Closing summary
The Senate’s long-running bipartisan negotiations over immigration rule changes meant to curb migrant arrivals on the southern border continue to face road blocks. Joe Biden endorsed the bargaining over the weekend and said he would “shut down the border”, but Republican House speaker Mike Johnson responded by arguing that the president already has the authority to stop migrants from crossing in from Mexico. The White House responded by pointing out all the times in the past Johnson has said the opposite, a war of words that has cast an ominous shadow on the prospects for passage of what the GOP has named as its price to support another round of aid to Ukraine, as well as to Israel.
Here’s what else happened today:
Michael Chertoff, a Republican former homeland security secretary, publicly opposes the House GOP’s plans to impeach the current officeholder, Alejandro Mayorkas.
A former IRS consultant who leaked Donald Trump’s tax returns was sentenced to five years in prison by a federal judge.
Biden met with his national security team after a strike blamed on Iran-backed militias killed three US service members in Jordan.
Rightwing figures such as Donald Trump Jr and Marjorie Taylor Greene also attacked the immigration policy negotiations.
The House sergeant at arms, its top law enforcement officer, is complying with a mysterious grand jury subpoena.
The House homeland security committee will consider the impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas tomorrow, but it may not be until next week that the full chamber votes on the charges against him, Fox News reports:
1) Fox is told that the absolute earliest the impeachment articles for Mayorkas would hit the floor would be Tuesday, February 6. That’s because the GOP leadership is expected to whip the vote late this week and potentially make a decision about when it go over the weekend.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) January 29, 2024
2) The House Rules Committee would need to put to prep the articles of impeachment for the floor – possibly as early as Monday, February 5.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) January 29, 2024
But keep in mind, this has a LONG way to go yet and could bleed later into the week or beyond.
Interestingly, Fox News reports that House Republican leaders are concerned they may not have the votes to impeach the homeland security chief:
3) The problem: There are a few House GOPers who have outright objections to impeachment. Remember, this is about the math. The GOP can now only lose two votes and still pass any measure on their own.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) January 29, 2024
Yesterday, Michael Chertoff, a Republican who served as homeland security secretary under George W Bush, said he was opposed to impeaching Mayorkas, arguing that the House GOP was reacting to “policy disagreements” rather than the constitution’s bar of “high crimes and misdemeanors”.
Something interesting happened on the floor of the House today.
The chamber was moving through some the usual procedural business it starts the day with when the clerk announced that the chamber’s sergeant at arms was complying with a subpoena issued by a grand jury for documents from the justice department:
“This is to notify you formally pursuant to rule 8 of the rules of the House of Representatives that the office of the sergeant at arms for the House of Representatives has been served with a grand jury subpoena for documents issued by the U.S. Department of Justice” pic.twitter.com/Qct7SsGuRi
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 29, 2024
It’s unclear what the grand jury may be investigating. The sergeant at arms is the House’s top protocol and law enforcement officer.
A federal judge handed a five-year prison sentence to a former IRS consultant who leaked to news organizations the tax returns of Donald Trump and other wealthy people, Politico reports.
Trump broke with prior practice by refusing to release his tax returns during his campaigns for office. The New York Times obtained Trump’s returns from Charles Littlejohn, and shortly before the 2020 election published a report showing that the then-president paid little in income taxes.
Littlejohn received the maximum sentence from judge Ana Reyes, who likened his conduct to the January 6 insurrection. Here’s more on today’s sentencing, from Politico:
A former IRS consultant was sentenced to five years in prison for leaking former President Donald Trump’s tax returns as well as the filings of thousands of other wealthy people to the news media.
A district judge on Monday agreed with the Justice Department that Charles Littlejohn, 38, deserved the maximum statutory sentence for what she called “egregious” crimes.
Judge Ana Reyes, a Biden nominee to the bench, focused on Littlejohn’s decision to release Trump’s filings, which Reyes called “an attack on our constitutional democracy.”
Noting that Trump was under no legal obligation to release his filings and likening the case to the Jan. 6 attacks on the Capitol, Reyes said: “It cannot be open season on our elected officials.”
Littlejohn’s lawyers had asked for leniency in the form of a sentence of between 12 and 18 months, saying that, at the time, he believed the public had the right to know how much Trump and the others paid in taxes. He has since come to regret leaking the information, his representatives told the court.
Republican House speaker Johnson again attacks Senate immigration negotiations
Republican House speaker Mike Johnson again attacked the Senate’s bipartisan negotiations over immigration policy, even though the details of the agreement have not yet been released.
On X, Johnson insisted on hardline measures to block undocumented migrants from crossing into the United States. The senators negotiating the agreement are expected to announce a measure that would drastically cut down on migrant arrivals, but not stop them completely.
