House Republicans elected Elise Stefanik of New York to replace Liz Cheney as the party’s conference chair. In a speech after her election, Stefanik thanked Donald Trump and said Republican voters are “unified” in their support of the former president.
Joel Greenberg, a former Florida tax collector, pleaded guilty to a series of federal crimes. He agreed to cooperate with the justice department on investigations involving alleged sex trafficking of a minor, including a probe into Republican representative Matt Gaetz.
The House’s homeland security committee announced that a bipartisan commission will create a report of the definitive facts of what happened during the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol. House Democrats also unveiled a $1.9bn bill to fund the Capitol’s bolstered security following the attack.
CNN uncovered footage of Republican extremist Marjorie Taylor Greene provoking representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in February 2019 by speaking through the mail slot of Ocasio-Cortez’s office. In response to the footage, Ocasio-Cortez said it is clear Greene is “deeply unwell”.
Bernie Sanders called on the Biden administration and fellow lawmakers to “no longer be apologists for the right-wing Netanyahu government and its undemocratic and racist behavior”.In a New York Times op-ed, Sanders urged politicians to recognize the human rights of Palestinians. The Vermont senator’s appeal comes after Biden said “Israel has the right to defend itself,” following a conversation with Netanyahu this week.
Liz Cheney said she regretted voting for Donald Trump.“I was never going to support Joe Biden,” she told ABC News. But, she said, “I do regret the vote” for Trump. Cheney was ousted as House GOP chair and replaced with New York representative Elise Stefanik over her refusal to endorse Trump’s “big lie” that the election was stolen from him.
John Cox, a candidate vying to replace Gavin Newsom in the state’s gubernatorial recall vote, is under investigation for violating a San Diego city law that bans anyone, except zoos, from bringing wild animals – including lions and tigers and bears – into the area.
The San Diego Humane Society’s law enforcement division confirmed it was conducting the investigation of Cox, who has made several appearances at lecterns with his ursine companion, Tag, wandering behind him.
The stunt has drawn condemnation from animal rights groups and state lawmakers. “Gone should be the days when wild animals were treated as toys or props,” said People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, adding that “dangerous wild animals” should not be part of publicity grabs. Ben Hueso, a San Diego Democratic representative, said a 2019 law barring the use of most animals in circuses should apply, in “spirit”, to Cox’s campaign.
Cox defended the treatment of the bear. “Every care was taken to ensure Tag’s comfort and safety with the approval of several government agencies. California needs beastly change and that may ruffle some feathers of leftwing activists,” the campaign said in a statement, sticking firmly to Cox’s animal theme – he has positioned himself as the “beast” to Gavin Newsom’s “beauty” and is demanding “beastly” behavior via website, voteforthebeast.com, and his Twitter account, @beastjohncox.
Proud Boys leader received Covid-19 stimulus loans worth $15,500
Jason Wilson
Government records show that Enrique Tarrio, chairman of the far-right Proud Boys group, received two federal government-backed paycheck protection program (PPP) loans worth a total of $15,500, the Guardian can reveal.
Tarrio, based in Miami, Florida, was approved for an initial loan of $7,750 on 30 March, and a succeeding loan for the same amount on 16 April. The loans were issued to Henry Tarrio, an anglicized form of his name which he has used on other occasions.
The Proud Boys began as an organization protesting against political correctness and boosting their idea of masculinity and grew into a rightwing group that embraced street fighting. Earlier this year, Canada named it as a terrorist entity. It is seen as having played an important role in the 6 January attack on the Capitol in Washington DC.
In the loan documentation, which was obtained by the news non-profit ProPublica, after a Freedom of Information Act battle with the Small Business Administration, Tarrio is described as an independent contractor, working in the “Security Systems Services” industry, but the document names no associated business entity.
Additional information provided to the Guardian by ProPublica shows that the street address on the loan application is associated with both Tarrio and one of the LLCs for which he is named as an officer in Florida state records.
Those records show Tarrio as an officer in a number of inactive LLCs, including “SPIE Security LLC”, “Fund The West LLC” and “Proud Boys LLC”.
In a questionnaire he completed for the Ballotpedia website in the course of an abortive 2020 congressional run, Tarrio described himself as the proprietor of “several companies that were involved in the surveillance and security industry”.
However, Tarrio was not found to be a licensed security officer in a search of Florida state records.
Yesterday, representative Cori Bush made an appeal to support Palestinian liberation.
“The fight for Black lives and the fight for Palestinian liberation are interconnected,” said Bush, a former Black Lives Matter organizer, who spoke about a Palestinian American Ferguson activist.
Recalling how police shot rubber bullets and gas at protestors in Ferguson, Bush said she learned then that “the same equipment that they [the police] used to brutalize us is the same equipment we send to the Israeli military to police and brutalize Palestinians”.
The fight for Black lives and the fight for Palestinian liberation are interconnected.
We oppose our money going to fund militarized policing, occupation, and systems of violent oppression and trauma.
Bernie Sanders called on the Biden administration and fellow lawmakers to “no longer be apologists for the right-wing Netanyahu government and its undemocratic and racist behavior”.
