Closing summary
That’s all for today from our US politics blog. Thanks for being with us.
Here’s what we looked at:
Lawyers for Donald Trump began conferring with justice department counterparts to meet a Friday court deadline for a list of possible candidates to be the “special master” approved by a district judge over the former president’s hoarding of classified documents.
Joe Biden said he would work with Britain’s new prime minister Liz Truss on the war in Ukraine, and bettering close ties. “I look forward to deepening the special relationship between our countries and working in close cooperation on global challenges, including continued support for Ukraine as it defends itself against Russian aggression” Biden said in a tweet.
A New Mexico state district court judge disqualified county commissioner and Cowboys for Trump cofounder Couy Griffin from holding public office for engaging in insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. State district court judge Francis Mathew ruled Griffin was permanently barred from holding or seeking local or federal office.
Patrick Leahy, the eight-term Democratic senator for Vermont, has been nominated by Biden to become congressional representative for the US at the United Nations general assembly.
Voters were at the polls in Massachusetts, where Republicans were choosing their nominee for governor in November’s midterms: election denier Geoff Diehl or moderate Chris Doughty.
Please join us again tomorrow when Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama return to the White House for the unveiling of their official portraits.
One more tweet from Joe Biden before we wrap for the day. He’s still underwater in the polls, and Democrats have their work cut out for them with exactly nine weeks to go until the midterm elections.
But inside the White House, at least, there were smiles, as the president hosted a cabinet meeting Tuesday afternoon:
Today, I met with my Cabinet to lay out how we’re going to swiftly implement recent legislative wins like the Inflation Reduction Act.
— President Biden (@POTUS) September 6, 2022
This experienced and dedicated Cabinet is working to lower costs for families, create good-paying jobs, and increase American manufacturing. pic.twitter.com/liVG3y9O5b
Joe Biden will mark the 21st anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and elsewhere by delivering remarks and laying a wreath at the Pentagon on Sunday, the White House said.
Nearly 3,000 people died on 11 September 2001 when al-Qaida flew hijacked commercial airliners into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, while another jet crashed into a Pennsylvania field.
Jill Biden, the first lady, will speak on Sunday at the Flight 93 national memorial observance in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Vice-president Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff, the second gentleman, will go to New York City for a commemoration ceremony at the national September 11th memorial.
Biden: I'll work with UK prime minister Truss on global challenges
Joe Biden says he’s looking forward to working with Britain’s new prime minister Liz Truss on global challenges, including the war in Ukraine, and bettering the close ties between the US and UK.
In a tweet, the president said: “I look forward to deepening the special relationship between our countries and working in close cooperation on global challenges, including continued support for Ukraine as it defends itself against Russian aggression”.
Congratulations to Prime Minister Liz Truss.
— President Biden (@POTUS) September 6, 2022
I look forward to deepening the special relationship between our countries and working in close cooperation on global challenges, including continued support for Ukraine as it defends itself against Russian aggression.
Biden told reporters before a cabinet meeting Tuesday afternoon that he would be calling Truss later in the day to offer his congratulations.
But, according to Reuters, he declined to answer a question about whether the two leaders would discuss negotiations with the European Union over Northern Ireland.
“We’re going to be talking about a lot of things,” he said.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, was asked about possible bilateral tensions over Northern Ireland at her earlier briefing. She also would not say if the issue would come up in the call, but added:
He has been clear about his continued interest in Northern Ireland. Our priority remains protecting the gains of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement and preserving peace, stability and prosperity for the people of Northern Ireland.
Updated
While there was good news for Democrats in new polling from Navigator Research, as we reported earlier, there were also warning signs for Democrats, as the party prepares for the midterm elections this November.
According to the progressive polling firm’s findings, Joe Biden’s approval rating remains in the tank, with 42% of voters approving of the president’s job performance while 56% disapprove.
Biden’s approval rating, which has been underwater for more than a year, could sink Democrats’ hopes of retaining their narrow majorities in the House and the Senate. Historically, the president’s party loses congressional seats in the midterm elections.
The economy could also prove to be a weakness for Democratic candidates this election cycle. When asked about which party they trusted more to handle specific issues, voters said they trusted Republicans more to rebuild the economy and address record-high inflation, Navigator found.
Given that roughly three-quarters of US voters say the economy will be very important to their vote in this year’s congressional elections, Democrats will need to address those concerns if they want to avoid a Republican wave this fall.
Some Democratic lawmakers and progressive groups are taking proactive steps to reframe the narrative around which party is better for the economy, as I reported over the weekend.
