Democratic senators urge Biden to invoke 14th amendment to prevent debt default – as it happened

Negotiators representing Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy are finally getting to work on finding an agreement to raise the debt ceiling before America potentially defaults on 1 June. The speaker of the house says Republicans want tighter requirements on government aid recipients in any deal and no tax hikes, while the president said he wasn’t interested in further restricting access to anti-poverty programs, underscoring an issue that could prove a wedge before the two sides. The president then left town for Japan on a truncated trip to Asia, where he’ll meet with leaders from the G7 as well as countries in the Quad, a bloc intended to counter China’s influence.

Here’s a rundown of the day’s news:

• Biden deflected criticism that by skipping planned visits to Australia and Papua New Guinea, he’s undercutting his administration’s efforts to build alliances against Beijing in the Pacific.

• Senate Democrats want Biden to consider invoking the constitution’s 14th amendment, which they say would guarantee the US government could keep paying its bills even if the debt ceiling is not raised.

• The supreme court declined to block Illinois’s ban on military-style weapons from taking effect while legal challenges make their way through the courts.

• The House GOP appears ready to block a Democratic resolution that would expel indicted fabulist George Santos from the chamber. They would instead refer the resolution to the ethics committee, which is investigating him.

• Are Democrats regaining strength in Florida? The triumph of a mayoral candidate in Jacksonville could be a positive sign for the party, which has appeared weak in recent state elections.

Even as Republican-led states push ahead with restricting abortion, the party’s presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has stayed vague about the degree to which he would support cutting off access to the procedure.

That’s provided Joe Biden an opening. In a tweet, he dissected a cryptic Truth social post Trump made today to argue the former president favors national abortion restrictions:

The battle over access to the abortion medication mifepristone is continuing today, as an appeals panel with a history of hostility to reproductive rights hears arguments in the case, which narrowly escaped being taken out of pharmacies last month. The Guardian’s Ramon Antonio Vargas has the latest on the ongoing hearing:

Three US appeals court judges who have previously favored abortion restrictions prepared to hear oral arguments on Wednesday on the future of the major abortion drug mifepristone.

The case – which has landed before judges Jennifer Walker Elrod, James Ho and Cory Wilson – essentially calls on them to rule on whether the federal government should suspend or scale back the federal Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of mifepristone in 2000, along with later actions that made the pill more widely accessible.

Mifepristone has consistently been found to be safe and effective, and advocates argue that it is safer than the erectile dysfunction medication Viagra and low-level pain reliever Tylenol.

Arguing that Republicans are not negotiating “in good faith”, a group of Democratic senators is planning to send Joe Biden a letter requesting he use his authority under the 14th amendment of the constitution to continue paying the US government’s bills, even if the debt ceiling is not raised.

“It is unfortunate that Republicans in the House of Representatives and Senate are not acting in good faith. Instead, Republicans have made it clear that they are prepared to hold our entire economy hostage unless you accede to their demands to reduce the deficit on the backs of working families. That is simply unacceptable,” reads the letter obtained by the Guardian.

“We write to urgently request that you prepare to exercise your authority under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which clearly states: ‘the validity of the public debt of the United States ... shall not be questioned.’ Using this authority would allow the United States to continue to pay its bills on-time, without delay, preventing a global economic catastrophe.”

The letter is being circulated among lawmakers, and current signatories include Democratic senators Tina Smith, Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey, Jeff Merkley and Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats.

Here’s a story to watch. Last night, Jacksonville, Florida, elected a Democratic mayor, turning away a Republican candidate backed by governor Ron DeSantis. Florida is often considered a swing state, but has turned rightward in recent elections and saw Democratic candidates perform especially poorly in the last November’s midterms. Could the outcome of the mayor’s race in Jacksonville be a positive sign for the party statewide? The Associated Press has the latest on the election:

In a major electoral upset on Tuesday, voters in Jacksonville elected their first female mayor, defeating a Republican backed by business leaders and endorsed by Ron DeSantis, the state governor and prospective presidential candidate.

Jacksonville is the most populous Florida city, with about 950,000 residents. Donna Deegan, a Democrat, earned 52% of the vote, beating Daniel Davis. About 217,000 people voted, a turnout of 33%.

DeSantis’s hard-right agenda has often made national headlines.

But in Jacksonville, Deegan said: “Love won tonight, and we made history.

“We have a new day in Jacksonville because people chose unity over division – creating a broad coalition of people across the political spectrum that want a unified city.”

17 May 202314.36 EDT

Martin Pengelly

Kaitlan Collins has been given a primetime slot on CNN – a week after struggling to hold the hospital pass that was trying to manage Donald Trump in a New Hampshire town hall which landed the network in hot water.

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In a memo to staff today, reported by the Associated Press, Chris Licht, the CNN chairman who has come under fire for hosting Trump, called Collins “a smart and gifted journalist who we’ve all seen hold lawmakers and newsmakers accountable.

“She pushes politicians off their talking points, gets real answers – and as everyone who’s worked with her knows – breaks a lot of news.”

