Joe Biden took a victory lap this morning after his administration helped rail companies and unions reach a deal to head off a strike that could have worsened America’s inflation issues, though the agreement still needs to win approval from workers. Elsewhere, Donald Trump took to the airwaves to warn of “big problems” if he was indicted, and saying it wouldn’t stop him from running for office, should he decide to do so.
Here’s what else happened:
Biden delivered an address about hate crimes, highlighting the threat f white supremacists and efforts by the federal government to bolster community resources against hate-fueled violence.
Indiana’s abortion ban went into effect, outlawing the procedure with a few narrow exceptions.
Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis had two planeloads of migrants flown to the upscale island of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, creating what authorities have called a “humanitarian crisis”.
Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows has responded to a subpoena from federal investigators looking into the January 6 attack. He is the highest ranking former administration official to do so.
Reality Winner, the intelligence contractor who served more than four years in prison for leaking a report on Russian interference in the 2016 US election, has said she finds accusations that Donald Trump mishandled sensitive documents “incredibly ironic”, given her prosecution under his administration.
An FBI search of the former president’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida last month found more than 300 classified documents.
Speaking to NBC News, Winner, 30, said: “It is incredibly ironic, and I would just let the justice department sort it out.”
Winner added that it “wasn’t hard to believe” Trump held on to classified documents.
Reflecting on her own prison sentence, she said: “What I did when I broke the law was a political act at a very politically charged time.”
Winner also said she did not believe Trump should go to prison. She did not comment further on whether the former president should face charges under the Espionage Act, as she did in 2017.
“This is not a case where I expect to see any prison time,” Winner said, “and I’m just fine with that.”
Winner was released early, on good behavior, in June 2021.
The US is expected to announce a new $600m arms package to help the Ukrainian military, Reuters reports:
Two of the people familiar with the deliberations said the package could be announced later this evening
Several sources said it was expected the package would contain munitions, including more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS). Two of the sources said the package would include ammunition for howitzers
The White House declined to comment.
Washington has sent about $15.1bn in security assistance to the Kyiv government since Russia’s invasion.
Updated
Here’s a 2017 interview by my colleague Lois Beckett with Susan Bro:
“I think it’s a damn shame that a white girl had to die for people to have to pay attention,” Bro said at the time. “I think if a black girl had died, or a black man, [the reaction would have been] ‘Oh well, another person lost to violent protest.’”
Biden has honed in on right wing and white supremacist violence as a theme in the last few weeks.
In Philadelphia earlier this month, he a delivered rare primetime address on threats to democracy, taking a far more direct tone than he has in the past in condemning Donald Trump for his role in provoking violence, and Trump supporters’ embrace of white supremacist ideologies.
“We have to confront the ways in which our toxic division fuel this crisis,” Biden said tonight. In the last few years, he said, there has been “Too much hate – all for power and profit”.
Among the new initiatives Biden announced tonight was what he called “a new era” of national service to “foster stronger communities”. He is asking Congress to raise the compensation for national service through programs like AmeriCorps to go to $15 an hour.
AmeriCorps “will develop new training opportunities for members in skills like bridge building, promoting civic engagement, and fostering social cohesion, and will develop new mechanisms to evaluate the impact and cost-effectiveness of national service and volunteerism interventions,” the White House said in a fact-sheet recapping the new initiatives.
The president also mentioned trainings on identifying and reporting hate fueled violence for local law enforcement groups, workplaces and houses of worship.
The Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services will work with schools on programs to deter bullying, the White House said. And the Department of Homeland Security will $20m in grants for state, local and Tribal governments, nonprofits, and universities to prevent hate-fueled violence.
Updated
Biden condemns 'the last guy' for defending white supremacists
Biden did not mention Donald Trump by name, but while discussing the Charlottesville white supremacist rally, he did mention that “the last guy” defended the white supremacists in the aftermath of the attack.
“When the last guy was asked, ‘What do you think?’ he said he thought there were some fine people on both sides,” Biden said.
“We remain in a battle for the soul of our nation,” Biden said, reviving a central theme of his 2020 campaign.
Updated
Biden vows to stop 'venom and violence' of white supremacy
“White supremacist will not have the last word and this venom and violence cannot be the story of our time,” Biden said.
