Closing summary
Good afternoon. We’re closing the liveblog for the day. Here’s a look back at what’s happened so far today.
Georgia Republican senate candidate Herschel Walker admitted to writing $700 check to his ex-girlfriend but denies it was for abortion. Walker, who is running in one of the most competitive Senate races in the country, has spent weeks dogged by reports that he sent the unnamed woman money to end her pregnancy. Running as a staunch conservative with Trump’s backing, Walker has publicly argued that abortion should be illegal nationwide without exceptions.
The US Secret Service was made to pay as much as $1,185 a night to stay at properties belonging to former president Donald Trump, a congressional committee said on Monday as it released documents that appeared to show the former president profiting from his protection details in and out of office.
Steve Bannon should be sentenced to six months in prison and a $200,000 fine for “his sustained, bad-faith contempt of Congress”, the justice department said in a legal filing on Monday. Bannon was found guilty on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress in July for ignoring a subpoena from the US House committee investigating the January 6 attack.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre condemned remarks by Donald Trump about American Jews as “antisemitic” and “insulting” to both Jewish people and Israelis. She also announced that Biden will host president Isaac Herzog of Israel at the White House on 26 October.
The White House formally unveiled its website for student loan forgiveness applications.
“This is a game-changer for millions of Americans,” Biden said in remarks at the White House. He added that “it took an incredible amount of effort to get this website done in such a short time.”
JUST IN: Pres. Biden unveils website for federal student loan debt relief application.
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) October 17, 2022
“It takes less than five minutes…This is a game-changer for millions of Americans.” https://t.co/1SlS2LJ69i pic.twitter.com/zWAe1RUCjT
A beta version of the website, studentaid.gov, launched on Friday. Biden said 8 million Americans used the website over the weekend to apply for student-loan forgiveness.
This summer, under immense pressure from progressives, Biden announced that he would cancel up to $10,000 in student loan debt for individuals making less than $125,000 a year or more for Pell grant recipients.
Asked if Biden regretted his comment that British Prime Minister Liz Truss’ tax -cut plan was a mistake, Jean-Pierre responded simply: “No.”
Commenting on another world leader’s domestic policies, especially those of a close ally, is usually seen as taboo. Biden, an institutionalist who usually adheres to the norms and codes of foreign relations, is also prone to blunt admissions that often send his aides scrambling to clarify.
Pressed further about the remark – Biden said he wasn’t the only one who thought her economic policies were a mistake – Jean-Pierre said she had no further comment on who the president might have been referring to. The reporter said he was curious if Biden was referring to discussions with world leaders or if it was a reference to a staff member who viewed the move as a “mistake”.
The plan, which sent financial markets into a tailspin and caused a sharp drop in the value of the pound, was widely criticized by economists and experts.
Jean-Pierre also wouldn’t weigh in on the UK’s new finance minister, Jeremy Hunt nor his plans to drop much of Truss’ tax plan.
“The UK is a close ally … and we work with them on a range of issues, including on strengthening the global economy,” she said.
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On Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, Jean-Pierre said: “The United States strongly condemns Russia’s missile strikes today which continues to demonstrate Russia’s brutality.”
She said the administration is in touch with Ukraine across the administration and noted that Biden spoke to Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week when he addressed the leaders of the Group of 7 nations.
Russia attacked Kyiv with nearly 30 “kamikaze” drones on Monday morning, killing at least four people, including a pregnant woman and her partner, the Guardian is reporting.
“We are going to continue to work with our allies and partners, continue to impose costs on Russia to hold them accountable for their war crimes,” Jean-Pierre said.
Jean-Pierre has fielded a few questions on the midterms and Biden’s travel schedule in the final weeks of the election cycle, particularly why he isn’t appearing at more campaign events.
Jean-Pierre, caveating her response by saying she is prohibited from talking about politics from the podium, pushed back. She argued that he has been “traveling nonstop,” noting his recent swing through Colorado, Oregon and California. This week he’ll travel to the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Florida.
Reporters kept pressing. The subtext of their questions is that Biden is unpopular and his presence in some states could do more harm than good for Democrats in contested races. Biden has long joked that he would campaign for or against a Democrat – whatever would help them more.
She would not say whether Democrats in states like Arizona and Georgia are asking the White House for help, saying only: “He is going to go where he is needed the most.”
