Summary
It’s nearly 4pm in Washington DC. Here’s where things stand:
Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes told a member of the extremist group before the 2020 election that he had a contact in the Secret Service, a witness testified Thursday in Rhodes’ Capitol riot trial. John Zimmerman, who was part of the North Carolina chapter, said Rhodes told him that Rhodes had a Secret Service agent’s telephone number.
Joe Biden has announced a pardon of all prior federal offenses of simple possession of marijuana. “There are thousands of people who have prior Federal convictions for marijuana possession, who may be denied employment, housing, or educational opportunities as a result. My action will help relieve the collateral consequences arising from these convictions,” Biden said in a statement released on Thursday afternoon.
Biden addressed workers at the IBM manufacturing plant in Poughkeepsie, New York on Thursday afternoon where he spoke of the Chips and Science Act that includes over $52bn in federal subsidies. The $280bn package seeks to boost the US’s semiconductor industry and scientific research in attempts to create more high-tech jobs across the country while also help it compete better with international rivals such as China.
The federal government on Thursday expressed support for New York City’s lawsuit seeking to halt the spread of “ghost guns” as city and state officials try to hold sellers of the largely untraceable firearms accountable. In a “statement of interest” filed in Manhattan federal court, the Department of Justice expressed “serious concerns” about the proliferation of ghost guns, and said kits containing the weapons’ components are classified as firearms under federal gun control law.
A federal judge has temporarily blocked parts of New York state’s new gun law, in order to allow the Gun Owners of America, an advocacy group, to pursue a lawsuit challenging the legislation. The law came into effect on 1 September, creating new requirements for obtaining a license, including submitting social media accounts for review, and creating a list of public and private places where having a gun became a felony crime, even for license holders.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a health advisory, regarding an outbreak of Ebola in Uganda. The alert summarises “recommendations for public health departments and clinicians, case identification and testing, and clinical laboratory biosafety considerations.”
Updated
Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes told a member of the extremist group before the 2020 election that he had a contact in the Secret Service, a witness testified Thursday in Rhodes’ Capitol riot trial.
Associated Press reports:
John Zimmerman, who was part of the North Carolina chapter, said Rhodes told him that Rhodes had a Secret Service agent’s telephone number. Zimmerman said he believed Rhodes spoke on the phone with the agent about the logistics of a September 2020 rally that then-President Donald Trump held in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
The claim came on the third day of testimony in the case against Rhodes and four others charged with seditious conspiracy for what authorities have described as a detailed, drawn-out plot to use force to stop the transfer of presidential power from Trump to Democrat Joe Biden, who won the election.
Prosecutor Kathryn Rakoczy had asked Zimmerman whether Rhodes ever told him about having any kind of connection to Trump.
Zimmerman could not say for sure that Rhodes was speaking to someone with the Secret Service — only that Rhodes told him he was — and it was not clear what they were discussing. Zimmerman said Rhodes wanted to find out the “parameters” that the Oath Keepers could operate under during the election-year rally.
The significance of the detail in the government’s case is unclear. Trump’s potential ties to extremist groups have been a focus of the House committee investigating the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Another Oath Keeper expected to testify against Rhodes has claimed that after the riot, Rhodes phoned someone seemingly close to Trump and made a request: tell Trump to call on militia groups to fight to keep him in power. Authorities have not identified that person; Rhodes’ lawyer says the call never happened.
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said it is not uncommon for “protest groups” to contact the agency with logistical questions about rallies. He noted that firearms are always prohibited within restricted areas being secured by the agency.
“The Oath Keepers are certainly a known demonstration group.” he said.
Guglielmi said he is not aware of any contact between Rhodes and an agency representative but would not be surprised if Rhodes said he had contacted the secret Service before the North Carolina event.
“I don’t have any way to track that down without some more information,” the spokesman said.
Rhodes, from Granbury Texas, and four associates are being tried on a Civil War-era charge.
