Mike Johnson warns Ukraine-border deal likely ‘dead on arrival’ in House – live - The Guardian US

In a letter to House Republicans, speaker Mike Johnson warned that the immigration deal under consideration in the Senate may be “dead on arrival” in his chamber, while also vowing to move forward with plans to impeach homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

The Republican leader’s statement bodes ill for the bargaining in the Senate, which is seen as crucial to unlocking GOP support for aid to Ukraine, as well as Israel and Taiwan. Democrats and Republicans in the upper chamber have been negotiating for months on an agreement to restrict immigration policy in a bid to keep undocumented migrants from entering the United States. While no compromise has yet been reached, Johnson said today that “if rumors about the contents of the draft proposal are true, it would have been dead on arrival in the House anyway.”

Johnson said he would support the effort to impeach Mayorkas, who Republicans have accused of mishandling border security.

“When we return next week, by necessity, the House Homeland Security Committee will move forward with Articles of Impeachment against Secretary Mayorkas. A vote on the floor will be held as soon as possible thereafter,” he wrote.

Impeachments of cabinet secretaries are exceedingly rare, and the Senate’s Democratic majority will almost certainly refuse to convict Mayorkas.

Immigration officials did not document the medical necessity of at least two hysterectomies they authorized for women in their custody, according to a new report by the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General.

Investigators contracted with an OB/GYN to review six hysterectomies performed on migrant women who were in federal custody. The doctor found that in two of the cases, officials had failed to document whether it was medically necessary, the watchdog report states.

“Our contracted OB/GYN concluded that for two of six hysterectomies performed, the detained non-citizens’ IHSC medical files did not demonstrate that a hysterectomy was the most appropriate course of treatment and was medically necessary,” investigators wrote. “[Immigration health] officials agreed that their medical files did not contain the necessary documentation to demonstrate the medical necessity of these two hysterectomies.”

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) finding was part of a larger review that concluded Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) did not follow proper procedures to authorize dozens of such surgeries between fiscal years 2019 and 2021. Looking at a sample of 227 major surgeries, investigators found 72 of them – about a third – did not follow proper procedures.

While a clinical director is supposed to approve all major surgeries, investigators found these surgeries were approved by other healthcare personnel, like a nurse or nurse practitioner.

Based on that sample, OIG said it could infer with 95 percent confidence that between 137 and 217 of 553 major surgical procedures were not properly approved in the timeframe it studied.

The Guardian will have a fuller report on this on our website soon.

The prospects of Congress voting on a deal to tighten immigration policy and approve military aid to Israel and Ukraine faced a new threat in the form of Republican House speaker Mike Johnson’s objection to reported provisions in the deal. Johnson’s opposition came a day after fury erupted when the top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell, told his lawmakers behind closed doors that he may reject whatever deal is reached to allow Donald Trump to campaign on immigration. McConnell reportedly walked back those comments in another meeting with his party, but the prospects of a bargain to address one of the most intractable issues in American politics continue to look grim.

Here’s what else happened today so far:

• Trump stormed out of closing arguments in the New York City trial of author E Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit against him.

• Johnson also pledged to move forward with impeaching homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on claims he is responsible for the surge in migrants crossing the southern border.

• The Biden administration paused approvals of new natural gas export terminals, citing their impact on the climate.

Trump’s attorney Alina Habba has just wrapped up her closing arguments in the defamation lawsuit against him.

We are now hearing the rebuttal from author E Jean Carroll’s attorney.

In her closing arguments, Donald Trump’s lead attorney Alina Habba said the former president was the real victim, because of the backlash caused by E Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit.

Carroll, she said, wasn’t “accepting any responsibility for the media and the press frenzy and the public profile that she wanted and still enjoys.”

“There is no one that can truly express the frustration of the last few years better than my client, the former president of the United States.”

Habba then played a video that had been introduced by Carroll’s lawyers – because they considered it defamatory – in which Trump doubled down on his denials.

“I have absolutely no idea who this woman is. The verdict is a disgrace, a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time,” Trump said in the clip.

