The House voted to hold Steve Bannon in criminal contempt for defying subpoenas issued by the select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection. The matter will now be referred to the justice department, which will have to determine whether to prosecute Bannon, a former senior adviser to Donald Trump.
Nine House Republicans joined all 220 Democrats in supporting the contempt resolution. In addition to Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who serve on the select committee, seven other House Republicans – Brian Fitzpatrick, Anthony Gonzalez, Jaime Herrera Beutler, John Katko, Nancy Mace, Peter Meijer and Fred Upton – voted to hold Bannon in criminal contempt.
Cheney delivered an impassioned floor speech encouraging her colleagues to vote for the contempt resolution. Pointing to Bannon’s comments on his podcast the day before and the day of the insurrection, Cheney said, “There is no doubt that Mr Bannon knows far more than what he said on the video … The American people deserve to hear his testimony.”
Joe Biden emphasized his commitment to fighting for voting rights a day after Senate Republicans blocked Democrats’ Freedom to Vote Act. Speaking at a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the commemoration of the Dr Martin Luther King memorial in Washington, Biden said of enacting national voting rights legislation, “We have to keep up the fight and get it done.”
The presentation outlining the ex-president’s new company, Trump Media & Technology Group, is rich with hyperbole, but low on detail.
The TRUTH is out there, according to known factualness provider Donald Trump. On Wednesday the former president, who has been banned from the major social media platforms since January, announced that he will be launching his own social media company called Truth Social. Although, in typical Trump style, it’s styled TRUTH Social.
The network, which from the Apple App Store screengrabs looks suspiciously like a clone of Twitter, will open to “invited users” next month and be rolled out to the public early next year. The app is apparently part of a wider media network called Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) that aims to take on the “liberal media consortium”.
“I created TRUTH Social and TMTG to stand up to the tyranny of Big Tech,” Trump said in a statement. “We live in a world where the Taliban has a huge presence on Twitter, yet your favorite American President has been silenced. This is unacceptable.”
Trump’s plans for TMTG are extremely ambitious. Not only does he want to take on Facebook and Twitter, he wants to disrupt Disney, Apple, Netflix, Google and Amazon. How exactly is he going to do that? Good question. The 22-page company presentation outlining TMTG’s vision is rich with hyperbole, but low on detail. Here’s the gist:he TRUTH is out there, according to known factualness provider Donald Trump. On Wednesday the former president, who has been banned from the major social media platforms since January, announced that he will be launching his own social media company called Truth Social. Although, in typical Trump style, it’s styled TRUTH Social.
The network, which from the Apple App Store screengrabs looks suspiciously like a clone of Twitter, will open to “invited users” next month and be rolled out to the public early next year. The app is apparently part of a wider media network called Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) that aims to take on the “liberal media consortium”.
“I created TRUTH Social and TMTG to stand up to the tyranny of Big Tech,” Trump said in a statement. “We live in a world where the Taliban has a huge presence on Twitter, yet your favorite American President has been silenced. This is unacceptable.”
Trump’s plans for TMTG are extremely ambitious. Not only does he want to take on Facebook and Twitter, he wants to disrupt Disney, Apple, Netflix, Google and Amazon. How exactly is he going to do that? Good question.
US border agents engaged in ‘shocking abuses’ against asylum seekers, report finds
Ed Pilkington
Shocking instances of sexual and physical abuse of asylum seekers at the southern US border by federal officers have been uncovered by Human Rights Watch, after a years-long battle to wrestle the information from the Department of Homeland Security under freedom of information laws.
A stash of redacted documents released to the human rights group after six years of legal tussles uncover more than 160 cases of misconduct and abuse by leading government agencies, notably Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and US Border Patrol. The papers record events between 2016 and 2021 that range from child sexual assault to enforced hunger, threats of rape and brutal detention conditions.
Some of the incidents involve alleged criminal activity by federal agents.