Biden to pardon all federal offenses of simple marijuana possession
President Joe Biden has announced a pardon of all prior federal offenses of simple possession of marijuana.
“There are thousands of people who have prior Federal convictions for marijuana possession, who may be denied employment, housing, or educational opportunities as a result. My action will help relieve the collateral consequences arising from these convictions,” Biden said in a statement released on Thursday afternoon.
He went on to urge all governors to do the same with regards to state offenses, saying, “Just as no one should be in a Federal prison solely due to the possession of marijuana, no one should be in a local jail or state prison for that reason, either.”
The president also called on the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Attorney General to begin the administrative process to review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law.
Marijuana is currently classified in Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act under federal law. This classification puts marijuana in the same schedule as for heroin and LSD and even higher than the classification of fentanyl and methamphetamine, two drugs that are fueling the ongoing overdose epidemic across the country.
Updated
President Joe Biden addressed workers at the IBM manufacturing plant in Poughkeepsie, New York on Thursday afternoon where he spoke of the CHIPS and Science Act that includes over $52 billion in federal subsidies.
“Since we’ve been elected, we’ve created 678,000 new manufacturing jobs where, And we’re just getting started. Where is it written that we can’t lead manufacturing in the world? I don’t know where that’s written. And that’s one of the things that CHIPS Act is going to change – the law that’s going build the future in a proud, proud legacy, not only for IBM but for the country,” Biden said.
The $280 billion package seeks to boost the US’s semiconductor industry and scientific research in attempts to create more high-tech jobs across the country while also help it compete better with international rivals such as China.
“American manufacturing - the backbone of our economy got hollowed out because companies began to move jobs and production overseas. And as a result, today, we’re down to barely 10% of the world’s chips, despite leading in chip research and design,” Biden said.
“We need [these chips] in conductors, not only to make Javelin missiles, but also the weapon systems, the future that is going to rely even more on advanced chips, Unfortunately we produce 0% of these advanced chips today…China is trying to move ahead of us in manufacturing them,” he added.
“The United States has to lead the world in producing these advanced chips,” Biden said, adding that “some of our friends” on the Republican side bought into China’s lobbying in Congress against the act.
“The CHIPS and Science Act is not handing out blank checks to companies… I’ve directed my administration… to be laser focused on the guard rails that’s gonna protect taxpayers dollars.”
“We’ll make sure the companies partner with unions, community colleges, technical schools, and offer training and apprenticeships. We’re going to make sure…small and minority owned businesses get to participate. We’re gonna make sure the companies do not take these taxpayers dollars, do not turn around and make investments in China, investments that undermine our supply chains and natural security. That’s a guarantee.”
“It’s about economic security…it’s about national security…and that’s what we’re going to see in this factory, in the Hudson Valley,” Biden added.
“We have the best and most productive workers in the world. We have the best research universities in the world… We wrote and passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law…and we finally decided that we’re going to move up from number 13 in the world on infrastructure to number one,” Biden said.
“The Chips and Science Act is not handing out blank checks to…companies…we’re going to make sure that small and minority-owned businesses get to participate,” Biden said.
“In this law, I have the power to take back federal funding if companies are not meeting the requirements,” he added.
“The future of the chips industry is going to be made in America…and many of these good paying jobs don’t require a set of college degrees,” Biden said.
“The largest American investment of its kind,” Biden said in his address as he celebrates this summer’s passage of a $280 billion legislative package intended to boost the US semiconductor industry and scientific research.
Joe Biden is set to deliver remarks at around 2pm ET at the IBM site in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Biden is expected to speak on creating jobs in the Hudson Valley and lowering costs, among other topics.
We will bring you the latest updates on his address so do stay tuned.
Updated
The Biden administration announced that the US will start screening travelers from Uganda for Ebola as an additional precaution aimed at trying to prevent an outbreak in the African country from spreading, the Associated Press reports.
Updated
The federal government on Thursday expressed support for New York City’s lawsuit seeking to halt the spread of “ghost guns,” as city and state officials try to hold sellers of the largely untraceable firearms accountable.
