Closing summary
Donald Trump’s Twitter account was reactivated but remained quiet, though the former president aired grievances in other venues. Meanwhile, Joe Biden carried out the customary pardon of a pair of turkeys ahead of Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday, but his administration may soon have another labor headache to deal with.
Here’s what else happened today:
Manhattan’s district attorney is revitalizing a criminal investigation into Trump, but it appears to have long odds of success.
Biden said he had no advance knowledge of the decision to appoint a special counsel to decide whether to charge Trump over the January 6 insurrection and Mar-a-Lago documents case.
Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows is continuing to fight his subpoena from a special grand jury investigating the 2020 election meddling campaign in Georgia.
The head of progressive Democrats in the House said Biden should stand for re-election, and called on Republicans to stop attacking Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, accusing them of stoking xenophobia.
Another January 6 rioter is going to jail.
Updated
Barack Obama will return to Georgia on 1 December to campaign for Democratic senator Raphael Warnock, who is fighting to keep his seat in a contest with Republican challenger Herschel Walker, FOX 5 Atlanta reports.
Warnock and Walker will stand in a runoff election on 6 December after neither won a majority in the midterm elections held earlier this month. Obama campaigned for Warnock in late October, and the senator ended up winning slightly more votes than Walker in the 8 November election.
Democrats have already won narrow control of the Senate for another two years, but Warnock’s re-election would pad their majority and allow them smoother operation of the chamber. A win by Walker would give Republicans an easier path to regaining the Senate when the next elections are held in 2024.
Updated
Another January 6 rioter has been convicted, Politico reports:
JUST IN: A jury finds Riley Williams — 22-year-old woman who joined Jan. 6 mob that breached Speaker Pelosi’s office — *guilty* of participating in a civil disorder and of impeding police.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) November 21, 2022
Jury hung on obstruction/aiding theft of Pelosi laptop.
Details TK
Kevin McCarthy’s criticism of Ilhan Omar is more indicative of his problems than hers.
While Republicans may prevail in ousting Omar from the foreign affairs committee, McCarthy is embroiled in a high-stakes contest to win the post of House speaker – and may not have the votes to get the job.
Last week, the California lawmaker was selected as the party’s candidate for House speaker, but to prevail he will need the support of a majority in the chamber. With the GOP likely to have only a tiny majority in the House and Democrats not expected to lend any support, he can afford to lose very few Republican votes. But several conservative lawmakers have said they won’t vote for McCarthy, imperiling his bid.
Politico reports that dynamic has presented an opportunity for centrist lawmakers to make demands of McCarthy in return for their support, such as steps to promote bipartisan legislation. Some Democrats are even working on a plan to extract their own concessions, in case their votes become necessary for McCarthy to win, according to Politico.
McCarthy, meanwhile, has announced a trip to the southern border, which has seen a big uptick in migrant arrivals since Joe Biden took office. That’s likely a signal McCarthy is trying to burnish his bona fides on conservative immigration policy as he looks to consolidate support:
Headed to the Southern border this week, where I’ll share our gratitude for brave border patrol personnel and send a message to Joe Biden that a Republican majority will use every tool at our disposal—from the power of the purse to power of the subpoena—to secure the border.
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) November 20, 2022
Updated
The chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Pramila Jayapal, has called for Republicans, particularly their leader in the House, Kevin McCarthy, to tone down their rhetoric toward Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
Omar, a Democratic House representative from Minnesota who was born in Somalia and is a practising Muslim, has been a frequent target of attacks from rightwing lawmakers since she arrived in the chamber in 2019:
Islamophobia has no place in our country or our government.@Ilhan is a dedicated Congresswoman and a powerful member of @USProgressives. But since the moment she arrived in Washington, the Republican Party has weaponized xenophobia and racism to undermine her voice. (1/2)
— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) November 21, 2022
It is clear that Kevin McCarthy did not hear the American people when they unequivocally rejected MAGA extremism and hatred in the midterms.
— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) November 21, 2022
It's time to turn down the temperature. (2/2)
Over the weekend, McCarthy pledged that if he was elected House speaker, he would remove Omar from the House foreign affairs committee, citing remarks she made about Israel:
Last year, I promised that when I became Speaker, I would remove Rep. Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee based on her repeated anti-semitic and anti-American remarks.
