Politics recap
That’s it for today. Here’s what happened:
- Joe Biden and Olaf Scholz held a press conference following a meeting at the White House to coordinate their response to a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine. Both leaders insisted the nations were united and threatened crippling sanctions, though they offered no specifics on whether Berlin was willing to halt operations of Nord Stream 2 in the event of a possible attack.
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Biden said the controversial pipeline, which runs under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, was “not going to happen” in such a scenario. But he did not provide an explanation for his guarantee.
- Secretary of state Anthony Blinken delivered a similar message alongside European Commission vice-president Josep Borrell. He said the US and its allies were “fully aligned” over how to address a potential Russian invasion.
- New Jersey governor Phil Murphy announced he was ending a statewide mask mandate for schools, saying the time had come to shift from a “pandemic to endemic phase of this virus”.
- Jen Psaki defended the White House’s decision not to fire Eric Lander, the president’s top science adviser, after an internal investigation concluded that he bullied and demeaned subordinates, even as she called the behavior “inappropriate”. He apologized to staff for his behavior.
- The supreme court voted 5-4 to allow Alabama to proceed with its current congressional map, despite a lower court’s January ruling that it violated the Voting Rights Act by diluting the vote of its Black residents.
- The FBI sent Google a warrant seeking user information on people who were in the vicinity of a Seattle police union headquarters during a BLM protest over the killing of Jacob Blake, newly unsealed documents show.
- Peter Thiel is stepping down from Facebook’s board, which he joined in 2005, to focus on backing Trump allies in the midterm elections.
- Lauren, Johana, Martin
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The number of people who’ve died while homeless has shot up by 77% in the last five years, according to an exclusive report and analysis of 20 US urban areas by my colleague Erin McCormick.
More from Erin’s story here:
The rise from 2016 through 2020 was driven by many factors, including ever-rising numbers of people living on the street and the growing dangers they face, such as violence, untreated disease and increasingly deadly illicit drug supplies.
From 65-year-old Randy Ferris, killed when a car veered into a California sidewalk encampment, Justine Belovoskey, 60, who died alone in a tent during a Texas cold snap, and Anthony Denico Williams, stabbed to death at age 20 in Washington DC, to scores of young people succumbing to overdoses on the streets, their stories reflect the harrowing tragedy of an epidemic of homelessness.
“People who die while experiencing homelessness are some of the most neglected in society,” said Matt Fowle, University of Washington researcher and co-creator of the organization Homeless Deaths Count. “These are folks who most need our help and are least likely to receive it.”
Coronavirus was just one more hazard people struggling on the streets and in shelters faced in the last two years.
While the federal government makes no effort to count deaths nationally of people deemed homeless, the Guardian worked with Fowle to collect local data from large urban areas, where consistent year-to-year counts were available. The stark results stretch from Los Angeles and Seattle to New York, Philadelphia and Miami, via the heartland.
The Guardian’s analysis counted 18,000 people who died homeless over five years in encampments, on sidewalks or in shelters, including 5,000 deaths in 2020 alone. In most cases, the deaths were tracked by county coroners and medical examiners, but in a few locations only local non-profits kept track.”
New documents show FBI requested user data from Google after BLM protest attack
Newly unsealed documents show that the FBI served Google with a geofence warrant to find out which Android users were in the vicinity of a Seattle police union headquarters during a Black Lives Matter protest over the shooting of Jacob Blake.
The headquarters was the target of an attempted arson but did not sustain considerable damage. In response, the FBI asked Google to provide information about all the Android devices in the area using the controversial legal search technique called a geofence warrant. A geofence warrant allows law enforcement to request information about anyone within a certain perimeter or location.
Whereas other legal processes and subpoenas target specific suspects and individuals who law enforcement has probable cause to believe committed a particular crime, geofence warrants are broader and can capture a wide swath of individuals who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The former asks whether a specific person committed a specific crime whereas the latter still asks who committed the crime.
Read more from the Verge here.
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Disgraced former governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo is not ruling out a return to the political arena, according to two separate stories. Cuomo resigned in August 2021 after facing impeachment over a series of sexual harassment allegations and his mishandling of the pandemic. New York attorney general Leticia James found that the allegations by 11 women were credible and that Cuomo violated federal and state harassment laws.
However, both CNN and Bloomberg are reporting that Cuomo may consider a future run for office. In an interview with Bloomberg, Cuomo said he “never resigned because I said I did something wrong. I said, I’m resigning because I don’t want to be a distraction”. CNN sources said he may even consider challenging James for the attorney general seat in a Democratic primary this year.
