Evening summary
Good evening. We’re closing the US liveblog for the weekend. Here’s where things stand at the close of business on Friday.
- Joe Biden visited Rzeszow, Poland, a city about an hours-drive from the border with Ukraine, where he met with US troops, listened to an update on the growing humanitarian crisis and praised the bravery of the Ukrainian people.
- Biden will deliver a “major” address on the war in Ukraine tomorrow, speaking from Warsaw after a trio of international summits in Brussels before he returns to the US.
- Supreme court justice Clarence Thomas was discharged from the hospital on Friday, a week after he was admitted for what the court said was an infection. It comes as the congressional panel investigating the January 6 assault on the US capitol weights whether to seek testimony from his wife, Ginni Thomas, after it was revealed that she exchanged text messages with Donald Trump’s chief of staff, urging him to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
- Joe Manchin, a Democrat of West Virginia, will vote to confirm Biden’s nominee for the supreme court, Ketanji Brown Jackson, all but ensuring she will be the first Black woman to sit on the bench. He also signalled a willingness to restart a conversation about the centerpiece of Biden’s domestic agenda, which he stalled.
- In some late-breaking news (at least for us on the politics blog), the Supreme Court blocked a lower court order that prevented the Biden administration to from restricting the deployment of Navy SEALs who refused to be vaccinated against covid-19.
For those interested in reading more about the war in Ukraine, please follow our global liveblog with updates, analysis and insights from our reporters around the world.
Updated
Speaking in Poland earlier today, Biden compared the Ukrainian resistance to Russia’s brutal invasion to the the student-led protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989 while reaffirming his belief that Russian president Vladimir Putin was a “war criminal.”
“I mean, talk about what happened to Tiananmen Square,” he said. “This is Tiananmen Square squared.”
He said that Putin was “a man who, quite frankly, I think is a war criminal” and added that he thinks the Russian leader’s actions will “meet the legal definition” of a war criminal under international law. This week the US determined that the Russian military had committed war crimes in Ukraine, citing examples of the indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas, including a maternity hospital and a theater where Ukrainians had taken refuge.
Speaking to US troops stationed in Poland, Biden said: “You’re in the midst of a fight between democracies and autocrats. What you’re doing is consequential, really consequential.”
Biden will deliver a “major” speech laying out the stakes of the war in Europe from Warsaw, before returning to the US on Saturday.
The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell confirms reports that members of the congressional panel investigating the January 6 assault on the US capitol will meet Monday to discuss whether to seek testimony from Ginni Thomas, a conservative activist and the wife of supreme court justice Clarence Thomas.
Lowell reports that they will consider whether to issue a subpoena if she declines to cooperate with the committee, should they choose to seek her testimony.
The Washington Post’s Robert Costa reported earlier that “at least two members” of the committee believed Ginni Thomas should speak to the panel, even if that meant issuing a subpoena.
NEWS: At least 2 members of the @January6thCmte are now telling colleagues Friday, in private conversations, that they need to invite Ginni Thomas to come talk, and issue a subpoena if necessary, per three people involved in the discussions. Will push for this in Mon. cmmte mtg.
— Robert Costa (@costareports) March 25, 2022
The committee last met on Thursday before members headed home/traveled... Monday's meeting will be first time since news broke for the members to formally discuss next steps, the people said... @CBSNews knows at least 2 members firmly believe cmmte must act. Talks are ongoing...
— Robert Costa (@costareports) March 25, 2022
Updated
In a background briefing with reporters, a senior US defense official said the Pentagon had assessed for the first time that Kherson, a port city in southern Ukraine, is no longer under full Russian control.
Kherson was the first major Ukrainian city that Russian forces captured as part of Moscow’s invasion of its democratic neighbor. Any progress by Ukrainian forces in reclaiming the region would be a major development in the war and a significant setback for Russian troops.
“It doesn’t appear to be as solidly in Russian control as it was before. Ukrainians are trying to take Kherson back and we would argue that Kherson is actually contested territory again,” the senior defense official said, according to the Washington Post.
For the first time in weeks, the Pentagon assessed today that Kherson, a port city in southern Ukraine, is no longer under full Russian control.
— Dan Lamothe (@DanLamothe) March 25, 2022
The situation remains unclear, as a top Russian military official said the Kherson region remained under their “full control”.