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) November 19, 2022
I'm keeping that promise. pic.twitter.com/04blBx3neD
Removing lawmakers from House committees requires approval from a majority of the chamber, which Republicans are set to control next year.
Updated
The United States just took a 1-0 lead over Wales in the Americans’ first World Cup match in eight years.
Joe Biden must be pleased. Before the match, he gave the national team a pep talk, and here’s footage from the White House of what he said:
President Biden called the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team to wish them luck in the 2022 World Cup. pic.twitter.com/Z9UhWurzNu
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) November 21, 2022
Follow along here for more of the Guardian’s live coverage of the match:
Biden should run for re-election - progressive Jayapal says
Pramila Jayapal, the Washington state Democratic congresswoman and chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus has joined the ranks of those who think Jo Biden should run for a second term in the White House term, despite the fact he turned 80 yesterday.
He was not my first or second choice for president, but I am a convert. I never thought I would say this, but I believe he should run for another term and finish this agenda we laid out.
What the president understands is you need this progressive base — young people, folks of color — and that progressives issues are popular. Whoever is in the White House should understand that, because it is a basic tenet now of how you win elections,” Jayapal told online news site Politico in an interview launched today.
The Hill noted today that almost three-quarters of Democratic voters in a USA Today-Ipsos poll released yesterday said Biden could win if he runs for reelection, and half of Democrats think he deserves to win the White House again.
The comments from Jayapal came in Politico’s piece about progressives also supporting Biden’s chief of staff Ron Klain continuing in that job. Amid talk that he might leave, Biden has reportedly asked him to stay on, too.
Elon Musk has said he will not reinstate the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on Twitter, saying he has “no mercy” for people who capitalise on the deaths of children for personal fame.
Twitter permanently suspended the accounts of Jones and his Infowars website in September 2018 for violating the platform’s abusive behaviour policy.
Jones, 48, gained notoriety for pushing a false conspiracy theory about the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in 2012, which led to harassment of parents who lost their children in the massacre. Jones has been ordered by a US court to pay more than $1.4bn (£1.2bn) to people who suffered from his false claim that the shooting, in which 20 children and six educators died, was a hoax.
Musk appeared to rule out a return for Jones in an interaction with Twitter users on Monday. The author and podcaster Sam Harris asked Twitter’s new owner if it was “time to let Alex Jones back on Twitter” and “if not, why not?”. Kim Dotcom, the internet entrepreneur, also asked if Jones could be reinstated in the interest of “real free speech”.
Musk replied that he had lost a child – to sudden infant death syndrome in 2002 – and said Jones used the death of children to push his own agenda. He tweeted: “My firstborn child died in my arms. I felt his last heartbeat. I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame.” Full story here.
Prosecutors in the Trump Organization’s criminal tax fraud trial rested their case today, earlier than expected, pinning hopes for convicting Donald Trump’s company largely on the word of two top executives who cut deals before testifying in New York that they schemed to avoid taxes on company-paid perks.
Allen Weisselberg, the company’s longtime finance chief, and Jeffrey McConney, a senior vice president and controller, testified for the bulk of the prosecution’s eight-day case, bringing the drama of their own admitted wrongdoing to a trial heavy on numbers, spreadsheets, tax returns and payroll records, the Associated Press writes.
Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty in August to dodging taxes on $1.7 million in extras, was required to testify as a prosecution witness as part of a plea deal in exchange for a promised sentence of five months in jail. McConney was granted immunity to testify.
The Trump Organization’s lawyers are expected to start calling witnesses Monday afternoon, likely beginning with an accountant who handled years of tax returns and other financial matters for Trump, the Trump Organization and hundreds of Trump entities.
Prosecutors had considered calling the accountant, Mazars USA LLP partner Donald Bender, but decided not to. The defense indicated it would call him instead.
Manhattan prosecutors allege that the Trump Organization helped top executives avoid paying taxes on company-paid perks and that it is liable for Weisselberg’s wrongdoing because he was a “high managerial agent” acting on its behalf.