Here’s what Johnson had to say about that possibility:
Any border "shutdown" authority that ALLOWS even one illegal crossing is a non-starter. Thousands each day is outrageous. The number must be ZERO.
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) January 29, 2024
When asked about an event held in Jerusalem over the weekend that saw Israeli ministers and parlimentarians calling for the resettlement of Gaza, Kirby said the US’s policy is clear: there should be no reductions in Gaza territory.
For more on this, follow our coverage of the crisis in the Middle East here.
Updated
Kirby also the attack against the three American servicemen over the weekend will not affect a hostage deal, referring to releasing the Israelis still held hostage by Hamas since the 7 October attack.
He also said the US hopes to secure another humanitarian pause in Gaza, but did not provide additional details.
Updated
The White House’s national security adviser John Kirby has addressed the three “American lives taken” by the strike on the Jordan-Syria border, but stopped short of announcing what the US’s response will be.
“I will not get ahead of the president’s decision,” Kirby said.
“We are not looking for a war with Iran,” he said multiple times when asked about taking action against Iran, whom the US has blamed for the attack.
Kirby said Biden is meeting with his national security team and weighing the options before him. What those options are, however, remain unclear.
Updated
White House criticizes wrangling over border deal, urging Congress to authorize funding
Today’s White House press briefing has just begun.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has kicked off the briefing addressing the bipartisan border agreement, which Republicans have in recent days attacked.
Jean-Pierre called out the Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, arguing that if the Republican party seeks to address illegal immigration, “he should give the [Biden] administration the authority and funding needed to secure the border.”
Updated
The day so far
The Senate’s much-discussed negotiations to curb migrant arrivals on the southern border by changing immigration policy continues to face road blocks. Joe Biden endorsed the bargaining over the weekend and said he would “shut down the border” if the bill passed, but Republican House speaker Mike Johnson responded that the president already has the authority to stop migrants from crossing in from Mexico The White House responded by pointing out all the times in the past Johnson has said the opposite, a war of words that has casts an ominous shadow on the prospects of what the GOP has named as its price to support another round of aid to Ukraine, as well as to Israel.
Here’s what else is going on today:
Michael Chertoff, a Republican former homeland security secretary, publicly opposes the House GOP’s plans to impeach the current officeholder, Alejandro Mayorkas.
Biden met with his national security team after a strike blamed on Iran-backed militias killed three US service members in Jordan.
Rightwing figures such as Donald Trump Jr and Marjorie Taylor Greene also attacked the immigration policy negotiations.
Biden met with national security team after Jordan strike killed three US troops
The White House just announced that Joe Biden spent this morning meeting with his national security team after a strike Washington blamed on Iran-backed militias killed three US service members in Jordan.
Among those in attendance were national security adviser Jake Sullivan, defense secretary Lloyd Austin, director of national intelligence Avril Haines and his chief of staff Jeff Zients.
Follow our live blog for more on the intensifying crisis in the Middle East:
Trump is close to winning the Republican presidential nomination … but isn’t quite there yet. Nikki Haley remains in the race, much to the former president’s chagrin, the Guardian’s David Smith reports:
It was a moment for Donald Trump to be gracious, magnanimous, perhaps even presidential. Instead he lashed out at his opponent’s clothes. “When I watched her in the fancy dress that probably wasn’t so fancy, I said, ‘What’s she doing? We won,’” he said of rival Nikki Haley in New Hampshire on Tuesday night.
Trump had just won the first primary election of 2024 and all but clinched the Republican nomination for US president. Party leaders and campaign surrogates are now eager to banish Haley to irrelevance, move on from the primary and unify against Democrats. They want Trump to pivot to an almost inevitable rematch with Democrat Joe Biden in November.
Yet the 77-year-old remains consumed with rage over Haley’s unwillingness to quit the race. His petulance offers a reminder of the unhinged behaviour that turned off independent voters in New Hampshire and could prove to be a liability in a head-to-head contest with Biden. It is also at odds with what is an unusually professional and disciplined campaign operation.
Speaking of Donald Trump, he’s within striking distance of winning the Republican presidential nomination again, after victories in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primaries. But who might he run alongside? The Guardian’s David Smith looks for the answer:
The last person who occupied the job of US vice-president ended up the target of a violent mob calling for him to be hanged. Even so, as Donald Trump closes in on the Republican nomination for 2024, there is no shortage of contenders eager to be his deputy.
It is safe to assume that Mike Pence, who was Trump’s running mate in 2016 and 2020, will not get the job this time. His refusal to comply with his boss’s demand to overturn the last election caused a permanent rift and made Pence a perceived traitor and target of the January 6 insurrectionists.
