Closing summary
An appeals court judge in New York denied Donald Trump’s third attempt in three days to delay his hush-money criminal trial. Trump was denied his attempt to push back the 15 April trial on charges stemming from hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels, paving the way for the first-ever criminal trial of a former US president.
Donald Trump said he believes the Arizona supreme court went too far with its ruling upholding a near-total abortion ban. Asked if he would sign a national abortion ban if elected president in 2024, Trump said: “No.”
In response, the Biden campaign said Trump “owns the suffering and chaos happening right now” and warned that he has banned abortion “every chance he gets”.
Asked what he would say to the people of Arizona, Joe Biden said: “Elect me. I’m in the … 21st century, not back then.” Biden also said he is “considering” a request from Australia to end the prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Kamala Harris will visit Arizona on Friday as part of her nationwide reproductive freedoms tour. The White House said Harris would highlight “extremists” in the state who are pushing for abortion bans during her visit.
Democrats in Florida are teaming up with operatives from Biden’s re-election campaign in an all-out assault on Republicans’ extremist positions on abortion, believing it will bring victory in presidential and Senate races in November.
The House voted to block the reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a high-profile warrantless surveillance program that is now in limbo before a 19 April expiration date.
House speaker Mike Johnson will meet on Friday with Donald Trump for a press conference on “election integrity” at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, a Trump campaign official said. Johnson met with Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene on Wednesday, marking the first time the two have spoken since Greene filed a motion to vacate the speakership late last month. Greene described the meeting as “passionate”.
The independent presidential candidate Cornel West announced that Melina Abdullah would serve as his running mate, joining the former Harvard professor’s long-shot bid in the US presidential race.
The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, told donors and supporters last weekend that he would help raise money for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, according to multiple reports.
Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, is accused of covering up a $130,000 hush-money payment his former lawyer Michael Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump in 2006, Reuters neatly recaps.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records and denies any such encounter with Daniels.
Judge Juan Merchan has not yet ruled on Trump’s motion for him to recuse himself. The defense has argued that the judge’s daughter’s work for a political consulting firm with Democratic clients poses a conflict of interest.
On Monday, a judge at the appellate division denied Trump’s request to delay the case while he pursues a challenge to the trial being held in heavily Democratic Manhattan.
On Tuesday, another judge rejected his bid to pause the trial while he appeals Merchan’s decision to impose a gag order restricting his public statements about potential witnesses, court staff, lawyers and family members of the judge and district attorney Alvin Bragg. Those appeals will still be heard by a full panel.
Updated
Appeals court judge denies Trump's third attempt this week to delay hush-money trial
The appeals court judge, just moments after the hearing wrapped up in New York this afternoon, has ruled against Donald Trump’s third attempt this week to delay his hush-money criminal trial
Trump was denied his attempt to push back his 15 April trial on charges stemming from hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels, paving the way for the first-ever criminal trial of a former US president, Reuters reports.
During an earlier hearing, Trump lawyer Emil Bove said the trial should be delayed because justice Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the case, has not yet ruled on their request for him to recuse himself.
Bove also said Merchan was wrong to deny their request to bar prosecutors from presenting Trump’s tweets during his 2017-2021 presidential term as evidence. Bove said presidential immunity should prevent the prosecutors from presenting those posts as evidence. At the hearing before associate justice Ellen Gesmer at a mid-level state appeals court called the appellate division, Bove said:
We are scheduled to begin trial under circumstances that will violate President Trump’s rights.
Steven Wu, a lawyer for Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, said Trump’s lawyers had brought the requests too late, saying:
There is a powerful public interest in ensuring that this criminal trial go forward.
Updated
The hearing is over at the appeals court in New York where lawyers for Donald Trump are making the argument for the third time in three days that his hush-money criminal trial should be delayed.
Jury selection will begin on Monday, so time is running out for Trump. We await the court’s decision.
As colleague Cameron Joseph wrote earlier today, this follows a longstanding pattern of Trump freaking out as major threats approach, and his team responding with frenetic energy.
Trump’s team throws everything it can at the wall, while Trump continues his tirade against presiding judge Juan Merchan – while pushing the bounds of the judge’s gag order.
To get the latest court developments delivered to your inbox, in the Guardian US’s free Trump on Trial newsletter put together by Cameron, sign up here.
And you can read today’s here.
Updated
Lawyers for Donald Trump have been back in court for almost the last hour trying to stave off the first-ever criminal trial of a former US president, which begins on Monday.
