Today in US politics
That’s it from the live blog today. Here is how the day unfolded in US politics:
Hard-right Republicans in the Senate are carrying out a talking filibuster to protest the $95bn foreign aid package making its way through the upper chamber. The senators complained that Congress should not approve more foreign aid until lawmakers pass a bill to address the situation at the US-Mexico border, even though those same Republicans rejected a bipartisan border deal just last week. Despite the Republicans’ tactics, the foreign aid bill is expected to pass the Senate later this week.
Donald Trump’s criticism of Nato sparked alarm and outrage on both sides of the Atlantic. Speaking in South Carolina over the weekend, Trump argued some Nato members did not contribute enough money to the alliance and suggested he would allow Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to those nations. Nikki Haley, Trump’s rival in the Republican presidential primary, accused him of embracing “a thug who kills his opponents”, referring to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
European leaders presented a united front in response to Trump’s criticism of Nato, emphasizing that the alliance remains essential to global security. Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, said during a visit to Paris today, “It is probably here in Paris that the words from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas resonate most clearly: ‘All for one, and one for all.’”
Defense secretary Lloyd Austin is expected to resume his duties tomorrow, after being hospitalized yesterday because of a bladder issue. Austin’s doctors said in a statement that the cabinet secretary had undergone non-surgical procedures to address the bladder issue and was expected to successfully recover.
Trump made an appearance at a court hearing in Florida, where his legal team was presenting arguments in connection to the classified documents case. Trump faces 40 criminal charges in the case, including 32 counts of unlawful retention of national defense information.
The live blog will be back tomorrow with more updates from Washington and across the country. See you then.
Updated
Israel is facing growing international pressure over its intention to launch an all-out military assault on the city of Rafah, in southern Gaza, the Guardian’s Emine Sinmaz, Harriet Sherwood, Lisa O’Carroll and Ashifa Kassam report:
On Monday, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, congratulated the soldiers who mounted the dramatic rescue of two Israeli hostages in the city, where more than 1 million Palestinians have fled seeking shelter, describing it as a “perfect operation”. The Israeli military launched airstrikes on nearby buildings to support the rescue, killing at least 67 Palestinians. Hamas later claimed that other Israeli hostages were also killed in the bombardment.
Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, furiously rounded on the Israeli leader amid growing international alarm at the rising death toll in Gaza – which reached 28,340 on Monday – saying that Netanyahu “doesn’t listen to anyone”.
Responding to Netanyahu’s statement that refugees in Rafah would be evacuated from the area before a major military offensive, Borrell said: “Where? To the moon? Where are they going to evacuate these people to?”
Borrell’s sentiments were echoed in more diplomatic language by David Cameron, the British foreign secretary, who said: “It really, we think, is impossible to see how you can fight a war among these people, there is nowhere for them to go.
Read the Guardian’s full report:
Joe Biden has just welcomed the king and queen of Jordan to the White House, where Biden and King Abdullah II will soon address reporters as well.
As he welcomed the king and queen, reporters shouted questions at Biden about special counsel Robert Hur’s report on the president’s handling of classified documents and the war in Gaza.
Biden ignored most of the questions thrown his way, but when asked whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu listens to his advice on the war, Biden replied, “Everybody does.”
A new NBC News report suggests Biden has grown increasingly frustrated with Netanyahu’s military actions in Gaza, and the US president has privately referred to the Israeli prime minister as an “asshole”.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Biden said he considered Netanyahu’s response to the Hamas attacks on 7 October to be “over the top”.
Austin to resume his duties tomorrow, doctors say
Defense secretary Lloyd Austin is expected to resume his duties tomorrow after being hospitalized for a bladder issue, Drs John Maddox and Gregory Chesnut of Walter Reed medical center said in a new statement.
“Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III underwent non-surgical procedures under general anesthesia to address his bladder issue. We anticipate a successful recovery and will closely monitor him overnight,” the doctors said.
“A prolonged hospital stay is not anticipated. We anticipate the Secretary will be able to resume his normal duties tomorrow. The current bladder issue is not expected to change his anticipated full recovery. His cancer prognosis remains excellent.”
The Pentagon said yesterday that Austin had been admitted to the critical care unit of Walter Reed after showing “symptoms suggesting an emergent bladder issue”. His deputy, Kathleen Hicks, had briefly assumed his duties as he recovered.