Last week, defending the decision to host Trump, Licht argued that CNN had covered the news as well as making it.

Collins’s performance at St Anselm’s College in Manchester was generally well reviewed, for the way she attempted to call out Trump’s lies about the Capitol attack, election subversion and other subjects.

But fact checks she inevitably missed (on abortion, for example), coupled with displays of audience merriment – such as when Trump attacked E Jean Carroll, the writer he was found liable for sexually assaulting and defaming – ensured a bumpy ride.

Collins will take over an evening slot formerly filled by Chris Cuomo, who left CNN amid controversy over his coverage of and advice to his brother, the now disgraced former New York governor Andrew Cuomo.

As the Associated Press reports, CNN “has struggled to gain traction without Cuomo. On Monday, for example, CNN averaged 454,000 viewers in the time slot, compared to Rachel Maddow’s 2.41 million viewers on MSNBC and Sean Hannity’s 1.97 million on Fox, the Nielsen company said”.

Collins’s move takes her away from CNN’s revamped but troubled morning show, from which her co-anchor Don Lemon was fired last month. Poppy Harlow will continue on that show with guest hosts, Licht said today.

Licht also said CNN “prioritize[s] reporting over punditry and separate the news from the noise”.

17 May 202314.12 EDT

Martin Pengelly

My colleague Victoria Bekiempis is quick with the news, out of New York City, that the former mayor and prominent Trump ally Rudy Giuliani has a new legal problem today …

A heckler who was charged with assaulting Rudy Giuliani at a Staten Island grocery store last year has filed suit against the former New York mayor and prominent Trump ally, alleging he levied an empty accusation.

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The lawsuit filed by Daniel Gill in Manhattan federal court also names as defendants the city and several police officers.

It says they “participated in an unlawful conspiracy … to deprive [Gill] of his right to liberty, to his right to speak freely without retribution, and to be free from unreasonable seizures, in violation of his rights under the first, fourth and 14th amendments to the constitution of the United States.”

Filed by the prominent civil rights attorney Ron Kuby, the civil action seeks monetary damages “for false arrest, civil rights conspiracy resulting in false arrest and false imprisonment, defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligent infliction of emotional distress”.

The Guardian contacted a Giuliani attorney for comment.

On 26 June 2022, Giuliani was campaigning with his son, Andrew Giuliani, a candidate for governor of New York – in what the new suit calls a “vanity run” – when Gill, a grocery store employee, walked past and clapped the former mayor on the back, saying: “What’s up, scumbag?”

Giuliani, then 78, accused Gill of hitting him on the back – and said the feeling was like being shot or struck with a boulder.

In the words of Gill’s lawsuit, “video footage captured the entire encounter. One person called 911 and [officers] arrived on the scene, followed by other NYPD officers.”

Gill was arrested and spent more than 24 hours in jail before being arraigned on misdemeanor charges including third-degree assault.

17 May 202313.53 EDT

Martin Pengelly

Stepping way from Washington and the debt ceiling fight for a moment, Ron DeSantis signed a slate of anti-LGBTQ+ bills earlier, using a Christian school in Tampa as a stage for his latest culture-war-fueled move towards declaring a run for the Republican presidential nomination.

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In front of a cheering crowd, the governor signed bills banning gender-affirming care for minors, restricting pronoun use in public schools and forcing people to use bathrooms corresponding to their sex in some situations.

“It’s kind of sad that we even have some of these discussions,” DeSantis said, speaking from a lectern carrying the slogan: Let Kids Be Kids.

“We never did this through all of human history until like, what, two weeks ago? Now this is something? They’re having third-graders declare pronouns? We’re not doing the pronoun Olympics in Florida.”

DeSantis is expected to announce his run for the presidency soon. He places a clear second in Republican polling – if a long way behind the former president Donald Trump.

Observers – and donors – have questioned whether his hard-right record in Florida, enabled by Republican supermajorities in the state legislature, will place him too far from the mainstream to win a general election against Joe Biden, should he secure the GOP nomination.

A six-week abortion ban and a legal fight with Disney, over its opposition to some of his anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, have also been raised as possible obstacles to success for DeSantis on the national stage.

Here’s more, on another aspect of Florida politics rather less thrilling for DeSantis:

Progressive House Democrats are signaling their opposition to Republican attempts to tighten access to federal anti-poverty programs.

Here’s Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts:

And Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar:

Yesterday, Democratic senator John Fetterman said he may not vote for a measure to raise the debt ceiling that cuts support for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), often called food stamps. Here’s his statement:

No one I’ve ever met wants to stay on SNAP for life. They need it to make ends meet. I sure didn’t come to Washington to take vital assistance away from working people at the same time big bank CEOs nearly crash the economy and get to jet off to Hawaii scot-free. I cannot in good conscience support a debt ceiling proposal that pushes people into poverty.