In a “statement of interest” filed in Manhattan federal court, the Department of Justice expressed “serious concerns” about the proliferation of ghost guns, and said kits containing the weapons’ components are classified as firearms under federal gun control law.
“Ghost guns are a major contributor to the ongoing plague of gun violence,” US Attorney Breon Peace in Brooklyn said in a statement accompanying the filing, which US Attorney Damian Williams in Manhattan also signed.
“The United States will continue to employ every means available, including civil tools, to keep ghost guns and other illegal firearms out of the hands of criminals and reduce the risk of gun violence. The United States filed a Statement of Interest in this important litigation to ensure that the Court is informed of the federal government’s views of pertinent firearms statutes and regulations,” he added.
New York City and state Attorney General Letitia James on June 29 filed two lawsuits accusing 10 out-of-state distributors of creating a public nuisance by selling unfinished frames and receivers to buyers within the state.
Ghost guns do not have serial numbers and can be acquired without background checks, potentially letting people otherwise ineligible to buy firearms to construct finished guns.
“We are not going to let gun companies turn New York into a city of mail-order murder,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said when announcing the city’s lawsuit.
Both lawsuits were filed six days after the supreme court struck down a century-old New York law that strictly limited the carrying of guns outside the home.
Federal law largely shields gun makers from lawsuits over shootings. There is an exception for when sellers knowingly violate statutes governing firearms sales and marketing.
Three of the five defendants in the city’s lawsuit have settled, and agreed to stop sales to city residents.
Steven Donziger, a human rights lawyer, environmental justice advocate and Guardian US columnist, writes today about a ‘terrifying case’ about to be heard by the US supreme court…
It is well-known that intense competition between democracy, authoritarianism, and fascism is playing out across the globe in a variety of ways – including in the United States. This year’s supreme court term, which started this week, is a vivid illustration of how the situation is actually worse than most people understand.
A supermajority of six unelected ultraconservatives justices – five put on the bench by presidents who did not win the popular vote – haveaggressively grabbed yet another batch of cases that will allow them to move American law to the extreme right and threaten US democracy. The leading example of this disturbing shift is a little-known case called Moore v Harper, which could lock in rightwing control of the United States for generations.
The heart of the Moore case is a formerly fringe legal notion called the Independent State Legislature (ISL) theory. This theory posits that an obscure provision in the US constitution allowing state legislatures to set “time, place, and manner” rules for federal elections should not be subject to judicial oversight. In other words, state legislatures should have the absolute power to determine how federal elections are run without court interference.
Think about this theory in the context of the last US election. After Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump resoundingly in both the popular vote and in the electoral college, Trump tried to organize a massive intimidation campaign to steal the election which played out in the storming of the Capitol building on 6 January. But behind the scenes, the legal core of this attempt was to convince the many Republican-controlled state legislatures (30 out of 50 states) to send slates of fake Trump electors from states like Arizona, Georgia and Michigan where Trump lost the popular vote.
If Trump had succeeded, he would have “won” the election via the electoral college (itself an anti-democratic relic) and been able to stay in office. If the supreme court buys the theory in the Moore case, this could easily happen in 2024 and beyond. In fact, it is possible Republicans will never lose another election again if this theory is adopted as law. Or put another way, whether Republicans win or lose elections via the popular vote will not matter because they will be able to maintain power regardless.
That’s not democracy.
Judge blocks New York gun law
A federal judge has temporarily blocked parts of New York state’s new gun law, in order to allow the Gun Owners of America, an advocacy group, to pursue a lawsuit challenging the legislation.
Reuters has the report:
“The law came into effect on 1 September, creating new requirements for obtaining a license, including submitting social media accounts for review, and creating a list of public and private places where having a gun became a felony crime, even for license holders.
Lawmakers in New York’s Democratic-controlled legislature passed the law during an emergency session in July after the US supreme court found the state’s licensing regime for firearms to be unconstitutional following a challenge by the New York affiliate of the National Rifle Association, a powerful gun-owners’ rights group.
