Evening summary
It has been a very busy news day in Washington. Here’s where things stand.
- Joe Biden has arrived in Brussels, where he will meet with Nato and European leaders to discuss their response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine before traveling to Warsaw, Poland. The administration will announce a new sanctions regime on Thursday targeting Russian political leaders and oligarchs, according to national security advisor Jake Sullivan.
- Madeleine Albright, the first female US secretary of state, died of cancer on Wednesday. She was 84.
- Ketanji Brown Jackson is still taking questions from senators on the Judiciary Committee, where she has defended herself against attacks by Republicans that she is soft on crime. The committee is expected to finish questioning Jackson later tonight and hopes to hold a vote on her nomination early next month. For updates throughout the evening, read the full news story here.
- The supreme court threw out Wisconsin’s new state legislative maps on Wednesday, in a “ruling that boosts Republicans and takes aim again at one of the last remaining provisions to protect voting discrimination.”
- The Alabama Republican congressman Mo Brooks said on Tuesday Donald Trump asked him to “rescind” the 2020 election after Trump un-endorsed Brooks in the Alabama Senate race.
For more updates on the war in Ukraine, please follow our global live blog here.
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In a statement, former president Barack Obama, hailed her “trailblazing career”.
As the first woman to serve as America’s top diplomat, Madeleine Albright was a champion for democratic values. Michelle and I send our thoughts to the Albright family and everyone who knew and served with a truly remarkable woman. pic.twitter.com/8jj3GYZXbB
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) March 23, 2022
In a joint statement, former president Bill and secretary Hillary Clinton said her death was an “immense loss to the world in a time when we need the lessons of her life the most.”
I will always be deeply grateful for the wonderful friendship Bill and I shared with @madeleine and the unfailingly wise counsel she gave us over so many years.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 23, 2022
So many people around the world are alive and living better lives because of her service. https://t.co/aw8HK71sbt
It’s now senator Josh Hawley’s turn to ask Jackson questions. He’s repeating many of his allegations from yesterday, pressing Jackson to say that she regrets not punishing child sex crimes offenders more harshly.
“What I regret is that in a hearing about my qualifications to be a justice on the Supreme Court, we have spent a lot of time focusing on this small subset of my sentences,” she said.
The Missouri senator continues to interrupt her, challenging Jackson to explain the reasoning why an offender who collected illegal images by mail versus the internet may face a lighter sentence. In a warning to viewers, Hawley is being explicit as he discusses these cases, describing the offenses in detail.
She tries to explain again, as she has repeatedly throughout the day, how the sentencing process works.
“So you’re not going to answer my question?” Hawley asked.
“I’ve already answered your question,” she replied.
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Trump and Brooks fall out over January 6
The Alabama Republican congressman Mo Brooks said on Tuesday Donald Trump asked him to “rescind” the 2020 election, remove Joe Biden from the White House and reinstate Trump.
The extraordinary statement came in an angry response to a withdrawn endorsement by the former president. Trump had been angered that Brooks was insufficiently toeing his line on calling the 2020 election a fraud.
Brooks’ statement on Trump’s demands is now likely to be of interest to the January 6 committee. That panel is investigating Trump’s lie about electoral fraud in his defeat by Biden, efforts to marshal members of Congress to object to election results, a rally near the White House on 6 January 2021 which Trump and Brooks addressed, and the deadly attack on the US Capitol which followed.
On Wednesday, after Trump withdrew his endorsement, Brooks said he was still in the Alabama race as the only true Trumpist candidate. He also claimed to have known he risked losing the former president’s endorsement by telling him “the truth”, and added: “I repeat what has prompted President Trump’s ire.”
“The only legal way America can prevent 2020’s election debacle is for patriotic Americans to focus on and win the 2022 and 2024 elections so that we have the power to enact laws that will give us honest and accurate elections.
“President Trump asked me to rescind the 2020 elections, immediately remove Joe Biden from the White House, immediately put President Trump back in the White House, and hold a new special election for the presidency.
“As a lawyer, I’ve repeatedly advised President Trump that 6 January was the final election contest verdict and neither the US constitution nor the US Code [the laws of the United States] permit what President Trump asks. Period.”