Biden listed off a series of attacks against Jewish people, trans people, Asian Americans…
He specifically mentioned the 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, and violence against Asian Americans amid the pandemic, and bomb threats at HBCUs.
“All forms of hate fueled violence have no place in America,” he said, adding that we must “silence it, rather than remain silent.”
Updated
Biden speaks on countering hate crimes
The president was introduced by Susan Bro, the mother of Heather Heyer – who was killed in 2017 while protesting a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“Across the country, hate crimes are on the rise,” Bro said. And while her daughter’s death received national and international attention, “all too often these hateful attacks are committed against people of color with unacceptably little public attention,” she said.
Biden has said that attack in Charlottesville spurred him to run in 2020, and he specifically asked Bro to introduce him tonight.
Joe Biden will soon make his appearance at a White House summit about countering hate crimes, where he’s expected to unveil steps to bolster the federal government’s response to violence motivated by antisemitism, xenophobia and racism.
The Guardian’s Joan E Greve has a preview of what we can expect from the president’s address at the “United We Stand Summit”, which you can watch here:
The summit came four months after a white supremacist gunman attacked a supermarket in a predominantly Black area of Buffalo, New York, killing 10. Similar attacks in recent years have included the 2019 shooting at a Walmart in El Paso and the 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.
“The vast majority of Americans agree there’s no place for hate-fueled violence in our country,” a senior administration official said, previewing Biden’s remarks. “[The summit] is going to be a packed day of very rich conversation and an opportunity to demonstrate that we’re more united than we are divided.”
Ahead of the summit, the Biden administration announced it would take several steps at the executive level to bolster the federal response to hate-fueled violence.
Among other policies, the White House said federal agencies would strengthen coordination to address such violence and more resources would be made available to schools, libraries and other community institutions to prevent hate-fueled attacks.
A bipartisan group of former White House officials will also launch a citizens’ initiative meant to help foster community dialogue and develop solutions.
On that note, reporter Maanvi Singh is taking over the blog to cover Biden’s speech and the political developments in the final hours of the day.
The Biden administration has condemned Republican governors who brought migrants from the southern US border to Democratic-run areas further north.
Texas’s Greg Abbott and other GOP governors have for months been sending migrants to Democratic-run cities including Washington, DC, but controversy over the practice flared anew today when two buses dropped migrants off in front of vice-president Kamala Harris’s residence in the capital, according to the Associated Press. Separately, Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis had two planeloads of migrants flown to the upscale island of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.
“There is a legal way of doing this, for managing migrants. Republican governors interfering in this and using migrants as political pawns is shameful, is reckless,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at her briefing to reporters today.
The American Civil Liberties Union joined in condemning the practice, describing it as dehumanizing:
Asylum-seekers are people—period.
— ACLU Massachusetts (@ACLU_Mass) September 15, 2022
It’s cruel that some governors are involuntarily flying and busing people to other states, based on perceived immigration status.
Martha's Vineyard's response shows what MA looks like at its best: a place that values the lives of all people. https://t.co/WNaNI8OBOz
Updated
Also on the list of things Democrats will punt until after the midterms: a ban on stock trading by congress members, Insider reports.
Calls to bar lawmakers from holding or trading securities while in office have risen in recent months, fueled by repeated instances of congress members or their relatives buying or selling shares in companies that intersect with their work in the Capitol. Earlier this week, The New York Times published an analysis that showed 97 lawmakers from both parties had carried out such transactions.
Democratic senator Jeff Merkley told Insider the upper chamber’s effort to restrict trading wouldn’t come up for consideration until after the November 8 midterms. “I’m looking forward to getting this across the finish line, but it’s not going to happen before the election,” he said, citing his colleagues’ busy schedule. “There are a whole lot of other bills and judicial nominations lined up for the balance of the few days we have left here.”
The announcement came despite House speaker Nancy Pelosi saying yesterday that such a ban would be ready to come to the floor of that chamber this month. Some of Merkley’s colleagues were openly disappointed with his comments, with senator Elizabeth Warren saying, “There is no reason that we should not have a stock trading bill on the floor and vote on it.”
On the subject of the (hopefully) averted rail strike, the president is throwing a little shade at the Wall Street Journal, thus:
Thanks for your concern, @wsj. To answer your question: yes, the trains are running on time. pic.twitter.com/ZpJIyFZJvL
— President Biden (@POTUS) September 15, 2022
More:
Politico reports that the Senate bill to protect same-sex marriage under federal law will be with us after the midterm elections.