On Thursday, Glenn Suddaby, chief judge of the US district court in Syracuse, agreed to issue the order at the request of six New York- resident members of Gun Owners of America, which competes with the National Rifle Association in political influence. Suddaby said his order would not take effect for three days, to allow the New York government to appeal.
Suddaby last month ruled that much of the new law was unconstitutional in dismissing an earlier lawsuit by Gun Owners of America in which he found neither the group nor an individual member of it had standing to sue before the law came into effect.”
Background:
The Florida mayor to whom Joe Biden uttered a profanity captured by a live microphone, sparking a minor viral fuss, said the presidential f-bomb did not bother him in the slightest.
The two men met on Wednesday, as Biden visited areas of Florida hit by Hurricane Ian. The president was heard to say: “Nobody fucks with a Biden.”
The incident set off a minor media storm. The White House did not comment.
Ray Murphy, the mayor of Fort Myers Beach, told NBC: “It was not directed at anybody. It was just two guys talking. It didn’t faze me one bit. That’s just the way two guys talk to each other from our respective backgrounds.”
We have video of the moment:
Murphy told NBC he and the president quickly discovered they had a lot in common.
“We’re both Irish Catholics,” he said. “We’re both devout Catholics. But every once [in] a while a little salty language comes out.”
Biden has had brushes with hot mics and salty language before. Most famously, in 2010 he enlivened the signing ceremony for the Affordable Care Act by telling his then boss, Barack Obama: “This is a big fucking deal.”
Biden later told NPR: “Thank God my mother wasn’t around to hear.”
In January this year, Biden appeared to think his microphone was off when he called a Fox News reporter, Peter Doocy, “a stupid son of a bitch” for asking a question about inflation. The president said sorry.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a health advisory, regarding an outbreak of Ebola in Uganda.
The alert summarises “recommendations for public health departments and clinicians, case identification and testing, and clinical laboratory biosafety considerations”.
The federal agency emphasises that the alert is a precaution, as “no suspected, probable, or confirmed EVD cases related to this outbreak have yet been reported in the United States”.
Its aim, it says, is to raise awareness among clinicians.
Reuters, meanwhile, reports that the Biden administration “will begin redirecting US-bound travelers who have been to Uganda within the previous 21 days to five major American airports to be screened for Ebola”.
The change is expected to take effect within the coming week or so, a source said. The travelers will need to arrive at New York-JFK, Newark, Atlanta, Chicago O’Hare or Washington Dulles. There is no vaccine for the Sudan strain of the disease behind the latest Uganda infections.
The Biden White House does contain experience in dealing with Ebola. Ron Klain, the president’s chief of staff, was Barack Obama’s Ebola tsar during an outbreak in 2014.
In 2020, during the darkest days of the Covid pandemic, Klain wrote for the Guardian: “Of the many hard days I spent coordinating the US fight against Ebola in 2014-15, none was more painful than 29 November 2014, when I spoke at the funeral of Martin Salia, a doctor who left Maryland to return to his native Sierra Leone to help cope with the devastating death toll among healthcare workers during that epidemic.
“Dr Salia contracted Ebola while performing surgery; by the time he was airlifted back to the US for treatment, he was too ill to be saved. At his funeral, I noted that while history is filled with all sorts of accidental heroes and unwilling heroes, ‘the greatest heroes are people who choose to face danger, who voluntarily put themselves at risk to help others.’”
Here’s Klain’s full piece:
The day so far
Democrats are seething over Saudi Arabia’s push for Opec+ to cut oil production, potentially driving up US gas prices just as voters head to the midterm elections. Meanwhile, Joe Biden has embarked on a long day of travel that will see him tout the Chips bill to boost semiconductor production, and also attend two Democratic fundraisers as the party prepares to defend its slim holds on both the House and Senate.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
Herschel Walker, the Republican candidate for Senate in Georgia, said he knew “nothing about” a woman’s claim he paid for her to have an abortion – and then had a child with him.
