Closing summary
Republicans and Democrats in Congress are on a collision course after rightwing lawmakers inserted provisions targeting Pentagon policies on abortion access, transgender care and diversity into a must-pass defense spending bill that cleared the House this morning. Democrats are outraged that the GOP used the measure, which usually attracts bipartisan support, to push culture war goals, but there’s no word yet on what will become of the legislation when it arrives in the Senate, where Joe Biden’s allies rule the roost and are unlikely to support attempts to prevent service members from accessing abortions services or gender-affirming care. Expect to hear lots more about this in the days to come.
Here’s what else happened today:
Tucker Carlson might be unemployed, but that apparently has not changed his views on US support to Ukraine, as he made clear in an exchange with GOP presidential contender and senator Tim Scott.
Mike Pence tried to explain to a rightwing crowd in Iowa why he did not go along with Donald Trump’s wishes on January 6. It did not go well.
Speaking of Trump, his lawyers are trying to stop Atlanta-area prosecutor Fani Willis’s investigation of his campaign to overturn the 2020 election result in Georgia.
A federal appeals court panel blocked a judge’s ruling that prevented some Biden administration officials from holding talks with social media companies intended to fight misinformation.
Four House Democrats from swing districts crossed party lines to support the defense funding bill, while four conservative Republicans opposed it, with one saying it was too expensive.
Former US vice president Mike Pence earlier at the Tucker Carlson-anchored event in Iowa, reiterated his disapproval of Donald Trump’s encouragement on January 6, 2021, of protesters to seek the overturning of the 2020 election results.
Having already defended his refusal to block the certification by the US Congress of Joe Biden’s victory, Pence gladly repeated for the highly-pro-Trump crowd his assertions that he’s made before that Trump’s exhortations (and tweets) on January 6 exhorting the crowd to take action to keep him in office were reckless.
“Trump’s words that day were reckless…whatever his intentions in that moment, it endangered me, my family and everyone else in the Capitol,” Pence said.
He added, as the audience remained eerily quiet: “The law will hold him accountable.”
He later added, perhaps in a desperate attempt to win more warmth from the crowd: “And Kamala Harris will have no right to overturn the election when we beat them in 2024.”
The now-stayed federal judge’s ruling restricting how some Biden administration officials may interact with social media companies was evidence of a “weaponization of the court” that benefits pedalers of misinformation, an expert on combating such lies told the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington earlier this month:
Restricting the ability of the Biden administration to work with social media companies in countering online conspiracy theories is a “weaponisation of the court system” that could devastate the fight against misinformation ahead of the 2024 presidential election, a leading expert has warned.
Nina Jankowicz, a specialist in disinformation campaigns, told the Guardian that an injunction imposed by a federal judge on Tuesday against key federal agencies and officials blocking their communication with tech platforms could unleash false information in critical areas of public life. She said that election denialism and anti-vaccine propaganda could be the beneficiaries.
“This is a weaponisation of the court system. It is an intentional and purposeful move to disrupt the work that needs to be done ahead of the 2024 election, and it’s really chilling,” she said.
Appeals court stays ruling restricting talks between Biden administration, social media firms
A federal appeals court has stayed a judge’s ruling from earlier this month that put limits on how certain White House officials could interact with social media companies, Reuters reports.
The lower court’s ruling in response to a lawsuit from Republican attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri complicated efforts by the Biden administration to work with platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to address misinformation around elections and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Here’s Reuters reporting from when the lower court’s ruling was first handed down on what it means for the fight against conspiracy theories:
The ruling said US government agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services and the FBI could not talk to social media companies for “the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech” under the free speech clause of the first amendment to the US constitution.
A White House official said the US justice department was reviewing the order and will evaluate its options.
The order also mentioned by name officials, including the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, and Jen Easterly, who heads the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, in its restrictions.
Judge Terry Doughty, in an order filed with the US district court for the western district of Louisiana, made some exceptions for communications between government officials and the companies, including to warn about risks to national security and about criminal activity.
The injunction was first reported by the Washington Post.
Tuesday’s order marks a win for Republicans who had sued the Biden administration, saying it was using the coronavirus health crisis and the threat of misinformation as an excuse to curb views that disagreed with the government.
US officials have said they were aiming to tamp down misinformation about Covid vaccines to curb preventable deaths.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers have plenty to say about the defense spending bill that just passed the House, with one GOP congressman saying his party wanted to use the legislation to align the military’s policies with “traditional America”.