Such a bill is needed, the thinking goes, because the US supreme court removed the right to abortion in June and noises have also emanated from that chamber which suggest other privacy based rights, including same-sex marriage, same-sex sex, interracial marriage and access to contraception, could next be targeted.
The Respect for Marriage Act passed the House with only 47 Republicans in support. Senators are more hopeful that 10 Republicans will back it, thereby beating the filibuster.
Today, Burgess Everett of Politico reports that Tammy Baldwin, a Democratic senator from Wisconsin, “says the same sex marriage vote will be AFTER the election. Group will put out a statement soon”.
He adds that Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, “says the bipartisan group recommended to [majority leader Chuck] Schumer that the bill should be delayed until after the election and has a much better chance of passing then.”
Since the death of the Queen on 8 September, Prince Andrew has returned to the public sphere.
The Duke of York’s prominence at events marking the death of his mother, such as the progress of her coffin through Edinburgh and London this week, is to be expected. Andrew is grieving personal loss during a national period of mourning.
But just months ago, amid fallout from his long and controversial association with the convicted sex traffickers Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, any public appearance at all would have seemed entirely unlikely.
The royal, now eighth in line to the throne, was stripped of his military patronages and use of the HRH title after he paid a financial settlement to Virginia Giuffre, who had accused him of sexual assault, a claim he denied.
For attorneys who represented Epstein victims, and for other advocates for sex-crimes victims, Andrew’s sudden reappearance has seemed jarring. Some have said it could prove triggering for Epstein survivors, even if they never encountered Andrew.
Mariann Wang, who represented more than a dozen Epstein survivors, said it was “beyond shameful to see Andrew being granted any form of state-sponsored honor or privilege, given his past affiliation with Jeffrey Epstein”.
Epstein pleaded guilty to solicitation of a minor for prostitution in 2008.
Andrew, who continued to associate with the New York financier long after his guilty plea, vehemently denies a claim that he had sex with an Epstein accuser when the girl was a teen.
Wang continued: “The brave women who came forward to hold Epstein, Maxwell and others to account deserve better. His past conduct and judgment make clear that he is not worthy of any state-sponsored privileges, including reaping the benefits of being a royal.”
Full story:
Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff secretly bought a book in which 27 mental health professionals warned that the president was psychologically unfit for the job, then used it as a guide in his attempts to cope with Trump’s irrational behavior.
News of John Kelly’s surreptitious purchase comes in a new book from Peter Baker of the New York Times and Susan Glasser of the New Yorker. The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021, will be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy.
The book Kelly bought, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, was a bestseller in 2017. In January 2018 its editor, then Yale psychiatrist Bandy Lee, described its aims in a Guardian column.
She wrote: “While we keep within the letter of the Goldwater rule – which prohibits psychiatrists from diagnosing public figures without a personal examination and without consent – there is still a lot that mental health professionals can tell before the public reaches awareness.
“These come from observations of a person’s patterns of responses, of media appearances over time, and from reports of those close to him. Indeed, we know far more about Trump in this regard than many, if not most, of our patients.
“Nevertheless, the personal health of a public figure is her private affair – until, that is, it becomes a threat to public health.”
Full story:
Democrats in Congress are trying to make the most of the next few weeks before the midterms, where voters may well eject them from the majority in the House, Senate or perhaps both. One of their priorities has been a bill codifying into law same-sex marriage rights – which are currently guaranteed by a supreme court ruling.
The effort came after conservative judge Clarence Thomas suggested reconsidering the case granting the rights in an opinion released as the court overturned abortion rights guaranteed by Roe v Wade. While the bill, known as the Respect for Marriage Act, passed the House with some Republican support, its fate in the Senate has been mysterious. It will need at least 10 GOP votes to overcome the inevitable filibuster, but the opposition party hasn’t made clear whether they’ll organize for or against it.
Punchbowl News reports that Democrats in the chamber and the Republicans who do support the bill are making a renewed push to get it up for a vote:
Baldwin, collins, Sinema and Tillis are huddled around a desk on the senate floor. They are the key players on the same sex marriage bill.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) September 15, 2022
Theres buzz Schumer could file cloture today. Very fluid situation.
