Today's politics recap
- Second gentleman Doug Emhoff was evacuated from a Washington high school because of a bomb threat. The husband of Kamala Harris was at Dunbar High School in northwest DC for an event commemorating Black History Month when Secret Service agents told him to evacuate. “Mr Emhoff is safe and the school has been evacuated. We are grateful to Secret Service and DC police for their work,” Emhoff’s spokesperson said.
- Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell criticized the Republican National Committee’s censure of Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger over their work for the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection. Describing the Capitol attack as a “violent insurrection”, McConnell said it was inappropriate for the RNC to censure two members for disagreeing with their colleagues. “That’s not the job of the RNC,” McConnell said.
- Joe Biden celebrated the news that Tritium is opening a new production facility in Tennessee to build its electric vehicle charging stations. The Tritium site will bring more than 500 jobs to Tennessee, and it is expected to start production this fall. “This is great news for workers across the country, for our economy and frankly for the planet,” Biden said. “We’re seeing the beginnings of an American manufacturing comeback.”
- Two House subcommittees held a hearing on security threats at synagogues, amid an alarming rise in antisemitic attacks across the US. The rabbi who was held hostage by an armed gunman last month at the Congregation Beth Israel in Texas testified at the hearing. Emphasizing the importance of security trainings for Jewish community leaders, Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker called for increased funding for those programs to help protect houses of worship. “Every congregation needs to be prepared,” Cytron-Walker said.
– Joan E Greve
Bernie Sanders: We must do everything possible to avoid an enormously destructive war in Ukraine
The Vermont senator writes for the Guardian’s op-ed section:
Wars have unintended consequences. They rarely turn out the way the experts tell us they will. Just ask the officials who provided rosy scenarios for the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, only to be proven horribly wrong. Just ask the mothers of the soldiers who were killed or wounded in action during those wars. Just ask the millions of civilians who became “collateral damage”.
That is why we must do everything possible to try and find a diplomatic solution to what could be an enormously destructive war in Ukraine.
No one knows exactly what the human costs of such a war would be. But there are estimates that there could be over 50,000 civilian casualties in Ukraine, and millions of refugees flooding neighboring countries as they flee what could be the worst European conflict since the second world war. In addition, of course, there would be many thousands of deaths within the Ukrainian and Russian militaries. There is also the possibility that this “regional” war could escalate to other parts of Europe. What might happen then is even more horrifying.
But that’s not all. The sanctions against Russia and Russia’s threatened response to those sanctions, could result in massive economic upheaval – with impacts on energy, banking, food and the day-to-day needs of ordinary people throughout the entire world. It is likely that Russians will not be the only people suffering from sanctions. And, by the way, any hope of international cooperation to address the existential threat of global climate crisis and future pandemics would suffer a major setback.
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