Today's politics recap
- The Senate officially took up Democrats’ voting rights bill, which passed the House in a party-line vote last week. The proposal is expected to fail in the Senate after Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema made it clear that they would not support changing the filibuster to allow for the bill’s passage.
- Despite the bill’s likely failure, Chuck Schumer said the Senate would vote on the legislation “win, lose or draw”. “Members of this chamber were elected to debate and to vote, especially on an issue as vital to the beating heart of our democracy as voting rights,” the majority leader said in a floor speech. “The public is entitled to know where each senator stands on an issue as sacrosanct as defending our democracy.”
- Secretary of state Antony Blinken is traveling to Kyiv this week, amid heightened concerns of a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine. Blinken will meet with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy before traveling on to Berlin to discuss potential responses to Russian aggression. “We’re now at a stage where Russia at any time could launch an attack on Ukraine,” White House spokesperson, Jen Psaki, said.
- The White House launched the “beta” version of its website to order free at-home coronavirus tests. The site, CovidTests.gov, includes a link to a US Postal Service form that allows Americans to request four tests to be shipped to their homes. The site will officially launch tomorrow morning, the White House said.
- Two more House Democrats announced they will not seek reelection in November. The announcements from Jim Langevin and Jerry McNerney bring the total number of retirements among House Democrats to 28, as the party braces for the possibility of widespread losses in the midterm elections.
- The US congressional committee investigating the Capitol attack has issued a blitz of subpoenas to some of Donald Trump’s top lawyers – including Rudy Giuliani. Subpoenas went out to Giuliani and his associate Boris Epshteyn, as well as Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis, who all defended Trump’s baseless voter fraud claims as he attempted to overturn the election result.
- More than 1,200 students in Oakland, California, signed a petition saying they would stay home starting today over coronavirus safety concerns. The protest is one of several student-led efforts around the country, indicating growing frustrations amid public school children even as the Biden administration and state governments push to keep campuses open amid the latest pandemic surge.
– Guardian staff
US Capitol attack committee subpoenas Rudy Giuliani and other Trump lawyers
The US congressional committee investigating the Capitol attack has issued a blitz of subpoenas to some of Donald Trump’s top lawyers – including Rudy Giuliani – as it examines whether the former president oversaw a criminal conspiracy on 6 January 2021.
The House panel subpoenaed four of Trump’s legal team on Tuesday: the former president’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and his associate Boris Epshteyn, as well as Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis, who all defended Trump’s baseless voter fraud claims as he attempted to overturn the election result.
Congressman Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the select committee, said in a statement that the panel issued the subpoenas to the four Trump lawyers because they were “in direct contact with the former president about attempts to stop the counting of electoral votes”.
The move by the select committee amounts to another dramatic escalation in the investigation, as the orders compel Trump’s lawyers to produce documents and testimony, suggesting the panel believes the lawyers may have acted unlawfully.
In its most aggressive move, the select committee ordered Giuliani to testify under oath about his communications with Trump and Republican members of Congress regarding strategies for delaying or overturning the election results.
Read more:
As students stage walkouts over a lack of high-quality masks and coronavirus tests, the Biden administration today announced that it has distributed that last of its $122bn Covid-19 relief funding for schools from the American Rescue Plan.
“I am proud that, with the approval of these plans, states have 100% of their funds and robust plans to help schools remain open and help students thrive,” said Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.
Cardona also echoed calls from Joe Biden to keep public schools open. “We know what it takes to keep our schools open safely for in-person learning, and these funds will help us achieve that goal,” he said.
But students in Oakland and around the country are alleging that resources have not been distributed equitably, and moreover, in the face of the highly-transmissible Omicron variant, students and teachers who are immunocompromised or live with elderly or immunocompromised family members still feel unsafe attending class in person.
Safety concerns and mandated quarantines for exposed students are among the reasons the Los Angeles Unified School District recorded 130,000 student absences last week with only a 66.8% attendance rate.
Updated
Oakland students walkout over Covid safety concerns
More than 1,200 students in Oakland, California, signed a petition saying they would stay home starting today until administrators offer virtual learning options, and if that wasn’t possible, at least provide more KN95 or N95 masks and weekly testing for students. On Tuesday, three district school campuses were closed because students and teachers, in solidarity, stayed home.
At a news conference today, Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) spokesperson John Sasaki said that attendance numbers wouldn’t be available until tomorrow, but the district was expecting more than a thousand students to stay home. The district said it is providing free tests and masks, and had implemented other safety protocols including air purifiers, but students and teachers have alleged inequities in the distribution of resources between schools in more and less wealthy neighborhoods.
In recent weeks, students in New York City, suburbs of New Jersey and Washington, have launched protests and petitions as well, demanding virtual learning options amid the latest, Omicron-fueled wave of the coronavirus pandemic. Districts meanwhile have faced immense pressures from parents and politicians to keep school campuses open as the US enters its third year of the pandemic.