Brooks also said “I took a sworn oath to defend and protect the US constitution”, an oath he said he would “break … for no man”.
However, Brooks has until now been one of Trump’s most ardent supporters including on and around the events of January 6.
Back to Hart 216, where senator Ben Sasse had an interesting exchange with Jackson about cameras in the supreme court. It’s one of the many interesting but less high-profile issues senators have raised during the confirmation process. On Tuesday, senator Richard Blumenthal laid out the case for allowing cameras in the courtroom, arguing that it improves transparency and allows more Americans and not just those in DC to observe the hearings.
Jackson told him it was something she would have to discuss with the other members before weighing in on.
Today, Sasse offered an opposing view, arguing that allowing cameras into the courtroom would change the way the justices deliberate. Using the present hearing as an example, he said cameras were a “huge part of why this institution doesn’t work well.”
"A huge part of why this institution doesn't work well is because we have cameras everywhere," Sasse said. "I think we should recognize that the jackassery we often see around here is partly because of people mugging for short-term camera opportunities." https://t.co/sh4Y9ssgrA
— Nolan D. McCaskill (@NolanDMcCaskill) March 23, 2022
“I think we should recognize that the jackassery we often see around here is partly because of people mugging for short-term camera opportunities,” he said.
Reactions and remembrances are pouring in for the US’s first “Madame Secretary”.
Here’s a statement from former president George W Bush, accompanied by his painting of Albright.
Statement from former President George W. Bush on Madeline Albright, which included an oil painting by Bush of Albright pic.twitter.com/zAdesM2ETx
— Anthony DeRosa (@Anthony) March 23, 2022
Recalling the speech Obama gave when he awarded her the medal of freedom:
Obama on Albright: “Once, at a naturalization ceremony, an Ethiopian man came up to her and said, ‘Only in America can a refugee meet the Secretary of State.’ And she replied, ‘Only in America can a refugee become the Secretary of State.’”https://t.co/zZ8kbtVXMu
— Jill Lawrence (@JillDLawrence) March 23, 2022
After her decades of promoting diplomacy and peace, Albright died as war raged anew in Europe
Oh, Madeleine Albright. What an incredible loss. I wish she had lived to see the end of this terrible war. 💔
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) March 23, 2022
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Supreme court blocks Wisconsin voting maps
There is a lot of news this afternoon.
The Guardian’s Sam Levine breaks down a decision by the supreme court to throw out Wisconsin’s new state legislative maps on Wednesday, in a “ruling that boosts Republicans and takes aim again at one of the last remaining provisions to protect voting discrimination.”
The ruling is the latest of many in recent years in which the US supreme court has been hostile to voting rights. In an unsigned ruling, the court took issue with the decision to add an additional Black-majority state assembly district in the Milwaukee area, raising the total in the map to seven. The Wisconsin supreme court picked the plan, drawn by Tony Evers, the state’s Democratic governor, earlier this month.
The state court had taken over the redistricting process after Evers and the GOP-controlled state legislature failed to agree on a plan. The Wisconsin legislature is heavily distorted in favor of Republicans and it is one of the most gerrymandered bodies in the country.
It is virtually impossible for Democrats to win a majority under the current lines. Last year, the state supreme court gave Republicans a boost when they announced they would pick a map that made the least change from the current ones. The court picked Evers’ map earlier this month from a range of submitted proposals, saying it complied with its directive to make the least possible change. It gave Democrats one of the best possible outcomes, even though Republicans still would hold their majority. State Republicans asked the US supreme court to step in anyway.
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In an angry appearance, Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican of Texas, came with his chart of sentences handed down by Jackson and which she has said cherrypicks her rulings.
Like Graham, Cruz repeatedly interrupted Jackson as he demanded she define what it means to be a woman and then peppered her with questions about her sentencing decisions, implying that she was too lenient or somehow sympathetic to child sex offenders.