In a more technical legal take from NBC, the TV network explains the following:
The court docket for the state Appellate Division shows Trump’s attorneys filed the challenge as a lawsuit invoking a provision of New York law known as Article 78. Article 78 challenges allow litigants, whether in ongoing litigation or otherwise, to seek relief from allegedly unlawful state or local government action.
The documents were filed under seal. The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting the case, said it involved Judge Juan Merchan’s refusal to step aside from presiding over the case.
Lawyers for former President Trump head back to a New York appeals court with their third legal challenge involving his impending criminal trial in three days. https://t.co/kBDIs74KWC
— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 10, 2024
Trump is a defendant in four criminal cases, two federal and two state. The hush-money case in New York is first up. The Georgia election interference case, the federal election interference case and the federal classified documents case do not have trial dates yet. The presidential election is on 5 November and Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee, prior to his expected anointment at the Republican National Convention this summer.
Updated
Trump tries to delay hush-money trial for third time this week
Donald Trump’s lawyers told a New York appeals court judge on Wednesday that the former US president’s 15 April trial should be delayed because the judge has not yet ruled on their motion for him to recuse himself, in his third last-ditch attempt so far this week to delay the case, Reuters reports.
The Republican presidential candidate is accused of covering up a $130,000 hush-money payment his former lawyer Michael Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels for her silence ahead of the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump in 2006.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records and denies any such encounter with Daniels.
On Monday, a judge at a mid-level state appeals court known as the appellate division denied Trump’s request to delay the case while he pursues a challenge to the trial being held in heavily Democratic Manhattan.
And on Tuesday, another judge rejected his bid to pause the trial while he appeals Judge Juan Merchan’s decision to impose a gag order restricting his public statements about potential witnesses, court staff, lawyers, and family members of the judge and the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg.
Those appeals will still be heard by a full panel. Jury selection is scheduled to begin in the trial on Monday.
Updated
The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, told donors and supporters last weekend that he would help raise money for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, according to multiple reports.
DeSantis, who dropped out of the Republican presidential race in January, told his allies about his plans to help his former rival during a private gathering at the Hard Rock Hotel in south Florida, a DeSantis adviser told NBC News.
DeSantis is “committed to helping Trump in any and every way”, said Texas businessman Roy Bailey, who attended the retreat. He said:
I will follow the governor’s lead and I will do anything that he or President Trump ask me to do to help him win this election.
A Trump campaign adviser said they were not aware that the Florida governor was going to start raising money for them but added that “everyone should be working towards defeating Joe Biden and electing President Trump”, NBC reported.
Updated
Joe Biden, during a joint press conference with the Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, at the White House, said Japan’s attempts to set up a leader-to-leader summit with North Korea is “a good thing” as he reiterated his administration’s willingness for its own talks without preconditions.
Biden said:
We welcome the opportunity of our allies to initiate dialogue with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. As I’ve said many times, we’re open to dialogue ourselves without preconditions with the DPRK.
The Biden administration has repeatedly expressed openness to talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, but has never received a response.
Updated
House speaker Mike Johnson will meet on Friday with Donald Trump for a press conference on “election integrity”, a Trump campaign official said.
The press conference is scheduled to take place at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, AP reported, citing a source as saying that Johnson and Trump will have a “joint announcement” on Friday.
NEWS w/ @KristenhCNN: Speaker Mike Johnson is making plans to deliver a joint press conference with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, focused on "election integrity," per sources.
— Melanie Zanona (@MZanona) April 10, 2024
Plans still fluid, but comes as Johnson is facing a threat to his speakership from MTG.
When the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022, Republicans across the country cheered. Freed from Roe’s regulations, GOP lawmakers promptly blanketed the US south and midwest in near-total abortion bans.
But today, after a string of electoral losses, stories of women being denied abortions and polls that confirm abortion bans remain wildly unpopular, the political calculus has changed. Republicans are now trying to slow down the car whose brakes they cut – and to convince voters that, if the car crashes, they had nothing to do with it anyway.
Nowhere encapsulates the GOP’s backpedal on abortion better than Arizona, whose state supreme court on Tuesday ruled to let an 1864 near-total abortion ban go into effect. That ban, which outlaws abortion in all cases except to save the life of a woman, was passed before Arizona became a state, before the end of the civil war and before women gained the right to vote.
