Closing summary
Joe Biden’s plan to relieve some student loan debt may soon be struck down by conservative supreme court justices, who sounded skeptical of the government’s argument that the program was permitted under federal law. Elsewhere, Florida governor Ron DeSantis still has not said if he will run for president, but plans to travel to the states that vote first in the Republican nomination process. It seems a formal announcement is just a matter of time.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
The House foreign affairs committee is holding a hearing about China’s global influence, ahead of this evening’s primetime session of a special panel to examine Beijing’s competition with the United States.
GOP House speaker Kevin McCarthy will make about 40,000 hours of surveillance footage from January 6 available to the public, after sparking furor by releasing the video to Tucker Carlson.
The House Republican “weaponization” committee plans to scrutinize the Twitter files.
A Florida Republican lawmaker wants to formally terminate the state’s Democratic party.
The Biden White House may soon get its first Asian-American cabinet secretary.
In a House armed services committee hearing today on America’s military aid to Ukraine, Matt Gaetz, a rightwing lawmaker who is opposed to arming Kyiv, thought he had backed a top defense department official into a corner.
In questioning Colin Kahl, the defense department’s undersecretary for policy, Gaetz cited a report that indicated the Azov battalion had received American weapons for years. Founded in 2014, the unit is controversial because some of its early members held far-right views, though commanders say it has since moved away from that ideology.
The problem? The report Gaetz cited was published in the Global Times, an English-language publication of the Chinese Communist party.
In the polite fashion of a congressional witness, Kahl called out Gaetz for falling for what he said was “Beijing’s propaganda”. You can watch the exchange in the clip below, around the three-minute mark:
Rep. Matt Gaetz asks about Global Times Investigative report.@DOD_Policy Kahl: "Is this the Global Times from China?"@RepMattGaetz: "No, this is well...yeah, it might be. Yeah..."
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 28, 2023
Kahl: "I don't take Beijing's propaganda at face value."
Gaetz: "Fair enough." pic.twitter.com/9XQewKdZeA
Tucker Carlson’s staff was allowed to view the 40,000-plus hours of surveillance footage Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy handed over, but needed permission to copy any video, CBS News reports.
Carlson’s employees “may request any particular [video] clips they may need, then we’ll make sure there’s nothing sensitive, nothing classified, including escape routes,” according to Barry Loudermilk, the Republican chair of a subcommittee under the House committee on administration. “We don’t want al Qaeda to know certain things.”
McCarthy’s decision to provide the footage to Carlson – a popular Fox News commentator who has downplayed the attack by Donald Trump’s supporters on the Capitol – sparked fury among Democrats, who argued the footage could compromise Congress’s security arrangements.
McCarthy has said he will soon make the footage public, but today told reporters he wanted to first give Carlson exclusive access:
.@GarrettHaake asked @SpeakerMcCarthy why he gave Jan 6 security footage to Tucker Carlson.
— Kyle Stewart (@KyleAlexStewart) February 28, 2023
MCCARTHY: “Have you ever had an exclusive? Because I see it on your networks all the time. So he'll have an exclusive, then I'll give it out to the entire country.” pic.twitter.com/2zsnKmUb4V
The Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is calling for the testimony of Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw, after one of the freight rail company’s trains derailed in East Palestine, Ohio earlier this month and spilled toxic chemicals:
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer calls on Alan Shaw, the CEO of Norfolk Southern, to testify following the train derailment disaster in East Palestine, Ohio:
— The Recount (@therecount) February 28, 2023
“Mr. Shaw, you have an obligation — obligation — after what happened to testify before the Senate.” pic.twitter.com/h6acw8EDYL
Conservative justices skeptical of Biden student loan plan
The supreme court’s conservative majority seemed sympathetic today to arguments that Joe Biden’s attempt to cancel some student debt under a two-decade old federal law was an unconstitutional expansion of power, Bloomberg News reports.
The court today heard two cases challenging the program Biden announced last year, one filed by a group of Republican-led states, and the other by two people who sued because they were left out of the program. According to Bloomberg, several of the court’s six conservatives judges expressed skepticism to the government’s argument that the Covid-19 pandemic constituted the sort of emergency that would allow debt cancellation under a 2003 law.
Here’s more from the report:
As the court heard two cases Tuesday, Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested he is wary of expanding presidential powers during national emergencies. The Biden administration argues that the student loan forgiveness program is a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Some of the biggest mistakes in the court’s history were deferring to assertions of executive or emergency power,” Kavanaugh said. “Some of the finest moments in the court’s history were pushing back against presidential assertions of emergency powers.”