Its fortunes however remain shrouded in mystery. Republican senator John Thune, for instance, isn’t sure how the bill will fare:
Just caught up with @SenJohnThune, who told us this about the same sex marriage bill: “I don't think we will know [whether it will pass] until we have the vote”
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) September 15, 2022
Looks like we may get more clarity later today on when exactly it will come up for a vote:
Lawmakers negotiating the same sex marriage bill said they’ll have a statement later today on the path forward.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) September 15, 2022
The day so far
Joe Biden took a victory lap this morning after his administration helped rail companies and unions reach a deal to head off a strike that could have worsened America’s inflation issues, though the agreement still needs to win approval from workers. Elsewhere, Donald Trump took to the airwaves to warn of “big problems” if he was indicted, and saying it wouldn’t stop him from running for office, should he decide to do so.
Here’s what else is going on today:
Biden plans to make an address about hate crimes this afternoon at 3:30 pm, which the White House is calling the “United We Stand Summit”.
Indiana’s abortion ban has gone into effect, outlawing the procedure with a few narrow exceptions.
Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows has responded to a subpoena from federal investigators looking into the January 6 attack. He is the highest ranking former administration official to do so.
Here’s an example of the type of legal trouble Trump could face beyond the Mar-a-Lago investigation. The federal inquiry into the January 6 attack is ongoing, and Reuters reports citing CNN that Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows has responded to a subpoena from investigators:
The former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who served under Donald Trump, has complied with a subpoena from the justice department investigation into the events surrounding the January 6 attack on the Capitol, CNN reported on Wednesday.
That makes him the highest-ranking Trump official known to have responded to a subpoena in the federal investigation, CNN said.
The attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters led to several deaths, injured police officers and delayed certification of Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in the 2020 election.
Meadows provided the same materials he gave to the House January 6 committee, satisfying the obligations of the subpoena, CNN reported, citing an unnamed source.
Meadows initially cooperated with the January 6 committee in 2021 but later sued over the subpoenas.
The US House of Representatives earlier this year voted to refer Meadows to the justice department for contempt of Congress. The department declined to charge him.
Reuters could not immediately contact Meadows for comment. George Terwilliger, a lawyer who represents Meadows, did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment.
Trump warns of 'big problems' if indicted
Donald Trump, who is at the center of an array of state and federal investigations over various events before, during and after his presidency, warned in an interview today that “big problems” would ensue if he was indicted.
Trump also said such a development wouldn’t stop him from running for the White House again, as he is widely believed to do in the 2024 election.
“I don’t think the people of the United States would stand for it. And as you know, if a thing like that happened, I would have no prohibition against running,” Trump said in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
“I think they’d have big problems, big problems. I just don’t think they’d stand for it. They will not, they will not sit still and stand for this ultimate of hoaxes,” Trump said as he discussed the investigation into government secrets found by the FBI at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Hewitt seemed to understand how the former president’ comments would sound, and asked, “You know that the legacy media will say you’re attempting to incite violence with that statement. How do you respond to what will inevitably,” before Trump cut him off.
“That’s not, that’s not inciting. I’m just saying what my opinion is. I don’t think the people of this country would stand for it,” he replied.
Democrat representatives Cori Bush, Rashida Tlaib and Jamaal Bowman will today introduce a resolution in the House recognizing access to utilities - water, sanitation, electricity, heating, cooling, public transit, and broadband communications - as basic human rights which should be safe, reliable, affordable, sustainable, and climate resilient.
Millions of Americans are struggling to afford utility bills, and as many as one in three households are forced to choose between paying rent, medicine, food or their water, power and broadband services.
The resolution includes a commitment to providing affordable utilities based on households’ ability to pay and ending shutoffs, tax sale foreclosures, and the selling of debt to collection agencies. It also calls for a ban on water privatisation as investors increasingly view struggling utilities like those in Jackson, Mississippi and Baltimore, Maryland as opportunities.
Resolutions have no binding authority but are a way to push Congress to commit to further action such as hearings and future legislation.
“A person should never be forced to choose between electricity or heat during the winter. A person should never have their only option for water be water that is not properly sanitized. A person should never have to wait in a restaurant parking lot to get Wi-Fi to finish their homework or pay their bills,” said Bush, who represents Missouri.