Here are Tim Burchett’s comments to CNN:
Tim Burchett, Republican of Tennessee, on the social policy changes in the defense bill. "When we are getting away from what traditional America believes, traditional America is not going to play ball with you." pic.twitter.com/jRZ2Y7Vurj
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) July 14, 2023
Then there’s the ever-puzzling Nancy Mace, a Republican congresswoman from South Carolina who does not seemed pleased with the bill’s provisions barring the Pentagon from paying for service members to travel for abortions, but voted for it anyway:
Nancy Mace, who voted for defense bill and amendment nixing Pentagon abortion policy: "If we want to show America that we come together and that we care about women, then we got to stop being assholes to women." pic.twitter.com/esxHkSVTq6
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) July 14, 2023
Donald Trump’s attorneys are attempting to disrupt Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis’s investigation into the campaign to overturn the 2020 election result in Georgia days after she impaneled two grand juries specifically tasked with deciding who should face charges in her inquiry. Here’s coverage from the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly of that development, from Tuesday:
A grand jury selected in Georgia on Tuesday is expected to say whether Donald Trump and associates should face criminal charges over their attempt to overturn the former president’s defeat by Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
The district attorney of Fulton county, Fani Willis, has indicated she expects to obtain indictments between the end of July and the middle of August. Trump also faces possible federal charges over his election subversion, culminating in his incitement of the deadly January 6 attack on Congress.
Trump already faces trials on 71 criminal charges: 34 in New York over hush money payments to the porn star Stormy Daniels and 37 in Florida, from federal prosecutors and regarding his retention of classified documents after leaving office.
Trump team urges Georgia court to block election investigation
Lawyers for former US president Donald Trump are asking Georgia’s highest court to prevent the district attorney who has been investigating his actions in the wake of the 2020 election from prosecuting him and to throw out a special grand jury report that is part of the inquiry, the Associated Press reports.
AP writes:
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been investigating since early 2021 whether Trump and his allies broke any laws as they tried to overturn his narrow election loss in Georgia to Democrat Joe Biden. She has suggested that she is likely to seek charges in the case from a grand jury next month.
Trump’s Georgia legal team on Friday filed similar petitions in the Georgia Supreme Court and Fulton County Superior Court naming Willis and Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who oversaw the special grand jury, as respondents. A spokesperson for Willis declined to comment. McBurney did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Trump’s legal team — Drew Findling, Jennifer Little and Marissa Goldberg — acknowledged that the filings are unusual but necessary given the tight time frame. Willis has indicated she will use the special grand jury report to seek an indictment “within weeks, if not days.” Two new regular grand juries were seated this week, and one is likely to hear the case.
“Even in an extraordinarily novel case of national significance, one would expect matters to take their normal procedural course within a reasonable time,” the filings say. “But nothing about these processes have been normal or reasonable. And the all-but-unavoidable conclusion is that the anomalies below are because Petitioner is President Donald J. Trump.”
GOP crowd underwhelmed as Pence defends Jan 6 stance
The sound of silence. Or, to be fair, the whisper of sporadic applause. That’s what just greeted Mike Pence when he again defended his refusal on January 6, 2021, to refuse to block the certification by Congress of Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump.
The presidential candidate did not impress the right-wing crowd at Tucker Carlson’s event when he said: “I did my duty” and upheld the US constitution, after thousands of extreme Trump supporters had invaded the US Capitol in a deadly insurrection as they tried to overturn Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election.
A few hands clap. This is hardly surprising, but very interesting to hear live.
“It’s important that we hold those accountable that perpetrated acts of violence in our nation’s Capitol,” he said, to almost total silence in the hall. He quickly added that there needed to be more vigor in prosecuting people who ended up rioting during the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. That drew cheers.
Carlson asked Pence: “Do you think the last election was fair?”
In short, Pence indicated he did. He noted that there were some irregularities and that changes made by states to voting procedures as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic undermined public confidence in the system. But he noted that there were recounts and lawsuits and in the end, in terms of the votes “states certified and courts upheld and ultimately we were able to establish that” nothing “would change the outcome of the election in any way,” adding: “I knew I had to do my duty that day” when he endorsed the certification of Biden’s victory, in the early hours of January 7, 2021.