We’ve heard little, correction, nothing so far of the progress of negotiations between lawyers for Donald Trump and the justice department over a list of candidates to become “special master” overseeing the classified documents inquiry.
But that doesn’t mean nothing’s happening in the case. District judge Aileen Cannon, who ordered the appointment yesterday, has been busy on Tuesday, the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell has discovered:
New: Judge Cannon — overseeing Trump special master case — rejects proposed amicus brief submitted by former DOJ and state officials who served in GOP admins that opposed appointing a special master, per new paperless order
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) September 6, 2022
Hillary Clinton is having none of Republicans’ “whataboutism” amid the controversy over Donald Trump’s hoarding of highly classified materials belonging to the US government at his private Florida residence.
“But her emails …” is a longstanding call of Trump supporters, referring to the former secretary of state’s use of a private email server at her home while she was in office from 2009 to 2013. Trump led numerous chants of “lock her up” during his campaign rallies.
The FBI concluded Clinton and her aides were “extremely careless” in their handling of classified information but that she should not face charges.
Trump’s conservative faithful has been quick to resurrect the issue as their leader faces increasing scrutiny over his own actions. But as her own string of tweets today show, Clinton herself is not impressed:
I can’t believe we’re still talking about this, but my emails…
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 6, 2022
As Trump’s problems continue to mount, the right is trying to make this about me again. There’s even a “Clinton Standard."
The fact is that I had zero emails that were classified.
Updated
Official disqualified for part in January 6 insurrection
A New Mexico state district court judge has disqualified county commissioner and Cowboys for Trump cofounder Couy Griffin from holding public office for engaging in insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, the Associated Press reports.
State district court judge Francis Mathew issued a ruling today that permanently prohibits Griffin from holding or seeking local or federal office.
Griffin was previously convicted in federal court of a misdemeanor for entering Capitol grounds on January 6, without going inside the building. He was sentenced to 14 days and given credit for time served.
The new ruling immediately removes Griffin from his position as a commissioner in Otero County in southern New Mexico.
Mr Griffin aided the insurrection even though he did not personally engage in violence. By joining the mob and trespassing on restricted Capitol grounds, Mr Griffin contributed to delaying Congress’s election-certification proceedings,” Mathew wrote.
Griffin was notified of his removal from office by Otero County staff, who prevented him from accessing his work computer and office space at a county building in Alamogordo.
Griffin, who served as his own legal counsel at a two-day bench trial in August, called the ruling a “total disgrace” that disenfranchises his constituents in Otero county.
The ruling arrives amid a flurry of similar lawsuits around the country seeking to punish politicians who took part in January 6 under provisions of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, which holds that anyone who has taken an oath to uphold the Constitution can be barred from office for engaging in insurrection or rebellion.
The lawsuit against Griffin was brought by three plaintiffs in New Mexico with support from the Washington-based Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
The NAACP and progressive watchdog group Common Cause filed briefs in support of Griffin’s removal.
Griffin, a Republican, forged a group of rodeo acquaintances in 2019 into the promotional group called Cowboys for Trump.
Updated
More turbulence for Trump's Truth Social business
The blank-check acquisition firm that agreed to merge with former US president Donald Trump’s social media company has failed today to secure enough shareholder support for a one-year extension to complete the deal, Reuters reports.
At stake is a $1.3bn cash infusion that Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which operates the Truth Social app, stands to receive from Digital World Acquisition Corp, the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that inked a deal in October to take TMTG public.
The transaction has been on ice amid civil and criminal probes into the circumstances around the deal. Digital World had been hoping that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which is reviewing its disclosures on the deal, would have given its blessing by now.
Digital World chief executive Patrick Orlando told a special meeting of his shareholders today he would push back to noon on Thursday the deadline for the vote on extending the life of the SPAC by 12 months.
Digital World needs 65% of its shareholders to vote in favor of the proposal, but the support as of late Monday fell far short, Reuters reported. Digital World did not disclose the margin on Tuesday.
Digital World shares fell 17% to $20.74 in New York early Tuesday afternoon.
Digital World is set to liquidate on Thursday and return the money raised in its September 2021 initial public offering to shareholders unless action is taken.
Digital World shareholders had been given more than two weeks to vote on the SPAC’s extension and it is unclear if two additional days would make a difference.
Most Digital World shareholders are individuals and getting them to vote through their brokers has been challenging, Orlando said last week.
If Digital World fails to get enough shareholder support, its management has the right to unilaterally extend the life of the SPAC by up to six months.
Trump appeared to manage expectations for the deal with a post over the weekend on Truth Social:
I don’t need financing, ‘I’m really rich!’ Private company anyone???”
