Closing summary
It’s been a lively though unusual day in US politics. We’re ending this live blog now and we’ll be back on Wednesday morning to bring you all the day’s developments as they happen.
Here’s where things stand:
Joe Biden signed the Respect For Marriage Act into law, in a joy-filled ceremony on the south lawn at the White House.
The US president noted that: “Racism, antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia – they are all connected. But the antidote is love.”
The January 6 House select committee will on 19 December vote on referring people they believe broke the law to the justice department, Politico reports, citing committee chair Bennie Thompson.
Carolyn Maloney, chair of the oversight committee in the House wrote to the National Archives asking for a review of what’s been discovered at a storage unit at Donald Trump’s Florida residence, the Washington Post reported.
Government energy officials announced that the US has taken “the first tentative steps towards a clean energy source that could revolutionize the world” through a successful fusion experiment.
Biden cheered government data released today that showed inflation declining by a greater amount than expected in November, calling it proof that his economic policies were delivering Americans relief from the price increase wave battering the economy.
Samuel Bankman-Fried is not testifying before Congress, because he was arrested in the Bahamas yesterday. Instead, the newly appointed CEO of FTX, the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange Bankman-Fried founded, is being grilled by lawmakers alone.
Reforms to the Electoral Count Act intended to stop another January 6 may end up being included in year-end spending legislation Congress is negotiating.
It’s official: rightwing lawmaker Lauren Boebert has been re-elected, after winning her unexpectedly close House race.
Updated
Under sunny skies, the ceremony for Joe Biden to sign the Respect for Marriage Act was a lively one, just wrapping up now.
The bill’s primary driver, Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin, can be seen smiling broadly, just behind a beaming Nancy Pelosi.
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Biden signs Respect for Marriage Act into law
Joe Biden has signed the legislation into law, in a joy-filled ceremony on the south lawn at the White House.
In attendance were the first lady, Jill Biden, as well as the vice-president, Kamala Harris, the second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, and hundreds of LGBTQ+ couples, senior members of Congress, including the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and gay lawmakers looking on.
Here’s the Guardian’s Washington Bureau chief, David Smith, who has witnessed the event:
Joe Biden: “Today is a good day!… Marriage is a simple proposition. Who do you love and will you be loyal to that person you love? It’s not more complicated than that.” pic.twitter.com/ZsL2PEkLri
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) December 13, 2022
Biden made a short but spirited speech.
Biden: “Now the law requires that interracial marriage and same sex marriage be recognised in every state in the nation.”
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) December 13, 2022
Biden pays tribute to many of those activists and campaigners gathered.
Biden: “Those who believe in equality and justice, you never gave up… You put your relationships on the line, you put your jobs on the line, you put your lives on the line. From me and the entire nation, thank you, thank you, thank you.”
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) December 13, 2022
Here’s the president on Twitter:
Today is a good day.
— President Biden (@POTUS) December 13, 2022
Today, America takes another step toward equality. Toward liberty and justice not just for some, but for all.
Because today, I sign the Respect for Marriage Act into law.
Updated
Biden: 'Racism, antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia, they are all connected'
Joe Biden says love is the antidote to discrimination.
“Racism, antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia, they are all connected. But the antidote is love,” Biden just said at the White House, as he prepares to sign the Respect for Marriage Act into law.
Biden reminds those gathered that the legislation was spurred by the signal made by supreme court justice Clarence Thomas that, having overturned Roe v Wade, access to contraception and the right to same sex marriage could be next on the conservative bench’s agenda.
Updated
Joe Biden is now speaking and thanking the lawmakers who drove the legislation that he is about to sign into law as the Respect for Marriage Act.
He thanks, to a huge cheer from those gathered, Wisconsin’s Democratic senator Tammy Baldwin, the first out gay person ever to serve in the US Senate, who introduced the legislation and helped steer it to victory.
The US president thanked Maine Senator Susan Collins, a Republican, who joined Baldwin in pushing the bill forward and garnering bipartisan support.
Biden is celebrating the new law that protects not just same sex marriage but also interracial marriage, which have federal protections via the US Supreme Court but are not codified in US legislation.
As the nation saw when the right-wing supermajority on the supreme court in June ditched the federal abortion legalization afforded by Roe v Wade in 1973, without congressional support in the form of legislation, rights can be taken away overnight by the court.
Biden just quoted the great Edie Windsor’s words about gay marriage: “Don’t postpone joy.”
“The road to this moment has been long,” Biden said. He tips his hat to those who “put their jobs on the line” to fight for the rights “I’m about to sign into law.”