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Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin’s first few months in office is already off to a rocky start. Youngkin has been accused of creating a “culture of toxicity” after aides in his office named, posted a picture of and tried to shame a high school boy who shared a news story about the governor.
Here’s more from my colleague Gloria Oladipo:
On Saturday, Ethan Lynne, 17 and, according to his Twitter biography, a Democrat, posted an article which suggested Youngkin could be trying to stop work to highlight the history of enslaved people at the Virginia executive mansion.
In response, Youngkin’s campaign account posted a picture of Lynne with the former governor Ralph Northam, next to a picture from Northam’s medical school yearbook of two men in racist costumes: one in Blackface and one in a Ku Klux Klan costume.
“Here’s a picture of Ethan with a man that had a Blackface/KKK photo in his yearbook,” Team Youngkin tweeted.
In 2019, Northam admitted being one of the men in the photograph, an admission he later recanted.
Virginia governors cannot serve consecutive terms. Youngkin beat the Democrat Terry McAuliffe, a former governor, in a bitter 2021 election in which the Republican made teaching about race and racism in US history a key campaign issue.
Amid outrage at an attack on a minor, the Team Youngkin tweet was deleted.
Speaking to the Washington Post, Lynne said: “A governor’s campaign account has attacked a minor – to me that was a new low … it was up for over 12 hours. I received no apology, no communication, nothing.”
On Monday, Youngkin said: “On Saturday night, an unauthorized tweet came from a campaign account. I regret that this happened and it shouldn’t have. I have addressed it with my team. We must continue to work to bring Virginians together. There is so much more that unites us than divides us.”
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Donald Trump says in a new statement that David Friedman, his former ambassador to Israel, has written “a great new book” about “how our foreign policy of ‘peace through strength’ brought about unprecedented support for Israel and once-in-a-lifetime peace agreements between Israel and five Muslim nations (with more to come) – the Abraham Accords”.
The book, Sledgehammer, is out tomorrow.
The Guardian has had a look, and found Friedman detailing what could have been a major embarrassment for Trump, caused by what Friedman describes as startlingly naive behaviour in a meeting with the Israeli president.
It isn’t clear whether Trump has read that bit yet.
Read more here:
Supreme court lets Alabama move forward with new congressional map
In a 5-4 vote, the supreme court put a hold on a lower court’s order requiring Alabama to redraw its congressional map. A three-judge-panel ruled in January that the state should have two districts and not one and that the current districts violate the Voting Rights Act by diluting the votes of the state’s Black residents. The supreme court granted Alabama Republicans’ request to put a hold on that order, which means the new congressional map will be in effect for this year’s elections.
Here’s more from NBC News:
In drawing Alabama’s new map, the Republican-controlled legislature maintained a single district in which Black voters are the majority — the seventh, which includes Birmingham and several counties along the state’s western border. In response to lawsuits, a panel of three federal judges said the map should add a second district “in which Black voters comprise a voting-age majority or something quite close to it.”
The panel, which included one judge appointed by Bill Clinton and two appointed by Donald Trump, said Black voters had less opportunity to elect their candidates of their choice to Congress.
An emergency application to the Supreme Court filed by Alabama Republican officials said drawing two minority districts would actually force the state to violate federal law.
“It will result in a map that can be drawn only by placing race first above race-neutral districting criterial, sorting and splitting voters across the state on the basis of race alone,” they said.
Read more here:
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Hi there, it’s Johana taking over the blog with some big tech news.
Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies, is stepping down from the board of Facebook’s parent company, Meta after 17 years. Thiel, Facebook’s longest serving board member and one of the largest donors to the Republican party, plans to focus on backing Trump allies in the November mid-term elections, according to the New York Times. He recently donated $10m each to the Senate campaigns of Blake Masters, who is running for a seat in Arizona, and JD Vance, who is running in Ohio. Masters is the chief operating officer of Thiel’s family office and Vance used to work at one of Thiel’s venture funds.
“Peter has been a valuable member of our board and I’m deeply grateful for everything he’s done for our company,” said Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Meta, in a statement. “Peter is truly an original thinker who you can bring your hardest problems and get unique suggestions.”
Thiel has long been a controversial figure on Facebook’s 10-person board, particularly as one of a few major tech figures who vocally supported Trump. Thiel, who served on Trump’s transition team, was seen by critics as a part of the reason Facebook did not take down Trump’s posts that violated its community standards. Thiel is a close confidante of Zuckerberg’s – he accompanied him to a private dinner with Trump in 2019 and has successfully advocated that he can withstand pressure to take political speech and ads off the platform.