Chief Justice John Roberts suggested Congress didn’t authorize the president to unilaterally take a step with such enormous financial implications for millions of Americans.
“We’re talking about half a trillion dollars and 43 million Americans. How does that fit under the normal understanding of modifying?” Roberts said, referring to a key word in the 2003 law at the center of the case.
The law, known as the Heroes Act, says the secretary can “waive or modify” provisions to ensure that debtors “are not placed in a worse position financially” because of a national emergency.
Roberts likened the case to the court’s 5-4 decision that blocked the Trump administration from ending a program shielding hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants from deportation. Roberts joined the court’s liberal wing in the majority in that 2020 case.
Biden administration officials faced tough questioning from both Republicans and Democrats on the House foreign affairs committee during today’s hearing on US-Chinese relations.
Congressman Brad Sherman, a Democrat of California, criticized China for failing to cooperate with investigators seeking to determine the origins of Covid-19, and he pressed Daniel Kritenbrink, the US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, on why the state department had not done more to condemn China’s “obfuscation”.
“They failed to cooperate. They failed to come clean,” Sherman said. “The state department has done almost nothing to tell the world how China is responsible, not maybe for the virus, but certainly for their obfuscation and failure to cooperate afterwards.”
Kritenbrink replied, “We have long stated that China needs to do a better job of being transparent.”
Shortly after that tense exchange, congresswoman Sara Jacobs, a Democrat of California, asked Kritenbrink how the state department defines competition with China and how US officials can ensure that such competition does not devolve into conflict.
“We’re competing for and fighting for the kind of region that we want to live in,” Kritenbrink said. “We talk about a free and open region where countries can freely pursue their interests and where people in those countries can enjoy freedom.”
Jacobs replied, “I just think it’s really important that we stay focused on those end goals because China’s not going anywhere. We don’t want to feed into the [Chinese Communist Party’s] talking points around us just being out to weaken China for the sake of weakening them indefinitely.”
Julie Su has received Joe Biden’s nomination to become the next labor secretary, the White House announced.
If Su wins the Senate’s required approval, she would be the Biden administration’s first cabinet-level secretary of Asian-American descent. She would succeed labor secretary Marty Walsh, who is now leading the National Hockey League players’ union after becoming the first cabinet secretary to depart Biden’s White House.
The White House’s announcement Tuesday contained a statement from Biden, which referred to Su, who once served as California’s labor secretary, as a longtime “champion for workers” and “a critical partner” to Walsh.
“She helped avert a national rail shutdown, improved access to good jobs free from discrimination through my Good Jobs Initiative, and is ensuring that the jobs we create in critical sectors like semiconductor manufacturing, broadband and healthcare are good-paying, stable and accessible jobs for all,” Biden said.
In 2021, the Senate appointed Su as Biden’s deputy labor secretary in a vote along party lines. After last fall’s midterms, Biden’s Democratic party controls the Senate by a 51-49 margin.
The Democratic Pennsylvania senator John Fetterman is out of work for a few weeks at least while the staff of Walter Reed medical center in Washington DC treats him for depression. But Biden’s vice-president Kamala Harris can serve as a tie breaker for any votes that require it.
Biden’s cabinet was the first in 20 years without a secretary with Asian American or Pacific Island heritage. Asian-American legislators and advocate had pushed for Biden to nominate Su to the labor secretary’s role after he defeated Donald Trump in the 2020 election, and again pushed for her to be put up for the position after Walsh’s departure.
Testifying before the House foreign affairs committee this morning, Daniel Kritenbrink, US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said that China represents “our most consequential geopolitical challenge”.
“It is the only competitor with both the intent and increasingly the economic, diplomatic, military and technological capability to reshape the international order,” Kritenbrink said.
“The scale and the scope of the challenge posed by the [People’s Republic of China] as it becomes more repressive at home and more aggressive abroad will test American diplomacy like few issues we have seen.”
Kritenbrink noted that the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, met with his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference earlier this month. In that discussion, Blinken condemned China’s “unacceptable and irresponsible violation of US sovereignty” with its use of a surveillance balloon shot down by American fighter jets on 4 February off the coast of South Carolina, Kritenbrink said. Blinken also warned China about the potential consequences of providing material support to Russia in its war against Ukraine.