Republicans may decide to impeach homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas if they win a majority in the House.
Election deniers appear poised to win many races in the upcoming midterms, no matter what happens, The Washington Post found.
A Democratic senator has joined in on the calls to punish Saudi Arabia for backing the Opec+ cut to global oil production:
From unanswered questions about 9/11 & the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, to conspiring w/ Putin to punish the US w/ higher oil prices, the royal Saudi family has never been a trustworthy ally of our nation. It’s time for our foreign policy to imagine a world without their alliance.
— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) October 6, 2022
There’re also unjust arrests:
— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) October 6, 2022
Raif Badawi, finally released after 10 years in jail, but unable to leave SA to reunite w/ family in Canada.
Waleed Abu al-Khair, human rights lawyer still in jail.
Salma al-Shehab, women’s rights activist facing outrageous 34 year prison sentence.
Meanwhile, John Kennedy, the Republican senator who two years ago proposed a similar measure to retaliate against Saudi Arabia for not cutting production even as global demand was crashing – thereby driving prices below the cost of production for American oil firms – today blames Biden for the Opec+ cut:
OPEC is taking advantage of Pres. Biden’s reliance on foreign oil and slashing supply, which will drive up prices that Louisianians pay.
— John Kennedy (@SenJohnKennedy) October 5, 2022
It’s as simple and sad as that.
While his Democratic allies have blamed Saudi Arabia for the Opec+ production cut, the decision also has the potential to put Biden on the defensive.
In July, he traveled to Saudi Arabia in a trip widely seen as an attempt to convince its defacto leader, crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, to produce more oil. It was a hard pill to swallow for Biden, who had pledged while running for office to turn the country into a “global pariah” for killing journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Critics of the visit seized on his fist-bump greeting with the crown prince as evidence of the president’s flip-flopping:
As he left the White House today, Biden was asked if he regrets the trip to Riyadh. “The trip was not essentially for oil. The trip was about the Middle East and about Israel and rationalization of positions. But it is a disappointment and says that there are problems,” he replied.
Indeed, Biden did also visit Israel on the trip, and the White House has repeatedly said seeking peace in the Middle East was a major goal.
Joe Biden is keenly aware of the consequences a midterm rout for Democrats would have on his presidency, and is starting a lengthy day of travel aimed a preventing that from happening.
He’s heading to Poughkeepsie, New York for a tour of an IBM facility and the announcement of the tech firm’s plans to spend $20 billion over 10 years in the Hudson Valley region. Biden will use that news to highlight the success of the Chips act Congress approved over the summer to boost semiconductor production.
Then he flies to Red Bank, New Jersey, for a Democratic fundraiser, and then to New York City for another fundraiser, this one focused on the party’s campaign to keep control of the Senate. Biden is then expected back at the White House late this evening.
What’s worse, attacking the US capitol, or spending more money than you should on gasoline?
To Republican senator Tom Cotton, the answer is clearly the latter. Here’s his comment on Hugh Hewitt’s show this morning that quite succinctly sums up the pitch each party is making to voters ahead of the 8 November midterms:
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR): “The Democrats are always saying, ‘Never forget January 6th.’ Yeah, remember that on January 6th gas was at $2.40 a gallon.” pic.twitter.com/dK1KMxHO2h
— The Recount (@therecount) October 6, 2022
Indeed, Democrats do not want voters to forget that supporters of Republican president Donald Trump, animated by his baseless conspiracy theories, carried out a history-making insurrection at the US Capitol that day. Meanwhile, the GOP hopes Americans will overlook the attack in favor of their promise to somehow bring gas prices nearer to where they were when the economy was reeling from Covid-19. We’ll find out how voters feel in a few weeks.
While taking the Senate is a steeper hill to climb, Republicans have a much better shot of winning a majority in the House of Representatives, where they would have the power to launch impeachment proceedings.