Digital World has disclosed that the SEC, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and federal prosecutors have been investigating the deal with TMTG, though the exact scope of the probes is unclear.
Updated
Interim summary
It’s been a relatively quiet morning on the US politics front, although the White House has been defending itself against criticism that Joe Biden’s recent attacks on extremist Maga Republicans had alienated regular Republican voters.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the 75m Republican voters who supported Donald Trump in 2020 “weren’t voting for attacking the Capitol, they weren’t voting for overruling an election. They were voting for philosophy he put forward.”
Here’s what else has been happening:
Biden will call the new British prime minister Liz Truss this afternoon to pass on his congratulations, Jean-Pierre said.
Patrick Leahy, the eight-term Democratic senator for Vermont, has been nominated by Biden to become congressional representative for the US at the United Nations general assembly.
It’s primary day in Massachusetts, where Republican voters are choosing their nominee for governor in November’s midterms: election denier Geoff Diehl or moderate Chris Doughty.
Lawyers for Donald Trump are conferring with justice department counterparts to meet a Friday court deadline for a list of possible candidates to be the “special master” approved by a district judge over the former president’s hoarding of classified documents.
Updated
White House: Biden only calling out Republican 'extremists'
The White House is defending itself against criticism that Joe Biden’s recent attacks on Maga Republicans as “semi-fascists”, and posing a threat to democracy, alienated the 75m voters who supported Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
Even though the president noted in a primetime address in Pennsylvania last week that he was referring only to the extremist wing of the Republican party, not regular Republican voters, conservative commentators have seized on the speech as divisive.
In Philadelphia, Biden warned that US democracy was imperiled by Trump and his supporters who “fan the flames” of political violence in pursuit of power at any cost.
In her daily briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said:
When people voted for Donald Trump they weren’t voting for attacking the Capitol, they weren’t voting for overruling an election. They were voting for philosophy he put forward, so I’m not talking about anything other than its inappropriate.
It’s not only happening here, but other parts of the world where there’s a failure to recognize and condemn violence whenever it is used for political purposes, a failure to condemn an attempt to manipulate electoral outcomes, a failure to acknowledge when elections were won or lost.
Talking specifically about the deadly 6 January Capitol insurrection incited by Trump and carried out by his supporters, Jean-Pierre added:
We saw an insurrection, a mob that was incited by the person who occupied this campus, this facility, and at that time, and it was an attack on our democracy.
Let’s not forget people died that day. Law enforcement were attacked that day. That was the danger that we were seeing at the time. That’s what the president has called out. And that’s what he’s going to continue to call out.
Updated
Joe Biden plans to call new British prime minister Liz Truss this afternoon to pass on his congratulations, the White House says.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, was asked at her daily briefing if the US president had yet talked with Truss, who took up residence in Downing Street earlier on Tuesday:
He’s going to speak to her later today this afternoon. He’s planning to call her to congratulate her, the new prime minister, and so that’s going to happen later.
Jean-Pierre said she would not “get ahead” of what the two leaders would discuss, but hinted the Northern Ireland agreement might feature:
He has been clear about his continued interest in Northern Ireland. Our priority remains protecting the gains of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement and preserving peace, stability and prosperity for the people of Northern Ireland.
Updated
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has handed her daily briefing over to commerce secretary Gina Raimondo to showcase the Biden administration’s recent economic achievements.
“This is a very exciting day for those of us who are obsessed with and excited about chips,” she says, before going on to explain how the funds from the $52bn Chips Act will be distributed to address the global shortage of semiconductors.
Critics have painted the act is a corporate giveaway, with already successful giant corporations such as Intel benefiting from public cash.
Raimondo was keen to assert that taxpayer money would be protected, and that the act was “an incredible opportunity to unleash the next generation of American innovation”:
This is not a blank check for companies. This is not for them to pad their bottom line. There are clear guardrails on this money and the department of commerce intends to be vigilant and aggressive in protecting taxpayers.
Chips funds cannot be used for stock buybacks. Chips funds are not intended to replace private capital. That is key.
We’re gonna look after every nickel of taxpayer money.
Here’s the New York Times account of how the money will be spent.
Patrick Leahy, the eight-term Democratic senator for Vermont, has been nominated by Joe Biden to become congressional representative for the US at the United Nations general assembly.
Leahy, 81, chair of the Senate appropriations committee, announced last year he was standing down from the chamber after first being elected to represent the state in November 1974.
