Joe Biden

Oct. 22 (UPI) — A federal judge on Wednesday extended her order blocking the deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago before the U.S. Supreme Court weighs in.

District Judge April Perry, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, decided to keep the ban until there’s a full trial on the issue or the high court rules.

On Oct. 9, Perry issued the original order that was to expire Thursday.

Five days earlier, Trump ordered the deployment to Chicago.

Her earlier decision came as 200 members of the Texas National Guard arrived at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the south Chicago suburb of Broadway. People opposed to the ICE presence have protested there.

The deployment also included 300 members of the Illinois National Guard and 16 troops from California.

Perry had found there was “no credible evidence that there is a danger of rebellion in the state of Illinois.” She said the Department of Homeland Security’s information of protests are “unreliable.”

On Thursday, the three-judge 7th Circuit Court of Appeals backed Perry’s ruling, writing that “political opposition is not rebellion.”

The Trump administration accused the appeals judges of “judicially micromanaging the exercise of the President’s Commander-in-Chief powers.”

The federal government filed an emergency appeal to the high court.

Originally, Department of Justice lawyers proposed extending that order another 30 days in a Tuesday filing.

But because a temporary restraining order can only be extended once, the judge warned Wednesday that “whatever extension we make has to be the right one” to prevent a gap in judicial orders “that would allow troops be deployed on the streets.”

In a filing Friday to the Supreme Court, U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer said the judicial branch has no right to “second guess” a president’s judgment on national security or military actions. He said the guard is needed to protect federal immigration agents and property from protesters.

Even if the high court stays Perry’s temporary restraining order, the state would seek a “quick trial” or other expedited injunction hearing, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office said.

In Portland, Ore., an expedited trial is planned for next week after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday overturned another temporary restraining order by U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, blocking National Guard deployment there.

On Wednesday night, the Trump administration asked the full circuit not to examine the three-judge ruling.

The district judge in Oregon is planning a hearing on Friday to consider whether to dissolve or suspend the temporary restraining order.

The Trump administration is planning to send dozens of federal agents to San Francisco on Thursday, a source told CNN.

Oct. 14 (UPI) — General Motors will take a nearly $2 billion financial loss in its third quarter over its electric vehicle program after a shift in U.S. policy.

On Tuesday, the Detroit-based carmaker revealed a $1.6 billion dent in a public filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission and added its “ongoing” in GM’s EV capacity reassessment.

It comes amid a turnaround in U.S. regulations on EV’s and the end to $7,500 federal tax credits under the Trump administration set in place by then-U.S. President Joe Biden.

“Following recent U.S. government policy changes, including the termination of certain consumer tax incentives for EV purchases and the reduction in the stringency of emissions regulations, we expect the adoption rate of EVs to slow,” the company stated in its filing.

GM’s more than $1 billion loss will include $1.2 billion in non-cash and other special charges. The other $400 million will result from contract cancellation fees and other commercial settlements related to GM’s EV investments over the last few years.

But it warned it was “reasonably possible” General Motors could face future similar charges.

The company is set to officially report the results next Tuesday. But GM’s finance shakeup will not impact its adjusted earnings so far as its relation to the New York Stock Exchange.

GM is a U.S.-based global company with 50 facilities in 19 states, including 11 vehicle assembly plants.

Its new energy arm was initially expected to double GM’s revenue over the next few years as the Michigan-based vehicle conglomerate rolled-out its EV program five years ago.

Over the summer GM announced a $4 billion U.S. investment to build manufacturing plants for both gas and electric cars in Kansas and Tennessee over the next two years.

Oct. 11 (UPI) — Former President Joe Biden has begun radiation therapy, in addition to hormone therapy, to treat aggressive prostate cancer, a spokesperson has confirmed.

The radiation treatments will continue over five weeks to treat the cancer that Biden, 82, first announced in May.

“As part of a treatment plan for prostate cancer, President Biden is currently undergoing radiation therapy and hormone treatment,” a Biden spokesperson told NBC News.

When Biden announced his cancer diagnosis, it already had spread to his bones, which his doctors had been treating with hormone medication.

“The expectation is we’re going to be able to beat this,” Biden told CNN in May.

“It’s not in any organ,” Biden said, adding that the cancer hadn’t penetrated any of his bones.

Doctors diagnosed Biden’s prostate cancer after he reported having issues with his urinary system, which led to the discovery of a small nodule on the former president’s prostate, according to the BBC.

Doctors determined it was an aggressive form of cancer that is vulnerable to hormone treatment.

The cancer’s spread to Biden’s bones makes it incurable, but recent developments in chemotherapy and hormone therapies can greatly extend the life expectancy of those who are similarly afflicted, Dr. Benjamin Davies, a urologic oncology professor at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, told CNN.

Biden last month also underwent Mohs surgery to remove skin cancer lesions.

While president, Biden launched a “cancer moonshot” program to advance the ways in which cancers are diagnosed and treated.

Oct. 9 (UPI) — St. Louis-based Liberty Vote has acquired Dominion Voting Systems, among the nation’s largest election technology companies and one that was wrongly accused of election rigging.

Liberty is the nation’s largest provider of electronic poll information technology and was founded by former Republican elections director Scott Leinendecker. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. In a statement Thursday, Liberty said the company would be 100% American owned, and that “as of today, Dominion is gone.”

“Liberty Vote signals a new chapter for American elections — one where trust is built from the ground up,” Leinendecker said. “Liberty Vote is committed to delivering election technology that prioritizes paper-based transparency, security, and simplicity so that voters can be assured that every ballot is filled-in accurately and fairly counted.”

Liberty’s stated goals align closely with those of the Trump administration’s efforts to restore paper ballot counting, require voter identification at the polls, restrict mail-in voting and restore trust in American elections.

Dominion was at the center of controversy and, ultimately, a series of lawsuits following during and after the 2020 presidential election, especially in states such as Georgia, where Joe Biden narrowly won the vote. Its election technology was used by millions of Americans in 27 states in last year’s elections. John Poulos, Dominion’s founder and CEO, confirmed the sale.

Liberty said facilitating third-party auditing of its election systems is among the company’s other priorities. Conservative election watchers have consistently called for such audits, most notably following the 2020 election in Arizona as a way to combat voter fraud.

Independent studies have shown that the practice is extraordinarily rare, and that a majority of states already conduct internal post-election audits.

“This announcement raises a lot of questions, questions that I’m sure a lot of states with current Dominion contracts are going to want answers to,” said David Becker, who oversees the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research, and an election expert.

Liberty Vote, together with KNOWiNK, also founded by Leinendecker, will have voting systems in 40 states, a Liberty Vote official said.

Oct. 7 (UPI) — Attorney General Pam Bondi testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday, and refused to answer questions on several topics.

Bondi declined to answer questions about the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey regarding her discussions with President Donald Trump as well as the firings of Department of Justice attorneys who worked on Jan. 6 cases and her refusal to prosecute certain cases of Trump’s allies.

Bondi also avoided questions about the files of convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and Trump’s alleged friendship with him. She responded that the Democrats should explain their own relationships with him, CNN reported.