Human Rights Watch said that the documents “paint a picture of DHS as an agency that appears to have normalized shocking abuses at the US border. The US should take urgent and sustained action to stop such abuses”.
The newly released documents record a case of alleged child sexual abuse reported by a supervisor in the San Francisco asylum office. An asylum officer interviewed “a young child who was sexually molested by someone we believe to be a CBP or Border Patrol Officer … The young girl was forced to undress and touched inappropriately by a guard wearing green”.
The Border Patrol uniform is green.
Another report recounts an incident in 2018 when a male asylum seeker was detained and taken to a detention center in San Ysidro, California. An officer told the man that “if he gave him sex, he would be set free”, and when the detainee refused “the officer swore at him in English and said that he would be locked up as punishment”.
Negotiations are still under way on the Democrat’s social safety net and climate change package – AKA the reconciliation bill.
Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema has reportedly come on board with some key provisions:
NEWS: Source familiar ways Sinema "has agreed to provisions in each of President Biden's four proposed revenue categories -- international, domestic corporate, high net worth individuals, and tax enforcement -- providing sufficient revenue to fully pay" for reconciliation package
Meanwhile Joe Manchin, the West Virginia senator with deep ties to the oil and gas industry, reportedly still remains at odd with his Democratic colleagues.
Axios reports that despite a seemingly friendly meeting with Vermont’s Bernie Sanders, Manchin’s vision for the bill remains in conflict with that of other Democrats.
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), chairman of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee, described the incident as a “a difference in opinion.”
“Joe said, ‘I’m comfortable with nothing,’ Bernie said, ‘We need to do three-and-a-half [trillion dollars].’ The truth is both of them are in different spots.”
Manchin said, “I’m comfortable with zero,” forming a “zero” with his thumb and index finger, Tester reiterated, saying he believes the West Virginia Democrat can live with himself if the Senate doesn’t pass any of the president’s $2-$3.5 trillion package.
Climate crisis likely to fuel conflicts over water and migration, US analyses say
Ed Pilkington
The climate crisis is likely to intensify cross-border clashes, aggravate conflicts over water and migration and cause instability, especially in developing countries, in ways that could threaten global security, the Biden administration warned on Thursday.
A clutch of simultaneously released reports by the White House, the US intelligence community and the Department of Defense paint a grim picture of the raft of security and humanitarian disasters that could strike at once as climate disaster continues to set in.
They warn that rising temperatures and extreme physical effects are likely to lead to conflicts over water and to the displacement of tens of millions of people over the next 30 years, including within the US where sea-level rise, drought and wildfires already menace communities.
In one of the more ominous forebodings, US intelligence predicts that new disputes could erupt between countries that seek to protect themselves unilaterally by deploying a strategy known as large-scale solar geoengineering.
Should a country conclude that international efforts to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5C over pre-industrial levels had failed, it might turn to its own use of geoengineering – an attempt to cool the planet by reflecting solar rays back to space through the injection of stratospheric aerosols or other risky techniques.
“Without an international agreement on these technologies, we assess that such a unilateral effort probably would cause blowback,” the intelligence report said.
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
The House voted to hold Steve Bannon in criminal contempt for defying subpoenas issued by the select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection. The matter will now be referred to the justice department, which will have to determine whether to prosecute Bannon, a former senior adviser to Donald Trump.
Nine House Republicans joined all 220 Democrats in supporting the contempt resolution. In addition to Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who serve on the select committee, seven other House Republicans – Brian Fitzpatrick, Anthony Gonzalez, Jaime Herrera Beutler, John Katko, Nancy Mace, Peter Meijer and Fred Upton – voted to hold Bannon in criminal contempt.
Cheney delivered an impassioned floor speech encouraging her colleagues to vote for the contempt resolution. Pointing to Bannon’s comments on his podcast the day before and the day of the insurrection, Cheney said, “There is no doubt that Mr Bannon knows far more than what he said on the video … The American people deserve to hear his testimony.”
