By David Lawder
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Sunday said he will meet with President Joe Biden on Wednesday to discuss raising the federal debt ceiling while controlling government spending, adding that Republicans will not allow a U.S. default.
"I know the president said he didn't want to have any discussions. But I think it's very important that our whole government is designed to find compromise," McCarthy told CBS' "Face the Nation" program.
"I want to find a reasonable and a responsible way that we can lift the debt ceiling (and) take control of this runaway spending," McCarthy added.
The U.S. Treasury this month activated extraordinary cash management measures to avoid breaching the $31.4 trillion limit on federal debt imposed by Congress. But without an increase by early June, the Treasury has said it may run short of cash to pay the government's bills, raising the biggest threat of default since a debt ceiling standoff in 2011.
"There will not be a default," McCarthy said. "But what is really irresponsible is what the Democrats are doing right now, saying you should just raise the limit."
A White House spokesperson declined to comment but a White House official familiar with plans for the meeting confirmed the Wednesday timing. Biden previously pledged to discuss debt with McCarthy but the White House has said it will not negotiate over raising the debt ceiling.
Biden administration officials have framed the planned meeting with McCarthy as an opportunity to develop the two leaders' "working relationship."
McCarthy and other Republicans both in the House and Senatehave said they will not support an increase in the debt ceiling without budget cuts or spending reforms.
(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Mark Porter)
The United States Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on February 28th in two cases challenging President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness initiatives, which were swiftly condemned by Republicans and right-wing organizations after they were unveiled in 2022.
Lawsuits were filed by six GOP-controlled states aiming to shutter the programs, maintaining that Biden lacks the constitutional authority to eliminate borrowers' debts and that doing so would be unfair to those who paid theirs back.
Harvard University Constitutional Law Professor Laurence Tribe said in December that the Supreme Court's right-wing supermajority will "likely dismantle it." The proposals are currently on hold pending appeals.
READ MORE: Secure Act is a good but small step in relieving student-debt
But what happens if Tribe's prediction comes to fruition? On Sunday, CNBC personal finance reporter Annie Nova identified three major consequences that would ensue should the Supreme Court strike down Biden's executive orders, based on analysis by experts.
The first, according to Nova's research, is a "'historically large' hike in delinquencies and defaults," stemming primarily from the COVID-19 pandemic forbearances that paused loan payments.
Second, Nova believes that the political fallout for Democrats and Biden – who campaigned for the White House on this very issue. Nova noted that Biden's last resort may be invoking the Heroes Act of 2003 to indefinitely suspend collections.
Third, Nova adds, is the disproportionately negative impact that reinstating payments would have on Black Americans.
READ MORE: Email error leaves millions of student loan relief applicants 'in limbo': report
"Black student loan borrowers owe $7,400 more, on average, at graduation than their white peers, a Brookings Institution report found," Nova wrote. "That inequity only gets worse with time: Black college students owe, on average, more than $52,000 four years after graduation, compared with around $28,000 for the average white graduate."
Wisdom Cole, the national director of the youth and college division at the NAACP, warned that "the racial wealth gap will widen, and the vicious cycle of economic inequality will continue. If our leaders truly believe that Black lives matter, they should understand that failure is not an option."
NBC host Chuck Todd confronted Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) after he suggested there is a two-tier justice system for Republicans and Democrats because a search warrant was used to search former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate after he refused to cooperate with the Justice Department.
"You keep talking about this raid on Donald Trump," Todd told Jordan during an interview on Sunday. "There was nine months between the initial action the archives made for a request of documents before they even turned it over to the Justice Department. The subpoena was issued 60 days before they actually executed the subpoena. And more importantly, the only time the public found out about it is because Donald Trump told the public about it."
"It was actually a year and a half of Donald Trump not complying with any of the requests from the National Archives," he noted. "A year and a half! This is not some sort of proof that somehow they've weaponized and are playing politics [at the Justice Department]."
RELATED: Legal experts stunned by 'jaw-dropping' report on Barr, Durham protecting Trump
"They raided Trump's home; they haven't raided [President Joe Biden's]," Jordan replied.
"Because Biden didn't defy a subpoena!" Todd shot back.
Jordan argued that Trump's documents were protected by a locked room and the Secret Service while Biden's were not.
"You do not seem to ever see the same conspiratorial problems when it's a Republican," Todd concluded.
Watch the video clip below from NBC or at the link.
With control of Congress split between Senate Democrats and House Republicans, near-total legislative gridlock is almost certain to halt movement on the keystone issues of both parties. Indeed, battles over bills will likely be just the background to a tide of aggressive investigations led by House Republicans into the Justice Department and key figures in Joe Biden's administration. Exactly what the political fallout of these investigations will be — and who will benefit most — are key questions as high-profile hearings will command media attention ahead of the 2024 election.