Sen Richard Blumenthal, D-N.Y., said Bondi’s testimony was a new low for attorneys general.

“Her apparent strategy is to attack and conceal. Frankly, I’ve been through close to 15 of these attorney general accountability hearings, and I have never seen anything close to it in terms of the combativeness, the evasiveness and sometimes deceptiveness,” Blumenthal told reporters after leaving the hearing. “I think it is possibly a new low for attorneys general testifying before the United States Congress, and I just hope my Republican colleagues will demand more accountability than what we have seen so far.”

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., agreed with Blumenthal.

“She was fully prepared for, with specific and personal comebacks, accusing various of my colleagues, of challenging their integrity or challenging their basis for their questions in a way I’ve not ever seen,” Coons said.

The White House has already praised Bondi’s performance.

“She’s doing great,” a White House official told CNN. “Not only is the AG debunking every single bogus Democrat talking point, but she’s highlighting the Democrats’ own hypocrisy and they have no response.”

Bondi, along with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, criticized the judge in the case of Sophie Roske, the woman who planned an attack on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Roske, who called the police on herself before making contact with Kavanaugh, was sentenced to eight years in prison for the plot.

“My prosecutors did an incredible job on that case,” Bondi said. She said the Justice Department would appeal the sentence, which was 22 years below the federal guidelines and the minimum sentence prosecutors wanted. “The judge also would not refer to the defendant by his biological name,” Bondi said. Roske is transgender.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., asked Bondi what conversations she has had with the White House about investigations into Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Comey. Bondi again declined to answer.

“I’m not going to discuss any conversations,” Bondi said to Klobuchar, CBS News reported.

Klobuchar asked her about a Truth Social post by Trump last in which he asked Bondi why she hadn’t brought charges against Comey, Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

“President Trump is the most transparent president in American history, and I don’t think he said anything that he hasn’t said for years,” Bondi said.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., pressed her on whether the FBI found any pictures of Trump “with half-naked young women,” saying that Epstein was reported to have shown them around.

“You know, Sen. Whitehouse? You sit here and make salacious remarks, once again, trying to slander President Trump, left and right, when you’re the one who was taking money from one of Epstein’s closest confidants,” Bondi responded, referring to tech entrepreneur and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, who has said he regretted his contacts with Epstein, CBS reported.

Since Bondi took over at the Justice Department, she and her team have fired prosecutors who worked on capitol riot cases and pushed out career FBI agents.

The Public Integrity Section is nearly empty now, and more than 70% of the lawyers in the Civil Rights Division are also gone, NPR reported.

In a letter Monday, nearly 300 former Justice Department employees asked the Oversight Committee to closely monitor the department.

“We call on Congress to exercise its oversight responsibilities far more vigorously. Members in both chambers and on both sides of the aisle must provide a meaningful check on the abuses we’re witnessing,” the letter said.

The letter also alleged poor treatment of staff.

“As for its treatment of its employees, the current leadership’s behavior has been appalling. … And demonizing, firing, demoting, involuntarily transferring, and directing employees to violate their ethical duties has already caused an exodus of over 5,000 of us — draining the Department of priceless institutional knowledge and expertise, and impairing its historical success in recruiting top talent. We may feel the effects of this for generations.”

Bondi said the DOJ stands by the “many terminations” in the department since Trump took office. “We stand by all of those,” she said.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said in an opening statement, “What has taken place since Jan. 20, 2025, would make even President Nixon recoil.”

Durbin said Bondi has left “an enormous stain in American history.”

“It will take decades to recover,” he said.

The hearing is just two weeks after she sought and secured an indictment of Comey at the direction of the president. Democrats have said she’s weaponizing the Department of Justice, breaking with the longstanding tradition of keeping the department independent of political goals.

Comey was indicted on one count each of lying to Congress and obstructing justice for his testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2020. Before the indictment, U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert refused to indict because of a lack of evidence against Comey. Trump accused him of waiting too long to indict and nearly allowing the statute of limitations to run out. Siebert resigned under pressure from the administration.

Last week, Durbin said the targeting of Trump’s political enemies is “a code-red alarm for the rule of law” in a floor speech, The Washington Post reported.

“Never in the history of our country has a president so brazenly demanded the baseless prosecution of his rivals,” he said. “And he doesn’t even try to hide it.”

But Republicans claim that Bondi’s leadership is necessary after years of what they say was politicized attacks from the Justice Department under the President Joe Biden administration.

“If the facts and the evidence support the finding that Comey lied to Congress and obstructed our work, he ought to be held accountable,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chair of the Judiciary Committee.

During her confirmation hearing, Bondi vowed that weaponization of the Justice Department is over.

“I will not politicize that office,” Bondi said at the time. “I will not target people simply because of their political affiliation.”

Oct. 3 (UPI) — The Trump administration can resume its deportation of Venezuelans after the Supreme Court again overturned a lower court’s block on ending the temporary protected status.

The Department of Homeland Security in August ended the TPS protection for about 300,000 “migrants” from Venezuela, which U.S. District Court for Northern California Judge Edward Chen blocked on Sept. 5.

Chen’s ruling is the second in which he blocked the Trump administration’s effort to end protected status for Venezuelans, which the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld in August, The Hill reported.

The Supreme Court overturned Chen’s first ruling when the Trump administration sought an emergency hearing in May, according to The New York Times.

Chen, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, afterward said the Supreme Court ruling lacked detail and again blocked the Trump administration from ending the TPS protection.

The Supreme Court agreed to review the matter again and repeated its earlier ruling.

“Although the posture of the case has changed, the parties’ legal arguments and relative harms generally have not,” the unsigned Supreme Court order says.

“The same result that we reached in May is appropriate here.”

Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor said they would have denied the emergency relief request by the Trump administration.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson called the court’s ruling “another grave misuse of our emergency docket” in her dissenting opinion.

“We once again use our equitable power to allow this administration to disrupt as many lives as possible as quickly as possible,” Jackson said.

She accused the Supreme Court’s majority of GOP-appointed justices of “privileging the bald assertion of unconstrained executive power over countless families’ pleas for the stability our government has promised them.”

Shortly before leaving office, former President Joe Biden on Jan. 17 extended the temporary protected status for Venezuelans for another two years.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ended the protected status within days of the Senate confirming her nomination on Jan. 25.

Oct. 3 (UPI) — The Trump administration will pay $2,500 to some unaccompanied migrant children ages 14 to 17 years old to self-deport from the United States to their home countries.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Friday confirmed to Politico and The Washington Post that the agency, along with the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugees and Resettlement, are offering the “strictly voluntary” program.

It is called the “Family Assistance Reintegration,” and money will be given after an immigration judge grants their request. Those first offered will be 17-year-olds.

DHS is touting the plan as a way to help children return to their families.

“Many of these had no choice when they were dangerously smuggled into this country,” DHS posted on X. “ICE and the Office of Refugee and Resettlement at HHS are offering a strictly voluntary option to return home to their families.”