Former US vice president Mike Pence has taken the stage at the event in Iowa hosted by Tucker Carlson, as he eyes a comeback after being fired from Fox News, a forum together with Blaze Media feature Republican presidential candidates Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy and Asa Hutchinson.
Pence begins by slamming Biden economic policy, Biden policies at the US-Mexico border and celebrating the Iowa legislature passing a ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, when many people don’t even know they’re pregnant.
Pence noted the bill will be signed into law later today by Iowa governor Kim Reynolds.
Now Pence is talking about the insurrection by extremist supporters of Donald Trump at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. More in a moment.
Updated
Interim summary
Hello again, US politics live blog readers, it’s been a lively morning and there is more action to come, on Capitol Hill and elsewhere.
Here’s where things stand:
Tucker Carlson has been one of the most prominent public skeptics of America’s support for Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion, and he’s carrying on in this bent at the event he’s hosting today. “Why not force a peace?” he asked GOP presidential candidate Tim Scott today.
The House approved the annual defense bill that rightwing Republicans packed with culture war amendments, including provisions blocking the Pentagon’s policies on abortion, gender-affirming care and diversity.
The White House today announced it had forgiven $39bn in student loan debt held by 804,000 borrowers after making fixes to a program intended to provide relief for certain people who had been paying for 20 years or more.
House Democrats accused GOP of ‘extreme and reckless legislative joyride’ in defense bill. In a joint statement, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, whip Katherine Clark and caucus chair Pete Aguilar encouraged their members to vote against the NDAA, saying “extreme MAGA Republicans have chosen to hijack” legislation that is typically passed with bipartisan support.
After House conservatives packed it with culture war amendments, this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed by a party line vote – with a few exceptions.
Democrats generally opposed the legislation, while Republicans approved it, except for the following crossover votes, as compiled by CNN:
Crossover votes in House’s defense bill, which was approved 219-210
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) July 14, 2023
Four Republican NO votes:
Andy Biggs (AZ)
Ken Buck (CO)
Eli Crane (AZ)
Tom Massie (KY
Four Democratic YES votes:
Jared Golden (ME)
Donald Davis (NC)
Gabriel Vasquez (NM)
Marie Glusenkamp Perez (WA)
The four Democrats who voted for it all hail from swing districts, while the four Republicans who opposed it are generally seen as belonging to the party’s right wing.
Among the Republican opponents was Colorado’s Ken Buck, who in a statement cited the legislation’s price tag as the reason he voted against it:
My statement on my vote against the NDAA👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/DttHtK85Ij
— Rep. Ken Buck (@RepKenBuck) July 14, 2023
Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy condemned congressman Eli Crane for using an outdated and offensive term to refer to African Americans on the House floor:
Speaker Kevin McCarthy, when asked about Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) referring to “colored people” on the House floor Thursday:
— The Recount (@therecount) July 14, 2023
“That's not acceptable. I'll take him at his word that he misspoke. I have never heard him use that before, so you would have to ask him about that.” pic.twitter.com/8JvkImjHb5
Politico reports that Crane has apologized for using the language:
Rep. Eli Crane tells me he deeply regrets using the words “colored people” on the House floor yesterday.
— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) July 14, 2023
Says he misspoke and is sorry that his words hurt people and is mad at himself that it has blown back on his team.
McCarthy says Republicans 'keep our promises' after passing defense bill
Back at the Capitol, Republican speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy is clearly pleased that the chamber passed the National Defense Authorization Act:
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy touts Republicans passing the National Defense Authorization Act:
— The Recount (@therecount) July 14, 2023
“I'm sorry to disappoint you, that Republicans continue to keep our promises.” pic.twitter.com/20NHPVGx5I
But the battle is not over. Thanks to McCarthy’s alliance with far-right lawmakers in his caucus, the annual bill setting the Pentagon’s budget is packed with culture war provisions such as bans on the department’s policies of reimbursing travel expenses related to abortions, and on providing gender-affirming care to transgender service members.
We haven’t heard too much yet from the Senate’s Democratic leaders about these provisions, but don’t be surprised if they declare their opposition to the bill, setting the stage for a major showdown between the two parties in the days and even weeks to come.
Updated
Tucker Carlson keeps up anti-Ukraine bent in interview with GOP contenders
During his time on Fox News, and even after the conservative network unceremoniously booted him off the airwaves, Tucker Carlson has been one of the most prominent public skeptics of America’s support for Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion.