The bigger question is: who would they impeach? And what for?
While some Democrats believe they’ll go straight for Biden himself, CNN reports that a campaign has emerged to impeach homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whom the GOP complains is at fault for not stopping the flow of migrants and asylum seekers across the southern border with Mexico. Indeed, Republican lawmakers have been campaigning on the border issue in the upcoming midterms, and impeaching Mayorkas could give them the ability to say they’ve made good on that promise, though launching the procedure against a cabinet secretary has only been done once before in American history.
However, the strategy is not without risks, and it’s unclear if enough Republican House lawmakers would back it, or if their leader Kevin McCarthy is on board. Here’s what CNN has to say:
GOP Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas said Republicans “should focus on policy” and “leave some of the other more emotional topics for another day.”
“The risk is if people lose faith in the ability of Congress to even do its basic function,” Womack said of voter blowback for impeaching Mayorkas. “The people that I talk to from all stripes tell me they want a Congress that works – not a Congress that is preoccupied with kind of revenge-type agendas. Because then a lot of other things (that) need to happen don’t get to happen. And then that hurts the country.”
So far, McCarthy has carefully sidestepped impeachment questions, insisting Republicans are not going to pre-determine the outcome but are willing to go wherever the facts and the law lead them.
Yet McCarthy has not shut the door on the idea either, particularly when it comes to Mayorkas. And when pressed by CNN on whether Mayorkas is vulnerable to impeachment in a GOP-led House, he replied: “What happens at the border is above everything else.”
Back to Herschel Walker, the Republican candidate for Senate in Georgia was on conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt’s show today, and responded to reports he paid for an abortion for a woman he also had a child with.
Here’s what he had to say:
New: Herschel Walker, who has pushed for a national abortion ban, says of paid-abortion allegation on @hughhewitt: “If that had happened, I would have said there's nothing to be ashamed of there. People have done that — but I know nothing about it.” pic.twitter.com/Tqx48i3rGK
— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) October 6, 2022
The story is particularly worrying for Walker, since he said he would support a national ban on abortion without exceptions, if elected.
The Washington Post has a report out today quantifying the massive number of 2020 election deniers standing as Republicans for state and federal offices nationwide, and concluding that many will win their races in November.
The report finds 299 GOP politicians standing for House, Senate or statewide office who baselessly believe Joe Biden did not win the 2020 election. Of these, 174 are running in seats considers safe for Republicans, while 51 are in close races.
The implications will be lasting: If Republicans take control of the House, as many political forecasters predict, election deniers would hold enormous sway over the choice of the nation’s next speaker, who in turn could preside over the House in a future contested presidential election. The winners of all the races examined by The Post — those for governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, Senate and House — will hold some measure of power overseeing American elections.
Many of these candidates echo the false claims of former president Donald Trump — claims that have been thoroughly investigated and dismissed by myriad officials and courts. Experts said the insistence on such claims, despite the lack of evidence, reflects a willingness among election-denying candidates to undermine democratic institutions when it benefits their side.
The Post’s count — assembled from public statements, social media posts, and actions taken by the candidates to deny the legitimacy of the last presidential vote — shows how the movement arising from Trump’s thwarted plot to overturn the 2020 election is, in many respects, even stronger two years later. Far from repudiating candidates who embrace Trump’s false fraud claims, GOP primary voters have empowered them.
The issue has dominated in key battlegrounds. In Warren, Mich., on Saturday, Trump campaigned for three statewide candidates, all of them deniers: Tudor Dixon for governor, Matthew DePerno for attorney general and Kristina Karamo for secretary of state.
“I don’t believe we’ll ever have a fair election again,” Trump told the crowd. “I don’t believe it.”
The Post’s report characterizes election denying as essentially a form of corruption and a political tactic used to win races. Larry Jacobs, a professor studying legislative politics at the University of Minnesota, warns the proliferation of election deniers in Congress could cause chaos, both for this year’s election and the 2024 presidential race.