The Biden administration has been gearing up for the GOP's promised investigations at least since May, when presumed GOP targets like the Department of Homeland Security began a process that might be described as legal waterproofing. After recruiting a slate of veteran white-collar lawyers and former political advisers, Biden officials built the administration's response strategy last summer in a series of meetings.
Democrats will meet this investigative onslaught with essentially the same playbook Republicans used to defend Donald Trump and his coterie, ironically enough — along with a battery of legal defenses meant to guard against overly broad demands for Justice Department intelligence. Democrats also know first-hand how hard it is to turn investigative findings into a pair of handcuffs. That experience, some argue, may offer Democrats the advantage in landing a balance of public favor.
Recent pundit chatter suggests Democrats are hoping that GOP investigative overreach will be a publicity boon. They're betting that voters grow impatient while watching a fractured GOP with a razor-thin House majority flounder to fulfill any of its legislative stump promises. Some White House aides and allies have suggested that the far-right flavor of House investigative committees is a "political gift."
But it seems at least as likely that House Republicans can score more political points wielding the gavel than Democrats can in defending themselves from it. The Biden administration is already on the back foot, seeking to fend off what it views as unnecessary requests for overly sensitive information, with a flood of congressional requests and subpoenas certain to follow.
GOP committee chairs hope to yank the leashes of executive branch officials before the cameras, delighting the most extreme members of their base with a spectacle of Democratic humiliation. Government science and health officials will likely be compelled to appear on Capitol Hill to address a range of unsubstantiated conspiracy theories on COVID and other hot topics.
Congressional investigations — replete with camera-savvy grandstanding antics — are the hallmark of divided government, as well as a time-tested ax for chipping away at presidential approval ratings. Republicans are betting their stagecraft will outweigh the fact that their investigations will almost certainly have no legal effect.
Republicans' investigative wish list is sprawling, but may grow narrower as their committees stretch themselves thin. Here's a full breakdown of the House's new investigative powers and committees, along with a list of current and proposed investigations where the GOP hopes to flex its authority for the cameras.
Passage of the new House Rules for the 118th Congress, in a 220-213 vote, marked Speaker Kevin McCarthy's first legislative victory. The rules are expected to encourage protracted and performative committee hearings, while increasing the chances of partisan budget standoffs in both chambers. They increase House committees' investigative authority at the expense of minority-party members and the integrity of ongoing criminal cases, and expand bill-markup privileges, allowing members to target individual political opponents and federal programs.
Republicans are betting that TV stagecraft will carry more political weight than the fact that their so-called investigations are pointless and ineffectual.
New rules laid out in the 55-page document grant the chamber greater control over spending and tax bills, while giving the House GOP a new potential cudgel against the agencies and programs they investigate. The most high-profile rule change dramatically weakens the speakership by allowing any single member to call a motion to "vacate the chair" (previously, five members were required).
The long-standing "Gephardt Rule" was struck down, which could force a direct vote on lifting the debt ceiling — setting the stage for a potential 2011-esque standoff with Senate Democrats. Brinkmanship chances may increase the most thanks to new rules aimed at slowing down budget approval for bills that are normally hand-waved through — like those used to keep Social Security functioning. Bills reauthorizing such mandatory spending increases are blocked in the new rules, as is any spending bill that would lay out more than $2.5 billion within four years. However, spending cuts can now be bundled together and voted on as a package
Short-term spending items in a budget must be voted on individually before their funding is increased. Income tax increases now require a three-fifths vote to pass the House, and any bill that has a big impact on the economy has to include an inflation-impact estimate. One bipartisan "good government" rule requires bills to be posted at least 72 hours before the chamber takes a vote on them.
While the House expanded committee investigative privilege, any committees seeking to enforce subpoenas or compel criminal investigations will still face Democratic pushback in the Senate and White House.
The most prominent threat to the executive branch and Biden administration comes with the revival of the Holman Rule, which allows Congress to vote on cutting specific employees' salaries or positions within a federal agency. Another rule gives more authority to the already powerful House Oversight and Accountability Committee. All committees tasked with overseeing a federal program's budget will now be required to provide the Oversight Committee with a formidable stack of paperwork on its programs — and the threshold for recommending a program's termination has been lowered.
House committees — especially select committees — already have the authority to exercise a range of investigative powers, but newly reintroduced rules tighten the majority party's grip on the committees and restrict the minority party involvement. (It's entirely possible Republicans will live to regret these rules two years hence.) Reinforced by the threat of a potentially disastrous government shutdown or a possible default on government debt, this is what House committees' investigative powers now look like.
