The Senate hearing begins with hearing Blinken’s testimony in Ukraine
A hearing of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee is held on Capitol Hill. Chairman Bob Menendez welcomes Secretary of State Antony Blinken to testify about his recent visit to Ukraine and criticizes the Russian invasion of the country.
The New Jersey Democrat described the conflict as one between “violent autocrats.” [and] those of us fighting for a rules-based international order for democracy, human rights and the cause of freedom around the world.”
Blinken will cover his weekend trip to meet Ukraine’s leaders, including the President Volodymyr Zelenskyywith Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
“Your recent trip to Ukraine with Secretary of State Austin to show his support for President Zelinsky and the Ukrainian people, and to continue to call attention to Russia’s outrageous military abuse of civilians, which certainly amounts to war crimes, was a critical demonstration of that unity.” said Menendez said blinking.
Updated at 3.25pm BST
Hugo Lowell
Days before Joe Biden’s inauguration, Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared in a text to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to urge Donald Trump to overturn his 2020 election defeat by invoking martial law, new news shows .
The message — one of more than 2,000 texts Meadows turned over to the House inquiry on Jan. 6 and first reported by CNN — shows some of Trump’s most ardent allies on Capitol Hill were urging Trump to January 19 returns to office attack on the Capitol.
Marjorie Taylor Greene. Photo: John Bazemore/AP“In our private chat with members only, several say the only way to save our republic is for Trump to call Marshall [sic] law,” Greene wrote on Jan. 17. “I just wanted you to tell him. You stole this election. We all know. Next they will destroy our country.”
The news that Trump may invoke martial law, which CNN reported on Monday and was corroborated by the Guardian, came a month after the idea was raised a month earlier at a heated Oval Office meeting in which Trump over pondered ways to overturn the 2020 election.
Meadows didn’t seem to respond to Greene’s text. But the news that Trump’s top White House adviser received shows the extraordinary ideas that swirled around Trump after he and his aides failed to stop the Jan. 6 confirmation of Biden’s election victory.
Greene — one of Trump’s top far-right defenders on Capitol Hill — also texted Meadows days before the Capitol attack, asking how to prepare for objections to Biden’s victory in the joint session of Congress, like the text messages demonstrate.
“Good morning Mark, I’m here in DC. We need to get organized for the 6th,” Greene wrote on Dec. 31. “I would love to meet up with Rudy Giuliani again. We couldn’t talk to him for long. Also who can help. We bring a lot of members on board.”
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Biden is trying to improve the racial justice résumé with pardons
Joe Biden will today issue his administration’s first pardons and unveil an aid package for former inmates returning to society as he seeks to bolster his social and racial justice résumé ahead of the November midterm elections.
The President announces three pardons for people he says have “demonstrated their commitment to rehabilitation and strive every day to give back and contribute to their communities.”
Another 75 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses will also have their sentences commuted.
Biden recognized April as “Second Chance Month,” saying in a White House statement:
America is a nation of laws and second chances, redemption and rehabilitation. Elected officials on both sides of the aisle, faith leaders, civil rights advocates and law enforcement all agree that our criminal justice system can and should reflect these core values that enable safer and stronger communities.
Biden hopes today’s measures will resonate with minority voters that Democrats must retain control of the House and Senate in November, but they fall far short of criminal justice advocates’ calls for reduced sentences for nonviolent drug crimes and release back of those imprisoned for these crimes.
Minorities, especially blacks, are imprisoned much more often than the white population.
The Biden package includes a $145 million vocational training program in federal prisons and another $140 million for a grant program to help inmates after their release. Biden said:
Helping those who have served time to return to their families and become active members of their community is one of the most effective ways to reduce recidivism and decrease crime.
The three pardoned, reports Reuters, are Betty Jo Bogans51, who was serving a seven-year sentence stemming from a 1998 conviction of possessing crack cocaine for her boyfriend.
Dexter Jackson52, who was convicted in 2002 for allowing marijuana dealers to use his pool hall.
Abraham Bolden86, the first black member of a presidential Secret Service detail under President John F. Kennedy, who served several years in prison for attempting to sell his Secret Service file.
Those who are seeing their sentences reduced have served an average of nearly 10 years in prison for nonviolent drug offenses and are lobbying for rehabilitation, the White House said.
Read the White House fact sheet here.
Updated 09/15 BST
Good morning, Happy Tuesday and welcome to the US Politics Blog. We have a lot to talk about.
Joe Biden will issue his government’s first pardons to bolster his social and racial justice résumé ahead of November’s midterm elections. The president will pardon three people who “have proven their rehabilitation” and commute the sentences of 75 others convicted of nonviolent drug offenses.
There are developments in Ukraine which you can follow here on our main live news blog.
And today back in the US:
- Anton Blinkenthe Secretary of State, will this morning update the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee on his weekend trip to Ukraine with the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
- The White House notes the level of its request to Congress for a new package of humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine. Joe Biden approved an additional $800 million in arms last week and said it has almost exhausted the existing drawdown.
- The US Supreme Court is considering the Biden administration’s push to repeal Trump-era “anti-immigrant protocols” that required asylum seekers to remain in Mexico to await hearings. Separately, a federal judge has blocked the government’s plans to end the Title 42 rule next month and block migrants over the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Covid-19 will be a key topic of the daily White House briefing at 3 p.m. The government’s new pandemic response coordinator dr Ashish Jha will join the White House press secretary Jens Psaki on the podium.