19: 17
Today’s politics recap
- The governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, announced she would allow the state’s indoor mask requirement to lapse tomorrow. Customers at most businesses in New York had previously been required to wear masks or show proof of coronavirus vaccination. “Given the declining cases, given declining hospitalizations, that is why we feel comfortable to lift this, in effect tomorrow,” Hochul said this afternoon.
- The chair of House Democrats’ campaign arm applauded Hochul’s decision, which comes days after several other Democratic governors announced plans to relax mask requirements. “It’s time to give people their lives back,” Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney said. “With science as our guide, we’re ready to start getting back to normal.”
- However, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the agency continues to “recommend masking in areas of high and substantial transmission”. According to the CDC’s own data, 99.5% of all US counties currently qualify as areas of high and substantial transmission, even as the number of new coronavirus cases across the country has decreased in the past few weeks.
- The House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection has issued a subpoena to Peter Navarro, who served as Donald Trump’s top trade adviser. In its subpoena letter, the committee said it was seeking records and testimony in connection to reports that Navarro worked with Steve Bannon to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
- The National Archives is asking the Department of Justice to investigate Trump’s handling of White House documents, according to the Washington Post. The news follows revelations that the Archives took possession of 15 boxes of records at Mar-a-Lago that should have been turned over to the agency at the end of Trump’s term, reigniting questions about whether his administration violated the Presidential Records Act.
– Joan E Greve
18: 16
US-Canada bridge blockade risks huge economic damage, governments warn
Tracey Lindeman in Ottawa:
Blockades on the busiest border bridge between Canada and the US could have a serious impact on the economies of both countries, disrupting the automotive industry, agricultural exports, and causing multimillion-dollar losses, the two countries’ governments have said.
The warnings came as business associations said that manufacturing plants at the heart of North America’s automotive industry face potential shortages, shutdowns, layoffs as “freedom convoy” protesters continue to block traffic on the Ambassador Bridge, between the car-manufacturing cities of Detroit and Windsor.
“I think it’s important for everyone in Canada and the United States to understand what the potential impact of this blockage is on workers, on the supply chain,” the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said on Wednesday.
Tiff Macklem, the governor of the Bank of Canada said: “If there were to be prolonged blockages at key entry points into Canada that could start to have a measurable impact on economic activity in Canada,” he said. “We’ve already got a strained global supply chain. We don’t need this.”
Late on Wednesday, Ford announced that it had been forced to close an engine plant in Windsor, and reduce hours at a second factory because of the blockade.
David Adams, president of auto industry group Global Automakers of Canada, told the Guardian that between 5,000 and 7,000 trucks use the Ambassador Bridge daily to deliver automotive parts. The bridge is responsible for 27% of all Canada-US trade.
“It’s a pivotal border crossing,” he said.
Vehicles are Canada’s second-largest export, with the US buying more than 90% of that supply.
Business associations warned that manufacturers in the region risk losing $50m a day because of delays.
Meanwhile hundreds of protesters remain encamped in Canada’s capital, Ottawa, and others blockaded a second international bridge in Alberta also remained.
Read more:
Updated
17: 15
One in five applicants to white supremacist group tied to US military
Maya Yang
One in five applicants to the white supremacist group Patriot Front claimed to hold current or former ties to the US military, according to leaked documents published and reviewed by the Southern Poverty Law Center and alternative media collective Unicorn Riot.
Some 18 out of the 87 applicants, or 21%, said they were currently or previously affiliated with the military. One applicant, who claimed to be a former Marine, also said he currently worked for the Department of Homeland Security, according to the SPLC’s Hatewatch, a blog that tracks and exposes activities of American rightwing extremists.
A white supremacist and neo-fascist hate group, Patriot Front emerged as a rebrand of the neo-Nazi organization Vanguard America in the aftermath of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
According to the SPLC, the Patriot Front “represents one of the most prominent white supremacist groups in the country” and is led by Thomas Rousseau, a 23-year old man based in Dallas, Texas. “A nation within a nation is our goal. Our people face complete annihilation as our culture and heritage are attacked from all sides,” Rousseau once said.