Getting it on the record — Unlike congressional subpoena powers, House rules on committee interview and information requests are largely unchanged in 2023. Before it issues a subpoena, a House committee can try two less aggressive routes to gather evidence. Any member can issue a request for information to an individual, whose response is voluntary. Then a House committee can request an interview, with response again voluntary, although perceived political interest often compels witnesses to comply. Interviews are less formal than a full deposition, and are usually held in private — and committees can still allow staff to lead witness interviews either remotely or in person.
No more seven-member rule — Previously, any seven members of the Oversight Committee, regardless of party, could issue a subpoena to compel witness depositions or other evidence. Now, the committee's chair must be included among those seven members. In the current Congress, this obviously restrains Democrats' power.
Staff deposition powers, limited attendance — Republicans will keep a previous Democratic rule that allowed congressional staff to take depositions without a committee member present. The rule also now limits persons who can attend depositions to members, committee staffers, an official reporter, the witness and no more than two attorneys.
Higher-profile hearings — More in-person testimony is expected during congressional hearings, as a new rule restricts the circumstances under which committee chairs can allow witnesses to testify remotely. This rule seems to apply only to non-governmental witnesses. The GOP has also kept a Democratic rule that allows the committee to overrule objections made by a witness' lawyer and compel a witness to answer or be charged with contempt. Committee members can still appeal this move.
Executive branch referral — Congress can still refer its investigatory findings to the executive branch for criminal prosecution through the Justice Department. But the executive branch still has the power to decide whether to prosecute or not.
If a person fails to comply with a congressional subpoena, they could face contempt charges, although the consequences are rarely serious. Those come in three varieties.
Inherent contempt — If a person ignores a subpoena from a House committee, the House can pass a resolution holding that person in contempt and then conduct a full trial, along with a debate. If the person is found guilty, Congress can impose its own punishment -- including having the chamber's sergeant-at-arms find the person and arrest them.
Civil contempt — Formally known as civil enforcement, this option allows the House to enforce a subpoena by either having the House general counsel file a suit in federal court, or asking a federal judge to order the witness to comply.
Criminal contempt — Failure to comply with a subpoena is a misdemeanor that can result in imprisonment or fines, although such outcomes are rare. The House can approve a contempt citation and refer it to the attorney general for possible prosecution. With the DOJ currently overloaded with hundreds of Jan. 6 cases and the discovery of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, the odds don't favor the additional use of resources for congressional investigations. Notably, criminal contempt charges — like those on which former White House adviser Steve Bannon was convicted — take a notoriously long time to yield results.
There are eight key committees to watch so far. Among those, the three new investigative bodies worth keeping an eye on are the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, and the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. But shake-ups in five other standing committees foreshadow more House brawls ahead.
Judiciary Committee — Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, has already pledged that his committee will investigate the Justice Department as he dives into a slate of Biden administration affairs. His requests to the DOJ have already begun with the first indications of the department's response coming late last week.
Oversight and Accountability Committee — Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., will be able to issue subpoenas unilaterally in his role over this powerful committee. The first hint of its new aggressive posture came with a name change (it was previously the Oversight and Reform Committee). Comer has repeatedly promised to go after the Biden administration and its federal agencies with what he calls an "all-star lineup." And indeed, the committee's GOP members include such MAGA bold-face names as Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry.
The new subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government appears to be calibrated to siphon sensitive information away from the Intelligence Committee, whose members have special security clearances.
Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party — Chaired by Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher, the new panel with an unwieldy out-of-the-past name was created in the rules package and in its own separate resolution. Gallagher is noted for his bipartisan efforts to establish the committee in the previous Congress under then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who will herself sit on this new committee along with Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. McGovern's position as chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China is expected to add sobriety to the committee's approach.
Foreign Affairs Committee — Chairing this already powerful committee, Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas will have the authority to oversee the Department of State and any investigations from other committees the involve foreign policy. That could include having influence over the Select Committee on China. Rep. Scott Perry, the Freedom Caucus chair, also sits on this committee.
Homeland Security Committee — Freedom Caucus member Mark Green, R-Tenn., is likely to step into a high-profile role as he takes on the chairmanship of this committee. Migration issues at the southern border are prompting a suite of early bills in the House. Far-right members want to depose Homeland Security head Alejandro Mayorkas, with resolutions demanding his impeachment already filed in the House. ]
Ethics Committee — Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., will chair the committee. While not new, recent rule changes order the Ethics Committee to begin taking complaints directly from the public. The move may offer lawmakers a potential end-run around the Office of Congressional Ethics (which vets and refers ethics complaints to the Ethics Committee). As the OCE faces calls to investigate Congress members over the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, its eight-member board has been largely gutted by a new rule imposing term-limit caps that would immediately force out three Democrats — and another new rule requiring four OCE board members to approve the new appointee.