The tax fraud case is the only trial to arise from the Manhattan district attorney’s three-year investigation of Trump and his business practices. If convicted, the company could be fined more than $1 million and face difficulty making deals.
Updated
In Arizona, Republican Liz Harris won her race for a seat in the state’s House of Representatives – but has pledged not to cast any votes until the entire 2022 election is redone, 12News reports.
“Although I stand to win my Legislative District race it has become obvious that we need to hold a new election immediately. There are clear signs of foul play from machine malfunctions, chain of custody issues and just blatant mathematical impossibilities. How can a Republican State Treasurer receive more votes than a Republican Gubernatorial or Senate candidate?” Harris wrote in a statement.
If Harris follows through on the threat, it could cause some serious problems for her Republican colleagues. They control the Arizona House, but only by two votes.
Former Trump official Steve Bannon was a great promoter of his Maga ideology ahead of the midterms. But most of the candidates who appeared on his shows lost their races, a Media Matters for America analysis found.
Of the 59 candidates who were interviewed by Bannon, 34, or 58%, lost their races, the left-leaning media watchdog found. His record among new aspirants for office was worse. Of the 48 non-incumbents Bannon hosted, 33 of them lost.
Losers include Tudor Dixon, the GOP candidate for governor of Michigan, and Kari Lake, who stood for the same role in Arizona. Among Senate aspirants, Don Bolduc, Adam Laxalt, Blake Masters, Joe Pinion and Gerald Malloy were among the losers. JD Vance and Katie Britt, however, won their races. Other notable losers who Bannon spotlit were Mark Finchem, the election-denying secretary of state candidate in Arizona, as well as Doug Mastriano, Pennyslvania’s Republican candidate for governor who was known for his hardline anti-abortion views and involvement in the January 6 insurrection.
The day so far
Donald Trump’s Twitter account is reactivated but quiet, though the former president is airing grievances in other venues. Meanwhile, Joe Biden has carried out the customary pardon of a pair of turkeys ahead of Thursday’s thanksgiving holiday, but his administration may have another labor headache to soon deal with.
Here’s what else is going on today:
Manhattan’s district attorney is revitalizing a criminal investigation into Trump, but it appears to have long odds of success.
Biden said he had no advance knowledge of the decision to appoint a special counsel to decide whether to charge Trump over the January 6 insurrection and Mar-a-Lago documents case.
Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows is continuing to fight his subpoena from a special grand jury investigating the 2020 election meddling campaign in Georgia.
Trump still hasn’t bothered to make use of his restored Twitter account, but has other ways of making his opinions known.
Such as email. The former president periodically sends out statements to reporters that seem to be about whatever’s on his mind. Today, it’s Joe O’Dea, the unsuccessful Republican candidate for Senate in Colorado who clashed with Trump.
“Joe O’Dea lost his race in Colorado by over 12 points because he campaigned against MAGA,” Trump wrote. “Likewise, candidates who shifted their ‘messaging’ after winning big in the Primaries (Bolduc!) saw big losses in the General. Will they ever learn their lesson? You can’t win without MAGA!”
It’s also worth noting he didn’t bother with Twitter when it came to sharing his thoughts about the newly appointed special counsel. Instead, he used Truth to put out a statement that was about what you would expect if you’ve read anything the former president has written over the past six years:
The Polls are really strong, especially since Tuesday’s announcement, hence the appointment of a Radical Left Prosecutor, who is totally controlled by President Obama and his former A.G., Eric Holder. This is not Justice, this is just another Witch Hunt, and a very dangerous one at that! No way this Scam should be allowed to go forward!
In a brief encounter with the press after the turkey pardon, Biden said he had no advance warning of attorney general Merrick Garland’s decision Friday to appoint a special counsel to handle the criminal investigations involving Donald Trump.
“I learned about when you did,” Biden said.
Garland last week announced the appointment of Jack Smith as special counsel to decide on whether to bring charges related to the Mar-a-Lago documents case and the January 6 insurrection.
Joe Biden has just carried out one of the most solemn duties an American president must perform: pardoning the thanksgiving turkey.
