The supreme court has also agreed to hear arguments in South Carolina’s attempt to block funding to Planned Parenthood, which provides women’s health services in the state, including abortions.
The case could offer the court’s conservative supermajority another opportunity to further curtail access to reproductive healthcare, after their 2022 decision overturning Roe v Wade and allowing states like South Carolina to enact strict limits on abortion availability.
Here’s more, from Reuters:
The justices took up South Carolina’s appeal of a lower court’s decision barring the Republican-governed state from terminating funding to Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, the organization’s regional affiliate, under the Medicaid health insurance program because the organization provides abortions.
Planned Parenthood South Atlantic operates clinics in the South Carolina cities of Charleston and Columbia, where it provides physical examinations, screenings for cancers and other conditions, as well as abortions.
The clinics annually serve hundreds of patients covered by Medicaid, a joint federal and state program that helps cover medical costs for low-income people. The U.S. government sets general rules for state Medicaid programs to follow, though each state runs its own program.
It is the third time the defunding dispute from South Carolina has reached the Supreme Court, which in 2020 rejected
the state’s appeal at an earlier stage of the case. In 2023, the justices ordered a lower court to reconsider the state’s arguments in light of a new ruling they had just issued.
Supreme court to hear arguments over law that could ban TikTok
The supreme court has agreed to hear challenges to a law that forces the Chinese parent company of TikTok to divest from its US operations by 19 January or be banned in the country.
In an unsigned order issued today, the court set 10 January for oral arguments in the case – just nine days before the ban may go into effect. The justices also declined to put an injunction on the law approved by Congress earlier this year.
Though both Democrats and Republicans have expressed concerns that TikTok may pose a national security risk over its ties to China and collection of American users’ data, Donald Trump recently said he will work to make sure it remains available in the United States. Here’s more on the latest legal maneuvering over the popular app:
Gaetz decries reported release of ethics investigation, acknowledges he 'womanized, drank and smoked' in past
Reacting to reports that the House ethics committee will in the coming days release their investigation into allegations against him of sexual misconduct and drug use, Matt Gaetz acknowledged he had drank and partied in the past but denied breaking the law.
In a post on X, the former congressman whom Donald Trump briefly nominated to lead the justice department wrote:
The Biden/Garland DOJ spent years reviewing allegations that I committed various crimes.
I was charged with nothing: FULLY EXONERATED. Not even a campaign finance violation. And the people investigating me hated me.
Then, the very ‘witnesses’ DOJ deemed not-credible were assembled by House Ethics to repeat their claims absent any cross-examination or challenge from me or my attorneys. I’ve had no chance to ever confront any accusers. I’ve never been charged. I’ve never been sued.
Instead, House Ethics will reportedly post a report online that I have no opportunity to debate or rebut as a former member of the body.
In my single days, I often sent funds to women I dated – even some I never dated but who asked. I dated several of these women for years. I NEVER had sexual contact with someone under 18. Any claim that I have would be destroyed in court – which is why no such claim was ever made in court.
My 30’s were an era of working very hard – and playing hard too.
It’s embarrassing, though not criminal, that I probably partied, womanized, drank and smoked more than I should have earlier in life. I live a different life now.
But at least I didn’t vote for CR’s that fuck over the country!
The last sentence is a reference to the three-month government funding bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), that lawmakers are debating to prevent a government shutdown that will happen after Friday without its passage.
Updated
In addition to House Republicans, Donald Trump himself has made clear that he wants to go after Liz Cheney, who was formerly a top GOP lawmaker in the House but lost her seat after breaking with the president-elect. Here’s a look back at one of his more alarming comments about Cheney, from the Guardian’s Maya Yang, Joanna Walters and your live blogger:
Donald Trump has called former congresswoman Liz Cheney a radical war hawk and said she should face being under fire with rifles “shooting at her” – prompting the anti-Trump Republican to warn the public against dictatorship and a presidential candidate who “wants to be a tyrant”.
Cheney recently endorsed Kamala Harris and has campaigned with her, trying to persuade Republicans who don’t want Trump to win another term in the White House in this election to vote for the Democratic ticket of the US vice-president and her running mate, Tim Walz.
Harris on Friday said Trump’s violent rhetoric about Cheney “must be disqualifying” ahead of the 5 November presidential election. Meanwhile, the Arizona attorney general, Kris Mayes, on Friday said her office had opened a “death threat investigation” surrounding Trump’s comments about Cheney.
While still in office, Cheney co-chaired the bipartisan special House committee that investigated Trump’s conduct on January 6, when extremist supporters of his stormed the US Capitol to try, in vain, to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory over him. She lost her Wyoming seat in 2022 as Trump supporters turned against her. Trump has called for her to be jailed for investigating him.
Trump was in Arizona on Thursday evening, doing a sit-down talk with the conservative broadcaster Tucker Carlson, and he brought up Cheney in the context of her father, Dick Cheney, the former vice-president who was a hawkish architect of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 during the George W Bush administration. Trump has been critical of that war and has also criticized the current US president, Joe Biden, for becoming involved in Ukraine’s struggling defense against the invasion by Russia.
Cheney says House GOP report 'intentionally disregards the truth'
Liz Cheney rejected the allegations of a House Republican report into the January 6 committee, calling it a “malicious and cowardly assault on the truth”.
Writing on Bluesky, the former congresswoman and vice-chair of the committee said:
Chairman Loudermilk’s ‘interim report’ intentionally disregards the truth and the Select Committee’s tremendous weight of evidence, and instead fabricates lies and defamatory allegations in an attempt to cover up what Donald Trump did. Their allegations do not reflect a review of the actual evidence, and are a malicious and cowardly assault on the truth.