The GOP is expected to investigate a host of topics in short order: Biden's border policies, the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the origins of COVID-19, cryptocurrency scams and diversity recruiting efforts in the military. Currently, three investigations have commenced in earnest, with chairmen publicly discussing early plans on collection of evidence.
The Justice Department and FBI — Jordan has previously signaled that the Government Weaponization panel plans to go after the FBI and DOJ in what Democrats believe will be an effort to see what cards the agencies hold in their own criminal investigations into Trump. Jordan released a roadmap of the committee's agenda (spanning more than 1,000 pages) but said in recent days that the committee will first investigate what he believes was the FBI's attempt to target parents who criticized school board members.
Rep. Jim Comer says there are no plans to subpoena Joe Biden "right now," perhaps because the entire point of the Hunter Biden probe is to torment him.
Hunter Biden — Comer's Oversight and Accountability Committee will take on a whole range of topics around Hunter Biden, which Comer told CNN would start immediately. Comer said there are no plans "right now" to subpoena the president himself, but that the committee would bring in witnesses for interviews and request bank records from the president's long-troubled son. Hunter Biden is facing a federal investigation over tax violations but hasn't been charged with a crime. Comer's panel will also be investigate any links between the president and his son, and is clearly eager to pursue the rumors that Joe Biden somehow profited from or meddled in his son's overseas business deals.
Biden's classified documents — On Jan. 13, Justice Committee chair Jordan announced the panel would investigate Joe Biden's handling of classified documents, sending a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland requesting files related to the DOJ's findings on the president. The committee also asked for documents related to Garland's appointment of special counsel Richard Hur. Under the authority of the Oversight and Accountability Committee, Comer sent his own request to the DOJ, asking for more details on what the documents contain.
Washington (AFP) - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due Sunday in Egypt at the start of a Middle East trip on which he will look to use US influence to notch down Israeli-Palestinian tensions after an eruption of violence.
Blinken, who will travel Monday and Tuesday to Jerusalem and Ramallah, had long planned the visit to see Israel's new right-wing government, but the trip takes on a new urgency after some of the worst violence in years.
A Palestinian gunman on Friday killed seven people outside a synagogue in a settler neighborhood of east Jerusalem, and another attack followed on Saturday.
On Thursday, nine people were killed in an Israeli army raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank in one of the deadliest such operations in years. Israel said it was targeting Islamic Jihad militants and also hit the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire.
Blinken will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and call "broadly for steps to be taken to de-escalate tensions," State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters as he condemned the "horrific" synagogue attack.
The violence is also likely to figure in talks between Blinken and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whose country's traditional role as a Middle East mediator has helped him remain a key US partner despite President Joe Biden's criticism of his human rights record.
The United States, with its close relationship to Israel, has historically taken a lead on Middle East diplomacy.
But experts questioned whether Blinken could achieve any breakthroughs.
"The absolute best they can do is to keep things stable to avoid another May 2021," said Aaron David Miller, a veteran US negotiator, referring to more than two weeks of fighting between Israel and Hamas that ended with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire.
Ghaith Al-Omari, a former Palestinian official now at The Washington Institute, expected Blinken to repeat traditional US positions rather than break new ground.
"The trip itself is the message," he said.
"Blinken will ask Abbas to do more but it is not clear what they can do," he said, referring to the Palestinians.
Blinken's visit is part of an effort by the Biden administration to engage quickly with Netanyahu, who returned to office in late December leading the most right-wing government in Israel's history.
Israel's longest-serving prime minister had a fraught relationship with the last Democratic president, Barack Obama, as Netanyahu openly sides with his Republican adversaries against US diplomacy with Iran.
Biden's national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, visited earlier in January to discuss Iran after Biden's efforts to restore a 2015 nuclear accord -- despised by Netanyahu -- effectively died.
"I've never seen such an intense flurry of high-level contacts under any administration as you're watching right now," said Miller, now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
The Biden team is looking "to avoid confrontation with Netanyahu," Miller said, noting the strong support for the Israeli leader among Republicans who now control the House of Representatives.
David Makovsky, also at the Washington Institute, said he also understood that CIA Director Bill Burns has been visiting the region.
"It looks a little like flooding the zone," he said.
Netanyahu has hailed as a key achievement the normalization of relations in 2020 with the United Arab Emirates, which has moved full speed ahead on developing ties despite public concerns over the new government’s moves.
Blinken is expected on his trip to reiterate US support for a Palestinian state, a prospect that few expect to advance under the new Israeli government.
The State Department said Blinken would also call for the preservation of the status quo at the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound, which is holy both to Jews and Muslims.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right ideologue who holds a security post in Netanyahu's government, in early January defiantly visited the site, which Jews call the Temple Mount.
In Egypt, Blinken is also expected to discuss regional issues such as Libya and Sudan, the State Department said.
