Archive by Author

Biden awards Medal of Freedom to John McCain, Simone Biles

President Biden on Thursday awarded the Medal of Freedom to 17 recipients, including his late friend Sen. John McCain and athletes Simone Biles and Megan Rapinoe. 

“This is America,” Biden said after awarding the medals to the recipients at the White House, to applause from the audience. 

The president spoke about McCain last during the event, sharing details about their close relationship from across the aisle. 

“We agreed on a lot more things than we disagreed on”, Biden said. “I never stopped admiring John. I never said a negative thing about him in my life.”

The president recalled when he was on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and McCain was the committee’s navy liaison. He said they traveled the world together but they never talked about two things: McCain’s imprisonment in Vietnam or the death of Biden’s first wife and daughter.

“I’m the guy who encouraged John to go home and run for office, for real,” he said, referring to McCain’s 2008 presidential run. “I knew what incredible courage, intellect and conscience he had.”

Olympic gymnast Biles, 25, made history as the youngest person her to receive the Medal of Freedom. Olympic soccer player Rapinoe also made history as the first soccer player to receive the honor. 

Biden gave the award posthumously to Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, and said he had “character defined by what we leave on this earth when our time comes.” 

Biden called former Rep. Gabby Giffords, who is a gun violence survivor, one of the most courageous people he has ever known. He added that Giffords, who founded the gun violence prevention group Giffords, is “proof that we will not grow numb to the epidemic of gun violence in this nation.”

Another former colleague of Biden, former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.), also received the award.

“We need more of your spirit back in the United States Senate on both sides of the aisle,” Biden said. 

“He a great hugger!” Simpson said of Biden when he received his medal. 

Actor Denzel Washington, who was set to receive the award, was not at the event but the president said he would be giving the medal to him at later date. 

Other awardees included Gold Star father Khizr Khan, about whom Biden said the Medal of Freedom can rest next to his son’s Bronze Star and Purple Heart, and late AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, about whom Biden said “no one did more work for American workers than he did.” 

Additionally, Sandra Lindsay, a nurse who was the first American to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, received the award. 

“If there are any angels in heaven, they’re all nurses, male and female,” Biden said. 

Other awardees included Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee founding member Diane Nash, Brig. Gen. Wilma Vaught, civil rights advocate Raúl Yzaguirre, and civil rights attorney Fred Gray.

Additionally, Sisters of Social Service member Simone Campbell, former University of Texas at Brownsville President Julieta García, and former Vicar General of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America Alexander Karloutsos received medals.

Source: TEST FEED1

Secret Service Director James Murray to retire

James Murray, the director of the Secret Service for the last three years, will retire at the end of the month, the agency announced Thursday.

Murray spent 27 years in the Secret Service and has served as its director since May 2019. He has led the agency through the coronavirus pandemic, with a number of agents contracting the virus during the 2020 presidential campaign, and through the tumultuous transition after the 2020 election, including the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“Director Jim Murray has led a long and distinguished career in federal and military service for three decades, including the last three years as Director of the United States Secret Service,” President Biden and first lady Jill Biden said in a statement. “Jim embodies the meaning of service over self, and protected the families of U.S. Presidents like they were part of his own. We are incredibly grateful for his service to our country and our family.”

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas praised Murray as an “exceptional leader” whose advice he has relied on during his tenure atop the Department of Homeland Security.

“Under Director Murray’s leadership, the Secret Service has reinforced its stature as the preeminent protective agency in the world and has increased in sophistication and scope its investigative capabilities to meet an increasingly dynamic threat landscape,” Mayorkas said in a statement.

In a news release announcing his retirement, the agency credited Murray with guiding the Secret Service “through eight National Special Security Events and nearly 20,000 international and domestic protective operations. During that time, the agency also recovered approximately $4.2B in fraud loss and prevented an estimated $8.1B in additional losses at the hands of criminal enterprise.”

Prior to joining the Secret Service as a special agent, Murray spent five years as an investigator with the Department of Transportation.

Murray coordinated Secret Service protection for the 2016 presidential election and the transition that followed.

The agency has been in the spotlight in recent weeks over the events of Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of former President Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol to halt the certification of Biden’s electoral victory.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a former Trump White House aide, testified last week that Trump was so enraged about being told he could not join his supporters at the Capitol that he lunged for the steering wheel of his vehicle and then at Robert Engel, the special agent in charge for Secret Service that day.

The Secret Service has acknowledged Trump wanted to join his supporters at the Capitol, something the former president has indicated publicly, but the agency has denied Hutchinson’s account, which she heard second-hand, that Trump lunged at the wheel or at Engel.