Read the full analysis by the Guardian’s reproductive health and justice reporter: Arizona’s abortion ban is a political nightmare for Republicans in the 2024 election
Updated
The House has voted to block the reauthorization of section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a high-profile warrantless surveillance program that is now in limbo ahead of a 19 April expiration date.
House Republicans have been fiercely divided over how to handle the issue, and Wednesday’s vote comes months after a similar process to reform and reauthorize the program fell apart before it even reached the House floor.
The law allows the US government to collect the communications of targeted foreigners abroad by compelling service providers to produce copies of messages and internet data, or networks to intercept and turn over phone call and message data.
It is controversial because it allows the government to incidentally collect messages and phone data of Americans without a court order if they interacted with the foreign target, even though the law prohibits section 702 from being used by the National Security Agency to specifically target US citizens.
Updated
Joe Biden was asked what he would say to the people of Arizona following the state supreme court’s ruling to let a law banning almost all abortions in the state go into effect.
The president, referring to the 1864 abortion ban which passed when Arizona was still a territory, replied:
Elect me. I’m in the 20th century … 21st century … not back then. They weren’t even a state.
From the Washington Post’s JM Rieger:
REPORTER: On the issue of abortion, what do you say to the people of Arizona right now...?
— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) April 10, 2024
BIDEN: Elect me. I'm in the 20th century — 21st century, not back then. They weren't even a state. pic.twitter.com/0T2ASk1E0w
Cornel West’s announcement that Melina Abdullah would serve as his running mate comes as West, an author and leftwing activist, continues his efforts to get on the ballot in every US state.
West’s campaign said he had already secured ballot access in Alaska, Oregon, South Carolina and Utah, but some states require a running mate for independent candidates to get on the ballot. As part of his 50-state campaign, West announced in January that he would launch a new political party, called the Justice for All party, to help ease his path to ballot access in some states.
West has no path to victory, as national polls show his support languishing in the low single digits. A survey conducted last month by the Marquette Law School found that just 4% of likely US voters named West as their preferred candidate.
But West’s presence on the ballot in key battleground states could draw support away from Joe Biden, raising concerns among Democrats that the independent candidate might serve as a spoiler for the incumbent president.
According to a Quinnipiac University poll of US voters conducted last month, Biden leads Donald Trump by three points, 48% to 45%, in a head-to-head match-up, but the president’s support dipped down to 38% (compared with Trump’s 39%) when third-party candidates such as West, Robert F Kennedy Jr and Jill Stein of the Green party were listed as options.
Updated
Cornel West announces running mate for independent presidential bid
The independent presidential candidate Cornel West announced on Wednesday that Melina Abdullah would serve as his running mate, joining the former Harvard professor’s long-shot bid in the US presidential race.
Abdullah, a professor of Pan-African Studies at California State University, Los Angeles, helped to form the LA chapter of the group Black Lives Matter, and West praised her as “one of the great freedom fighters of her generation”. West told the talkshow host Tavis Smiley on Wednesday":
I wanted somebody whose heart, mind and soul is committed to the empowerment of poor and working peoples of all colors. And Melina has a history of longevity, of putting her heart, mind, soul and body in the struggle.
Abdullah told Smiley that West’s offer took her by surprise, but she quickly accepted because of her belief in his “platform of truth, love and justice”. “How can you not get behind that platform?” Abdullah said.
So I’ve been following him and had been really enthusiastic about his candidacy and just was excited to be able to share space with him.
Democrats in Florida are teaming up with operatives from Joe Biden’s re-election campaign in an all-out assault on Republicans’ extremist positions on abortion, believing it will bring victory in presidential and Senate races in November.
They fired an opening salvo on Tuesday, tearing into Donald Trump’s “boasting” about overturning federal abortion protections a day earlier, and assailing the incumbent Republican senator Rick Scott for supporting Florida’s six-week ban that takes effect next month.
Ron DeSantis, the Republican Florida governor and former candidate for the party’s presidential nomination who signed the ban into law, also found himself under fire.
The Florida supreme court ruled last week that the six-week ban will take effect on 1 May, as well as allowing a ballot measure for November that could see voters enshrine the right to the procedure into law.
The moves instantly propelled the state to the forefront of the national abortion debate, and allowed Democrats, all but wiped out in Florida in successive national elections, to seize on the issue as vote-winner.
Trump 'owns suffering and chaos happening right now', says Biden campaign on Trump abortion comments
Biden’s campaign has released a statement following Trump’s criticism of the Arizona abortion ban, warning that he has previously “[banned] abortion every chance he gets”.