“This is no longer about Donald Trump. This is about the entire electoral system and what constitutes legitimate elections. All of that is now up in the air,” Jacobs said.
When it comes to the midterms, one of the most important races is taking place in Georgia, where Democratic senator Raphael Warnock is fighting to keep his seat in a state that only narrowly elected him last year. Herschel Walker is his Republican opponent, but as the Associated Press reports, he’s been engulfed in a scandal over how his personal life has clashed with his stance on abortion:
A woman who said Herschel Walker paid for her abortion in 2009 is the mother of one of his children, according to a new report, undercutting the Georgia Republican Senate candidate’s claims he didn’t know who she was.
The Daily Beast, which first reported the abortion, said it had agreed not to reveal details of the woman’s identity.
Walker, who has expressed support for a national abortion ban without exceptions, called the abortion allegation a “flat-out lie”, threatened a lawsuit against the outlet and said he had no idea who the woman might be.
On Wednesday night, the Beast revealed that the woman – who was not named – was so well known to Walker that, according to her, they conceived another child years after the abortion. She decided to continue with the pregnancy, though she noted that Walker, as during the earlier pregnancy, expressed that it wasn’t a convenient time for him, the outlet reported.
Why are three House Democrats proposing the United States remove its troops and weapons systems from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates? Because those countries are on the side of Russia, they argue.
“Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s drastic cut in oil production, despite President Biden’s overtures to both countries in recent months, is a hostile act against the United States and a clear signal that they have chosen to side with Russia in its war against Ukraine,” Tom Malinowski, Sean Casten and Susan Wild wrote. “Both countries have long relied on an American military presence in the Gulf to protect their security and oil fields. We see no reason why American troops and contractors should continue to provide this service to countries that are actively working against us. If Saudi Arabia and the UAE want to help Putin, they should look to him for their defense.”
Their rhetoric lines up with what White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said yesterday when she declared that the two million barrel per-day cut in oil production makes it “clear that OPEC+ is aligning with Russia.” While she didn’t call for a withdrawal in military aid, she did say that the cut would drive energy prices higher right as many poor countries were struggling with inflation caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The broader political worry for the White House is that it will cause gas prices to spike again at home, an Americans will react by voting against Democrats in the 8 November midterms.
As for the bill’s prospects, consider a similar effort from Republican senator Bill Cassidy introduced shortly after Covid-19 forced the shutdown of the US economy in early 2020. He proposed tariffs on Saudi oil imports and the removal of US troops from the country if Riyadh didn’t back efforts for a deep slash in Opec+ production as global demand collapsed and prices plummeted. While the bill went nowhere, the three Democrats argue it worked in getting the oil cartel to agree to a bigger cut – though then-president Donald Trump also reportedly played a role in convincing the Saudis.
Democrats seek revenge after Saudi-led Opec+ slashes oil production ahead of midterms
Good morning, US politics readers. Vengeance is on the mind of some Democrats after Opec+, the bloc of oil-producing countries in which Saudi Arabia plays a leading role, decided to slash its crude output yesterday. The move will have ripple effects globally, and could drive up prices at gas pumps in the United States just as voters are casting ballots in the midterms. The White House condemned the move yesterday, but later in the day, three lawmakers came out with a bill that essentially declares Saudi Arabia is no longer an ally of Washington, and would mandate American troops leave that country and the United Arab Emirates. There’s no telling yet if Congress has the will, or the time, to consider it before the end of the year.
Here’s what else is happening today:
Joe Biden is heading to New York and New Jersey, where he’ll visit an IBM facility and cheer the announcement of $20bn in new investments from the company. He then attends two fundraisers for Democrats.
Two senatorial candidate debates are scheduled today: Arizona Democrat Mark Kelly will spar with two challengers, including Republican Blake Masters, at 9 m. Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley faces his Democratic opponent, Mike Franken, at 8pm.
Labor department data shows an uptick in new unemployment assistance claims nationwide, but they remain at very low levels in a sign of the job market’s strength.
