Biden, who took office last year after a violently contested election, vowed to restore democracy at home and unite democracies abroad to confront autocrats including the Russian president and China’s leader, Xi Jinping.
Putin’s 24 February invasion of Ukraine, which Russia calls a “special operation”, has tested that promise and threatened to inaugurate a new cold war three decades after the Soviet Union unravelled.
In what US officials were billing as a major address in Poland, Biden “will deliver remarks on the united efforts of the free world to support the people of Ukraine, hold Russia accountable for its brutal war and defend a future that is rooted in democratic principles”, the White House said in a statement.
Sullivan answered questions from reporters a number of topics.
Concern that Russia may use chemical weapons was an “important topic of conversation” during Biden’s visit to Europe. Biden vowed to respond “in kind” if Russia uses chemical weapons in Ukraine.
Pressed on what that means, as chemical weapons are illegal under international law and Biden has repeatedly said the US would not send troops to fight Russia in Ukraine, Sullivan said it was an issue being discussed and prepared for both militarily and diplomatically as well as among allied leaders.
“We are working through contingency planning for a range of different scenarios,” he said. “It is difficult to give precision to these kinds of hypotheticals because of course, the form of use, the location of use, the context of use, all have a bearing on the specificity of the response. But in broad terms, I believe that there is convergence around the fundamental nature of how the alliance would respond to these issues.”
He also told reporters that the US does not believe China has granted Russia’s request for military aid.
“We have not seen the Chinese move forward with the provision of military equipment to Russia, but it’s something we continue to watch every day,” he said.
Asked whether the president expected to discuss a Polish proposal to send international peacekeepers into Ukraine, Sullivan said he wasn’t sure if the Polish president would raise that with Biden during their meeting and said the US needed more information before it responded.
He also said there is “no update” on Ukraine’s request for more warplanes, after the US rejected a proposal from Poland to transfer Russian-made MiG fighter planes from a US base in Germany to Ukraine out of concern that it might escalate the conflict with Russia.
Asked about how Biden views his trip to Europe, Sullivan emphasized a point Biden stressed in his remarks on Thursday: that unity will take work over time.
“Part of the reason that he decided that we needed to do this is because the early weeks unity can be carried forward by momentum and inertia and adrenaline,” Sullivan said. “But this could go on for some time, and to sustain that unity as costs rise, as the tragedy unfolds, that’s hard work. And the president wanted to get everybody together to say, ‘we’ve got to do that work.’ …It takes an American president coming over to really try to drive this forward.”
The House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack will consider holding in criminal contempt of Congress next week two of Donald Trump’s most senior White House advisers in Dan Scavino and Peter Navarro, the panel announced on Thursday.
The move to initiate contempt proceedings against the two Trump aides amounts to a biting rebuke of their refusal to cooperate with the inquiry, as the panel deploys its most punitive measures to reaffirm the consequences of noncompliance.
House investigators said in a notice that it would consider a contempt report against Scavino and Navarro in a business meeting scheduled for next Monday on Capitol Hill, after they defied subpoenas compelling them to provide documents and testimony.
The select committee is expected to vote unanimously to send the contempt report for a vote before the House of Representatives, according to a source close to the panel, so that the Trump aides can be referred to the justice department for prosecution.
The select committee took a special interest in Scavino, since, as Trump’s former deputy chief of staff for communications, he was intimately involved in a months-long effort by the Trump White House to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
In addition to talking to European allies and Americans at home, Harris has a message intended for Putin: step back from the precipice of war or suffer the most severe sanctions ever levied against Russia. But as the brewing crisis gets more complicated by the day, Biden and other administration officials have offered increasingly dire warnings that the window for diplomacy is narrow.
Biden on Friday told reporters he believes Putin has decided to invade in the coming days, taking military action that could go far beyond the disputed Donbas region and include the capital of Kyiv.
As Harris makes a late-inning push to Putin to pull back, she aimed to hit hard on the argument that the US will emerge stronger from a conflict while Russia will emerge weaker, a Biden administration official said.
Ahead of the speech, Harris sought to rally allies.
In addition to her meeting with the Baltic leaders, the vice president on Friday met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, briefed a bipartisan group of US lawmakers attending the conference about the rapidly changing situation, and consulted with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was also in Munich.
Harris was scheduled to meet after her speech on Saturday with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Donald Trump is being widely accused of “saying the quiet part loud”, when protesting that Mike Pence could have “overturned” his boss’s election defeat by Joe Biden.
Though he has appeared to admit Biden won before, Trump usually insists he won and his opponent stole the election through voter fraud – the “big lie” which animates rallies like one in Conroe, Texas, on Saturday.
At that rally, Trump promised pardons for 6 January rioters if re-elected and exhorted followers to protest against investigations of his business and political affairs in New York and Georgia.
