The House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection issued five subpoenas to far-right groups and leaders, including the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. The extremist groups are believed to have been involved in planning the Capitol attack on 6 January.
Biden delivered a speech on the steps his administration is taking to address rising prices in the US, including mitigating bottlenecks at ports and ensuring store shelves remain stocked for Thanksgiving. Biden’s speech came as inflation has hit a 31-year high, with prices increasing by 6.2% over the past 12 months. That’s the most rapid acceleration since December 1990.
Biden announced he will release 50m barrels of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve, in an effort to lower gas prices. The price of gas has increased by 49.6% over the past year, bringing the national average for a gallon of gas to $3.40, per AAA. “It will take time, but before long, you should see the price of gas fall where you fill up your tank,” Biden said in his speech this afternoon.
The Biden administration has asked a federal court to lift the stay on a coronavirus vaccination rule for large businesses. The rule, which was set to go into effect on 4 January, would require those working for companies with at least 100 employees to get vaccinated or receive weekly coronavirus tests to mitigate the spread of the virus.
How anti-abortion advocates are pushing local bans, city by small city
Audra Jane Heidrichs reports:
In May of this year, six city council members in Lebanon, Ohio, a city located just north of Cincinnati, voted on an ordinance that would effectively outlaw abortion for the 21,000 people that call it home.
As in countless council meetings in small cities across the country where mask mandates, teaching about race in schools and access to reproductive healthcare have become politically charged in America’s current climate, the night unfolded in a series of near-Shakespearean acts.
On the morning the meeting was scheduled, Krista Wyatt, a former firefighter elected to city council in 2018 and the only member expected to vote against the ordinance, formally resigned. In an accompanying statement, Wyatt wrote: “There is a core group of people who have hijacked the council to force their personal, political and religious views on the entire citizenship of Lebanon. It is not fair to the citizens and is not the role of a City Council member to be a moral compass.”
Dozens of people spoke at the meeting later that evening. Some sang, many shared deeply personal experiences of rape or miscarriages and a few even led prayers. Just outside the doors of city hall, pro-choice and anti-abortion groups similarly squared off, shouting at each other and urging passersby to honk in support of one side or the other.
Ultimately though, the vote was a resolute 6-0, making Lebanon the 29th city in the nation, and the first city in Ohio, to pass an enforceable ordinance outlawing abortion within their city limits. As the nation waits for a supreme court ruling on abortion rights, pro-choice advocates and activists across the US know first-hand that any upcoming national ruling might be almost irrelevant given what’s already taken place in Ohio and beyond.
For the last few months, small municipalities – many without any standing abortion clinics – like Lebanon, Mason and soon maybe others, have outlawed abortion. Though women in those cities can still travel to get an abortion, the bans send an intimidating message.
Bypassing statehouses and targeting smaller towns and cities governed by council has emerged as a successful strategy for anti-abortion advocates in recent years. In July, a report from the Guttmacher Institute revealed that at least 30 towns in six states – Arkansas, Indiana, New Mexico, New York, Ohio and Texas – have approved municipal abortion bans in the last three years. Some of these ordinances also target specific abortion funds and organizations providing other types of practical support to abortion patients.
Jury awards $25m in damages over deadly 2017 Charlottesville far-right rally
The Associated Press reports:
A jury has awarded more than $25m in damages against white nationalist leaders for violence that erupted during the deadly 2017 far-right rally in Charlottesville.
The defendants were accused of promoting and then carrying out racially motivated violence during the “Unite the Right” rally. After a nearly monthlong civil trial, a jury in US district court in Charlottesville deadlocked on two claims but found the white nationalists liable on four other counts in the lawsuit that was filed by nine people who suffered physical or emotional injuries during the two days of demonstrations.
Attorney Roberta Kaplan said the plaintiffs’ lawyers plan to refile the suit so a new jury can decide the two claims this jury could not reach a verdict on. She called the amount of damages awarded from the other counts “eye opening”.
“That sends a loud message,” Kaplan said.
The verdict, though mixed, is a rebuke to the white nationalist movement, particularly for the two dozen individuals and organizations who were accused in a federal lawsuit of orchestrating violence against African Americans, Jews and others in a meticulously planned conspiracy.