Updated
European leaders presented a united front in response to Donald Trump’s alarming criticism of Nato over the weekend, the Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh reports:
Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, said on a visit to Paris on Monday that there was “no alternative” to the EU and the transatlantic alliance before a summit in which he discussed deepening defence relationships with the French president, Emmanuel Macron.
“It is probably here in Paris that the words from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas resonate most clearly: ‘All for one, and one for all,’” said Tusk, in a thinly veiled riposte to the former US president and frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination.
On Monday, some European leaders were openly critical of Trump. On a visit to Cyprus, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany’s president, said: “These statements are not responsible, and they help Russia.”
Others were more nuanced. David Cameron, the UK foreign secretary, said Trump’s remarks were unhelpful: “Of course we want all countries, like us, to spend 2% [of GDP], but I think what was said was not a sensible approach.”
Read the Guardian’s full report:
Senator Mike Lee, a Republican of Utah and another vocal critic of the $95bn foreign aid package, took to the floor to continue the talking filibuster of the bill.
Attacking Senate leaders of both parties, Lee argued that the process of bringing the bill up for a vote had robbed lawmakers of the opportunity to help shape the proposal.
“Very often we consolidate power in the hands of the few. Legislative leaders put together a bill, a bill very much like this – in fact, this very bill – and then nobody allows, apparently by agreement, for anybody to get votes on anything,” Lee said. “This is not how it’s supposed to work at all.”
It’s worth noting that the bipartisan border and national security bill, which Senate Republicans blocked from advancing last week, was the result of months of negotiations between members of both parties.
After that bill was blocked, this standalone foreign aid package was introduced because Republicans made clear that they would not support the border provisions in the bipartisan deal. Hard-right Republicans like Lee are now insisting that they will not back any bill that does not include border provisions.
Even as some Republicans express alarm over Donald Trump’s criticism of Nato, other members of the party have shrugged off the former president’s suggestion that member nations should not be defended if they do not contribute enough money to the alliance, Martin Pengelly reports:
A leading Republican senator said Donald Trump was “simply ringing the warning bell” when he caused global alarm by declaring he would encourage Russia to attack Nato allies who did not pay enough to maintain the alliance, as Trump’s party closed ranks behind its presumptive presidential nominee.
“Nato countries that don’t spend enough on defense, like Germany, are already encouraging Russian aggression and President Trump is simply ringing the warning bell,” Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a former soldier, told the New York Times.
“Strength, not weakness, deters aggression. Russia invaded Ukraine twice under Barack Obama and Joe Biden, but not under Donald Trump.”
Cotton was referring to the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
As president between 2017 and 2021, Trump was widely held to have shown alarming favour, and arguably subservience, to Vladimir Putin.
Read the Guardian’s full report:
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended Joe Biden’s choice not to speak at the Super Bowl during a press conference on Monday.
“We think there are different ways to communicate with the American people,” said Jean-Pierre. She also pushed back against the idea of the president taking a test to demonstrate his cognitive acuity amid increased focus on Biden’s memory after a report by special counsel Robert Hur suggested his memory was slipping.
“He is sharp. He is on top of things,” said Jean-Pierre.
Updated
Rand Paul launches filibuster in protest at foreign aid package
Rand Paul has launched a talking filibuster in protest of the $95bn foreign aid package making its way through the Senate, $60bn of which would be sent to Ukraine and $14bn of which would be directed to Israel. In a rambling speech, Paul addressed disparate topics like Covid-19 vaccinations and immigration.
On the topic of foreign aid, Paul focused on bipartisan support for the military spending, invoking the popular idea in pro-Trump circles of a “uniparty” controlled by establishment Democrats and Republicans alike. “Really, there only is one party when you get down to it,” said Paul. “This is a secret you’re not supposed to expose in Washington.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY): “Open the champagne, pop the cork! The Senate Democrat leader and the Republican leader are on their way to Kyiv! … They’re taking your money to Kyiv! They didn’t have much time — really no time and no money — to do anything about our border.” pic.twitter.com/sKxe5m13zb
— The Recount (@therecount) February 12, 2024
Paul’s efforts will not likely affect the passage of the aid bill in the Senate, which currently has enough votes to pass. It is unclear if the same support exists in the House.
Updated
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
Senator Rand Paul, a Republican of Kentucky, is holding a talking filibuster to protest the $95bn foreign aid package making its way through the upper chamber. The Senate is expected to hold another procedural vote on the bill this evening. The bill, which includes billions of dollars for Ukraine and Israel, cleared another procedural hurdle yesterday in a bipartisan vote of 67 to 27, and a final vote is expected in the coming days. Despite Paul’s tactics, the bill will likely pass the Senate this week.