“At the same time, the secretary reiterated our commitment to maintaining open lines of communication at all times, so as to reduce the risk of miscalculation that could lead to conflict,” Kritenbrink said.
“In coordination with US government departments and agencies, this committee and colleagues across Capitol Hill, we’re confident we can sustain the resources and policies needed to prevail in our competition with the PRC.”
It seems the figurative wipeout of the Florida Democratic party in the midterm elections was not enough for the state’s Republicans, who on Tuesday introduced legislation to have it formally terminated.
Unashamedly billed “The Ultimate Cancel Act” by its sponsor, vociferous conservative state senator Blaise Ingoglia, the bill requires Florida’s division of elections to decertify any political party that has “previously advocated for, or been in support of, slavery or involuntary servitude.”
In a press release accompanying Senate Bill 1248, Ingoglia, who tweets using the handle GovGoneWild and is a devotee of Florida’s far-right governor Ron DeSantis, insists that because the Democratic party adopted “pro-slavery positions” in at least five conventions during the 19th century, it has no place in politics in 2023 or beyond.
Additionally, the bill would automatically transfer the registrations of Florida’s 4.9m registered Democratic voters to no-party affiliates.
Democrats in Florida lost by huge margins in 2022, now Republicans here want to eliminate the party pic.twitter.com/zQ80TmnrkG
— Matt Dixon (@Mdixon55) February 28, 2023
“For years now, leftist activists have been trying to ‘cancel’ people and companies for things they have said and done in the past,” Ingoglia claims in the release, which also cites the removal of controversial Civil War-era statues and memorials.
The release, tweeted by Politico’s Florida bureau chief Matt Dixon, goes on to say: “Using this standard, it would be hypocritical not to cancel the Democratic party itself for the same reason.”
It remains to be seen if Ingoglia’s bill gains any traction. But with a supermajority in both houses of Florida’s legislature, Republicans certainly have the numbers to pass it.
The day so far
Joe Biden’s plan to relieve some student loan debt is having its day at the supreme court, where conservative groups are arguing to do away with the proposal. However, there are signs at least one conservative justice may believe the individuals and states trying to undo the Biden administration’s signature program for debt-burdened Americans don’t have standing to sue. Elsewhere, Florida governor Ron DeSantis still hasn’t said if he will run for president, but plans to travel to the states that vote first in the Republican nomination process. It seems a formal announcement is just a matter of time.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
The House foreign affairs committee is holding a hearing about China’s global influence, ahead of this evening’s primetime session of a special panel to examine Beijing’s competition with the United States.
GOP House speaker Kevin McCarthy will make about 40,000 hours of surveillance footage from January 6 available to the public, after sparking furor by releasing the video to Tucker Carlson.
The House Republican “weaponization” committee will scrutinize the Twitter files.
Supreme court justices question standing in student debt case
As they heard two cases intended to stop Joe Biden’s student debt cancelation program this morning, some of the supreme court’s nine justices questioned whether conservatives suing over the program had the ability to do so.
The court is currently dominated by conservatives, who hold a six-member majority that could upend the Biden administration’s plan to help Americans saddled with student loans. The questions justices pose to attorneys appearing before them in their hearings are no guarantees of how they will ultimately vote, but there are indications at least some conservatives are skeptical of the challengers, particularly Amy Coney Barrett.
Here are what a few supreme court watchers saw in this morning’s arguments:
I think this Supreme Court will likely do whatever's necessary to abolish Biden's student debt relief plan, but arguments aren't going as well for the challengers as a LOT of people expected. Barrett sounds extremely skeptical on standing. The liberals are roasting Nebraska's SG.
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) February 28, 2023
Argument in the first student-debt case just wrapped up. There's a clear majority of conservative justices to strike down Biden's order on the merits. But it's less clear if there's one to overcome standing hurdles to get there. Barrett was pretty pointed in Qs for MO's SG.
— Matt Ford (@fordm) February 28, 2023
Three liberals clearly against state standing and for Biden Admin on the merits.
— Mike Sacks (@MikeSacksEsq) February 28, 2023
Barrett unsympathetic to state standing, ambiguous on merits.
Alito clearly for state standing, against Biden on merits.
Roberts, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kav against Biden on merits, quiet on standing.
In Tennessee, governor Bill Lee wants to ban drag. There’s only one problem: his personal interest in drag. Here’s the story, from the Guardian’s Gloria Oladipo:
Tennessee’s governor, Bill Lee, is facing accusations of hypocrisy after a photo of him dressed in drag went viral days after the politician confirmed that he would sign legislation criminalizing drag performances.