Tense exchange between @Sentedcruz & @SenatorDurbin over Cruz accusations of lenient sentences for child pornography cases. pic.twitter.com/uuNLjL1cib
— CSPAN (@cspan) March 23, 2022
Jackson maintained her composure even as Cruz grew increasingly louder and more irate. When his time expired, he refused to stop speaking and then began arguing with Durbin, asserting that Democrats were trying to prevent Jackson from answering his question.
Cruz won't let up on his sentencing questionin. Durbin cuts off Cruz, bangs gavel
— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) March 23, 2022
"You can bang it as loud as you want," Cruz says
Durbin turns to the next questioner: "Sen. Coons"
Cruz: "Apparently you are very afraid of the American people hearing the answer"
Cruz’s round of questioning did provide one new piece of information. Jackson said she would recuse herself from an affirmative action case next term that takes up Harvard’s admission policies.
Cruz asks Jackson if confirmed whether she plans to recuse from Harvard affirmative action case. She replies : "That is my plan"
— Marianne LeVine (@marianne_levine) March 23, 2022
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State department remembers Albright as a 'trailblazer'
Reacting in realtime to news of the death of Madeleine Albright, state department spokesman Ned Price reflected on her life and legacy.
“The impact that Secretary Albright ... had on this building is felt every single day in just about every single corridor,” he said, speaking from Foggy Bottom. “She was a trailblazer as the first female secretary of state and quite literally opened doors for a large element of our work force.”
Madeleine Albright, first woman to serve as U.S. sec. of state, has died from cancer at 84, according to her family.
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) March 23, 2022
"The impact that Sec. Albright....had on this building is felt every single day in just about every single corridor," Ned Price says. https://t.co/qKHJki3AIj pic.twitter.com/2ZSXp0lD8i
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Madeleine Albright, first female US secretary of state, dies aged 84
Madeleine Albright, the first woman to serve as US secretary of state, has died. She was 84.
“We are heartbroken to announce that Dr Madeleine Albright, the 64th US secretary of state and the first woman to hold that position, passed away earlier today,” a statement posted on her Twitter account read.
“The cause was cancer. She was surrounded by family and friends. We have lost a loving mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend.”
Below is a statement from the family of @Madeleine: pic.twitter.com/C7Xt0EN5c9
— Madeleine Albright (@madeleine) March 23, 2022
Albright served as the senior US diplomat in the administration of Bill Clinton from 1997 to 2001.
As the Guardian’s as yet unpublished obituary puts it: “It fell to her to cope with the painful dilemmas presented for the US by the break-up of Yugoslavia and the rise of Islamic opposition in the Middle East.”
The obituary, by Godfrey Hodgson, also notes: “While she fulfilled the role in the administration of President Bill Clinton, she could not take the place that office usually confers as third in succession to the president because she was not a ‘natural born citizen’ of the US. Like Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski, secretaries of state in the Nixon and Carter administrations, she had been a refugee from Europe. Like them also, Albright came to the job not via business or politics but through an academic background in the study of international relations.”
Albright remained a valued analyst and commentator on international affairs. In 2018 she released a book, Fascism: A Warning, in which she called Donald Trump “the first anti-democratic president in modern US history”.
“In the book I write that there are people who say this is alarmist,” she told the Guardian. “It is. That’s the purpose. I’m concerned about complacency about it. This is a very deliberate warning.”
Last month, in an op ed for the New York Times, she said Vladimir Putin of Russia would make a grave mistake if he invaded Ukraine.
Here’s our interview with Albright from 2018. More follows.
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Jean-Pierre is up now, previewing the president’s visit to Brussels and Warsaw. She won’t say whether the president has plans to visit the border with Ukraine, citing security concerns. He will give a speech and affirm the US’ commitment to the Nato alliance.
She said Biden was not deemed a “close contact” after White House press secretary Jen Psaki tested positive for Covid-19. Biden’s “testing cadence” does not change during travel, she said.
Biden watched portions of the Jackson’s hearing on Tuesday, Jean-Pierre said.
“He couldn’t be more proud of her intellect, her grace, character and the value of her experience,” she said. “The country is seeing just how qualified judge Jackson is and how she determines cases fairly based solely on the facts and the law.”
