a request from Trump’s lawyers to schedule it after the election.
Ron DeSantis threatens Bud Light with legal action
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis threatened the parent company of Bud Light with legal action for sponsoring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
In a letter to Florida state’s pension fund manager, CNN reported, DeSantis alleged that AB InBev had decided to associate with “radical social ideologies” and “may have breached legal duties owed to its shareholders”.
Sales of Bud Light have dropped amid a conservative backlash over a social media promotion with Mulvaney. The company has also lost credibility among members of the LGBTQ+ community over its efforts to distance itself from controversy.
DeSantis, who is a trustee of the state board of administration, wrote:
We must prudently manage the funds of Florida’s hardworking law enforcement officers, teachers, firefighters and first responders in a manner that focuses on growing returns, not subsidizing an ideological agenda through woke virtue signaling.
DeSantis, speaking to Fox News on Thursday night about the letter, said the state may consider a “derivative lawsuit” against AB InBev. He said:
We believe that when you take your eye off the ball like that, you are not following your fiduciary duty to do the best you can for your shareholders.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is the only veteran in the GOP presidential field, and his campaign plans to more prominently feature his navy service as he attempts to make a more personal appeal to voters, according to a NBC report.
DeSantis served as a navy lawyer at the Guantánamo Bay detention base in Cuba and later deployed to Iraq. If elected, he would be the first president since George HW Bush to have served in a war.
But even those who admire his service are skeptical that it will help him beat Donald Trump, the report says. DeSantis still lags substantially in second place behind the former president.
According to a Semafor report, a Vice documentary about DeSantis’s role at Guantánamo Bay was pulled over fears of the political consequences. The episode would have included a former detainee and prison guard who said they remembered seeing DeSantis at the prison during a controversial detainee hunger strike, the report says.
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The district attorney’s office has spent more than two years investigating whether Trump and his allies interfered in the 2020 election in Georgia, while prosecutors at the federal level are scrutinizing Trump’s efforts to reverse his defeat that culminated in the January 6 Capitol attack.
A special grand jury in Atlanta that heard evidence for roughly seven months recommended charges for more than a dozen people, including the former president himself, its forewoman strongly suggested in interviews, though the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, will have to seek indictments from a regular grand jury.
The grand jury that could decide whether to return an indictment against Trump was seated on 11 July. The selection process was attended by Willis and two prosecutors known to be on the Trump investigation: her deputy district attorney, Will Wooten, and special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
Charges stemming from the Trump investigation are expected to come between the final week of July and the first two weeks of August, the Guardian has previously reported, after Willis told her team to shift to remote work during that period because of security concerns.
The district attorney originally suggested charging decisions were “imminent” in January, but the timetable has been repeatedly delayed after a number of Republicans who acted as fake electors accepted immunity deals as the investigation neared its end.
The racketeering statute in Georgia is more expansive than its federal counterpart, notably because any attempts to solicit or coerce the qualifying crimes can be included as predicate acts of racketeering activity, even when those crimes cannot be indicted separately.
The specific evidence was not clear, though the charge regarding influencing witnesses could include Trump’s conversations with Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, in which he asked Raffensperger to “find” 11,780 votes, the people said – and thereby implicate Trump.
For the computer trespass charge, where prosecutors would have to show that defendants used a computer or network without authority to interfere with a program or data, that would include the breach of voting machines in Coffee county, the two people said.
The breach of voting machines involved a group of Trump operatives – paid by the then Trump lawyer Sidney Powell – accessing the voting machines at the county’s election office and copying sensitive voting system data.
The copied data from the Dominion Voting System machines, which is used statewide in Georgia, was then uploaded to a password-protected site from where election deniers could download the materials as part of a misguided effort to prove the 2020 election had been rigged.
Though Coffee county is outside the usual jurisdiction of the Fulton county district attorney’s office, the racketeering statute would allow prosecutors to also charge what the Trump operatives did there by showing it was all aimed towards the goal of corruptly keeping Trump in office.
Fulton county prosecutors prepare racketeering charges in Trump inquiry
The Fulton county district attorney investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state of Georgia has developed evidence to charge a sprawling racketeering indictment next month, according to two people briefed on the matter.
The racketeering statute in Georgia requires prosecutors to show the existence of an “enterprise” – and a pattern of racketeering activity that is predicated on at least two “qualifying” crimes.
In the Trump investigation, the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, has evidence to pursue a racketeering indictment predicated on statutes related to influencing witnesses and computer trespass, the people said.
Willis had previously said she was weighing racketeering charges in her criminal investigation, but the new details about the direction and scope of the case come as prosecutors are expected to seek indictments starting in the first two weeks of August.
Special counsel to speak with more witnesses ahead of potential Trump indictment
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Federal prosecutors investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results are expected to speak with additional witnesses in the coming weeks.
A Thursday midnight deadline passed for the former president to say if he would appear before a Washington grand jury to consider federal charges over his election subversion and incitement of the attack on Congress on 6 January 2021.
Prosecutors appear to have evidence to charge Trump with three crimes: obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and section 241 of the US legal code that makes it unlawful to conspire to violate civil rights.
At the same time, prosecutors are believed to be in talks with at least two witnesses to schedule interviews that won’t be completed for at least another month. Former New York City police commissioner Bernie Kerik, a Trump ally, is still in the process of scheduling his interview with investigators, and a former Trump lawyer plans to talk to investigators next month, sources familiar with the planned meetings told CNN.
On Thursday, a federal grand jury investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election heard testimony from William Russell, an aide who was with the former president for much of the day on 6 January 2021. A data expert who worked on the 2020 election was also scheduled to appear before the grand jury, according to the Washington Post.
Here’s what else we’re watching today:
10am EST: President Joe Biden will get his daily intelligence briefing.
1.30pm EST: Biden will speak about artificial intelligence in the Roosevelt Room.
6pm EST: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will speak at the Utah state capitol as part of his presidential campaign.
The Senate is in today. The House is out.
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