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These are the the host cities for 2026 FIFA World Cup

FIFA on Thursday announced the full list of the cities across the U.S., Canada and Mexico that have been selected to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Included in the list are 11 U.S. cities, three Mexican cities and two Canadian cities, all of which will host games at the the global tournament.

Members of Congress were quick to react to the news of their home cities and states being included in the line-up.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the first to be hosted across three countries, as well as the first ever tournament with a 48-team bracket, expanded from the traditional 32.

Here’s the full list:

• Atlanta
• Boston
• Dallas
• Guadalajara
• Houston
• Kansas City
• Los Angeles/SoFi Stadium
• Mexico City
• Miami
• Monterrey
• New York/New Jersey
• Philadelphia
• San Francisco Bay Area
• Seattle
• Toronto
• Vancouver

Among the cities with a big soccer viewership snubbed by the organizers are Washington, D.C., and Chicago.

The official account for Washington D.C.’s FIFA World Cup 2026 joint bid with Baltimore tweeted a statement after the announcement and said it was “gutted”.

Reacting to the news, co-chair of the Congressional Soccer Caucus, Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) expressed his delight over Seattle making it to the coveted list.

“The Pacific Northwest represents the future of soccer in North America, and Washingtonians are passionate about the beautiful game. I look forward to sharing with the world all that makes the Evergreen State special!” he said.

Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.)  said on Twitter that he was looking forward to cheering on the U.S. Men’s team especially “with all their PA-grown talent.”

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) tweeted soon after the announcement that he is “Excited to work together to welcome visitors and fans from around the world, and deliver a world-class experience for the world’s biggest game.”

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NotedDC — Pelosi holds out hope for social spending bill

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is holding onto hopes of Congress advancing a social and climate spending package this year — albeit a slimmed-down one.

Pelosi said Thursday that a potential reconciliation bill is “alive” a day after meeting with President Biden and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).

The trio of top Democrats met at the White House to discuss lowering the costs of prescription drugs and energy prices as well as deficit reduction — components needed in a bill for holdout Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to potentially get on board.

The Hill’s Alex Bolton reported earlier this month that the bill, previously dubbed “Build Back Better,” was not entirely dead as Schumer and Manchin were negotiating on a slimmed-down version.

The party initially imagined it as a presidency-defining piece of legislation for Biden, with House Democrats hoping to use it to push through many of their policy goals on issues like climate, paid leave, Medicare, the child tax credit and universal pre-K.

But Manchin has opposed some of those provisions, with the broader bill essentially dead since December. The West Virginia senator signaled earlier this year that he’d want a narrower bill to include measures aimed at tackling the deficit and inflation.

In recent weeks the Senate has largely turned to other issues such as gun reform, and time is ticking for Democrats to try to land some sort of deal before the August recess, which they set as their latest unofficial deadline for the slimmed-down bill.

Pelosi said Thursday she’d be pleased “if we just have some” of what was included in the House bill. “But I just don’t know. As I think you know from the dynamic around here, the Senate negotiation is very close[ly] held.”

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What’s next for Jan. 6 committee?

The Jan. 6 House select committee is expected to focus an upcoming hearing on the individual role then-President Trump played leading up to the attack and what was happening at the White House during the riot.

• Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) gave a brief preview of that upcoming material during Thursday’s hearing.
• Aguilar said the committee has evidence Trump’s speech at the Ellipse before  the Capitol riot initially didn’t mention Vice President Pence.
• Instead, Trump personally revised it to work up the crowd’s focus on Pence’s role in the election certification, Aguilar said.

It also appears that Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, will sit down for an interview with the Jan. 6 panel.

• Committee leaders Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) told reporters the panel wanted interview her after reports of communications with Trump’s inner circle regarding the effort to overthrow the election.
• Thomas, in comments first reported by the Daily Caller, said she’s down to meet with the committee. “I can’t wait to clear up misconceptions. I look forward to talking to them,” she’s quoted as telling the outlet.

The person missing from the room: Pence’s name was mentioned over and over again in Thursday’s public hearing, the third held by the panel this month, and some of his top aides and advisers testified in person and in video testimony.