The payment will be offered to those who came to the U.S. by themself. They are in detention centers or placed with sponsor relatives or foster families.

Shelters were asked on Friday to notify the teens.

They will receive the payment in exchange for waiving their rights to pursue immigration relief as part of a law that protects victims of human trafficking and smuggling.

Under federal law, they can apply for protection, including asylum or a special visa for neglected or abandoned children. Those proceedings can take several years.

Immigration advocates and lawyers dispute calling the new program voluntary because some children may be scared into self-deporting.

An official with the American Immigration Council said U.S. authorities could threaten to arrest the person’s family with trafficking their children or threaten them with deportation once they turn 18.

“Those financial incentives have often been coercive, and they’ve often been presented as the only way for people to avoid punitive and terrorizing consequences even if they have legitimate claims to legal status in the United States,” said Nayna Gupta, policy director at the American Immigration Council advocacy group in Washington, told Politico. “Does failure to take the money and return to a place you fled mean that you will be detained once you age out of the unaccompanied minors status?”

“Safe voluntary departure requires legal counsel — not government marketing or what amounts to cash bribes for kids,” Melissa Adamson, senior attorney at the National Center for Youth Law told The Washington Post. “This administration’s actions again prove it cannot be trusted to protect children.”

The new program is being called Freaky Friday by opponents.

An ICE spokesperson told Politico that critics are trying to “instill fear and spread misinformation that drives the increased violence occurring against federal law enforcement.”

When Joe Biden was president, tens of thousands of unaccompanied children reached the United States, at times with the help of smugglers.

The Biden and Trump administrations have attempted to reduce the number of children in the custody of the HHS. The number in custody since Trump became president is lower with 2,000 minors in shelters in August.

When Trump was first president, more than 4,000 migrant children were separated from their parents after they crossed the border illegally.

Sept. 30 (UPI) — President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke before a gathering of top military brass in Quantico, Va., brought in from around the world Tuesday.

Trump, after lamenting that the room was so quiet when he walked in, told the meeting of top military leaders, “If you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room. Of course, there goes your rank, there goes your future, but you just feel nice and loose, OK?”

Hegseth told the military officers that they had gone soft and that reforms would overhaul the Department of Defense inspector general and equal opportunity programs.

“I call it the ‘no more walking on eggshells’ policy,” he said. “We are liberating commanders and NCOs. We are liberating you.”

“We are overhauling an inspector general process — the IG that has been weaponized,” he said. “We’re doing the same with the equal opportunity and military equal opportunity policies. No more frivolous complaints, no more anonymous complaints, no more repeat complaints, no more smearing reputations. No more endless waiting, no more legal limbo. No more side-tracking careers, no more walking on eggshells.”

Hegseth told them to quit, if they disagreed. “If the words I’m speaking today are making your heart sink, you should do the honorable thing and resign.”

Trump said his administration plans to make more announcements soon to “fully embrace the identity of the Department of War.”

“I love the name. I think it’s so great. I think it stops wars,” Trump said. “The Department of War is going to stop wars.”

Trump also characterized his sending troops to U.S. cities as a war at home.

“This is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room,” Trump said. “That’s a war, too. It’s a war from within. Controlling the physical territory of our border is essential to national security. We can’t let these people in.”

He brought up nuclear power and said he sent a nuclear submarine to Russia earlier this year.

“We were a little bit threatened by Russia recently, and I sent a submarine, nuclear submarine, the most lethal weapon ever made,” Trump said. “Number one, you can’t detect it. There’s no way. We’re 25 years ahead of Russia and China in submarines.”

Modern nuclear submarines are difficult to detect, but are not undetectable.

“Frankly, if it does get to use, we have more than anybody else,” Trump said. “We have better, we have newer, but it’s something we don’t ever want to even have to think about.”

He called the word “nuclear” the second “n-word.” “I call it the n-word. There are two n-words, and you can’t use either of them.”

He reiterated his call for making Canada a 51st state. He said Canada called him and said it wanted to be part of Trump’s plans for a “Golden Dome” missile defense shield.

“They want to be part of it, to which I said, ‘Why don’t you just join our country? You become 51, become the 51st state, and you get it for free,” he said. “So I don’t know if that made a big impact, but it does make a lot of sense … because they’re having a hard time up there in Canada now, because, as you know, with tariffs, everyone’s coming into our country.”

He also talked again about former President Joe Biden‘s autopen use, though he has used an autopen himself.

DONALD Trump has signed an executive order laying the groundwork for China to hand over TikTok to US owners following “very good talks” with Xi Jinping.

Dealmaster Don said he had come to an agreement with the Chinese leader following years of speculation surrounding the fate of the beloved $14billion social media giant.

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In a major U-turn by Beijing – who once slammed the idea of giving TikTok to Washington as “robbery” – Chinese officials have now agreed to hand over the prized platform.

The landmark deal will separate the popular video-sharing hub from its Chinese parent company ByteDance – in a key step allowing TikTok to keep operating in America.

Trump said the agreement would comply with a bipartisan law that would have forced the app’s shutdown if it was not divested and sold to a US owner.

The US President said: “I spoke with President Xi and he said: ‘Go ahead with it.’

“This is going to be American-operated all the way.”

The groundbreaking plan will see US investors oversee the vast majority of TikTok‘s operations.

A coalition of American owners are expected to take charge of 80 per cent of the app – while Chinese investors will have a 20 per cent stake.

They will also gain a licensed copy of the cutting-edge recommendation algorithm retrained solely with US data.

The controversial digital recipe which shows users content based on their preferences previously stirred alarming concern among US officials.

China hawks warned the ByteDance-crafted algorithm could be weaponised by the CCP to influence content seen by hundreds of millions of Americans every day.

But US officials have failed to present any evidence proving China has ever attempted to do so.

The new US version of the spun off firm will be valued at $14billion, US Vice President JD Vance said.

But the new figure doesn’t compare to ByteDance’s overall valuation, which is estimated to stand at a staggering $330billion.

TikTok’s social media arch nemesis Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, is valued at $1.8trillion.

The new investing team will be spearheaded by US software giant Oracle.

The firm will oversee US operations for TikTok, provide cloud service for user data storage and obtain the elusive algorithm license.

The alliance of investors is set to include Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, News Corp owner Rupert Murdoch and Dell CEO Michael Dell.

Trump said of the potential new owners: “Great investors. The biggest. They don’t get bigger.”

Vance said more details about who is involved in the huge deal will be announced over the coming days.

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The deal seemingly puts to bed months of legal limbo for the massively popular app, which is said to host some 180 million US users.

Trump has even credited TikTok with helping him win the 2024 presidential election – as part of his gamechanging social media campaign.

ByteDance and TikTok once faced widespread concerns from US lawmakers over national security and data privacy.

US officials alleged China could use the app to shape messaging and ultimately spread propaganda in an effort to undermine US democracy.

TikTok denied the claims, but Congress collectively agreed to force ByteDance to find a US buyer after a historic vote last year.

The supreme court unanimously upheld the ban in January – before Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office to postpone its removal from the US.