In a chilly morning ceremony on the White House lawn, Biden gave a reprieve to turkeys Chocolate and Chip, while finding a way to zing the Republicans for their underwhelming midterm performance:
“The only red wave this season is gonna if our German Shepherd, Commander, knocks over the cranberry sauce.”
— The Recount (@therecount) November 21, 2022
— President Biden jokes about Republicans’ midterm performance at the annual Thanksgiving turkey pardon pic.twitter.com/Yw4YgHYLtz
As happens sometimes, there was a heckler at the president’s speech, but on this occasion, it was his own dog:
In this clip you can hear Commander bark and the turkey gobble back. pic.twitter.com/AaMOtZOiT4
— Jeremy Art (@cspanJeremy) November 21, 2022
The GOP was watching, and wasted no time in highlighting a gaffe made by the president:
BIDEN: "9.5 million turkeys! I tell ya what, that's like some of the countries I've been to and they — anyway... *looks at turkey* you wanna talk?" pic.twitter.com/GgsRkr23nZ
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) November 21, 2022
Speaking of Trump and lawyers, another of his former top White House officials is going to South Carolina’s high court to stop a subpoena from a Georgia prosecutor looking into meddling in the state’s 2020 election, Politico reports:
JUST IN: The South Carolina Supreme Court has agreed to expedite consideration of Mark Meadows effort to block a subpoena from Fulton County, Ga. prosecutors. pic.twitter.com/FijMKwohMA
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) November 21, 2022
The appeal to South Carolina’s supreme court by Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff for his final months in the White House, is the latest development in his lengthy battle to resist the summons from Fanni Willis. She’s the district attorney in Fulton county, which contains most of Atlanta, and has empaneled a special grand jury to look into attempts by Trump’s allies to interfere in Joe Biden’s election victory in the state.
Manhattan DA restarting Trump criminal investigation: NYT
Manhattan’s district attorney Alvin Bragg is reinvigorating a criminal investigation into a payment made by Donald Trump to a porn star who alleges she had an affair with the business mogul before his time in the White House, the New York Times reports.
The inquiry into the payment made to Stormy Daniels would add to the heaping pile of legal problems facing the former president, though according to the Times Bragg’s case has been seen as a long-shot and could face trouble if it ever goes to court:
Under Mr. Bragg’s predecessor, the district attorney’s office rejected the idea of focusing a case solely on the hush money, concluding, with the help of outside legal experts, that it would hinge on a largely untested and therefore risky legal theory. And if Mr. Bragg were to charge Mr. Trump without uncovering any new evidence or relying on a more conventional theory, he would risk having a judge or appellate court throw out the case.
To help build the hush-money case, prosecutors are revisiting another strategy that has yet to work: pressuring a top Trump lieutenant, Allen H. Weisselberg, to cooperate.
While Mr. Weisselberg has already pleaded guilty to unrelated tax charges and testified last week against Mr. Trump’s company at its trial for the same tax crimes, he has not turned on Mr. Trump. To ramp up the pressure, the prosecutors are considering a new round of charges against Mr. Weisselberg in hopes of securing his cooperation against the former president, the people said. Those potential charges concern insurance fraud and are unrelated to the hush money.
Mr. Weisselberg, who has direct knowledge of the hush-money payment, has long resisted the prosecutorial pressure campaign, repeatedly stymieing the investigation into Mr. Trump. There is little indication that the loyal executive, the former president’s financial gatekeeper for decades, will suddenly give in to Mr. Bragg.
Former acting US solicitor Neal Katyal thinks the special counsel appointed to handle the criminal investigations into Donald Trump is bad news for the former president.
He shared his thoughts in an interview with MSNBC:
.@neal_katyal: Mar-a-Lago is an "open and shut investigation," and "at the end of the day, I expect that Donald Trump will be indicted by the Special Counsel." https://t.co/N9SSt0retV pic.twitter.com/cEmSgyMyJr
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) November 21, 2022
Joe Biden is 80 years and one day old today, and being praised for Democrats’ surprisingly good performance in the midterms. The Guardian’s Lauren Gambino has more on the second wind the president is getting, and the challenges to come:
Today, Joe Biden will quietly ring in his 80th birthday over brunch with his family in Washington. It’s a milestone none of his predecessors reached while serving in the White House and one that looms large as he considers his political future.