Updated
A Maryland judge on Friday struck down the state’s new congressional map that would have given Democrats seven safe seats and endangered the state’s lone Republican.
New: a Maryland court has struck down Democrats' 7D-1C-0R map as an illegal partisan gerrymander, the first such state-level victory in the GOP's direction. If replaced w/ a neutral map, this could end up costing Dems 1-2 seats. pic.twitter.com/ceMsDlJfzB
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) March 25, 2022
The decision is a set back for Democrats, already facing strong headwinds in the November election as they attempt to defend a paper-thin majority in the House.
According to Reuter’s, Anne Arundel county senior judge Lynne Battaglia “agreed with Republican arguments that the map violated the state constitution’s equal protection guarantee, among other provisions, by diluting Republican voters’ electoral power.”
“The 2021 plan is an outlier and a product of extreme partisan gerrymandering,” Battaglia wrote in a 94-page opinion. The Democratic-controlled legislature has until Wednesday to draw a new map.
Democrats have fared better than expected in the decennial congressional redistricting, given that Republicans control a majority of the state legislatures in the country and therefore in many cases control the process by which lawmakers can draw congressional maps that give their party the partisan advantage.
This cycle, Democrats have had a string of legal successes challenging Republican maps in several swing states, including Ohio, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Maryland stands out as a rare example of a judge throwing out a map heavily gerrymandered by Democrats.
In a new essay for the New York Times, Hillary Clinton reflects on the legacy and wisdom of her friend and mentor Madeleine Albright, who died this week at 84.
“Madeleine’s death is also a great loss for our country and for the cause of democracy at a time when it is under serious and sustained threat around the world and here at home,” she wrote. “Now more than ever we could use Madeleine’s vital voice, her clear-eyed view of a dangerous world and her unstinting faith in both the unique power of the American idea and the universal appeal of freedom and democracy.”
Clinton outlined three lessons she believed the US could learn from Albright on preserving democracy around the world.
- Stand up to bullies
- Protect and defend Nato
- Attacks on democracy at home fuel authoritarianism abroad
Even at the end of her life, she treasured her first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty, sailing into New York Harbor in 1948 as an 11-year-old refugee on a ship called the S.S. America,” Clinton wrote.
“She would have been thrilled by President Biden’s announcement on Thursday that the United States will welcome up to 100,000 refugees fleeing Ukraine, and she would encourage us to do more to respond to this unfolding humanitarian nightmare. She would warn, as she did in her book, about the “self-centered moral numbness that allows Fascism to thrive,” and urge us to keep pushing the envelope for freedom, human rights and democracy. We should listen.
Updated
There may be more text messages exchanged between Ginni Thomas, a longtime conservative activist, and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, according to the Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, who broke the story.
There might very well be texts we have not seen. Twenty-nine were provided to the committee,” said Costa, referring to the congressional committee investigating the January 6 assualt on the US capitol, in an interview on CBS Morning. “Twenty-one from Ginni Thomas to Meadows. Eight from Meadows to Ginni Thomas. These were part of a collection of over 2,300 text messages Meadows provided to the committee.
But there are gaps. The last text in what we’ve reported comes in late November 2020. Then there is a stray one about Vice President Pence and the end of America in January of 2021, days after the insurrection. So, this is a story that is beginning, not ending.”
Ginni Thomas has publicly denied any conflict of interest between her work as a political activist and her marriage to supreme court justice Clarence Thomas.
Watch the full interview here.
The Washington Post has spoken with Wesley Hawkins, a defendant who judge Jackson sentenced for possession of child pornography when he was a teenager in 2013. His case was repeatedly cited by Republicans as an example of what they said was a tendency by the judge to be lenient on child sex crime offenders, a charge Jackson forcefully denied.
In an interview with the Post from a relative’s home in DC, Hawkins was shocked to learn that his case had been the subject of several contentious back and forths between Biden’s historic nominee for the supreme court and Republicans.
Of his actions, Hawkins told the Post: “When I got to a place that I could think about what I had done, retrospectively, I was disgusted. And if someone else wants to continue to see me that way, I can’t stop them. But what I hope is that when people look over time they can see he was just a young man, that he’s grown and learned from his actions.”
Jackson sentenced Hawkins to three months in prison, followed by three months of home detention and six years of supervision. He was also required to register as a sex offender.