Today, Carlson is interviewing several GOP presidential contenders at the Family Leadership Summit in Des Moines, Iowa. First up was senator Tim Scott, who was quizzed by Carlson on why Washington should continue supporting Ukraine.
“Are you concerned that we’re moving, as we seem to be toward war with Russia?” Carlson asked, pointing to an announcement from the Pentagon yesterday that it would call up new reserves for a long-running operation to deter threats against Nato’s eastern flank.
“America’s national, vital interest is degrading the Russian military. When we degrade the Russian military, we make sure that our home front is safer, and that our Nato ally partners that would cause us to send soldiers over is safe,” Scott replied.
But Carlson was dubious. “Why not force a peace?” he asked Scott.
“How would you do that?” the senator replied. Carlson then went on to call Ukraine “a client state of the United States” and insist “without American backing, there’s no Ukraine”, implying that America could force Kyiv to the negotiating table with Russia.
His comments did not appear to sway Scott. “I think the faster we get the peace, the better off we are. What we don’t want to do from my perspective is allow ourselves to ask for a premature peace that cannot be achieved.”
Updated
House passes defense bill with conservative amendments on abortion, transgender care
The House has just approved the annual defense bill that rightwing Republicans packed with culture war amendments, including provisions blocking the Pentagon’s policies on abortion, gender-affirming care and diversity.
The vote was mostly party line, with almost all Republicans supporting the measure and most Democrats voting against it, breaking with the tradition of the bill, which sets out the defense department’s yearly budget, passing with bipartisan support:
The House passed H.R. 2670 – National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 by a vote of 219-210. https://t.co/OB8qJR5HjL
— House Press Gallery (@HouseDailyPress) July 14, 2023
It now must be approved by the Senate, where the Democratic majority is unlikely to support any of the rightwing amendments included by the House GOP.
A big question hanging over the 2024 presidential race is when Donald Trump’s criminal trial over the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago will be resolved. As the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports, prosecutors are trying to fend off an attempt by the former president’s lawyers to delay the proceedings:
Federal prosecutors asked the judge presiding over the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case on Thursday to reject Donald Trump’s request that any trial should not take place until after the 2024 presidential election and reset the trial date for December.
“There is no basis in law or fact for proceeding in such an indeterminate and open-ended fashion, and the defendants provide none,” the prosecutors wrote in an 11-page court filing that sharply attacked Trump’s arguments.
The dueling requests from Trump and the justice department present an early test for the US district court judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee who is under heightened scrutiny for previously issuing favorable rulings to the former president during the criminal investigation.
Meanwhile in the Senate, the Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt reports that a recently arrived lawmaker has finally given up his quest to publicly defend white nationalism:
Politicians typically enter office with a variety of interests, goals and focuses.
A wave of progressive Democrats were elected in 2018 with the stated goal of bringing universal healthcare to the US. Franklin Delano Roosevelt promised to lead the country out of the Great Depression with the New Deal. Donald Trump wanted to build a wall, “drain the swamp”, and force people to say “Merry Christmas”.
Tommy Tuberville, the Republican senator from Alabama, has taken a different tack.
In a series of interviews and statements in recent months, he has invested his political capital in an attempt to defend white nationalism, and white nationalists, in what one anti-racist group called a “deeply disturbing” crusade – one that only appeared to come to an end this week, after condemnation from his Republican colleagues.
Biden administration forgives $39bn in student loan debt
The White House today announced it had forgiven $39bn in student loan debt held by 804,000 borrowers after making fixes to a program intended to provide relief for certain people who had been paying for 20 years or more.
The move comes after the supreme court last month blocked Joe Biden from implementing his plan to relieve hundreds of billions of dollars in federal student loans. The president vowed to come up with an alternative program, but the effort is expected to take months to implement.
The student loan forgiveness announced today is separate from that, but in a statement, Kamala Harris said it was part of the administration’s effort to address the high levels of debt many Americans take on to fund their education:
President Joe Biden and I are committed to delivering relief to student loan debt borrowers to help them move forward with their lives – whether they want to start a family, buy a home, or become an entrepreneur. Today, we are taking another historic step by forgiving $39 billion in student loan debt for 804,000 borrowers who have been paying down their debts for 20 years or more and should qualify for relief. Instead, many were placed into forbearance by loan servicers in violation of the rules, and others did not get appropriate credit for their monthly payments. Addressing these harmful practices and reducing student loan debt has been a priority throughout my career. As California Attorney General, I won $1 billion for defrauded veterans and students by taking on predatory for-profit colleges.