Updated
Kamala Harris is speaking at the White House ceremony, and she recalls Valentine’s Day, 2004, when she performed some of the US’s first same sex marriages, in San Francisco city hall, when she was the district attorney in that city.
She quotes the late Harvey Milk in saying: “Rights are won by those who make their voices heard.”
The vice president talks of marrying friends, the tears of joy, and also recalls the victory, ultimately, over the ban on marriage equality in California that had been passed in 2008, known as Proposition 8.
Kamala Harris is about to speak ahead of the signing of the Respect for Marriage Act, with Joe Biden right behind her.
The White House has a live stream of event ongoing, and you can watch it below:
Happening Now: The President hosts a ceremony on the South Lawn to sign the Respect for Marriage Act. https://t.co/3hdF602tZX
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) December 13, 2022
Nancy Pelosi, in her final weeks as House speaker, was up next to cheer the Respect for Marriage Act’s passage:
Pelosi: “We have achieved a landmark victory in the fight for full equality… Are you jumping for joy?”
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) December 13, 2022
Pelosi: “At its core America has always been about extending freedom, not restricting, not restricting.”
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) December 13, 2022
Pelosi: “Tolerance has nothing to do with it. This about respect. This is about taking pride… This is a day for great pride thanks to all of you.”
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) December 13, 2022
Joe Biden will soon sign the Respect for Marriage Act in a ceremony on the White House’s chilly south lawn.
The Guardian’s David Smith is there for the event, which has kicked off with remarks from Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader:
On White House south lawn. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer: “President Biden is signing the Respect for Marriage Act into law!… It was personal to us, to our staff, to our families.” pic.twitter.com/wRJlmKQ9ts
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) December 13, 2022
Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s departure from the Democratic party last week took some of the wind out of the sails of Joe Biden’s allies, but their leader in Congress’s upper chamber isn’t looking for revenge – yet.
The Washington Post reports that the Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer dodged a question about whether he’d support only a Democrat to serve as senator from Arizona, instead reiterating that he expects Sinema to continue working with the party:
Asked if he will support a Democrat in the Arizona Senate race, Schumer says he’s focused on finishing the lame duck. He says he found out about Sinema’s party switch the day before it was announced and that her staying on committees keeps them functioning in a 51-49 Senate. pic.twitter.com/qj1aFsiWfr
— Dylan Wells (@dylanewells) December 13, 2022
The question is important because, by leaving the Democratic party, Sinema has negated a primary challenge she was likely to face in 2024 if she ran for the party’s Senate nomination in Arizona.
The senator has irritated many Democrats by objecting to the Biden administration’s priorities over the past two years, but now the party will have to decide whether to run a candidate against her in two years and risk splitting their vote, or continue pursuing her cooperation.
The White House has kicked off its daily briefing with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who has been joined today by a special guest: Cyndi Lauper.
The pop legend is set to perform at the 3:30 pm signing ceremony for the Respect for Marriage Act, which will protect same-sex and interracial marriage rights.
Here’s the scene in the White House briefing room, as relayed by the Guardian’s David Smith:
At White House briefing. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre introduces singer Cyndi Lauper: “I know we have some serious business ahead of us today but you know, sometimes girls just want to have fun.” pic.twitter.com/zAXXVsZBnb
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) December 13, 2022
January 6 committee to vote on referrals in 19 December meeting
The January 6 committee will on 19 December vote on referring people they believe broke the law to the justice department, Politico reports, citing committee chair Bennie Thompson.
Lawmakers haven’t yet named who they will refer, but Donald Trump and former top officials in his administration, as well as in Congress, could be among their targets.
The referrals are among the committee’s outstanding business before its mandate expires at the end of the year, which also includes a report into the insurrection at the Capitol and Trump’s plot to overturn the 2020 election.
Here are more details from Politico:
Chairman Bennie Thompson says the Jan. 6 select committee is considering several different categories of referrals, including:
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) December 13, 2022
-Criminal
-Ethics
-Bar discipline
-Campaign finance
Thompson said any referrals would include supporting evidence that would lay out the committee’s case — which will matter far more to DOJ than the referral itself.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) December 13, 2022
MORE: Chairman Thompson says the select committee will have what is likely to be its final meeting (to vote on its report and referrals) at 1 pm on *Dec. 19*
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) December 13, 2022
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Also happening in Washington this week: the White House is hosting the leaders of 49 African countries as it looks to bolster its standing on the continent, with an eye towards countering Russia and China, Jason Burke reports:
Dozens of African leaders have assembled in Washington to attend a major summit aimed at rebooting US relations on the continent which have languished in recent years.