But while he was the primary focus of the hearing, Pence himself was scheduled to be some 500 miles away in Cincinnati, Ohio, for a roundtable discussion with Gov. Mike DeWine (R) about the energy sector.

The committee did play a clip of a Pence speech where the then-VP pushed back on Trump’s claim that he had the power to overturn the election. 

ABORTION, GUNS: BIG ISSUES AHEAD FOR HIGH COURT

The Supreme Court is teed up to issue more opinions starting at 10 a.m. next Tuesday (6/21) and Thursday (6/23). You can find them here when they’re released.

Eighteen cases remain to be decided, including potentially monumental cases on abortion, guns and religion in schools.

• Abortion: Justices still haven’t unveiled the formal ruling on a Mississippi abortion law that, if allowed to stand, could upend the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that guarantees abortion access across the country.
• Guns: The court also still has yet to decide a dispute over a century-old New York gun law that regulates licensing for concealed handguns.
• Religious freedom: Maine currently prohibits religious private schools from taking part in its school voucher program. If the court overrules the state, experts say it ultimately could pave the way for more religious charter schools. 

Bowser eyes third term as DC mayor

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) is trying to pull off a win next week to set herself up for another four years leading the nation’s capital city.

• If Bowser wins Tuesday’s primary she’ll be poised to secure a near-record third term, surpassed only by D.C. “Mayor for Life” Mayor Marion Barry (D), who served four terms.
• Bowser, who took office in 2015, was virtually uncontested when she ran for reelection in 2018. That isn’t the case now. Her opponents, Council members Robert C. White Jr. and Trayon White Sr., are putting up a challenge. 

Her second term — during which she’s navigated the COVID-19 pandemic and responding to rising gun violence and homelessness — has prompted more criticism than her first, creating room for competition. 

The Hill’s Cheyanne Daniels reports that despite the challenge, Bowser is known for one thing that her other opponents aren’t: publicly standing up to former President Trump.

• Flashback to 2020: “The Trump-Bowser feud really came to head in 2020, after the murder of George Floyd. Protests erupted around the country and D.C. was no exception,” Daniels reports.
• “But it was the use of tear gas and rubber bullets to clear Lafayette Square on June 1, 2020, that led to the overnight painting of the Black Lives Matter mural. Americans woke up to the news on June 5, and the mayor received high praise from social justice advocates and Democrats around the country.” 

Why that matters this election: “What stood out for me was this Black woman was entering into this traditional masculine and wet-mud throwing, getting down and dirty the kind of way that we think about men in politics,” Georgetown professor Nadia E. Brown told Daniels.

But still, it won’t be an easy battle for Bowser. She is only leading Robert White by 4 points, according to a poll commissioned by his campaign.

LONE STAR STATE DRIVES GOP OPTIMISM

Republicans see hope in Texas outcome: The Hill’s Emily Brooks takes a deep dive into what Mayra Flores‘ win means for Republicans and their ability to attract Hispanic voters:

• “Republicans are holding up Mayra Flores’s win in the special election for Texas’ 34th Congressional District Tuesday as the latest sign Hispanic voters are shifting toward the GOP and hoping her win is the first of many this year for Republicans running in heavily-Latino districts.”

On the midterm front…More bad news for Dems: Democrats face congressional rout amid historically terrible headwinds, The Hill’s Reid Wilson reports. Reid looks at the fight Democrats face heading into this fall’s midterms:

• “Interviews with half a dozen Democratic strategists and pollsters — most of whom declined to put their anxiety on the record — show a party clinging to hopes that voter anger can be spread across the aisle.” 

A new name

A Washington, D.C., street outside of the Saudi Arabia Embassy has been renamed to honor slain Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Khashoggi, a Saudi-born journalist and American citizen, was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. U.S. intel officials determined Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the killing. He has denied involvement.