Hutchinson also testified that she heard Trump complain that Secret Service was not letting individuals known to be carrying weapons into his rally on the Ellipse for his speech on Jan. 6.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Thursday there was “no relation” between the testimony to the House Jan. 6 panel and the timing of the director’s announcement.

“This has been in talks for several months,” Jean-Pierre said, adding that Murray was expected to join the private sector.

Updated 4:12 p.m.

Source: TEST FEED1

Campaign Report — Dems vent frustrations with Biden before midterms

Welcome to The Hill’s Campaign Report, tracking all things related to the 2022 midterm elections. You can expect this newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday leading up to November’s election. 

Email us tips and feedback: Max Greenwood (mgreenwood@thehill.com), Julia Manchester (jmanchester@thehill.com), and Caroline Vakil (cvakil@thehill.com).  

Anxious Dems eye increasingly difficult landscape

Democrats always knew that the 2022 midterms would be an uphill climb. But many say they didn’t know they would be facing the dire straits they are today — and frustration with the Biden administration is coming to the forefront.

With some of his biggest legislative priorities stymied, Biden is dealing with soaring inflation, gas prices, and a continuous slew of mass shootings. On top of that, Democrats and the abortion rights movement were dealt a major blow when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade late last month.

Biden’s hands are largely tied with most of these issues and he has attempted to take some action to alleviate the problems. The president signed a bipartisan bill aiming to curb gun violence and took some unilateral action to decrease gas prices. And to the delight of many Democrats this week, he called on the Senate to scrap the filibuster if needed to codify Roe v. Wade.

However, as The Hill’s Amie Parnes and Morgan Chalfant report, Democrats, who say they voted Biden into office to enact major change, are unhappy with the administration has handled hot-button issues.

“It’s infuriating,” said one top Democratic strategist told Parnes and Chalfant. “Our house is on fire and it seems like they’re doing nothing to put the fire out. They’re just watching it with the rest of us.”

Additionally, some Democrats and voters are growing angry with the president’s and party’s calls to storm the polls following the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The Hill’s Hanna Trudo and Julia Manchester report that while progressives approved of Biden’s calls to scrap the filibuster to codify Roe, they remain frustrated with the “half-assed” and belated step.

“It’s just astounding that it took them this long and then when he finally gets to it, when he finally comes around on it, it’s a weak announcement at the end of a news week,” said another Democratic strategist.

Americans in general also seem fed up with the administration at this point. A Monmouth University poll released Tuesday found 88 percent of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, with just 10 percent saying it’s on the right track. Meanwhile, a NewsNation/DDHQ poll released last month found that only 42 percent of U.S. voters approve of the job Biden is doing.

And all of this is making down-ballot Democrats anxious.

Biden was in Cleveland on Wednesday, touting his economic agenda and working to convince voters that he was trying to help the middle class. And while he was surrounded by the Buckeye State’s prominent Democrats, Democratic Senate nominee Tim Ryan and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Nan Whaley were nowhere to be found.

Ryan and Whaley’s campaigns both said their absences were the result of unavoidable scheduling conflicts, but that didn’t stop speculation that the two Democrats running in the red leaning state during a tough year for their party were distancing themselves from Biden.

The Trump Proxy Wars Continue

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) waded into the state’s gubernatorial race on Thursday, backing Karrin Taylor Robson, a developer, and setting up another proxy war against former President Trump, who’s backed former local news anchor Kari Lake.

Noting her work for former President Reagan, Ducey called her a Republican who’s “the real deal: pro-life, pro-gun, and pro-wall” and claimed “conservatives can trust Karrin.”

As Max Greenwood writes, it came after Trump’s latest statement issued from this PAC that reaffirmed his support for Lake while criticizing Ducey, who drew his ire over refusing to overturn the 2020 election results.

Trump in May criticized Ducey, as well as Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R ), as “RINOs” or “Republicans in name only,” over their involvement in campaigning for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), another Republican official who ultimately rejected efforts to overturn the last election’s results.

Kemp later beat back a challenge from Trump-endorsed challenger former Sen. David Perdue (R) in the Georgia GOP gubernatorial primary.

What to watch for: Whether Ducey weighs in on Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bower’s (R) state Senate race following his testimony before the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot and after Trump made his own endorsement.

Trump said last month that he was endorsing former Arizona state Sen. David Farnsworth (R) who is challenging Bowers in the state’s 10th legislative district.