“You’re right that’s how he feels,” Habba continued. “The president has been consistent, she’s right, he has said this same thing over and over and over again and do you know why he has not wavered? Because it’s the truth,” she said shortly thereafter, prompting an objection from Carroll’s team.

Habba then started to attack Carroll’s credibility, which appeared to edge toward breeching judge Lewis Kaplan’s prohibition on litigating the facts.

“If you violate my instructions again, Ms Habba, you may have consequences,” he warned.

Joe Biden has meanwhile characterized his administration’s decision to pause approval of new permits for natural gas export terminals as important to addressing the climate crisis. Here’s more about it, from the Guardian’s Oliver Milman:

Joe Biden’s administration has hit the brakes on the US’s surging exports of gas, effectively pausing a string of planned projects that have been decried by environmentalists as carbon “mega bombs” that risk pushing the world further towards climate breakdown.

On Friday, the White House announced that it was pausing all pending export permits for liquified natural gas (LNG) until the Department of Energy could come up with an updated criteria for approvals that consider the impact of climate change.

The pause, which will likely last beyond November’s presidential election, could imperil the future of more than a dozen gas export terminals that have been planned for the Gulf of Mexico coast. According to one analysis, if all proposed LNG projects go ahead and ship gas overseas, it will result in 3.2bn tons of greenhouse gases – equivalent to the entire emissions of the European Union.

A vigorous campaign by climate activists and local residents has pressed Biden to curb the rapid growth of LNG exports, pointing to its contribution to global heating and the direct pollution suffered by surrounding communities.

The US president said the pause will allow his administration to “take a hard look at the impacts of LNG exports on energy costs, America’s energy security, and our environment”.

“This pause on new LNG approvals sees the climate crisis for what it is - the existential threat of our time,” Biden said, adding that Republicans who support ever-expanding fossil fuel infrastructure “wilfully deny the urgency of the climate crisis”.

Republican House speaker Mike Johnson also objected to the Biden administration’s decision to pause approval of liquid natural gas export permits, saying it undermined efforts to support Ukraine.

Calling the decision “as outrageous as it is subversive” Johnson said:

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, American petroleum producers have increased LNG shipments to our partners in Europe to prevent a catastrophic, continent-wide energy crisis and to provide an alternative to Russian energy exports.

It is outrageous that this administration is asking American taxpayers to spend billions to defeat Russia while knowingly forcing allies to rely on Russian energy, giving Putin an advantage. This policy change also flies in the face of the commitments made when the White House announced the joint US-EU Task Force less than two years ago to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russia and strengthen energy security.

After Donald Trump stormed out of the closing arguments of his defamation trial in New York City, judge Lewis Kaplan remarked: “Excuse me, the record will reflect that Mr Trump just rose and walked out of the courtroom.”
Before the former president’s abrupt departure, Roberta Kaplan, an attorney for E Jean Carroll was providing a chronology of the harm endured by her client due to Trump’s attacks.
“Donald Trump’s denials and vicious accusations were all complete lies. That has already been proven, right in this courtroom, by a jury,” Kaplan said.
“That’s why Donald Trump’s testimony was so short yesterday. He doesn’t get a do-over.”
“This case is also about punishing Donald Trump for what he has done and for what he continues to do,” Kaplan said, adding shortly thereafter, “This trial is about getting him to stop, once and for all.”
Kaplan noted that Trump started to smear Carroll within a day of her last court victory, which found that he had defamed her. “Donald Trump, however, acts as if these rules and laws just don’t apply to him,” and pointed out that he spent “this entire trial” attacking Carroll with nefarious posts.
It was right about this time that Trump walked out of court.
“Excuse me,” judge Kaplan said. “The record will reflect that Mr Trump just rose and walked out of the courtroom.”
Not long after Roberta Kaplan said in her closing: “Trump is required to follow the law, whether he likes it or not.”