Egypt remains one of the top recipients of US military assistance, but the cooperation faces scrutiny from parts of Biden's Democratic Party due to Sisi's rights record.
Authorities released hundreds of political prisoners last year, but rights groups estimate some 60,000 remain in detention, many facing harsh conditions and overcrowded cells.
Donald Trump's ongoing war with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) will likely blow up in his face should he manage to become the Republican Party's 2024 presidential nominee because he refuses to halt the racist attacks on the GOP leader's wife.
In a column for Bloomberg, longtime political observer Robert George suggested that, had the former president confined his attack to McConnell, that would be politics as usual -- particularly for Trump.
However Trump can't seem to get off a shot at the Kentucky senator without taking a swipe at his wife, former Trump administration official Elaine Chao by repeatedly calling her "Coco Chow" and pointing out her Chinese heritage while questioning her ties to China.
In a recent post on Truth Social, Trump wrote, "Does Coco Chow have anything to do with Joe Biden’s Classified Documents being sent and stored in Chinatown? Her husband, the Old Broken Crow, is VERY close to Biden, the Democrats, and, of course, China.”
According to George, Trump's using Chao as a cudgel against McConnell will drive away Asian American voters who tend to be more conservatively , but also represent a growing and powerful voting bloc.
ALSO IN THE NEWS: Big money donors avoiding Trump have forced him to run a 'small scale' presidential campaign
As George put it, Trump's racist smears are not only "repugnant" but "politically stupid."
"There’s at least anecdotal evidence over the last several elections that Asian Americans are becoming more conservative on crime, education and possibly the economy," he wrote before explaining, "In New York state, not only did Asian American voters move significantly rightward during 2022’s gubernatorial election, they also helped Republicans pick up four US House seats. And an Asian American Republican ousted a 36-year incumbent Democrat on the New York City Council."
"Trump’s animus is almost pathological," George suggested. "And Republicans can’t excuse his behavior as just belligerent pettiness stemming from Chao’s resignation after Jan. 6 or the many times Trump was criticized by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Chao’s husband. How else to explain Trump’s odd mocking of Virginia Governor Glen Youngkin’s name: 'Sounds Chinese, doesn’t it?' Could the insult have anything to do with Youngkin’s status as a possible 2024 candidate?"
According to the columnist, Trump is providing advertising fodder for Democrats in 2024 who will most certainly use his comments to target Asian American voters.
He added, "There are at least two ways for Republicans to avoid sabotaging their emerging relationship with the fastest-growing minority group in the country. They can denounce Donald Trump when he goes off on one of his racist rants, as he inevitably will. And they can nominate a presidential candidate who doesn’t have racist baggage."
You can read more here.
Donald Trump will make his first major foray out into the world for his 2024 presidential campaign with a visit to New Hampshire on Saturday where he will reportedly make an announcement that is expected to raise eyebrows among Republican Party activists.
The former president will appear in a high school gym before approximately 200 GOP faithful, and Politico reports that he will announce the hiring of outgoing New Hampshire GOP head Stephen Stepanek to oversee his campaign in the state — which is not expected to be greeted with universal approval.
With the Washington Post reporting that there is a general sense of "Trump fatigue" in the state, with one key Republican bluntly stating "Trump has run his course," Politico is reporting the former president won't be helping his case with the selection of Stepanek — and that has some Trump insiders questioning how serious the former president is about his third presidential run.
"The choice of Stepanek signals a potential return to the roots of Trump’s 2016 campaign in the state that handed him his first primary win that year. Trump lost New Hampshire by a fraction of a point in that general election. Four years later, the state slipped away from him badly, as he lost to President Joe Biden by 7 points," Politico's Lisa Kashinsky wrote before adding, "But Stepanek’s involvement is also likely to rankle some Republican activists. State committee members were clamoring for a change in party leadership after a disastrous election in which the GOP’s slate of hard-right, pro-Trump congressional candidates got pummeled and the party lost seats in the state Legislature."
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Writing that the choice of Stepanek will do "little to quell concern among some of Trump’s former allies in the state about the seriousness of his operation," Kashinsky added, "Associates from Trump’s past campaigns have expressed frustration with what they describe as lackluster — or nonexistent — communication since his November launch. At least one key ally was left in the dark about the former president’s visit this weekend, his first trip back to the state since 2020."
Noting that GOP activists in the state have shown a desire to check out other potential GOP presidential nominees, New Hampshire consultant Jim Merrill claimed the former president has his work cut out for him if he hopes to win the state's primary.
"President Trump starts the [New Hampshire] primary season as a frontrunner but his standing isn’t what it once was,” Merrill explained before conceding, “There is curiosity among voters and operatives alike to check out the potential field.”
