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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Maya Yang (now); Gloria Oladipo (earlier)

Thirteen Republicans support resolution to expel George Santos from Congress - as it happened

Donald Trump Allison Greenfield Arthur Engoron Jason Miller Joe Biden United States
Republican representative of New York George Santos
Republican representative of New York George Santos Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA

Summary

It is 4pm in Washington DC. Here is a wrap-up of the day’s key events:

  • The House speaker, Mike Johnson, has pledged that he is going to make “all the January 6th tapes available to all Americans.” “Today, I am keeping my promise to the American people and making all the January 6th tapes available to ALL Americans,” he tweeted on Friday.

  • Rosalynn Carter, the 96-year-old former first lady, is in hospice care at home in Plains, Georgia. A statement released by her office on Friday afternoon said: “She and President Carter are spending time with each other and their family. The Carter family continues to ask for privacy and remains grateful for the outpouring of love and support.”

  • The Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has criticized San Francisco over its street cleanup for the Apec summit and Joe Biden’s bilateral meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping earlier this week. “Xi Jinping’s coming to town, and what do they do? They get the poop off the sidewalk, they ... clear the homeless, they stop the drugs, they stop the crime,” said DeSantis.

  • Thirteen Republicans have supported a resolution to expel George Santos from the House of Representatives. Meanwhile, Santos, who has been charged with fraud, said: “The one thing I never knew was that the process in Congress was dirty. I will continue to fight for what I believe in and I will never back down.”

  • Democrats in New Hampshire still see Joe Biden as the party’s best shot to hold the White House, according to a new poll from CNN. Although Biden’s name will not appear on the state’s primary ballots, 65% of New Hampshire Democrats said they will write in Biden’s name, while 10% said they will vote for Minnesota’s Democratic representative Dean Phillips.

  • The White House has condemned a tweet from Elon Musk that endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jewish communities “push hatred against whites”. “We condemn this abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate in the strongest terms, which runs against our core values as Americans,” the White House said.

  • Following the suspension of Donald Trump’s gag order in his ongoing New York fraud trial, Trump’s team resumed its attacks against the trial’s presiding judge Arthur Engoron’s law clerk, Allison Greenfield. Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump, went after Greenfield on X, denouncing her as a “Democrat operative and hack”.

  • Donald Trump himself has also gone after Allison Greenfield following the gag order’s suspension. In a post on Truth Social, Trump denounced Greenfield as “politically biased and out of control”.

That’s it from me, Maya Yang, as we wrap up the blog for today. Thank you for following along.

Updated

House speaker Mike Johnson has pledged that he is going to make “all the January 6th tapes available to all Americans”.

“Today, I am keeping my promise to the American people and making all the January 6th tapes available to ALL Americans,” he tweeted on Friday.

Updated

Rosalynn Carter, the 96-year-old former first lady, is in hospice care at home in Plains, Georgia.

A statement released by her office on Friday afternoon said:

“Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter has entered hospice care at home. She and President Carter are spending time with each other and their family. The Carter family continues to ask for privacy and remains grateful for the outpouring of love and support.”

Updated

Several pro-ceasefire demonstrators were arrested at Fox News’s headquarters in New York City as Gaza protests spread.

The Guardian’s Gloria Oladipo reports:

More protests demanding a ceasefire in Gaza were under way in the US on Friday morning, with police breaking up crowds and arresting demonstrators in various locations.

Such demonstrations come as recent polling shows that US public support for Israel is dropping, while the Hamas authorities in Gaza reported on Friday that more than 12,000 Palestinians, overwhelmingly civilians and mostly women and children, had now been killed since Israel declared war on Hamas in October.

New York police on Friday arrested pro-Palestine supporters who occupied the headquarters of News Corp, the media company that owns the Fox News channel and the Wall Street Journal and New York Post newspapers, according to clips posted on social media.

Dozens of demonstrators gathered in the News Corp lobby, chanting, “Shame” and “Fox News … you can’t hide. Your lies cover up genocide.”