But recently he’s publicly criticized Facebook’s content moderation decisions saying he’d “take QAnon and Pizzagate conspiracy theories any day over a Ministry of Truth”.
“It has been a privilege to work with one of the great entrepreneurs of our time,” Thiel said in a statement on Monday. “Mark Zuckerberg’s intelligence, energy and conscientiousness are tremendous. His talents will serve Meta well as he leads the company into a new era.”
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Today so far
It’s been a busy afternoon in Washington.
- Joe Biden and Olaf Scholz held a press conference following a meeting at the White House to coordinate their response to a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine. Both leaders insisted the nations were united and threatened crippling sanctions, though they offered no specifics on whether Berlin was willing to halt operations of Nord Stream 2 in the event of a possible attack.
- Biden said the controversial pipeline, which runs under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, was “not going to happen” in such a scenario. But he did not provide an explanation for his guarantee.
- Speaking earlier in the day, secretary of state Anthony Blinken delivered a similar message alongside European Commission vice president Josep Borrell. He said the US and its allies were “fully aligned” over how to address a potential Russian invasion.
- The New Jersey governor, Phil Murphy, announced that he was ending a statewide mask mandate for schools, saying the time had come to shift from a “pandemic to endemic phase of this virus.”
- Jen Psaki defended the White House’s decision not to fire Eric Lander, the president’s top science adviser, after an internal investigation concluded that he bullied and demeaned subordinates, even as she called the behavior “inappropriate”. He apologized to staff for his behavior.
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Biden: Nord Stream 2 'not going to happen' if Russia invades Ukraine
The first question to Biden is about Nord Stream 2. Did Chancellor Scholz pledge to halt Nord Stream 2 to if Putin invades? Scholz was vague on the particulars and wouldn’t explicitly say what Germany would do should Russia act.
Biden said should there be a Russian invasion, which he defined as “tanks or troops crossing the border” with Ukraine, “there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2, we will bring an end to it.”
Asked whether Scholz to committed to ending operations, Biden said: “I promise you we will be able to do it.”
“We have intensively prepare everything to be ready with the necessary sanction if there is a military aggression against Ukraine,” Scholz said.
In English, the German chancellor said: “We will be united. We will act together, and we will take all the necessary steps.”
Pressed on their ambiguity, Biden insisted that Germany was a “reliable partner” and Scholz insisted that the US and Germany were “united.”
“The notion that Nord Stream 2 would go forward with an invasion by the Russians is just not going to happen,” Biden said.
Asked if he had a message for Americans in Ukraine, Biden said his advice would be to “leave.”
“I think it would be wise to leave the country,” he said.
At the end of the press conference, Biden responded to a shouted question about whether he still believed there was a diplomatic off-ramp to the rising tensions. “The answer’s yes,” he said, but didn’t respond to the follow-up: “How?”
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Biden: US and Germany are 'jointly ready' to address Russian aggression
Following their meeting, Biden and Scholz are holding a joint press conference.
“If Russia makes a choice to further invade Ukraine, we are jointly ready and all of Nato is ready,” Biden said. He promised “swift and severe consequences” in the event of an incursion in Ukraine but stressed that the US prefers diplomacy.
“There’s no issue of global importance where Germany and the United States are not working together,” the president stressed.
Scholz, speaking in German, said the US and Germany agreed upon a set of responses, including sanctions, as fears of a Russian invasion mount.
“There will be a high price for Russia,” the German leader said, describing a potential Russian military aggression as a “serious threat to European security.” He said the message had been delivered clearly enough so that “even Russia understands now”.
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Last week, the Republican National Committee officially declared the assault on the riot and the events that preceded “legitimate political discourse.” It also acted to censure two members of the House GOP - Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois - who are participating in the January 6 investigation.
Several Republican senators have expressed their unease with the move, even as the lawmakers, leaders and officials in the party continue to minimize the assault and the attempt by Trump to overturn the election.
According to Politico, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, who has been critical of Trump’s role in the attack but voted to acquit the former president in the Senate impeachment trial, will address the RNC’s action tomorrow.
GOP Sen. Cornyn not thrilled with the RNC censuring Cheney and Kinzinger: “They did say in their resolution that the job was to win elections. I agree with that, but then they go onto to engage in actions that make that more challenging"
— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) February 7, 2022
McConnell says he will address tomorrow
The IRS announced it would “transition away” from using facial-recognition software to identify taxpayers accessing their accounts on the agency’s website after a bipartisan group of lawmakers raised security and civil liberties concerns.