Juneteenth celebrations around The District

• Artists like Pharrell Williams, 21 Savage, Justin Timberlake, Dave Matthews Band, Calvin Harris, SZA and more will perform on Independence Avenue this weekend for the Something in the Water music festival. 
• Head to Freedom Plaza on Sunday for the Chocolate City Jubilee, a free event with music performers and food. 
• The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture is hosting events this weekend celebrating the “tastes, sounds and experience” of the historic day. It will also showcase Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s original speech from the March on Washington in 1963.
• The National Gallery of Art will display artwork diving into the historical experiences of Black and African people since the 1600s.  

ONE YEAR OF JUNETEENTH AS A HOLIDAY

Sunday will mark one year since Juneteenth became a federal holiday. It marks the day in 1865 when troops arrived in Texas to ensure all slaves would be freed. A recent Gallup poll found Americans have since become more familiar with the holiday.

Stay with TheHill.com for the latest and recommend NotedDC to others: thehill.com/noted. See you next week.

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Let new generations rule Congress

Hardly a day goes by without some discussion in the news about who the next president of the United States should be. In my view, it should not be Joe Biden.

I do not mean this as a criticism of President Biden. After era of Donald Trump, America needed a hefty dose of decency, and Biden is providing it. Besides, he aspired for the office so long and worked so hard that he deserved it. Now, he is confronted by a soul-crushing onslaught of challenges that mostly are not of his doing. His reward for climbing to the highest office in the land is to wake up every day to the “nattering nabobs of negativism.”

It’s not just Biden who should retire from public office. The next Speaker of the House should not be Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and the next majority or minority leader in the Senate should not be Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Pelosi is 82 years old. McConnell is 80. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is 71. At the beginning of the current Congress, the Senate was the oldest in U.S. history. The average senator was 64, while the average member of the House was 58.

“One of the most striking yet less-noticed facts of contemporary politics is that Americans have … shown a striking affinity for selecting — and keeping — old people in political office. Really old people,” the Miami Herald pointed out before the 2020 election. In the current Congress, 61 percent of House members and 79 percent of senators were born before 1965. Although age 58 may be the new 30, we all are products of our times.

The benefits of seniority are one reason voters keep reelecting their representatives in Congress. As incumbents age, they typically climb the leadership ladder into positions where they can obtain more benefits for their states and districts. But as former President Barack Obama pointed out in 2017, elderly leaders who’ve been in Congress for decades may block young leaders who “could be more innovative and creative solving the problems we face today rather than the problems we faced 35 years ago.”

We’ve seen how longtime members of Congress can become so wrapped up in politics that they forget why they’re there. McConnell is Exhibit A. As the Senate Majority Leader in 2012, McConnell said his top priority was “making sure President Obama’s a one-term president.” Nine years later, as the Senate Minority Leader, McConnell said he was 100 percent focused not on public policy but on stopping the Biden administration. Old war horses in leadership may be why the Pew Research Center found that Democrats and Republicans in Congress are “farther apart ideologically today than at any time in the past 50 years.”

It’s true members of Congress gain valuable experience and even wisdom as they accumulate years. It need not be wasted. Many former members have proved there is life and public service after Congress.

In saying this, I doubt I’m guilty of ageism. I am 75. I think senior citizens in public office should pass the torch because our leaders should be infused with contagious “vim and vigor,” as people said about John Kennedy. They should project hope and practice pragmatic idealism. America should project those qualities to the rest of the world, too, rather than slipping further down rankings of flawed democracies and joining the ranks of has-beens.

So, having achieved the highest office in the land and having slain as many dragons as he could, Biden should retire with our gratitude at the end of his term, while Republicans save their party from indelible ignominy by retiring Trump. The 2024 presidential election should be a new beginning for America. The 2020 congressional elections are an excellent place to start.

William S. Becker is a former U.S. Department of Energy central regional director who administered energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies programs, and he also served as special assistant to the department’s assistant secretary of energy efficiency and renewable energy. Becker is also executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project, a nonpartisan initiative founded in 2007 that works with national thought leaders to develop recommendations for the White House as well as House and Senate committees on climate and energy policies. The project is not affiliated with the White House.