In Pennsylvania, Biden will appear alongside the Democratic candidate for Senate, John Fetterman, whose health has been under scrutiny since he suffered a stroke earlier this summer. Asked whether Biden has any concerns about Fetterman’s health, Jean-Pierre said: “The president has found him to be an impressive individual who is just as capable as always.”
Updated
Jean Pierre: Trump's comments on American Jews 'antisemitic and insulting'
The White House press briefing is underway, and press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre began with a question about Donald Trump’s attack on American Jews.
She called the former president’s comments “antisemitic, as you all know, and insulting both to Jews and to our Israeli allies.”
“But let’s be clear, for years, for years now, Donald Trump has aligned with extremists and antisemitic figures and it should be called out,” she added. “We need to root out antisemitism everywhere it rears its ugly head. … With respect to Israel, our relationship is iron clad and it’s rooted in shared values and interests. Donald Trump clearly doesn’t understand that either.”
She also condemned Ye’s antisemitic posts, but said she was not able to comment on the announcement this morning that he intends to purchase the far-right social media site, Parler.
Updated
During Donald Trump’s presidency, hotels and properties owned by the former president charged the Secret Service “exorbitant” rates – as much as $1,185 per night at the Trump International Hotel in DC – according to new documents released on Monday by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
The secret service was tasked with protecting the safety of Trump and his family during his presidency, and therefore followed them on their travels.
“The exorbitant rates charged to the Secret Service and agents’ frequent stays at Trump-owned properties raise significant concerns about the former president’s self-dealing and may have resulted in a taxpayer-funded windfall for former president Trump’s struggling businesses,” the committee chair, the New York representative Carolyn Maloney, said in a statement.
According to the Washington Post, which first reported on the payments, the new documents reveal, based on the committee’s review, that US taxpayers paid the president’s company at least $1.4m for Secret Service agents’ stays at Trump properties for his and his family’s protection.
The analysis shows that the Secret Service received more than 40 waivers from the Secret Service to let the agency spend more than the recommended rates.
Updated
In a new interview, Fiona Hill says Putin is adapting, not giving up and is using messengers like Elon Musk to propose an end to the conflict on his terms.
“Putin plays the egos of big men, gives them a sense that they can play a role. But in reality, they’re just direct transmitters of messages from Vladimir Putin,” Hill told Politico.
Hill, one of the nation’s foremost experts on Russia and Putin, argues that the west has been slow to realize that Putin is waging a world war, what she describes as a “great power conflict over territory which overturns the existing international order and where other states find themselves on different sides of the conflict.”
“This is a great power conflict, the third great power conflict in the European space in a little over a century,” Hill said. “It’s the end of the existing world order. Our world is not going to be the same as it was before.”
Read the full interview here.
Updated
Donald Trump attacked US Jews on his social media platform last night, saying that they should “get their act together” and show more appreciation to Israel “before it’s too late.”
“No President has done more for Israel than I have. Somewhat surprisingly, however, our wonderful Evangelicals are far more appreciative of this than the people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the U.S.,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“Those living in Israel, though, are a different story — Highest approval rating in the World, could easily be P.M.!” he added.
It is not the first time Trump has flirted with the antisemitic trope that Jews hold “dual loyalty” or are more loyal to Israel than the US. As in this post, he suggested that American Jews, who traditionally favor Democrats, should be more supportive of him because of his policies toward Israel.
Former US president warns US Jews to get their “act together,” be more like Israelis, and appreciate him more pic.twitter.com/taRYa53d74
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) October 16, 2022
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In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Dr Anthony Fauci warned about the dangers of long Covid, which he called an “insidious” if hard-to-diagnose public health emergency for millions of people.
Speaking to the Guardian’s David Smith, the nation’s top infectious disease expert explained that the rates of long Covid are worrying, even if they receive far less attention than death and hospitalization rates.
“It isn’t that you have people who are hospitalized or dying, but their function is being considerably impaired,” he said.
One of the major challenges to diagnosing and treating long Covid is that relatively little is known about it. There is no test for long Covid, Smith writes, and its precise causes remain mysterious. Fauci said long Covid is likely more prominent among those with existing psychological issues, but he adds: “The one thing you don’t want to fall into the trap of saying is well, it’s all psychological, because it’s not, it’s real.”
Fauci urged Congress to continue investing in efforts to combat the virus and long Covid.
“We’ve hit a wall when it comes to further resources for Covid, including long Covid. There doesn’t appear to be a lot of resources that are waiting for us right now,” he said. “I hope that changes. If you declare victory, you’re declaring an imaginary victory because we haven’t won the battle yet.”