In sentencing Hawkins, Jackson told him she was imposing a punishment that would allow him to “spend enough time in prison to understand and appreciate the consequences of your actions … but not so long that you will be subjected to harm in prison or introduced to incorrigible influences such that you are lost to society forever.”
Hawkins noted that many Republicans continued to support candidates who faced allegations of sexual misconduct.
“While I’m not defending my actions, because, again, they are undefendable, I feel that their hypocrisy should be pointed out,” he said.
Reading about Jackson’s confirmation hearing, Hawkins told the Post he felt sympathy for the judge who he had once been angry with over her decision to send him to prison.
I wasn’t very happy that she gave me three months, though, after reflection when I was in jail, I was hearing from other people who said it was their first time arrested and they got five years, six years,” he said.
I feel that she chose to take into consideration the fact that I was just getting started [in life] and she knew this was going to hold me back for years to come regardless,” he said, “so she didn’t really want to add on to that.”
Read the full story here.
Updated
Here’s a teaser for the latest episode of the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast.
Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, seems to relish addressing whatever culture war is raging. He might have learned a thing or two from his former backer, Donald Trump. If the polls are right, the two might end up fighting against each other in the Republican primaries for the 2024 presidential election.
So who is DeSantis, and what are his chances? Jonathan Freedland speaks to Ana Ceballos of the Miami Herald and Peter Schorsch of Florida Politics to learn more about him.
Listen here.
As the House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack was negotiating with Donald Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon to cooperate with its inquiry, the panel affirmed a rule: no third-party lawyers could attend witness depositions.
So when Bannon’s then-attorney asked whether a lawyer for Trump could be present for the closed-door interview to decide what issues were covered by the former president’s invocation of executive privilege, the committee flatly refused.
Now, that refusal appears set to feature as one of Bannon’s central arguments to defend against his contempt of Congress indictment that came after he skipped his deposition last October and refused to produce documents as required.
The former Trump aide is advancing a high-stakes – and arcane – defense as he battles the Department of Justice (DoJ) in a case that could mean up to a year in federal prison and thousands of dollars in fines if convicted, but could also de-fang congressional power should he prevail.
The all-or-nothing nature of the defense is characteristic of Bannon, a fierce defender and confidante of the former president even after he left the White House seven months into the Trump administration after a turbulent tenure as his chief strategist.
It was precisely because of his contacts with Trump in the days before January 6 that the select committee made Bannon one of its first subpoena targets as it seeks to uncover whether Trump oversaw a criminal conspiracy that culminated in the Capitol attack.
The crux of Bannon’s argument is that he could reasonably believe the subpoena was invalid when the select committee refused to allow a Trump lawyer to attend the deposition, after the former president asserted executive privilege over the materials covered by the subpoena.
Full story:
In light of the revelations about Ginni Thomas, Justice Clarence Thomas and the deadly assault on the US Capitol on January 6, Gabe Roth, executive director of Fix the Court, which campaigns for reform of the supreme court, tells the Guardian the rule of law depends not just on impartiality, but on the appearance of impartiality.
“There is a lack of moral authority on the supreme court right now, there is a lack of trust, and the court needs to acknowledge it and take steps to ameliorate it,” Roth said.
The commotion about Ginni Thomas’s contacts with the Trump White House and activities around the Capitol attack has come at a torrid time for the supreme court on which her husband sits. On Friday Clarence Thomas himself was discharged from hospital having been treated for days with an infection.
Millions of Americans also viewed the televised spectacle of the first Black woman to be nominated for the highest court, Ketanji Brown Jackson, being subjected to bizarre and hostile questioning by Republicans in her confirmation hearings.
Senators including Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley pressed her on her sentencing record regarding offenders in child-abuse imagery cases, and on anti-racist teaching in schools in ways that at times came closer to dog-whistle politics than a solemn constitutional process.
Full report:
The Oregon senator Ron Wyden has called for Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from any cases before the supreme court concerning January 6 and the 2024 election.
“In light of new reporting from numerous outlets, Justice Thomas’ conduct on the supreme court looks increasingly corrupt,” Wyden said in a statement, referring to the stunning revelation of Ginni Thomas’s texts with Mark Meadows, then Donald Trump’s chief of staff, around the deadly Capitol attack. (Ed Pilkington’s Guardian report is here.)
“At the bare minimum, Justice Thomas needs to recuse himself from any case related to the January 6 investigation, and should Donald Trump run again, any case related to the 2024 election.”