Bowers first drew Trump’s ire after making it difficult to pass legislation that would have allowed primary or general election results to be rejected by the state legislature. He also disputed the former president’s characterization of a call Bowers had with Trump, telling the House select committee last month “Anywhere, anyone, anytime has said that I said that the election was rigged, that would not be true.”

TRUMP HEADS BACK TO THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

The former president is scheduled to make stops in Nevada and Alaska this week.

On Friday, he will appear in Las Vegas with Nevada gubernatorial candidate Joe Lombardo and Senate candidate Adam Laxalt.

On Saturday, he’ll head to Anchorage, Alaska, where he’ll hold a rally for congressional candidate and former Gov. Sarah Palin, Gov. Mike Dunleavy, and Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka, who is challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R). Murkowski is the only Republican who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial who is running for reelection this year.

AD WATCH

North Carolina Senate hopeful Cheri Beasley (D) is telling voters “it’s time for something different” because “neither political party is getting it right” in a new 30-second ad that was first shared with The Hill.

“It’s time for something different — for someone who calls it like they see it,” Beasley, who’s taking on Rep. Ted Budd (R) in November, says in a spot that airs across the state today.

“That’s what I did as a judge when I held dangerous offenders accountable. And in the Senate, I’ll hold Washington accountable too, because the special interests have too much power and neither political party is getting it right.”

The North Carolina Senate seat, which is open due to Sen. Richard Burr’s (R) retirement, is expected to be one of the most competitive Senate seats for November. Trump won the state in 2020 by just over a percentage point and Cook Political Reports rates it as “lean Republican.”

EARLY QUARTER 2 NUMBERS

Campaigns are starting to release their second-quarter fundraising numbers, and we’re already seeing some eye-popping hauls.

Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn announced that he has raised a whopping $9 million for Republican Senate candidates, while incumbent New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan raked in over $5 million during the period.

In the House, incumbent Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin (Mich.) said she raised $1.5 million in the second quarter, while incumbent Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski (N.J.) wrapped up the second quarter with over $1.28 million.

Additionally, Georgia’s incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp’s (R) campaign told The Hill this week that he raised $3.8 million between May 1 to June 30. Axios reported this week that Georgians First Leadership Committee, a Kemp-aligned PAC, raised an additional $3 million during the same period.

That’s it for today. Thanks for reading and check out The Hill’s Campaign page for the latest news and coverage. See you next week.

VIEW FULL VERSION HERE

Source: TEST FEED1

Nicki Minaj's huband sentenced to home confinement for failing to register as sex offender

Nicki Minaj’s husband on Wednesday was sentenced to home confinement for failing to register as a sex offender by U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald, multiple outlets report.

Kenneth Petty, who the singer married in 2019, avoided jail time and will serve a year at-home sentence, followed by three years of probation, and will pay a $55,000 fine.

Petty’s sentencing comes two years after he was arrested in 2021 for failing to register as a sex offender in California. He previously served a four-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to attempted rape steming from a 1994 incident, and is required to register himself upon moving to a new state, CBS News reports.

Jennifer Hough, Petty’s accuser, came forward in September of 2021 with claims that people in Minaj’s camp had attempted to persuade her into recanting her previous allegation in order to get Petty dropped from the state’s sex offender list.

Hough said she and her family received Hough an “onslaught of harassing calls and unsolicited visits.”

The Hill has reached out to Fitzgerald for comment.

Source: TEST FEED1

Lawmakers call for investigation into IRS audits of Comey, McCabe

Democratic and Republican congressional lawmakers are calling for an investigation into whether top former FBI officials had been illegally targeted for especially intensive audits by the IRS under an appointee of former President Trump, who deemed the officials political enemies.

Following a New York Times report that former FBI director James Comey and deputy director Andrew McCabe had been the object of successive, very particular types of audits that are supposed to be done at random, lawmakers insisted that a thorough investigation into the matter is “crucial.”

Comey, who was fired by Trump, had about a 1-in-30,000 chance of getting this special kind of audit, which is part of something called the National Research Program at the IRS, according to the New York Times.

McCabe’s audit, which was part of the same program, had about a 1-in-20,000 chance of occurring and happened only two years later.

“Donald Trump has no respect for the rule of law, so if he tried to subject his political enemies to additional IRS scrutiny that would surprise no one,” Senate Finance Committee chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a statement to The Hill. 

Wyden said the IRS commissioner, Charles P. Rettig, who assumed his position in 2018 under the Trump administration, reiterated that any allegations of wrongdoing had been referred to the agency’s inspector general for further review. Rettig’s terms ends in November.