Donald Trump’s criticism of Nato sparked alarm and outrage on both sides of the Atlantic. Speaking in South Carolina over the weekend, Trump argued some Nato members do not contribute enough money to the alliance and suggested he would allow Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to those nations. Nikki Haley, Trump’s rival in the Republican presidential primary, accused him of embracing “a thug who kills his opponents”, referring to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
Defense secretary Lloyd Austin is back in the hospital. The Pentagon said yesterday that Austin was brought to Walter Reed medical center in connection to “symptoms suggesting an emergent bladder issue”. He has been admitted to the critical care unit, and his deputy, Kathleen Hicks, has assumed his duties for the time being.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Rand Paul plans talking filibuster over foreign aid package
The $95bn foreign aid package making its way through the Senate cleared another procedural hurdle yesterday, and it appears increasingly likely that the chamber will be able to pass the bill, but one of its critics is doing everything he can to delay that outcome.
In a floor speech delivered this afternoon, the Senate majority leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York, implored his colleagues to pass the funding bill as quickly as possible.
“By now, we have taken numerous procedural votes that prove beyond doubt that there’s strong support behind this bill,” Schumer said. “It’s time to finish the job and get this critical bill passed.”
But Senator Rand Paul, a Republican of Kentucky who ardently opposes the aid package, has indicated he will use every tool at his disposal to delay the final vote.
Paul said on X this afternoon, “Talking filibuster begins in earnest this afternoon!”
Talking filibuster begins in earnest this afternoon!
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) February 12, 2024
The next procedural votes are scheduled for 8.30pm ET this evening, and a final vote is expected on Wednesday, barring any kind of last-minute agreement to fast track the bill.
Given that 18 Republicans supported advancing the bill yesterday, it seems like the bill will ultimately pass, despite Paul’s tactics. But the bill’s prospects in the House, where Republicans hold a narrow majority, remain deeply unclear.
Senator JD Vance, a Republican of Ohio who ardently opposes sending additional money to Ukraine, is trying to argue that the foreign aid package under consideration in the Senate is a trap to impeach Donald Trump.
In a memo sent to his colleagues, Vance noted Trump’s first impeachment centered on allegations that the then-president withheld roughly $400m of aid from Ukraine in an attempt to pressure the Ukrainian president into launching an investigation of Joe Biden.
Vance warned that, if Trump wins the presidential race in November, Democrats would again try to impeach him if he moves to withhold funds from Ukraine. The foreign aid package making its way through the Senate includes $60bn for Ukraine, and some of those funds do not expire until well into 2025.
“The supplemental represents an attempt by the foreign policy blob/deep state to stop President Trump from pursuing his desired policy, and if he does so anyways, to provide grounds to impeach him and undermine his administration,” Vance wrote. “All Republicans should oppose its passage.”
In a procedural vote on the funding package yesterday, 18 Republicans supported the bill’s advancement, so it seems unlikely that all of Vance’s colleagues will agree with his assessment.
Donald Trump is attempting to dissuade Taylor Swift form endorsing Joe Biden, as far-right conspiracy theories swirl around the pop star and her partner, the Guardian’s Chris Michael reports:
Donald Trump, who attempted to overturn the democratic vote of the American people in 2020, on Sunday accused the pop star Taylor Swift of being “disloyal” should she endorse Joe Biden for president.
With the rightwing conspiracy theory machine fretting that Swift is a Pentagon plant whose relationship with the Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, and his team’s victory yesterday in the Super Bowl, was designed to give Swift a platform to swing the election for Biden, Trump weighed in with his own thoughts.
He said there was “no way she could endorse Crooked Joe Biden” and would never be “disloyal to the man who made her so much money”.
Trump said Swift and other artists benefited from the Music Modernization Act, which helped performing artists more easily earn royalties and licensing fees through music streaming services, and which was passed during his presidency.
Swift endorsed Biden in the 2020 race, though she has yet to support anyone publicly in the latest campaign.
Biden’s campaign had some fun with the conspiracy theories, tweeting after the Chiefs victory: “Just like we drew it up,” along with a photo of “Dark Brandon”, a rightwing meme of Biden looking demonic that his supporters have appropriated as their own.
Read the Guardian’s full report:
Reporters spotted Donald Trump arriving this morning at the Florida courthouse where the former president’s legal team is participating in a hearing in the classified documents case.