In January, Unicorn Riot published over 400 gigabytes of data that included “ostensibly private, unedited videos and direct messages [that] reveal a campaign to organize acts of hatred while indoctrinating teenagers into national socialism (Nazism),” the journalist collective said.
Group members and applicants expressed an open admiration for Nazi ideologies, with the latter expressing various motivations for joining the group.
Read more:
17: 00
Today so far
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few days.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- The governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, announced she would allow the state’s indoor mask requirement to lapse tomorrow. Customers at most businesses in New York had previously been required to wear masks or show proof of coronavirus vaccination. “Given the declining cases, given declining hospitalizations, that is why we feel comfortable to lift this, in effect tomorrow,” Hochul said this afternoon.
- The chair of House Democrats’ campaign arm applauded Hochul’s decision, which comes days after several other Democratic governors announced plans to relax mask requirements. “It’s time to give people their lives back,” Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney said. “With science as our guide, we’re ready to start getting back to normal.”
- However, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the agency continues to “recommend masking in areas of high and substantial transmission”. According to the CDC’s own data, 99.5% of all US counties currently qualify as areas of high and substantial transmission, even as the number of new coronavirus cases across the country has decreased in the past few weeks.
- The House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection has issued a subpoena to Peter Navarro, who served as Donald Trump’s top trade adviser. In its subpoena letter, the committee said it was seeking records and testimony in connection to reports that Navarro worked with Steve Bannon to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
- The National Archives is asking the Department of Justice to investigate Trump’s handling of White House documents, according to the Washington Post. The news follows revelations that the Archives took possession of 15 boxes of records at Mar-a-Lago that should have been turned over to the agency at the end of Trump’s term, reigniting questions about whether his administration violated the Presidential Records Act.
Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
16: 49
In its subpoena letter to Peter Navarro, the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection accuses the Trump adviser of working with Steve Bannon to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
In his book, Navarro refers to the plan to overturn the results of the election as “Green Bay Sweep,” and the former trade adviser has claimed that more than 100 members of Congress supported the idea.
“Because you have already discussed these and other relevant issues in your recently published book, in interviews with reporters, and, among other places, on a podcast, we look forward to discussing them with you, too,” the letter says.
16: 41
Capitol attack committee subpoenas Trump trade adviser Navarro
The House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection has issued a subpoena to Peter Navarro, who served as Donald Trump’s top trade adviser.
In a statement, the committee said it was seeking records and testimony from Navarro in connection to reports that he was involved in efforts to disrupt the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
January 6th Committee
(@January6thCmte)The Select Committee subpoenas former White House trade advisor Peter Navarro.
The committee is seeking records and testimony from Navarro, who, according to reporting, interviews, and his own book, was involved in efforts to delay election certification and change the results. pic.twitter.com/cUXdvcl2hP
The committee also noted that Navarro has talked about those efforts in his own book about the final year of Trump’s presidency, entitled “In Trump Time: My Journal of America’s Plague Year”.
“Mr. Navarro appears to have information directly relevant to the Select Committee’s investigation into the causes of the January 6th attack on the Capitol,” said committee chair Bennie Thompson.
“He hasn’t been shy about his role in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and has even discussed the former President’s support for those plans. More than 500 witnesses have provided information in our investigation, and we expect Mr. Navarro to do so as well.”
16: 32
The White House also confirmed earlier today that Joe Biden will meet with Democratic members of the Senate judiciary committee tomorrow to discuss the search for a supreme court nominee.
“The President has also continued his conversations with Republicans this week, and he’s grateful to all of the members who are working with him in good faith during this process,” a White House official told the press pool.
President Biden
(@POTUS)There’s a long list of extraordinarily qualified Black women to serve on the Supreme Court. After 232 years and 115 justices, we’re finally going to put one on the bench.
The official added, “He is considering a wealth of candidates, all of whom possess the best qualifications that any person could – first-rate legal minds, strong credentials, records, and character. They have also all lived the American dream, have compelling life stories and unique strengths. And any of them would be deserving of bipartisan support because of their deep qualifications.”
Biden has pledged to nominate a Black woman to replace Stephen Breyer, who announced his retirement two weeks ago. If Biden’s nominee is confirmed, she will become the first Black woman to sit on the US supreme court.