The next day, he attempted to seize on moves by a bipartisan group of senators to reform the Electoral Count Act of 1887, which Trump tried to use to have Pence refuse to certify Biden’s victory.
In a statement, Trump claimed “fraud and many other irregularities” in the 2020 election, which is untrue, and asked: “How come the Democrats and … Republicans, like Wacky Susan Collins, are desperately trying to pass legislation that will not allow the vice-president to change the results of the election?
“Actually, what they are saying, is that Mike Pence did have the right to change the outcome, and they now want to take that right away. Unfortunately, he didn’t exercise that power. He could have overturned the election!”
Pundits seized on Trump’s latest apparent blunder into the truth. Bill Kristol, a conservative writer, said: “Talk about saying the quiet part loud. Trump here admits or rather boasts [about] what he wanted Mike Pence to do.”
In Congress, Liz Cheney, one of only two Republicans on the House committee investigating Trump’s attempt to overturn the election, said: “Trump uses language he knows caused the January 6 violence; suggests he’d pardon the January 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy; threatens prosecutors; and admits he was attempting to overturn the election.
Staff turnover in the Biden administration is nowhere near what it was under Donald Trump, when senior aides came and went as through a revolving door in a hurricane.
Ron Klain. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock
Nonetheless, the press always likes a bit of speculation about who might be in and who might be out, and here comes the Washington Post with an exhaustive examination of how Ron Klain, Joe Biden’s chief of staff, has not had the smoothest first year in the job.
The piece is based on interviews with “more than 60 White House and administration officials, Cabinet secretaries, members of Congress and other Klain associates”.
In one of the kinder comments about Klain’s year in a role which Trump filled four times in four years, the Connecticut senator Richard Blumenthal told the paper: “I think that, by and large, he’s making the trains run on time – even though some of the boxcars may seem to be empty some of the time.”
Blumenthal might’ve been alluding to supply chain problems, among various crises (Covid, Ukraine, the assault on US democracy, the fallout from calling a Fox News reporter a “stupid son of a bitch”) which have dogged Biden’s first year.
But the Post piece focused on the damage to Biden, and thus to Klain, from protracted and mostly failed negotiations with the president’s own party on Capitol Hill, in particular over domestic spending and voting rights reform, both high-profile failures.
The Post said many Democrats complained progressives had been given too much weight, one saying Klain had created “a monster” by empowering Pramila Jayapal, the leader of House progressives. (Adhering to rather endearing American newspaper norms, the Post said that source used “an expletive to underscore the point”.)
Jayapal countered: “If he empowered us, it was because we were pushing the president’s agenda.”
The paper also spoke to Klain. He, it reported, “appeared to acknowledge that playing an inside-Washington game had been problematic for Biden in his first year, creating an image that the president spends most of his time in political negotiations.
“Klain vowed that Biden would spend more time on the road in 2022, interacting with Americans and showcasing his trademark style of backslapping empathy.”
There is of course much more in the piece. If you like that sort of thing, it’s here.
People in counties that voted for Donald Trump are nearly three times more likely to die from Covid-19 than those who live in counties that voted for Joe Biden, according to a new study by National Public Radio.
NPR examined deaths per 100,000 people in about 3,000 counties across the US since May 2021. According to NPR, 1 May was chosen as the start date as it is roughly the time when vaccines became universally available to adults.
The study found that areas that voted for Trump by at least 60% in November 2020 had death rates 2.7 times higher than counties that voted heavily for Biden.
The study also found that counties that voted for Trump by an even higher percentage had lower vaccination rates and higher Covid-19 death rates.
Charles Gaba, an independent analyst who helped review NPR’s methodology, said that in October, the reddest 10th of the country saw death rates six times higher than the bluest 10th.
“Those numbers have dropped slightly in recent weeks,” he said. “It’s back down to 5.5 times higher.”
Hawaii, Nebraska and Alaska were excluded from the study because they either do not report election results by county or do not report county-level vaccine data.
The study only examined the geographic locations of Covid-related deaths. The political views of each person remain unknown. Nevertheless, according to NPR, “the strength of the association, combined with polling information about vaccination, strongly suggests that Republicans are being disproportionately affected”.
People in rural Republican areas, and white Republicans in general, tend to be more resistant to getting vaccinated. According to the latest data from the Kaiser Family Fund, the rate of Republican Covid vaccination has plateaued at 59%, while 91% of Democrats have been vaccinated.
Read more:
23:03
The White House has said it “strongly opposes” a resolution introduced by the senators Bernie Sanders, Mike Lee and Rand Paul that would block a proposed $650m arms sale to Saudi Arabia.
The bipartisan resolution is driven by concerns over Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the war in Yemen. “As the Saudi government continues to wage its devastating war in Yemen and repress its own people, we should not be rewarding them with more arms sales,” said Sanders in a joint statement from the lawmakers.