Russia’s war in Ukraine, the climate breakdown and corporate greed have driven up fossil fuel prices for consumers, while rising water and sanitation costs are linked to aging and neglected infrastructure, federal disinvestment and climate shocks. Utilities can use punitive measures to collect unpaid bills, forcing people to lose their homes or cutting off essential services - which disproportionately impacts households of color, Indigenous Americans and low-income communities.
“In the richest country the world has ever known, it is an outrage that millions of Americans struggle with utility insecurity, substandard and dangerous services, and inhumane shutoffs. It’s time to change the conversation around what we all deserve, take the profit motive out of providing the basics of a good life, and give every American the opportunity to thrive,” said Tlaib of Michigan.
Bowman of New York said: “From Jackson, Mississippi to New York’s 16th Congressional District, Black people do not have access to clean water, are disproportionately energy burdened, and are bearing the brunt of the climate crisis. This resolution will recognize utilities as a basic human right, ban the destructive practice of privatizing our utilities, and promote public power. We cannot thrive as a nation and as a people until all have safe, accessible, reliable and climate conscious utility rights.”
The resolution is endorsed by more than 200 environmental, racial justice and faith organizations, and co-sponsored by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Barbara Lee, Ilhan Omar, and Jan Schakowsky, among others.
The message from Biden’s just-concluded event at the White House with labor union and railway company representatives could be summed up with two words: “thank you”.
The president was undoubtedly sincere, for a strike that took freight rail out of commission could have driven inflation higher and further soured voters on his administration.
“Our nation’s rail system is the backbone of our supply chain,” Biden said, listing all the goods it carries, from natural gas to food.
“This agreement allows us to continue to rebuild a better America with an economy that truly works for working people and their families. Today is a win, I mean it sincerely, a win for America. I want to thank you all for getting this done, both business and labor, thank you.”
As he was leaving the Rose Garden, a reporter asked whether the celebration wasn’t premature, given that the labor unions still need to approve the deal. The president did not respond.
Biden has begun speaking at the White House about the agreement reached to head off a rail workers strike.
You can watch it below:
As we wait for Biden to speak, consider reading Adam Lowenstein’s report on Republicans’ plans to challenge new rules requiring publicly trade companies to disclose the impacts of their business on the climate:
Republican officials and corporate lobby groups are teeing up a multi-pronged legal assault on the Biden administration’s effort to help investors hold public corporations accountable for their carbon emissions and other climate change risks.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed new climate disclosure rules in March that would require public companies to report the climate-related impact and risks to their businesses.
The regulator has since received more than 14,500 comments. Submissions from 24 Republican state attorneys general and some of the country’s most powerful industry associations suggest that these groups are preparing a series of legal challenges after the regulation is finalized, which could happen as soon as next month.
“It might not make sense for us to poke the bear.”
“We don’t want to see a dustup over anything.”
Those are two of the quotes from this Politico piece that captures the vibe among Democrats in Congress worried about their control of the House and Senate less than two months before the midterms. According to the piece, lawmakers are looking to avoid any disputes or crises in the weeks ahead and instead concentrate voters’ attention on the bills they’ve passed over the last two years. “Just brag about everything we’ve gotten done,” is how Rhode Island representative David Cicilline put it.
The vibes are similar at the White House, where Joe Biden has taken time out of his day to personally fete the deal his administration brokered to keep rail worker unions from striking. It’s a crisis that’s been averted, and he intends to remind voters of that.
Biden to speak on rail labor agreement after strike narrowly averted
President Joe Biden will meet the negotiators who reached an agreement that headed off a strike by railway worker’s unions, and deliver remarks on the deal at 11 am eastern time, the White House announced. This was scheduled with short notice so it’s not listed yet, but the White House YouTube channel typically broadcasts such events live.
Now that a strike has been averted, Amtrak announced that it is trying to reschedule the long-distance trains it cancelled yesterday in anticipation of a work stoppage:
Amtrak is working to quickly restore canceled trains and reaching out directly to impacted customers to accommodate on first available departures. Visit https://t.co/Bdp20oXtFZ for the latest updates.