She said Biden was also impressed by the way she “dismantled bad-faith conspiracy theories” and “fringe smears” that were leveled against her.
Asked about the questions raised by senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley about Jackson’s record, Jean-Pierre said the White House is looking at the Senate as a whole and that their strategy doesn’t rely on persuading the two conservative senators.
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Blinken: Russian forces committed war crimes in Ukraine
US secretary of state Anthony Blinken said the US has determined that Russian forces committed war crimes in Ukraine.
“Today, I can announce that, based on information currently available, the U.S. government assesses that members of Russia’s forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine,” Blinken wrote in a lengthy statement.
He said the US has seen “numerous credible reports of indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, as well as other atrocities.”
Russia’s forces have destroyed apartment buildings, schools, hospitals, critical infrastructure, civilian vehicles, shopping centers, and ambulances, leaving thousands of innocent civilians killed or wounded. Many of the sites Russia’s forces have hit have been clearly identifiable as in-use by civilians. This includes the Mariupol maternity hospital, as the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights expressly noted in a March 11 report. It also includes a strike that hit a Mariupol theater, clearly marked with the word “дети” — Russian for “children” — in huge letters visible from the sky. Putin’s forces used these same tactics in Grozny, Chechnya, and Aleppo, Syria, where they intensified their bombardment of cities to break the will of the people. Their attempt to do so in Ukraine has again shocked the world and, as President Zelenskyy has soberly attested, “bathed the people of Ukraine in blood and tears.”
Every day that Russia’s forces continue their brutal attacks, the number of innocent civilians killed and wounded, including women and children, climbs. As of March 22, officials in besieged Mariupol said that more than 2,400 civilians had been killed in that city alone. Not including the Mariupol devastation, the United Nations has officially confirmed more than 2,500 civilian casualties, including dead and wounded, and emphasizes the actual toll is likely higher.
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Principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and national security adviser Jake Sullivan are briefing reporters aboard Air Force 1 en route to Brussels.
Sullivan, previewing his visit, said Biden will meet with European leaders about a new round of sanctions, expected on Friday, as well as new measures to improve the enforcement of the sanctions already imposed on Russia to punish the country for its invasion of Ukraine.
He also said China and its involvement in the war in Ukraine will be a major topic of conversation.
SOMEWHERE OVER THE ATLANTIC -- National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan tells reporters on Air Force One that the U.S. would like to hear from allies at the NATO summit from that the "resolve and unity that we've seen for the past month will endure for as long as it takes."
— Francesca Chambers (@fran_chambers) March 23, 2022
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Joanie Greve, who followers of this liveblog will know for her political expertise and general blogging skills, files this report from the third day of Jackson’s confirmation hearing.
The second round of senators’ questioning of Ketanji Brown Jackson kicked off on Wednesday after a marathon 13-hour judiciary committee hearing with the supreme court nominee the day before.
The latest hearing began with a review of the previous day’s proceedings, as the Democratic chairman, Dick Durbin, criticized some of his Republican colleagues over their questioning of Jackson.
Ketanji Brown Jackson defends against Republican’s claims on child abuse sentencesRead more
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Turning to the crisis in Ukraine, NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said the defense alliance has agreed to set up new battle group’s on its eastern flank in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Associated Press files this report from Stoltenberg’s press conference:
The battlegroups, which usually number between 1,000-1,500 troops, will be set up in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria. Stoltenberg says they will remain in place “as long as necessary.”
Speaking today on the eve of a summit of Nato leaders, including Joe Biden, who is en route to Belgium, Stoltenberg said that Russia’s war on Ukraine means “a new normal for our security and Nato has to respond to that new reality.”
Stoltenberg says the leaders are likely to agree to send more assistance to Ukraine, including “equipment to help Ukraine protect against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats.”
Nato’s 30 allies are worried about Russian rhetoric and fears that Moscow might want to create a pretext to use chemical weapons in Ukraine.
Stoltenberg says that “any use of chemical weapons would totally change the nature of the conflict,” and would have “far-reaching consequences” for Russia. He declined to elaborate.