Yet the president enters his ninth decade at a moment of unexpected strength. Democrats defied history in the midterm elections, keeping control of the Senate and shattering Republican hopes of a “red wave” in the House.
The verdict – a beat-the-odds performance by his party and the defeat of several election-denying candidates backed by Donald Trump – offered validation to a president who saw the elections as a test of American democracy.
In the afterglow of the election, Democrats have piled on praise – a major reversal for Biden, who spent much of of the second year of his presidency weathering the blame for what many anticipated would be a crushing rebuke from voters. But instead of a repudiation, he found vindication.
“You did it, Joe!” Vice-President Kamala Harris exclaimed at a post-election event with supporters. “This victory belongs to Joe Biden,” Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, his one-time rival for the Democratic nomination, said last week. And when asked how Democrats overcame tremendous headwinds and the weight of history, Jaime Harrison, chair of the Democratic National Committee, credited the president: “I have to thank Joe Biden.”
Former vice-president Mike Pence may be trying to distance himself from his one-time boss Donald Trump, but Ramon Antonio Vargas report he raised eyebrows at the federal investigations into the former president’s conduct during interviews over the weekend:
Though he believes “no one is above the law,” former US vice-president Mike Pence says he hopes federal prosecutors “give careful consideration before they take any additional steps” in investigating Donald Trump’s role in inciting the rioters who staged the January 6 Capitol attack and tried to hang him.
Pence made those remarks Sunday in an interview with the host of NBC’s Meet the Press, Chuck Todd, in which he also said that the FBI “sent the wrong message” with its search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in August to retake government secrets that were stored there without authorization.
According to Pence, Trump was “repeating … what he was hearing from that gaggle of attorneys around him” before the deadly January 6 attack on the Capitol nearly two years ago, which supporters of the president at the time launched in a desperate but unsuccessful attempt to halt the certification of his defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
While Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk has acquiesced to Donald Trump’s return to the platform, he has said conspiracy theorist Alex Jones would not be joining him, Dan Milmo reports:
Elon Musk has said he will not reinstate the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on Twitter, saying he has “no mercy” for people who capitalise on the deaths of children for personal fame.
Twitter permanently suspended the accounts of Jones and his Infowars website in September 2018 for violating the platform’s abusive behaviour policy.
Jones, 48, gained notoriety for pushing a false conspiracy theory about the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in 2012, which led to harassment of parents who lost their children in the massacre. Jones has been ordered by a US court to pay more than $1.4bn (£1.2bn) to people who suffered from his false claim that the shooting, in which 20 children and six educators died, was a hoax.
Railroad union rejects White House-brokered labor contract
One of the country’s largest railroad workers’ unions has rejected a White House-backed contract, raising the possibility of a work stoppage on a key part of the nation’s transportation infrastructure ahead of the holiday season, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Joe Biden had in September cheered a tentative deal brokered by his administration to call off a freight rail strike, which could have worsened the country’s high inflation. However, it still needed to be approved by members of the unions involved, and the Journal says it narrowly lost a crucial vote:
The unions representing engineers and conductors, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, and SMART Transportation Division, were the final two out of the 12 unions reporting the ratification of votes in a protracted labor dispute.
SMART-TD, whose members narrowly rejected the deal, said it would head back to the negotiating table with the railroads for a revised deal with a Dec. 8 deadline. Without another agreement, workers will be allowed to strike on Dec. 9.
“SMART-TD members with their votes have spoken, it’s now back to the bargaining table,” said SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson. “This can all be settled through negotiations and without a strike.”
SMART-TD said that 50.87% of train and engine service members voted to reject the agreement. Most railroad workers represented by SMART-TD are conductors, and it also represents other groups like brakemen and yardmasters. The groups vote for their contracts separately, and SMART-TD said 62% of yardmasters voted to ratify the agreement.
Since the contract for conductors failed to be ratified, the contract for all railroad workers in SMART-TD’s coverage failed. SMART-TD said there was a turnout of more than 28,000 out of around 36,000 members covered in the current negotiations.