For the further details, click here:

Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has criticized San Francisco over its street cleanup for the Apec summit and Joe Biden’s bilateral meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping earlier this week.

“I look to see what’s going on in San Francisco the last couple of days. The city is in squalor, there’s poop on the streets, there’s people using drugs, people getting mugged …

But then Xi Jinping’s coming to town, and what do they do? They get the poop off the sidewalk, they ... clear the homeless, they stop the drugs, they stop the crime,” said DeSantis.

Updated

Joe Biden has issued high praise towards Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador during their meeting amid Apec in San Francisco.

Speaking to Obrador in English, Biden said:

“We had dinner last night. I told you, you sat next to my wife. You were so captivating, I was worried she liked you more than she likes me now.”

George Santos has announced a press conference on 30 November at 8am.

In a tweet on Friday, Santos, who has been charged with fraud and is facing expulsion by several of his Republican colleagues, wrote:

My year from Hell. Running for office was never a dream or goal, but when the opportunity to do so came I felt the time to serve my country was now. Looking back today I know one thing, politics is indeed dirty, dirty from the very bottom up.

Consultants, operatives, the opposition, the party and more … the one thing I never knew was that the process in Congress was dirty. I will continue to fight for what I believe in and I will never back down. What the ‘ethics committee’ did today was not part of due process, what they did was poison a the jury pool on my on going investigation with the DoJ. This was a dirty biased act and one that tramples all over my rights.

Press conference November 30th at 8am on The Capitol steps, I encourage ALL members of the press to attend.

Updated

Meanwhile, Representative George Santos has not made a public statement about his fellow party members calling for his expulsion.

Instead, the New York congressman published a post on X about the need for Congress to “grow a spine” and ban Tik Tok.

Tik Tok has faced backlash in recent days from Jewish public figures over antisemitism on the app.

Updated

Thirteen Republicans support resolution to expel Santos

Here is an updated list of Republicans who support the resolution to expel Santos, from CNN:

Updated

Iowa representative Randy Feenstra publically said he will support a resolution to expel George Santos, another Republican joining the call for Santos’s removal.

In a post to X, formally known as Twitter, Feenstra said that he will support the resolution in light of Santos’ “illegal and unethical behavior” if Santos does not “do the right thing and resign”.

“Rep. George Santos has proven that his ethics do not align with what we expect from our leaders,” Feenstra said in a statement on X.

Updated

Democrats in New Hampshire still see Joe Biden as the party’s best shot to hold the White House, according to a new poll from CNN.

Although Biden’s name will not appear on the state’s primary ballots, 65% of New Hampshire Democrats said they will write in Biden’s name, while 10% said they will vote for Minnesota’s Democratic representative Dean Phillips. Nine per cent said they will vote for author Marianne Williamson.

CNN also reports, “Among adults in New Hampshire, Biden’s job approval rating (44% approve to 55% disapprove) and favorability (34% favorable, 53% unfavorable) remain in negative territory, and about two-thirds see the country as heading off on the wrong track.”

Moreover, only 42% approve of Biden’s handling of the economy while 40% approve of his handling of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.

Updated

The trial surrounding Donald Trump’s classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort is running about four months behind schedule.

The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports:

The US district judge Aileen Cannon put off setting a deadline for Trump to submit a notice about what classified information he intends to use at trial – currently set for May – until after a hearing next year that almost certainly precludes the pre-trial process from finishing in time.

Trump was indicted this summer with violating the Espionage Act when he illegally retained classified documents after he left office and conspiring to obstruct the government’s efforts to retrieve them from his Mar-a-Lago club, including defying a grand jury subpoena.

But the fact that Trump was charged with retaining national defense information means his case will be tried under the complex rules laid out in the Classified Information Procedures Act, or Cipa, which governs how those documents can be used in court.

At issue is the fact that the seven-stage Cipa process is sequential, meaning each previous section has to be completed before the case can proceed to the next section. A delay halfway through the process invariably has the net effect of delaying the entire schedule leading to trial.

For the full story, click here:

Donald Trump said that he wanted to go to the Capitol during the January 6 insurrection claiming that he would have been “very well recieved.”