The US President also hinted at TikTok’s secure future last week, writing on Truth Social: “A deal was also reached on a ‘certain’ company that young people in our Country very much want to save.

“They will be very happy!”

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Sept. 20 (UPI) — Replacements have been named for the acting U.S. attorney and nominee for the Eastern District of Virginia who was forced out after failing to bring criminal charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James regarding mortgage loan fraud.

Erik Siebert notified staff on Friday that he resigned, but President Donald Trump said he was fired. Siebert was nominated for the position and was awaiting Senate confirmation.

Trump posted on Truth Social he plans to nominate Lindsey Halligan, who “proved herself to be a tremendous trial lawyer, and later represented me (and WON!) in the disgraceful Democrat Documents Hoax, as well as MANY other major, high profile cases.” He was referring to his handling of classified material after leaving office following his first term.

Halligan, who is currently a special assistant in the White House, does not have any prosecutorial experience and her law license is in Florida, ABC News reported.

“Lindsey is a tough, smart, and loyal attorney, who has worked with me for a long time,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Saturday night. “As a Partner at the biggest Law Firm in Florida, Lindsey proved herself to be a tremendous trial lawyer.”

Earlier Saturday, Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed Mary “Maggie” Cleary, an attorney active in Republican politics, as acting U.S. attorney for the division, according an internal email obtained by Politico and The Washington Post.

This month, Cleary rejoined the DOJ as a senior counsel in the criminal division in the District of Columbia after working in the Culpepper Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office and Virginia state agencies.

She was placed on administrative leave in the DOJ’s Virginia Western District for being on Capitol grounds during the riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Clear said she was “framed” and was ultimately cleared.

Cleary will serve until a nominee is confirmed.

“This evening, I submitted my resignation as interim US Attorney for EDVA,” Siebert’s email, obtained by ABC News, read. “For the last eight months, I have had the pleasure of leading the finest and most exceptional of DOJ employees, who care deeply about our nation and our EDVA community. Thank you for the lessons you have taught me, the sacrifices you have made, and the pursuit of justice you strive for every day.”

On Saturday, Trump posted on X that he “withdrew the Nomination of Erik Siebert as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, when I was informed that he received the UNUSUALLY STRONG support of the two absolutely terrible, sleazebag Democrat Senators, from the Great State of Virginia. He didn’t quit, I fired him! Next time let him go in as a Democrat, not a Republican.”

He was referring to Virginia Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner.

In a joint statement, Kaine and Warner said Siebert lost his job because his office was “unable to find incriminating evidence of mortgage fraud” against James, noting that there had been bipartisan support for his nomination.

“In April, after an extensive interview process that included the input of a bipartisan panel of former Virginia U.S. attorneys and other well-respected members of the Virginia legal community, Warner and Kaine sent a letter to the White House recommending Siebert for the U.S. attorney position,” they wrote. “In May, the White House announced that Siebert was formally nominated for the role,” Warner and Kaine said.

Both senators from a nominee’s state are sent a blue slip in which they may submit a favorable or unfavorable opinion of a nominee, regardless of their party. The Senate Judiciary Committee takes blue slips into consideration when deciding whether to recommend that the Senate confirm a nominee.

Media outlets, including CNN and The New York Times, reported that Justice Department prosecutors in Virginia believed they have not gathered enough evidence to indict James.

“Erik Siebert is an ethical prosecutor who refused to bring criminal charges against Trump’s perceived enemies when the facts wouldn’t support it,” the senators wrote. “The Eastern District of Virginia is at the forefront of significant cases essential to our national security, and just like any court in America, should be focused on justice instead of a thin-skinned president’s vendettas.”

Siebert, who worked for 15 years in Virginia as an assistant U.S. attorney, was the lead attorney for the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force and the deputy criminal supervisor for the Richmond Division.

He was also a police officer with the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C.

In March, he appeared with Attorney General Pam Bondi, Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and FBI Director Kash Patel on the arrest of an alleged MS-13 gang member in Northern Virginia.

Before posting on Truth Social, Trump told reporters, “Yeah, I want him out. When I learned that they voted for him, I said, I don’t really want him.”

New York’s attorney general is among three people targeted by the Trump administration for alleged loan fraud involving claims about two primary residences in Virginia and New York. No Republicans have been named, though Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin have two primary residences on loan paper, ProPublica reported.

William Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, wrote a letter to Bondi alleging that James had “in multiple instances, falsified bank documents and property records to acquire government-backed assistance and loans and more favorable loan terms.” The letter was obtained by CBS News.

“The allegations are baseless,” James told NY1, “The allegations are nothing more than a revenge tour.”

James has been in Trump’s crosshairs since June 2022, when she sued Trump and the Trump Organization, alleging they inflated the values of properties.

Trump was ordered to pay $355 million in restitution for “ill-gotten gains” from his inflated financial statements, state Superior Court Judge Arthur Engoron ruled. With interest, the amount was raised to $527 earlier this year. But the Appellare Division in New York earlier this year canceled the fine and James has appealed.

Pulte has also targeted California Sen. Adam Schiff, a Democrat, and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, appointed by President Joe Biden. Trump fired Cook, but the district and appeals courts have ruled that Trump doesn’t have the authority to fire someone from the Federal Reserve without due process and only for cause. Trump has asked the Supreme Court to weigh in.

Sept. 20 (UPI) — The acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia was forced out after failing to bring criminal charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James regarding mortgage loan fraud.

Erik Siebert notified staff on Friday that he resigned, but President Donald Trump said he was fired. Siebert was nominated for the position and was awaiting Senate confirmation.

On Saturday, Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed Mary “Maggie” Cleary, an attorney active in Republican politics, as acting U.S. attorney for the division, according an internal email obtained by Politico and The Washington Post.

This month, Cleary rejoined the DOJ as a senior counsel in the criminal division in the District of Columbia after working in the Culpepper Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office and Virginia state agencies.

She was placed on administrative leave in the DOJ’s Virginia Western District for being on Capitol grounds during the riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Clear said she was “framed” and was ultimately cleared.

“This evening, I submitted my resignation as interim US Attorney for EDVA,” Siebert’s email, obtained by ABC News, read. “For the last eight months, I have had the pleasure of leading the finest and most exceptional of DOJ employees, who care deeply about our nation and our EDVA community. Thank you for the lessons you have taught me, the sacrifices you have made, and the pursuit of justice you strive for every day.”

On Saturday, Trump posted on X that he “withdrew the Nomination of Erik Siebert as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, when I was informed that he received the UNUSUALLY STRONG support of the two absolutely terrible, sleazebag Democrat Senators, from the Great State of Virginia. He didn’t quit, I fired him! Next time let him go in as a Democrat, not a Republican.”

He was referring to Virginia Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner.

In a joint statement, Kaine and Warner said Siebert lost his job because his office was “unable to find incriminating evidence of mortgage fraud” against James, noting that there had been bipartisan support for his nomination.

