Closing summary
Joe Biden eased into his re-election campaign with the announcement of a nationwide push to expand high-speed internet, and plans for a speech on “Bidenomics” set for Wednesday. The president’s idea is to campaign for another four years in the White House not with promises of new policies, but rather with a reiteration of the proposals that got him elected in the first place. Meanwhile, Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy signaled an openness to impeaching the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, if the US attorney involved in prosecuting Hunter Biden doesn’t speak to the judiciary committee. The House is on recess for the next two weeks or so, but we’ll keep an eye on if that goes anywhere.
Here’s what else happened today:
A White House spokesman condemned McCarthy for threatening to impeach Garland.
The supreme court ordered Louisiana to draw a new majority-Black congressional district as the fallout from a recent decision concerning the Voting Rights Act continues.
A top Democratic senator thinks the supreme court’s conservatives know they’ve gone too far.
The Biden administration plans yet another aid package for Ukraine, while the president said the US had “nothing to do” with the attempted mutiny in Russia over the past weekend.
There is yet another balloon over Montana, but it’s not suspicious, Norad says.
Updated
Judge denies prosecutor’s request to keep witness list in Trump case secret
The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports that Aileen Cannon, the judge overseeing Donald Trump’s trial in Florida on charges of conspiring to store classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort, denied a request from the justice department to keep its witness list secret:
JUST IN: US judge Aileen Cannon denies Special Counsel request to file 84 potential witnesses in the Trump classified docs case under seal -- says the government does not explain why it is necessary and notes media coalition has moved to have it public.
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) June 26, 2023
The justice department can appeal the decision. The decision is one of several expected in the pretrial motions before the start of the proceedings, which are currently scheduled for the middle of August but likely to change.
Appointed to the federal bench by Trump, Cannon faced criticism for decisions made in the case prior to his indictment that some analysts saw as partial to the former president.
Updated
White House condemns McCarthy for impeachment threats against AG Garland
White House spokesman Ian Sams has released a statement criticizing Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy for threatening to impeach the US attorney general, Merrick Garland.
Here’s what Sams had to say:
Speaker McCarthy and the extreme House Republicans are proving they have no positive agenda to actually help the American people on the issues most important to them and their families. The President and his entire Administration are spending this whole week traveling the country to talk about the important economic progress we have made over the last two years – creating more than 13 million jobs as we’ve sparked the strongest recovery of any country in the world – and laying out the Biden plan to put the middle class ahead of those at the very top. Perhaps Congressional Republicans are desperate to distract from their own plan to give even more tax cuts to the wealthy and big corporations and add more than $3 trillion to the deficit, but instead of pushing more partisan stunts intended only to get themselves attention on the far right, they should work with the President to actually put the middle class and working Americans first and expand the historic progress to lower costs, create jobs, boost U.S. manufacturing and small businesses, and make prescription drugs more affordable.
Updated
There is, once again, a balloon flying over Montana – but it’s not a spy balloon, Norad assures us.
The US-Canadian air defense force, whose name is an acronym for North American Aerospace Defense Command, says it is aware of the balloon, but does not regard it as suspicious:
#NORAD is aware of reports of a high-altitude balloon over Montana. The object is a privately-owned civilian balloon registered with the #FAA and operating within FAA regulations and requirements. Be assured, when an object is suspicious or unknown, NORAD responds.
— North American Aerospace Defense Command (@NORADCommand) June 26, 2023
There is, of course, a political angle to this. Matt Rosendale, a Republican House representative from Montana, earlier today attempted to use the balloon’s presence to attack the Biden administration:
Last night, several people in Dawson County were tracking a balloon flying across Eastern Montana at 57,000 feet.
— Matt Rosendale (@RepRosendale) June 26, 2023
I contacted DoD and was informed that they are aware, but due to the size of the balloon and the low probability that it is conducting surveillance, they will not… pic.twitter.com/IY9JYpwW9i
Updated
Joe Biden’s approval rating has seen a slight uptick in recent weeks, but is still pretty bad, Gallup reports.
In a survey conducted on 1-22 June, Gallup reports the president’s approval is at 43%, up from the 37% low that his presidency hit in April. That’s not a particularly high rating at all, and the survey also found 54% of American adult respondents disapproved of his job performance.
The last time Biden’s approval was above 50% was in July 2021 – before the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Delta wave of Covid-19 that led many Americans to again don masks and avoid large gatherings. Another factor that pushed Biden’s approval lower and kept it there was the wave of inflation that intensified throughout 2021 and 2022, forcing Americans to pay higher prices for essentials like gasoline and food.