“A thorough IG investigation of this matter is crucial, and we’re going to look at what steps the Finance Committee could potentially take,” Wyden added.

Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), the ranking member of the House Ways & Means Committee, said he supported the referral to the inspector general. 

“I support investigating all allegations of political targeting – consistent with the precedent set by the House Ways and [Means] Committee when investigating President Obama’s disgraced former IRS director Lois Lerner, who the committee confirmed had engaged in this abuse,” Brady said in referring to reports of scrutiny by the IRS under the Obama administration of political groups applying for tax-exempt statuses. 

Brady’s Democratic counterparts on the panel said such an investigation should be fast-tracked due to the improbability of the successive audits. 

“The recent news report that not just one, but two of former President Trump’s foes were subject to rare, invasive audits under his IRS is an unlikely coincidence, and reeks of political targeting,” House Ways & Means Committee chair Richard E. Neal said in a statement.

“The American people put their trust in the IRS, and count on it to be beyond reproach. This political targeting by the former administration is a crack in IRS’s fragile credibility that threatens its core mission—full and fair tax administration,” he continued.

Neal said he had already spoken to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) J. Russell George about the successive audits.

“As I said to Inspector George this morning, TIGTA must immediately conduct a comprehensive investigation. The public needs to know the extent of this wrongdoing, and bad actors should be held accountable. ”

Other Democratic members of the Ways & Means Committee also called for action from TIGTA.

“Since the Trump Administration used other illegal tools in attempting to remain in power, there is certainly reason for concern that this is more than an improbable coincidence,” Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) told the Hill in a statement. 

“I am requesting the Inspector General to conduct a formal investigation into who, when, and why these audits were directed with a report on the findings. This is usually a slow process, but I hope it can be expedited,” he said.

The IRS said the notion that it had politically targeted the FBI officials was “ludicrous.”

“Federal Privacy laws preclude us from discussing specific taxpayer situations. Audits are handled by career civil servants, and the IRS has strong safeguards in place to protect the exam process – and against politically motivated audits. It’s ludicrous and untrue to suggest that senior IRS officials somehow targeted specific individuals for National Research Program audits,” the agency said in a statement.”

The IRS said it had already referred Comey and McCabe’s case to the IRS inspector general. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Exercising only on the weekend is still effective, study finds

Busy Americans may not have time during the week to fit in the American Heart Association’s recommended 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise. But new research from nearly 351,000 adults shows the benefits of exercising only on the weekends are comparable to those seen among more regular exercisers. 

Writing in JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers explained how they assessed data from the National Health Interview Survey which took place between 1997 and 2013. Authors classified those who completed all their recommended weekly exercise in one or two sessions as “weekend warriors” and those who spread out sessions as regularly active.

Participants were followed for a median of 10.4 years and within that time frame, 4,130 people died of cardiovascular disease and 6,034 from cancer. 

Similar all-cause mortality hazard ratios were reported for weekend warriors and regular exercisers when compared with inactive participants. Cause-specific mortality hazard ratios were also similar between the two active groups. 

America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news.

According to the authors, findings “reinforce the importance of reaching the recommended levels of physical activity for health.” 

They continued, “for people with fewer opportunities for daily or regular physical activity during their work week, these findings are important.”

Exercise can help prevent onset of several non-communicable diseases in addition to combating obesity and weight gain. Currently, 42 percent of the United States’ population is obese and 9.2 percent are classified as severely obese. 

The paper’s findings underscore the importance of meeting total exercise time thresholds each week, as opposed to how often one exercises or at what time of day. 

The self-reported nature of questionnaires marks a limitation to this study, as participant bias may have impacted results. However, a large sample size and the long duration of the study bolsters the conclusions’ reliability. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Bipartisan gun bill will save lives and Biden deserves credit

The United States faces an epidemic that is not prevalent in any other developed country in the world: gun violence. Every day, 30 people are shot and killed by someone using a gun, and that number jumps to over 100 when you factor in suicides and accidental shootings. It is clear that gun violence is a problem that must be addressed, and President Biden and Democrats led the way in delivering the most significant gun violence prevention legislation in the past two decades.

Democrats in Congress have been working on gun violence prevention since the Sandy Hook tragedy — yet legislation was not able to be passed until Democrats had control of the House, Senate, and White House. We knew that the tragedies of Buffalo, Uvalde, Orlando, Las Vegas, Aurora, Boulder, and every other site of mass shootings, along with the everyday gun violence that plagues our communities, demanded action. That’s why we were able to deliver the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which President Biden signed into law just three weeks ago. This victory belongs to all victims, survivors, advocates, and all those impacted by gun violence, and it is going to save lives.