White nationalist leader Richard Spencer vowed to appeal. He said plaintiffs’ attorneys made it clear before the trial that they wanted to use the case to bankrupt him and other defendants.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs invoked a 150-year-old law passed after the civil war to shield freed slaves from violence and protect their civil rights. Commonly known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, the law contains a rarely used provision that allows private citizens to sue other citizens for civil rights violations.
A statue of Thomas Jefferson has been removed from city hall in New York, because the founder and third president enslaved people.
A work crew spent several hours freeing the 884lb, 7ft statue from its pedestal in the council chambers and carefully maneuvering it into a padded wooden crate, for the short journey to the New York Historical Society.
The city public design commission, appointed by the mayor, Bill de Blasio, voted earlier in the day to exile the statue, sculpted in 1833, on a 10-year loan.
Opinions are mixed about the removal.
Charles Barron, a member of the New York assembly and a former council member, told the New York Times: “It should be destroyed. A statue should be for those who we honor for their exemplary service and duty to all of this country, not just the white race.”
But Michele Bogart, professor emeritus of art history at Stony Brook University, said the statue’s removal “deflects attention” from the actions of such controversial figures.
“I have a philosophical problem with removing it from city hall,” she said. “If you can remove the Thomas Jefferson statue, then you can remove works from other city buildings.”
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
The House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection issued five subpoenas to far-right groups and leaders, including the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. The extremist groups are believed to have been involved in planning the Capitol attack on 6 January.
Biden delivered a speech on the steps his administration is taking to address rising prices in the US, including mitigating bottlenecks at ports and ensuring store shelves remain stocked for Thanksgiving. Biden’s speech came as inflation has hit a 31-year high, with prices increasing by 6.2% over the past 12 months. That’s the most rapid acceleration since December 1990.
Biden announced he will release 50m barrels of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve, in an effort to lower gas prices. The price of gas has increased by 49.6% over the past year, bringing the national average for a gallon of gas to $3.40, per AAA. “It will take time, but before long, you should see the price of gas fall where you fill up your tank,” Biden said in his speech this afternoon.
The Biden administration has asked a federal court to lift the stay on a coronavirus vaccination rule for large businesses. The rule, which was set to go into effect on 4 January, would require those working for companies with at least 100 employees to get vaccinated or receive weekly coronavirus tests to mitigate the spread of the virus.
Ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are participating in a service event at the non-profit DC Central Kitchen.
The president and the vice-president -- joined by their spouses, first lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff -- are helping prepare meals for DC Central Kitchen’s clients.
President Biden, Dr. Biden, Vice President Harris and Doug Emhoff are all helping prepare meals for those in need at DC Central Kitchen. The non-profit makes 5,000 meals a day. pic.twitter.com/diPBds17r6
According to the White House, the non-profit prepares roughly 5,000 meals a day for homeless shelters, rehabilitation clinics and after-school programs in the DC area.
After the event, the Bidens will head to Nantucket, where they will spend Thanksgiving with their family.
Centrist senator Joe Manchin questioned Joe Biden’s energy policies after the president announced he would release 50m barrels of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve.
Manchin,the Democratic chair of the Senate energy and natural resources committee, argued Biden should be undergoing a broader review of his approach to oil supply in the face of rising gas prices.
“Today’s release from the strategic petroleum reserve is an important policy Band-Aid for rising gas prices but does not solve for the self-inflicted wound that shortsighted energy policy is having on our nation,” Manchin said in a statement.
“I continue to call on President Biden to responsibly increase energy production here at home and to reverse course to allow the Keystone XL pipeline to be built which would have provided our country with up to 900,000 barrels of oil per day from Canada, one of our closest allies.”
Of course, that position is extremely unpopular with environmentalists, who say the US is already not doing enough to combat the climate crisis.
Meanwhile, at the daily White House press briefing, energy secretary Jennifer Granholm spoke to reporters about the Biden administration’s plans to address high gas prices.
Granholm touted Joe Biden’s decision to release 50m barrels of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve, while acknowledging it will take time to see lower prices at the pump.
