Newly released video shows former President Donald Trump being questioned under oath last 12 months for the huge civil fraud lawsuit filed against him, his businesses and his oldest children by the Recent York Attorney General’s office – and pleading the Fifth repeatedly.
Here’s what else is happening in politics Tuesday.
- George Santos steps away from committees amid furor: Facing increased legal and public scrutiny, Recent York Rep. George Santos told his House Republican colleagues Tuesday morning he’ll step aside himself from his committee positions until his name is cleared.
- FBI searched Joe Biden’s former office: It happened shortly after the president’s lawyers discovered an initial batch of documents Nov. 2.
- Kamala Harris to attend Tyre Nichols’ funeral: The vice chairman will likely be on the service Wednesday with 4 other White House officials.
- President to debate police accountability laws: President Joe Biden will meet with members of the Congressional Black Caucus Thursday to debate police reform laws within the wake of Nichols’ brutal beating that led to his death in Memphis, Tennessee.
- Debt limit debate: Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., will discuss federal spending Wednesday in a highly-anticipated one-on-one meeting that might indicate how far apart either side are on addressing the debt ceiling deadline.
Brazil’s president to satisfy with Biden
President Joe Biden will meet with Brazil’s newly inaugurated leftist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva next week, the White House announced Tuesday.
Biden invited Lula to go to the White House shortly after 1000’s of supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro swarmed Brazil’s government buildings earlier this month in protest of Lula’s election.
Topics on the agenda for the meeting include how the U.S. and Brazil can work together to advertise inclusion and democratic values within the region and world wide.
– Maureen Groppe
Brazil politics:In echo of Jan. 6 attack in U.S., Brazilian protesters storm their Congress, high court and palace
Joe Biden: Kevin McCarthy is a ‘decent man’ but caters to extremists.
President Joe Biden offered each a compliment and a dig at House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the day before the leaders will meet on the White House to debate federal spending and the necessity to raise the federal debt limit.
Chatting with supporters at a Democratic Party fundraiser in Recent York City on Tuesday, Biden called McCarthy a “decent man” but said he’s beholden to extremist Republicans.
The commitments McCarthy needed to make to get enough votes to develop into speaker were “just absolutely off the wall,” Biden said.
– Maureen Groppe
Rep. Jamie Raskin asks Secret Service for Trump, Pence visitor logs
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the rating member of the House Oversight Committee, wants the Secret service to show over the visitor logs from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate and former Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana home.
The move is a counterpoint to committee chair James Comer, R-Ky., who’s zeroing in on documents present in President Joe Biden’s Delaware garage and former office in Washington, D.C.
Raskin asked Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle for all documents and communication related to visitor information from Jan. 21, 2021, to present, and he asked her to submit the knowledge by Feb. 14.
– Candy Woodall
Vice President Kamala Harris to attend Tyre Nichols’ funeral
Vice President Kamala Harris will attend Tyre Nichols’ funeral Wednesday, the White House announced.
In early January, Nichols was brutally beaten by five Memphis cops who’ve been charged together with his murder.
Along with Harris, 4 other White House officials are attending. They’re: Keisha Lance Bottoms, director of the White House Office of Public Engagement; Tara Murray, deputy director of the White House Office of Public Engagement; senior adviser Mitch Landrieu; and Erica Loewe, White House director of African American media.
– Maureen Groppe
FBI searched Joe Biden’s former DC office after first document discovery
No search warrant was issued in reference to the previously undisclosed motion, which involved the consent of the president’s legal team, said the source who isn’t authorized to comment publicly on the investigation.
The search was conducted in November, after lawyers discovered an initial batch of documents Nov. 2, on the think tank office that Biden used after serving as vice chairman.
– Kevin Johnson
Biden documents latest:FBI searched Biden’s former DC office after first classified document discovery
Trump repeatedly invokes Fifth Amendment in deposition for fraud lawsuit
Newly released video showed former President Donald Trump being questioned under oath for the huge civil fraud lawsuit filed against him, his businesses and his oldest children by the Recent York Attorney General’s office.
After answering preliminary questions from Recent York Attorney General Letitia James, Trump used an introductory statement to characterize the investigation as a “witch hunt,” an accusation he has repeated for the reason that case was filed in 2022.
The video confirmed that Trump used much of the deposition to invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to reply questions on grounds that he might incriminate himself. Trump said anyone in his position who didn’t take the Fifth “could be a idiot, an absolute idiot,” based on CBS News, which first obtained the video.
