The Full Belmonte, 6/17/2022
Image displayed by the Jan. 6 committee shows former Vice President Pence being evacuated from the Capitol. Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
“Former President Trump called former Vice President Pence the "p-word" during a ‘heated’ phone conversation the morning of Jan. 6, former staffers recall.
‘It started off [in a] calmer tone ... and then it became heated,’ former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann told the House Jan. 6 committee in a taped deposition.
Ivanka Trump's chief of staff, Julie Radford, told the panel in a deposition that Trump called Pence the ‘p-word.’
The big picture: The third Jan. 6 hearing focused on Trump's pressure campaign on Pence to reject electors and declare him the winner, Axios' Andrew Solender and Erin Doherty report.
Trump's plan would have been ‘the first constitutional crisis since the founding of the republic,’ Pence adviser and former federal Judge J. Michael Luttig told the committee today.
Luttig advised Pence his only role was to ‘count the electoral college votes as they have been cast,’ rejecting Trump campaign attorney John Eastman's legal theory.
Between the lines: Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) said today that the rioters who breached the Capitol came within 40 feet of Pence.
‘Make no mistake about the fact that the vice president's life was in danger,’ Aguilar said.
Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
“Above: The committee shows a photo of Pence looking at a Trump tweet — aimed at him — while inside the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Go deeper: Eastman sought White House pardon after Jan. 6.” Read more at Axios
These stunning scenes of Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, 2021, were shown yesterday at Hearing 3 by the House committee investigating the attack on the Capitol.” Read more at Axios
Photo: House Select Committee via AP
This is Pence in his secure evacuation location after he was rushed off the Senate floor during the riot.
Photo: House Select Committee via AP
January 6 panel will invite Ginni Thomas to testify
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
“The House Committee investigating January 6 will soon invite Virginia ‘Ginni’ Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, to testify about her potential involvement in Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.” [Vox] Read more at Politico / Kyle Cheney and Nicholas Wu
“Committee chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) announced the decision after emails showed Thomas corresponded with attorney John Eastman. Thompson declined to share the content of the exchange.” [Vox] Read more at Axios / Andrew Solender
“Eastman, a former clerk to Justice Thomas, led efforts to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to block the certification of President Joe Biden’s election win.” [Vox] Read more at CNBC / Dan Mangan and Brian Schwartz
“After the 2020 election, Ginni Thomas pushed former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Arizona lawmakers to overturn the election results.
[Vox] Read more at Bloomberg / Mike Dorning and Jarrell Dillard“Justice Thomas was the only dissenter in a Supreme Court case allowing the National Archives to release White House documents to the January 6 committee, and has resisted calls to recuse himself from cases related to the 2020 election.” [Vox] Read more at CNN
“KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The executive arm of the European Union recommended Friday that Ukraine be granted candidate status to one day join the 27-nation bloc.
The promise of membership in a union created to safeguard peace on the continent holds deep symbolism for the nation at war. But it is only the first step in a process that could take decades.
And it didn’t silence the guns and artillery that continue to kill civilians and flatten cities as well as sending millions fleeing from their homes since Russia launched its invasion of its neighbor on Feb. 24.
Russia pressed its attacks on cities in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, leaving desperate residents struggling to make sense of what the next years hold for them.” Read more at Axios
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi (left) and French President Emmanuel Macron (center) in Irpin, Ukraine, today. Photo: Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images
“The leaders of the European Union's three largest economies traveled to Kyiv today and endorsed Ukraine's application to become a candidate for EU membership, Axios' Zachary Basu reports.
Why it matters: It took 112 days for French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi to visit the capital of war-torn Ukraine.
It was a massive show of support that Ukraine has longed for ever since its 2014 revolution — and that few would have thought likely even after Russia's invasion changed Europe forever.