In January, Clarence Thomas was the only justice to say Trump should not have to release records to the January 6 committee. Since then, his wife’s activities around the rally that preceded the attack have come into sharp focus.
Emily Flitter, a New York Times reporter, points out that Thomas has recused himself on grounds of family before:
Justice Thomas has recused himself from SCOTUS cases in the past bc of family members’ activities. When his son worked for Wachovia, he stepped back from a slew of bank-regulatory cases that reached the Court. NOT doing it now looks like breaking precedent https://t.co/PZnSE4eO8P
— Emily Flitter (@FlitterOnFraud) March 25, 2022
Another Democratic senator, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, has meanwhile said Clarence Thomas should consider “voluntarily appearing” before the January 6 committee to resolve questions about his wife’s texts with Meadows.
That seems … unlikely.
Scandal erupts over Ginni Thomas and January 6
Calls have erupted for ethical conflict-of-interest rules on America’s top court after it was revealed that Ginni Thomas, wife of the supreme court justice Clarence Thomas, pressed Donald Trump’s chief of staff to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
The Washington Post reported that it had obtained a stash of 29 text messages between Ginni Thomas and Mark Meadows, then Trump’s top White House aide, which were exchanged in the tumultuous days after the November 2020 election.
In the texts, Thomas blatantly urged Meadows to do anything he could to subvert the democratic result so as to frustrate Joe Biden’s victory and keep Trump in power.
Ethics groups, members of Congress, law professors, pundits and a slew of other interested parties responded to the revelations with astonishment and concern.
The Thomas-Meadows texts were contained in a trove of 2,320 digital communications Meadows handed to the House select committee investigating the storming of the US Capitol by Trump supporters on January 6.
Those communications were only obtained after the supreme court ordered them transferred to Congress, rejecting claims by Trump that they were covered by executive privilege. The court forced disclosure of the material, including the Ginni Thomas texts, by a vote of 8-1 – with Clarence Thomas providing the only dissent.
Norman Ornstein, a senior emeritus fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, called the development “a scandal of immense proportions”.
Branding Ginni Thomas a “radical insurrectionist”, he said it was time for the January 6 committee to subpoena her texts and emails to see what other incriminating evidence was out there.
Laurence Tribe, a professor of constitutional law at Harvard law school, called on the justice department to investigate the apparent conspiracy between Thomas, Meadows and Trump.
“Hard to see Justice Thomas not recusing when that reaches” the supreme court, he said.
Full story:
Updated
After a brief delay, Polish President Andrzej Duda arrived at Rzeszów–Jasionka Airport, where he met Biden, who was joined by USAID administrator Samantha Power.
The presidents then received a briefing on the humanitarian response to the exodus of refugees fleeing Ukraine.
“It is fair to say, I think, that none of us have ever seen the speed and the scale of this destruction in our lifetimes,” Power said. “It took a little over four years for four million refugees to flee the Syrian war. Ukraine could reach that number four days from now, just over a month since the war began.”
Happening Now: President Biden receives a briefing on the humanitarian response to ease the suffering of civilians inside Ukraine and to respond to the growing flow of refugees fleeing Putin’s war of choice. https://t.co/hL3YMKafZS
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 25, 2022
Biden began his remarks by reaching out and squeezing Duda’s hand in a show of solidarity.
To the humanitarian leaders at the table, he thanked them for their work and expressed his “disappointment” that he could not firsthand the devastation and the desperation of the crisis in Ukraine, due to security reasons.
“It’s like something out of a science fiction movie,” Biden said of the destruction wrought by the Russian assault on Ukraine.
Biden clasps hands with Duda and explains he had pizza pie with peppers, explaining a cough pic.twitter.com/QnfxYL8NLM
— Geoff Earle (@GeoffEarle) March 25, 2022
After the briefing, Biden will travel to Poland’s capital, Warsaw.
Updated
Biden is in Rzeszów, Poland, not far from the country’s border with Ukraine, where he is meeting with US service members.
In remarks to the members of the 82nd airborne division, Biden hailed them as the “finest fighting force in the history of the world” and said their work was “consequential.”
“We’re in the midst of – and I don’t want to sound too philosophical – but we’re in the midst of a fight between democracies and the oligarchs,” he said.