The US-Africa summit, the first since 2014, will be the biggest international gathering in Washington since the pandemic and the most substantial commitment by a US administration to boosting its influence in the region for almost a decade.
The summit comes amid the sharpest great power rivalry for many decades, worsening security problems and acute economic problems in Africa.
All three challenges are sometimes blamed on the US, which has been pushed on to the defensive in many areas by determined and often unconventional strategies adopted by strategic rivals such as Russia and China.
In all, 49 leaders and heads of states have been invited to the summit, and the guest list underlines the difficulty faced by President Joe Biden and secretary of state Antony Blinken in balancing values with pressing demands of power politics.
House committee requests review of Trump storage unit at Mar-a-Lago - report
Carolyn Maloney, chair of the oversight committee in the House has written to the National Archives asking for a review of what’s been discovered at a storage unit at Donald Trump’s Florida residence, the Washington Post is reporting this hour.
The House committee wants to know if there are any other presidential records stashed there in addition to those recently disclosed. As the Post notes, the letter “follows a report from The Washington Post that at least two items marked classified were found by an outside team hired by Trump to search a storage unit, along with at least two of his properties, after his legal team was pressed by a federal judge to attest that it had fully complied with a May grand jury subpoena to turn over all materials bearing classified markings.
Today’s letter has been obtained by the Post and notes that Maloney raises concerns with Debra Steidel Wall, acting archivist at the National Archive in Washington, and says that Trump’s storage unit at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach “and other properties” might “contain presidential records that were not the focus of the search and therefore have not been turned over to the federal government.”
The committee notes that this latest question is separate from the Department of Justice “ongoing criminal investigation” into Trump’s actions, which is being overseen recently-appointed special counsel Jack Smith.
Energy secretary Jennifer Granholm has been a spark of excitement on Twitter today as she fronted the government’s announcement of a “major scientific breakthrough” with a US lab’s successful fusion reaction.
She called the scientific advance “game-changing, world-improving, lives-saving history unfolding in real time”.
This is game-changing, world-improving, lives-saving history unfolding in real time.
— Secretary Jennifer Granholm (@SecGranholm) December 13, 2022
Absolutely astonishing.
My deepest congratulations and gratitude to the researchers and staff at @ENERGY's @Livermore_Lab for this incredible feat. https://t.co/RqAIsZWmVL
Then, hinting at some other government priorities in play today, she added the announcement of the nuclear fusion breakthrough to a day in which Joe Biden will sign into law the Respect for Marriage Act passed in the House last week after making it through the US Senate. It codifies the right to same-sex marriage and interracial marriages in the US in legislation. Her tweet also highlighted other good developments, in economic news.
And a huge breakthrough in nuclear fusion … https://t.co/hsn8pZ4LQ3
— Secretary Jennifer Granholm (@SecGranholm) December 13, 2022
The day so far
The energy department made public their success in creating a fusion reaction that produced more energy than was put in, though any practical application of the breakthrough could be decades away. More immediately, inflation may finally be declining in the United States, which was welcome news for Joe Biden, who will later this afternoon put his signature on a bill to protect same-sex and interracial marriage rights.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
Samuel Bankman-Fried is not testifying before Congress, because he was arrested in the Bahamas yesterday. Instead, the newly appointed CEO of FTX, the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange Bankman-Fried founded, is being grilled by lawmakers alone.
Reforms to the Electoral Count Act intended to stop another January 6 may end up being included in year-end spending legislation Congress is negotiating.
It’s official: rightwing lawmaker Lauren Boebert has been re-elected, after winning her unexpectedly close House race.
Updated
Meanwhile in Congress, lawmakers are working through a heap of legislation that both parties would like to get passed before the year ends and the new Congress begins.
Of particular importance to the waning Democratic majority is a measure to reform the Electoral Count Act and stop the type of legal plot attempted on January 6, and a White House request for tens of billions of dollars more in aid to Ukraine.
Politico reports that Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer says both could be included in a massive government funding bill the two parties are inching towards an agreement on:
Schumer says the omnibus is likely to include Electoral Count Act reform and Ukraine aid. Most he's leaned on ECA -- sounds like it's probably happening
— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) December 13, 2022
"I expect an omnibus will contain priorities both siders want to see passed into law, including more funding for Ukraine and the Electoral Count Act ... it will be great to get that done"
— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) December 13, 2022
Now that they’ve made the news public, the Department of Energy has released a brief video showing how their successful fusion experiment worked.
You can watch it below:
BREAKING NEWS: This is an announcement that has been decades in the making.