Responding to Mike Johnson’s vow to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, White House spokesman Ian Sams accused him of acting “out of partisan political bloodlust”:

In a letter to House Republicans, speaker Mike Johnson warned that the immigration deal under consideration in the Senate may be “dead on arrival” in his chamber, while also vowing to move forward with plans to impeach homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

The Republican leader’s statement bodes ill for the bargaining in the Senate, which is seen as crucial to unlocking GOP support for aid to Ukraine, as well as Israel and Taiwan. Democrats and Republicans in the upper chamber have been negotiating for months on an agreement to restrict immigration policy in a bid to keep undocumented migrants from entering the United States. While no compromise has yet been reached, Johnson said today that “if rumors about the contents of the draft proposal are true, it would have been dead on arrival in the House anyway.”

Johnson said he would support the effort to impeach Mayorkas, who Republicans have accused of mishandling border security.

“When we return next week, by necessity, the House Homeland Security Committee will move forward with Articles of Impeachment against Secretary Mayorkas. A vote on the floor will be held as soon as possible thereafter,” he wrote.

Impeachments of cabinet secretaries are exceedingly rare, and the Senate’s Democratic majority will almost certainly refuse to convict Mayorkas.

As E Jean Carroll’s second defamation trial against Donald Trump neared its final stage Friday morning in New York, proceedings quickly took a turn for the absurd with the judge threatening his lawyer with “lockup” and the ex-president leaving about 10 minutes into closing arguments.

Trump’s abrupt departure came as Carroll’s lead attorney, Roberta Kaplan, was speaking, and shortly after she noted that he had continued to defame the former Elle writer even during this very trial. At that point, Trump left.

CNN heard from both Democratic and Republicans senators yesterday who were not interested in throwing out months of negotiations over the complex deal to change immigration policy and unlock aid to Ukraine and Israel, simply to help Donald Trump.

Chris Murphy, the Connecticut Democrat who is a party to the talks, expressed dismay that Trump could wield so much power. Meanwhile, James Lankford, the Oklahoma Republican who is the party’s lead on the issue, downplayed the former president’s effect on the negotiations. Here’s more:

After meeting yesterday with their leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Republicans told Politico that earlier comments he had made expressing opposition at Donald Trump’s urging to a deal to arm Ukraine and Israel while enacting conservative immigration policies were misunderstood.

McConnell’s remarks were “flipped around”, Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville said, adding “he just tried to get it straight … some of the senators came out and got kind of misconstrued on what he was talking about.”

“McConnell has not changed his point of view,” according to Mississippi’s Roger Wicker, who said McConnell had earlier just been speaking plainly about the political calculations that would go into approving the deal. “And I don’t think anybody disagreed with him. We are at a particular set of crossroads and intersections,” Wicker said.

Yesterday kicked off with the somewhat shocking news that Senate Republicans were, at Donald Trump’s behest, willing to walk away from a deal they had been negotiating with Democrats for months to implement some conservative immigration policies in exchange for approving new aid to Ukraine and Israel’s militaries. The reason, the Senate’s top Republican Mitch McConnell told his lawmakers in a private meeting, was that Trump wanted to be able to attack Joe Biden over immigration on the campaign trail, and passing the deal would undermine that. The comments unsurprisingly sparked outrage from Democrats and some Republicans, and later on Thursday, McConnell seems to have walked them back.

According to Politico, he again convened his party to tell them that he was still behind the deal. That doesn’t mean it’s going to happen – the odds of enacting legislation in an election year dealing with one of the most divisive issues in American politics, immigration, were also going to be long, but the parties seem resolved to at least try. We’ll see what more is revealed about this kerfuffle over the course of the day.

Here’s what else is happening:

• Trump will once again be in a New York City courtroom for author E Jean Carroll’s defamation trial against him, where closing arguments are expected today.

• The top UN court ordered Israel to “take all measures” to prevent genocide during its military campaign in Gaza, but did not order a ceasefire, as the country’s critics had hoped. Follow our live blog for more on this developing story.

• Joe Biden paused all pending natural gas export permits over concerns they’d further fuel climate change.

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