Some of Trump’s supporters gathered on a street corner to cheer on the former president, who faces 40 criminal charges in the case. Those charges include 32 counts of unlawful retention of national defense information, after Trump allegedly stored classified documents in unsecured rooms at his Mar-a-Lago resort and refused to return them to federal authorities.
Former President Trump arrives at federal court in Fort Pierce, FL for a closed-door hearing in the case charging him with mishandling classified documents pic.twitter.com/4GfKxX9DWm
— Aaron Katersky (@AaronKatersky) February 12, 2024
Trump attends court hearing in documents case
Donald Trump is in Florida today for a court hearing in the criminal case that accuses the former president of mishandling classified information, the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports:
Trump is attending a court hearing on Monday where his lawyers will present their defense theories to the judge presiding in the criminal case over his retention of classified documents and obstruction of justice, according to two people familiar with his plans.
The presence of the former president in the courtroom could raise the stakes for the US district judge, Aileen Cannon, as she decides whether prosecutors in the office of special counsel Jack Smith should be permitted to withhold or redact certain classified documents that will be turned over in discovery.
The hearing taking place behind closed doors at federal district court in Fort Pierce, Florida, started at 9.30am and is being conducted “ex parte”, meaning prosecutors and Trump’s lawyers will have separate sessions to make their arguments to the judge.
Read the Guardian’s full report:
The House majority leader, Republican Steve Scalise of Louisiana, will return to Capitol Hill tomorrow after undergoing cancer treatment in recent weeks.
The House speaker, Republican Mike Johnson of Louisiana, welcomed Scalise back with a tweet noting that the majority leader was now in remission.
“We’re grateful the House will be welcoming back this week my good brother and fellow Louisianan @SteveScalise, who is now in complete remission from cancer,” Johnson said on X. “Looking forward to having him back in the trenches this week!”
We’re grateful the House will be welcoming back this week my good brother and fellow Louisianan @SteveScalise, who is now in complete remission from cancer.
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) February 12, 2024
Steve is a fighter and God has answered our prayers. Looking forward to having him back in the trenches this week! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/ciMzrgLAxI
Scalise’s return will probably allow Republicans to impeach the secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas, after the first House vote failed last week in a vote of 216 to 215. The vote was initially tied, and one Republican, Blake Moore of Utah, switched his vote to allow the matter to be taken up again later. Scalise is expected to provide the tie-breaking vote to impeach Mayorkas.
Speaking to NBC News’ Kristen Walker yesterday, Mayorkas dismissed Republicans’ allegations that he failed to enforce the law and violated the public’s trust.
“They’re baseless allegations, Kristen, and that’s why I’m really not distracted by them. I’m focused on the work of the Department of Homeland Security,” Mayorkas said.
Even if the House does impeach Mayorkas, Senate Democrats will certainly be able to prevent him from being removed from office, so the cabinet secretary will not be out of a job anytime soon.
Updated
Finnish president says to Europe must ensure 'we do our part' after Trump criticizes Nato
Finland’s newly elected president, Alexander Stubb, has said Nato’s newest member should “remain calm” in the face of Donald Trump’s criticism of the alliance, the Guardian’s Jon Henley reports:
Stubb, a conservative former prime minister who on Sunday narrowly won the presidential election with 51.5% of the vote, said US election campaigns were “very different from Finnish elections, and the rhetoric used is quite a lot stronger”.
He told a press conference on Monday: “I think at this stage it is best to remain calm and focus on building our Nato membership.” Finland won admission to Nato in April after a historic policy U-turn following decades of military non-alignment.
But Stubb said Trump was right to say Nato’s members had pledged to spend 2% of GDP on defence. “We have to make sure we in Europe do our part in Nato,” he said, noting that Finland – which shares an 832-mile border with Russia – had exceeded that target last year.
He said he wanted Finland to have a decisive role in Nato, “in the core of decision-making, sitting around the tables where decisions are made”, adding that Helsinki “can’t have a relationship [withMoscow] until Russia ends its war and aggression” in Ukraine.
“We don’t have a political relationship with Russia right now. I don’t see it improving anytime soon,” Stubb – who officially take up his new offic on 1 March – said. He said he aimed to continue with his predecessor Sauli Niinistö’s the line in continuing to offer “decisive support” to Ukraine.