— U.S. Department of Energy (@ENERGY) December 13, 2022
On December 5, 2022 a team from DOE's @Livermore_Lab made history by achieving fusion ignition.
This breakthrough will change the future of clean power and America’s national defense forever. pic.twitter.com/hFHWbmCNQJ
Updated
Biden: US 'headed in right direction' as inflation falls
Joe Biden cheered government data released today that showed inflation declining by a greater amount than expected in November, calling it proof that his economic policies were delivering Americans relief from the price increase wave battering the economy.
“In a world where inflation is rising at double digits in many major economies around the world, inflation is coming down in America,” Biden said in a speech at the White House. “Make no mistake: prices are still too high. We have a lot more work to do, but things are getting better, headed in the right direction.”
In particular, he pointed to the decline in gas prices last month, which fell 2%, while noting that food price increases slowed, albeit very slightly. All told, prices rose 7.1% last month compared to November 2021, and just 0.1% compared to October. That was their smallest year-on-year increase since December of last year, but nonetheless a high rate and well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% yearly inflation target.
“It’s going to take time to get inflation back to normal levels, as we make the transition to a more stable and steady growth,” Biden said. “We could see setbacks along the way, as well. We shouldn’t take anything for granted. What is clear is my economic plan is working and we’re just getting started.”
Five weeks after the midterm elections were held, the Associated Press confirms that rightwing firebrand Lauren Boebert has been re-elected to represent her western Colorado district in the House of Representatives:
BREAKING: Republican Lauren Boebert wins reelection to U.S. House in Colorado's 3rd Congressional District. #APracecall at 7:16 a.m. MST. https://t.co/2nlgpji7ac
— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) December 13, 2022
The call was made after the completion of a mandatory recount in the race, where Boebert faced an unexpectedly close challenge from Democrat Adam Frisch. Frisch had already conceded to Boebert, who made headlines over the past two years for everything from racist remarks to heckling Joe Biden during his State of the Union address.
Technology does not always progress in a straight line. It has its ups and downs, setbacks that overshadow its breakthroughs, fraudsters, phonies and scandals that distract from its innovators.
Look no further than what’s been going on in the world of cryptocurrency, where the news has been dominated by last month’s collapse of FTX, formerly the world’s third-largest digital asset exchange. John J Ray III, CEO of the now defunct company, is testifying before Congress – alone, after FTX’s founder Samuel Bankman-Fried was arrested yesterday in the Bahamas on US fraud charges.
For the latest on the hearing, follow the Guardian’s live blog anchored by Kari Paul:
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The energy department’s press conference on the breakthrough in its fusion experiment has wrapped up, but before it concluded, a top official said it could be a long time before the technology becomes commonly used.
“There are very significant hurdles, not just in the science but in technology,” said Kim Budil, director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where the experiment was conducted. “This is one igniting capsule one time, and to realize commercial fusion energy, you have to do many things. You have to be able to produce many, many fusion ignition events per minute, and you have to have a robust system of drivers to enable that.”
She predicted that “with concerted effort and investment, a few decades of research on the underlying technologies could put us in a position to build a power plant”.
Updated
Marv Adams, deputy administrator for defense programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration, gave a detailed (and easy to understand) recap of what happened in the successful experiment.
He began by holding up a cylinder similar to the one used in the experiment:
Inside that was a small, spherical capsule about half the diameter of a BB. One hundred and ninety two laser beams entered from the two ends of the cylinder and struck the inner wall. They didn’t strike the capsule, they struck the inner wall of this cylinder and deposited energy, and that happened in less time than it takes light to move 10 feet, so it’s kind of fast.
X-rays from the wall impinged on the spherical capsule. Fusion fuel in the capsule got squeezed. Fusion reaction started.
This had all happened before, 100 times before. But last week, for the first time, they designed this experiment so that the fusion fuel stayed hot enough, dense enough and round enough for long enough that it ignited, and it produced more energies than the lasers had deposited– about two mega joules in about three mega joules out, a gain of 1.5.
The energy production took less time than it takes like to travel one inch.
Updated
US energy officials announce fusion success 'that could revolutionize the world'
The United States has taken “the first tentative steps towards a clean energy source that could revolutionize the world” through a successful fusion experiment, announced Jill Hruby, the under secretary for nuclear security.
The breakthrough came after an experiment that saw “192 high-energy lasers converge on a target about the size of a peppercorn, heating a capsule of deuterium and tritium to over three million degrees Celsius and briefly simulating the conditions of a star and achieving ignition.”
Speaking earlier, the White House science chief, Arati Prabhakar, gave a one-sentence summary of what scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California achieved: “They shot a bunch of lasers at a pellet of fuel and more energy was released from that fusion ignition than the energy of the lasers.”