A spokesperson for the Biden campaign said that Trump will enact a national abortion ban given his track record, adding that the former president “proudly overturned Roe”.
Donald Trump owns the suffering and chaos happening right now, including in Arizona, because he proudly overturned Roe – something he called ‘“an incredible thing’” and ‘“pretty amazing’” just today.
Trump lies constantly – about everything – but has one track record: banning abortion every chance he gets. The guy who wants to be a dictator on day one will use every tool at his disposal to ban abortion nationwide, with or without Congress, and running away from reporters to his private jet like a coward doesn’t change that reality.
Updated
Greene added that Johnson asked if she was “interested” in being apart of a group of advisers for him.
Green said:
I said, ‘I’ll wait and see what his proposal is on that.’ Right now. he does not have my support, and I’m watching what happens with FISA and Ukraine.
Greene added that she told Johnson he “failed” on the latest government spending dealing and received “a lot of excuses” in return.
Rep. MTG after Johnson meeting says she explained her positions on FISA, Ukraine aid and how he “failed” them on the govt spending deal
— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) April 10, 2024
Says she got a “lot of excuses” of how that happened
Greene said he discussed having a kitchen cabinet group that would be a group of advisers for him and asked her if she “was interested.”
— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) April 10, 2024
“I said, ‘I'll wait and see what his proposal is on that.’ Right now. he does not have my support, and I'm watching what happens with FISA… https://t.co/V7LMlxGCTt
Updated
The House speaker, Mike Johnson, and Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene have concluded their meeting, with varying descriptions on how it went.
The meeting, which lasted over an hour, came after Greene filed a motion to vacate the speakership.
Greene described the meeting as “passionate”, NBC News reported. When asked if the meeting was “productive”, Greene said:
He’d have to completely change everything he’s done to be productive.
Meanwhile, Johnson gave a more diplomatic answer, calling Greene a “friend” even as the two Republicans have differed on “strategy”.
She’s a colleague. I’ve always considered her a friend … Marjorie and I don’t disagree on philosophy. We’re both conservatives. Sometimes we disagree on strategy.
From Punchbowl News’ Mica Soellner:
MTG on if she would describe the Johnson meeting as productive: "He'd have to completely change everything he's done to be productive."
— Mica Soellner (@MicaSoellnerDC) April 10, 2024
JOHNSON on MTG meeting today: "She's a colleague. I've always considered her a friend... Marjorie and I don't disagree on philosophy. We're both conservatives. Sometimes we disagree on strategy."
— Mica Soellner (@MicaSoellnerDC) April 10, 2024
Updated
Trump says 'no' when asked if he would sign national abortion ban as president
Trump also said that he would not sign a national abortion ban if elected president in 2024, ABC News reported.
Trump further clarified his position while speaking with reporters on Wednesday.
In response to the question of if he would sign an abortion ban, Trump said “no” and shook his head.
Trump says that Arizona’s abortion ruling went too far: “Yeah they did, and that will be straightened out.”
— Lalee Ibssa (@LaleeIbssa) April 10, 2024
Also tells @ABC he wouldn’t sign a national abortion ban as president. pic.twitter.com/wQdByVodtv
The latest remarks from Trump come as Democrats have warned that he would authorize an extreme ban if elected, noting how federal abortion rights were overturned due to supreme court judges secured during Trump’s administration.
Updated
Trump says Arizona abortion ban went too far
Here’s more from Donald Trump’s comments to reporters while at a campaign event in Atlanta after the Arizona state supreme court’s ruling upholding a 1864 abortion law.
Asked if Arizona’s ruling went too far, Trump replied:
Yeah, they did. That will be straightened out. As you know, it’s all about state’s rights. It will be straightened out. I’m sure the governor and everybody else are going to bring it back into reason and that it will be taken care of, I think, very quickly.
Q: "Did Arizona go too far?"
— CSPAN (@cspan) April 10, 2024
Former President Trump: "Yeah, they did. That'll be straightened out. As you know it's all about state's rights. It'll be straightened out. I'm sure that the governor and everybody else are going bring it back to within reason..." pic.twitter.com/Dc9qluxemc
Biden 'considering' dropping prosecution of Julian Assange
Joe Biden said he is considering a request from Australia to end the prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Asked about the request as he hosted the Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, Biden replied:
We’re considering it.