The decision comes as the agency, already dealing with staffing shortages, faces daunting challenges this tax season related to the pandemic-era stimulus payments and the temporary expansion of the child tax credit. The agency said it would change how it verifies taxpayers’ identities using methods that do not involve facial recognition “over the coming weeks” in an effort to prevent “larger disruptions to taxpayers during filing season.”
The IRS takes taxpayer privacy and security seriously, and we understand the concerns that have been raised,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. “Everyone should feel comfortable with how their personal information is secured, and we are quickly pursuing short-term options that do not involve facial recognition.”
The agency said they transition “does not interfere with the taxpayer’s ability to file their return or pay taxes owed.”
“People should continue to file their taxes as they normally would,” it said.
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On the US approach to deterring Russian aggression, Psaki said the goal is to “make it more difficult for them to lay a predicate for invading Ukraine.”
“Our objective is to deny Russia the opportunity to use some of the tactics, sometimes some of the lies that they have done in the past to justify an invasion of Ukraine,” Psaki said.
She again affirmed the White House’s support Electoral Count Act reform, after Trump and his allies on Capitol Hill attempted to use ambiguity in the provision to subvert the election. But she said that it was not a substitute for voting rights reform to combat the wave of restrictions Republican-controlled legislatures have put in place ahead of the 2022 midterms.
During the Olympics, China chose a Uyghur cross-country skiier from the western Chinese region of Xinjiang to deliver the ceremonial flame. What did the White House make of it? “We can’t allow this to be a distraction from ... the human rights abuses,” Psaki said.
She was peppered with questions about Biden’s trip to Camp David this weekend and his deliberations over his choice to replace justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court. Psaki did not rule out the possibility the president would meet potential candidates during his trip to Camp David.
Psaki didn’t say whether Biden had consulted Anita Hill as he puts together a team to vet his future supreme court nominee.
Asked about the police killing of Amir Locke, who was fatally shot after officers executed a “no-knock” warrant, Psaki reaffirmed the White House’s support for the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act that is stalled in Congress. She said the bill would limit the use of no-knock warrants, and hoped members of Congress would act because the president is limited in what he can do unilaterally.
Psaki on police killing of Black man in Minneapolis: "We mourn the tragic death of Amir Locke and our thoughts and prayers are with his family."
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) February 7, 2022
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Asked again why Lander wasn’t fired, Psaki said Biden’s safe workplace pledge set in motion a process for investigating the complaints made against him. But Biden said he would fire on the spot anyone who was disrespectful to a colleague, so his continued employment is hard to square with that pledge.
“No one is suggesting that this behavior is acceptable,” Psaki said. “Corrective action was needed and we will monitor for compliance.” She noted that, as has been reported, he sent a note to his staff apologizing for his behavior and committing to do better in the future.”
She said it is the hope of the White House that Lander will “make changes.” She did not answer a question about whether the president has spoken to Lander since the investigation was completed.
Asked about the dissonant messages coming from Kyiv and Washington about a Russian invasion of Ukraine, Psaki said: “We’re ready either way for whatever decision President Putin might make.”
“We certainly would prefer a diplomatic solution. I think that’s everybody’s preference, everybody’s hope,” she said.
She encouraged reporters to ask chancellor Scholz about Germany’s views about the operations of Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which has been a major sticking point in the negotiations.
She urged states to continue following the CDC guidance to wear masks in school, despite actions by the New Jersey governor to end the requirement in his state.
Asked whether the White House should have taken more action against Eric Lander, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), after complaints of bullying and demeaning behavior were made against him, Psaki called his behavior was “inappropriate”. She said corrective actions were needed and that Lander would “be held to account on delivering on that.”
Does allowing him to keep his job undermine Biden’s pledge to fire employees who “disrespect” colleagues? Psaki said the president remains committed to having a “respectful work environment very seriously.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki started the press briefing by cheering on Team USA at the Olympics.
Pointing to her Team USA water bottle and pin, she said the US diplomatic boycott of the Olympics in Beijing did not take away from their support for the athletes competing for Team USA.
“We made a decision, the United States, not to send a diplomatic or official delegation to Beijing given the PRC’s ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses. That was a clear statement and policy made by our government,” she said.
But, she continued: “We’re watching from home. ...We’ll be rooting for US athletes even as we made a very important statement.”
Biden: US and Germany working 'in lockstep' to address Russian aggression
Moments ago, Joe Biden welcomed German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to the White House. Ahead of their meeting, Biden told reporters that the countries were “in lockstep” on confronting Russian aggression at the border with Ukraine.