Updated
The energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm, is making her announcement of a “major scientific breakthrough”, reportedly a successful fusion reaction.
Follow this blog for the latest on the speech as it happens, or you can watch it on the live feed embedded above.
Updated
Founder of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX Samuel Bankman-Fried was supposed to testify before Congress today, but he won’t be making it. He was arrested yesterday in the Bahamas, and is now in deep legal trouble, the Guardian’s Alex Hern reports:
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former chief executive of the crypto exchange FTX, has been charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission with defrauding investors in the company.
The SEC said: “The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Samuel Bankman-Fried with orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors in FTX Trading Ltd, the crypto trading platform of which he was the CEO and co-founder. Investigations as to other securities law violations and into other entities and persons relating to the alleged misconduct are ongoing.”
The SEC said Bankman-Fried concealed his diversion of FTX customers’ funds to Alameda Research, FTX’s crypto hedge fund, while raising more than $1.8bn (£1.5bn) from investors, including about $1.1bn from about 90 US-based investors.
Biden to speak after data shows surprise inflation drop
The White House has announced Joe Biden will speak about his “efforts to tackle inflation” at 10am, after government data showed consumer prices rose by less than expected in November.
Inflation has climbed at rates not seen since the 1980s since Biden took office, fueled by a combination of factors including pandemic-caused supply chain snarls, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, low interest rates and demand from US consumers. The price growth has become a major liability for Biden, and is seen as one reason why his approval rating with voters has been underwater for more than a year.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics data released today was generally positive, but contained some hard truths for the world’s largest economy: while prices grew less than expected last month in a sign that inflation could be on its way to becoming markedly lower, Americans were still paying high prices for housing, food and other essentials.
Here’s more on the data from the Guardian’s Dominic Rushe:
The cost of living continued to rise at levels unseen in decades in November, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Tuesday, but the rate of inflation does appear to be finally slowing.
The latest consumer price index (CPI) figures – which measure a broad range of goods and services – showed prices rising by 7.1% from last November with a 0.1% increase from October.
The latest annual rise was lower than expected and is down from 9.1% in June, the highest rate in more than 40 years, but is still more than three times higher than the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2%.
The Fed has been hiking interest rates at the fastest pace since the 1980s as it seeks to slow the economy and bring prices down. It is expected to announce another rate rise on Wednesday, its eighth consecutive increase.
The latest dip in the rate of inflation was helped by falling gas prices – once one of the biggest drivers of rising prices. But US consumers continued to experience soaring costs for services such as healthcare, rents and eating out. Housing costs were by far the largest contributor to the monthly increase, more than offsetting decreases in energy indexes.
Updated
Joe Biden has made transitioning the United States away from fossil fuels a major priority of his administration, and the reported breakthrough in fusion energy will no doubt be a happy surprise. But as the Guardian’s Nicola Davis reports, it could be a long time before the technological advance is put to practical use:
Researchers have reportedly made a breakthrough in the quest to unlock a “near-limitless, safe, clean” source of energy: they have got more energy out of a nuclear fusion reaction than they put in.
Nuclear fusion involves smashing together light elements such as hydrogen to form heavier elements, releasing a huge burst of energy in the process. The approach, which gives rise to the heat and light of the sun and other stars, has been hailed as having huge potential as a sustainable, low-carbon energy source.
However, since nuclear fusion research began in the 1950s, researchers have been unable to a demonstrate a positive energy gain, a condition known as ignition.
That was, it seems, until now.
US expected to announce 'major scientific breakthrough' of fusion success
Good morning, US politics blog readers. This morning, we’re expected to hear details of what the Biden administration has dubbed a “major scientific breakthrough”, reportedly the success of a fusion experiment that produced more energy than was put in. While this would be a major development in the world of clean energy, don’t expect it to become widely used anytime soon, likely not for years. We will find out more when energy secretary Jennifer Granholm speaks at 10am eastern time.
There is plenty of other news expected today:
Joe Biden will sign the Respect for Marriage Act protecting same-sex and interracial marriage rights in a White House ceremony at 3:30 pm, alongside Kamala Harris and both their spouses.
FTX founder Samuel Bankman-Fried will testify before the House Financial Services committee, wait, no he won’t, he was arrested last night by police in the Bahamas at the behest of the United States. The collapsed cryptocurrency exchange’s current CEO John Ray III will appear as scheduled at the 10 am hearing.
The US-Africa Leaders Summit begins in Washington, where Biden will welcome top officials from dozens of African countries.