During last night’s NDAA amendment vote on the House floor, congressman Eli Crane, a rightwing Republican and promoter of baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, used outdated and offensive language to refer to African Americans.
Crane’s comment came during debate over an amendment he proposed to stop the defense department “from making participation in training or support for certain race-based concepts a requirement for hiring, promotion, or retention of individuals”. That provision was among those included in the bill.
Here’s a clip of the Crane’s words, and the reaction:
Wow. Republicans are just openly calling my colleagues “colored people” on the House Floor now.
— Rep. Jim McGovern (@RepMcGovern) July 13, 2023
They’re bringing amendments to the floor to stop bases named after confederate traitors from getting new names.
The GOP is not even hiding the racism anymore. pic.twitter.com/7bRMjbi00O
Democrat Joyce Beatty was the lawmaker who demanded Crane’s comment be stricken from the record, a request that was granted. Here’s what she had to say about the episode:
(1/2) I am still in utter shock and disbelief that a Republican uttered the words ‘colored people’ in reference to African-American service members who sacrifice their lives for our freedom. pic.twitter.com/lOxpkt5HSR
— Rep. Joyce Beatty (@RepBeatty) July 14, 2023
(2/2) I will not tolerate such racist and repugnant words in the House Chamber or anywhere in the Congress. That’s why I asked that those words be stricken from the record, which was done so by unanimous consent.
— Rep. Joyce Beatty (@RepBeatty) July 14, 2023
Updated
House Democrats accuse GOP of 'extreme and reckless legislative joyride' in defense bill
In a joint statement released on Thursday evening, Democratic House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, whip Katherine Clark and caucus chair Pete Aguilar encouraged their members to vote against the NDAA, saying “extreme MAGA Republicans have chosen to hijack” legislation that is typically passed with bipartisan support.
Democrats are particularly incensed by amendments pushed by the GOP’s right wing that would prevent the Pentagon from reimbursing service members who travel for abortions, and bar a healthcare program from paying for gender-affirming care. Other Republican amendments that made it into a bill include bans on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and on defense department schools teaching that America is “a fundamentally racist country”.
Here’s their full statement:
Extreme MAGA Republicans have chosen to hijack the historically bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act to continue attacking reproductive freedom and jamming their right-wing ideology down the throats of the American people.
House Republicans have turned what should be a meaningful investment in our men and women in uniform into an extreme and reckless legislative joyride. The bill undermines a woman’s freedom to seek abortion care, targets the rights of LGBTQ+ servicemembers and bans books that should otherwise be available to military families.
House Democrats will always put people over politics to protect our national security. We will vote no on final passage of this bill.
Updated
Far-right Republicans use defense spending to target abortion, transgender care
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Every year for the last 50 or so, Congress passes the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) outlining the defense department’s annual budget, but this year’s bill is looking to be especially contentious. Yesterday, rightwing Republicans, with speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy’s blessing, succeeded in adding amendments to the legislation blocking the Pentagon from paying travel expenses for employees seeking abortions out of states, and another barring a healthcare program for the armed forces from providing gender-affirming care.
The House is expected to vote on final passage of the act around 10.30am eastern time today, but the amendments have sparked a revolt among Democrats, who are telling their lawmakers not to support it. And even if it passes Congress’s lower chamber, it still needs to be approved by the Senate, where Joe Biden’s allies have a majority and are unlikely to be friendly to conservative attempts to shoehorn culture war priorities into such crucial legislation. There will be plenty of news on this today, but one thing that can be said now is that this battle represents the latest consequence of the far right’s sway in the GOP, which only took control of the House at the start of this year.
Here’s what else is going on today:
Tucker Carlson, eyeing a comeback after being fired from Fox News, will at 10am host a forum together with Blaze Media feature Republican presidential candidates Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy and Asa Hutchinson.
Biden is taking it easy today after a long week visiting Nato allies in Europe, with no public events or press briefing scheduled.
The state of American democracy: not good, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. A troubling one in 10 people surveyed give it high marks, with the rest saying America’s system of government isn’t doing a good job representing their interests.