— Amtrak Alerts (@AmtrakAlerts) September 15, 2022
Indiana has joined the ranks of states banning abortion, outlawing the procedure except in narrow circumstances with a law that went into effect today, Poppy Noor reports:
A sweeping abortion ban went into effect in Indiana on Thursday, containing only extremely narrow exceptions for medical emergencies, rape and incest and making it the latest state to largely outlaw the procedure in the US.
The ban is being challenged in court by the ACLU and several abortion care providers, with hearings set to start on 19 September.
Indiana lawmakers passed the legislation during a special legislative session in early August, with a six-week pause before it came into effect. Then, Indiana was the first in the nation to bring in a new law banning abortion after Roe fell. Before that, anti-abortion activists had relied on so-called “trigger laws”, written pre-Roe, to ban the procedure once the supreme court decision came down.
As part of the agreement to avert a potential strike, freight rail companies conceded to a more flexible attendance policy that will allow workers to call out for medical emergencies without being punished, The Washington Post reports.
It also includes a pay increase of 24 percent over the next two years, annual bonuses and changes in how health care costs are managed, the Post reports. Had the impasse not been resolved, a strike could have begun after midnight on Friday.
Democratic political leaders are cheering the agreement. Here’s House speaker Nancy Pelosi:
The report of a tentative agreement between railroads represented by labor unions and the National Carriers’ Conference Committee is good news for our nation’s economy, our security and the well-being of the American people. I commend President Biden for his personal involvement and insistence on resolution and especially Labor Secretary Marty Walsh for leading the negotiations.
Had a deal not been reached, Pelosi said Congress may have stepped in, she said:
Congress under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution has the authority and responsibility to ensure the uninterrupted operation of essential transportation services and has in the past enacted legislation for such purposes. Led by the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the House prepared and had reviewed legislation, so that we would be ready to act, pursuant to Section 10 of the Railway Labor Act. Thankfully this action may not be necessary.
The deal must still be approved by the rail workers’ unions.
Updated
Here’s more from The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly on the narrowly averted rail strike:
A tentative agreement has been reached to avert a freight rail strike that could have disrupted commuter rail services across the US, Joe Biden said on Thursday.
A strike would also have dealt a major blow to Democrats two months before midterm elections in which they will try to keep control of the Senate and the House.
A rail shutdown could have hit food and fuel supplies – freezing almost 30% of US cargo shipments by weight, stoking inflation, costing the US economy as much as $2bn a day and affecting the energy, agriculture, manufacturing and retail sectors.
How disruptive would a freight rail strike be to the world’s largest economy? Here are a few numbers, from industry group the Association of America Railroads.
A work stoppage would have cost $2 billion per-day, and required 467,000 trucks to pick up the slack from idled railroads, which moved approximately 75,000 cars, containers and trailers daily. But the shipping industry doesn’t have that capacity – it’s struggling with shortages of manpower and trucks.
Amtrak’s announcement yesterday that it would cancel long-distance service in anticipation of the strike that could have started Friday was a taste of the consequences that could have come. More worrying would have been the economic ripple effects from tens of thousands of shipping containers being idled or delayed. Supply chain snarls such as these are one reason why consumer prices have risen so quickly in the United States since the start of 2021, and sent Biden’s approval rating steadily lower. And as data released earlier this week indicated, the inflation wave isn’t abating as quickly as many economists hoped.
All of this would have most likely been worsened by the narrowly averted rail strike.
Biden administration breathes sigh of relief as rail strike averted
The Guardian’s US politics blog is wishing you a good morning and hoping you got a restful night of sleep, because a bunch of people in Washington did not. After 20 hours of talks that stretched into the wee hours of Thursday, rail companies and unions representing their employees agreed to a tentative deal that would avert a strike, which could have snarled commerce across the country and likely made America’s inflation problem worse.
Consider it a crisis averted for Joe Biden, who is looking to avoid economic disruptions as he fights to rebuild his popularity ahead of the November midterms.
Here’s what else is going on today:
Biden is hosting the “United We Stand Summit” at the White House today at 3.30pm eastern time, where he’ll highlight communities’ efforts to recover from hate crimes, including mass shootings.
The House of Representatives will consider legislation to prevent attempts to make it easier to fire federal employees, something Donald Trump has mulled doing if he returns to the White House.
Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer thinks the party will lose its majority in the House in the upcoming midterms, according to comments he loudly made at a Washington restaurant that were reported by Punchbowl News.