Updated
According to NBC News, “five or six” US Secret Service agents have now testified before the January 6 grand jury.
NBC cited two unnamed sources “familiar with testimony”.
The special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of the deadly attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 is a source of further legal jeopardy for Donald Trump.
Twice indicted already, the former president and current Republican frontrunner is widely believed likely to face further indictment by Smith, who has already handed down charges over Trump’s handling of classified information.
NBC said: “While the exact content of their subpoenas and appearances is not known, Secret Service agents who were close to Trump on January 6 may be able to confirm, deny or provide more details on a story first told by former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson to the … January 6 committee in Congress.
“One year ago, Hutchinson told the committee she heard secondhand that Trump wanted Secret Service agents to drive him to the Capitol to join the rioters, tried to grab the car’s steering wheel and then reached for the ‘clavicles’ of the driver, Secret Service agent Bobby Engel. Trump later denied this account.”
NBC also notes that agents may have been asked about what the agency knew and discussed leading up to and during the January 6 attack, in which Trump supporters sought to stop certification of Joe Biden’s election win.
NBC said the agents who have testified could “inform the grand jury about the extent to which Trump knew about the potential for violence on January 6 and how he responded to threats made against then-Vice President Mike Pence”.
Pence is now a competitor for the Republican presidential nomination.
Updated
Joe Biden was asked earlier, by the Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich, if he had ever lied about ever speaking to his son, Hunter Biden, about his business dealings (the subject of Republican attacks passim, and current musings about impeaching the attorney general, Merrick Garland).
The president said: “No.”
Video is here.
Joe Biden has marked the concurrent anniversaries of three supreme court rulings which affirmed the right to same-sex marriage – a right some observers think will soon come under threat from a conservative-dominated court which removed the right to abortion.
The president said: “Ten years ago today, the supreme court rulings in United States v Windsor and Hollingsworth v Perry made significant strides laying the groundwork for marriage equality in our country. They were followed two years later, to the day, by the ruling in Obergefell v Hodges, finally allowing millions of LGBTQ+ Americans to marry who they love.
“These monumental cases moved our country forward, and they were made possible because of the courageous couples and unrelenting advocates in the LGBTQ+ community who, for decades, fought for these hard-won rights.
“Last year, I was proud to build on their legacy by signing into law the Respect for Marriage Act … surrounded by many of the plaintiffs from these cases. But more work lies ahead, and I continue to call on Congress to pass the Equality Act, to codify additional protections to combat the increased attacks on the rights and safety of those in the LGBTQ+ community.”
Further reading:
Fox News announced earlier that Jesse Watters will move into the 8pm prime-time weeknight slot formerly filled by Tucker Carlson.
Announcing the full shake-up, Suzanne Scott, chief executive of Fox News, said: “The unique perspectives of Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, Sean Hannity and Greg Gutfeld will ensure our viewers have access to unrivaled coverage from our best-in-class team for years to come.”
Here’s some (possibly) unrivaled coverage of Watters’ many unique perspectives over the years, from the progressive watchdog Media Matters for America.
It’s a long list, so I’ll just link to it here while listing the subheadings provided:
Racism
Sexism and misogyny
Xenophobia and Islamophobia
Anti-LGBTQ+ hate
Election denial
Climate denial
In his own statement, the Media Matters president, Angelo Carusone, explained his group’s view of Watters:
“After Fox News fired Tucker Carlson, [Fox Corp co-chair] Lachlan Murdoch said there would be ‘no change’ in the network’s programming strategy. Today, Fox is making good on that promise.
“Crowning odious Jesse Watters as the new face of Fox News is a reflection of Fox’s dogged commitment to bigotry and deceit as well as an indication of their desperation to regain audience share. It won’t work, though. Fox’s audience abandoned the network post-Tucker, and those viewers never returned. Jesse Watters’ buffoonish segments of bigotry and culture war vitriol won’t fix that problem for Fox; he’s a liability and a ticking time bomb.
“Dominion exposed Fox News for the partisan propaganda operation that it is. Instead of trying to adjust and attempt to establish a beachhead of credibility, the network is going back out to sea by leaning in on their most toxic personalities – like Greg Gutfeld and Jesse Watters. The network is transparently appealing to the fringes here.
“Advertisers and cable providers beware: things at Fox News are about to get a whole lot worse.”