You can read more here.
President Joe Biden on Friday spoke with the mother and stepfather of Tyre Nichols, the Black man whose beating to death by police officers has set the United States on edge.
Biden told reporters that he was "very concerned" about the potential for violent protests, but that Nichols' mother, RowVaughn Wells, had made a powerful appeal for calm.
"I was really pleased that she called for peaceful protests -- no, no violence," he said. "She has made a very strong plea."
Biden said his call, which was also with Nichols' stepfather Rodney Wells, lasted 10-15 minutes.
The slain man's mother was "obviously in enormous pain," Biden said, adding that he sought to comfort her, saying "the time will come when his memory will bring a smile before a tear."
There were fears of potentially violent protests later Friday when police release what has been described as gruesome video footage of the incident in which five officers, all of them also Black, fatally beat Nichols after a traffic stop.
Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated Biden's appeal for calm and said the White House was bracing for trouble.
"The White House has been in coordination with the various agencies to ensure they prepare if the protests become violent. This coordination is standard practice."
"The president has been briefed but he has not seen the video. Nor has anyone else at the White House seen the video," she said.
Talking about the wider issue of police brutality, she said the "president was very clear we need to deliver change. We must have accountability when law enforcement officers violate their oath and we need to build a long-lasting trust."
Biden said the way the incident is handled will have an impact on "the image of America."
"That has a lot do with whether or not we are the country we say we are -- that we're a country of law and order...(where you) peacefully protest," he said.
The White House said that senior staff had briefed the mayors of more than a dozen cities, including Atlanta, Chicago and Philadelphia, on federal assistance in case of protests.
"Participating mayors shared their perspectives on how important it is to recognize the pain felt by communities across this country, be prepared in advance with a game plan to provide adequate community support, and to reinforce the importance of peace and calm during these difficult moments," the White House said.
© Agence France-Presse
By Gram Slattery
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Donald Trump will swing through New Hampshire and South Carolina on Saturday in the first two stops of a presidential campaign that has largely idled since he launched his new White House bid in November.
Trump will speak first at the New Hampshire Republican Party's annual meeting in Salem before heading to Columbia, South Carolina's capital, where he will unveil his leadership team in the state.
Both states are seen as potential kingmakers, as they are among the first to hold their nominating contests. How a candidate performs there often makes or breaks their campaign.
Political observers in both the Republican and Democratic parties will be keenly watching to see who shows up to support Trump at the events.
Once the undisputed center of gravity in the Republican Party, an increasing number of elected officials have expressed concerns about his ability to beat Democratic President Joe Biden, if he decides to run again, as is widely expected.
In New Hampshire, Republican Governor Chris Sununu has said he is having conversations about a primary bid, and many high-ranking Republicans there - including those who supported Trump previously - say publicly they are looking for an alternative.
In South Carolina, where Trump will appear alongside Governor Henry McMaster and Senator Lindsey Graham, there will be a number of conspicuous absences.
Among those not attending are the state party chairman, at least three Republican U.S. representatives from the state and South Carolina U.S. Senator Tim Scott, who has himself been floated as a potential Republican presidential candidate. Scott and others have cited scheduling conflicts.
Several Republican state lawmakers decided against attending after failing to gain assurances from Trump's team that doing so would not be considered an endorsement, according to a person with knowledge of the planning.
"You know, there's a lot of remaining appetite for Trump, and I think a lot of people still believe that Trump is being treated unfairly," said Reese Boyd III, a Republican official from the Myrtle Beach area.
"But you also see that softening from some groups."
To be sure, Trump retains a significant base of support, particularly among the grassroots. While he loses in some head-to-head polls against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, another potential competitor, he wins by significant margins when poll respondents are presented with a broader field of options.
Since launching his campaign in November, Trump has maintained a relatively low profile. He called multiple conservative Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives in early January to persuade them to vote for Kevin McCarthy, an ally, for the new Speaker.
Most brushed off his entreaties, though McCarthy was elected to the position after a bruising battle.
As with previous events, many Republicans will be looking at whether Trump offers a forward-looking vision or instead retreads false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
The latter opinion has proven unpopular with independent voters, and political analysts say it was a factor in the Republicans' underwhelming performance in the November congressional midterm elections.
(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Ross Colvin and Daniel Wallis)
The bill, passed 221-205, mostly along party lines, would strip the president’s power to remove oil from the reserve unless the U.S. Energy Department has a plan to allow new leasing on federal lands and waters for oil exploration.
The vote comes after a volatile two years for gas prices, which have spiked and fallen in response to several factors. President Joe Biden sought to reduce price spikes by selling record amounts from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the federally controlled stockpile of crude oil housed in underground salt caverns along the Gulf Coast in Louisiana and Texas.
