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4h ago
11.50 BST
Hakeem
Jeffries meeting with Jared Kushner sparks fierce backlash
Hello and
welcome to the US politics live blog.
House
Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries’ meeting with Jared Kushner, the president’s
influential son-in-law, has sparked backlash from his own party and other
Donald Trump critics.
The
reported meeting comes months ahead of the November midterm elections in which
Democrats are favored to retake the US House, a development that would make
Jeffries speaker.
If they
are in the majority, Democrats are expected to use their oversight power to
aggressively investigate the Trump administration, including self-enrichment by
the president and his family.
There are
longstanding conflict-of-interest concerns about the way Kushner has continued
to make money from foreign nations as he works on foreign affairs, including
conflicts in Ukraine, Iran and Gaza.
Asked
about the reported meeting, Jeffries said in a statement:
Throughout
this Congress, Republicans have adopted a my-way-or-the-highway approach to
governing that has failed the American people. To stop the madness, we have
repeatedly made clear that an extremist approach will not work and will be met
with forceful opposition.
The
American people want bold change and that’s what House Democrats will deliver.
In every conversation that we have with the Trump administration, we will
continue to make it explicitly clear that the affordability crisis is not a
hoax and nothing short of transformational policy change is acceptable. We are
fighting for an affordable America. The question is whether Republicans will
join us.
Nonetheless,
among some who lamented the reported gathering was Tommy Vietor, previously an
aide to former president Barack Obama and now a co-host of the left-leaning
podcast Pod Save America.
“Jared
Kushner has no actual government job he just uses his family connections to get
money from gulf autocrats and fund corrupt deals. The only way [Jeffries]
should work with him is with demands for documents and subpoenas,” Vietor
posted.
Asked
whether he supported the meeting during an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press on
Sunday, Senator Chris van Hollen – a Maryland Democrat – said: “I’m in favor of
people meeting with whoever they want to discuss ideas. But it’s one thing to
have a meeting. It’s another thing to see something real come out of that.”
Adam
Kinzinger, a former Republican congressman from Illinois who is an outspoken
Trump critic and served on a House committee that investigated the Capitol
attack, posted in reference to the meeting, “Make this make sense,” while
tagging Jeffries.
In other
developments:
Tim Scott
defended fellow US South Carolina Republican senator Darline Graham’s knowledge
of national security issues ahead of their state’s runoff election on Tuesday.
Graham, who was appointed to fill the Senate seat held by her brother Lindsey
Graham after his sudden death in July, is in a Republican primary runoff
against South Carolina congressman Ralph Norman.
Dan
Sullivan supports Dan Sullivan against Dan Sullivan in Alaska’s US Senate
election, says a former Alaska mayor who recently backed the race’s Republican
incumbent over a challenger sharing their name. That development provided
another of multiple absurd elements to Dan S Sullivan’s campaign for a third
term in the US Senate, which – beside Mary Peltola, a former Alaska Democratic
congresswoman – has drawn opposition from Dan J Sullivan.
The
Donald Trump aide Natalie Harp flooded a since-disabled social media account
with pro-Trump posts on the day that the president’s supporters attacked the US
Capitol in early 2021, years before she went to work for him and developed an
extraordinary close relationship with him, a new report has revealed.
A series
of moves by Donald Trump’s administration to sow doubt in the integrity of US
elections has intensified concern among voting experts – and sparked hope among
election deniers – that it could declare a national emergency. The White House
and US federal agencies have released a string of documents this summer –
including disputed analyses of alleged voting by noncitzens and historical
intelligence memos – stoking expectations that the US president could move to
exert greater control over November’s US midterm elections.
Iran’s
foreign minister has dismissed the threat of a fresh round of US economic
sanctions as a “desperate” ploy, even as its president acknowledged that the
Iranian people are facing “many problems” amid Washington’s efforts to isolate
and debilitate the country’s economy.
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