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What's behind the Sriracha shortage?

Popular sriracha maker Huy Fong Inc. warned that retailers and customers can expect a shortage of the famous spicy condiment in the coming months, as there is a “severe shortage” of the chilies used to make its sauces.

Huy Fong Foods is the company behind several popular variations of sriracha and chili sauces, including the sriracha, chili garlic and sambal oelek spicy condiment lines.

The company, founded in 1980, is based in Irwindale, Calif. It owns a 650,000-square-foot factory that produces and bottles sriracha 24 hours a day, six days a week, according to popular food website Mashed. It also sees a daily delivery of 21 tons of red jalapeños that are used to make its sauce, Mashed reported in its company profile.

However, the company has now been forced to halt production.

What have they said about the shortage?

In a letter to investors dated April 19, Huy Fong Inc. said it advises that retailers not promise any products to customers unless they have the product in stock.

The company added that “due to weather conditions affecting the quality of chili peppers,” there is a shortage, and that without this “essential ingredient,” it cannot produce any of its products.

“Unfortunately, we can confirm that there is an unprecedented shortage of our products,” the company wrote in an emailed statement shared with Nexstar last week. “We are still endeavoring to resolve this issue that has been caused by several spiraling events, including unexpected crop failure from the spring chili harvest.”

“We hope for a fruitful fall season and thank our customers for their patience and continued support during this difficult time.”

Why is there chili pepper crop failure?

Huy Fong Inc. blamed “weather conditions affecting the quality of chili peppers.” The company is supplied by chili pepper farms in California, New Mexico and Mexico, where there is a drought.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that drought conditions since March are most severe in the U.S. states of Texas, Oklahoma, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Montana and New Mexico.

The majority of the U.S. commercial jalapeño supply is grown in New Mexico, Texas and California, according to Food Source Information.

According to a study that explored the effect of drought on the chili pepper crops, various factors, including drought, can limit pepper production. Flowering is one of the most sensitive stages during crop productions, and the authors found that it is affected by drought stress. 

It also concluded that drought stress decreased reproductive growth parameters and pungency of pepper fruit, and that the most important factor in the production of chili peppers is the availability of water at the flowering and pod formation stage, which are critical time periods to ensure good yield and pepper quality.

This drought has resulted in the severe shortage of chilies and is what Huy Fong Inc. pointed at in its statement as the “severe weather conditions” affecting the quality of the peppers.

When will the shortage end?

The shortage of the popular hot sauce is expected to extend through the summer into fall.

The company told its investors that all orders submitted on or after April 19, 2022, will be scheduled
after Labor Day on Sept. 6, 2022, and will be fulfilled in the order they were received.

“Additionally, if you had provided us with a purchase order and have not received confirmation, it will be on hold until September 2022,” it said.

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A look at the past three recessions

Economists are warning the U.S. might be headed toward a recession after the stock market plunged into bear market territory this week and inflation hit a 40-year high last month.

A recession is defined as a significant decline in economic activity across the economy, usually for more than a few months. A recession stretches from the time the economy hits its apex to when it bottoms out, with the path from “trough” to “peak” called an expansion, or a normal state of the economy.

The U.S. has experienced 13 serious recessions in the past 75 years and the average recession in that period lasted 11 months, according to the Congressional Research Service and Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Here’s a look at the last three recessions in the U.S.

2020

The 2020 recession was short-lived, occurring for just two months From February to April. It’s the shortest recession in modern U.S. history.

When the coronavirus led to mass layoffs and shutdowns in the U.S., unemployment skyrocketed and the economy briefly entered the doldrums.

More than 21 million Americans lost their jobs from March to April 2020 and in the second quarter of 2020, the economy shrank by an annualized rate of more than 33 percent.

But there was nothing “fundamentally wrong” with the economy, as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell put it in March of that year. After adjusting to new health policies, Americans went back to work and the economy swiftly recovered.

A panel organized by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a private nonprofit, said last year the 2020 “downturn had different characteristics and dynamics than prior recessions.”