Republicans have spent the last several weeks trying to paint Jackson as an extremist on issues of race and gender, an extension of the argument they are using against Democrats in the midterms.
Those cultural grievance found their way into the hearing on Tuesday, as Republicans peppered her with questions about critical race theory, abortion and transgender rights, a source of much outrage on the right. In one exchange, senator Marsha Blackburn, a Republican of Tennessee, asked Jackson on Tuesday night: “Can you provide a definition for the word ‘woman’?”
As other judicial nominees before her have done, Jackson acknowledged the political nature of the question, that the issue is one that could come before the court, and said it would not be appropriate for her to answer definitively as she is not a biologist.
Conservative immediately seized on her response and Republican senators have continued to raise the question today.
Ketanji Brown Jackson says “facts matter” but can’t define what a woman is pic.twitter.com/MZaqXx0Ami
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 23, 2022
Here’s some observations and reactions to the contentious Graham-Jackson exchange
Sen Graham has repeatedly interrupted Judge Jackson and accused her of not being tough enough on child pornography cases.
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) March 23, 2022
Judge Jackson, looking a bit frustrated, has defended her handling of the cases and reiterated that Congress has set forward the sentencing requirements.
Senator Patrick Leahy just came out to our cameras livid over Sen. Graham’s “beyond the pale” questions of Judge Jackson.
— Ali Vitali (@alivitali) March 23, 2022
“As the Dean of the Senate…I’m just distressed to see this kind of a complete breakdown of what’s normally the way the Senate’s handled,” he told me.
It’s not a heated exchange, because only one of the parties is heated. https://t.co/BDTAwfBvXl
— Sherrilyn Ifill (@Sifill_LDF) March 23, 2022
The audience in the hearing room, largely quiet during much of the testimony, is getting audibly frustrated with Graham. One woman mutters "shut up" as Graham interrupts Jackson again
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) March 23, 2022
It is quite bracing to see Ketanji Brown Jackson stand up for herself in the face of Graham’s bullying—and to see her, or anyone in these proceedings, try to actually explain something complicated.
— Amy Davidson Sorkin (@tnyCloseRead) March 23, 2022
Graham refuses to comment after very tense exchange with Jackson
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 23, 2022
Updated
Graham is engaging in a contentious back-and-forth with Jackson, repeatedly interrupting her and characterizing her views. She has tried to clarify and correct his assertions about her record but he cuts her off.
He ends by asking her a series of questions about the Kavanaugh hearings.
“He was ambushed. How would you feel if we did that to you?” Graham said. Jackson said she was grateful for the senators’ time and patience during their meetings.
Durbin is now letting her respond to his pointed questions about her sentencing decisions, in which he accused her of being too lenient and discarding guidelines for doling out the maximum possible punishment.
Here is her response in full ... until Graham interrupts her again.
The point of the guidelines is to assist judges in determining what punishment to provide, in cases, and there are horrible cases. But the idea is that between the range of punishment that Congress has prescribed judges are supposed to be providing proportional punishment, based on what a person has done.
The sentencing scheme doesn’t place everybody at the same level. But the point of judging and the guidelines is to look at what has happened in the case, compare defendants to each other in terms of what they’ve done, and give proportional penalties.”
Exasperated, she tries again.
Senator, all I’m trying to explain is that our sentencing system, the system that Congress has created, the system that the Sentencing Commission is the steward of, is a rational one. It’s a system that is designed to help judges do justice in these terrible circumstances – by eliminating unwarranted disparities, by ensuring that the most serious defendants get the longest periods of time. And when modes of commission of the crime change such that in two seconds someone can receive or distribute thousands of images that’s no longer ... an indicator of a person who, relative to other people, has committed this crime in a more aggravated way.
All we’re trying to do is be rational in our dealing with some of the most horrible kinds of behavior. This is what our justice system is about: it’s about judges making determinations in meting out penalties to people who have done terrible things.
Graham concluded his last round of questioning with this explosive condemnation: “Your view of how to deter child pornography is not my view. I think you’re doing it wrong. And every judge who does what you’re doing is making it easier for the children to be exploited.”