– Kevin McCoy
George Santos steps down from House committees
Facing increased legal scrutiny about his campaign funds, a House Ethics criticism and diverse calls to resign, Recent York Rep. George Santos told his House Republican colleagues Tuesday morning he’ll recuse himself from his committee positions.
“With the continued attention surrounding each my personal and campaign financial investigations, I even have submitted a request to Speaker McCarthy that I be temporarily recused from my committee assignments until I’m cleared,” Santos said in an announcement released by his office Tuesday. “This was a call that I take very seriously. The business of the 118th Congress must proceed without media fanfare.”
Santos indicated it could be temporary and that he would return to his committee seats once his legal and ethical reviews resolve. His resignation from the House Small Business and Science, Space and Technology committees comes a day after he had a gathering with GOP Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The speaker said he initiated the meeting Monday, but he didn’t disclose their discussion.
– Candy Woodall
Biden to satisfy with Congressional Black Caucus to debate police accountability
President Joe Biden will meet with members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Thursday to debate police reform laws within the wake of Tyre Nichols’ brutal beating that led to his death in Memphis, Tennessee.
“Executive motion can’t take the place of federal laws and we want Congress to return together and take motion to make sure our justice lives as much as its name,” said Olivia Dalton, White House principal deputy press secretary.
Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., chair of the CBC, requested a gathering with the president based on an announcement released Sunday. “Nobody in our nation should fear interacting with the cops who serve our diverse communities, large and small. All of us wish to be secure,” said Horsford.
– Ken Tran
How will ending COVID emergency affect Supreme Court’s student loan, Title 42 cases?
President Joe Biden’s decision to finish the national and public emergencies tied to COVID-19 raises questions on what’s going to develop into of major cases pending on the Supreme Court coping with the Title 42 immigration effort and the administration’s student loan forgiveness plan.
The Supreme Court is about to listen to arguments in several cases coping with those programs in February and early March. Since the programs are tied to the pandemic emergencies, it’s not clear how declaring the emergencies officially over will affect the cases.
“The proven fact that we’ve declared the emergency officially over is a powerful political symbol that Title 42 isn’t any longer needed and I feel the Supreme Court will pick up on that signal,” said Lawrence Gostin, faculty director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University Law Center.
Title 42 allows for the swift removal of some migrants looking for asylum without the same old review during an emergency. The high court is about to listen to arguments March 1 on whether a variety of conservative states could intervene within the case to defend the policy, which began through the Trump administration. The scholar loan cases, which query whether the administration had the facility to forgive $400 billion in student loan debt, are set for argument Feb. 28.
The Justice Department declined to comment.
– John Fritze and Chris Quintana
Capitol Police arrest impersonator with knife stash
US Capitol Police found multiple knives and a chainsaw blade after they stopped and searched 37-year-old Max Eli Viner blocks from the Hill Monday evening, based on a press release.
Viner was wanted for questioning by the Secret Service, who after arriving on the scene searched his vehicle and located fake police equipment, together with shell casings, a smoke grenade and gas mask.
The suspect was arrested and faces pending charges for impersonating a law enforcement officer and possession of a prohibited weapon.
– Savannah Kuchar
House GOP will remove Omar from Foreign Affairs committee, Scalise says
If House Democrats follow through with naming Rep. Illhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs committee, the bulk party will move to a full House vote to remove her, Majority Leader Steve Scalise said during news conference Tuesday.
“Even when Omar were to be faraway from the Foreign Affairs committee, she’d still be allowed to serve on other committees,” he said.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy unilaterally removed Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell from the House Intelligence committee, but it would take a two-thirds vote of the House to remove Omar from Foreign Affairs.
– Candy Woodall
Pelosi won’t serve on House committees
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who left the powerful leadership position after the 2022 midterm elections, won’t serve on any of the chamber’s committees.
The California lawmaker had previously indicated she wouldn’t take any committee assignments this term, together with her spokesperson Drew Hammill telling the Every day Beast in November that her “only focus will likely be San Francisco.”
Pelosi’s biography on the House clerk’s website lists no current assignments.
– Ella Lee
House GOP budget expected by April deadline, Scalise says
After President Joe Biden challenged House Republicans to indicate him their budget, Majority Leader Steve Scalise said his caucus is working to satisfy its April 15 deadline.
Presidents are expected to share their budgets the primary Monday in February, but many have missed that deadline. Biden said his will likely be ready on March 9.
“I hope the president meets his deadline similar to we’re going to work to satisfy our deadline,” Scalise said.
He also commented on the scheduled meeting Wednesday between Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy concerning the debt ceiling and government spending.