Undeterred, Trump’s campaign surrogates in the recent Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, both of which he won handily, have been trying to outdo each other with extravagant displays of fealty. “It’s very clear he’s holding these open auditions like it’s The Apprentice,” said Kurt Bardella, a Democratic strategist. “He will flirt with everyone. He will make them dance. They will all debase themselves and humiliate themselves and jockey for that spot.”
In response to Republican attacks on the Senate immigration negotiations, particularly by House speaker Mike Johnson and Donald Trump, the White House has been circulating examples they say shows hypocrisy by both men.
“America is the most compassionate nation in the world, but our immigration system is broken. Reforming that system is a job for Congress, and any balanced legislative approach must include measures to strengthen border security,” Johnson said last year. The White House shared the quote, arguing it contradicts his recent comments that Joe Biden already has the authority to crack down on migrant crossings.
They also pointed to a 2019 statement from Johnson, when he introduced a bill intended to close loopholes in immigration policy: “As the evidence shows, lapses in our immigration laws have been abused by many, hampering the resources reserved for refugees and undermining the effectiveness of asylum and border security programs. We must correct the longstanding loopholes that have encouraged illegal immigration and led to the crisis we face today.”
As for Trump, he asserted repeatedly during his presidency that he needed Congress’s help to implement the hardline immigration policies he promised voters. “Democrats must change our immigration laws right now. Right now. We can do it in – I used to say 45 minutes. We can do it in 15 minutes,” he said in 2019. Needless to say, Democrats, who at the time controlled the House, did not take him up on his offer.
Donald Trump doubled down on his opposition to the Senate immigration policy bill over the weekend.
At a campaign rally in Nevada, where he’s set to win its Republican caucus on 8 February, the Washington Post reported that Trump said, “As the leader of our party, there is zero chance I will support this horrible open borders betrayal of America.”
He continued:
I’ll fight it all the way. A lot of the senators are trying to say, respectfully, they’re blaming it on me. I say, that’s okay. Please blame it on me. Please.
Trump’s comments appeared to be an allusion to reports from last week that Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s Republican minority leader who has had a tense relationship with Trump, told his party behind closed doors that the immigration deal may have to be rejected so the former president could campaign on the issue.
The comments sparked an outcry, and McConnell reportedly walked them back the following day.
Joe Biden’s use of the GOP’s “shut down the border” rhetoric over the weekend and endorsement of the immigration deal under negotiation in the Senate did not placate Republican speaker of the House Mike Johnson.
In a statement released Saturday, Johnson argued that the president already has the legal authority to bar new arrivals from Mexico.
“The Immigration and Nationality Act coupled with recent Supreme Court precedent give him ‘ample authority’ to ‘suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate,’” Johnson wrote.
It was Johnson’s latest shot across the bow at the potential immigration policy deal. On Friday, he sent a letter to Republican lawmakers saying that based on what he’s heard about the negotiations, the proposal would be “dead on arrival” in the House. Here’s more about that:
The text of the immigration policy compromise legislation has not even been released yet, and we don’t yet know if the senators involved in negotiating it have reached an agreement.
But influential rightwing figures are coming out against the potential deal nonetheless. Here’s congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene:
The Senate border deal is a border surrender deal and that means there is NO deal.
— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) January 29, 2024
Dead on arrival.
And Donald Trump Jr, whose father is on the cusp of winning the Republican presidential nomination and also opposes the deal:
The Lankford-Dem Ukraine bailout/mass amnesty bill would green-light 2 million illegals flooding into our country per year.
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 29, 2024
That's about twice the population of Dallas coming into America illegally every year. That’s their supposedly "strict" border policy bill. Give me a break!
Updated
Fate of immigration bill tied to Ukraine, Israel aid
Over the weekend, Joe Biden came out in support of the Senate immigration policy negotiations, and even adopted some of the GOP’s rhetoric on the issue, by vowing to “shut down the border” if the proposed legislation passed. But beyond just changing immigration policy, passage of the measure is expected to lead to Republicans supporting new aid to Ukraine, as well as military assistance to Israel.
Here’s more from Reuters on the delicate negotiations over border policy, and how they got tied up in the debate over providing foreign military aid:
Joe Biden said on Friday that the border deal being negotiated in the US Senate was the “toughest and fairest” set of reforms possible and vowed to “shut down the border” the day he signs the bill.
The bipartisan talks have hit a critical point amid mounting Republican opposition. Some Republicans have set a deal on border security as a condition for further Ukraine aid.
Earlier in the day, the House speaker, Mike Johnson, said the deal is “dead on arrival” in its current form, according to a letter to Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives reviewed by Reuters.