“In April, after an extensive interview process that included the input of a bipartisan panel of former Virginia U.S. attorneys and other well-respected members of the Virginia legal community, Warner and Kaine sent a letter to the White House recommending Siebert for the U.S. attorney position,” they wrote. “In May, the White House announced that Siebert was formally nominated for the role,” Warner and Kaine said.

Both senators from a nominee’s state are sent a blue slip in which they may submit a favorable or unfavorable opinion of a nominee, regardless of their party. The Senate Judiciary Committee takes blue slips into consideration when deciding whether to recommend that the Senate confirm a nominee.

Media outlets, including CNN and The New York Times, reported that Justice Department prosecutors in Virginia believed they have not gathered enough evidence to indict James.

“Erik Siebert is an ethical prosecutor who refused to bring criminal charges against Trump’s perceived enemies when the facts wouldn’t support it,” the senators wrote. “The Eastern District of Virginia is at the forefront of significant cases essential to our national security, and just like any court in America, should be focused on justice instead of a thin-skinned president’s vendettas.”

Siebert, who worked for 15 years in Virginia as an assistant U.S. attorney, was the lead attorney for the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force and the deputy criminal supervisor for the Richmond Division.

He was also a police officer with the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C.

In March, he appeared with Attorney General Pam Bondi, Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and FBI Director Kash Patel on the arrest of an alleged MS-13 gang member in Northern Virginia.

Before posting on Truth Social, Trump told reporters, “Yeah, I want him out. When I learned that they voted for him, I said, I don’t really want him.”

New York’s attorney general is among three people targeted by the Trump administration for alleged loan fraud involving claims about two primary residences in Virginia and New York. No Republicans have been named, though Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin have two primary residences on loan paper, ProPublica reported.

William Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, wrote a letter to Bondi alleging that James had “in multiple instances, falsified bank documents and property records to acquire government-backed assistance and loans and more favorable loan terms.” The letter was obtained by CBS News.

“The allegations are baseless,” James told NY1, “The allegations are nothing more than a revenge tour.”

James has been in Trump’s crosshairs since June 2022, when she sued Trump and the Trump Organization, alleging they inflated the values of properties.

Trump was ordered to pay $355 million in restitution for “ill-gotten gains” from his inflated financial statements, state Superior Court Judge Arthur Engoron ruled. With interest, the amount was raised to $527 earlier this year. But the Appellare Division in New York earlier this year canceled the fine and James has appealed.

Pulte has also targeted California Sen. Adam Schiff, a Democrat, and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, appointed by President Joe Biden. Trump fired Cook, but the district and appeals courts have ruled that Trump doesn’t have the authority to fire someone from the Federal Reserve without due process and only for cause. Trump has asked the Supreme Court to weigh in.

Sept. 18 (UPI) — President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping began a phone call Friday morning to finalize their agreement about what to do with TikTok.

Trump and Xi held a call beginning at 8 a.m. EDT that was expeccted to finalize the deal that is reportedly set to see a consortium of U.S. venture capital firms, private equity funds and tech companies operate the app.

Trump extended the deadline Tuesday for TikTok owner ByteDance to separate out its American operations to avoid a ban in the United States as it was reported investors led by Oracle, Horowitz and Silver Lake would own around 80% of a new U.S. company that will run TikTok’s American operation, with the remaining stake owned by Chinese shareholders.

In his visit to Britain this week, Trump said he wants to keep TikTok in the United States.

“We’re speaking to President Xi on Friday to see if we can finalize something on TikTok, because there is tremendous value, and I hate to give away value, but I like TikTok,” Trump said at Chequers, the British prime minister’s weekend residence in Aylesbury, England.

Trump also said that the United States would get a “tremendous fee” for its part in brokering the deal.

Former President Joe Biden signed a bill that would push TikTok out due to security concerns in April 2024, with ByteDance initially facing a Jan. 19 deadline to divest or face a U.S. ban.

But Trump extended that deadline on his first day in office, and he has done so three more times since then.

China said it wanted to reach an agreement because “this consensus serves the interests of both sides,” Li Chenggang, China’s vice minister of commerce, said in Madrid on Monday. “The two teams will continue to maintain close communication, negotiate on the details of the outcome document, and each will fulfill its domestic approval procedures,” a Chinese diplomatic release said.

Sept. 17 (UPI) — An immigration judge has ordered former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil to either Algeria or Syria, court documents filed Wednesday show, as his lawyers argue the Trump administration is ramping up its retaliation against the Palestinian activist.

Khalil has been at the forefront of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown targeting pro-Palestine activism at universities. He was arrested March 8 for his pro-Palestine speech by the federal government, which has sought to remove him from the country.

He fought his detention in the courts, gaining his freedom in June. But the Trump administration continues its attempt to remove him, despite his wife and children being American citizens, this time on grounds that he omitted or misrepresented information on his green card application. His attorneys described the allegations as “baseless.”

Civil rights organizations, advocates and Trump administration critics argue its targeting of Khalil is an attack on his due process rights in retaliation for expressing his support for Palestine.

In a letter dated Wednesday to U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz, the judge who issued Khalil’s June release, the Palestinian activist’s representation revealed that immigration Judge Jamee Comans ordered Khalil’s removal to either of the two countries Friday when he denied their motion for a waiver to prevent his removal.

The lawyers said Khalil has 30 days from Friday to file an appeal with the Board of Immigration Appeals, and they called on Farbiarz to intervene.

“The only meaningful impediment to Petitioner’s physical removal from the United States would be this Court’s important order prohibiting removal during the pendency of his federal habeas case,” Khalil’s representation said.

Farbiarz, a President Joe Biden-appointee, had ordered Khalil’s release from federal immigration detention in June after denying the government’s argument that the former Columbia University graduate student was a threat to U.S. foreign policy.

The Trump administration is now seeking his removal alleging Khalil omitted or misrepresented information on his green card application, specifically not mentioning his previous internship with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, better known as UNRWA.

The letter to Farbiarz on Wednesday states Comans denied Khalil’s request for a waiver against his removal without conducting an evidentiary hearing.

His lawyers also said Khalil was denied the waiver because of the alleged misrepresentation to adjust his immigration without the opportunity to present contrary evidence. Instead, the judge relied on Secretary of State Marco Rubio‘s statement that Khalil’s presence in the country is a threat to U.S. foreign policy to justify the denial.

“It’s no surprise that the Trump administration continues to retaliate against me for my exercise of free speech,” Khalil said in a statement provided by the American Civil Liberties Union.

“Their latest attempt, through kangaroo immigration court, exposes their true colors once again.”

He accused the Trump administration of “fabricating baseless and ridiculous allegations” against him following its first failed attempt to deport him to try and silence his speech in support of Palestine.

“Such fascist tactics will never deter me from continuing to advocate for my people’s liberation,” he said.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16 (UPI) — As the United States faces shifts stemming from President Donald Trump‘s climate priorities and changes within the Environmental Protection Agency, Republican lawmakers held back-to-back hearings Tuesday to challenge climate intervention strategies and EPA enforcement under former President Joe Biden.

The House Oversight Committee hearings unfolded against the backdrop of major Trump administration moves to roll back environmental oversight.