The White House has said there will likely be no negotiations on the debt ceiling and Biden won’t entertain any spending cuts.
“It’s a recklessly irresponsible position for President Biden to say just give him more cash so he can keep spending money that we don’t have,” he said. “We’ve got got to get control over spending in Washington.”
— Candy Woodall
West Virginia: ‘In God We Trust’ mandate advances through state Senate
A West Virginia bill that will require all public K-12 schools and better learning institutions to display the phrase “In God We Trust” in a “conspicuous place” within the constructing is one step closer to becoming law after the state’s Senate passed the measure Monday.
“We all know there’s plenty of kids which have problems at home, tough times at home that we don’t know anything about,” Azinger said on the state Senate floor. “Perhaps they’ll look up in the future and say, ‘In God We Trust’ and know they’ll put their hope in God.”
The bill must pass the West Virginia House of Delegates before heading to the state’s governor, Republican Jim Justice, to be signed into law.
– Ella Lee and The Associated Press
Grand jury to see Trump hush money case in NYC: reports
A Recent York grand jury will hear evidence about former President Donald Trump’s potentially criminal role in making payments to the porn star Stormy Daniels to maintain her from sharing details of an alleged sexual encounter with the previous president, based on multiple news reports.
Manhattan prosecutors began presenting evidence to a recent grand jury Monday, the Recent York Times and NPR reported. It could be the most recent of Trump’s legal woes as he ramps up his 2024 bid for president.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said the “‘Stormy’ nonsense” happened a protracted time ago – “long gone the very publicly known & accepted deadline of the Statute of Limitations,” he said. The previous president added that he placed “full Reliance” on his counsel on the time, Michael Cohen.
-Ella Lee
Conservative media group goes undercover in the hunt for CRT in Ohio
Several Cincinnati-area school districts are featured in an anti-critical race theory sting published over the weekend by Accuracy in Media, a national, conservative media watchdog organization. Within the video, local school administrators say they might proceed to show about diversity and social justice even when Ohio law forbids teaching such concepts.
“We’ll just call it something else,” Mason Early Childhood Center Assistant Principal Vivian Alvarez says within the video. “We’re still going to do the identical work.”
Mason City Schools spokesperson Tracey Carson told the Cincinnati Enquirer, a USA TODAY affiliate, that the district doesn’t teach CRT, “nor will we teach it in practice while calling it something else.”
— Madeline Mitchell, Cincinnati Enquirer
Will white women be more reliable voters for Democrats in 2024?
Though women as a complete lean Democratic, white women are inclined to vote more conservatively than women of color.
Lately, Republicans’ messaging on schools’ purported teachings on “critical race theory” — the concept racism is embedded in all American laws and institutions — has been particularly effective at pushing white women voters to the correct, said Jatia Wrighten, an African American studies professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. Critical race theory is an educational concept that isn’t taught in public schools.
However the 2022 overturning of Roe brought many white women back into the Democratic fold. Within the midterm elections, Democrats successfully defended every incumbent Senate seat and managed to attenuate substantial losses within the House, largely because of women who were furious concerning the decision.
That leaves Democrats with a frightening task for 2024: Persuading white women to hitch — and follow — the party, giving Democrats a shot at control of Washington.
— Ella Lee, Mabinty Quarshie
Biden traveling to NYC Tuesday
President Joe Biden heads to Recent York City Tuesday, where he’ll announce Amtrak is receiving $292 million for the Hudson Tunnel Project.
His trip is the second of three this week to advertise advantages of the infrastructure bill. The president highlighted a rail tunnel project in Baltimore on Monday and can discuss lead pipe removal in Philadelphia on Friday.
In Recent York, Biden’s trip also features a fundraising stop for the Democratic National Committee.
— Maureen Groppe
‘We’re here’:Donald Trump hits the campaign trail again in Recent Hampshire, South Carolina
Biden family hearing in House Oversight slated for next week
The day after he delivers the State of the Union, President Joe Biden and his family will likely be the topic of a GOP-led House Oversight Committee hearing.
A hearing on Twitter’s decision to initially block the Recent York Post’s reporting on the “Biden family’s business schemes” and Hunter Biden’s laptop will likely be held Wednesday, Feb. 8, a committee spokesperson confirmed to USA TODAY.
Committee Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, has repeatedly said the panel is concentrated on the president, not his son. Former Twitter employees Vijaya Gadde, Yoel Roth and James Baker will testify on the hearing, based on the committee.
– Candy Woodall
More:Biden’s most vocal Republican antagonists emerge from the sidelines – with subpoena power