Assange, an Australian citizen, faces 18 charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of classified documents, largely the result of a leak by the former US army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.
Assange, 52, has been fighting US extradition efforts from the UK’s Belmarsh prison, where he has been since 2019 for skipping bail during a separate legal battle.
Updated
Donald Trump has told reporters he believes the Arizona supreme court went too far with its ruling, CNN’s Alayna Treene reports.
Trump, 2 days after saying abortion policy should be left to the states, tells reporters he thinks the Arizona Supreme Court went too far in their abortion ruling:
— Alayna Treene (@alaynatreene) April 10, 2024
“Yeah, they did, and that’ll be straightened out and as you know it’s all about states’ rights"
Updated
A closely watched measure of US inflation picked up in March, rising to an annual rate of 3.5%, the Department of Labor announced on Wednesday.
The consumer-price index (CPI) – which measures a broad range of goods and services – rose 0.4% from February, higher than the 0.3% expected. Core CPI, which removes the volatile food and energy categories, rose 0.4% from February in contrast to an expected 0.3%.
In a statement, Joe Biden said the report showed his administration has “more to do to lower costs for hardworking families”, adding:
Fighting inflation remains my top economic priority. We’re making progress: wages are rising faster than prices, incomes are higher than before the pandemic, and unemployment has remained below 4% for the longest stretch in 50 years. But we have more to do.
Updated
Mike Johnson and Marjorie Taylor Greene to meet today
The House speaker, Mike Johnson, is expected to meet with fellow Republican Congress member Marjorie Taylor Greene today, marking the first time the two have spoken since Greene filed a motion to vacate the speakership late last month.
Johnson and Greene were slated to speak last Friday, but that plan reportedly fell through. Asked about the upcoming meeting during a press conference alongside other House GOP leaders, Johnson described Greene as “a friend”, adding:
Marjorie and I don’t disagree, I don’t think, on any matter of philosophy. We’re both conservatives. But we do disagree sometimes on strategy and with regard to what we put on the floor and when and those things.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) says he will meet with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) — who filed a motion to vacate him as Speaker — later today:
— The Recount (@therecount) April 10, 2024
"I consider her a friend ... Marjorie is frustrated by the last set of appropriations bills ... And you know what? So am I." pic.twitter.com/isvdSihq2u
The meeting comes a day after Greene escalated her criticism against Johnson in a scathing memo to colleagues in which she accused him of a “complete and total surrender” to the Democrats’ agenda.
Updated
The far-right Florida Republican Matt Gaetz forced Kevin McCarthy out as House speaker last year “because he slept with a 17-year-old” and wanted a congressional ethics investigation to end, McCarthy charged on Tuesday.
“I’ll give you the truth why I’m not speaker,” McCarthy said, at an event at Georgetown University in Washington.
Because one person, a member of Congress, wanted me to stop an ethics complaint because he slept with a 17-year-old, an ethics complaint that started before I ever became speaker. And that’s illegal and I’m not gonna get in the middle of it. Now, did he do it or not? I don’t know. But ethics was looking at it. There’s other people in jail because of it. And he wanted me to influence it.
The House ethics investigation of allegations against Gaetz opened in 2021, when Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, was speaker. The House investigation was paused when Gaetz was investigated by the Department of Justice for sex trafficking, over allegations that he paid for sex and had sex with an underage woman. In December 2022, Joel Greenberg, a former Florida tax collector whose arrest led to the investigation of Gaetz, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for offences including sex trafficking a minor.
In February 2023, prosecutors said they would not issue charges. The House ethics investigation then restarted. Gaetz denies wrongdoing.
Donald Trump is learning the hard way that there is no middle ground on abortion inside the Republican party, NBC News’ Chuck Todd writes.
The former president is hoping that he can separate himself from the most restrictive positions on the issue, he says.
Ironically, Trump’s controversial position shouldn’t, in theory, be controversial in the GOP. Trump is simply espousing what the party said it supported for decades before the supreme court’s 2022 Dobbs decision: Leave it to the states. But abortion conservatives want to go further with a federal limit. As is now fairly clear, simply returning the decision over reproductive rights to the states wasn’t really the goal of the anti-abortion movement pre-Dobbs. The goal was to roll back access to abortion, in whatever expedient way they could find.
Updated
The Arizona abortion ban is even dividing Republican families, according to Politico Playbook.