“There’s a long list of extraordinarily qualified Black women to serve on the Supreme Court,” Biden said on Twitter today. “After 232 years and 115 justices, we’re finally going to put one on the bench.”
16: 09
Shaun Walker
Russia and Belarus will begin 10 days of joint military drills on Thursday, setting in train one of the most overtly threatening elements of the Kremlin’s buildup of forces around Ukraine’s borders.
Valery Gerasimov, the head of the Russian general staff, arrived in Belarus on Wednesday to oversee the drills.
Russia has moved up to 30,000 troops, two battalions of S-400 surface-to-air missile systems and numerous fighter jets into Belarus for joint training exercises with the Belarusian army. Satellite imagery shows much of the hardware has been moved to locations close to the border with Ukraine.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, reportedly told France’s Emmanuel Macron this week that the troops would leave Belarus when the exercises ended on 20 February. Even if that does happen, the drills show that Belarusian dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, is a firm ally in Putin’s Ukraine policy.
15: 52
Joe Biden spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron this morning, as the US and its allies continue their diplomatic efforts to deescalate tensions along Ukraine’s borders, where Vladimir Putin has deployed more than 100,000 Russian troops.
Macron traveled to Moscow and Kyiv earlier this week to hold meetings with Putin and Ukrainian officials and continue peace talks with the two countries.
“President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. spoke today with President Emmanuel Macron of France. They discussed President Macron’s recent meetings in Russia and Ukraine,” the White House said in its readout.
“They also talked about ongoing diplomatic and deterrence efforts, undertaken in close coordination with our Allies and partners, in response to Russia’s continued military build-up on Ukraine’s borders.”
Despite those diplomatic efforts, Russia has continued to build up its troop presence along Ukraine’s borders, intensifying fears that the window of opportunity for a peaceful resolution to the crisis may be closing.
15: 34
The Post also has additional details on the Trump White House records that were included in those 15 boxes of documents recovered by the National Archives from Mar-a-Lago:
Among the materials they recovered included correspondence with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which Trump once described as ‘love letters,’ as well as a letter left for Trump by President Barack Obama, people familiar with the matter said. The Archives also retrieved a doctored map of Hurricane Dorian that had been altered with a black Sharpie by Trump in a failed attempt to show he hadn’t been wrong about the storm’s path, according to a person familiar with the contents of the boxes. The Archives in a statement earlier this week said that Trump representatives are ‘continuing to search’ for additional records.
Trump attracted widespread criticism in 2019, when he used a Sharpie to alter a map of Hurricane Dorian’s projected path in an effort to substantiate his incorrect claims that the storm could hit Alabama.
15: 22
Archives asks Justice Department to investigate Trump’s handling of records – report
The National Archives is reportedly asking the Department of Justice to investigate Donald Trump’s handling of his White House records, following revelations that the former president withheld important documents from the agency.
The Washington Post reports:
The National Archives and Records Administration has asked the Justice Department to examine Donald Trump’s handling of White House records, sparking discussions among federal law enforcement officials about whether they should investigate the former president for a possible crime, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The referral from the National Archives came amid recent revelations that officials recovered 15 boxes of materials from the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence that weren’t handed back in to the government as they should have been, and that Trump had turned over other White House records that had been torn up. Archives officials suspected Trump had possibly violated laws concerning the handling of government documents — including those that might be considered classified — and reached out to the Justice Department, the people familiar with the matter said.
The House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection has subpoenaed a wide swath of documents from the Trump White House, which has reinvigorated questions over the administration’s potential violations of the Presidential Records Act.
As of now, it is unclear whether the Department of Justice will actually launch an investigation into Trump’s handling of White House documents.
15: 09
Joe Biden asked the CEOs of electric utilities about the community response as their companies come to rely more on clean-energy options, such as wind energy.
“Are you getting less resistance when you start talking about wind and windmills? I know they cause cancer,” Biden said. As some of the CEOs laughed at that comment, Biden added, “Bad joke.”
The president’s comment appeared to be a reference to Donald Trump’s bizarre and baseless claim that the noise emitted by wind turbines causes cancer, which was widely mocked.
Biden’s roundtable with the CEOs is still happening, but reporters were escorted out of the meeting after the president’s opening remarks. He did not take any questions as the reporters departed.
Updated
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