No reputable lawyer, legislator or judge would take this seriously.
After leaving Congress and seeing his bid for attorney general collapse, Matt Gaetz headed for the sort of place rightwing figures looking to stay relevant go, the Guardian’s Joseph Gedeon reports:
Former Florida Republican congressman Matt Gaetz has secured a prime-time slot at One America News Network (OANN), a broadcaster known for its staunch support of Donald Trump and controversial election coverage.
Gaetz, who rose to prominence as a combative Trump ally and was instrumental in ousting the former House speaker Kevin McCarthy, will host a nightly political talkshow beginning in January 2025.
Gaetz will anchor the one-hour political program branded The Matt Gaetz Show at 9pm ET and co-host a weekly video podcast with the OANN host Dan Ball, targeting younger audiences including millennials and gen Z.
The hiring comes after Gaetz’s tumultuous final months in Congress, which were marked by allegations of sexual misconduct and a failed nomination as attorney general. While a Department of Justice investigation resulted in no charges, the accusations effectively derailed his political trajectory.
It also follows a long-running and contentious House ethics committee investigation into Gaetz’s conduct, which had been examining allegations of sexual misconduct, illicit drug use and misuse of campaign funds.
House ethics committee to release report into alleged sexual misconduct, drug abuse by Matt Gaetz – report
CNN reports that the House ethics committee has voted to release its investigation into Matt Gaetz, the former Republican congressman who Donald Trump nominated to lead the justice department, only to withdraw his candidacy for the job amid allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use.
The report, which the committee’s Republican majority voted earlier this month not to release, is expected to detail whether there is evidence for those allegations. Here’s more, from CNN:
The report is now expected to be made public after the House’s final day of votes this year as lawmakers leave Washington for the holidays, those sources said.
The vote, which has not previously been reported, amounts to a stark reversal for the panel after it had voted along party lines in late November not to release the results of the investigation. The decision to release the report suggests that some Republicans ultimately decided to side with Democrats on the matter, and it is unclear if the committee will once again change course now that it has voted.
When the committee voted last month to shelve the report, Gaetz was President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to be attorney general. Since then, Gaetz withdrew himself from consideration for the Senate-confirmed post, though he maintains frosty relations with many in his party and is still active in GOP politics.
It is exceedingly rare for an ethics report to be released after a member has left Congress, though it has happened on a couple of occasions in the past. The committee revisited the issue behind closed doors earlier this month after a feud over the report spilled into public view before Thanksgiving.
The Ethics Committee’s report concludes a years-long probe into numerous allegations against Gaetz, including whether he engaged in sexual misconduct, used illicit drugs, “shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gifts,” according to an announcement by the panel last summer.
Updated
House Republicans accuse Liz Cheney of witness tampering over talks with star January 6 committee witness
One of the most memorable moments in the January 6 committee’s hearings was when former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson described Donald Trump’s actions during the attack, recounting his demand to be taken to the Capitol and alleging he got into physical fight with a Secret Service agent when he was told no.
Republicans have since unveiled evidence that they say proves the fight never happened, and in its report released yesterday, a House administration oversight subcommittee that investigated the January 6 committee accused Liz Cheney of witness tampering for interacting with Hutchinson without her attorney’s knowledge.
Cheney was the vice-chair of the committee, and the report focuses much attention on her, saying she “colluded” with Hutchinson without the knowledge of her attorney, and used the bipartisan panel to attack Trump.
“Based on the evidence obtained by this Subcommittee, numerous federal laws were likely broken by Liz Cheney, the former Vice Chair of the January 6 Select Committee, and these violations should be investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the report states.
It goes on to accuse both Cheney and Hutchinson of perjury:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation must also investigate Representative Cheney for violating 18 U.S.C. 1622, which prohibits any person from procuring another person to commit perjury. Based on the evidence obtained by this Subcommittee, Hutchinson committed perjury when she lied under oath to the Select Committee.
Trump warns Liz Cheney 'could be in a lot of trouble' after House GOP says FBI should investigate former congresswoman
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Donald Trump stayed up late (or woke up early?) to threaten Liz Cheney, the Republican former congresswoman who lost her seat two years ago after breaking with the president-elect. In a post written shortly after three in the morning, Trump said that Cheney “could be in a lot of trouble” over the findings of a Republican controlled House subcommittee that investigated the now-concluded bipartisan panel that held public hearings into the insurrection two years ago. The Republican subcommittee’s report accuses Cheney of witness tampering, saying, “numerous federal laws were likely broken by” the former congresswoman, and “these violations should be investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.” Those aren’t just empty words, considering Trump has nominated loyalist Kash Patel to lead the FBI, and, based on what Republican senators have said publicly so far, he may get confirmed.
Here’s what else is happening today:
Congress, and particularly House Republicans, are scrambling to pass a short-term government funding bill to ward off a shutdown that will otherwise begin Friday. As usual, many lawmakers do not like the compromises struck in the draft legislation released by Republican House speaker Mike Johnson, and will no doubt pipe up about it throughout today.
The New York Times, which has had a fraught relationship with Joe Biden, has published a comprehensive look at what the president has been up to since Trump won re-election. You will learn that he appears older than ever, and even less willing than usual to entertain reporters.
Biden has nothing public on his scheduled today, but is in Delaware to mark the anniversary of the car crash that killed his first wife and daughter.