Between the lines: The path from EU candidate to membership is long and uncertain — just ask Turkey or Serbia — and will likely require Ukraine to meet a difficult series of conditions, including an end to the war.” Read more at Axios
Church members console each other after a shooting at the Saint Stevens Episcopal Church in Vestavia, Alabama.Butch Dill, AP Images
“Two people were killed in a shooting at a church near Birmingham, Alabama on Thursday, police said. The gunman, who is in custody, opened fire at a small group church meeting at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Vestavia Hills. It is unclear how many people were at the event when the shooting took place. A spokesperson for the the Diocese of Alabama said the community needs to be lifted up in healing through prayer and unity. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey echoed those sentiments: ‘This should never happen -- in a church, in a store, in the city, or anywhere. We continue to closely monitor the situation,’ Ivey said. The shooting is the latest in a house of worship amid a national reckoning on guns in America and their availability.” Read more at CNN
“Amid rising inflation and an interest rate hike, mortgage rates jumped to nearly 6% this week. The spike from 5.23% to 5.78% is the largest one-week increase since 1987. This comes as no surprise though as rates have risen more than two-and-a-half percentage points this year alone. Rates were at an average of 2.93% at this time last year, largely due to the pandemic. But now, buyers are finding homes even less affordable as inflation takes a larger chunk of their income and the cost of borrowing has reduced their purchasing power. However, some experts say soaring rates may finally bring the housing market back to earth because it will continue to drive demand for mortgages down -- likely resulting in the cooling off of home prices.” Read more at CNN
© Associated Press / Evan Vucci | President Biden spoke with the Associated Press on Thursday.
Biden on defense, says recession not ‘inevitable’
“President Biden’s plea for Americans’ patience during a rare sit-down interview on Thursday won’t remedy the nation’s inflationary pressures, diminish the odds of a recession or calm voters’ bewilderment that two gallons of gasoline and a small steak now cost them about the same.
Faced with tighter budgets and record high inflation, families can skip the steak, but most can’t bike or stroll to their jobs in corporate offices, hotels, restaurants and manufacturing plants. Affording gasoline, milk, rent and groceries are near-term problems no matter how forward-thinking Americans are about what caused a dramatic surge in prices and why the president and Congress cannot fix it.
The president’s advice to the country during a 30-minute interview with The Associated Press: “Be confident, because I am confident we’re better positioned than any country in the world to own the second quarter of the 21st century. That’s not hyperbole, that’s a fact.”
Rejecting his critics’ claim that his pandemic spending policies backed by congressional Democrats set the stage for today’s inflation, the president said he understands that Americans ‘are really down’ because of COVID-19 in general. But the government’s efforts to help eligible workers with stimulus checks when businesses were locked down were not to blame, he said.
Furthermore, a recession is ‘not inevitable,’ Biden continued, ignoring economists and market analysts who predicted this week that a recession may have already begun or is almost certainly ahead.
They shouldn’t believe a warning. They should just say: ‘Let’s see. Let’s see, which is correct?’ And from my perspective, you talked about a recession. First of all, it’s not inevitable. Secondly, we’re in a stronger position than any nation in the world to overcome this inflation.” — President Biden (The Hill).
Transcript of Biden’s interview HERE.
AP’s takeaways from the interview HERE.
Predecessors also found the economy to be a political tripwire. “We still have a long way to go,” former President Jimmy Carter told New York voters more than a year before he lost his reelection bid to Ronald Reagan, who campaigned with the optimism of a Republican challenger. “I will not ever use inflation as a means to wring out our economy and make the poor and the unemployed suffer,” Carter assured his audience.
Former President George H.W. Bush, who had been told privately by his advisers in the summer of 1992 that a nascent recovery would not be felt by the time voters cast their ballots in November, was asked by a reporter whether he accepted blame for the economic downturn.
His answer was yes that summer, and he touted proposals that relied on Congress and appeared legislatively out of reach at the time.
“I'll accept my share of the responsibility for this long recession, and so will the Congress,” Bush said at a news conference. “But the question isn't blame. The question is what you do about it. I've proposed tonight: Let's move on the balanced budget amendment. Let's move on my growth initiatives that would stimulate investment, like cutting the capital gains, moving on the investment allowance that speeds up depreciation, first-time credit for homebuyers. This is all good and valuable stuff that would speed this economy up.”