The proposed arms sale package includes 280 air-to-air missiles and 596 launchers, as well as other equipment and technical support from the US government and contractors.
“These missiles are not used to engage ground targets,” the White House said in a statement today. “Saudi Arabia uses these munitions to defend against aerial cross-border attacks, such as Houthi explosive-laden drones.”
The senators behind the resolution have argued that the missiles could be used offensively, and asserted there is a lack of assurance that the equipment wouldn’t harm any civilians.
The Senate is expected to vote on the resolution tonight.
Updated
22:52
Analysis: Putin’s Ukraine rhetoric driven by distorted view of neighbor
Andrew Roth
Even as Vladimir Putin has built up an invasion force on his borders, he has repeated a refrain that Russians and Ukrainians are one people, bemoaning a “fraternal” conflict that he himself has provoked.
As Putin speaks on Tuesday with Joe Biden, western analysts have likened his focus on Kyiv to an “obsession” while Russians have said Putin believes it his “duty” to reverse Ukraine’s path towards the west.
Putin has threatened a broader war in Ukraine over Nato enlargement, demanding “legal guarantees” to ensure Ukraine does not join the military alliance or become a kind of “unofficial” member hosting troops or defense infrastructure.
But that fear has gone hand-in-hand with chauvinistic bluster that indicates Moscow has a distorted view of modern Ukraine and the goals it wants to achieve there.
“Russia fundamentally misunderstands Ukraine and its nature,” said Pavlo Klimkin, the former Ukrainian foreign minister. “Russia has been continually trying to prove that Ukraine is a sort of failed state, that Ukraine has no statehood, no history, no language, no religion. It’s a kind of separate reality.”
In June, Putin published an article in which he doubled down on a public claim that “Russians and Ukrainians were one people”, saying the formation of an ethnically Ukrainian state hostile to Moscow was “comparable in its consequences to the use of weapons of mass destruction against us”.
Analysts in Washington were alarmed by the rhetoric because it came shortly after Russia had engineered its first troop build-up, causing a war scare in April. Eugene Rumer and Andrew S Weiss of the Carnegie Endowment called Putin’s text a “historical, political, and security predicate for invading it – if and when that ever became necessary.”
Read more:
22:11
Biden accused of ‘doubling down’ on Trump move to strip US immigration judges of union rights
Alexandra Villarreal in Austin and Joanna Walters in New York report:
US immigration judges are embroiled in a tense dispute with Joe Biden over their battle to restore union rights taken away from them under the Trump administration.
The head of the federal immigration judges’ union has accused the Biden administration of “doubling down” on its predecessor’s efforts to freeze out their association even as they struggle with a backlog of almost 1.5m court cases and staff shortages, which exacerbate due process concerns in their courts.
Mimi Tsankov, president of the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ), declared herself “mystified” that Biden’s Department of Justice would not negotiate with her members despite the US president vocally and frequently touting his support for workers’ representation.
“This administration has really doubled down on maintaining the [Trump] position that we are not a valid union,” Tsankov said.
Tsankov was appointed as an immigration judge in 2006 and is based in New York, where she also teaches at Fordham University School of Law. She spoke to the Guardian only in her union role.
After what she described as “decades” of relatively smooth relations between the NAIJ and the Department of Justice, Donald Trump capped four years of rightwing immigration policy by successfully petitioning to strip hundreds of immigration judges of their right to unionize.
The hostile move was decided by the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA), an independent administrative federal agency that controls labor relations between the federal government and its employees, on 2 November 2020, the day before the presidential election.
Read more:
22:00
Today so far
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:
Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a virtual summit that lasted roughly two hours. According to the White House’s readout of the conversation, Biden shared “deep concerns” about Russia’s increased troop presence along the country’s border with Ukraine, which has stirred fears of a potential invasion.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden urged Putin to embrace “de-escalation and diplomacy” toward Ukraine. Sullivan also said that Biden warned Putin there would be “strong economic measures” taken if Russia invaded Ukraine. “I will look you in the eye and tell you, as President Biden looked President Putin in the eye and told him today, that things we did not do in 2014, we are prepared to do now,” Sullivan added, referring to the US response to the Russian annexation of Crimea.
Biden spoke with several European leaders, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, to provide an update on his conversation with Putin. “The leaders underscored their support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the need for Russia to reduce tensions and engage in diplomacy,” the White House said.
Mark Meadows, the former chief of staff to Donald Trump, is no longer cooperating with the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection. Meadows’ attorney said the panel wanted the former official to discuss matters over which Trump has claimed executive privilege, although lawmakers have rejected the legitimacy of the former president’s claims.