Lee, a Republican, announced on Monday that he plans to sign a bill passed previously by his state’s legislature that prohibits drag in public and in front of children. Lee also said he would sign a bill that bans gender-affirming care for Tennessee minors.
That announcement came two days after a picture of Lee dressed in drag during his high school days went viral on Reddit. In the 1977 picture, a young Lee wears a wig, a cheerleader’s uniform, and a pearl necklace. The high school yearbook photo is captioned: “Hard Look Woman”.
Republican DeSantis tees up challenge to Trump with early voting state tour
Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor who is viewed as the strongest challenger to Donald Trump for the Republican nomination in next year’s presidential election, will travel to three states that vote first in the GOP’s primary process, the New York Times reports.
DeSantis has not announced a presidential run yet, but the appearances in Iowa, Nevada and New Hampshire are indications that he’s laying the groundwork for a campaign. He is also considering a stop in South Carolina, another early voting state, the Times reports, as well as at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California this Sunday, where Republicans often begin their campaigns. DeSantis is promoting his new book, The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival – yet another sign of his presidential ambition.
Meanwhile, a Morning Consult poll released today confirms little change in the broad dynamics of the field of Republican 2024 candidates. Trump remains the favorite with 48% support among potential GOP voters, followed by DeSantis, who polls at 30%. In third place in Trump’s former vice-president Mike Pence, with 7% support.
Updated
When it comes to relations with China, many Republicans are adamant that Beijing is hiding something regarding the origins of Covid-19, which first appeared in the city of Wuhan in 2019. They gained new fuel for their suspicions this weekend, when the energy department concluded (with not much confidence) that the virus emerged from a Chinese laboratory. The Guardian’s David Smith looks at how the report will likely fuel the ongoing debate about what caused the pandemic:
White House official John Kirby, standing at the podium where Donald Trump once railed against the “China virus” and praised the healing powers of bleach, faced questions on Monday about the origins of Covid-19. He had no choice but humility. “There is not a consensus right now in the US government about exactly how Covid started,” Kirby admitted. “There is just not an intelligence community consensus.”
The renewed interest in a genuine scientific mystery followed a report in the Wall Street Journal that the US Department of Energy had determined the coronavirus most likely leaked by accident from a Chinese laboratory.
This startling assessment appeared to have a solid foundation: according to the Washington Post, it was based on an analysis by experts from the national laboratory complex, including the “Z-Division”, known for carrying out some of the American government’s most secretive and technically challenging investigations of security threats from adversaries such as China and Russia.
But the claim was not officially confirmed by the energy department or Kirby, and it came with a caveat: the department had “low confidence” in its assessment, which was provided to the White House and certain members of Congress, the Journal said.
Even so, gleeful Republicans seized on the findings to claim vindication in their pursuit of the lab leak theory, triggering a fresh round of toxic debate in Washington and on social media.
The House foreign affairs committee convened this morning for a hearing scrutinizing China’s global influence, a meeting that comes weeks after the US shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon.
“There’s no doubt that the growing aggression of the Chinese Communist party poses a generational threat to the United States,” said chair Michael McCaul, a Republican from Texas.
McCaul expressed concern about warnings that China is considering providing arms to Russia amid its war against Ukraine, describing the relationship between Beijing and Moscow as “an unholy alliance”.
“We are living through one of the most dangerous periods in American foreign policy in a generation,” McCaul said. “It is a struggle for the global balance of power.”
The top Democrat on the committee, Gregory Meeks of New York, echoed some of McCaul’s concerns, while emphasizing the need to avoid a war with China.
“We need to recognize that war with China would be a policy failure of catastrophic proportions,” Meeks said. “We must make clear that we do not seek war … and we will work to avoid it.”
Updated
The House Republican subcommittee looking into the “weaponization of the federal government” will focus on the Twitter files in its next hearing, CNN reports:
The House weaponization subcommittee is expected to hold its second hearing next week focused on the Twitter files sources tell me and @alaynatreene
— Annie Grayer (@AnnieGrayerCNN) February 28, 2023
The what files?