Perhaps Trump’s return to Twitter isn’t that big of a deal.
That was the argument tech journalist Kara Swisher made during a Sunday appearance on CBS, Axios reports. “I don’t think it makes any difference. Plus he’s the former president, so it doesn’t hit quite as hard,” Swisher said. “People have been posting his truths – I think that’s what they’re called – on Twitter already and it gets out anyway.”
Tech guru Scott Galloway agreed, saying on the program that Musk reinstated Donald Trump for the purpose of generating headlines. “Twitter has become a playground for bad actors and fake bots. This poll is meaningless, this decision is meaningless,” Galloway said.
However Brian L. Ott, a Missouri State University professor who has studied Trump’s use of the platform, issued a dire warning of what his return will mean in the New York Times:
As someone who has been studying Mr. Trump’s Twitter use since before he was elected president, I believe that his return would mean the heightened spread of both misinformation and disinformation, the proliferation of degrading and dehumanizing discourse, the further mainstreaming of hate speech and the erosion of democratic norms and institutions. But there is something else: Mr. Trump’s return to Twitter could escalate the likelihood of political violence.
His reasoning why:
Given that our communication environment is structurally predisposed to heighten and cement our ever-growing political divide by telling us how right and righteous we are, one may reasonably wonder why I am concerned about one user in particular. First, a large number of people not only listen to Mr. Trump but also are inclined to take direction from him. Second, Mr. Trump combines divisiveness and dogmatism with hatred and angry rhetoric that risks inciting violence. For reasons better left to psychologists, Donald Trump is not content to forget or forgive people he perceives have wronged him. He wants to destroy them. So, he calls them out, often on social media, and then he goads his followers into doing something about it.
A brief recap of how Donald Trump’s return to Twitter happened:
The first, and most pivotal event, is Elon Musk’s purchase of the platform. The Tesla boss announced his intention months ago then tried to back out, before finally taking over Twitter last month. Musk said he would reverse Trump’s ban if he took over the platform, but decided to first put it to a vote on Friday:
Reinstate former President Trump
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 19, 2022
The 52% in favor of his return is the type of popular vote margin Trump can only dream of.
Anyway, Musk made good on his promise and reinstated the former president on Saturday:
The people have spoken.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 20, 2022
Trump will be reinstated.
Vox Populi, Vox Dei. https://t.co/jmkhFuyfkv
Trump has not yet tweeted. Musk has, perhaps seeking to distract attention from the chaos that appears to be engulfing Twitter since he took it over:
And lead us not into temptation … pic.twitter.com/8qNOXzwXS9
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 21, 2022
After being booted from Twitter following the January 6 insurrection, Trump started Truth, a competing social network that never really took off, and on which he was its most famous denizen. Last month, Trump told Fox News that he planned to remain there. A regulatory filing from Truth indicates that even if Trump intends to return to Twitter, he has comittments to take care of first:
President Trump is generally obligated to make any social media post on TruthSocial and may not make the same post on another social media site for 6 hours. Thereafter, he is free to post on any site to which he has access. … In addition, he may make a post from a personal account related to political messaging, political fundraising or get-out-the-vote efforts on any social media site at any time.
Trump is back on Twitter – and apparently snubbing it
Good morning, US politics blog readers. It’s been more than 24 hours since Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk allowed Donald Trump to return to the platform, and the former president hasn’t said a word. You would think Trump has plenty on his mind, considering his announcement last week that he will run for the White House in 2024, even as his legal situation is looking perilous after the justice department appointed a special counsel to handle two criminal investigations into his conduct. But the day is just beginning, and perhaps Trump will make his return in the hours ahead.
Here’s what else is happening today:
Joe Biden pardons the Thanksgiving turkey at 11.15am eastern time, marking the 75th anniversary of this most American of traditions. He then heads to military bases in North Carolina to celebrate Friendsgiving with the troops and their families.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will speak with reporters aboard Air Force One during the flight to North Carolina, some time after 4.20pm.
Democrats in Congress want answers after the New York Times reported on another leak from the supreme court, albeit from a case decided several years ago, Politico reports.