The select committee warned it would move forward with holding Meadows in criminal contempt if he did not appear for his scheduled deposition tomorrow. Committee chair Bennie Thompson and vice-chair Liz Cheney said in a statement, “If indeed Mr. Meadows refuses to appear, the Select Committee will be left no choice but to advance contempt proceedings and recommend that the body in which Mr. Meadows once served refer him for criminal prosecution.”
Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
21:38
The White House has released a readout of Joe Biden’s afternoon call with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghiand British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“President Biden briefed leaders on his call with President Putin, in which he discussed the serious consequences of Russian military action in Ukraine and the need to de-escalate and return to diplomacy,” the White House said.
“The leaders underscored their support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the need for Russia to reduce tensions and engage in diplomacy. They agreed their teams will stay in close touch, including in consultation with NATO allies and EU partners, on a coordinated and comprehensive approach.”
21:18
The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly and David Smith report:
Mark Meadows’ attorney, George Terwilliger, wrote in a letter on Tuesday that a deposition would be “untenable” because the 6 January select committee “has no intention of respecting boundaries” concerning questions that Donald Trump has claimed are off-limits because of executive privilege.
Executive privilege covers the confidentiality or otherwise of communications between a president and his aides. The Biden administration has waived it in the investigation of 6 January. Trump and key allies entwined in events leading up to the storming of the Capitol, around which five people died, have invoked it.
Terwilliger also said he learned over the weekend that the committee had issued a subpoena to a third-party communications provider that he said would include “intensely personal” information.
In an interview on the conservative Fox News network, the attorney added: “We have made efforts over many weeks to reach an accommodation with the committee.”
But he said the committee’s approach to negotiations and to other witnesses meant Meadows would withdraw cooperation.
20:48
Capitol attack committee warns Meadows of potential contempt charge
The House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection has warned Mark Meadows that lawmakers will move forward with holding him in criminal contempt if he does not appear for his scheduled deposition tomorrow.
Meadows, who previously served as Donald Trump’s chief of staff, indicated earlier today that he would no longer cooperate with the committee’s investigation.
The chair and vice-chair of the select committee, Democrat Bennie Thompson and Republican Liz Cheney, warned Meadows of the potential contempt charge in a new statement.
January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte)
Mark Meadows has informed the Select Committee that he does not intend to cooperate further despite his apparent willingness to provide details about the January 6th attack, including conversations with President Trump, in the book he is now promoting and selling.
December 7, 2021
“Mark Meadows has informed the Select Committee that he does not intend to cooperate further with our investigation despite his apparent willingness to provide details about the facts and circumstances surrounding the January 6th attack, including conversations with President Trump, in the book he is now promoting and selling,” Thompson and Cheney said.
The two lawmakers noted investigators have many questions and requests for Meadows that do not fall under potential executive privilege claims, including “voluminous official records stored in his personal phone and email accounts”.
“Tomorrow’s deposition, which was scheduled at Mr. Meadows’s request, will go forward as planned,” Thompson and Cheney said.
“If indeed Mr. Meadows refuses to appear, the Select Committee will be left no choice but to advance contempt proceedings and recommend that the body in which Mr. Meadows once served refer him for criminal prosecution.”
20:30
National security adviser Jake Sullivan described the summit between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin as a “useful meeting,” although he declined to characterize the Russian leader’s remarks during the discussion.
“He can speak for himself,” Sullivan said of Putin, noting that the Russian president was “direct and straightforward” in his conversation with Biden.
“This was a real discussion. It was give and take. It was not speeches,” Sullivan said. “It was back and forth. President Putin was deeply engaged.”
20:16
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Joe Biden will speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday, after the US president held a virtual summit with Vladimir Putin today.
Sullivan said the White House does not believe that Putin has yet made a decision about whether to approve an invasion of Ukraine, as Russia builds up its troop presence along the border.
“What President Biden did today was lay out very clearly the consequences if he chooses to move,” Sullivan said of the summit.
“I will look you in the eye and tell you, as President Biden looked President Putin in the eye and told him today, that things we did not do in 2014, we are prepared to do now,” Sullivan added, referring to the US response to the Russian annexation of Crimea.
20:09
White House urges Putin to embrace ‘de-escalation and diplomacy’ toward Ukraine
The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, is now holding her daily briefing with reporters, and she is joined by national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
Sullivan provided more details on Joe Biden’s virtual summit with Vladimir Putin this morning, saying the US president was “direct and straightforward” with the Russian leader.
The president warned Putin that the US would respond with “strong economic measures” if Russia invaded Ukraine, Sullivan said.
The national security adviser added that Biden urged his Russian counterpart to embrace “de-escalation and diplomacy” toward Ukraine rather than continuing to build up a military presence along the border.
19:47
The Republican National Committee criticized Joe Biden’s foreign policy agenda after the US president’s virtual summit with Vladimir Putin this morning.
“Biden’s weak leadership on the international stage has emboldened our enemies and shaken our allies’ trust,” RNC chair Ronna McDaniel said in a statement.