“Nonetheless, the committee concluded that the unprecedented magnitude of the decline in employment and production, and its broad reach across the entire economy, warranted the designation of this episode as a recession, even though the downturn was briefer than earlier contractions,” it added.

2007-2009

The Great Recession is one of the most fearsome economic downturns in American history, along with the Great Depression in the ’30s.

The recession began in late 2007 and early 2008 after the housing market collapsed. Banking and investment firms, which had not been heavily regulated at the time, made predatory and toxic loans, including high-risk mortgage-backed securities, or home and real estate bonds pooled together.

When the banking system failed — and the housing market bubbled and then bust — financial credit used by customers and businesses also flopped.

From late 2007 to mid-2009, nearly 8.7 million jobs were lost, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and a quarter of all American households lost 75 percent of their wealth, while more than half of all families lost at least 25 percent of their wealth.

After the Great Recession ended in June 2009, the U.S. economy hit the longest-running upward swing in history.

2001

The first recession in the 21st Century followed steady economic growth in the ’90s. It stretched from March 2001 to November 2001.

The recession was triggered by the burst of the dotcom bubble, when investors poured too much money into early Internet-based companies, overvaluing the actual worth of the sector.

Another factor was the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York City, which had a lasting impact on the tourism industry.

The 2001 recession is considered to have been relatively mild, although more than 1.3 million people lost their jobs, according to the BLS.

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Biden must reverse course and protect independent contractors

The Biden Department of Labor has announced that it is kicking off a rulemaking period to address the “misclassification of employees as independent contractors.” The DOL is hosting a two-hour forum for workers and employers to weigh in on any potential changes to the independent contractor classification.

With this new rulemaking period, the administration has a chance to turn the page on its stridently anti-independent contractor stance. Any new rules should protect the right of Americans to make a living outside of a traditional employment relationship.

Under current law, there are two ways an individual can have a relationship with someone that is paying you. The first is an employee, where a person that is paying the individual has total control over how, when, and where the work is being done.

The second is as an independent contractor, or freelancer, where an individual goes and performs a task and presents the result to the person that is paying them. Freelancing means that a worker can earn a living without needing to report to a boss.

Freelancers set their own schedules, dictate their own workload, and are free to contract with multiple entities. This classification is overwhelmingly popular with independent contractors — fewer than 1 out of 10 of whom would voluntarily reclassify as W-2 employees according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nearly 70 percent of Uber drivers would quit if they had to work full-time hours on a set schedule, report to a boss and abide by other company rules as W-2 employees, according to a 2020 survey.

Freelancers are a vibrant part of our economy and society, and they come in all shapes and sizes. The vast majority of gig economy workers, like rideshare drivers and grocery deliverers, are independent contractors. Auctioneers, mall Santas, plumbers, wedding bands, painters, graphic designers, bricklayers, and magicians are just a few types of people that work as independent contractors.

The left dislikes the independent contractor classification because they cannot force freelancers into a union, one of the biggest drivers of campaign cash to Democratic Party coffers. Organized labor spent $1.8 billion on politics and lobbying in 2020, $1.4 billion of which came directly from worker dues. Nearly 90 percent of the $260 million that labor unions spent on federal elections in 2020 went to Democrats.

In order to make it as difficult as possible to work as a freelancer, the left wants to enact a new regulatory scheme designed to reclassify independent contractors as W-2 employees. The PRO Act contains a three-part test unprecedented in federal law to determine if a worker is an independent contractor or an employee.

The test is modeled after California’s ABC test, a widely reviled provision in the state’s AB-5 bill that nearly 90 percent of California’s independent contractors opposed before it was signed into law. Fifty-nine percent of Californians voted to exempt rideshare drivers from the ABC test via Proposition 22.

In sharp contrast, Republicans have consistently protected the right to work as independent contractors.  In early 2021, the Trump administration released a final rule sharpening the definition of an independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act, providing much-needed clarity to America’s freelancers. Immediately after taking office, Biden froze the Trump rule and promulgated a final rule withdrawing the Trump rule. A Texas federal judge struck down the anti-freelancer Biden rule, saying the Biden DOL behaved in an “arbitrary and capricious” manner in being so quick to strike down the Trump rule. The DOJ is appealing that decision.