.@RachelVScott: “How soon will Americans see prices at the pump drop and how long do you expect that to last?"
“I’m not going to make a prediction about how much and how long,” Granholm said. “It won’t happen tomorrow, but it’ll happen over the next few weeks that people will hopefully start to see the difference.”
The energy secretary added that the administration is focused on ensuring gas prices are “not being held artificially high” because of oil and gas companies’ profit-driven strategies.
Biden sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission last week asking the agency to investigate “mounting evidence of anti-consumer behavior by oil and gas companies”.
The latest round of subpoenas from the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection comes one day after the panel subpoenaed a group of far-right political activists, including Roger Stone and Alex Jones.
Hugo Lowell reported yesterday:
The subpoenas demanding documents and testimony expand the select committee’s inquiry focused on the planning and financing of the rally at the Ellipse, by targeting operatives who appear to have had contacts with the Trump White House.
House investigators issued subpoenas to the veteran operatives Stone and Jones, Trump’s spokesperson Taylor Budowich, and the pro-Trump activists Dustin Stockton and his wife, Jennifer Lawrence.
The chairman of the select committee, Bennie Thompson, said the subpoenas aimed to uncover ‘who organized, planned, paid for, and received funds related to those events, as well as what communications organizers had with officials in the White House and Congress’.
The Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who was just subpoenaed by the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection, is currently sitting in a DC jail.
Tarrio is about halfway through a five-month sentence for his illegal activity at a pro-Trump rally last December, during which he set fire to a stolen Black Lives Matter banner.
Although Tarrio did not actually participate in the insurrection, the Proud Boys leader is believed to have been involved in the preparation for the Capitol attack, according to the select committee’s latest statement.
(On a related note, Tarrio’s request for an early release from jail due to unsanitary conditions was just denied by a judge.)
Bennie Thompson, the chair of the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection, said the subpoenaed far-right groups and leaders would be able to shed light on the days leading up to the attack.
“We believe the individuals and organizations we subpoenaed today have relevant information about how violence erupted at the Capitol and the preparation leading up to this violent attack,” Thompson said in a statement announcing the latest round of subpoenas.
“The Select Committee is moving swiftly to uncover the facts of what happened on that day and we expect every witness to comply with the law and cooperate so we can get answers to the American people.”
Capitol attack committee subpoenas far-right groups and leaders
The House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection has subpoenaed far-right groups believed to have been involved in planning the attack.
The five new subpoenas were sent to the far-right groups Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and 1st Amendment Praetorian.
Leaders of those groups -- Enrique Tarrio of Proud Boys, Elmer Stewart Rhodes of Oath Keepers and Robert Patrick Lewis of 1st Amendment Praetorian -- were also subpoenaed by the committee.
BREAKING: The Select Committee subpoenas individuals and organizations linked to the violent attack on the Capitol:
• Proud Boys International, L.L.C. • Henry “Enrique” Tarrio • Oath Keepers • Elmer Stewart Rhodes • Robert Patrick Lewis/1st Amendment Praetorian
Joe Biden also promised that grocery stores will be “well-stocked” for the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, amid concerns about shortages caused by supply-chain issues.
Biden noted his administration is working to mitigate bottlenecks at ports by working to increase hours of operation at those sites, thus allowing more products to be delivered.
The president said the number of containers sitting on docks has decreased in recent weeks, as shipping prices have also fallen.
"Families can rest easy: grocery stores are well-stocked with turkey and everything else you need for Thanksgiving," Pres. Biden says. "And the major retailers I mentioned have confirmed that their shelves will be well-stocked...this holiday season." https://t.co/FJN5bDYKsYpic.twitter.com/MJkRZs9K9g
“More goods are moving more quickly and more cheaply out of our ports -- onto your doorsteps and onto store shelves,” Biden said.
Noting that he recently met with the CEOs of companies like Walmart and Target, Biden added, “Families can rest easy: grocery stores are well-stocked with turkey and everything else you need for Thanksgiving. And the major retailers I mentioned have confirmed that their shelves will be well-stocked in stores this holiday season.”
The president concluded his prepared remarks and did not answer any of the questions that reporters shouted at him as he departed.