“While claiming to be tough on Russia, Biden gifted Putin the Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline while simultaneously embarking on a job-killing crusade against the U.S. energy industry. Today’s meeting underscores how Biden’s weak global leadership, Afghanistan disaster, and failure at our border is emblematic of his America last agenda.”
In its readout of the summit, the White House said Biden “voiced the deep concerns of the United States and our European Allies about Russia’s escalation of forces surrounding Ukraine and made clear that the U.S. and our Allies would respond with strong economic and other measures in the event of military escalation”.
19:16
Donald Trump’s plan to launch “Truth Social”, a special purpose acquisitions backed social media company, early next year may have hit a roadblock after US regulators issued a request for information on the deal on Monday.
The request from the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for information from Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC), a blank-check SPAC that is set to merge with Trump Media & Technology Group, comes as a powerful Republican congressman, Devin Nunes, announced he was stepping out of politics to join the Trump media venture as CEO.
The twin developments set the stage for a major political battle over Truth Social, a platform that purportedly plans to challenge Twitter and Facebook, social platforms that have banned or curbed the former president over his involvement in stoking the 6 January Capitol riot.
18:51
About 200 officers have left the US Capitol police since the 6 January insurrection, according to the force’s inspector general.
Giving testimony before a Senate committee hearing, Michael Bolton also said the Capitol police had not done enough to improve its practices in the 11 months since the attack.
CSPAN (@cspan)
Sen. @RoyBlunt: “How many officers have left the department since January the 6th?”
U.S. Capitol Police IG Bolton: “I believe it’s around 200 or so.” pic.twitter.com/IvTBDRsLrv
December 7, 2021
Bolton also said that out of “200 security enhancements” the department told him it would make, “only 61 of those items have supporting documentation to support that those enhancements have occurred”.
The Senate Rules Committee hearing was also notable for a suggestion from Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican senator for West Virginia, that Congress should conduct large-scale drills, in the same way many US schools are forced to, in case of an active shooter.
Updated
18:35
White House: Biden confronted Putin over Ukraine troop escalation
Joe Biden voiced “deep concerns” about the escalation of Russian forces surrounding Ukraine during his call with Vladimir Putin today, according to a summary of the conversation published by the White House.
The call took in a “range of issues”, the White House said, including the Ukraine situation and ransomware.
From the White House:
President Biden voiced the deep concerns of the United States and our European allies about Russia’s escalation of forces surrounding Ukraine and made clear that the US and our allies would respond with strong economic and other measures in the event of military escalation.
President Biden reiterated his support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and called for de-escalation and a return to diplomacy. The two presidents tasked their teams to follow up and the US will do so in close coordination with allies and partners.
The presidents also discussed the US-Russia dialogue on strategic stability, a separate dialogue on ransomware, as well as joint work on regional issues such as Iran.
This is Adam Gabbatt, taking over from Joan for a little while.
Updated
18:30
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a virtual summit that lasted roughly two hours. The meeting comes as Putin has built up Russia’s troop presence along the country’s border with Ukraine, raising concerns of a potential invasion.
Biden is speaking with several European leaders this afternoon to provide an update on his conversation with Putin. The White House said Biden will speak with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghiand British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Mark Meadows, the former chief of staff to Donald Trump, is no longer cooperating with the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection. Meadows’ attorney said the panel wanted the former official to discuss matters over which Donald Trump has claimed executive privilege, although lawmakers have rejected the legitimacy of the former president’s claims.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
18:16
The White House has shared a photo of Joe Biden’s virtual summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin this morning, which wrapped up about an hour ago.
The photo shows the US president, accompanied by secretary of state Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan, in the Situation Room.
“.@POTUS held a secure video call with President Putin of Russia today to discuss a range of topics in the US-Russia relationship, including our concerns about Russian military activities on the border with Ukraine, cyber and regional issues,” the White House said on Twitter.
Joe Biden, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photograph: The White House/AFP/Getty Images
Updated
18:03
One of suspected killers of Jamal Khashoggi held in Paris
The Guardian’s Kim Willsher and Stephanie Kirchgaessner report:
French police have arrested a former member of the Saudi royal guard who has also served as a personal security official for the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for his suspected involvement in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Khalid Aedh al-Otaibi was taken into custody at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport as he was about to take a plane to the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
The arrest marks the first time that any individual accused by international experts of participating in the grisly state-sponsored execution of the Washington Post columnist has been arrested outside of Saudi Arabia.
Otaibi, 33, has been named as one of the “commando” group in the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul where Khashoggi was killed on 2 October 2018. He was on the Interpol red list after an arrest warrant was issued by Turkey. He was travelling under his real name, according to French radio RTL, which broke the story.