For those insulated from the trend-setting but revenue-challenged social media site, the Twitter files are the internal company documents Elon Musk released when he took over the San Francisco-based company last year. The documents, which Musk distributed to friendly journalists, address various episodes in Twitter’s collaboration with law enforcement, political campaigns and other governmental bodies worldwide. They’ll get a new airing before the committee, which is chaired by Jim Jordan, one of Donald Trump’s closes allies in Congress, and purports to examine how the Biden administration has abused its power.
Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy plans to make tens of thousands of hours of surveillance footage recorded on January 6 available to the public, Punchbowl News reports:
MCCARTHY, in closed R mtg, addressed his decision to give Jan. 6 security footage to @TuckerCarlson
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) February 28, 2023
he has argued transparency is good.
but today, in the closed meeting, he also mentioned that no one questioned J6 cmte releasing Pence's escape route/Pelosi's daughter's footage
MCCARTHY said he will release the tapes to the public and let the American people decide.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) February 28, 2023
This got applause from the room
Democrats were infuriated last week when news broke that McCarthy had handed the about 40,000 hours of footage over to Tucker Carlson – the rightwing commentator who is the most popular on Fox News, and has repeatedly downplayed the severity of the insurrection.
One of the two cases the supreme court will hear today challenging Joe Biden’s student debt relief program was brought by six-Republican led states.
Iowa is among that group, and its attorney general Brenna Bird appeared on Fox News this morning to discuss their objections to the case – and (unsurprisingly, if you’ve heard Republican elected officials talk recently) dissed gender studies degrees.
Here’s a clip:
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird on opposing student debt forgiveness: "Many Americans decide to go straight into the workforce or start a business, start a family, go into into the military, they shouldn't be forced to pay for someone else's gender studies degree ..." pic.twitter.com/2ZQTxPINSp
— The Recount (@therecount) February 28, 2023
Supporters of the Biden administration’s student debt relief plan are rallying outside the supreme court ahead of the 10am start of the hearing into the challenges against it:
Hello from the Supreme Court!🏛️
— AFT (@AFTunion) February 28, 2023
We’re joining hundreds of allies at the People’s Rally for Student Debt Cancellation this morning in support of President Biden’s student debt cancellation plan.
Follow along in the thread below! @theSBPC pic.twitter.com/Zz5vn6FEhh
Right, @SenatorMenendez: The #AmericanRescuePlan has a clause that says an student loan forgiveness between the end of 2020 and beginning of 2026 cannot be taxed as income. #CancelStudentDebt pic.twitter.com/opyFoCo4v3
— AFT (@AFTunion) February 28, 2023
Updated
Stakes at supreme court higher than just student debt program
If the supreme court finds Joe Biden did not have the legal authority to relieve as much as $20,000 in student debt for tens of millions of American borrowers, the effects could stretch beyond just the president’s signature program.
As Bloomberg Law reports, the court could make use of the “major questions doctrine” to strike down the program, a relatively recent legal theory that conservative justices deployed in a ruling limiting the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority last year. If the six-justice bloc, which was responsible for a number of the court’s most contentious rulings last year including the end of Roe v Wade, opts to expand the doctrine, it could dramatically complicate the ability of government agencies to regulate.
“The practical effect would be that federal agencies could only solve problems that existed when the relevant statute was enacted, and that any new problems must wait for Congress to act (which generally would mean those issues would languish, and other solutions, such as actions from state governments as well as private actors, might have to fill the gaps),” according to Bloomberg Law.
That said, Politico reports that the White House believes it has an ace up its sleeve. “We’re confident we’re going to win because the other side doesn’t have standing,” a person familiar with the Biden administration’s thinking said. If the court finds the plaintiffs don’t have standing to sue, that could be enough to allow the program to go into effect.
Supreme court to hear conservative challenges to Biden's student debt relief plan
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Joe Biden’s plan to provide some student debt relief to tens of millions of Americans will be before the supreme court today, which will hear two cases brought by conservatives challenging the proposal. There’s no telling how the court – which is composed of six conservative justices and three liberals – will rule on the petitions, which argue the president does not have the legal authority to provide relief. But a ruling striking the program down or limiting it would be a major loss for the White House. We may get a sense of which way the justices are leaning in today’s oral arguments.
Here’s what else is going on today:
Republicans in the House of Representatives will vote on a bill that would bar retirement funds from sustainable investing.
The House select committee on competition with the Chinese Communist party will hold its first hearing during the primetime TV hour, at 7 pm eastern time.
Biden is heading to Virginia Beach, Virginia, where he’ll speak about his efforts to lower healthcare costs.