Since January, the EPA has enacted changes that scrap emissions reporting and dismantle research offices, a signal Democratic lawmakers think the agency is prioritizing industry concerns and cost savings over transparency and scientific independence.

On Tuesday morning, the Delivering on Government Efficiency Subcommittee met to discuss “Playing God with the Weather-A Disastrous Forecast,” which focused heavily on geoengineering and weather modification.

Later in the day, the Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement held a hearing on “From Protection to Persecution: EPA Enforcement Gone Rogue Under the Biden Administration,” which focused on instances of the EPA’s involvement in small businesses.

Chairman Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., opened the morning hearing by placing modern climate intervention in a long tradition of weather control, from Native American rain dances to Cold War era military projects, but warned today’s techniques of cloud seeding, carbon removal and blocking sunlight could pose unpredictable risks to human health and agriculture.

Greene argued that efforts to fight what she called a “climate change hoax” could lead to reckless global experiments.

“Some scientists think they can predict and control the impact of geoengineering, but even the best scientific models will never be able to capture all of God’s wonderful creation and nature’s mysteries,” she said.

Some lawmakers warned of unchecked experimentation with climate interventions, and the administration has signaled it will not pursue new regulatory frameworks for geoengineering research, but instead emphasize transparency and voluntary disclosure.

This was solidified when a video of EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin was shared at the hearing. Zeldin explained his commitment to total transparency by promising to publicly release all geoengineering research so that “baseless conspiracies” will be met “head on.”

On Friday, the agency proposed ending a rule that required about 8,000 facilities to publicly report their greenhouse gas emissions — a program that provided transparency into the country’s biggest polluters.

In the afternoon, the Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement looked at the EPA in a different light, focusing on what Republican lawmakers cited as an aggressive policy during the Biden administration.

“Instead of pursuing massive industrial polluters who employ highly paid legal defense teams, EPA under the Biden administration chose to focus on mom-and-pop shops, and with the shops that have limited means to argue their case against the legal might of the Department of Justice backed by the EPA,” Chairman Clay Higgins, R-La, said.

He added: “Often, EPA’s enforcement actions involved raids on shops by teams of armed EPA agents who intimidated small businesses with threats of criminal prosecution.”

The committee showcased small businesses as examples of what GOP
members called EPA’s overreach, including one from Higgins’ home state of Louisiana.

Kory Willis, owner and founder of Power Performances Enterprise Inc. of Baton Rouge, who runs a performance tuning shop, described an almost decade-long legal fight that culminated in a consent decree that nearly put him out of business.

According to an EPA press release in 2022, federal prosecutors described Willis’ company as among the country’s leading developers of “delete tunes” — software that disables emissions controls in diesel trucks.

Court records show his company tuned more than 175,000 vehicles, moving over $1 million in products monthly at its peak, with emissions expected to release more than 100 million pounds of excess pollutants over the lifetime of those vehicles.

Another witness, Eric Schaeffer, former executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project and EPA Office of Civil Enforcement director, subtly questioned Willis in his testimony.

“If you’re stuck behind a diesel truck, or a bunch of diesel trucks, in a traffic jam, and being showered with soot, live in an apartment next to a highway or the is city cooked by smog … don’t you have the right to breathe clean air? We used to think so,” Schaeffer said.

In its press release, the EPA said “Diesel emissions include multiple hazardous compounds and harm human health and the environment. Diesel emissions have been found to cause and worsen respiratory ailments such as asthma and lung cancer. One study indicated that 21,000 American deaths annually are attributable to diesel particulate matter.”

In March 2022, Willis and Power Performances Enterprise Inc. pleaded guilty to conspiracy and Clean Air Act violations, agreeing to pay $3.1 million in criminal fines and civil penalties and to stop selling defeat devices.

Schaeffer noted that the crackdown on defeat devices did not begin with the Biden administration.

“The launching of this enforcement initiative to crack down on the sale of these aftermarket devices started under the Trump administration in President Trump’s first term,” he said, pointing to EPA guidance at the time that warned of criminal penalties and urged companies to self-disclose violations.

Since then, federal courts have consistently upheld that the Clean Air Act covers aftermarket tampering devices.

Democratic members pushed back on the GOP positions, framing the hearing as not an examination of enforcement tools, but instead as part of the broader efforts for this administration to roll back environmental protections.

Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., highlighted the dismantling of environmental justice functions, warning that loosened oversight would leave vulnerable communities more exposed to soot, asthma and cancer.

For example, in July, the EPA announced it was dismantling its Office of Research and Development, the branch long responsible for the agency’s core scientific work, laying off many staff.

A new Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions will replace it — a change that EPA officials under Trump say will streamline research and save nearly $750 million.

Together, the hearings and EPA’s actions indicated a present and future narrowing of the agency’s enforcement reach, pulling back climate transparency rules and reframing scientific research.

Sept. 15 (UPI) — A federal appeals court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump‘s attempt to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, handing the American president another legal defeat in his effort to gain influence over the independent monetary policy-setting agency.

The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a 2-1 emergency ruling Monday, ahead of the central bank’s start of monetary policy meetings on Tuesday.

The Trump administration had asked the appeals court to allow the president to fire Cook, the first Black woman to sit on the Federal Reserve Board, ahead of the meeting, but the court rejected his request, finding the administration had denied her due process protections.

“The government does not dispute that it failed to provide Cook even minimal process — that is, notice of the allegation against her and a meaningful opportunity to respond — before she was purportedly removed,” Judges Bradley Garcia and Michelle Childs, both President Joe Biden appointees, wrote in the ruling.

“Granting the government’s request for relief when Cook has received no meaningful process would contravene that principle.”

The president only has the power to remove someone from the independent bipartisan monetary-setting agency for cause.

Trump moved to fire Cook late last month on allegations of mortgage fraud, prompting Democrats to accuse the president of conducting a power grab.

Cook challenged her removal in court, and won reinstatement. The district found that her firing likely violated the so-called for cause provision of the Federal Reserve Act and the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.

The appeals court majority on Monday agreed with the district court, stating its ruling “is correct.”

“Cook has been serving in her position continuously despite the President’s purported termination. Granting the government’s request for emergency relief would thus upend, not preserve, the status quo,” the court ruled.

“Given these unique circumstances, and Cook’s strong likelihood of success on at least her due process claim, the government’s request for relief is rightly denied.”

In dissent, Judge Gregory Katsas, a Trump appointee, sided with the president, saying it was likely to prevail on its claims that it has cause for Cook’s removal.

Trump fired Cook as he was applying pressure on her boss, Fed Chair Jerome Powell, to lower interest rates, which he has been seeking for months.

Twice since Aug. 15, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte, a Powell critic, sent criminal referrals for Cook to Attorney General Pam Bondi, accusing Cook of mortgage fraud, alleging she listed properties she owns inconsistently on different forms. The allegations go back to before she was on the board.

No charges have actually been filed.