17:36
Biden-Putin summit ends after two hours
Joe Biden’s virtual summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin has ended after about two hours, the White House told the press pool.
The White House and the Kremlin are expected to release readouts of the summit, which was not viewable by the public.
Joe Biden will soon hold a call with several European leaders — including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson — to provide an update on his conversation with Putin.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan will also join White House press secretary Jen Psaki at her daily briefing this afternoon to provide more details on the call. Stay tuned.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are now receiving a briefing from their national security team to get an update on evacuation efforts in Afghanistan.
The White House told the press pool, “Today, the President will meet with his national security team to manage efforts in Afghanistan, receive an update on the COVID-19 response, and engage with members of Congress regarding his Build Back Better agenda ahead of the House returning to Washington.”
A CNN reporter spotted defense secretary Lloyd Austin and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Mark Milley, arriving at the White House for the briefing:
Kevin Liptak (@Kevinliptakcnn)
Sec. Austin and Gen. Milley arrive at the White House this morning. Official says Biden “will meet with his national security team to manage efforts in Afghanistan” pic.twitter.com/HN0f39J4s7
August 19, 2021
14:57
Most Americans say Afghanistan war was not worthwhile, poll finds
Roughly two-thirds of Americans believe the war in Afghanistan was not worth fighting, according to a new poll.
The AP-NORC survey found that 35% of Americans believe the war was worth fighting, while 62% say it was not.
Those numbers are notably similar when results are divided by political party, with 67% of Democrats and 57% of Republicans saying the war was not worthwhile.
But Americans are more divided on Joe Biden’s approach to foreign policy more broadly.
The poll found that 47% of Americans approve of Biden’s handling of international affairs, while 52% approve of the president’s national security policies.
The poll was conducted from August 12 to 16, so some responses were collected after the Taliban took control of Kabul.
14:39
Tracy McVeigh
Joe Biden delaying the exit of American forces from Afghanistan by just a month could have made a significant difference to the outcome of continuing peace talks with the Taliban leadership, according to one of the negotiators.
Fawzia Koofi, an Afghan politician and women’s rights activist, said the chaotic withdrawal undermined all leverage that the US and the Afghan government had had with the Taliban at the talks in Qatar.
“Afghanistan is the victim of back-to-back mistakes,” she said.
From her home in Kabul, Koofi, who has been the subject of two assassination attempts, said: “President Biden could have delayed this to wait for a political settlement – for even just another month, just get the political settlement first. They could have come to a deal.”
She said the abrupt departure had needlessly put many more people at risk.
14:39
Biden says US troops may stay in Afghanistan beyond 31 August deadline
The Guardian’s Hannah Ellis-Petersen and agencies report:
Joe Biden has said US troops may stay past a 31 August deadline so as to evacuate all Americans from Afghanistan, and defended the withdrawal, saying there was no way for the US to pull out “without chaos ensuing”.
As critics in the US and abroad questioned his handling of the withdrawal, the president said in his first on-camera interview since the Taliban took Kabul that troops would stay in the country to get American citizens out.
Good Morning America (@GMA)
EXCLUSIVE: Asked about July comment that a Taliban takeover was “highly unlikely,” Pres. @JoeBiden tells @GStephanopoulos, “there was no consensus” in the intelligence. “They said it was more likely to be by the end of the year.” https://t.co/NmBEmVRw8M pic.twitter.com/LSXSC51ox8
August 19, 2021
“If there’s American citizens left, we’re going to stay until we get them all out,” Biden told ABC News, signaling that he would listen to US lawmakers who had pressed him to extend the 31 August deadline he had set for a final pullout.
“We will determine at the time who is left and if they are not out we will stay,” he said, as more of the interview was aired on Thursday morning.
Asked if he thought the handling of the crisis could have gone better, Biden said: “No.”
14:39
The Taliban has not changed, Biden says as evacuations continue
Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.
Joe Biden sat down with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos to defend his decision to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan, as the chaotic evacuation mission continues in Kabul.
Stephanopoulos asked Biden whether he believed the Taliban had changed. “No,” Biden replied.
ABC News (@ABC)
EXCLUSIVE: @GStephanopoulos: “Do you believe the Taliban have changed?”
Pres. Biden: “I think they’re going through sort of an existential crisis about do they want to be recognized by the int’l community as being a legitimate government.” https://t.co/zgMVDKleiv pic.twitter.com/Bgxenaydap
August 19, 2021
The president added, “I think they’re going through a sort of existential crisis about: Do they want to be recognized by the international community as being a legitimate government? I’m not sure they do.”
Biden’s comments come as the Taliban has made efforts to at least appear more moderate on issues like women’s rights, but many Afghans remain deeply skeptical that the group has actually changed its ways.
“They also care about whether they have food to eat, whether they have an income that … can run an economy, they care about whether or not they can hold together the society that they in fact say they care so much about,” Biden said of the Taliban’s relationship with Afghan citizens. “I’m not counting on any of that.”