Joe Biden emphasized his commitment to fighting for voting rights a day after Senate Republicans blocked Democrats’ Freedom to Vote Act. Speaking at a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the commemoration of the Dr Martin Luther King memorial in Washington, Biden said of enacting national voting rights legislation, “We have to keep up the fight and get it done.”
It’s also worth noting that the only House member who did not vote on the contempt resolution was Greg Pence, the brother of former Vice-President Mike Pence.
Greg Pence, who represents Indiana’s 6th congressional district in the House, previously attracted scrutiny for voting against impeaching Donald Trump for inciting the Capitol insurrection.
During the insurrection, rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” over the vice-president’s decision to fulfill his constitutional duty of overseeing the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the election.
Here are the nine Republicans who voted in support of the resolution to hold Steve Bannon in contempt for defying subpoenas from the select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection:
House votes to hold Bannon in contempt for defying Capitol attack subpoena
It is official: the House has voted to hold Steve Bannon in criminal contempt for defying subpoenas issued by the select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection.
The final vote was 229 to 202, with all Democrats and nine Republicans supporting the resolution.
The House adopted H. Res. 730 - contempt resolution regarding Stephen K. Bannon's refusal to comply with a subpoena issued by the Select Committee to Investigate the Jan 6th Attack on the US Capitol on a vote of 229-202.
The matter will now be referred to the justice department, which will have to determine whether to prosecute Bannon, a former senior adviser to Donald Trump.
Testifying before the House judiciary committee earlier today, attorney general Merrick Garland said the justice department would fairly review any referral sent by the House.
“The department of justice will do what it always does in such circumstances,” Garland told the committee. “We’ll apply the facts and the law and make a decision, consistent with the principles of prosecution.”
House secures votes to hold Bannon in contempt for defying Capitol attack subpoena
The House vote remains open, but the resolution to hold Steve Bannon in criminal contempt has now gained enough support to pass the chamber.
As of now, 221 House members, including eight Republicans, have voted to hold the Trump ally in criminal contempt for defying subpoenas issued by the select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection.
However, the vote remains open, so the result is not yet official. If the House passes the resolution as expected, the matter will then be referred to the justice department, which will have to determine whether to prosecute Bannon.
The House vote is still open, but as of now, six Republicans have joined Democrats in supporting the resolution to hold Steve Bannon in criminal contempt for defying subpoenas from the select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection.
As a reminder, if the House passes the resolution as expected, the matter will then be referred to the justice department, which will have to determine whether to prosecute Bannon.
House votes on measure to hold Bannon in criminal contempt
The House is now voting on a measure to hold Steve Bannon in criminal contempt for defying subpoenas issued by the select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection.
The House is voting NOW on H. Res. 730 - contempt resolution regarding Stephen K. Bannon's refusal to comply with a subpoena issued by the Select Committee to Investigate the Jan 6th Attack on the US Capitol.
The vote comes after the House completed an hour of debate on the contempt measure, with all but two Republicans denouncing the proposal.
Bennie Thompson, the Democratic chairman of the select committee, accused his Republican colleagues of avoiding the truth and “performing for an audience of one,” meaning Donald Trump.
The blog will be watching the vote closely, so stay tuned.
Adam Kinzinger, the other Republican member of the select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection, joined Liz Cheney in endorsing the resolution to hold Steve Bannon in criminal contempt.
“Steve Bannon went out of his way to earn this resolution before us and now we must approve it,” Kinzinger said of the Trump ally’s refusal to comply with the committee’s subpoenas.
“I have no doubt that Mr Bannon’s scorn for our subpoena is real. But no one — and I repeat no one — is above the law, and we need to hear from him.”
It’s worth noting that Kinzinger was introduced by the Democratic chairman of the select committee, Bennie Thompson, and he delivered his remarks from the Democrats’ side of the House chamber.