Updated
Biden attacks Netanyahu in private conversations with donors – report
Joe Biden has reportedly been venting his frustration with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in private conversations with campaign donors.
According to NBC News, Biden has privately said that Netanyahu is “giving him hell”, criticizing the Israeli leader for refusing to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza. Three people familiar with Biden’s comments said the US president has described Netanyahu as an “asshole”.
“He just feels like this is enough,” one anonymous source told NBC News. “It has to stop.”
The report comes as Biden has started voicing more public criticism of Netanyahu’s actions in Gaza, where more than 28,000 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Biden said he considered Netanyahu’s response to the Hamas attacks on 7 October to be “over the top”.
Biden and Netanyahu spoke over the phone yesterday, and the White House said in its readout of the call, “[The president] called for urgent and specific steps to increase the throughput and consistency of humanitarian assistance to innocent Palestinian civilians. And he reaffirmed his view that a military operation in Rafah should not proceed without a credible and executable plan for ensuring the safety of and support for the more than one million people sheltering there.”
Even as Biden speaks out against Netanyahu’s leadership, his administration continues to support financial aid for Israel. Biden had encouraged Congress to pass a border and national security bill that included $14bn in security assistance for Israel. That proposal failed in the Senate, but a separate bill with the same level of aid for Israel is now making its way through the upper chamber. Biden is expected to sign the legislation if it reaches his desk.
Updated
Robert F Kennedy Jr apologized for a presidential campaign commercial during Sunday’s Super Bowl that alluded to his uncle John F Kennedy’s successful 1960 White House run, the Guardian’s Ramon Antonio Vargas reports:
“I’m so sorry if the Super Bowl advertisement caused anyone in my family pain,” Kennedy wrote on social media late on Sunday. He said the ad was created by American Values 2024, a pro-Kennedy political action committee (Pac), “without any involvement or approval” from his presidential campaign.
Nonetheless, the commercial remained pinned to the top of his X page, directly above his apology.
The commercial – which cost $7m – was criticized by many observers. It featured the same lyrics of “Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy for me” that JFK’s campaign used in a commercial ahead of his victory over Richard Nixon.
A speechwriter for another of Kennedy’s late uncles – former US senator Ted Kennedy – said the ad constituted intellectual theft.
Read the Guardian’s full report:
New York special election to replace George Santos being held on Tuesday
New York’s third congressional district will hold a special election tomorrow to determine who will serve out the remainder of George Santos’ term, after the Republican congressman was indicted on fraud charges and expelled from the House.
Former Democratic congressman Tom Suozzi is running against local politician Mazi Pilip, and much of the race has focused on the issue of immigration, as the Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt reported earlier this month.
Suozzi told MSNBC this morning, “If you want to fix things in Washington, DC, I’m offering you an antidote to try and come together and say, ‘Let’s stop all the BS and let’s actually talk about what the people care about.’”
If Suozzi can pull off a victory, his election will further cut into Republicans’ narrow House majority. As of now, Republicans hold 219 House seats, while Democrats hold 212.
The House speaker, Republican Mike Johnson of Louisiana, has already struggled to govern with his narrow majority, and that task could become even more difficult with a Suozzi victory.
Although a Republican won the seat in 2022, Suozzi told MSNBC that he was confident he could defeat the “Republican machine,” saying, “It’s a powerful machine, but I’ve beat them before, and we’re going to beat them again tomorrow.”
Updated
A county in northern California has lurched to the far right in recent years, and voters there hope a recall election can force more change, the Guardian’s Dani Anguiano reports:
In 2022, 5,000 voters, angry about Covid-era health restrictions, ousted a moderate Republican official in Shasta county, California. The vote helped put the rural region, in the state’s north, on the map for extremist far-right politics.
In the two years since, the ultra-conservative majority that controls the county’s governing board has attempted to upend the voting system and spread conspiracy theories that elections were being rigged. They moved to allow people to carry firearms in public buildings in violation of state law and offered the county’s top job to the leader of a California secessionist group.
Now, residents frustrated by the county’s recent governance hope another recall will force a change. They’re aiming to oust Kevin Crye, a far-right county supervisor who has been in office for just a year.
Read Dani’s full report:
Nikki Haley has released a new digital ad criticizing Donald Trump over his record of disparaging military veterans and their families.
The ad reminds viewers that Trump reportedly referred to fallen military soldiers as “losers” and “suckers” while he was president. Trump also mocked the late Senator John McCain, who was a prisoner of war for five years in Vietnam, by saying, “I like people who weren’t captured.”