The bill would require that the percentage of federal lands and waters opened to leasing is the same as the percentage of oil drawn from the reserve, with a limit of 15%.
All Republicans who voted were in favor, while only one Democrat, Jared Golden of Maine, cast a ballot to pass the bill. Eight members did not vote.
The measure is unlikely to become law, as Biden has already pledged to veto it — even in the unlikely event the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate were to send it to his desk.
House Democrats largely dismissed the measure as an unserious messaging bill.
The Republican message, voiced repeatedly by members over two days of debate, was that Biden mismanaged the country’s energy agenda in his first two years in office.
The 2 ½-page bill itself deals narrowly with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waters.
Republicans criticized the use of emergency reserves.
“The bill today will help ensure this vital American energy asset — and American security interests — will not be drained away for non-emergency, political purposes,” the bill’s chief sponsor, Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state, said on the House floor Thursday.
“It provides a path towards making energy more affordable for Americans, who are looking to us to help ease the pain at the pump.”
The bill’s requirement that Strategic Petroleum Reserve withdrawals are offset by additional leasing responds to an order in the early days of the Biden administration — later reversed in federal court — to pause new oil and gas leases on federal lands.
But the debate Thursday and Friday quickly morphed into an airing of wider GOP grievances against the administration’s energy agenda.
They said the need to raid the emergency supply was emblematic of the administration’s misguided policy to limit oil and gas development.
Biden blocked the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline that was to run from Canada through Montana en route to U.S. refineries, they said. He sought to import oil, sometimes from adversarial countries, while stifling domestic production, they said.
Biden’s moves proved he had “an intentional plan to destroy America’s oil industry,” Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Rome said.
Democrats dismissed the measure as frivolous and counterproductive. If enacted, it would only take a tool away from presidents of either party to deal with future oil supply volatility. That would result in less available oil, not more, they said.
“There is no real vision for Republican energy policy,” Energy and Commerce ranking Democrat Frank Pallone of New Jersey said. “They are reduced to defending their oil and gas interests and attacking President Biden’s successful efforts to lower gas prices for Americans.”
“The bill would significantly weaken a critical energy security tool, resulting in more oil supply shortages and higher gas prices for working families,” Biden’s statement of administration policy said. “This Administration’s use of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) has been essential to protecting our energy security and to lowering gas prices for Americans.”
One criticism centered on the idea that more leases don’t necessarily lead to more oil reserves.
Energy companies already hold thousands of leases of federal lands and waters that are not being used for oil exploration. Auctioning more leases would do little to increase short-term oil supply or drop the price of gas, Democrats said.
“There is no relationship between opening up more federal lands for the production of oil and gas and the price that Americans pay at the pump,” Colorado Democrat Diana DeGette said. “None. And instead of helping to bring down prices for consumers, what this bill does is it really makes it harder for future administrations to respond.”
Among the dozens of failed Democratic amendments was one from Nevada’s Susie Lee that would have barred leasing of lands deemed to have low potential for oil and gas.
Democrats and environmentalists generally oppose oil companies leasing lands with little potential, saying that those lands would be better used for conservation or recreation.
The measure was the second bill the House has passed this year related to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
The first was a measure barring sale of the reserve crude oil to China or state-backed Chinese companies. That bill passed Jan. 12 with broad bipartisan support.
Republican U.S. Senators John Barrasso of Wyoming and Susan Collins of Maine have cosponsored a similar bill, as did Ted Cruz of Texas. None yet have Democratic cosponsors.
Barrasso has also introduced a bill similar to the one the House passed Friday.
The House took two days, Thursday and Friday, to consider the bill under a modified open rule, a process that has become rare in recent decades and doesn’t restrict any relevant amendments filed by a certain deadline.
Members filed nearly 150 amendments and voted on 56, rejecting most of them. Others were ruled not germane to the bill and did not receive votes.
Of those that passed, several restricted or opened specific areas for oil exploration.
Amendments offered by Republicans Matt Gaetz of Florida and Nancy Mace of South Carolina stipulated that existing restrictions on drilling off the coasts of those states would still be in effect if the bill became law.
U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican, authored a successful amendment that would require any plan for additional leasing under the bill would include identifying portions of the Thompson Divide in her district to be leased.
Another Boebert amendment lifted the cap on total lands and waters offered for leasing from 10% to 15%.
The House adopted an amendment from New Jersey Democrat Josh Gottheimer requiring that any drawdown from the reserve not be sold to China, Iran, North Korea or Russia.
The amendment would expand the bill the House passed two weeks earlier that barred only sales to China.
Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and Twitter.
The release by the Memphis Police Department of the brutal traffic stop beating of Tyre Nichols has already sent shockwaves around the nation and elicited horrified reactions from President Joe Biden and legal experts.