Clint Bolick is one of the four Arizona supreme court justices who supported reinstating the 1864 law.
His wife, Arizona state senator Shawnna Bolick, who faces a tough re-election this year, repudiated the effect of the court decision, posting to social media on Tuesday:
Considering today’s Arizona Supreme Court ruling to uphold Arizona’s 1864 territorial abortion ban, it is time for my legislative colleagues to find common ground of common sense: the first step is to repeal the territorial law.
As a state legislator, I have worked on protecting all lives, especially the most vulnerable, from the earliest moments of life to protecting women's health by providing safe housing and a nurturing community for homeless pregnant women. Considering today’s Arizona Supreme Court… pic.twitter.com/9kV9rmvuFP
— Shawnna LM Bolick (@ShawnnaLMBolick) April 9, 2024
Updated
Kamala Harris to visit Arizona as part of reproductive freedoms tour
Kamala Harris will visit Arizona as part of her nationwide reproductive freedoms tour, just days after the state supreme court upheld a near-total abortion ban.
The vice-president will appear in Tucson on Friday, her office announced on Tuesday after the court decision, although her visit had reportedly already been scheduled.
The White House said Harris would highlight “extremists” in the state who were pushing for abortion bans during her visit.
Harris issued a statement following the Arizona ruling, laying the blame on Donald Trump for rolling “the clock to a time before women could vote”. Last month she said the former president had handpicked three members of the US supreme court “because he intended for them to overturn Roe … He intended for them to take your freedoms, and he brags about it.”
The Arizona Supreme Court ruling allows an 1864 abortion ban to go into effect. There are no exceptions for rape and incest, and it threatens doctors and nurses with prison time.
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) April 9, 2024
It does not have to be this way. Congress must restore the protections of Roe. pic.twitter.com/JGdA7RNI2W
Updated
Biden hails 'unbreakable' US-Japanese ties as he welcomes Kishida to White House
Joe Biden welcomed Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, to the White House this morning as he hailed “unbreakable” US-Japanese ties and lauded the Japanese leader’s quick “courageous” opposition to Vladimir Putin’s full-fledged invasion of Ukraine and for improving relations with South Korea
“Ours is truly a global partnership. For that, Mr Prime Minister Kishida, I thank you,” Biden said.
Now our two countries are building a stronger defense partnership and a strong Indo-Pacific than ever before.
Kishida will address Congress on Thursday and join Biden and the president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, for a meeting expected to focus on Beijing’s South China Sea incursions.
Updated
The Arizona supreme court decision upended Donald Trump’s gambit on abortion, a day after the former president sought to neutralize the political issue by declining to support a national abortion ban.
Trump had hoped that his announcement on Monday would keep abortion rights mostly out of the conversation ahead of the November elections, but Tuesday’s ruling showed just how difficult it will be to do that, the Washington Post’s Dan Balz writes.
All abortion politics are national, not local. Abortion developments – new laws, new restrictions, new stories of women caught up in heart-wrenching and sometimes life-threatening decisions – are no longer confined to the geography where they take place. They are instantly part of the larger debate.
Trump is correct about the dangers to Republicans of continuing the debate about abortion rights, Balz says, but the former president has abandoned those whose interests he once vowed to serve.
There is no safe harbor for Trump and the Republicans at this point. The abortion issue is no less complex and no less difficult for many Americans than it was while Roe was in force. But politically the winds have shifted, and done so dramatically.
Updated
For more than a year, Donald Trump declined to say when in a pregnancy he would try to draw the line, even as Republican-led states have ushered in a wave of new restrictions and anti-abortion groups pressured him and other Republican presidential candidates to endorse a federal ban on the procedure.
In his statement on Monday, Trump did not say whether he would sign into law a national abortion ban if he were president and Congress passed a federal limit. Neither did he say how he, as a resident of Florida, would vote on a ballot measure that would enshrine abortion rights into that state’s constitution.
Democrats, who have made abortion a central issue of the election, said Trump supported laws in the more than two dozens states that have imposed outright bans or restrictions on the procedure since Roe v Wade was overturned.
On the campaign trail, Trump has been ambivalent on abortion. He routinely takes credit for appointing the supreme court justices who set the stage for the elimination of Roe v Wade, which he has called a “moral and unconstitutional atrocity”. He has also called himself the “most pro-life president in American history”.