Here’s some more reading on Fox News post-Tucker, with contributions from Brian Stelter, a seasoned Fox-watcher formerly of CNN:
Updated
The day so far
Joe Biden is easing into his re-election campaign with the announcement of a nationwide push to expand high-speed internet, and plans for a speech on “Bidenomics” set for Wednesday. The idea is to campaign for another four years in the White House not with new promises, but rather with a reiteration of the proposals that got him elected in the first place. Meanwhile, Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy signaled an openness to impeaching attorney general Merrick Garland if the US attorney involved in prosecuting Hunter Biden doesn’t speak to the judiciary committee. The House is on recess for the next two weeks or so, but we’ll keep an eye on if that goes anywhere.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
The supreme court ordered Louisiana to draw a new majority-Black congressional district as the fallout from a recent decision concerning the Voting Rights Act continues.
A top Democratic senator thinks the supreme court’s conservatives know they’ve gone too far.
The Biden administration plans yet another aid package for Ukraine.
Joe Biden’s push for more affordable high-speed internet access comes as he plans to announce a major theme for his re-election campaign on Wednesday.
The president is scheduled to travel to Chicago and speak about the employment and wage gains Americans have seen since he took office, which the White House is calling “Bidenomics”.
According to Axios, Biden plans to focus his re-election campaign on the same promises he made when running for his first term in office, rather than announcing a new slate of policies. But the approach is risky, particularly since surveys indicate two-thirds of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track.
Eyeing re-election, Biden says all Americans to access high-speed internet by 2030
As he looks to promote his economic record and turn around negative public approval ratings, Joe Biden announced his administration would work to get all Americans access to low-cost high-speed internet by 2030.
“We’re announcing over $40bn to be distributed to 50 states, Washington DC and territories to deliver high speed in places where there’s neither service or it’s too slow,” the president said.
“Along with other federal investments, we’re going to be able to connect every person in America to reliable high-speed internet by 2030.”
He compared his administration’s push to the rural electrification campaign of Democratic icon Franklin Delano Rosevelt in the 1930s.
“Today, Kamala and I are making an equally historic investment to connect everyone in America, everyone in America to … affordable high speed internet by 2030. It’s the biggest investment in high-speed internet ever, because for today’s economy to work for everyone, internet access is just as important as electricity or water, or other basic services.”
Updated
US 'had nothing to do' with Wagner rebellion against Moscow - Biden
The United States was not involved in the weekend mutiny by Wagner mercenary group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin against Russian president Vladimir Putin.
“We made clear that we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it,” Biden said at the White House event on high-speed internet. “This was part of a struggle within the Russian system.”
“We’re going to keep assessing the fallout of this weekend’s events and the implications for Russia and Ukraine. But it’s still too early to reach a definitive conclusion about where this is going.”
The president added that, “We’re going to keep assessing the fallout of this weekend’s events and the implications for Russia and Ukraine. But it’s still too early to reach a definitive conclusion about where this is going.”
Biden to announce major investment in US high-speed internet
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are kicking off a speech where they’ll unveil tens of billions of dollars in investments to improve high-speed internet access across the United States.
The Washington Post reports that the Biden administration will spend $42 bn to expand access to the internet, using funds made available by the infrastructure overhaul Congress approved two years ago:
NEW: White House announces $42 billion for high-speed internet, the largest-ever single burst of federal spending to boost broadband.
— Tony Romm (@TonyRomm) June 26, 2023
We just learned what each state gets under the infrastructure law:https://t.co/HG5VH5UCTA pic.twitter.com/erlySKsuAu
Follow along here for the latest on the speech.
US plans new Ukraine aid package as Wagner chief defends mutiny
The Biden administration will as soon as tomorrow announce a new aid package for Ukraine costing $500 mn that includes ground vehicles, Reuters reports.
The decision comes following a tumultuous weekend in Russia that saw Yevgeny Prigozhin lead his Wagner mercenary group in a brief armed mutiny against Vladimir Putin’s government before turning back after reaching a deal with Moscow.
The Guardian has a separate live blog covering the latest on that and the wider conflict in Ukraine:
The supreme court’s conservative majority has over the past year handed down rulings that upended longstanding precedent, such as by overturning Roe v Wade, and also faced questions over troubling ties between its justices and people with interests in the court. But in an interview with the Guardian’s David Smith, a top Democratic senator said the justices may have realized they went too far:
The conservative-dominated US supreme court may be undergoing a “course correction” after witnessing a public backlash to its extremist rulings and ethics scandals, Sheldon Whitehouse, chairman of the Senate judiciary subcommittee on the federal courts, has told the Guardian.