“We’ve got a lot to talk about,” Biden said, listing China, climate change and the pandemic among the other issues on the agenda for the leaders to discuss.
Scholz called it “an important meeting at an important time” and said the US and Germany was working “intensely” to deter a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Reporters were ushered out of the room shortly thereafter. Neither leader responded to shouted question. They will hold a join press conference after their meeting. In the meantime, we will tune in for Psaki’s White House briefing. Stay tuned!
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Following up on an earlier post, New Jersey governor Phil Murphy formally announced his decision to end the statewide mask mandate for schools and child care centers during a briefing this afternoon.
Citing the state’s falling infection and hospitalization rates, he said the state could “responsibly take the step”.
The statewide mask mandate for schools and child care settings will be lifted effective March 7th.
— Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) February 7, 2022
We can responsibly take the step given the continuing drop in new cases and hospitalizations from Omicron, and the continued growth in vaccinations. pic.twitter.com/89CM3Fq4fz
“We are not going to manage Covid to zero. We have to learn how to live with Covid as we move from a pandemic to an endemic phase of this virus,” he said.
“We are optimistic that given the decreased severity of this new variant, and the continued increase in vaccinations, that we are finally nearing this inflection point.”
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To this day, only footsoldiers have paid a price for the riot at the Capitol last January 6. Politicians who spurred them on, praised them afterwards, and now incite further hatred with hallucinatory talk of “political prisoners” have remained smugly immune.
This could change in one case: the Republican congressman Madison Cawthorn, who was on the mall that fateful day, implored Trumpists to “fight,” and is now seeking re-election in North Carolina. His candidacy is being challenged on the basis of the 14th amendment. Passed after the civil war, it disqualifies from holding office anyone who has sworn allegiance to the constitution and then engages in insurrection.
Other democracies are comfortable not just with restricting individual rights to run for office, but with banning entire parties suspected of undermining democracy. Americans, by contrast, have been inclined to leave things to sort themselves out in the political process.
But here drastic measures are justified: citizens in a democracy have to accept being governed by politicians they disagree with; they don’t have to put up with politicians who start insurrections when things don’t go their way. Disqualification could have a salutary effect on the Republican party as such; and it might provide a model for banning Trump from holding office again – something that was on the table during the 2021 impeachment and endorsed by seven Republican senators at the time.
In North Carolina, citizens can challenge a candidate to prove they meet qualifications for Congress. Unlike the House committee investigating the events of January 6th, the board on elections could force a sitting member of Congress to testify about the role he played before, during, and after the insurrection.
In the end, his fate could resemble that of many Confederates after the civil war: not necessarily criminal punishment, but exclusion from exercising power.
Discussing with the Guardian attempts to ban his books from US school libraries, the Pulitzer prize-winning graphic novelist Art Spiegelman cited an unexpected exemplar for such politically motivated moves: Joe Manchin’s uncle.
“You know how Joe Manchin is a thorn in our side?” Spiegelman said. “His uncle, A Jamie Manchin, was the state treasurer of West Virginia in the 80s. He said that Garbage Pail Kids should be banned because they’re subverting children. It runs in his family.
“It reminds me that things keep changing, but we’re still dealing with permutations of the same struggles.”
Joe Manchin, a West Virginia senator, has frustrated progressives by standing in the way of attempts to pass Build Back Better, Joe Biden’s $1.75tn domestic spending plan, as well as voting rights protections and other policy priorities.
Here’s the full interview:
And here, for good measure, is Adam Gabbatt’s report from a Banned Book Club run by teens in Pennsylvania:
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Pressed again on whether the US’s strident warnings about Russia’s intentions could forestall a diplomatic solution, Borrell demurred, saying it’s important to warn of the risks while working to deter the worst from unfolding.
A second reporter followed up, asking whether the US strategy – declassifying intelligence about the Kremlin’s plans and stressing that Vladimir Putin could act at any point – was the most effective approach for deterring Russian aggression.
“This is not alarmism, this is simply the facts,” Blinken said. “We have to deal the facts.” He said the US was operating based on the fact that Russia had amassed tens of thousands of troops at the border and based on recent history, the invasion of Crimea in 2014 among them.
“We don’t believe that President Putin has made a decision,” Blinken said. “But he has put in place the capacity, should he so decide, to act very quickly against Ukraine in ways that would have terrible consequences for Ukraine, for Russia, but consequences also for all of us.”
Whatever Putin ultimately decides, Blinken said, he will find a Europe and United states that are “fully aligned, fully coordinated.”