Then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton defeated Bush five months later with a plurality of the popular vote and an Electoral College tally of 370 to 168.
The Hill: Exxon Mobil, Chevron push back against Biden’s blame of the petroleum industry for rising oil prices.
The Hill: Five ways the Fed’s interest rate hikes will impact Americans.
The Hill and CNBC: Stocks closed Thursday with steep losses a day after the Federal Reserve announced a three-quarter percentage point interest rate hike. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 741 points by the closing bell Thursday, falling 2.4 percent and below 30,000 points for the first time since 2020. The S&P 500 index closed with a loss of 3.3 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite plunged to a loss of 4.1 percent.” Read more at The Hill
© Associated Press / Keith Srakocic | Fombell, Pa., retail meat market on June 16.
“The U.S. defense budget. The world’s largest national defense budget is about to get even bigger as U.S. senators added a further $45 billion to the original White House budget request, putting the final figure at $847 billion. Sen. Jack Reed, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee said the increase, which would make for the largest U.S. defense budget in history, was driven by inflation, the war in Ukraine, and a need to increase the country’s weapons stockpile. The number is not final, with the House of Representatives and the Senate Appropriations Committee still needing to weigh in.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Georgia Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker confirmed he has three more children than was publicly known.” [Vox] Read more at Daily Beast / Roger Sollenberger
“More than two dozen Catholic organizations, anti-abortion centers and other conservative groups are demanding the Justice Department investigate and prosecute attacks on churches, pregnancy resource centers and Supreme Court justices, Axios' Sophia Cai reports.” Read more at Axios
“Many brands and companies are working to remove Juneteenth-themed items from shelves. Experts say those who are selling Juneteenth-branded products are ‘tone-deaf.’” Read more at NPR
“Just months ago, the crypto world was booming and companies were advertising heavily during the Super Bowl. Today, Bitcoin and other companies are plunging, and there's a huge loss of confidence in the product, thanks to the same factors impacting stocks and other assets.” Read more at NPR
“A new NPR poll shows more than half of Americans support President Biden forgiving up to $10,000 in student loans per person. But an overwhelming majority would prefer the government focus on making college more affordable.” Read more at NPR
An image of Jamal Khashoggi is displayed after the street outside the Saudi embassy in Washington DC was renamed after the murdered journalist. Photograph: Nathan Howard/Getty Images
“Rights advocates fear Joe Biden’s decision to visit Saudi Arabia will endanger dissidents abroad and be seen by the authorities there as giving the green light to restrict civil liberties domestically.
Abdullah Alaoudh, of the thinktank Democracy for the Arab World Now and son of jailed cleric Salman al-Odah, said: ‘Right before inauguration, he [Biden] said he will be sure to protect Saudi dissidents – those were his words. We’re not protected by someone shaking hands with the same person who is threatening us every day and taking our families hostage due to our activism here in the US.’
Alaoudh said next month’s visit to the kingdom was ‘a betrayal.’
‘It’s a betrayal of me, who has been threatened every day, it’s sanctioning the authorities trying to execute my father, banning my family from travel, arresting my family members and threatening everyone I know simply because they know me.’
Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, said this week’s announcement was a ‘betrayal for Jamal Khashoggi, for Yemen, and a betrayal of what the Democratic party stood for over the last three years’.
The US president will meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, sometimes known as MBS, in an abrupt reversal of his pledges to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for its poor human rights record. Biden repeatedly promised that ‘human rights will be the centre of our foreign policy’.
‘They are returning to a path that has been well trodden by generations of American leaders,’ Callamard said. ‘He is not treading a new path, not offering a new foreign policy at a time when the challenges we are confronting are such that the only way to respond to them is by building and creating something new.’
The White House said the president will travel to Saudi Arabia in July, a year and a half after he chose to declassify an intelligence report that Prince Mohammed approved the murder of Saudi journalist Khashoggi in Istanbul in 2018. Biden pledged to make the kingdom ‘a pariah’ for the murder, and activists fear this visit will be seen as permission to allow the worst abuses to continue.