Most independent fact checkers have found the allegation that Jackson was lenient on child sex offenders to be misleading and lacking context. Many Democrats have quoted from a column in the National Review, written by Andrew McCarthy, who characterized Republicans’ criticisms of Jackson’s record as a smear.
“It is not soft on porn to call for sensible line-drawing,” he wrote in the column. “Plenty of hard-nosed prosecutors and Republican-appointed judges have long believed that this mandatory minimum is too draconian.”
Updated
The hearing as resumed with South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, who has started by discussing another judicial nominee, Janice Rogers Brown, a Black woman and conservative judge who was blocked by Democrats, including then-senator Joe Biden, two decades ago before being confirmed to an appeals court.
Graham suggested that she might have been the first Black woman to the supreme court had Democrats not filibustered her.
“I just want to remind you there was somebody else of color, a woman of color that was picked for the DC circuit, one of the highest courts in the land, that did not meet the same fate,” he said. “Those days should be over.”
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According to the Associated Press, Paul Manafort, a former senior adviser to Donald Trump, was removed from a plane at Miami International Airport before it took off for Dubai because he carried a revoked passport, officials said this morning.
Miami-Dade police detective Alvaro Zabaleta confirmed that Manafort was removed from the Emirates Airline flight without incident Sunday night but directed further questions to US Customs and Border Protection. (CBP). That federal agency did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
A lawyer who has represented Manafort did not immediately return a call and email seeking comment earlier today.
Manafort, 72, led Trump’s election campaign for several months during the 2016 presidential race but was ousted in August of that year after revelations about his business dealings in Ukraine.
He was later indicted on a broad array of financial crimes as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. He was convicted by a jury in August 2018 and later pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington.
In May 2020, Manafort was released from a low-security prison where he was serving a seven-year-plus federal sentence, amid concerns about the spread of coronavirus.Although Manafort had not served long enough to be eligible for release under the guidelines, the Bureau of Prisons decided to free him because of his age and health vulnerabilities, a person familiar with the matter has said. Trump pardoned Manafort in December 2020.
Manafort’s removal from the aircraft was first reported by the website Knewz.com
The senate judiciary committee is taking a brief pause following questions from senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat of Vermont.
To Jackson, Leahy said: “You will become a justice on the supreme court.”
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The US is expected to announce new sanctions on members of the Russian parliament during Biden’s trip to Europe for an emergency meeting with Nato allies, according to Reuters.
During his trip, Biden will meet with Nato and European leaders in Brussels before visiting Warsaw for consultations with Polish President Andrzej Duda.
Per Reuters, Biden and his team have been “developing plans to impose sanctions on members of the Duma, Russia’s parliament, in retaliation for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to two sources familiar with the situation. The sanctions are expected to be announced on Thursday.”
“No final decisions have been made about who we will sanction and how many we will sanction,” a White House official told the agency.
“We will have additional sanctions measures to announce that will rolled out in conjunction with our allies on Thursday when the president has the opportunity to speak with them,” the official added.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Tuesday that Biden will work with US allies to “crack down on evasion and to ensure robust enforcement” of the sanctions that have already been imposed on Russian officials, businesses and families.
Western leaders have warned that Russian president Vladimir Putin, frustrated by his failure to capture a single major Ukrainian city, may resort to using chemical weapons, outlawed under an international law.
Leaving the White House on Wednesday, Biden said of Russia’s use of chemical weapons: “I think it’s a real threat.”
Meanwhile, CNN is reporting that the first round of military aid that Biden authorized for Ukraine has begun to arrive.
The first deliveries of the $800 million in new military aid that President Biden authorized for Ukraine have started to arrive, an official tells CNN.
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) March 23, 2022
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US Capitol to resume limited public tours
In a sign of life slowly returning to normal, public tours of the US Capitol will resume on Monday in a limited capacity for the first time since March 2020, when the building closed amid the coronavirus pandemic.
We are pleased to announce that on Monday, March 28, 2022, public tours of the Capitol will resume with a limited number of member-led, staff-led tours, and school groups,” sergeant-at-arms William Walker and attending physician Brian Monahan wrote in a memo to lawmakers and Capitol staff.
