14m ago12:18

Upton calls for civility and bipartisanship

Martin Pengelly

Here’s more on Fred Upton, the Michigan Republican who announced his retirement today.

Upton is the fourth of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump over the Capitol attack to announce his retirement at the midterms in November.

The others are Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, a member of the January 6 committee, Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio and John Katko of New York.

In his remarks on the House floor, Upton did not refer to his impeachment vote.

He said: “I work daily on all things Michigan, particularly with Debbie Dingell [a Democrat], and we’ve been hitting the road to push for civility.

“Hopefully civility and bipartisanship versus discord can rule not rue the day.”

Upton also said he had “worked with seven administrations, seven house speakers, none of them would call me a rubber stamp. If it’s good policy for Michigan. It’s good enough for all of us. As the vice-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, we have pushed the envelope to get things done”.

Upton did mention Trump in discussing his vote last year for Joe Biden’s “real, honest-to-goodness infrastructure bill which passed 69 to 30 in the Senate but then hit the rocks here in the House, barely surviving Trump’s opposition despite his call for a proposal twice as expensive with no pay-fors”.

Upton’s support for Biden’s infrastructure bill earned him death threats. In one such message, which he shared, a man called him a “fucking piece of shit traitor” and said: “I hope you die. I hope everybody in your fucking family dies.”

Had Upton run for re-election, redistricting would have forced him to face off with another Republican congressman, Bill Huizenga, who has Trump’s endorsement.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the Republican whip, said: “This was a decision [Upton] had to make looking at the dynamics of a member-on-member race.”

The other Republicans who voted to impeach Trump will either face Trump-backed challengers or announced their retirements to avoid having to do so.

Gonzalez, a former NFL player from Ohio, has cited “toxic dynamics inside our own party” as being behind his decision.

• In a little bit, Barack Obama will return to the White House for the first time since leaving it in January 2017, to celebrate the anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act. He will deliver remarks alongside vice-president Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, who will be announcing “additional action to further strengthen the ACA and save families hundreds of dollars a month on their healthcare”.
• Ivanka Trump is meeting today with the House select committee tasked with investigating the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.
• Congressman Fred Upton, one of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump for his role in the 6 January attack, announced today his retirement. Trump issued a celebratory press release: “4 down, 6 to go.”
• The confirmation process continues for Ketanji Brown Jackson, who, as of today, has the votes needed to confirm her nomination to the supreme court.

Donald Trump has issued a celebratory press release regarding the retirement of congressman Fred Upton, one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach him for the 6 January attack on the US Capitol. “4 down, 6 to go,” the press release reads.

Breaking fox news:

1h ago11:28

Martin Pengelly

Ivanka Trump will testify before the January 6 committee this afternoon.

The Guardian confirmed that former president Donald Trump’s oldest daughter, and former senior White House adviser, will speak to the panel virtually.

Her testimony will come after that of her husband and fellow former presidential adviser, Jared Kushner, who spoke to the panel for more than six hours last week.

After Kushner’s testimony, Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat and a member of the committee, told the Guardian: “There’s a momentum to this process when there’s cooperation. When people see that others are doing the right thing, it gives them the courage to do the right thing.”

Full story:

Republican congressman Fred Upton makes his retirement announcement on the House floor:

More Democratic senators are sounding off on their support for Ketanji Brown Jackson, as expected:

2h ago10:41

Martin Pengelly

Donald Trump has admitted he did not win the 2020 election.

“I didn’t win the election,” he said.

The admission came in a video interview with a panel of historians convened by Julian Zelizer, a Princeton professor and editor of The Presidency of Donald Trump: A First Historical Assessment. The interview was published on Monday by the Atlantic.

Describing his attempts to make South Korea pay more for US military assistance, Trump said Moon Jae-in, the South Korean president, was among the “happiest” world leaders after the 2020 US election put Joe Biden in the White House.

“By not winning the election,” Trump said, “he was the happiest man – I would say, in order, China was – no, Iran was the happiest.

“[Moon] was going to pay $5bn, $5bn a year. But when I didn’t win the election, he had to be the happiest – I would rate, probably, South Korea third- or fourth-happiest.”

Trump also said “the election was rigged and lost”.

Full story here:

Review of The Presidency of Donald Trump here:

Politico is reporting that Fred Upton, a Republican congressman representing Michigan, is retiring.

Upton was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump for his role in the 6 January attack on the US Capitol. In addition to Upton, three others in this select group are retiring: Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, John Katko of New York and Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio.

The senate is expected to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the supreme court this week. She has three Republicans committed to voting to confirm her nomination, which feels like a tremendous victory to some given how bipartisan politics have been these past few years. But it’s still a tight vote:

Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, called the atrocities in Bucha were a “deliberate campaign to kill, to torture, to rape, to commit atrocities”.

The Morning Joe is reporting that Ivanka Trump is meeting today with the House select committee tasked with investigating the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.

In February, the Guardian reported that the committee was considering issuing a subpoena to Ivanka Trump to force her cooperation with the inquiry into the efforts of her father, Donald Trump, to return himself to power on 6 January 2021. The month before, the committee released a public letter to Ivanka Trump calling upon her to provide “voluntary cooperation with our investigation”.

“We write to request your voluntary cooperation with our investigation on a range of critical topics,” the letter read. “We respect your privacy, and our questions will be limited to issues relating to January 6th, the activities that contributed to or influenced events on January 6th, and your role in the White House during that period.”

Confirmation week continues for judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, as Democrats drill down on their efforts of making Jackson the first Black woman confirmed to the supreme court by the end of the week.

Jackson is already expected to clear the process, with Susan Collins, the Republican senator from Maine, committing last week to straying from the party line and backing her. But last night she received added support from Republicans Mitt Romney and Lisa Murkowski.

While Jackson did not need Romney or Murkowski’s votes – or even Collins’ vote – in order to be confirmed, they come off as a symbolic win after harsh, politically fraught questioning from Republicans during the confirmation hearings and debate over Jackson’s judicial record and qualifications. They also say a lot about Joe Biden and his continued efforts to reach across the aisle.

Read more here:

Howdy, live blog readers. Happy Tuesday.

Former president Barack Obama will today return to the White House for the first time since leaving it in January 2017, to celebrate the anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act, his signature legislative achievement.

Obama will deliver remarks alongside Joe Biden, who was his vice-president at the time and whom Obama has long credited as being instrumental in getting the legislation passed.

“Joe Biden,” Obama said in a White House video released last year, “we did this together. We always talked about how if we could get the principle of universal coverage established, we could then build on it.”

Vice-President Kamala Harris will also deliver remarks at the event this afternoon, where Biden is expected to announce “additional action to further strengthen the ACA and save families hundreds of dollars a month on their healthcare”.

With Biden struggling in the polls in a midterm elections year – when parties which hold the White House often take a shellacking (ask Obama) – Democrats will hope for a boost from the sight of the 44th president promoting a popular policy.

More to come.