His was among a slew of nominations announced by Biden this morning of “individuals to serve as key leaders in his administration” at the UN, according to a White House statement:
Republican Idaho senator Jim Risch, 79, was also nominated to a similar position as congressional representative, the White House, alongside three private sector attorneys to serve as public delegates for the US at the UN’s general assembly.
New polling data from the progressive firm Navigator Research offers some promising signs for Joe Biden and congressional Democrats as they prepare for the midterm elections, which are just two months away.
According to Navigator’s findings, 67% of US voters support the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats’ climate and healthcare spending package, after being told that the law will “give Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices, bring down health insurance premiums, and invest in clean energy”.
Navigator found that headlines about the act’s provisions to lower healthcare costs for seniors were viewed in the most positive light by voters, suggesting that Democrats would be well served by highlighting those policies as they seek reelection this November.
A majority of voters also endorse Biden’s plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for millions of borrowers. The Navigator survey found that 60% of voters, including 56% of voters who have already paid off their student debt, support the plan.
According to Navigator, voters’ overall perception of Democrats’ priorities improved after they were told about some of the party’s recent accomplishments. After that messaging, the portion of voters who said the Democratic party is focused on the right things increased by eight points, and it jumped by 16 points among independent voters.
Read more on this topic:
It’s primary day in Massachusetts, where Republican voters have a choice familiar to those in other states recently who picked their nominee for governor: continue down the path of Trumpism and election denial, or return to the more traditional, moderate approach of the party’s politics.
The two candidates seeking to succeed two-term Republican governor Charlie Baker, who is standing down, offer competing visions.
Geoff Diehl was co-chair for Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign in the state, which the former president lost by 30%. Diehl opposed Covid-19 protocols, hailed the supreme court’s elimination of federal abortion protections and embraces Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 election.
His opponent, businessman Chris Doughty, believes Joe Biden was legitimately elected, and while he supports some Trump initiatives, he says he wants to focus on challenges facing Massachusetts, especially housing and rent affordability.
According to the Associated Press, the challenge for both candidates is that support of Trump may play well among the party’s conservative wing, but could be a political albatross in a state where registered Republicans make up less than 10% of the electorate compared to about 31% for Democrats and about 57% for independents.
The winner will face off in November against Democratic state attorney general Maura Healey, who is running unopposed. Healey would become the first woman and first openly gay candidate elected governor.
Updated
Celebrity candidates don’t seem to be working out too well for Republicans ahead of the midterms, if polling in Georgia and Pennsylvania is to be believed. Now comes news from North Dakota, though this time it’s a Democrat who says he’s being eclipsed by a rival’s notability.
According to the Associated Press, Mark Haugen has suspended his campaign for a seat in the US House, claiming he was pressured by his party to step aside for Cara Mund, a former Miss America.
Mund entered the race in August as an independent, citing her support for abortion rights as a major reason, the news agency reports, citing a report in the Bismarck Tribune.
Haugen opposes abortion and says his stance cost him support in the party, leaving him no path to victory.
“Much of the far left’s concern is my pro-life position, for which I have refused to compromise,” he said in a statement.
“In my role as chair I don’t tell anyone what to do, [but] I will support Mark’s decision to withdraw from the race”, Democratic-NPL party chair Patrick Hart told the Tribune.
Mund, a Bismarck native, Harvard Law School graduate and 2018 Miss America, must submit a 1,000-signature petition today to make the November ballot. Running as an independent, she will attempt to unseat incumbent Republican Kelly Armstrong.
Legal pressure on Jeffrey Clark, the former justice department lawyer who schemed with Donald Trump and others to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia and other states, is expected to rise with the cooperation of another ex-DoJ lawyer who worked with him, say former prosecutors.
The cooperation from the ex-lawyer, in tandem with other evidence obtained by prosecutors, could help spur charges against Clark – a close ally of then president Trump – and benefit prosecutors as they go after bigger targets.
Clark, then an assistant attorney general, played a key role at the DoJ towards the end of the Trump administration, which overlapped with plotting by Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman and Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows to persuade Georgia and other states to use “fake electors” for Trump, instead of ones that Joe Biden won.
In Trump’s desperate efforts to block Biden’s win, he turned to Clark for help at the suggestion of congressman Scott Perry, who had also touted him to Meadows, according to emails revealed by the House January 6 committee investigating the Capitol riot by Trump supporters.
Trump met Clark alone in mid-December, and for a few weeks talked about replacing acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen with Clark, until Trump was told bluntly at a raucous White House meeting by Rosen and his deputy, plus White House counsel Pat Cipollone, that doing so would spur mass resignations at the department and in the counsel’s office.