A Fox News reporter asked Jen Psaki about the president’s thoughts on the protests happening in Cuba right now.
Specifically, the reporter asked whether Joe Biden believes the protests are a sign of discontent with Cuba’s communist government or a response to the rising number of coronavirus cases in the country.
CSPAN (@cspan)
.@PressSec on Cuba: “Communism is a failed ideology and we certainly believe that.” pic.twitter.com/eb5Sl9Fn0O
July 15, 2021
“Communism is a failed ideology, and we certainly believe that,” Psaki replied. “It has failed the people of Cuba. They deserve freedom. They deserve a government that supports them.”
She added, “This has been a government, an authoritarian communist regime that has repressed its people and has failed the people of Cuba. Hence, we’re seeing them in the streets.”
Psaki argued that the “failed” communist government had led to “a lack of access to economic opportunity, to medical supplies, to Covid vaccines”.
“So all of those pieces are true,” Psaki said of the cause of the protests.
13:52
Taking over the podium in the White House briefing room, Jen Psaki announced that Haiti received 500,000 doses of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine last night, which were provided by the US through the Covax program.
The White House press secretary added that the US will send “significant amount of additional doses” to Haiti as soon as possible, in consultation with local health authorities.
Psaki reiterated that the US remains a “partner of the Haitian people,” as they attempt to recover from the assassination of their president, Jovenel Moïse.
13:36
Taking a few questions from reporters, Dr Vivek Murthy was asked about where online health misinformation seems to be coming from.
The surgeon general noted that much of the online misinformation on coronavirus and vaccines seems to be coming from individuals who incorrectly believe they are helping inform their communities about the risks of getting vaccinated.
(Public health experts have said the vaccines are safe and provide much-needed protection against coronavirus.)
Underscoring the need to crack down on health misinformation, Murthy pointed to polls showing the majority of unvaccinated Americans believe common myths about the vaccines or think that some of those myths might be true.
After taking a handful of questions from reporters, Murthy left the briefing room.
13:30
Dr Vivek Murthy, the US surgeon general, asked Americans to always be careful when sharing information online about coronavirus or the vaccines.
“If you’re not sure, don’t share,” Murthy said. “When it comes to misinformation, not sharing is caring.”
The surgeon general noted that the American Academy of Pediatrics is launching an educational campaign to advise parents on navigating online health misinformation.
13:22
Coronavirus vaccine misinformation ‘has cost us lives,’ surgeon general says
The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, is now holding her daily briefing, and she was joined by Dr Vivek Murthy, the US surgeon general.
Murthy described the steps that the Biden administration is taking to crack down on misinformation surrounding coronavirus and vaccines.
The surgeon general called on major tech companies to more closely monitor misinformation and take action against super-spreaders of false claims about coronavirus.
Murthy also asked news outlets to take proactive steps to answer Americans’ questions about the vaccines to promote accurate information about the benefits of getting the shot.
The Recount (@therecount)
U.S. @Surgeon_General Dr. Vivek Murthy gets personal about 10 of his family members who died of COVID, saying he “wishes each and every day that they had had the opportunity to get vaccinated.” pic.twitter.com/QRH86dDza8
July 15, 2021
Murthy described health misinformation as “an imminent and insidious threat to our nation’s health,” particularly because false claims have prevented some Americans from getting vaccinated against coronavirus.
“Simply put, health misinformation has cost us live,” Murthy said.
Noting that he has lost 10 of his own families to coronavirus, Murthy added, “It’s painful for me to know that nearly every death we are seeing now from Covid-19 could have been prevented.”
Updated
13:09
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
Joe Biden praised the monthly payments from the enhanced Child Tax Credit, which the IRS started distributing to American families today. Biden predicted that the payments, which were included in the coronavirus relief package he signed in March, will produce “the largest ever one-year decrease in child poverty in the history of the United States of America”.
Angela Merkel will visit Biden at the White House this afternoon. The German chancellor, who will soon step down after 16 years in office, met with Kamala Harris this morning. Merkel and Biden are scheduled to soon participate in a bilateral meeting, and they will hold a joint press conference later today.
The first procedural vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill will be held on Wednesday, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer announced. The news comes as lawmakers race to finalize the details of the bill, which is based off the bipartisan infrastructure framework that Biden has endorsed.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
12:55
Joe Biden predicted Republicans will try to boast about the enhanced Child Tax Credit, even though they did not vote for the coronavirus relief package that authorized the monthly payments.
The president is now calling on Congress to extend the program beyond 2021, and Republicans are expected to also oppose the $3.5tn bill that will approve that extension.
The president repeatedly referred to the enhanced tax credit as a “tax cut” for working families, criticizing those who do not support the program.