Biden, a Democrat seeking another term in the 5 November elections, has grappled with record numbers of migrants caught illegally crossing the US-Mexico border during his presidency. Republicans contend Biden should have kept the restrictive policies of Republican former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner for his party’s nomination.
“What’s been negotiated would – if passed into law – be the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border we’ve ever had in our country,” Biden said in a statement.
“It would give me, as President, a new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed. And if given that authority, I would use it the day I sign the bill into law.”
Just what are Republicans accusing Alejandro Mayorkas of doing? Over the weekend, the announced their articles of impeachment against the homeland security chief, and the Guardian’s Richard Luscombe took a gander:
Republicans published two articles of impeachment against homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday, and plan to formally advance them on Tuesday towards a full House vote, despite two hearings failing to produce any evidence of his wrongdoing.
The politically charged move comes amid a raging battle in Washington DC over immigration, with a senior Democrat announcing Sunday that senators had reached a bipartisan agreement to tighten border security, even as Donald Trump took credit for likely sinking it.
The impeachment charges against Mayorkas allege, first, that he ignored laws passed by Congress and court orders, in order to pursue policies that led to a surge in illegal immigration; and second, that he breached the public trust by making false statements and obstructing oversight of the homeland security department.
“Congress has a duty to see that the executive branch implements and enforces the laws we have passed. Yet Secretary Mayorkas has repeatedly refused to do so,” Tennessee Republican congressman Mark Green, chair of the House homeland security committee, said in a statement.
A homeland security official responded by calling the charges “a sham” and a distraction from “other vital national security priorities”.
“This markup is just more of the same political games from House homeland security committee Republicans,” the official said in a statement.
Republican former homeland security chief opposes impeachment of Mayorkas
Michael Chertoff, who served as homeland security secretary during Republican George W Bush’s presidency from 2005 to 2009, wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal opposing the impeachment of the job’s current occupant Alejandro Mayorkas.
Republicans in Congress have for months accused Mayorkas of breaching his duty because so many migrants are entering the United States from Mexico, and the GOP-led House homeland security committee is expected to tomorrow vote to adopt the charges against him. But only one other cabinet secretary in US history has ever been impeached, and the Democratic-controlled Senate is unlikely to remove him from office.
“Political and policy disagreements aren’t impeachable offenses. The Constitution gives Congress the power to impeach federal officials for treason, bribery and “other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” That’s a high bar,” Chertoff writes.
He continues:
As homeland security secretary under President George W. Bush—and as a former federal judge, U.S. attorney and assistant attorney general—I can say with confidence that, for all the investigating that the House Committee on Homeland Security has done, they have failed to put forth evidence that meets the bar.
This is why Republicans aren’t seeking to hold Mr. Mayorkas to the Constitution’s “high crimes and misdemeanors” standard for impeachment. They make the unsupported argument that he is derelict in his duty.
Since Mr. Mayorkas took office, the majority of migrants encountered at the Southwest border have been removed, returned or expelled. In fact, since the pandemic-era Title 42 policy was ended last May, DHS removed, returned or expelled more noncitizens than in any five-month period in the past 10 years. The truth is that our national immigration system is outdated, and DHS leaders under both parties have done their best to manage our immigration system without adequate congressional support.
Biden administration prepares counterattack to GOP attempt to kill immigration negotiations, impeach Mayorkas
Good morning, US politics blog readers. The White House is kicking this week off by hitting back against Republican attempts to sink compromise legislation intended to curb migrant arrivals on the southern border, and also at plans by the House GOP to impeach homeland security chief Alejandro Mayorkas. A bipartisan group of senators has for weeks been bargaining over a bill to reform the immigration system to better handle the surge in migrants, but last week, key Republicans in both the Senate and House – including speaker Mike Johnson – suggested they wouldn’t support whatever deal they reach. Johnson also announced the GOP would move forward this week on impeaching Mayorkas, even though the Democratic-controlled Senate is almost certain to reject the charges against him.
Neither development is pleasing to the Biden administration, and this morning, the White House attacked Johnson over his assertion that no immigration legislation is needed because the president has the authority to “close” the border with Mexico, pointing out instances in the past where the speaker has said the opposite. They also steered reporters to a Wall Street Journal op-ed from a former Republican homeland security chief opposing the charges against Mayorkas. Expect many more salvos in this war of words to be fired over the course of today.
Here’s what else is going on:
Biden has vowed a response to an attack in Jordan that killed three US service members, which it blamed on Iran-supported militias. Follow our live blog for the latest on the crisis.
Kamala Harris continues her “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms” tour today with a conversation with actor Sophia Bush, as the Biden administration looks to promote abortion access.
We’ll hear more about both the border and the attack in Jordan at 1.30pm eastern time, when White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and national security council spokesman John Kirby brief the press.