Read the full interview here:
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Major retailers will begin selling hearing aids over the counter without a prescription and at a much lower cost, as part of a new Biden administration rule that take effect today.
“Starting today, hearings aids are now on store shelves across the country — for thousands of dollars less than they previously cost,” the White House said in a fact sheet on Monday.
The move comes as Democrats tout their efforts to lower the cost of prescription drugs and ease the economic burden of high inflation and rising cost of living ahead of the midterms.
According to the White House, several major retailers, Walgreens, CVS and Walmart among them, will begin selling the devices today. It estimates that the rule could lower average costs by as much as $3,000 per pair of hearing aids. Nearly 30 million Americans have hearing loss, according to the fact sheet, including nearly 10 million adults under age 60.
Today the Guardian launched a four-part series on Latino voters – a fast-growing, incredibly diverse voting bloc with the collective power to sway the 2022 midterm elections.
Though Latino voters have historically favored Democrats – and recent polling suggests that they still do – the party’s grip on these voters is slipping as economic forces provide an opening for Republicans. This year, due in part to population growth and redistricting, Latino voters make up a significant slice of the electorate in several of the most competitive House and Senate races. The stakes for both parties could not be higher.
In the first installment, yours truly provides a very broad overview of the well-financed fight to engage and mobilize Latino voters this cycle. But look out for the rest of the series, with reports from Florida, Texas and the mountain west.
Other pieces coming through Thursday look at why hopes that the south FL Latino vote would eventually turn aren't materializing, what drives Latino voter turnout and changing patterns in south TX, and a profile of a Mtn. West community where Latino voters are unexpectedly mighty. https://t.co/F3Sf2VasDN
— Ramon Antonio Vargas (@RVargasAdvocate) October 17, 2022
Read more:
My colleague Joan Greve recently published this report from Maine, where she assessed the state of Paul LePage’s political comeback.
The state’s famously belligerent former governor – Trump before Trump, as he once claimed – announced his retirement from politics in 2018 and decamped to Florida. But now he’s back, challenging the state’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills.
Now, in his campaign to return to the governor’s mansion, LePage is distancing himself from the former president. He believes Biden won the 2020 election, a fact few Republicans are willing to accept publicly. But has he really changed?
Read the full report here.
Kevin McCarthy expects to be the next speaker of the US House of Representatives.
That is the takeaway from a frenetic two days on the campaign trail with the Republican leader, according to a new report in Punchbowl news. Along the way, McCarthy spoke candidly about his path to the speakership, how difficult it is for Republicans to keep the job and offered his view of why he thinks his party is on track to wrest the majority from Democrats.
McCarthy tells donors and supporters that Republicans’ chances are improving by the day. He is blunt that August was a bad month for Republicans, but says the tide is turning and the election is increasingly being fought on issues that advantage Republicans, such as the economy, immigration and crime.
“What happened was all the issues came back on the front page. The cost of living continued to rise. Kids are going back to school and you’re concerned about what type of education you’re getting. And if you question your school board, somehow you’re a terrorist. The price of gas was up seven cents last week with no hope of America being energy independent. We watch crime rise every single day,” McCarthy said at a fundraising event in Chicago.
Interestingly, McCarthy believes the tide began to turn sharply against Democrats after Biden’s Philadelphia speech, in which the president warned that Trumpism posed an acute threat to American democracy.
“It all stops Sept. 1, the night that President Biden gave a speech in Philadelphia – an angry speech,” McCarthy added.
He also believes he’ll be speaker no matter how big – or small – Republicans’ winning majority is, meaning he thinks he can unite his fractious party behind him.
“If I’m even up for speaker, that means we won seats. I’ve been [the top House Republican for] two cycles. I’ve never lost seats, I’ve only won,” he tells Punchbowl.
I was shocked by McCarthy's candor about just how hard it is for Republicans to stay speaker. pic.twitter.com/4c1PLjtqnT
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) October 17, 2022
McCarthy is also open about how hard it is for a Republican to keep the job, noting that his most recent predecessors left after only a few years. By contrast, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has led her party for decades.
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First lady Jill Biden sat down for an interview this weekend with Newsmax, the far-right news network that cast doubt on her husband’s election victory in 2020.
According to a press release touting the 20-minute interview, Biden discussed her efforts to combat cancer and her meeting with Ukraine’s first lady.