The average price of petrol has reached $5 (£4) a gallon across the US. Sanctions on Russia after the invasion of Ukraine have further increased global oil prices. Biden is expected to ask the Saudis to pump more oil, but experts say the reality is more complicated and this is not enough to bring prices down, leaving questions over what the president expects to gain.” Read more at The Guardian
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange supporters hold placards as they gather outside Westminster Magistrates court In London, Wednesday, April 20, 2022.Alastair Grant, AP
“Britain's interior minister on Friday approved the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States to face espionage charges, the latest twist in the WikiLeaks founder's long-running legal saga over leaked documents he published. But the decision does not completely end Assange's decade-long fight to avoid facing a U.S. trial in a case that could have implications for First Amendment protections. WikiLeaks said Assange will appeal Home Secretary Priti Patel's decision with Britain's High Court. There was no immediate reaction from the U.S. Department of Justice.” Read more at USA Today
“Macron’s challenge. French President Emmanuel Macron’s hopes for a smooth second term will be tested this weekend as voters go to the polls for the second and final round of parliamentary elections. Macron’s Ensemble coalition could fall short of an absolute majority if the leftwing NUPES coalition, led by defeated presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, can continue to attract voters.
Marine Le Pen’s far right National Rally is expected to receive fewer votes but still do relatively well, with polls showing her party is set to pass the 15-seat threshold needed to form an official group in parliament, something it hasn’t done for decades.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“BEIJING (AP) — Beijing launched a new-generation aircraft carrier Friday, the first such ship to be both designed and built in China, in a milestone as it seeks to extend the range and power of its navy.
The Type 003 carrier christened Fujian left its drydock at a shipyard outside Shanghai in the morning and tied up at a nearby pier, state media reports said.
State broadcaster CCTV showed assembled navy personnel standing beneath the massive ship as water jets sprayed over its deck, multi-colored streamers flew and colorful smoke was released.
Equipped with the latest weaponry and aircraft-launch technology, the Type 003 ship’s capabilities are thought to rival those of Western carriers, as Beijing seeks to turn its navy, already the world’s largest, into a multi-carrier force.
Satellite imagery captured by Planet Labs PBC on Thursday and analyzed by The Associated Press showed the carrier in what appeared to be a fully flooded drydock at the Jiangnan Shipyard, near Shanghai, ready for launch. It was draped with red bunting, presumably in preparation for the launch ceremony.” Read more at AP News
“Deep divide | Colombia’s presidential election this weekend is a contest that’s dividing the generations like no other, Matthew Bristow reports. Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla fighter, has support from younger voters. Many of their parents, who remember the civil conflict of the 1980s and 1990s, are appalled by the prospect. The result may hinge on how many are sufficiently motivated to instead back Petro’s opponent Rodolfo Hernandez.” Read more at Bloomberg
A Petro rally in Bogota on May 22. Photographer: Andres Cardona/Bloomberg
100 million displaced people worldwide
“Conflict, violence, and human rights abuses forced over 100 million people from their homes from the start of 2021 to May 23, 2022, according to the UN’s Global Trends report released Thursday.” [Vox] Read more at UNHCR / Global Trends
“Forced displacement has been rising for the past decade. The Taliban resuming power in Afghanistan and the war in Ukraine have pushed numbers higher.” [Vox] Read more at Axios / Stef W. Kight
“Roughly 60 percent of displaced people were forced to move within their countries.” [Vox] Read more at CNN / Catherine E. Shoichet
“This week, UN refugee agency chief Filippo Grande warned that a looming food crisis could add to the numbers. He called on the international community to prevent the trend from worsening.” [Vox] Read more at Al Jazeera
Bob DiChiara, USA Today Sports
“Steph Curry collapsed on the floor with 2.7 seconds left, tears streaming down his face, stunned and overwhelmed. Everything about the Warriors’ ring-clinching win Thursday felt stunning:
The Warriors erased an early 12-2 deficit by going on a 52-19 run, on the road, in the NBA Finals. Curry was electric. So was Draymond Green, who hit his first three-pointer of the series and looked like prime Draymond flying around on defense.