“To the people that say we cannot afford to give the middle-class a break, I say we can afford it,” Biden said.
The president’s speech on the Child Tax Credit has now concluded. Biden and Harris left the event without taking any questions.
12:45
Joe Biden predicted that the monthly Child Tax Credit payments would produce “the largest ever one-year decrease in child poverty in the history of the United States of America”.
“The benefits will be felt for years,” Biden said of the payments, which started being distributed to families today.
CBS News (@CBSNews)
Pres. Biden says the Child Tax Credit will create “the largest ever one year decrease in child poverty in the history of the United States of America.” pic.twitter.com/98Bxnecxme
July 15, 2021
However, as things currently stand, the enhanced tax credit will not extend beyond 2021. The policy was included in the coronavirus relief package that Biden signed in March, and Congress would need to pass an extension to keep the monthly payments going.
The president called on lawmakers to extend the program, saying, “We shouldn’t let taxes go up on working families.”
Democrats will likely include an extension of the enhanced tax credit in their $3.5tn “human infrastructure” plan, which the Senate is working to advance.
Updated
12:38
Biden praises monthly Child Tax Credit payments as a ‘historic’ step in ending child poverty
Joe Biden is now speaking at the White House, praising the benefits of the monthly payments from the enhanced Child Tax Credit.
The president first welcomed the nine families who are present for the event. Each of the nine families will benefit from the monthly payments, the White House said.
Biden acknowledged that this event must be “boring, boring, boring” for the children in the audience, so he suggested that their parents give them ice cream once it’s done.
MSNBC (@MSNBC)
“I believe this is actually a historic day,” President Biden says on eligible families in the U.S. will get their first monthly payments of the expanded child tax.
“It’s historic and it’s our effort to make another giant step towards ending child poverty in America.” pic.twitter.com/1ARCPgcx7j
July 15, 2021
Pivoting to the Child Tax Credit, Biden said the monthly payments were “historic” and marked a “giant step toward ending child poverty in America”.
The president compared the impact of the payments, which started being distributed today, to the effect that Social Security had in reducing poverty for the elderly.
“This can be life-changing for so many families,” Biden said.
Updated
12:29
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are now holding their event to celebrate the monthly payments from the enhanced Child Tax Credit, which started being distributed today.
The vice-president delivered remarks first, saying that the monthly payments would help lift American families out of poverty.
“The payments may be monthly, but the impact of this Child Tax Credit will undoubtedly be generational,” Harris said. “Today is a good day, America. It is a historic day.”
12:21
Trump responds to Milley’s concerns about potential coup: ‘I’m not into coups!’
Donald Trump is pushing back against new reporting that the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Mark Milley, feared the US was facing a potential “Reichstag moment” in the final days before Joe Biden took office.
“Sorry to inform you, but an Election is my form of ‘coup,’ and if I was going to do a coup, one of the last people I would want to do it with is General Mark Milley,” Trump said in a new statement. “I’m not into coups!”
The statement includes a number of insults hurled at Milley, who was nominated in 2019 by … Donald Trump.
The former president’s statement comes one day after New York magazine reported on excerpts from the new book I Alone Can Fix This, by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker.
According to the book, Milley spoke to an “old friend” shortly before the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol. The friend warned Milley that Trump was attempting to overturn the results of the presidential election, which he still claims were tainted by widespread voter fraud. (That is obviously not true. Trump fairly lost the election to Biden.)
Milley is reported to have said: “They may try, but they’re not going to fucking succeed. You can’t do this without the military. You can’t do this without the CIA and the FBI. We’re the guys with guns.”
Read Martin Pengelly’s full report on the book here:
11:57
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will soon deliver remarks on the monthly payments from the enhanced Child Tax Credit, which the IRS started distributing today. (More details on that here.)
According to the White House, nine families who are benefitting from the payments will be in attendance for the president and vice-president’s remarks.
The blog will provide details on the event once it starts, so stay tuned.
11:44
More details from the Guardian’s Daniel Strauss:
Earlier in the week, Bernie Sanders met with Joe Biden at the White House. The meeting suggests that the White House is working to keep Sanders satisfied through the sausage-making process of crafting this $3.5tn reconciliation bill.
The meeting also indicates Sanders is seeing eye-to-eye with the Biden administration on a legislative package that could easily spark interparty fighting.
“If you’re asking at the end of the day do I think we’re going to pass this, I do,” Sanders told me on Capitol Hill yesterday.
“And by the way, as all of you know, the House is an independent body and they will go where they will. And they may want to go with larger funding, and if that’s the case I would be very supportive of that.”
Democrats need unity as they move forward on both the bipartisan part of their infrastructure package and their more expansive infrastructure proposals.
On Thursday, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Senate majority leader, said he would take the necessary legislative steps to move both parts of the infrastructure package forward next week.