If the Biden administration succeeds in making it more difficult to work as an independent contractor, millions of Americans will pay more in taxes, breaking Biden’s pledge not to raise taxes on Americans making less than $400,000 per year. According to a recent study from the Beacon Hill Institute and the Tholos Foundation, approximately 56 percent of current independent contractors would pay more in taxes if reclassified as W-2 employees, or 7.7 million Americans. Ninety-six percent of these workers make less than $400,000, a clear violation of Biden’s tax pledge.

The study uses Treasury data from 2016, the best and most recent available data to determine the tax impact of reclassification. The data does not capture the rise in independent contracting due to the rise of the gig economy and the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent survey from Upwork estimates that 59 million Americans now engage in some type of freelance work. Using that number, the study estimates that some 33 million independent contractors would pay more in tax if reclassified as W-2 employees.

Despite the Biden administration’s consistent anti-independent contractor stance, the DOL has an excellent chance to turn the page and protect America’s freelancers with this new rulemaking. If the administration continues to pursue policies that would force independent contractors to reclassify as W-2 employees, millions of livelihoods would be threatened and tens of millions of Americans would pay more in taxes. This is the last thing workers need as they face 8.6 percent inflation, skyrocketing gas prices, and a looming recession.

Tom Hebert is federal affairs manager at Americans for Tax Reform and executive director of the Open Competition Center.

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Trump lawyer Eastman takes verbal beating during Jan. 6 hearing

John Eastman, the controversial lawyer who unsuccessfully pressed Mike Pence to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential race, took center stage at the Jan. 6 panel’s third hearing on Thursday that was focused on the pressure campaign against the former vice president.

Eastman emerged in the weeks between the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 riots as one of the most influential voices in Trump’s circle, pushing a dubious claim that the vice president had the authority to reject electors and determine the election winner independently. He appeared at the Jan. 6 rally on the Ellipse that preceded the insurrection on the other side of the National Mall. 

But Thursday’s proceedings suggested there were legions of doubters among Team Trump and Team Pence as Eastman pressed the issue.

Jason Miller, a former senior adviser to the Trump campaign, told the committee in testimony aired Thursday that campaign lawyers Justin Clark and Matt Morgan thought Eastman “was crazy” and said as much to “anyone who would listen. 

Mark Meadows, who was President Trump’s chief of staff at the time, acknowledged Eastman’s plan was illegal, according to Marc Short, who was Pence’s chief of staff. 

Tensions were high between Team Trump and Team Pence at the time, but Thursday’s testimony made it clear that members of both groups that Eastman’s arguments were baseless and could lead to violence.

The Jan. 6 panel argued that is exactly what happened. It showed video on Thursday of Trump pressuring Pence to take action at a rally near the White House that preceded the Capitol attack. Other video was shown of participants marching to the Capitol chanting “Hang Mike Pence” and discussing dragging politicians into the streets.

Eric Herschmann, who worked in the White House counsel’s office in the Trump White House after defending Trump in his first impeachment trial, appeared particularly exasperated with Eastman’s antics. 

“Are you out of your ‘effin mind?” Herschmann recalled telling Eastman.

Judge Michael Luttig, a conservative legal stalwart whose views shaped Pence’s argument against intervening in the election certification, called Eastman’s theory “constitutional mischief.” 

“I would have laid my body across the road before I would have let the vice president overturn the 2020 election on the basis of that historical precedent,” Luttig told the committee as one of its in-person witnesses for Thursday’s hearing. 

Luttig was referencing an assertion by Eastman that the 12th Amendment could be interpreted to allow the vice president to determine the winner of an election and reject state electors. Pence and his team ultimately determined the vice president had no such authority.

Greg Jacob, who served as Pence’s general counsel and also appeared in person on Thursday, told the committee Eastman explicitly asked on Jan. 5, 2021, for Pence to reject the state’s electors despite appearing to acknowledge a day earlier that doing so would violate the Electoral Count Act. 