According to new audio released from an interview between Donald Trump and political journalist and author Jonathan Karl two months after the insurrection, Trump said:

I was going to [go up to the Capitol] and then Secret Service said you can’t … I wanted to go back. I was thinking about going back during the problem to stop the problem, doing it myself. Secret Service didn’t like that idea too much … I would have been very well received.

Updated

David Boies, one of the country’s most renowned lawyers who was part of cases involving Microsoft, the 2000 presidential election, and the legalization of same-sex marriage, is stepping down next year from the law firm he co-founded.

Reuters reports:

The firm’s partnership has been in tumult in recent years in part because of Boies’ representation of controversial clients like disgraced Hollywood movie producer Harvey Weinstein.

Boies’ tenure as chairman of Boies Schiller Flexner ends December 2024, a firm spokesperson said on Friday. A new chairman-will be selected next month, the spokesperson said. The firm said the 82-year-old Boies is not retiring and will remain a partner. Boies was not immediately available to comment.

Boies Schiller has lost nearly half of its lawyers over the last three years. It now lists 180 lawyers in 13 offices. The firm has altered its leadership structure in the same period, electing multiple co-managing partners as it looked ahead to a future without its founder.

One of them, Nicholas Gravante, departed for rival law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in 2020. Another who briefly held the role, Natasha Harrison, left Boies Schiller last year to found her own firm.

Boies Schiller is now managed by a trio of managing partners, who praised Boies’ leadership in a statement on Friday. “We greatly appreciate the faith David and the rest of the firm has placed in us,” partners Matthew Schwartz, Sigrid McCawley and Alan Vickery said in a statement.

'Unacceptable': White House responds to Elon Musk's endorsement of antisemitic tweet

The White House has condemned a tweet from Elon Musk that endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jewish communities “push hatred against whites.”

Responding to Musk’s tweet in which he replied to the conspiracy theory and said, “You have said the actual truth,” the White House said:

It is unacceptable to repeat the hideous lie behind the most fatal act of antisemitism in American history at any time, let alone one month after the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

Like president Biden said weeks ago memorializing the victims of the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting, the October 7 ‘devastating atrocity has brought to the surface painful memories left by millennia of antisemitism;’ and under his presidency ‘we will continue to condemn antisemitism at every turn.’

We condemn this abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate in the strongest terms, which runs against our core values as Americans.

With the National Rifle Association fading, an even more zealous gun rights group is starting to rise as a significant lobbying power in US politics.

Peter Stone reports for the Guardian:

A zealous gun rights group, even more uncompromising than the once formidable National Rifle Association, is emerging as a force in US politics with a mission to oppose efforts at gun control and ease further America’s already lax regulations on firearms.

Last year the Gun Owners of America (GOA) spent $3.3m on lobbying, a record sum for the hardline foe of gun control that now claims over 2 million members and activists, and has previously operated in the shadows of the larger NRA.

The GOA’s record lobbying spending in 2022 was spurred in part by a rise in its annual revenues, which more than tripled from $2.3m in 2016 to $8.7m in 2021, according to tax records.

The GOA is an adamant enemy of gun control measures of all stripes, and proudly calls itself the “no compromise” gun lobby. Its surge in lobbying spending reflects one way it has capitalized on the financial and legal problems of the once 5 million-member NRA in the hopes of expanding the GOA’s political clout, say gun experts.

For the full story, click here:

New York Republican representative Elise Stefanik, a staunch Donald Trump ally who filed a judical ethics complaint last week against judge Arthur Engoron, hailed the gag order’s temporary suspension.

In a statement on X, Stefanik said:

I am pleased to see that after my ethics complaint to the New York Commission on Judicial Conduct against Manhattan Judge Arthur Engoron, an appellate court has lifted the unconstitutional gag order against President Trump…

This is so much bigger than President Trump. If Democrats can do this to a billionaire, former President, and leading presidential candidate, just imagine what they can do to the rest of us. That’s why I filed my ethics complaint against Judge Engoron, and I will continue to fight for all New Yorkers.