“The question is: who’s gonna prevail? Are democracies going to prevail and the values we share or are autocracies going to prevail?” he continued. “That’s really what’s at stake.”
Before his remarks, Biden visited troops at a barbershop.
President Biden visits 82nd Airborne troops at a barbershop inside the arena here in Rzeszów where they’re stationed.
— Jordan Fabian (@Jordanfabian) March 25, 2022
“I don’t have that much hair to take off,” Biden joked pic.twitter.com/WfUDFx3rTL
Then he stopped by the mess hall where he sat for a slice of pizza and some selfies. Per the pool report, Biden sat down in the middle of a table and grabbed piece of pepperoni and jalapeño pizza. “The jalapeños made his eyes water, so he dabbed at them with a napkin and someone got him a glass of water,” according to the report.
"Well, if you're starting to eat, I'm gonna sit down and have something to eat."
— ABC News (@ABC) March 25, 2022
Pres. Biden eats pizza with service members in Rzeszow, Poland. https://t.co/PbopYhUNoE pic.twitter.com/3jiFp6pgJS
Updated
Joe Manchin is back in the headlines with an apparent offer to revive Democrats’ climate and social spending plans – aims he had a lot to do with thwarting in December.
The Washington Post cites two sources in saying the West Virginia senator, who holds outsized power as a centrist swing vote in the 50-50 chamber, “wants the bill to take an ‘all-of-the-above’ approach to energy policy … and that it’s still possible to reach a deal that includes billions of dollars’ worth of provisions to tackle climate change, cut prescription drug costs and update the tax code.
“He has also indicated that he wants the Biden administration to make some concessions related to oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and natural gas exports”, the Post’s sources added.
West Virginia is a state somewhat in the grip of big energy interests. Put it that way.
The interior department did not comment. A spokesperson for Manchin told the Post: “Senator Manchin is always willing to engage in discussions about the best way to move our country forward. He has made clear that we can protect energy independence and respond to climate change at the same time.”
The Post also points out that the White House and Manchin have not exactly been best buddies since Manchin sank the huge Build Back Better spending plan, apparently telling Fox News Sunday before he told Joe Biden.
There is also not much time left to move major legislation before the approach of the midterm elections renders such moves moot. And the White House is focusing on getting Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmed to the supreme court.
The Post said the White House had indicated it could be receptive to overtures from Manchin. Sheldon Whitehouse, a senator from Rhode Island, told the paper Manchin “appears to be on board with the clean energy tax credits as well as a fee on emissions of methane, a potent planet-warming gas”.
Here’s what Whitehouse tells us about Democrats and climate today:
There were a few more newsy lines from McCarthy’s question and answer session with reporters in Florida.
He demurred when asked whether Clarence Thomas should have recused himself from cases involving the congressional investigation into the January 6 assault on the US Capitol, in light of text messages in which his wife repeatedly urged Trump’s then-chief of staff to overturn he 2020 presidential results.
“ It’s his decision based upon law,” McCarthy said. “He’s one who studies correctly, all the way through.”
Asked @MZanona if Thomas should recuse himself from J6 cases, @GOPLeader says, "I think Justice Thomas could make his decisions like he made every other time. It’s his decision based upon law... He’s one who studies correctly, all the way through."
— Annie Karni (@anniekarni) March 25, 2022
Thomas is one of the most conservative justices in the court’s history and was the lone dissenter in the court’s order to reject Trump’s bid to withhold documents from the January 6 panel.
McCarthy was also joined on the panel by arch-conservative congressman Jim Jordan. There was some uncertainty about whether members of the Freedom Caucus would try to challenge or undermine McCarthy’s bid to become speaker if Republicans take back the House in 2022.
But during the conversation, Jordan anticipated that McCarthy, who has gone to great lengths to brandish his conservative credentials and display allegiance to Trump, would become the next Speaker.
Words i never thought i’d hear out of @Jim_Jordan’s mouth a few years ago.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) March 25, 2022
“The reason they're going to put us in the majority and make Kevin speaker."
House minority leader Kevin McCarthy said Republican congressman Jeff Fortenberry should resign after he was convicted in a campaign finance case of lying to the FBI.
“I think when someone’s convicted, it’s time to resign.”