Trump points to the mortgage fraud allegations as cause for her removal. Democrats have backed Cook in the fight. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has been among the most vocal and has described Trump’s attempt to remove Cook an “illegal authoritarian power grab.”

“The courts keep rejecting Donald Trump’s illegal attempt to take over the Fed so he can scapegoat away his failure to lower costs for American families,” Warren said Monday night on X following the ruling.

“If the courts — including the Supreme Court — continue to uphold the law, Lisa Cook will keep her seat as a Fed governor.”

The ruling comes as Senate Republicans on Monday voted to confirm White House economic adviser Stephen Miran to join the Federal Reserve Board, despite Democrats voicing criticism over a White House advisor being a part of the independent agency.

Sept. 13 (UPI) — Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook might not have committed fraud when obtaining a mortgage loan on at least one property for which she is accused of fraud.

Cook in 2021 described the Atlanta condominium that she bought as a second home or a vacation home in documents reviewed by The Washington Post and The New York Times.

A document from May 2021 described the Atlanta property’s use as a “vacation home, and a December 2021 form that she provided to the Biden administration called the condo a second home, according to The Washington Post.

She submitted the December document for review after President Joe Biden nominated her to join the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors.

A similar review by The New York Times reaches the same conclusions but says the documents are not legal documents and do not disprove claims that she committed fraud by claiming the Atlanta property and another home in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Federal Housing Agency Director Bill Pulte initially raised concern that Cook might have committed fraud and said the newly released documents do not disprove fraud allegations.

“If Dr. Cook solicited estimates as a vacation home and then entered into a mortgage agreement as a primary residence, that is extremely concerning and … evidence of further intent to defraud,” Pulte said, told The New York Times.

Pulte has referred the issue to the Department of Justice, which is investigating the matter.

President Donald Trump announced he is firing Cook, but she challenged her dismissal in a lawsuit and remains a Federal Reserve governor at least until the legal matter is resolved.

When Kamala Harris left the White House, she was trailed by three big questions.

She’s now answered two of them.

First off, the former vice president will not be running for California governor in 2026. After months of will-or-won’t-she speculation, the Democrat took a pass on a race that was Harris’ to lose because, plainly, her heart just wasn’t into a return to Sacramento.

On Wednesday, with publication of the first excerpts from her 2024 campaign diary, Harris answered a second question: What kind of book — candid or pablum-filled — would she produce?

The answer flows directly to the third and largest remaining question, whether Harris attempts a third try for the White House in 2028.

If she does, and the portions published Wednesday by the Atlantic magazine give no clue one way or the other, she’ll have some work to do mollifying the person who made her vice president, thus vaulting Harris to top-tier status should she run again.

That would be one Joe Biden.

Harris’ book — “107 Days” — recounts the shortest presidential campaign in modern U.S. history.

It’s no tell-all.

Surely, there’s a good deal of inside dope, juicy gossip and backstage intrigues that Harris is holding back for political, personal or practical reasons.

Still, it’s a tell-plenty.

The headline-grabbiest passage is Harris’ suggestion that Biden, felled by a thoroughly wretched debate performance that showed the ravages of his advanced age, should have stepped aside before being effectively forced off the Democratic ticket.

“ ‘It’s Joe and Jill’s decision,’ “ Harris wrote. “We all said that, like a mantra, as if we’d all been hypnotized. Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness. The stakes were simply too high.

“This wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition,” she went on. “It should have been more than a personal decision.”

The relationship between Harris and Jill Biden, which was famously glacial, will surely turn Arctic-cold with Wednesday’s revelations. And Biden’s thin-skinned husband, who still harbors the fanciful belief he would beaten Donald Trump had he been the Democratic nominee, isn’t likely to be any more pleased.

There’s more.

Harris suggests in many ways Biden was more hindrance than helpmate as she struggled to step out from the shadow that inevitably shrouds the vice president.

When Biden finally spoke to the nation to explain his abdication and anointment of Harris as his chosen successor, Harris notes he waited nearly nine minutes into an 11-minute address to offer his cursory blessing.

She also expresses a deep personal pique toward Team Biden and West Wing staffers who had little faith in Harris or her political abilities and had no hesitation stating so — in private, anyway.

“When the stories were unfair or inaccurate, the president’s inner circle seemed fine with it,” Harris wrote. “Indeed, it seemed as if they decided I should be knocked down a little bit more.

“Worse, I often learned that the president’s staff was adding fuel to negative narratives that sprang up around me.”

Fact check: True.

But Harris also skates around certain hard truths, suggesting the staff turnover that plagued her early in her vice presidency was just the normal Beltway churn.

Harris has a reputation for being an imperious and difficult boss — it’s not misogynistic to say so — and she did suffer a notably high level of staff burnout and turnover that hindered her vice presidential operation.

Harris embarrassed herself in some stumbling TV appearances — especially early in her vice presidency — and it’s not racist to point that out. She has no one to blame but herself.

Perhaps most critically, Harris bequeathed the Trump campaign a sterling political gift late in the campaign when she appeared on the TV chatfest “The View” and, served up a softball of a question, whiffed it spectacularly.

“What, if anything,” Harris was asked, “would you have done … differently than President Biden during the past four years?”

It’s a question she could have easily anticipated. The separation of a president and the vice president looking to follow him into the Oval Office is a political rite of passage, though always a fraught and delicate one.

It’s necessary to show voters not just a hint of independence but also a bit of spine.

George H.W. Bush handled the maneuver with aplomb and succeeded Ronald Reagan. Hubert Humphrey and Al Gore did not, and both lost.

Given her chance, Harris squandered a choice opportunity to put some badly needed space between herself and the dismally regarded Biden.

“There is not a thing that comes to mind,” was her tinny response, and that gaffe is entirely on the former vice president.

It didn’t necessarily cost her the White House. There were plenty of reasons Harris lost. But at a time when voters were virtually shouting out loud for change in Washington it stamped the vice president, quite unhelpfully, as more of the same.

‘I am a loyal person,” Harris writes, which is not only self-justifying but has the slightly off-putting whiff of someone declaring, by golly, I’m just too honest.

Perhaps behind closed doors she screamed and raged, telling the octogenarian Biden he was old and senile and sure to cost Democrats the White House and deliver the nation to the evil clutches of Donald Trump — though that seems doubtful.

“Many people want to spin up a narrative of some big conspiracy at the White House to hide Joe Biden’s infirmity,” she wrote.

In fact, she said, Biden was “fully able to discharge the duties of president.”

“On his worst day, he was more deeply knowledgeable, more capable of exercising judgment, and far more compassionate than Donald Trump on his best.”

Fact Check: Again, true.

“But at 81,” Harris went on, “Joe got tired. … I don’t believe it was incapacity. If I believed that, I would have said so. As loyal as I am to President Biden, I am more loyal to my country.”

Plenty of books have been written offering insider accounts of the White House and presenting far more dire accounts of Biden’s physical and mental acuity. Many more are sure to come.

Harris’ contribution to the oeuvre remains to be seen. Her book is set for publication on Sept. 23 and there is a lot more to come beyond the excerpts just published.