Clark, whose cellphone and other electronic equipment was seized by federal agents in a June search on his home, worked with former DoJ lawyer Ken Klukowski, who is now cooperating with prosecutors, on a draft letter to top Georgia state legislators and the governor which falsely claimed that department had “significant concerns” about election fraud there and in other states.
The letter, which was never sent despite Clark’s efforts, also suggested that legitimate Biden electors be replaced with ones for Trump.
Read the full story:
Developments in the justice department investigation into Donald Trump’s stashing of classified documents have been prominent in recent days, but let’s not forget the former president faces legal jeopardy on multiple fronts.
One such place is Georgia, where Trump infamously urged election officials to “find” him enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s victory, and there are movements there today.
According to the Washington Post, election deniers seeking evidence for Trump made multiple visits to a county elections office now the subject of a criminal investigation for an after-election breach of voting machinery.
The newspaper has published video of what it says is technology consultants Doug Logan and Jeffrey Lenberg visiting the office in Coffee county. It says the two men are under investigation for separate alleged breaches of voting machines in Michigan.
The newspaper also implicates one of the county’s senior Republican party officials:
“Cathy Latham, a teacher and then-chairwoman of the county Republican party, greeted a group of outside data forensics experts when they arrived at the elections office shortly before noon on the day of the alleged breach.
“Latham has said in sworn testimony that she taught a full day of school that day and visited the elections office briefly after classes ended.
“She was one of 16 Republicans who signed certificates declaring Trump the rightful winner of the 2020 election as part of the ‘fake electors’ scheme now under investigation by federal and state prosecutors.
Updated
Attorneys working to Friday deadline over 'special master'
Lawyers for Donald Trump are conferring with justice department counterparts to come up by Friday with a list of possible candidates to be the “special master” approved by a district court judge over the former president’s hoarding of classified documents.
Aileen Cannon’s surprise ruling on Monday has delayed the department’s inquiry into Trump’s possession of government documents at his Florida residence. Some law experts are pointing out the “deeply problematic” nature of the decision, and the fact it was made by a jurist appointed by Trump himself.
Samuel W Buell, a Duke University law professor, told the New York Times in an email:
To any lawyer with serious federal criminal court experience who is being honest, this ruling is laughably bad, and the written justification is even flimsier.
Donald Trump is getting something no one else ever gets in federal court, he’s getting it for no good reason, and it will not in the slightest reduce the ongoing howls that he is being persecuted, when he is being privileged.
Cannon’s deadline of Friday doesn’t give much time for the two sides to agree candidates to act in the role of independent arbiter, typically a retired lawyer or judge, to go through material seized by the FBI at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion.
They will look be looking for any that might be beyond the scope of the warrant or protected by executive privilege or attorney-client privilege.
The attorneys must submit a joint filing to the court by Friday.
As the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell and Victoria Bekiempis report, a special master was used, for instance, to review materials seized in the searches of the homes and offices of two of Trump’s former attorneys – Rudy Giuliani and Michael Cohen.
Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, also called the special master request a “crock of shit”, in an interview with the New York Times.
In a subsequent interview with Fox News, Barr said: “Even if [the documents] are subject to executive privilege, they still belong to the government. And any other documents that were seized… those were seize-able under the warrant”.
Read more:
Good morning politics blog readers! It’s the day after Labor Day, exactly nine weeks until the midterm elections, and the Senate is back in session after its summer recess.
But once again it’s Donald Trump dominating the headlines, and his legal victory on Monday granting him a third-party special master to review highly classified documents and other materials seized by the FBI from his Florida mansion last month.
The decision by district court judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, is expected to delay the justice department’s investigation into the former president’s hoarding of US government documents at his private residence.
Negotiations are likely to begin today between lawyers for Trump and the justice department over who the special master will be. Cannon has set a deadline of Friday.
Here’s what we’re watching elsewhere:
The Senate has a sizable workload after its month-long break, including a funding bill to keep the government running into the fall. Democrats are attempting to tie such a bill to same-sex marriage protections, according to Punchbowl, which could force the hand of a number of moderate Republicans seen as sympathetic.
Joe Biden has a lighter schedule today after three trips to the swing state of Pennsylvania in six days, in which he spelled out the dangers to democracy posed by election-denying Maga Republicans. He is set to host a cabinet meeting this afternoon.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will deliver her daily briefing at noon.
With Labor Day over, campaign season for the midterms has started in earnest. Politico has revealed its predictions nine weeks before polling day: the Senate is a toss-up, and the House is still leaning Republican.