He raised the issue again in a Tuesday hearing with former executives from the failed Signature and Silicon Valley banks:

The flare up in the debt ceiling standoff has provided Donald Trump with a perhaps welcome break from the public spotlight, as he deals with a swirl of scandals, investigations and prosecutions. But the Guardian’s Peter Stone reports that Trump hasn’t relented in his zeal to attack his foes, raising concerns among some legal observers:

As Donald Trump’s legal troubles mount at the federal, state and local levels, the ex-president and his lawyers are banking on their political allies in the Republican party to make attacks on a New York prosecutor who has charged Trump with criminal offenses, and to also get them to help derail investigations that endanger his 2024 campaign.

Former prosecutors and members of both parties have voiced strong criticism about the drives by Trump, his lawyers and Republican House allies to attack prosecutors who have filed charges against Trump or are investigating him, calling such moves antithetical to democratic principles and the rule of law.

Such criticism has not deterred Trump, his lawyers or pliable Republicans from trying to discredit prosecutors with political attacks that in part reflect Trump’s lack of success in convincing courts to curb prosecutors.

In April, the House judiciary committee chairman, Jim Jordan, a key Trump ally, publicly launched an inquiry into the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, soon after he filed a 34-count indictment of Trump for falsifying business records tied to alleged hush money payments that Trump made in 2016 to Stormy Daniels, the porn star who claimed Trump had an affair with her.

In a Fox News interview last month, Jordan echoed Trump’s attacks on Bragg for “interfering” in the coming election charging that “Alvin Bragg used federal tax dollars to go after a former president, to indict a former president for no crime, [which] interferes with the federal election”.

Negotiators representing Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy are finally getting to work on finding an agreement to raise the debt ceiling before America potentially defaults on 1 June. McCarthy says Republicans want tighter requirements on government aid recipients in any deal and no tax hikes, while Biden said he wasn’t interested in further restricting access to anti-poverty programs, underscoring an issue that could prove a wedge before the two sides. The president then left town for Japan on a truncated trip to Asia, where he’ll meet with leaders from the G7 as well as countries in the Quad, an alliance intended to counter China’s influence.

Here’s a rundown of the day’s news so far:

• Biden deflected criticism that by skipping planned visits to Australia and Papua New Guinea, he’s undercutting his administration’s efforts to build alliances against Beijing in the Pacific.

• The supreme court declined to block Illinois’s ban on military-style weapons from taking effect while legal challenges make their way through the courts.

• The House GOP appears ready to block a Democratic resolution that would expel indicted fabulist George Santos from the chamber. They would instead refer the resolution to the ethics committee, which is investigating him.

Joe Biden, meanwhile, said he wasn’t interested in imposing work requirements “of any consequences” on federal anti-poverty programs.

His comments, at the tail end of his speech about an hour ago, indicate that the new requirements proposed by Republicans could be a sticking point in the negotiations with Kevin McCarthy.

Here’s a clip of the president’s comments:

Kevin McCarthy just concluded a press conference alongside Republican lawmakers from the House and Senate, where he ruled out increasing taxes in a debt ceiling deal and signaled he would push for stricter work requirements for recipients of federal government aid.

“No!” he replied when asked if he would consider higher taxes on wealthy Americans as part of a debt limit compromise.

He also justified the GOP’s push to insist people in programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program work in order to receive the benefits. “Why wouldn’t he want to help people get out of poverty?” McCarthy asked, tying stricter work requirements to the programs’ effectiveness – a link studies have found is uneven.

He also said he would stick to a promise made during his contentious election as speaker of the House to give lawmakers 72 hours to review any legislation before it is voted on.

“It takes so many days to get through the Senate, so many days through the House. We have a 72 hour rule, which I’m not going to break. I think the American public and all the members should have 72 hours to read what we end up with, if we’re able to end up with it,” McCarthy said.

As he departed the White House’s Roosevelt Room after speaking to reporters, Joe Biden was asked if he had given China a win by cancelling his visits to Australia and Papua New Guinea.

“No,” he replied. “We’re still formidable allies.”

And while it was difficult to hear exactly what he said, the president signaled he intended to speak or meet in the future with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping.

In order to return to Washington DC on Sunday, Joe Biden canceled visits to Australia and Papua New Guinea intended to shore up America’s alliances against China.

In his speech at the White House, Biden signaled he was aware of the criticism that his administration isn’t taking efforts to counter China’s influence seriously.

“In the meantime, I’ve spoken to the Australian leader [Anthony] Albanese … I’m going to be seeing him at the G7,” Biden said, adding he would also see the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, and the Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, at the meeting. Biden was to meet with the leaders at a meeting of the Quad regional group in Australia, which has now been canceled.

“The Quad members will be there, will get a chance to talk separately at the meeting, but it’s unlikely I’m going to be going on to Australia,” the president said.

Joe Biden said he would remain in touch with his negotiators along with Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy during his trip to meet G7 leaders in Japan.

“I’ll be in constant contact with my team while I’m at the G7 and be in close touch with Speaker McCarthy and other leaders as well,” he said. “What I have done in anticipation that we won’t get it all done till I get back is, I’ve cut my trip short in order to be [here] for the final negotiations and sign the deal with the majority leader.”

He said he expected to return to Washington DC on Sunday and hold a press conference.