Students and teachers around the US have complained of inconsistency in schools’ coronavirus policies and a chaotic return from winter break. Last week, students from several New York City schools walked out demanding virtual learning options, and a video of hundreds of masked, Brooklyn Technical High students filing out of class went viral.
“I think the number one emotion I feel is just frustrated,” Favour Akingbemi, 17, a senior at Washington Preparatory high school in South LA, told the Guardian earlier this month. Nearly three of Akingbemi’s four high school years have been defined by Covid-19. “It’s upsetting that we’re still stuck in this pandemic,” she said.
Updated
The US supreme court on Tuesday considered whether the city of Boston violated the free speech of a Christian group which sought to fly a flag in front of city hall.
The justices seemed to have little doubt that Boston was wrong to refuse to fly the banner, which was described as a Christian flag.
Three flagpoles stand outside Boston city hall. The US flag and the Massachusetts state flag are permanent fixtures. The third pole is usually reserved for the Boston flag but the city has allowed groups to use it while holding events in front of the building.
Flags that have been flown include the LGBTQ+ pride flag and those of different nations.
In 2017, Harold Shurtleff, the founder of Camp Constitution, a volunteer group that aims “to enhance the understanding of the country’s Judeo-Christian heritage”, applied to have a white flag with a red cross on a blue square flown during an event featuring “short speeches by some local clergy focusing on Boston’s history”, court documents say.
The city denied the application and shortly afterwards published rules saying it would deny flags that support “discrimination, prejudice or religious movements”.
Shurtleff sued, saying the city violated his free speech by denying him and Camp Constitution access to the flagpole, which he argues is a public forum.
The city argued that the flagpole is government speech and that to fly religious flags from it would constitute an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.
In court documents, lawyers for Shurtleff argue that the city long exercised little control over who could use the flagpole, sometimes approving applications without looking at the flags that would be raised.
Before Shurtleff’s application, over a decade, the city approved 284 flag-raising events without denying any.
Once the supreme court announced it would be taking up Shurtleff’s case, Boston said it would no longer accept applications to fly flags in front of city hall.
Two lower courts decided in favor of the city but those decisions could be overturned by a supreme court controlled 6-3 by conservative justices.
Furthermore, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Biden justice department have filed briefs siding with Camp Constitution, saying the flagpole has been used essentially as a public forum.
Read more:
‘It’s a tough time’: why is Biden one of the most unpopular US presidents?
Joe Biden ends his first year in office at a particularly bleak moment for a US president who promised competency and normalcy.
Much of his domestic agenda is stalled on Capitol Hill, impeded by members of his own party. The virus is once again raging out of control: daily infections of Covid-19 have soared to record levels, hospitalizing more Americans than at any previous point during the pandemic. The administration’s vaccine-or-testing mandate for large employers was blocked by the supreme court’s conservative supermajority. Inflation is at a nearly 40-year high. Diplomatic talks have so far failed to pull Russia back from the brink of war with Ukraine.
After winning more votes than any presidential candidate in American history, Biden is now – just 12 months later – one of the country’s most unpopular presidents.
For months, Biden’s approval ratings have languished in the mid to low 40s, with an average approval rating of 42%. A Quinnipiac poll released last week found him at a dire 33%, which the White House has dismissed as an outlier. Nevertheless, among his modern predecessors, only Donald Trump fared worse at this point in their presidencies.
The puzzle of Biden’s unpopularity has many pieces, pollsters and political analysts say. How much of it is within his control is difficult to say.
Biden came to office with lofty ambitions: he promised to lift the threat of deadly virus and to usher in a new era of responsive governance and bipartisanship in Washington. One year into his presidency, Biden remains confronted by an unabating pandemic, a nation still very much divided and a Republican party that continues to embrace the “big lie” that Donald Trump won the 2020 election.
Read more:
Today so far
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- The Senate officially took up Democrats’ voting rights bill, which passed the House in a party-line vote last week. The proposal is expected to fail in the Senate after Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema made it clear that they would not support changing the filibuster to allow for the bill’s passage.
- Despite the bill’s likely failure, Chuck Schumer said the Senate would vote on the legislation “win, lose or draw”. “Members of this chamber were elected to debate and to vote, especially on an issue as vital to the beating heart of our democracy as voting rights,” the majority leader said in a floor speech. “The public is entitled to know where each senator stands on an issue as sacrosanct as defending our democracy.”
- Secretary of state Antony Blinken is traveling to Kyiv this week, amid heightened concerns of a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine. Blinken will meet with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy before traveling on to Berlin to discuss potential responses to Russian aggression. “We’re now at a stage where Russia at any time could launch an attack on Ukraine,” White House spokesperson, Jen Psaki, said.