House ethics chairman on resolution to expel George Santos: 'The most appropriate punishment is expulsion'

In a statement on his resolution to expel George Santos, House ethics chairman Michael Guest said:

Given the intense public scrutiny surrounding Representative Santos and the ongoing activity at the DOJ, including indictments, the Ethics Committee decided to finish its work without going through a lengthier process that provides for the Committee to make a recommendation of punishment to the House.

The evidence uncovered in the Ethics Committee’s Investigative Subcommittee investigation is more than sufficient to warrant punishment and the most appropriate punishment, is expulsion. So, separate from the Committee process and my role as Chairman, I have filed an expulsion resolution.

Updated

Here is the resolution introduced by House ethics chairman and Mississippi Republican Michael Guest to expel George Santos:

“Santos must be held accountable to the highest standards of conduct in order to safeguard the public’s faith in this institution,” CBS’s Scott MacFarlane reports the resolution saying.

House ethics chairman introduces resolution to expel George Santos

House ethics chairman Michael Guest has introduced a resolution to expel George Santos, a fellow Republican who has been charged with fraud, CNN reports.

Guest’s resolution comes a day after the House ethics commitee released a report on its investigation into the New York representative.

The investigation found “grave and pervasive campaign finance violations and fraudulent activity,” according to the report.

Following the report’s release, Santos said that he will not seek re-election for a second term and went on to call the report “biased” and a “disgusting politicized smear.”

Santos has pleaded not guilty to 23 federal criminal charges including laundering funds and defrauding donors.

Updated

Trump goes after judge and clerk in fiery Truth Social post

Donald Trump has also gone after judge Arthur Engoron and his principal law clerk Allison Greenfield, writing in a fiery tirade on Truth Social yesterday:

Judge Arthur Engoron has just been overturned (stayed!) by the New York State Appellate Division (Appeals Court), for the 4th TIME (on the same case!).

His Ridiculous and Unconstitutional Gag Order, not allowing me to defend myself against him and his politically biased and out of control, Trump Hating Clerk, who is sinking him and his Court to new levels of LOW, is a disgrace.

They are defending the Worst and Least Respected Attorney General in the United States, Letitia James, who is a Worldwide disgrace, as is her illegal Witch Hunt against me.

Trump has been fined $15,000 for violating previous gag orders imposed on him and his team by Engoron after they questioned Greenfield’s role in the trial.

Updated

Jason Miller, one of Donald Trump’s senior advisors, went after judge Arthur Engoron’s principal law clerk Allison Greenfield shortly after the gag order was temporarily lifted.

Miller took to social media yesterday and wrote:

There’s no way President Trump can receive a fair trial when Democrats are sending partisan attack dogs to do their dirty work. How is this “justice”? “Attorney Allison Greenfield: Democrat Operative and Hack”

Trump team resumes attacks on fraud trial judge’s law clerk after gag order lifted

Good morning,

Following the suspension of Donald Trump’s gag order in his ongoing New York fraud trial, the ex president’s team resumed their attacks against the trial’s presiding judge Arthur Engoron’s law clerk, Allison Greenfield.

On Thursday, New York appeals judge David Friedman cited constitutional concerns surrounding Trump’s free speech and issued an interim stay on the gag order while a longer appeals process remains underway.

Shortly after the order’s temporary suspension, Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump, went after Greenfield on X, denouncing her as a “Democrat operative and hack.”

Trump also went on to attack Greenfield, calling her a “politically biased and out of control Trump hating clerk” on Truth Social.

Trump and his team have routinely accused Greenfield, a former Democratic judicial candidate, of attempting to influence Engoron, who himself is also a Democrat.

Engoron has defended Greenfield in court multiple times, saying earlier this month that “these arguments have no basis.”

Here are other developments in US politics:

  • Joe Biden has signed a stopgap spending bill to avert a government shutdown.

  • Joe Biden and Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador are set to meet amid Apec to talk migration, fentanyl and Cuba.

  • New York Republican representative George Santos will not seek re-election next year after the House detailed “pervasive” fraud.

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