— The Recount (@therecount) March 25, 2022
— House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) being found guilty of campaign finance violations and lying to the FBI pic.twitter.com/mnckdsjAL6
“I think when someone’s convicted, it’s time to resign,” McCarthy told reporters during the Republican retreat in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
.@GOPLeader says Rep. Jeff Fortenberry should resign after he was convicted of felonies, & says he plans to speak with the Nebraska Republican today: “When someone’s convicted it’s time to resign.”
— Melanie Zanona (@MZanona) March 25, 2022
He adds that if Fortenberry wants to appeal, can do it that as a private citizen.
The Nebraska congressman was convicted in federal court in Los Angeles on Thursday of lying to federal authorities about an illegal contribution to his campaign in 2016 from a Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire.
Fortenberry, who is in his ninth term, told reporters at the courthouse that he planned to appeal. McCarthy said that was his right, but suggested he do it as a private citizen, not a member of Congress.
Supreme court justice Clarence Thomas discharged from hospital
Supreme court justice Clarence Thomas was discharged from the hospital on Friday, a week after he was admitted for what the court said was an infection.
BREAKING: Clarence Thomas was discharged from the hospital today, the Supreme Court said. The court gave no further information.
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) March 25, 2022
The 73-year-old conservative justice was admitted to Sibley Memorial Hospital last Friday after experiencing flu-like symptoms that a court spokeswoman said was not covid-19. The court announced Thomas’ hospitalization two days later, on Sunday, and declined to provide updates on his health.
News of Thomas’ hospitalization comes amid revelations that his wife, Virginia Thomas, repeatedly urged Donald Trump’s chief of staff to help overturn the results, according to text messages obtained by the Washington Post and CBS News.
It also comes as the Senate considers the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson. Jackson would be the first Black woman to serve on the court, where Thomas is currently the only Black justice.
Updated
With Manchin’s support in the bag, attention now turns to senator Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat from Arizona, another centrist holdout on key parts of Biden’s agenda.
But so far, the senator has signaled that she intends to support Jackson’s nomination.
With Manchin as a yes on Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination, attention turns to Kyrsten Sinema, but she has sounded very positive about the judge. This is from last week: https://t.co/bvz390fTce
— Joan Greve (@joanegreve) March 25, 2022
Despite a brutal confirmation hearing, Democratic leaders remain hopeful Jackson will attract some Republican votes, as she did during her confirmation to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit last year.
As long as all 50 Democrats support Jackson, they do not need any Republican votes to confirm her to the bench. The filibuster no longer applies, after minority leader Mitch McConnell and Republicans voted in 2017 to lower the threshold to confirm supreme court nominees from 60 votes to 50 in response to an attempt by Democrats to block the confirmation of judge Neil Gorsuch. It followed a 2013 rule change by Democrats that lowered the threshold from 60 to 50 votes to confirm most presidential nominees, excluding Supreme Court picks, amid a Republican blockade against several nominees of Barack Obama.
Manchin will vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson
Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia, said he would vote to confirm Biden’s nominee for the supreme court, Ketanji Brown Jackson, all but ensuring she will be the first Black woman to sit on the bench.
“After meeting with Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, considering her record, and closely monitoring her testimony and questioning before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week, I have determined I intend to vote for her nomination to serve on the Supreme Court,” he said, citing the judge’s “exemplary” record and career.
After meeting with Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, considering her record, and closely monitoring her testimony and questioning before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week, I have determined I intend to vote for her nomination to serve on the Supreme Court. My full statement: pic.twitter.com/SUgwuBtHup
— Senator Joe Manchin (@Sen_JoeManchin) March 25, 2022
Though not a complete surprise, it is likely a relief for Democrats in the evenly divided, 50-50 Senate, where they need every vote from their party to confirm Jackson.
Manchin, who has blocked major pieces of Biden’s legislative agenda and recently doomed his nominee to the Fed, has largely supported the president’s judicial nominees.
“On top of her impressive resume, she has the temperament to make an exceptional jurist,” he said, adding a very Manchian (Manchinian?) detail: “Notably, Judge Jackson and her family spend a great deal of time in West Virginia and her deep love of our state and commitment to public service were abundantly clear.”
He concluded: “I am confident Judge Jackson is supremely qualified and has the disposition necessary to serve as our nation’s next Supreme Court Justice.”
Updated
Air Force One has landed at Poland’s Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport, which is in the southeast part of the country, roughly an hour drive from the border with Ukraine.
Biden was supposed to meet first with Andrzej Duda, but the Polish president’s plane has been delayed. Polish media is reporting that the plane was forced to return due to a technical issue.