- The White House launched the “beta” version of its website to order free at-home coronavirus tests. The site, CovidTests.gov, includes a link to a US Postal Service form that allows Americans to request four tests to be shipped to their homes. The site will officially launch tomorrow morning, the White House said.
- Two more House Democrats announced they will not seek reelection in November. The announcements from Jim Langevin and Jerry McNerney bring the total number of retirements among House Democrats to 28, as the party braces for the possibility of widespread losses in the midterm elections.
Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Updated
White House launches 'beta' version of website to order Covid tests
The Biden administration has launched the “beta” version of its website to order free, at-home coronavirus tests.
The site, CovidTests.gov, includes a link to a US Postal Service form that allows Americans to request four tests to be shipped to their homes.
White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said the site will officially launch tomorrow morning and noted there may be some glitches until then.
“CovidTests.gov is in the beta phase right now, which is a standard part of the process typically as it’s being kind of tested,” Psaki said at her daily briefing.
“Every website launch, in our view, comes with risk. We can’t guarantee there won’t be a bug or two, but the best tech teams across the administration and the postal service are working hard to make this a success.”
The Biden administration has already ordered 1bn free at-home coronavirus tests to be distributed to Americans as the country confronts the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
Updated
Trump's attorney general Barr to publish book
William Barr, Donald Trump’s second attorney general and perceived hatchet man until he split from the former president over his lies about election fraud, has a book deal.
The publisher of One Damn Thing After Another, due out on 8 March, Harper Collins, promised a “vivid and forthright” read on Barr’s long career in the law and conservative politics, in which he was first attorney general under George HW Bush.
“Barr takes readers behind the scenes during seminal moments of the Bush administration in the 1990s, from the LA riots to Pan Am 103 and Iran Contra,” the publisher said.
“With the Trump administration, Barr faced an unrelenting barrage of issues, such as Russiagate, the opioid epidemic, Chinese espionage, big tech, the Covid outbreak, civil unrest, the first impeachment, and the 2020 election fallout.”
Barr stoked rage on the left when he was seen to be running interference for Trump during the investigation of Russian election meddling and links between Trump and Moscow, his handling of Robert Mueller’s report prompting protest from the special counsel himself.
Barr was also present during many flashpoints of the Trump administration, including walking at the president’s side when in the high summer of 2020 he marched across Lafayette Square, cleared of protesters against racism and police brutality, to stage a photo op at a historic church.
Barr split from Trump, and ultimately resigned, as the president refused to admit defeat by Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Angry scenes between the two men have been reported in other books, including bestsellers by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa of the Washington Post and Jon Karl of ABC News.
Barr stoked Trump’s rage by telling the Associated Press he had not seen evidence of “fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election”.
He was out of office amid the culmination of Trump’s concerted attempt to overturn his defeat, around the deadly Capitol riot of 6 January.
On 7 January 2021, Barr condemned Trump for “orchestrating a mob to pressure Congress” and said: “The president’s conduct yesterday was a betrayal of his office and supporters.”
The same day, the Guardian published a look at the state of the Department of Justice after Barr’s second stint in the chair.
Vanita Gupta, a former head of the DoJ’s civil rights division, said: “The morale and the reputation of the department has been gutted because of undue political influence on the decisions of career staff.
“… The department needs to be rebuilt by new leadership committed at every turn to decisions made on the law and on the facts, and not on what the president wants.”
Updated
Senate Democrats are expected to meet this evening to discuss possible changes to chamber rules, although it remains unlikely that any proposal can attract the support of Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.
Politico reports:
Among their multiple options to defang the 60-vote requirement to get most bills through the Senate, Democrats are leaning toward voting on the revival of the so-called ‘talking filibuster’ to the Senate, according to several people familiar with the situation.
The talking filibuster would, after lengthy debate, require a simple majority to advance any bill toward final passage. Democrats have also discussed a carveout from the filibuster for voting and elections reform, but that idea appears to be getting less traction.
Texas officials are having trouble providing third party groups with enough paper voter registration forms, citing a paper shortage, according to KUT, Austin’s NPR station.
Texas is one of eight states in the US that does not allow voters to register online. Citing supply chain shortages, the Texas secretary of state’s office now says it does not have enough paper to for voter registration applications. Texas’ voter registration for its 1 March primary is 31 January.
“The fact is we simply don’t have the supply to honor every single request for free applications,” Sam Taylor, a spokesman for the Texas SoS’ office, told KUT.
The secretary of state’s office has had to limit the number of registration applications it can give our per request to 1,000 to 2,000 forms.