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Taking a handful of questions, Blinken says the US and Ukraine still believe the Minsk agreement is the best path forward to resolving the conflict in the Donbas region. He said if Russia was serious about implementing this agreement, it would find eager partners in Ukraine, but said the Kremlin has not showed a “seriousness of purpose” yet.
“Ukraine is committed to Minsk if Russia is too,” he said.
Asked if the EU shares the US’ assessment that an invasion of Ukraine by Russia could be imminent, and if so, why it hasn’t used the same urgent language, Borrell said: “We share a strong concern about a risk that are accumulating at the Ukrainian-Russian border.
“We are living , to my understanding, [in] the most dangerous moment for the security of Europe [since] the end of the Cold War,” he continued, adding that there was “still room for diplomacy.”
“140,000 troops amassed at the border is not to go to have tea,” Borrell added. “So we have to increase our efforts in order to avoid a big risk.”
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Borrell said the US and EU partners have been in “speed-dial mode,” coordinating a response to the threats posed by Russia in Ukraine.
He stressed that the goal was to become carbon-neutral, while addressing the short-term security risks in the context of the “Russia and Crimea crisis.”
“Russia doesn’t hesitate to use the significant energy supplies to Europe as leverage for geopolitical gains,” he said. “And when gas prices in the European Union from 6 to 10x higher than they were one year ago...this has a major impact on consumers” and the economy.”
The Kremlin has repeatedly denied claims that is uses energy for geopolitical gains.
Borrell said it’s important for nations to diversify the sources of energy, and to do so by transitioning from fossil fuels to renewables. “It is the best way of facing the challenge of climate change.”
“We believe that the diplomatic way out of the crisis is still possible and this is our clear and first priory and that’s what we are investing all our efforts. But at the same time we remain firm in our resolve that further aggression against Ukraine would have... major consequences.
We hope for the best but prepare for the worst.
Should Russia continue on a path of aggression, European Union and United States actions will be closely aligned, including on sanctions.”
Blinken: US and EU are "fully aligned" over possible Russian offensive
Secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, speaking alongside the EU High Representative, Josep Borrell, said the US and its allies in Europe are acting “in unity” in response to Russian aggression and a potential conflict with Ukraine.
Blinken vowed “real and profound consequences should Russia choose to continue aggression”.
“We developed a high-impact, quick-action response that would inflict massive costs on the Russian economy and financial system including sanctions and significant export control,” Blinken said, adding that the EU is preparing “complementary” actions.
The nations were coordinating with countries and partners around the world about contingencies plans “in the event that Russia turns off the spigot or initiates a conflict that disrupts the flow of gas through Ukraine.” Those efforts include surge energy supplies and sharing energy reserves, he said.
“We and our allies and partners are united across the board,” Blinken stressed.
He opened his remarks by laying out the stakes, should Russia disrupt gas supplies.
“When Russia halted gas supplies over a dispute with Ukraine in 2009, people died from the cold. And when energy supplies fail, economies falter,” he said. “We’re determined to prevent that from happening and to mitigate the impact on energy supplies and prices should Russia choose to cut natural gas supplies to Europe more than it already has.”
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House Democrats have asked the IRS to “halt its plans” to use facial recognition technology on millions of Americans who use the agency’s website to pay taxes or access documents.
In a letter to the IRS Commissioner, Chuck Rettig, the lawmakers said they were “deeply concerned” about the IRS’s deal with ID.me, a face-recognition company, and asked the agency to scrap the deal.
We're deeply concerned about @IRSnews's plan to employ facial recognition technology through https://t.co/ZTpiACm8Kp. Our letter with @RepAnnaEshoo, @RepJayapal, & @RepYvetteClarke urging the IRS to halt its plan and consult with stakeholders before deciding on an alternative. ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/ILhzGnO3uQ
— Rep. Ted Lieu (@RepTedLieu) February 7, 2022
“Millions of Americans use the IRS website annually for a variety of vital functions, and, as a result, each of them will be forced to trust a private contractor with some of their most sensitive data,” the lawmakers, Ted Lieu, Anna Eshoo, Pramila Jayapal and Yvette Clarke, said in a letter. “We urge the IRS to halt this plan and consult with a wide variety of stakeholders before deciding on an alternative.”
The software also “discriminates against those unable to afford reliable broadband and the required video capabilities,” they write.
The letter comes amid bipartisan concern over the agency’s plans to use a third-party contractor to collect sensitive data. Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat, also sent a letter to Rettig on Monday asking the agency to reverse the decision to use facial recognition software.