Witness testimony also made clear that Eastman was undeterred despite multiple warnings that his idea could lead to violence. 

“You’re going to cause riots in the streets,” Herschmann testified telling Eastman, to which he said the attorney responded that there had been “violence in the history of our country to protect the democracy or protect the Republic.” 

“I told him, If the courts did not step in there was no one else to resolve it,” Jacob testified of his conversations with Eastman. “That might well be resolved through violence in the streets.”

Luttig, who was not part of the Trump administration on Jan. 6, seemed to agree on the stakes, telling the committee it would have plunged the country to a “revolution” if Pence had gone along with Eastman’s plan. 

Eastman joined former New York City Mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani as a former Trump ally highlighted by the committee as a potentially dangerous influence on Trump ahead of Jan. 6. 

The committee has made the case in its first three public hearings that Trump and his team laid the groundwork for violence on Jan. 6 by pushing disproven claims about voter fraud and unconstitutional theories about overturning the election. 

Committee member Pete Aguilar (D-Texas) said Thursday that Eastman pleaded the 5th Amendment to avoid incriminating himself dozens of times during an appearance before the panel behind closed doors. 

Herschmann told the committee he was blunt with Eastman after the events of Jan. 6, saying he wanted to hear only “two words” from Eastman moving forward: “Orderly transition.” 

The committee learned that Eastman, perhaps sensing the predicament he was in as violence unfolded on Jan. 6, had reached out to Giuliani about legal protection. 

“I’ve decided that I should be on the pardon list, if that is still in the works,” he wrote in an email shared Thursday by the committee. 

Trump did not pardon Eastman before leaving office.

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Newsom joins Trump’s Truth Social to call out 'Republican lies'

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced on Thursday that he joined former President Trump’s Truth Social platform, saying in a tweet that he would be using it to call out and debunk “Republican lies.”

“I just joined Trump’s Truth Social. Going to be on there calling out Republican lies. This could get…interesting,” he wrote on Twitter.

“My first post — breaking down America’s red state murder problem,” he said, adding a link to his Truth Social post.

In a video supplementing his announcement, he said that red states made up the majority of those with the highest murder rates. 

Newsom is likely referring to a stat offered by center-left think tank Third Way, which said in a report in March amid rising U.S. crime rates that “8 of the 10 states with the highest murder rates in 2020 voted for the Republican presidential nominee in every election this century.”

The addition of California governor, who has floated as a possible presidential candidate, is potentially a boon to Trump’s struggling social network given that it could prompt other high-profile Democrats to join.

Trump started Truth Social after he was kicked off several social media platforms following the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot and has since then began issuing statements through there, in addition to his Save America PAC.

Several weeks after it launched, it was mired in a long waitlist for users seeking to join and not a lot of activity. 

Trump issued a statement through Truth Social pushing back against the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot for their first public June hearing.

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Car payments hit new high of $712 a month

Monthly car payments hit a new record high in May, averaging $712, according to a new report from Cox Automotive & Moody’s Analytics.

The figure marks a 1.7 percent increase and represents a declining trend in new car affordability, the report notes.

New car affordability is significantly down from this time last year. In May, the average number of weeks of income needed for someone to purchase a new car was 19 percent higher than it was in May of 2021 — 41.3 weeks, compared to 40.8 weeks in April.

Brian Moody, executive editor for Kelley Blue Book, told ABC News that new car buyers “are going to be paying more” than the MSRP (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price) right now because of an unequal supply and demand ratio.

Interest rates and vehicle prices are also increasing at a rate that outpaces income growth, notes the Cox and Moody’s report.

New car payments are increasing as gas prices across the nation are also hitting record highs, due in part to Russia’s invasion into Ukraine.

Last week, the national average for gas prices climbed to $5.01, almost $2 per gallon more than this time last year, according to AAA.

In an effort to combat inflation, the Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised the country’s interest rate by three quarters of a percent, the largest one-time increase since 1994.

Source: TEST FEED1