In a New York Times op-ed, Sanders urged politicians to recognize the human rights of Palestinians. The Vermont senator’s appeal comes after Biden said “Israel has the right to defend itself,” following a conversation with Netanyahu this week.
Sanders drew parallels between the Black Lives Matter movement in the US and the struggles of Palestinian activists:
We are seeing the rise of a new generation of activists who want to build societies based on human needs and political equality. We saw these activists in American streets last summer in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. We see them in Israel. We see them in the Palestinian territories ...
If the United States is going to be a credible voice on human rights on the global stage, we must uphold international standards of human rights consistently, even when it’s politically difficult. We must recognize that Palestinian rights matter. Palestinian lives matter.
As my colleague Erum Salam reported this week, Palestinian activists say they are heartened by the support of progressive politicians, like Sanders:
The days-long violence in Jerusalem and now Gaza over the contested neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah sparked international condemnation, notably by a growing cluster of US progressive lawmakerswho spoke out against Israeli military , accusing it of using excessive force to try to displace Palestinians from their homes.
Palestinian activists reacting on social media say this public denunciation of Israel is a seismic shift from previous language used by American politicians surrounding conflict in the region.
“It’s really different this time and honestly I think it’s in large part because of social media,” said Amani al-Khatahtbeh, a Palestinian American author.
“Especially with young people becoming more vocal, our new generation is really not OK with injustice being swept under the rug or covered up. It’s impossible now to hide all of the abuses taking place. That’s terrifying to the old guard that has invested so much in the status quo. We’re decentralizing and democratizing that.”
Joe Biden has revoked Trump’s executive order on building a “National Garden of American Heroes”.
Trump had announced the order at last year’s Independence Day celebration at Mount Rushmore. The proposed garden would feature sculptures of various public figures – specifying a variety of names including John Adams, Muhammed Ali, Shirley Temple, Grover Cleveland, and the Marquis de La Fayette.
Liz Cheney said she regretted voting for Donald Trump.
“I was never going to support Joe Biden,” she told ABC News. But, she said, “I do regret the vote” for Trump. Cheney was ousted as House GOP chair and replaced with New York representative Elise Stefanik over her refusal to endorse Trump’s “big lie” that the election was stolen from him.
“It was a vote based on policy, based on substance and in terms of the kinds of policies he put forward that were good for the country. But I think it’s fair to say that I regret the vote,” she told ABC’s Jonathan Karl.
Cheney also said that House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, who spoke with Trump on 6 January, should testify before a commission on that day’s events. According to representative Jamie Herrera Beutler, a Republican of Washington, McCarthy asked Trump to call off his supporters. Trump reportedly responded: “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.”
Cheney has been defiant – doubling down on her position that loyalty to Trump is not the best way forward for the party. Critics are dubious of her rhetoric the sanctity of elections, however, given her unwillingness to vote for or support legislation to prevent voter suppression.
Here’s a quick summary of what’s happened so far today:
House Republicans elected Elise Stefanik of New York to replace Liz Cheney as the party’s conference chair. In a speech after her election, Stefanik thanked Donald Trump and said Republican voters are “unified” in their support of the former president.
Joel Greenberg, a former Florida tax collector, pleaded guilty to a series of federal crimes. He agreed to cooperate with the justice department on investigations involving alleged sex trafficking of a minor, including a probe into Republican representative Matt Gaetz.
The House’s homeland security committee announced that a bipartisan commission will create a report of the definitive facts of what happened during the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol. House Democrats also unveiled a $1.9bn bill to fund the Capitol’s bolstered security following the attack.
CNN uncovered footage of Republican extremist Marjorie Taylor Greene provoking representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in February 2019 by speaking through the mail slot of Ocasio-Cortez’s office. In response to the footage, Ocasio-Cortez said it is clear Greene is “deeply unwell”.
Though it appears that some House Republicans have reluctantly reached a compromise with Democrats over how to formally address the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, some House Republicans are still staunch defenders of those who instigated the attack.
Representative Louie Gohmert, a Republican from Texas, gave an hour-long speech today on the House floor, calling the insurrectionists “peaceful Americans” and saying that the imprisonment of the rioters, of which about 440 have since been arrested, is making them “political prisoners held hostage by their own government.”
“You could call it a conspiracy because these people are working to silence anybody who supports Donald Trump,” Gohmert said.
Gohmert is not alone in his defense of those who stormed the Capitol. Republican representatives have downplayed the attack, saying that it was not an insurrection. David Cicilline, a Democratic representative from Rhode Island, has started to push for the censure of three other House members who have denied the severity of the attack.
Rep. Cicilline is pushing a resolution to censure Reps. Clyde, Hice and Gosar — GOP members who have aimed to rebrand the Jan 6th insurrection, calling it a "normal tourist trip" and "not an insurrection" pic.twitter.com/ysCDzd6pJp
The attack on the Capitol led to five deaths and millions of dollars in property damage. Despite strong sentiments from some Republican House members, the chamber’s homeland security committee agreed to a bipartisan commission that will analyze the happenings of the insurrection and provide recommendations on how future attacks can be prevented.