Grace Chimene, the president of the Texas chapter of the League of Women Voters, a civic action group, said the shortage has made it harder to register voters at naturalization ceremonies, according to KUT. The group registers about 30,000 people at such ceremonies in Houston alone, she told the outlet.
Chimene also told KUT that the secretary of state’s office had advised her to seek out donations instead of relying on forms from her office.
The problem comes after several reports that counties were denying high percentages of requests for mail-in ballots under a new Texas law.
The president of the NAACP, Derrick Johnson, wrote to members of the Senate today to urge them to pass voting rights legislation.
“Senators, our democracy may be standing in its final hour. The bedrock of freedom in America lies in our sacred right to vote. Without it, everything else crumbles,” Johnson wrote in the letter.
“Senators, with your vote, you will decide who defines America, and who has a voice in America.”
— Derrick Johnson (@DerrickNAACP) January 18, 2022
My full letter to all senators during this critical week for democracy: pic.twitter.com/nq7hdCAL2U
The civil rights leader concluded, “Senators, with your vote, you will decide who defines America, and who has a voice in America.”
As of now, it looks like Democrats’ voting rights bill will fail to pass the Senate because Republicans intend to filibuster the legislation, and majority leader Chuck Schumer does not have the votes to change the filibuster.
Schumer invoked cloture on the bill today, and the (likely doomed) vote may happen as early as tomorrow.
The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, has proposed the formation of a large and unprecedented state agency to investigate election crimes – in a state where there is little evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 election or otherwise.
In response, one prominent state prosecutor sought to tie DeSantis to rightwing conspiracy theorists, calling his proposal “a solution in search of a problem … a $6m door prize for a QAnon pep rally”.
Nonetheless, DeSantis, who has also proposed his own militia, wants state lawmakers to allocate nearly $6m to fund an Office of Election Crime and Security, which would have 52 staffers, including 45 investigators.
There would be a central office in Tallahassee, the state capital, and investigators based throughout Florida. Staffers in an office with a budget of more than $660,000 to acquire motor vehicles would refer election crimes to either the state attorney general or local prosecutors.
The proposed office would have more investigators than law enforcement agencies in some of Florida’s biggest cities have to investigate murders, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
Read the Guardian’s full report:
The rightwing Fox News host Laura Ingraham has stoked outrage by announcing that the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff’s positive Covid test – and applauding as she did so.
One critic called Ingraham a “merchant of death”. Another said he was “not sure when hate became a Christian value”.
Gen Mark Milley became a target of rightwing anger after extensive reporting showed how he worked to contain Donald Trump at the end of his time in power, keeping US armed forces out of domestic affairs.
Milley has also defended the teaching in military institutions of critical race theory, an academic discipline which conservatives have turned into a profitable election issue.
On Monday, Ingraham introduced a section of her show called Positively Boosted, in which she gleefully recounts which vaccinated public figures have tested positive.
Clapping and smiling, she said: “Triple-vaxxed joint chiefs chairman Mark Milley, our favorite Mark Milley, tested positive for Covid yesterday.
“And who else? Gen David Berger, the Marine Corps commandant, also positively boosted.”
Ingraham also said: “We certainly hope they’re all healthy and fine. But stop pushing your mandates.”
Full story:
Psaki: Russia attack on Ukraine could come 'at any time'
The US and Russian foreign ministers will hold talks in Geneva on Friday in a development a US official said suggested “perhaps diplomacy is not dead” in efforts to fend off an attack on Ukraine.
With the White House warning that such an attack could come “at any time”, US secretary of state Tony Blinken will fly to Kyiv on Wednesday and Berlin on Thursday to consult with the Ukrainian government and European allies before the meeting with Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.
Nato also offered Russia a fresh round of talks.
“The fact that Secretary Blinken and Foreign Minister Lavrov agreed to meet on Friday in Geneva suggests that perhaps diplomacy is not dead,” a senior state department official said. “We will certainly know a lot more after that engagement on Friday.”
At the end of last week, after three sets of discussions in Europe that produced no progress, a senior Russian official suggested that diplomacy could be at a dead end. Tensions have continued to rise, with movements of Russian troops and heavy weapons westwards from the Far East, and into Belarus, as well as US allegations that Russia already had operatives in Ukraine preparing for “false-flag” acts of sabotage.
“We’re now at a stage where Russia at any time could launch an attack on Ukraine,” the White House spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said.
“The fact that we’re seeing this movement of forces into Belarus clearly gives the Russians another approach, should they decide to take further military action against Ukraine,” the state department official said.
“Russian military plans to begin activities several weeks before a military invasion is something we’ve been watching closely and our assessment has been that could happen anytime between mid-January and mid-February.”
Similar claims were made on Tuesday by the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, who said there was evidence of a “significant Russian presence of intelligence operatives inside Ukraine” and that it was “absolutely possible” they’re planning “incidents, accidents, false flag operations”.