America’s highest court has made a series of radical decisions, including in the Dobbs case that overturned the constitutional right to abortion one year ago on Saturday, while two rightwing justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, have been exposed for failing disclose luxury gifts from billionaires.
But with trust in the court collapsing, it has this month defended the Voting Rights Act by ruling in favor of Black voters in Alabama and preserved a law that aims to keep Native American children with tribal families. Both were unexpected victories for Democrats – and a sign that they might finally be awakening to public opinion.
Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy went on Fox News this morning to reiterate his willingness to impeach attorney general Merrick Garland if allegations of political influence in the Hunter Biden prosecution are proven.
Here’s what he had to say:
“If it comes true what the IRS whistleblower is saying, we’re going to start impeachment inquiries on the Attorney General."
— The Recount (@therecount) June 26, 2023
— Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Fox & Friends hints at potential impeachment proceedings against Merrick Garland over Hunter Biden pic.twitter.com/BFUKFOb9Tw
Fox’s Steve Doocy: “Have you found Joe Biden broke any rules, any laws, or does it just look fishy?”
— The Recount (@therecount) June 26, 2023
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy: “... None of it smells right, none of it is right, they talk about the ‘Big Guy.’”
(McCarthy does not say Biden broke any rules/laws.) pic.twitter.com/wCbQPSAwMz
Despite the supreme court’s recent moves to strike down discriminatory congressional maps, the Voting Rights Act faces peril from conservative justices, who form a majority on its bench. Ten years ago, they greatly weakened the landmark civil rights legislation, and the Guardian’s Sam Levine and Kira Lerner have taken a look back at how that has changed elections in America:
For the last 10 years, Helen Butler and a coalition of activists have tried to accomplish a near-impossible task: to closely monitor the monthly meetings of the local elections boards in each of Georgia’s 159 counties.
The meetings can be tedious. Officials often discuss the nitty-gritty details of elections that can influence how easy it is to cast a ballot, or a county might announce plans to close a polling place and change early voting locations.
“It’s a daunting task but we try to stay abreast,” said Butler, who leads a civil rights group called the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda. “We miss some, I can tell you that. We don’t get every one.” When they can’t get to a meeting, they request meeting minutes, which can be spotty.
Louisiana and Alabama are not the only states where Republican-led legislatures will be forced to withdraw their congressional maps because of the supreme court’s recent Voting Rights Act ruling.
Georgia may the next state to redraw its maps, according to Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University:
With the Supreme Court effectively blocking the Louisiana congressional map, Georgia's time for a redraw seems only a question of "when" and not "if."
— Anthony Michael Kreis (@AnthonyMKreis) June 26, 2023
But as Kreis told the Georgia Recorder earlier this month, Democrats may not benefit from the redrawn maps. He expects a new district to appear north of Atlanta that will still have a “pinkish hue”.
Supreme court orders Louisiana to draw another majority-black congressional district
The supreme court has just ordered Louisiana to draw another majority Black congressional district, after earlier this month striking down congressional maps in Alabama that the justices found discriminated against African-American voters.
CNN reports that the justices, with no dissents noted, lifted a hold placed on an order from a lower court that told the state to redraw its maps. Despite a third of its population being African American, the Republican-dominated legislature in the state last year approved a map that includes only one majority Black district.
While the court has now struck down both Alabama and Louisiana’s maps for not properly representing their Black populations, the justices had allowed those states’ maps to remain in effect for the 2022 midterm elections. Majority Black districts tend to lean Democratic, and CNN supreme court analyst Steve Vladeck said the court’s decision, along with its lack of an explanation for the move, raises questions about the court’s intentions.
“Like the Alabama ruling, it doesn’t explain why the court nevertheless had issued emergency relief to allow Louisiana to use its unlawful maps during the 2022 midterm cycle,” he said. “It puts the court’s interventions last year into ever-sharper perspective.”
The GOP has decried the agreement federal prosecutors reached with Hunter Biden as a “sweetheart deal”. But is it?
The Wall Street Journal attempted to answer that question by interviewing nearly a dozen former federal prosecutors and analyzing upwards of 100 court cases. They determined that the president’s son’s treatment isn’t atypical, given the circumstances of the case.
When it came to charges of failing to pay income tax, which Biden agreed to plead guilty to, “Former tax prosecutors said the Hunter Biden case likely presented the Justice Department with several challenges that cut in favor of negotiating a plea deal rather than taking the case to trial,” the Journal reports.