But he has repeatedly dismissed as too extreme fellow Republicans who oppose exceptions to abortion restrictions in cases of rape, incest and when the life of the pregnant person is at risk. And he has said being too hardline on the issue cost Republicans at the polls in the 2022 midterms and could do so again when he challenges Biden in November’s presidential election.
Updated
The Arizona state supreme court decision came a day after Donald Trump declined to endorse a national ban on abortion, saying that it should be left up to individual states.
Trump’s stated position on Monday dashed hopes of anti-abortion groups, which want a federal ban, and drew the ire of Democrats, who blame Trump for outright bans and severe restrictions already in place across the south and midwest.
In a four-minute video post on Truth Social, Trump said it was “up to the states to do the right thing” while also touting his work to confirm the conservative supreme court justices who ultimately overturned Roe v Wade in 2022. “States will determine by vote or legislation, or perhaps both,” Trump said.
Whatever they decide must be the law of the land, or in this case the law of the state.
“Many states will be different, many will have a different number of weeks, some will be more conservative than others,” he continued.
At the end of the day this is all about the will of the people. You must follow your heart, or in many cases your religion or faith.
He added:
Do what’s right for your family, and do what’s right for yourself.
Updated
Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg sentenced to five months for perjury
Allen Weisselberg, a longtime lieutenant to Donald Trump, has been sentenced to five months in jail after pleading guilty last month to perjury in the former president’s recent civil fraud trial charges.
As the former chief financial officer in the Trump Organization, Weisselberg was key in helping Trump record his net worth. A defendant in the fraud trial, Weisselberg was accused of helping to inflate Trump’s net worth on government financial documents, misleading lenders.
On the witness stand in October, Weisselberg, 76, was evasive, often saying he did not recall the real-estate valuations that were at the center of the trial. But a key moment of his testimony came when Weisselberg insisted he did not notice a discrepancy on Trump’s financial statements: that Trump’s triplex apartment was listed as being 30,000 sq ft when, in reality, it was closer to 11,000 sq ft.
Forbes magazine disputed the claim he made on the stand, saying it had emails and notes that proved Weisselberg had actively tried to convince the magazine for years that the triplex was bigger than it actually was, denying what was listed on real-estate documents. Weisselberg abruptly ended his testimony after Forbes published an article accusing him of lying on the stand.
Updated
'We are not closing. Ever': Arizona abortion providers react to ban
While the long-term impact of the decision on abortion access in Arizona is not yet clear, a number of providers said on Tuesday that they will stay open as long as they can.
Planned Parenthood Arizona, which operates multiple locations in the state, intends to continue providing abortions as long as the procedure is legal. Thanks to a court order in a separate case, Planned Parenthood appears to be able to legally provide abortions beyond the 14-day window and potentially as late as into May.
“Regardless of today’s decision, what I can tell you is that our doors will remain open,” Angela Florez, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Arizona, told reporters on a call after the supreme court decision.
We will continue to provide what essential healthcare we can within the limitations of the law, and we hope that supporters will continue to support and that patients will still continue to feel safe in our care.
Dr Gabrielle Goodrick, a longtime abortion provider in Phoenix, also told the Guardian that her clinic will continue offering abortions, at least through the 14-day window. Goodrick said.
We are not closing. Ever. That’s not a question. I have reassurances from the governor and the attorney general that they’re not going to prosecute, but I need to investigate that further.
Voters in Arizona may be able to weigh in on the issue in November: abortion rights supporters in the state have spent months gathering signatures for a ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution, and the Tuesday decision raises the stakes for their efforts significantly.
If it succeeds, the ballot measure would declare that people in Arizona have a “fundamental right to abortion” and that the state will not try to curb that right before a pregnancy reaches fetal viability, which is generally pegged to about 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Although ballot measures need to amass 383,923 signatures by July to get on the ballot, the organizers behind the Arizona measure announced last week that they have gathered more than 500,000 signatures, and plan to collect more.
Republicans who embraced Roe v Wade reversal criticize Arizona ruling
Hours after the Arizona’s supreme court ruling, Republicans in the state took a surprising stance for a party that has historically championed abortion restrictions – they denounced the decision.
Some of the criticisms of the Tuesday ruling came from politicians who had previously supported the 1864 ban or cheered the end of Roe v Wade.
Kari Lake, a Republican and loyalist of Donald Trump running to represent Arizona in the Senate, previously called the ban a “great law”, according to PolitiFact.
David Schweikert, an Arizona congressman who is facing one of the most competitive House races in the country this November, said he does not support the ruling, but in 2022 said the fall of Roe “pleased” him.