Updated
Two more Democrats will retire
Two more Democratic members of Congress have announced that they will not run for re-election in November, bringing the total to 28 amid widespread expectation that Republicans will take back the House.
Jim Langevin, a Rhode Island veteran, and Jerry McNerney of California, have 19 terms between them.
Langevin posted a video announcement and said: “Thank you, Rhode Island.”
McNerney said: “I will keep working for the people of my district throughout the remainder of my term and look forward to new opportunities to continue to serve.”
Torunn Sinclair, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said: “No one wants to run as a House Democrat.”
Concerning the implications for Joe Biden of Democrats losing the House later this year, one could do worse than read this piece from Reuters, under the headline “Another midterm worry for Biden White House: probes and impeachment attempts”.
Experts who spoke to Reuters expected Republican-led House committees to “subpoena everything under the sun”, including about Hunter Biden, the president’s son, and quite likely to try to impeach Biden – in revenge for the two impeachments of Donald Trump. Ten House Republicans voted for the second, over the Capitol riot, but three of them will not run again this year either.
A Republican congressional staffer “with ties to leadership” told Reuters: “There will be a lot of pressure on Kevin McCarthy, if he’s speaker, to pursue impeachment of Biden from day one. He may not have much of a choice if he wants to retain the title.”
Speaking of McCarthy, congressional oversight and possible subpoenas…
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- The Senate officially took up Democrats’ voting rights bill, which passed the House in a party-line vote last week. The proposal is expected to fail in the Senate after Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema made it clear that they would not support changing the filibuster to allow for the bill’s passage.
- Despite the bill’s likely failure, Chuck Schumer said the Senate would vote on the legislation “win, lose or draw”. “Members of this chamber were elected to debate and to vote, especially on an issue as vital to the beating heart of our democracy as voting rights,” the majority leader said in a floor speech. “The public is entitled to know where each senator stands on an issue as sacrosanct as defending our democracy.”
- Secretary of state Antony Blinken is traveling to Kyiv this week, amid heightened concerns of a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine. Blinken will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy before traveling on to Berlin, where he will meet with allies to “discuss recent diplomatic engagements with Russia and joint efforts to deter further Russian aggression against Ukraine,” according to the state department.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
As the Senate took up Democrats’ voting rights legislation, a group of about 30 protesters calling for the bill’s passage were arrested on the steps of the Capitol.
The protesters, who are part of a hunger strike to bring attention to the issue of voting rights, were detained by US Capitol Police after staging a demonstration on the Senate steps.
Capitol Police is beginning to detain voting rights protestors from the Senate steps. The group is part of a hunger strike for voting rights, which have stalled in the Senate.
— Ursula Perano (@UrsulaPerano) January 18, 2022
Zip ties going on at least two folks so far. pic.twitter.com/vOjJebYDso
As part of the demonstration, the protesters sang songs criticizing Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, the two Democratic senators opposed to filibuster reform, and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.
The group sang “Go tell Sinema we shall not be moved,” “Go tell Manchin” and “Ain’t gonna let McConnell turn me around,” per CNN:
Capitol Police have arrested around 30 voting rights protestors and hunger strikers, who breached the plaza and sat on the Senate steps singing “go tell Sinema we shall not be moved,” “go tell Manchin,” and “ain’t gonna let McConnell turn me around.” pic.twitter.com/5W9YsELdjq
— Morgan Rimmer (@morgan_rimmer) January 18, 2022
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer argued Democrats have an obligation to do everything possible to pass voting rights legislation, despite the high likelihood of failure because of Republican filibustering.
“If Republicans choose to continue their filibuster of voting rights legislation, we must consider and vote on the rule changes that are appropriate and necessary to restore the Senate and make voting rights legislation possible,” Schumer said in his floor speech.
.@SenSchumer: "If Republicans choose...their filibuster of voting rights legislation we must consider and vote on the rule changes that are appropriate and necessary to restore the Senate and make voting rights legislation possible." pic.twitter.com/gbmNQZKMS9
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 18, 2022
But as of now, Schumer does not have the votes necessary to change the filibuster, as Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema remain opposed to doing so.
Because of the 50-50 split between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, Schumer needs the support of every member of his caucus to reform the filibuster.
Senate will vote on voting rights 'win, lose or draw,' Schumer says
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer argued this represents a historic moment, as the upper chamber considers whether to pass Democrats’ voting rights bill.
“The eyes of the nation will be watching what happens this week in the United States Senate,” Schumer said in a floor speech moments ago.
“Just a few days removed from what would have been Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s 93rd birthday, the Senate has begun the debate on the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act for the first time, the first time, in this Congress.”