Over the weekend, Trump also questioned why Haley’s husband, Michael Haley, was absent from the campaign trail. Michael Haley, an officer in the South Carolina army national guard, is currently deployed in Africa, which Haley frequently tells voters at campaign events.
Haley’s national spokesperson, Olivia Perez-Cubas, said of the ad, “Donald Trump has a long track record of insulting our veterans. He has no business being commander in chief.”
Watch the full ad:
Updated
As millions of Americans gathered with family and friends to watch the Kansas City Chiefs win the Super Bowl last night, Joe Biden had a complaint to voice about “shrinkflation”, the Guardian’s Jasper Jolly reports:
Biden has criticised food companies for alleged “shrinkflation”, making products smaller while keeping prices the same, in a video to mark the Super Bowl.
The US president criticised big consumer brands for a shrinkflation “rip-off” on Sunday night and said the “American public is tired of being played for suckers”.
He added: “Some companies are trying to pull a fast one by shrinking the products little by little and hoping you won’t notice.”
American football’s blue riband event attracts a huge audience in the world’s wealthiest country, and advertisers flock to market their products. Sunday’s game was won by the Kansas City Chiefs, who beat the San Francisco 49ers in a dramatic last-play comeback.
Read Jasper’s full report:
Updated
Austin admitted to the critical care unit for bladder issue
Defense secretary Lloyd Austin has been admitted to the critical care unit at Walter Reed medical center, according to a statement released by the Pentagon last night.
Austin’s doctors said the cabinet secretary was being treated for “symptoms suggesting an emergent bladder issue”, but they noted that his overall prognosis remains encouraging.
“At this time, it is not clear how long Secretary Austin will remain hospitalized,” said Dr John Maddo and Dr Gregory Chesnut of Walter Reed medical center.
“The current bladder issue is not expected to change his anticipated full recovery. His cancer prognosis remains excellent. Updates on the Secretary’s condition will be provided as soon as possible.”
While Austin remains hospitalized, his deputy, Kathleen Hicks, has assumed his duties, as my colleague Ed Helmore reports:
Updated
Nikki Haley among Republicans to criticize Trump's attack on Nato
Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.
Donald Trump continues to attract widespread outrage in response to his disparaging comments about Nato over the weekend. Speaking at a rally in South Carolina, Trump complained that some Nato members were not contributing enough money to the alliance and suggested he would allow Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to those nations.
The comments shocked and alarmed leaders on both sides of the Atlantic. Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said Trump’s outburst “undermines all of our security, including that of the US, and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk”. A White House spokesperson attacked the comments as “appalling and unhinged”.
But perhaps the most surprising reaction came from fellow Republicans, a number of whom echoed the criticism of Trump’s comments. Speaking to CBS News, Nikki Haley, Trump’s rival in the Republican presidential primary, accused the former president of embracing “a thug who kills his opponents”, referring to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. Former Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie told NBC News that the comments proved Trump is “unfit to be president of the United States”.
Even some of Trump’s allies on Capitol Hill refused to defend him. According to Politico, Senator Rand Paul, a Republican of Kentucky, said Trump’s comments were a “stupid thing to say”. Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican of Alaska, argued the criticism of Nato members was “uncalled for”.
But even as some Republicans sharply criticized Trump’s comments, other members of the party tried to downplay the remarks. Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican of South Carolina, told the New York Times, “Give me a break — I mean, it’s Trump … All I can say is while Trump was president nobody invaded anybody.” Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican of Florida, similarly told CNN that he had “zero concern” about Trump’s comments.
With the Senate continuing work on its foreign aid package and the House returning to session tomorrow, more Republicans will likely soon be asked to Trump’s comments, forcing them to choose between criticizing the leader of their party and defending US allies abroad.
Here’s what else is happening today:
The Senate is expected to hold another procedural vote on its $95bn foreign aid package. The bill, which includes billions of dollars for Ukraine and Israel, cleared another procedural hurdle yesterday in a vote of 67 to 27, and a final vote is currently expected on Wednesday.
Defense secretary Lloyd Austin is back in the hospital. The Pentagon said yesterday that Austin was brought to Walter Reed medical center in connection to “symptoms suggesting an emergent bladder issue”.
Joe Biden will welcome the king and queen of Jordan to the White House. Biden and King Abdullah II will deliver remarks to the press following a meeting this afternoon.
There’s much more coming up, so stay tuned.
Updated