Americans shouldn’t have to sacrifice their privacy for security. Full stop. Today I’m calling on the IRS to end its plan to require facial recognition for online accounts. pic.twitter.com/cggpAnc7va
— Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) February 7, 2022
And last week, a bipartisan group of lawmakers sent the agency three different letters demanding answers about its plans to require all IRS.gov account-holders to register with ID.me by the this summer, according to Cyberscoop.
Tennessee governor Bill Lee, a Republican, gave final approval to the state’s new congressional map on Monday, a plan that increases the number of Republican-controlled seats in the state’s already heavily GOP congressional delegation.
The map notably wipes out the state’s 5th congressional district, a reliably Democratic one that includes all of Nashville. The new plan slices voters there up into three, far-flung solidly Republican districts. The plan also slices communities of non-white voters in Nashville and attaches them to districts that are overwhelmingly white, making it harder for them to have their voices heard.
Congressman Jim Cooper, a Democrat who has represented the district for decades, announced he was retiring right after Republicans passed the map, saying it would make it virtually impossible for him to win.
Republicans already represent six of Tennessee’s seven congressional districts. Under the new plan, they will represent seven of the eight.
Tennessee is the 30th state to complete redistricting. Courts recently have ordered lawmakers in Alabama, North Carolina, and Ohio to redraw congressional districts, saying they were too distorted and unfair.
Blogger note: to understand how the new map came to be, check out this excellent visual explainer by Sam and Andrew Witherspoon.
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In a new report for the Guardian, Peter Stone spoke to former federal prosecutors who said Trump’s comments at a rally in Texas, during which he dangle pardons for insurrectionists and called for protests if indicted, could help make a case for obstruction of justice against the former president.
Taken together, veteran prosecutors say Trump’s comments seemed to reveal that the former president now feels more legal jeopardy from the three inquiries in Atlanta, Washington and New York, all of which have accelerated since the start of 2022. ...
Dennis Aftergut, a former federal prosecutor who is of counsel to Lawyers Defending American Democracy, told the Guardian that Trump “may have shot himself in the foot” with the comments. “Criminal intent can be hard to prove, but when a potential defendant says something easily seen as intimidating or threatening to those investigating the case it becomes easier,” Aftergut said.
Aftergut added that having proclaimed “his support for the insurrectionists, Trump added evidence of his corrupt intent on January 6 should the DoJ prosecute him for aiding the seditious conspiracy, or for impeding an official proceeding of Congress”.
Likewise, a former US attorney in Georgia, Michael Moore, said Trump’s comments could “potentially intimidate witnesses and members of a grand jury”, noting that it is a felony in Georgia to deter a witness from testifying before a grand jury.
Keisha Lance Bottoms announced that she was joining CNN as a political commentator months after the former mayor of Atlanta surprised political observers last year by declining to seek re-election.
I am thrilled to officially announce that I have joined @CNN as a Political Commentator. As a @FAMU_1887 student, I applied for the coveted VJ program at @CNN and didn’t get in. To now join the team nearly 30 yrs later is a reminder that a dream deferred is never a dream denied.
— Keisha Lance Bottoms (@KeishaBottoms) February 7, 2022
Bottoms, considered a rising star in Democratic politics who Biden considered as his running mate, announced the news on Twitter, saying it had been a longtime dream to work at the network.
As a college student at Florida A&M University in 1987, she said she applied to work at CNN as a video journalist and wasn’t accepted.
“To now join the team nearly 30 yrs later is a reminder that a dream deferred is never a dream denied,” she wrote.
“Union Joe” – a moniker Biden said he earned after decades of support for organized labor – promised to be the “most pro-union president” in history.
Now, with the pro-union Pro Act stalled in the Senate, he’s trying to make good on that promise.
The Biden administration on Monday laid out 70 recommendations to encourage union membership in the US, including making it easier for many federal employees to join unions and eliminating barriers for union organizers to talk with workers on federal property, Steven Greenhouse reports for the Guardian.
The recommendations were compiled in a report by the 13-member White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, chaired by vice president Kamala Harris.
According to Greenhouse, the report “reiterates Biden’s robust backing of unions. “At its core,” the report says, “it is our administration’s belief that unions benefit all of us.”
“Researchers have found that today’s union households earn up to 20% more than non-union households, with an even greater union advantage for workers with less formal education and workers of color,” the report states.
Read about the recommendations here:
Updated
Deciding to pick the inexperienced and extreme Sarah Palin as his running mate – a choice many say ultimately facilitated the rise of Donald Trump, threatening US democracy itself – John McCain mimed rolling a pair of dice and said: “Fuck it. Let’s do it.”