.@SenSchumer: "The eyes of the nation will be watching what happens this week in the United States Senate...the Senate has begun the debate on the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act for the first time, the first time, in this Congress." pic.twitter.com/TMOOVPZHh4
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 18, 2022
Schumer acknowledged the bill will likely fail because of a Republican filibuster, as Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema remain opposed to changing chamber rules to pass the bill.
But Schumer said it was vital to allow the American people to see where their lawmakers stand on this issue, suggesting that public scrutiny may help change some minds in the Senate.
“Win, lose or draw, members of this chamber were elected to debate and to vote, especially on an issue as vital to the beating heart of our democracy as voting rights,” Schumer said.
“The public is entitled to know where each senator stands on an issue as sacrosanct as defending our democracy. The American people deserve to see their senators go on record on whether they will support these bills or oppose them. Indeed, that may be the only way to make progress on this issue now -- for the public to see where each of us in this chamber stands.”
Schumer files cloture on Democrats' voting rights bill
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has officially filed cloture on the voting rights bill that passed the House last week.
Schumer was able to file cloture without a roll call vote because Senate Republicans did not object to the majority leader’s motion.
Leader Schumer filed cloture on the Motion to Concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 5746 (Legislative Vehicle for Voting Rights Legislation), with an amendment. Leader Schumer also filled the amendment tree.
— Senate Periodicals (@SenatePPG) January 18, 2022
But the bill itself is still expected to fail because Democrats do not have the 60 votes necessary to overcome a Republican filibuster of the legislation.
And Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema remain opposed to changing filibuster rules to allow the voting rights bill to advance.
Given the 50-50 split between the two parties in the Senate, Schumer needs the support of every Democratic member before he can get rule changes approved.
The unsuccessful vote on the voting rights bill may happen as soon as tomorrow, per Politico:
Schumer filled the amendment tree and then filed cloture. This sets up a 60-vote threshold vote as late as Thursday, although Democrats expect this vote to happen tomorrow. It will fail due to GOP opposition
— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) January 18, 2022
Secretary of state Antony Blinken is also traveling to Kyiv and Berlin this week to discuss policies toward Russia as the Kremlin eyes a potential invasion of Ukraine.
“Secretary Blinken will begin his trip in Kyiv, Ukraine, where he will meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on January 19 to reinforce the United States’ commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the state department said in its press release.
.@SecBlinken is traveling to Kyiv and Berlin to continue diplomatic engagements to resolve tensions caused by Russia. His meetings with European counterparts will include discussions of consequences for Russia if it does not de-escalate. https://t.co/CvkMzt9QE4
— Ned Price (@StateDeptSpox) January 18, 2022
Blinken will also meet with employees of the US embassy in Kyiv to discuss “contingencies” if tensions with Russia escalate further.
The secretary will then travel to Berlin on Thursday to “discuss recent diplomatic engagements with Russia and joint efforts to deter further Russian aggression against Ukraine, including Allies’ and partners’ readiness to impose massive consequences and severe economic costs on Russia,” according to the state department.
US lawmakers travel to Ukraine amid concerns of potential Russian invasion
A bipartisan congressional delegation traveled to Kyiv over the weekend to reassert America’s support for Ukrainian sovereignty, amid concerns of a potential Russian invasion.
The group included Republican senators Rob Portman, Kevin Cramer and Roger Wicker and Democratic senators Jeanne Shaheen, Chris Murphy, Amy Klobuchar and Richard Blumenthal.
The senators met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy yesterday, before flying back to Washington today for the debate over Democrats’ voting rights bill.
Wheels up from Ukraine. Our big bipartisan delegation (pictured here w President Zelensky) returns committed to finding a path forward to keep both parties together in support of Ukraine’s sovereignty. pic.twitter.com/vBEIvY1WAn
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) January 18, 2022
“Ukraine continues to defend its territorial integrity against an increasingly aggressive Russia, while also striving to enact critical domestic reforms to solidify its democracy – it is more important than ever that the U.S. support Ukraine in its efforts,” Portman said in a statement.
Shaheen added, “Our bipartisan congressional delegation sends a clear message to the global community: the United States stands in unwavering support of our Ukrainian partners to defend their sovereignty and in the face of persistent Russian aggression.”
The senators’ trip came as US officials accused Russia of planning a false flag operation to justify an invasion of Ukraine, as diplomatic efforts to deescalate tensions have faltered.
Updated
Glenn Youngkin, the new governor of Virginia, was greeted in his first day in the executive mansion by a fleece vest in Democratic blue and a cutout of Donald Trump promising a call about 2024.
The outgoing governor, Ralph Northam, left the items and other “pranks” as part of a commonwealth tradition.
“The prank is the last bipartisan thing we have left,” Tucker Martin, once spokesman for the former Republican governor Robert McDonnell, told the Washington Post.