“Since March 2020, the US Capitol, and the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) has been closed to tours. The decision to reinstate limited tours has been made in coordination with Congressional Leadership, the US Capitol Police Board, the Attending Physician, Capitol Visitor Services, and the US Capitol Police. We appreciate your continued patience and cooperation as we work together to resume public tours of the Capitol for the American people in a way that protects the health and safety of visitors and institutional staff alike.”
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Back in Hart 216, Tillis has finished his first round of questions and Durbin, wielding a pocket constitution, is beginning the second round of questions. Each of the 22 senators on the committee will have 20 minutes to ask any follow up questions they may have. Durbin has urged senators to be succinct and yield back any time they don’t use so the hearing can conclude in a timely manner.
A programming note: The blog will bounce around a bit today between Biden’s trip to Europe and the senate confirmation hearing, where Jackson will be answering members’ questions well into the evening.
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State department: detained basketball star Brittney Griner in 'good condition' in Russia
Breaking briefly from the supreme court nomination hearing, detained basketball player Brittney Griner was found to be in “good condition” , State Department spokesman Ned Price said.
Griner was visited by a US Embassy official in Moscow granted consular access to her on Wednesday, Price said in an interview with CNN..
“Our official found Brittney Griner to be in good condition and we will continue to do everything we can to see to it that she is treated fairly throughout this ordeal,” Price said.
U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price tells @CNN that U.S. Embassy officials in Russia were finally granted consular access to Brittney Griner “within the last couple hours.” The WNBA star was in “good condition,” he said. pic.twitter.com/sCgNEr6yvO
— Chris Bumbaca (@BOOMbaca) March 23, 2022
Griner, an Olympic gold medalist who plays for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, was detained by Russia sometime in February at a moment of tense relations between the US and Russia following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
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Next up is senator Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina. Referencing the late-night proceedings, he said he hoped Jackson had gotten some sleep.
“Very little senator, but that’s alright,” she said, laughing.
He then raised Republican grievances over the handling of the supreme court confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. He argued that Jackson’s hearing was an appropriate forum to raise those concerns and commended the committee for its conduct during the process.
He’s now asking her about court-packing, an issue she has refused to comment on citing the political nature of the debate, a response that is in line with past judicial nominees.
After a long day in which Republicans sought to portray Jackson as “soft on crime,” Ossoff opened his exchange with the judge by asking her about her brother, Ketajh Brown, who served with the Baltimore Police Department from October 2001 through May 2008, according to the Baltimore Sun.
“I grew up with family members who put their lives on the line,” she said.
Ossoff also asked her to talk about the ways in which the constitution constrains the executive branch, referencing one of her most famous rulings, when she wrote in a case related to Donald Trump’s White House: “Presidents are not kings. They do not have subjects, bound by loyalty or blood, whose destiny they are entitled to control.”
He is also asking her about how the court will approach cases involving surveillance, privacy, civil liberties and new technology.
Updated
Iowa senator Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the committee, delivered his opening remarks, lamenting that Democrats have failed to produce the requested documents related to Jackson’s record. It’s something of a perennial lament from the minority party during supreme court hearings. The party out of power always wants more documents about the nominee before them, and its a pattern Republicans are repeating today.
Grassley said that the evidence used by Democrats to refuse or discredit some of the lines of questioning raised by Republicans was not available to them before the hearing.
He said it was “not fair to the American public” that the White House is withholding some documents related to Jackson’s record.
He then yielded to senator Ossoff, who began his first round of questions.
Updated
Second day of questions begins at Ketanji Brown Jackson hearings
Illinois senator Dick Durbin, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has gaveled in the hearing for a second day of questions.
Laying out the process, he said the committee will kick off with two senators, Jon Ossoff of Georgia and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who have their 30-minute round of questions. Then they will move to their second round of questions. Each senator on the committee will have 20 minutes.
Durbin began by giving an opening statement rebutting many of the accusations made by Republicans against Jackson, specifically that she is “soft on crime”.
“For many of the senators, yesterday was an opportunity to showcase talking points for the November election,” he said. “For example, all Democrats are soft in crime, therefore, this nominee must be soft on crime.”