Had the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act been implemented a year ago, the horrible shooting in Highland Park may have been prevented. 

The law includes $750 million in funding for states to implement crisis prevention orders, including red flag laws that keep deadly weapons out of the hands of dangerous individuals, as determined by a court. The shooter’s history of threats and the fact that law enforcement seized deadly weapons from his house after he threatened to kill his family demonstrates the need for fully implemented red flag laws. The law also provides enhanced background checks for people under 21. Had this law been in place when the shooter bought some of his weapons when he was 20, local law enforcement may have known he had a history of violence and he may have been prevented from carrying out the purchase.

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is a huge victory for gun violence prevention, but like with any law, it takes time to implement. The provisions of this bill may have stopped the Highland Park shooter from committing this horrendous attack, and they will certainly prevent future shooters from carrying out future attacks. 

I am proud of this law and I am proud of all of my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, who worked to make it possible, and I am proud of President Biden who pushed Congress to act and make this law a reality. While this will not save all of the 45,000 deaths caused by gun violence each year, it is a strong step in the right direction.

Mike Thompson represents the 5th District of California and is chair of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force.

Source: TEST FEED1

Trump, son removed from social media firm's board weeks before federal subpoenas

Former President Trump and his son were among six board members removed from the board of Trump’s social media company weeks before it was hit with federal subpoenas, according to state records. 

Florida state business records showed Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and the four others were removed as board members of the Trump Media and Technology Group on June 8, based on a filing with the state’s Division of Corporations. Roughly three weeks later, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and a grand jury in Manhattan subpoenaed the company.

The news was first reported by The Herald-Tribune.

Other board members removed include Wes Moss, Kashyap Patel, Andrew Northwall and Scott Glabe, according to the filing. 

A spokesperson for the Trump Media and Technology Group denied that Trump is no longer a board member in a statement posted on Truth Social, the social media app associated with Trump’s media company. 

“Contrary to an ‘exclusive’ fake news story filed by a reporter who is incapable of understanding state business records, Donald Trump remains on the board of Trump Media and Technology Group. In fact, the reporter acknowledges that Trump’s title is ‘chairman,’ but apparently has no clue what a chairman presides over. Hopefully this helps clarify things,” the post states. 

The statement does not acknowledge why the filing calls for Trump and others to be removed. A spokesperson for the company did not immediately respond to additional questions from The Hill. 

Both federal subpoenas appear focused on the merger between Trump’s media company and the special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, called Digital World Acquisitions Corp., based on regulatory filings. 

The company was launched, along with Truth Social, after Trump left office and was suspended from mainstream platforms like Twitter and Facebook after the companies found he violated their policies with tweets about the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. 

Truth Social brands itself as pro-free speech with limited content moderation and caters to a right-wing audience. But it has failed to gain significant traction since launching.

Source: TEST FEED1

Significantly fewer Americans say US system of government is sound: poll

A little more than 1 in 3 Americans currently believe the U.S. system of government is sound, a figure that has declined significantly over the past few years, according to a new Monmouth University poll.

The poll found that just 6 percent of respondents said the system of government is basically sound and essentially needs no changes, while an additional 30 percent said it was basically sound but needs some improvement. 

The combined 36 percent is a decline from when the pollster previously asked the question in February 2020.

Fifty-five percent during that time described the American system of government as basically sound, and that figure fell to 44 percent in 2021 a few weeks after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Meanwhile, 26 percent said the country’s system of government is not too sound and needs many improvements, while 36 percent said the government is not sound at all and needs significant changes.

The poll found the recent decline of faith in the American system has come at varying rates among different partisan groups.

The share of Republicans who said the system is sound plummeted from 71 percent in early 2020 to 41 percent once President Biden took office and has since remained steady, while the decline among independents has been more gradual, according to the poll.

Democrats saw a brief increase in faith when Biden took office, jumping from 34 percent to 45 percent, but the figure has since fallen back to 36 percent.

“There’s more than just partisanship at work in declining faith in the institutional framework of American democracy,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.

“Yes, electoral outcomes play a role,” he said. “Yes, the current economic crisis plays a role. But attacks on our fundamental democratic processes – and the lack of universal condemnation of those attacks by political leaders from both sides of the aisle – have taken a toll.”

The newest measure comes as inflation has reached a 40-year high with the vast majority of the public polled consistently indicating they believe the country is on the wrong track.

The Monmouth poll was conducted by telephone from June 23 to 27. The pollster interviewed 978 U.S. adults with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Source: TEST FEED1