The vest and the cutout were pokes at Youngkin’s campaign, in which he beat the former governor Terry McAuliffe in a bitter contest.
Youngkin, a finance executive, wore a fleece vest in Republican red as he sought to present himself as a regular suburban dad. The garment left by Northam included the logo “Top State for Business”, the Post reported, a title won twice while the Democrat was in power.
The Trump cut-out was a reference to Youngkin’s successful distancing of himself from the former president during a campaign in which, many charge, he nonetheless ran on culture war issues and racist dog whistles.
On his first day in office, Youngkin sought to ban school mask mandates, ensuring pushback from among others area parent Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, and the teaching of critical race theory, which is not taught in Virginia schools.
Hi there. Arlington county parent here (don’t believe you are @GlennYoungkin but correct me if I am wrong). Thank you to @APSVirginia for standing up for our kids, teachers and administrators and their safety in the midst of a transmissible variant. https://t.co/6UeNIYoZCU
— Jen Psaki (@jrpsaki) January 17, 2022
Youngkin has also been reported to be staffing up with Trump alumni.
The Post also detailed past gubernatorial pranks, among them an alarm clock set to go off at 4am (left by McDonnell for McAuliffe in 2014); a “huge, taxidermied bear in the governor’s private bathroom” (McDonnell for McAuliffe again); cellphones hidden in elevator shafts (Tim Kaine for McDonnell, in 2010); and a “life-size cutout of himself in the shower” (Mark Warner for Kaine, 2006).
Further reading:
Tensions are high over at the supreme court, as some justices clash over wearing masks in the courtroom amid concerns about the spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus.
NPR reports:
It was pretty jarring earlier this month when the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court took the bench for the first time since the omicron surge over the holidays. All were now wearing masks. All, that is, except Justice Neil Gorsuch. What’s more, Justice Sonia Sotomayor was not there at all, choosing instead to participate through a microphone setup in her chambers.
Sotomayor has diabetes, a condition that puts her at high risk for serious illness, or even death, from COVID-19. She has been the only justice to wear a mask on the bench since last fall when, amid a marked decline in COVID-19 cases, the justices resumed in-person arguments for the first time since the onset of the pandemic.
Now, though, the situation had changed with the omicron surge, and according to court sources, Sotomayor did not feel safe in close proximity to people who were unmasked. Chief Justice John Roberts, understanding that, in some form asked the other justices to mask up.
They all did. Except Gorsuch, who, as it happens, sits next to Sotomayor on the bench. His continued refusal since then has also meant that Sotomayor has not attended the justices’ weekly conference in person, joining instead by telephone.
The justices have also clashed over recent cases involving abortion rights and the coronavirus pandemic, as the court’s conservative majority dominates the debate.
The court’s three liberal justices have become more pointed in their dissents and questioning, NPR notes.
After her conservative colleagues signaled a willingness to overturn the landmark abortion case Roe v Wade, Sotomayor said in November, “Will this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the constitution and its reading are just political acts?”
The Fox News host Laura Ingraham hasn’t decided if she’ll vote for Donald Trump in 2024 should he run again for the White House, according to an interview with Northern Virginia magazine.
“I’m not saying I’m there for him yet,” Ingraham said. “But I think whether he runs or not – I mean, his policies worked. Trump’s blueprint for policy – a forward-looking, optimistic set of pro-America policies – that blueprint, without a doubt, is winning.”
The interview mentioned that Ingraham sort of once went on a date with Trump, and described how she used a photo shoot for the piece to pose for Christmas card images with her kids, despite the shoot not being at her own house, for security reasons.
Among things the piece did not discuss: Ingraham’s contortions around the Capitol attack, in which Trump supporters stormed Congress on 6 January 2021 in an attempt to stop certification of Trump’s election defeat, around which seven people died and more than 700 have been charged, 11 with sedition.
Ingraham was among Fox News hosts who texted the White House in panic as the attack unfolded.
As David Smith reported for the Guardian in December, the host of The Ingraham Angle wrote to Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, that “the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy”.
Yet later that night Ingraham went on air baselessly shifting blame from Trump’s supporters to the anti-fascist movement antifa. She told viewers: “From a chaotic Washington tonight, earlier today the Capitol was under siege by people who can only be described as antithetical to the Maga [Make America Great Again] movement. Now, they were likely not all Trump supporters, and there are some reports that antifa sympathisers may have been sprinkled throughout the crowd.”
As Democrats struggle to pass their voting rights bill, the party also currently lacks a strategy to get the Build Back Better Act, the centerpiece of Joe Biden’s economic agenda, across the finish line.
The $1.75tn spending package, which includes massive investments in healthcare, childcare and climate initiatives, cannot pass the Senate because of Joe Manchin’s objections to the bill.