Golden State’s defense suffocated the young Celtics. These are the Warriors you don’t know, or that we don’t talk about enough: a top-five defense all season. Andrew Wiggins had Jayson Tatum (13 points on 18 shots) in hell. It was Boston’s defense that came into this series feared; the Warriors’ defense leaves with a ring.
Curry finally won the Finals MVP that had eluded him despite three previous rings. It’s well-deserved. He averaged 31.2 points per game in these finals and shot 44 percent from 3. There was no other choice.” Read more at The Athletic
“Seattle Storm star Sue Bird is retiring: The five-time Olympic Gold medalist, four-time WNBA champion and two-time NCAA champion announced today that the ongoing 2022 WNBA season will be her last. Go deeper.” Read more at Axios
A polar bear in southeast Greenland in March 2016. Photo: Kristin Laidre/University of Washington
“Scientists have identified a previously unknown group of polar bears in southeast Greenland living in an environment with relatively little sea ice, Axios' Alison Snyder and Andrew Freedman report.
Why it matters: This raises the possibility that some groups of polar bears in select locations could be more resistant to global warming's sweeping changes, some scientists say.
The newly discovered group of polar bears lives among the isolated fjords and glaciers of southeast Greenland.
The bottom line: The ice these bears rely on is also under threat.
It may offer these bears a hunting ground now because sea ice is disappearing first, but Greenland's glaciers are also melting.” Read more at Axios
Carl Bernstein, 29, and Bob Woodward, 30, in the city room in May 1973 after The Washington Post won the Pulitzer for the Watergate investigation. Photo: UPI via Getty Images
On June 17, 1972, "security guard Frank Wills notices masking tape holding a door latch open between the parking garage and a stairwell at D.C.’s Watergate hotel and office complex," The Washington Post writes in a Watergate timeline.
"He removes it but returns to find the lock taped again and calls the police. They arrest five intruders on the sixth floor, inside the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee."
The bungled burglary drove President Richard Nixon from office two summers later. Don Graham, former publisher of The Post, writes on the 50th anniversary:
"I was with Katharine Graham, my mother and the publisher of The Washington Post, when managing editor Howard Simons called to tell her about the burglary."
"We talked about it that morning, laughed about it and went on to other subjects. The idea that this incident would lead to the resignation of the president of the United States would have seemed crazy to her that day or any time in the next nine months."
Aug. 8, 1974. Photo: Bettmann Archive via Getty Images
"But two Post reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, played a crucial role," Graham continues:
[T]he stories — day after day, week after week — hit hard for a simple reason. They were true. They weren’t fake. They were news. A White House phone number was in the address book of a Watergate burglar? Really? The bills in their pocket came from a gift to the president’s reelection campaign? Yup. And on from there.” Read more at Axios
“SAN DIEGO (AP) — An aardvark cub born at the San Diego Zoo is doing well and developing quickly, according to wildlife specialists.
The female cub was born May 10 and will nurse from her mother, Zola, for about six months, the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance said this week in announcing the zoo’s first aardvark birth in nearly four decades.
‘She is very active, and was using her sharp claws to dig like an adult aardvark, just hours after her birth,’ lead wildlife care specialist Cari Inserra said in the statement.
The long-eared, hairless cub has tripled her birth weight in just five weeks.
She does not have a name yet, and will remain out of view of zoo visitors for about two months as she bonds with her mother.
‘We can’t wait until we are able to introduce the cub to our Zoo guests, helping them learn more about this remarkable species,’ Inserra said.
Aardvarks are native to sub-Saharan Africa. They have strong front legs and long claws adapted to digging burrows where they spend daylight hours until emerging in evenings to use their long, sticky tongues to slurp up ants and termites.” Read more at AP News
