Closing summary
The US politics liveblog is closing but you can continue to follow live coverage of the Trump tariffs news on a new liveblog here. Here are the latest developments:
Donald Trump signed an executive order to increase tariffs on Canadian goods imported to the US from 25% to 35%, hours after he suggested that a trade deal would be hampered by Canada’s decision to recognize Palestine as a state.
Trump revised the global tariffs he announced, and then paused, in April, to impose a minimum 10% import tax on goods from across the globe, with higher rates on 92 nations listed in an annex. The rates take effect in 7 days.
Joe Biden gave a 20-minute address to an association of Black lawyers, and tore into Trump, saying that the rule of law was at threat “under the pressure we’re under now with this guy we have as president”.
A legal review board recommended that Jeffrey Clark, a lawyer who works in the White House Office of Management and Budget, should lose his license to practice law over his role in Trump’s effort to overturn his 2020 election loss.
A civil rights arm of the health department referred Harvard University to the department of justice over allegations that Jewish students were discriminated against during protests against Israel’s war on Gaza.
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Joe Biden offers strident defense of the rule of law under 'this guy we have as president'
The former president, Joe Biden, just spoke in Chicago at a gala to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the National Bar Association, the nation’s oldest and largest national association of predominantly Black lawyers, judges and law students.
The 82-year-old, whose mental competency was called into question after a disastrous debate performance last year, leading him to end his re-election bid, spoke fluently and with energy for the most part, if occasionally too quickly, as if determined to assuage the concerns that are still the subject of investigations by the Republican congress.
In a 20-minute address, streamed live by Fox News, Biden offered an impassioned defense of the judges he nominated to the federal bench as president, and of the rule of law itself.
“Judges matter, courts matter, the law matters and the constitution matters” he said, his voice rising. “I think a lot of Americans are starting to realize that, under the pressure we’re under now with this guy we have as president”.
As the crowd reacted to that comment on Trump, Biden shook his head and added: “Oh get ready folks, this is just starting”.
After reciting his familiar claim to have been inspired by the civl rights movement to become a public defender before entering politics, Biden criticized Donald Trump, without naming him, for disregarding the law. The executive branch, he said, “seems to be doing its best to dismantle the constitution”. He added, “and they’re doing it all too often with the help of a congress that is just sitting on the sidelines, and enabled by the highest court in the nation”. In a break from his prepared remarks, Biden added, of the supreme court, “the rulings they’ve made, my God.”
Biden also accused the Trump administration of working to erase “all the gains we’ve made” and “to erase justice itself”.
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