And now some House Democrats facing difficult reelection campaigns this year are pushing for the separation of the bill into multiple pieces.
The Washington Post reports:
These members have argued to top House leaders in recent days — so far, to no avail — that holding votes on narrow measures such as curbing prescription drug costs and extending the child tax credit would help Democrats make a case that they can improve voters’ lives economically despite soaring inflation and other issues that have dragged down Biden’s approval ratings.
The tension was surfaced in a meeting early this month with House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), the second-highest ranking member of their caucus. Members pushed back when Hoyer, reflecting the continued view of House leadership, argued that breaking up the spending bill would mean abandoning the potentially transformative giant package, which he said still has a chance of passage.
‘I don’t care,’ Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.) shot back, telling Hoyer that House Democrats should spend the year sending bills to the Senate with the hope that bipartisan deals could be reached on issues important to a broad range of voters.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis abruptly proposed his own plan for Florida’s congressional districts over the weekend, urging state lawmakers to approve a map that would even further tilt the state’s congressional districts in favor of the GOP and diminish the influence of Black voters.
DeSantis’ proposal comes as the Florida legislature is moving ahead with its own proposed lines for Florida’s 28 congressional districts.
One proposal advancing in the Florida senate would give Republicans a hold on 16 of those districts, but DeSantis’ would give the GOP 18 districts.
The plan from DeSantis, who unveiled the plan on the eve of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, also cuts the number of African American districts in Florida from four to two, according to Politico Florida.
No district in Northern Florida would have more than 40% of a Black voting age population. One district in northern Florida would have around 30% of a Black voting age population, compared to 45% right now, according to Florida Politics.
A redistricting proposal from the governor is highly unusual. While DeSantis, widely considered a top contender for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, can veto any plan, the governor does not usually propose maps.
Some observers believe the proposal is a signal DeSantis is likely to veto a plan that is not more GOP friendly, according to Politico.
While Democrats are expected to fail again in their effort to pass voting rights legislation, a group of bipartisan senators is working on a more narrow bill to help improve US elections.
The senators’ work involves the 1887 Electoral Count Act, an obscure law that dictates how presidential election results are certified by Congress.
Donald Trump tried to use the law to pressure Mike Pence to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 race, and the certification process was ultimately disrupted by the Capitol insurrection.
Axios reports:
The idea of targeting the 1887 Electoral Count Act for repairs has now garnered support from some of Congress’ most conservative members, as well as leading House Democrats. It may be the best chance of passing any form of election reform in an otherwise divided Congress. ...
A bipartisan group of senators working on a proposal that can pass the Senate has nearly doubled in size, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), an original member of the group, said Sunday. ...
Most reformists agree on two core changes: raising the threshold for objections beyond just a single senator and representative, and clarifying the role of the vice president as merely ceremonial.
While many Democrats support changing the 1887 law, they also believe the proposal is not enough to address the sweep of voting restrictions passed by state legislatures since the 2020 election.
However, if Democrats once again fail to pass their own voting rights bill, they may be more open to the bipartisan group’s suggestions.
Vice-president Kamala Harris on Monday warned that the right to vote in America was “under assault” and tens of millions of Americans faced potential disenfranchisement unless threatened voting rights legislation was passed by US lawmakers.
The speech was given on the Martin Luther King day public holiday and comes as King’s family and other civil rights activists in America are pushing for expanded federal voting rights legislation despite political opposition from Republicans.
Activists want politicians to pass two measures aimed at expanding voting rights across the country – the Freedom to Vote Act and the John R Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
Passing voting rights legislation is seen as crucial in the face of a wave of Republican state legislation that is aimed at erecting barriers to voting that is likely to suppress the votes of communities of color.
Harris delivered strong words – though no new concrete plan of action – regarding fighting off a wave of Republican-led voting rights suppression.
She said: “Our freedom to vote is under assault,” adding that “voter suppression laws can make it more difficult to vote for as many as 55 million Americans, or one out of six people in the country”.
Senate to take up doomed voting rights bill
Greetings, live blog readers.
The Senate is expected to take up Democrats’ voting rights bill this week, after the legislation passed the House in a party-line vote last week.
However, as of now, there is still no indication that Senate Democrats will be able to change filibuster rules and get the bill passed.
Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema made clear last week that they will not support changing the filibuster, which Republicans have repeatedly used to block voting rights bills.
Joe Biden traveled to Capitol Hill last week to try to convince the holdout senators to support rule changes, but his argument was apparently not enough to convince Manchin and Sinema.
With the filibuster in place, Democrats need 60 votes to get the voting rights bill passed, and that hurdle is virtually insurmountable in a 50-50 Senate.
So unless Manchin and Sinema change their minds, which seems highly unlikely, Democrats are poised to take up a voting rights bill that is doomed to fail.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