“There are things Americans disagree with, but fighting cancer is one thing that unites Americans; and we’re honored to have Dr. Biden talk of her efforts and President Biden’s to combat this deadly condition,” Newsmax Media CEO Christopher Ruddy said.
The Newsmax host, Nancy Brinker, is the founder of the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
The interview airs at 9pm.
A new NYT/Siena poll looks glum for Democrats. After their fortunes appeared to reverse this summer, Republicans have regained their edge with voters just weeks left before election day.
NEW: NYT/Siena poll shows Republicans opening up a 49-45 lead in race for Congress as the economy becomes dominant concern of 2022.
— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) October 17, 2022
The swing toward the GOP among women voters who identified as independent in the last month is striking.https://t.co/JPRgHo55iZ
According to the poll, Republicans hold a 49-45 lead in the race for Congress, with the economy being a top priority for voters in 2022. The shift was driven by women who identified as independent voters.
“In September, they favored Democrats by 14 points. Now, independent women backed Republicans by 18 points.”
The poll found the share of voters who ranked the economy or inflation as a top issue climbed nearly 10%. Republicans have long held an advantage on the economy, a trend that is even more pronounced with inflation at a 40-year-high and Democrats in control in Washington. A far smaller share of voters prioritize issues that favor Democrats, such as abortion and guns.
Moreover, voters are extremely dissatisfied with the president, a factor that further hurts Democrats.
Justice department urges prison time for Steve Bannon
Steve Bannon should be sentenced to six months in prison and a $200,000 fine for “his sustained, bad-faith contempt of Congress,” the justice department said in a legal filing on Monday.
Bannon, the former Donald Trump White House strategist, was found guilty on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress in July for ignoring a subpoena from the committee investigating the January 6 attack.
The department submitted its recommendation for his punishment on Monday ahead of his scheduled sentencing on Friday.
Ye to buy right-wing social media network Parler
Some early-breaking news: Ye, formerly Kanye West, is buying the rightwing social media network Parler for an undisclosed sum, the platform announced on Monday.
The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year, the Guardian reports. News of the purchase comes a week after Twitter and Instagram locked the rapper’s accounts over antisemitic posts.
“In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves,” Ye said in a statement.
Last year, Parler was effectively forced offline for allowing violent videos of the January 6 Capitol attack to circulate on its platform.
This is only the latest in a series of controversial moves by the artist. Over the weekend, Ye claimed in a podcast appearance that George Floyd died from a drug overdose. Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of Floyd’s murder in May 2020. Floyd’s family is considering taking legal action.
And that was after Ye appeared wearing a “White Lives Matter” shirt at Paris Fashion Week.
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Republican Herschel Walker a no-show for key debate
Good morning, US politics blog readers. I hope everyone had a nice weekend. We’re in the heat of election season, with just a handful of weeks left before Americans go to the polls.
Hours ago, Russia attacked the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv with “kamikaze” drones, killing at least three people. For the latest, we encourage you to follow our Ukraine live blog.
Here’s a look at what else is happening today in US politics:
Last night, Georgia Senate GOP candidate Herschel Walker was a no-show for his second and final debate with Democratic senator Raphael Warnock, hosted by the Atlanta Press Club debate on Sunday. The race is among the most competitive in the country and polling suggests the candidates are effectively tied.
We’re also watching an NBC interview with Walker set to air tonight. In a preview, Walker admits giving his ex-girlfriend a $700 check, but denies it was for an abortion after being “confronted with a receipt from an abortion clinic and a check dated days later and bearing his name”.
'That's my check': Walker acknowledges giving $700 to his ex, but denies her claim he knew it was for an abortion https://t.co/uS1svxsGQI
— Kristen Welker (@kwelkernbc) October 17, 2022
This evening, candidates in battleground states will square off in a series of crucial debates. In Georgia, Republican Governor Brian Kemp will debate Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams. In Utah, Republican senator Mike Lee debates his independent challenger, Evan McMullin. The candidates for Ohio’s open senate seat – Democratic congressman Tim Ryan and Republican JD Vance – will hold their second debate this evening. While in Iowa, Republican governor Kim Reynolds faces her Democratic challenger, Deidre DeJear, in a debate.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden is returning to the White House after spending the weekend in his home state of Delaware. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will brief reporters at 1.30pm.
The January 6 committee is expected to formally subpoena Donald Trump this week, in an attempt to compel the former president to answer questions about his role in the deadly insurrection at the Capitol.