More thorny is the issue of the deal Biden agreed to with prosecutors to resolve charges over illegally possessing a firearm. Those allegations won’t be pursued against him, assuming he never again owns a gun and remains drug-free.
The Journal found that charge is only occasionally pursued on its own, and more typically used against people with criminal records or histories of violence. “Though Hunter Biden hasn’t been described as a threat to others nor did he have any prior criminal history, prosecutors have a significant amount of discretion to pursue charges as they see fit,” the Journal said.
“Some former prosecutors said the high-profile nature of the Biden case combined with his well-documented crack addiction, which he chronicled in detail in his memoir ‘Beautiful Things’ necessitated pursuing a case against him. Others said the remedy — the ability to avoid prosecution for compliant behavior — sends the wrong message as the Justice Department is seeking to combat gun crime which typically rises in the summer months.”
If the name Hunter Biden is foreign to you, or if you just missed the GOP’s grousing last week about the potential resolution of his legal troubles, here’s a look back, from the Guardian’s David Smith:
“Sweetheart deal!” “Two-tiered justice!” “Mere traffic ticket!”
Republicans had their applause lines ready on Tuesday when Joe Biden’s son Hunter struck a plea deal over unpaid taxes, and gun possession while being a drug user, that is likely to keep him out of prison.
But the Grand Old Party is like the Boy Who Cried Wolf. It has churned through so many wild allegations against the “Biden crime family” that its moment of self-righteous indignation risks getting lost in the noise.
Presidents’ families are inescapably part of the political package, often seen at their side at campaign events or state occasions. There have been past scandals involving Richard Nixon’s brother Don, who was rescued from business failures by the eccentric businessman Howard Hughes, George H W Bush’s son Neil, who directed a failed savings and loan, and Bill Clinton’s half-brother Roger, who spent time in prison for a cocaine conviction.
Despite deal, McCarthy threat indicates GOP isn't done with Hunter Biden
House speaker Kevin McCarthy’s threat to impeach attorney general Merrick Garland is unlikely to oust him from office, but makes clear that the GOP is far from finished with its campaign to present Hunter Biden – and, by extension, the president himself – as corrupt.
In his Sunday tweet, McCarthy threatened to kick off impeachment proceedings if David Weiss, the Delaware-based US attorney who led the investigation into Biden, is not allowed to speak to the House judiciary committee:
We need to get to the facts, and that includes reconciling these clear disparities. U.S. Attorney David Weiss must provide answers to the House Judiciary Committee.
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) June 25, 2023
If the whistleblowers' allegations are true, this will be a significant part of a larger impeachment inquiry into… https://t.co/Q3LLeJhW85
Two things to keep in mind: Weiss is the rare US attorney that was appointed by Donald Trump and kept on when Joe Biden took office. Also, while Republicans control the House and seem to have the votes to impeach Garland, he would only lose his job if convicted by two-thirds of the Democratic-led Senate, which seems certain to reject the effort.
The big questions in the days to come are whether Weiss will indeed be allowed to testify to Congress. The other is whether further evidence will emerge for claims made by whistleblowers, including Gary Shapley, the Internal Revenue Service agent who in the tweet McCarthy references above claims that Weiss sought special counsel status but was denied.
Top Republican threatens to impeach Garland over Hunter Biden case
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Since January, when the new Republican majority took their seats in the House of Representatives, the GOP’s most extreme lawmakers have been threatening to use the chamber’s powers to impeach various officials in Joe Biden’s cabinet – if not the president himself. Speaker Kevin McCarthy has generally demurred when it comes to supporting these proposals, but over the weekend, he pivoted, and threatened to open up impeachment proceedings targeting the attorney general, Merrick Garland.
The cause of the speaker’s ire was a deal reached last week with the president’s son Hunter Biden to resolve a criminal investigation against him. Republicans have decried it as a “sweetheart deal”, and say they’ve heard claims of political interference from whistleblowers. Though House lawmakers are on recess for the next two weeks, we’ll be keeping an eye out today for more reaction to what could be a new Republican offensive against the Biden administration.
Here’s what else is going on today:
Biden will at 11.45am eastern time today speak about his efforts to expand high-speed internet access, as part of a push to promote his economic record and turn around his ailing poll numbers as his re-election campaign kicks into gear.
This is the final week for the supreme court to issue decisions in outstanding cases, and verdicts concerning Biden’s student loan relief program, affirmative action and other closely watched topics are possible starting Tuesday.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre briefs reporters at 2pm today.