What has been revealed is Harris’ eagerness to settle old scores, to right the record as she sees it and to angrily and publicly call out some of her perceived enemies — including some still active in Democratic politics.

How does that affect her prospects for 2028 and what does it say about whether Harris runs again for president?

You can read into it what you will.

Sept. 9 (UPI) — House Democrats named four new members to the new subcommittee to reinvestigate the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The eight-member committee will do a Republican-led investigation into the events of Jan. 6, when a mob of protestors attacked the U.S. Capitol in support of President Donald Trump. It will likely look at security failures on that day.

House Democratic Minority Leader Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., announced Monday that Reps. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif.; Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla.; and Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas; will participate in the committee. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., will be an ex officio member.

“Instead of lowering costs for everyday Americans, House Republicans are once again trying to rewrite history and corrupt our electoral system,” Jeffries said in a statement. “House Democrats will continue to forcefully and aggressively push back, as we did with [President] Donald Trump’s second impeachment and the work done by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol.”

“We will not allow Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans to whitewash the violence and vile attack on the American way of life that occurred on January 6th,” Jeffries said.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., will choose who Republicans will put on the committee but hasn’t announced his picks yet. Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., is expected to lead the committee, the Washington Post reported.

On Wednesday, Republicans in the House voted to authorize a subcommittee to re-investigate the events of Jan. 6 and look at the previous Democrat-run Jan. 6 committee.

Jeffries said of Swalwell: “As the proud son of a cop, highly accomplished former prosecutor and skilled legislator experienced in holding powerful Washington politicians accountable, Rep. Swalwell will relentlessly ensure that the American people never forget who was responsible for the events of January 6th.”

The previous Jan. 6 committee was run by Republicans Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill. The 845-page document — which came out days after the panel recommended four criminal charges against President Donald Trump to the Justice Department — clearly named him as being the central figure that spurred the mob of his supporters to besiege the Capitol in an attempt to prevent the certification of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States. The report also recommended that the House consider banning Trump from running for office again.

But Republicans in the House have since said that the previous committee was biased against Trump.

At least five people were killed in connection to the siege of the Capitol, and more than 140 police officers were injured as they tried to thwart the mob of pro-Trump supporters from attacking the building.

Sept. 5 (UPI) — A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration for now from ending Temporary Protected Status for more than 1.1 million migrants from Venezuela and Haiti.

U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco ruled that the change unlawfully “truncated and condensed” the timeline to end temporary legal protections and work permits for people who fled the two Latin American nations. He was appointed by President Barack Obama.

About 600,000 Venezuelans had their protections expire in April or on Sept. 10. They have fled political unrest, mass unemployment and hunger since receiving their protected status in 2021. The ruling affects 500,000 from Haiti.

The Department of Homeland Security has attempted to end the status for several countries. Separate litigation is ongoing for migrants from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua.

“This case arose from action taken post haste by the current DHS Secretary, Kristi Noem, to revoke the legal status of Venezuelan and Haitian TPS holders, sending them back to conditions that are so dangerous that even the State Department advises against travel to their home countries,” Chen wrote in a 69-page decision. “The Secretary’s action in revoking TPS was not only unprecedented in the manner and speed in which it was taken but also violates the law.”

The decision only temporarily halted the agency from deporting them. But Chen said he expects Venezuelans will be able to renew this status while the case goes through the courts, including appeals, and ultimately the Supreme Court.

Earlier, he halted a TPS order for several hundred thousand Venezuelans. But the Supreme Court in May allowed the Trump administration to end the program as it goes through the courts.

Chen said his new decision concerned only preliminary relief, and the high court didn’t bar him from deciding on the case based upon its merits under the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs the rule-making process of the agency.

In planning to appeal, Noem said the government will “use every legal option at the Department’s disposal to end this chaos and prioritize the safety of Americans.”

“For decades the TPS program has been abused, exploited, and politicized as a de facto amnesty program. Its use has been all the more dangerous given the millions of unvetted illegal aliens the Biden Administration let into this country,” the statement obtained by CBS News read.

The Trump administration has argued that conditions in Venezuela and Haiti have improved sufficiently to end those protections.

TPS was established in 1990 to allow for temporary immigrant protections for people experiencing wars, natural disasters or other “extraordinary” conditions.

“For 35 years, the TPS statute has been faithfully executed by presidential administrations from both parties, affording relief based on the best available information obtained by the Department of Homeland Security,” Chen wrote. “This case arose from action taken post haste by the current DHS Secretary, Kristi Noem, to revoke the legal status of Venezuelan and Haitian TPS holders, sending them back to conditions that are so dangerous that even the State Department advises against travel to their home countries.”

When Donald Trump was president during his first term, he attempted to end TPS for several countries, including Haiti. Court cases were blocked during his presidency.

When Joe Biden was president, he designated Venezuela as part of TPS, covering 600,000 migrants. It was expanded to Afghanistan, Cameroon, Haiti and Ukraine.

Haiti was first designated the protection after the magnitude 7.0 earthquake in 2010. The nation faces widespread hunger and gang violence.

Two years later in 2023, he extended protections for those from Venezuela and Haiti.

When Trump became president again in January, Noem sought to reverse the extension for Venezuela and then sought to terminate the designation entirely. Haitians also were included, as well as those from other countries.

“As a matter of law, the Secretary lacked the implicit authority to vacate,” Chen wrote. “Even if she had such authority, there is no genuine dispute that she exceeded that authority.”

The National TPS Alliance and Venezuelan TPS holders in February challenged Noem’s decisions.

“From Day 1, Secretary Noem acted with a sole intent of stripping TPS-holders of their legal status whether or not there was a basis for it,” Emi MacLean, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union in Northern California, which represented the plaintiffs, said in a statement to The Washington Post. “This decision recognizes the illegality of that. As a result, TPS protections should go back into effect immediately.”

Sept. 4 (UPI) — The Justice Department has asked the Supreme Court to allow President Donald Trump to fire a member of the Federal Trade Commission without cause, a direct challenge to a 90-year-old precedent that limits political influence on such agencies.

Trump attempted to fire to Democratic commissioners, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya in March. Both challenged the move, but Bedoya later dropped out of the case.

Solicitor General John D. Sauer said in the most recent court filing that the commission has more power now than it did at its inception, implying support for Trump’s ability to fire Slaughter by exercising his presidential authority under Article 2 of the Constitution.

“In this case, the lower courts have once again ordered the reinstatement of a high-level officer wielding substantial executive authority whom the President has determined should not exercise any executive power, let alone significant rulemaking and enforcement powers,” Sauer wrote.

Sauer asked the high court to expedite the case, sidestepping any more action by lower courts.

Slaughter remains listed as an active commissioner on the FTC’s website.

This move is the latest in a series of efforts by Trump to remove members of other independent federal agencies, which the Supreme Court has approved.

A 1914 law that established the agency said members of independent commission can only be removed from “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”

Slaughter was appointed to the commission in 2018. Bedoya was originally appointed by Trump the same year. President Joe Biden re-appointed her in 2024.