On Friday's edition of CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," analyst Van Jones broke down what made the footage so stunning.
"Van, I want to emphasize again," said Cooper. "We are not replaying it ... this is still happening. Nothing has happened. The beating is now more than 12 or more minutes ago and he's just still lying on the ground."
"Brutal, inhumane, unacceptable, unjustifiable," said Jones. "I mean, he's just now getting attention. A dog being beaten would have been helped by somebody at this point. Also, you know, talk about the images. The voices are so telling. Tyre's voice, the first time you hear him, he's calm, he's trying to calm the police down. He's saying, all right, all right, all right. He goes from a voice of reason and calm. They are so brutal toward him that he runs. The next time you hear him, went from calm to panicked. Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma! Screaming for his mother. He's a hundred yards from his house, hoping that somebody can help him. And then he goes from a voice of calm to panic to agony, completely incoherent. Unable to form a word."
What the video shows, Jones said, is a "deterioration of a human being."
"And then the cops' voices, profane, 'I hope they stomp his ass,' unbelievable level of viciousness," continued Jones. "And the only sympathy is for themselves. Because they're so busy pepper-spraying him, they're pepper-spraying each other. Look at the reaction of the police to the pepper spray. They can't stand the burning, the sensation. They need help from each other, and yet it's continuing for someone else and no aid to someone else who got the full force of the pepper spray."
"So even if you didn't see these images, just the voice of Tyre, you can tell that he was — the only calm person at the beginning. At the end, he can't even form a word," added Jones. "This is disgusting, it's despicable, it's inhumane, it is shocking. It's as bad as people said, but even if you can't see it, you could hear the inhumanity here."
Van Jones reacts to Tyre Nichols beating footage www.youtube.com
In a statement released by the White House on Friday, President Joe Biden reacted to the footage of Memphis police officers fatally beating Tyre Nichols during a traffic stop.
"Like so many, I was outraged and deeply pained to see the horrific video of the beating that resulted in Tyre Nichols’ death," said Biden in the statement. "It is yet another painful reminder of the profound fear and trauma, the pain, and the exhaustion that Black and Brown Americans experience every single day."
"My heart goes out to Tyre Nichols’ family and to Americans in Memphis and across the country who are grieving this tremendously painful loss," the president continued. "The footage that was released this evening will leave people justifiably outraged. Those who seek justice should not to resort to violence or destruction. Violence is never acceptable; it is illegal and destructive. I join Mr. Nichols’ family in calling for peaceful protest."
"I spoke with RowVaughn Wells and Rodney Wells, Mr. Nichols’ mother and stepfather, this afternoon," Biden continued. "There are no words to describe the heartbreak and grief of losing a beloved child and young father. Nothing can bring Mr. Nichols back to his family and the Memphis community. But Mr. and Mrs. Wells, Mr. Nichols’ son, and his whole family deserve a swift, full, and transparent investigation."
"We must do everything in our power to ensure our criminal justice system lives up to the promise of fair and impartial justice, equal treatment, and dignity for all," said Biden. "Real and lasting change will only come if we take action to prevent tragedies like this from ever happening again. That is why I called on Congress to send the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to my desk. When Senate Republicans blocked that bill, I signed an executive order that mandated stricter use of force standards and accountability provisions for federal law enforcement, as well as measures to strengthen accountability at the state and local level."
The five officers who carried out the beating have been fired and charged with second-degree murder. The paramedics who failed to administer proper medical attention are also under heavy professional scrutiny.
Shocking bodycam footage showing the brutal beating of Tyre Nichols at the hands of five Memphis cops was released Friday night as officials urged the public to remain calm.
The video was described by the chief of Memphis police as "perhaps worse" than infamous footage showing Rodney King being attacked by LAPD cops in 1991 – an event that sparked six days of riots.
Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, was severely beaten during a traffic stop on Jan. 7 and died three days later. Police said he was stopped for reckless driving and chased after he ran from the scene.
The five police officers were fired and, on Thursday, charged with second-degree murder.
"I join Tyre's family in calling for peaceful protest," President Joe Biden said on Thursday. "Outrage is understandable, but violence is never acceptable."
ALSO IN THE NEWS: Secrets about Catholic priest's 1966 murder unearthed by reporters
The lawyer representing Nichols' family said on Jan. 23 that the video showed the man being treated like a "human pinata."
"It was an unadulterated, unabashed, nonstop beating of this young boy," attorney Antonio Romanucci told reporters.
"Our son ran because he was scared for his life. He did not run because he was trying to get rid of no drugs, no guns, no any of that. He ran because he was scared for his life. And when you see the video, you will see why he was scared for his life," said Nichols' stepfather, Rodney Wells.
Watch the videos below or at this link. Warning: Graphic content.
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