I do not support today’s ruling from the AZ Supreme Court. This issue should be decided by Arizonans, not legislated from the bench. I encourage the state legislature to address this issue immediately.
— Rep. David Schweikert (@RepDavid) April 9, 2024
Juan Ciscomani, another Republican congressman for Arizona, said the ruling was “a disaster for women and providers” and that the law was “archaic”.
My statement on the Arizona Supreme Court’s ruling today. pic.twitter.com/A1Do8AjYlb
— Congressman Juan Ciscomani (@RepCiscomani) April 9, 2024
The speaker of the Arizona house, Ben Toma, and the president of the state senate, Warren Petersen, who are both Republicans, also released a joint statement saying that they would be “listening to our constituents to determine the best course of action for the legislature”.
In contrast, on the day Roe fell, the Republican-controlled state senate released a statement declaring that the 1864 ban was in effect immediately. That statement unleashed confusion and chaos among abortion providers in Arizona, prompting them to stop offering the procedure out of an abundance of caution.
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Arizona's Democratic attorney general vows not to prosecute doctors or women under ban
Arizona’s Democratic attorney general, Kris Mayes, vowed not to prosecute any doctors or women under the 1864 ban.
Speaking in a news conference after the court’s decision was published, Mayes said:
No woman or doctor will be prosecuted under this draconian law … as long as I am attorney general. Not by me, nor by any county attorney serving in our state. Not on my watch.
Her office is looking to pursue options available to ensure the law is not implemented in the state, she added.
In a statement, Mayes described the state supreme court decision as “unconscionable” and an “affront to freedom”, and said the court had “risked the health and lives of Arizonans”. She continued:
Today’s decision to reimpose a law from a time when Arizona wasn’t a state, the Civil War was raging, and women couldn’t even vote will go down in history as a stain on our state.
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The Arizona governor, Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, said Tuesday was a “dark day” for the state following the ruling and implored abortion rights supporters to make their voices heard in November.
Hobbs said the court decision was a sign that “the fight for our reproductive freedoms is far from over”. In a statement on Tuesday, she said:
I’ve personally experienced the anguish of losing a pregnancy and I know it’s outrageous to have the government tell you that the best decision for your health or future could now be considered a crime. I will not stop fighting until we have fully secured the right to reproductive healthcare in our state.
The governor last year issued a sweeping executive order banning county attorneys from prosecuting women who seek abortions and doctors who perform them.
Speaking to CNN hours after the court ruling, Hobbs said she was confident that voters will have the opportunity to enshrine abortion rights in November and reverse the decision. She added:
This is a commonsense measure that is supported by the vast majority of Arizonans in terms of protecting access. And you know, certainly it’s going to motivate voters in November.
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Republicans rush to distance themselves from 1864 abortion ban
Good morning, US politics readers. The Arizona supreme court’s decision on Tuesday to let a 160-year-old abortion ban in the state go into effect pushed Republicans into a new political dilemma, coming as it did just a day after Donald Trump declared that abortion should be left to individual states.
First passed when Arizona was still a territory, the ban only permits abortions to save a patient’s life and does not have exceptions for rape or incest. “This decision cannot stand,” said Matt Gress, a Republican state representative.
I categorically reject rolling back the clock to a time when slavery was still legal and we could lock up women and doctors because of an abortion.
“I oppose today’s ruling,” said Kari Lake, a Republican running to represent Arizona in the Senate and a Trump loyalist. Lake called on the state legislature to “come up with an immediate commonsense solution that Arizonans can support”. David Schweikert, the most vulnerable Republican in the state, also denounced the ruling and said the issue “should be decided by Arizonans, not legislated from the bench”.
Republicans have struggled to find a way to talk about abortion since the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, leading the GOP to stumble in the 2022 midterms and abortion rights supporters to win a string of ballot measures. Their latest response to the Arizona ruling may mark their fastest and strongest rebuke of abortion bans since Roe fell. Some of the criticisms of Tuesday’s ruling came from politicians who had previously supported the 1864 ban or cheered the end of Roe v Wade.
Here’s what else we’re watching:
10am ET. USAID administrator Samantha Power will testify before the foreign relations committee.
10am. Joe Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden, will welcome the Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, and his wife, Yuko Kishida, on the South Lawn.
12.30pm. Biden and Kishida will hold a joint press conference in the Rose Garden.
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