The pithy vignette is revealed in a new book, Insurgency: How Republicans Lost Their Party and Got Everything They Ever Wanted, by Jeremy W Peters, a New York Times reporter. It was reported by Axios.
McCain, a Republican senator from Arizona, enjoyed a reputation as a political maverick.
He sometimes tried to deny it, for example in 2010 telling the reporter David Margolick: “I never considered myself a maverick. I consider myself a person who serves the people of Arizona to the best of his abilities.”
But that earned mockery – Jon Stewart said it was “like Rudy Giuliani coming out and going, ‘Hey, I never mentioned 9/11! What are you talking about?’” – and the new story from Peters only adds to the impression McCain was happy to take political risks, sometimes to the detriment of himself and those around him.
Full story:
New Jersey governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat, is expected to lift the state’s longstanding school mask mandate for students and employees, according to the New York Times, and confirmed by local outlets.
Early in the pandemic, Murphy imposed some of the most stringent coronavirus restrictions as the virus ripped through the region. The announcement, expected on Monday, will end the requirement requiring students students, staff and visitors to the school to wear face coverings beginning on 7 March.
The decision comes as the US enters a new phase of the pandemic, according to health officials, where the threat of the virus will continue to be present, but will not disrupt every day life as it did during the last two years due to the widespread availability of vaccines that protect against the worst outcomes.
Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations surged in New Jersey in December and early January amid the Omicron wave, but have dropped precipitously since then. More than 900,000 Americans have died from the virus.
It remains unclear if individual school districts can implement their own mask policies. Schools have been on the frontlines of the culture wars over the pandemic, pitting parents, teachers and local officials against one another in debates over remote learning and masking in school.
Murphy will hold his weekly coronavirus briefing at 1pm, when it is expected he will make the announcement and provide more details.
Updated
Donald Trump was never one for following protocol. In fact, he seemed to delight in flouting the very rules and regulations that guided his predecessors throughout their time in office. That applied to the retention of his presidential records.
According to a new report from the Washington Post, presidential records including “love letters” from Kim Jong-un had to be retrieved from Mar-a-Lago after Trump “improperly removed” them from the White House.
According to the Post, advisers to the former president “denied any nefarious intent and said the boxes contained mementos, gifts, letters from world leaders and other correspondence.
“The items included correspondence with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, which Trump once described as ‘love letters’, as well as a letter left for his successor by Barack Obama, according to two people familiar with the contents.”
The Archives and a Trump spokesman did not comment. The records were returned to the National Archives in January, the Post said.
Trump’s treatment of White House records has been under the spotlight recently, as a House investigation continues into the January 6 insurrection he incited.
Trump went to the supreme court but failed to stop records relevant to January 6 being transferred to the House committee. Some records the panel obtained were reportedly ripped up and taped back together – according to Trump’s widely reported practice.
Lindsay Chervinski, a presidential historian, told the Post: “The only way that a president can really be held accountable long term is to preserve a record about who said what, who did what, what policies were encouraged or adopted, and that is such an important part of the long-term scope of accountability – beyond just elections and campaigns.”
Lack of access to documents about issues of national security could “pose a real concern if the next administration is flying blind without that information”, Chervinski said.
Trump’s correspondence with Kim, during attempts to negotiate with the North Korean leader, was the subject of widespread conjecture – and ridicule.
In September 2018, Trump told a rally in West Virginia: “We fell in love. No, really. He wrote me beautiful letters.”
The Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward obtained 25 such letters for his second book on the Trump White House, Rage. His publisher, Simon & Schuster, described “an extraordinary diplomatic minuet”.
On Monday, Stephanie Murphy, a Florida Democrat who sits on the 6 January committee, told the Post of Trump’s handling of records: “That they didn’t follow rules is not a shock. As for how this development relates to the committee’s work, we have different sources and methods for obtaining documents and information that we are seeking.”
Read the full story here.
Updated
Biden to meet with Scholz amid tensions with Russia over Ukraine
Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.
Joe Biden will meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz this afternoon as tensions remain high over Russia’s troop build up at the border with Ukraine.
The leaders will hold a join press conference at 3.15pm, after their meeting. Scholz told the Washington Post there would be a “united and decisive” response from the west in the event of a Russian attack on Ukraine, and said Germany was willing to consider blocking the operations of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which has been a major sticking point in the sanctions negotiations.
This comes as French president Emmanuel Macron, who spoke to Biden on Sunday, will visit Moscow on Monday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki will brief reporters at 1.45.
Later this evening, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will hold a moment of silence for the 900,000 people who died from Covid-19.