A Polish Government 737, en route to Rzeszów, has returned to Warsaw. According to media the Polish president Andrzej Duda was onboard the aircraft that returned because of a technical problem. pic.twitter.com/7LrphWHrdR
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) March 25, 2022
Instead, Biden will first greet US service-members of the 82nd Airborne Division, who are working alongside Polish allies on deterrence efforts on Nato’s eastern flank, before receiving a briefing by humanitarian groups.
According to background provided by the White House, members of the Task Force 82 have completed “combined training, civic, and cultural engagements” since their arrival in Poland last month. That includes “combined arms training” with Polish and British allies as well as civic and cultural visits to local orphanages, youth groups, military memorials and the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp site.
Updated
Sullivan answered questions from reporters a number of topics.
Concern that Russia may use chemical weapons was an “important topic of conversation” during Biden’s visit to Europe. Biden vowed to respond “in kind” if Russia uses chemical weapons in Ukraine.
Pressed on what that means, as chemical weapons are illegal under international law and Biden has repeatedly said the US would not send troops to fight Russia in Ukraine, Sullivan said it was an issue being discussed and prepared for both militarily and diplomatically as well as among allied leaders.
“We are working through contingency planning for a range of different scenarios,” he said. “It is difficult to give precision to these kinds of hypotheticals because of course, the form of use, the location of use, the context of use, all have a bearing on the specificity of the response. But in broad terms, I believe that there is convergence around the fundamental nature of how the alliance would respond to these issues.”
He also told reporters that the US does not believe China has granted Russia’s request for military aid.
“We have not seen the Chinese move forward with the provision of military equipment to Russia, but it’s something we continue to watch every day,” he said.
Asked whether the president expected to discuss a Polish proposal to send international peacekeepers into Ukraine, Sullivan said he wasn’t sure if the Polish president would raise that with Biden during their meeting and said the US needed more information before it responded.
He also said there is “no update” on Ukraine’s request for more warplanes, after the US rejected a proposal from Poland to transfer Russian-made MiG fighter planes from a US base in Germany to Ukraine out of concern that it might escalate the conflict with Russia.
Asked about how Biden views his trip to Europe, Sullivan emphasized a point Biden stressed in his remarks on Thursday: that unity will take work over time.
“Part of the reason that he decided that we needed to do this is because the early weeks unity can be carried forward by momentum and inertia and adrenaline,” Sullivan said. “But this could go on for some time, and to sustain that unity as costs rise, as the tragedy unfolds, that’s hard work. And the president wanted to get everybody together to say, ‘we’ve got to do that work.’ ...It takes an American president coming over to really try to drive this forward.”
Updated
Biden will deliver a 'major address' from Poland on Saturday
On the flight to Poland from Belgium, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan previewed Biden’s visit to Poland.
Sullivan said Biden would meet with Ukrainian refugees and American humanitarian groups in Warsaw before delivered a “significant speech” on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“He will give a major address tomorrow that will speak to the stakes of this moment, of the urgency of the challenge that lies ahead, what the conflict in Ukraine means for the world, and why it is so important that the free world to stay in unity and resolve in the face of Russian aggression,” Sullivan said. “He’ll also talk about the context and history of this conflict and where he sees it going from here.”
Biden heads to Poland to meet president
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of US politics.
Joe Biden is en route to Rzeszow, Poland, a city some 60 miles from the Ukrainian border, where he will be greeted by the country’s president, Andrzej Duda, after the president participated in a round of summits with leaders of Nato, Group of Seven (G7) and European Union nations.
There he will receive a briefing on humanitarian response to ease suffering of civilians inside Ukraine and meets service members from 82nd Airborne Division before traveling to Warsaw.
Biden’s visit comes as the battle for the Ukrainian capital Kyiv grinds on, more than a month after Russia began its brutal assault. For more on the war in Ukraine, follow our global liveblog here.
Earlier on Friday, Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed a new partnership that they said would reduce Europe’s reliance on Russian energy.
The US said it would increase exports of liquefied natural gas exports to Europe by at least 15 billion cubic meters without hindering efforts to meet the White House’s climate goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by no later than 2050.
“We’re going to have to make sure the families in Europe can get through this winter and the next while we’re building the infrastructure for a diversified, resilient and clean energy future,” Biden said in Brussels.
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