He pointed to her support from a police union and the law enforcement officers in her family. He also sought to forcefully rebut the accusation that she is out of the mainstream in the way she sentences child sex crime offenders, an issue raised by Missouri senator Josh Hawley, a Republican widely believed to be interested in running for president.
“Our nomination turned out to be a testing ground for conspiracy theories and culture war theories,” Durbin said. “The more bizarre the charges against you and your family, the more I understand the social media scoreboard lit up yesterday. I’m sorry that we have to go through this. These are not theories that are in the mainstream of America. But they have been presented here as such.”
When he finished speaking, senator John Cornyn, a Republican of Texas, jumped in to accuse Durbin of “editorializing” each time a member of the opposing party asked a question. On Tuesday, Durbin, in his capacity as chairman, would follow up on several Republicans’ lines of questioning with context or fact-checks, which irked Cornyn and other members on the committee.
“It’s called chairman’s time,” Durbin said.
Updated
Boarding Marine One just moments ago, Biden answered a few questions from reporters.
Asked about the threat of chemical warfare, he said: “I think it’s a real threat.”
He was also asked to share his message to world leaders, which he said he would prefer to deliver in person when he arrives in Brussels. “All I have to say, I’m going to say it when I get there.”
“I’ll be happy to talk to you guys when I get back,” he told the reporters gathered on the lawn for his departure.
Joe Biden has spoken to other European leaders several times by phone in the month since Russia invaded Ukraine but this will be his first trip to meet his counterparts in person, with several top level meetings tomorrow in Brussels with Nato, G7 and European heads.
The US president has no plans to cross onto Ukrainian soil when he goes to Poland on Friday. National security adviser Jake Sullivan is also on the trip and has warned that this war is not going to end quickly or easily and the unity shown by the west needs to hold.
On this trip we will make clear that the West is united in our defense of democracy. Putin thought he would divide us, but we are stronger than at any time in recent history. We stand with Ukraine and we will continue to ensure Putin pays a heavy economic price for his actions.
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 22, 2022
Biden departs Washington shortly and principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will “gaggle” with reporters aboard Air Force One. Press secretary Jen Psaki tested positive for Covid yesterday and has to stay behind.
On Capitol Hill, Biden nomination for the supreme court, Ketanji Brown Jackson, will sit for her third day of hearings, with follow-up questions from members of the Senate judiciary committee responsible for voting her onto the bench. This follows a marathon session yesterday.
Judge Jackson’s unimpeachable character and unwavering dedication to the rule of law will make her an exceptional Justice. pic.twitter.com/Buxa1cfXwp
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 22, 2022
Supreme court hearing for Jackson continues as Biden flies to Europe
Good morning, US politics live blog readers – there’s another busy day of news in store, and we’ll be following developments and bringing them to you as they happen.
Here’s what’s on the docket today:
- Joe Biden is heading out of the White House to depart for Europe, in preparation for three crunch summit meetings in Brussels tomorrow with leaders of Nato, the Group of Seven (G7) and the European Union (EU), as Russia is simultaneously bogged down in and stepping up its war on Ukraine. On Friday he will go to Poland. If you want to follow the news on the ground in Ukraine as it happens, here’s our global live blog on that.
- Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, fresh (?) from an extremely long grilling before the US Senate judiciary committee yesterday as she hopes to be confirmed to the US supreme court, will be back for more question and answer today. We’ll have a live feed of the hearing in this blog, beginning at 9am ET/1pm GMT.
- Democrats hope to have Jackson confirmed by Easter. They need all of their 50 votes in the Senate if no Republicans vote for Jackson - and although a handful of GoP-ers confirmed her last nomination to the rung below the supreme court, there are signs that votes from the right hand side of the aisle to put her on the highest court in the land are not a given. Looks like all Democrats are on board, but they can’t afford any mishap.
- The US president and his counterparts in Europe are expected to announce a new round of sanctions today on prominent Russian politicians as they seek to pressure Russian president Vladimir Putin to halt the war he started when he invaded Ukraine a month ago.
