Summary of the day so far
It’s 7pm in Washington. Here’s where things stand:
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The US stands just days from a full government shutdown amid political deadlock over demands from rightwing congressional Republicans for deep public spending cuts. Fuelled by bitter ideological divisions among the Republican majority in the House, funding for federal agencies will run out at midnight on 30 September unless Congress votes to pass a stopgap measure to extend government funding. Here’s what you should know about the impending shutdown.
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The House Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy, suffered another embarrassing defeat, after hard-right lawmakers tanked his stopgap funding bill that would have averted a federal shutdown. McCarthy’s proposed stopgap measure, which would have funded the government for another month while enacting severe spending cuts on most federal agencies, failed in a vote of 198 to 232.
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The Senate is scheduled to take another procedural vote at 1pm on Saturday to advance its stopgap bill to avert a government shutdown. Senate Republicans are reportedly discussing a short-term funding bill that would not include any significant money for Ukraine or disaster relief as part of a last-ditch effort to avoid a shutdown.
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Dianne Feinstein, the oldest serving member of the US Senate who blazed a trail for women in American politics, has died aged 90. Joe Biden led tributes, calling Feinstein a “pioneering American” and “true trailblazer”. For Democrats, her death has significant political implications.
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The United Auto Workers (UAW) union escalated its strike against the big three US automakers as the industrial action entered its third week. UAW president Shawn Fain said another 7,000 workers would be joining the action. About 25,000 workers are now on strike.
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US district judge Tanya Chutkan has scheduled a 16 October hearing on federal prosecutors’ request for a limited gag order in the case charging Donald Trump with scheming to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Special counsel Jack Smith had requested a gag order barring Trump from making inflammatory and intimidating public statements about potential witnesses, lawyers and other people involved in the case.
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Scott Hall, an Atlanta-area bail bondsman, pleaded guilty to multiple criminal charges in the Georgia election interference case, becoming the first defendant in the Fulton county case to take a plea deal. Hall was charged in relation to the alleged breach of voting machine equipment in the wake of the 2020 election in Coffee county.
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Jeffrey Clark, the former justice department lawyer who schemed with Donald Trump and others to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia and other states, was denied in his attempt to move his case from state court to federal court.
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A federal judge has denied requests made by three fake Trump electors seeking to transfer their criminal cases for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia to federal court. US district judge Steve Jones, in three separate rulings, rejected arguments made by David Shafer, Shawn Still and Cathy Latham that they had acted as federal officials at the time they voted for Donald Trump as electors for the Republican party in Georgia in December 2020.
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Robert F Kennedy Jr is reported to be ending his challenge to Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination and run instead as an independent candidate, in a move that could upset the 2024 race for the White House.
Key events
During a visit to southern California Donald Trump gave an address to Republicans that honed in on fears that California cities are becoming a crime-addled wasteland. He went as far as to suggest that under a second Trump presidency people caught shoplifting “should fully expect to be shot” as they leave the stores they stole from, the Associated Press reports.
“We will reverse the decline of America and we will end the desecration of your once great state, California,” Trump told his supporters on Friday. “This is not a great state anymore. This is a dumping ground. You’re a dumping ground. The world is being dumped into California. Prisoners. Terrorists. Mental patients.”
Trump’s statements comes days after his Republican competitors took the stage for the second debate of the 2024 primary. Trump was absent from the debate.
It’s not the first time Trump has suggested shooting people. In 2019 the then-president suggested shooting migrants who crossed the border illegally.
Read more of the AP’s reporting from Trump’s southern California event here.
Summary of the day so far
It’s 7pm in Washington. Here’s where things stand:
-
The US stands just days from a full government shutdown amid political deadlock over demands from rightwing congressional Republicans for deep public spending cuts. Fuelled by bitter ideological divisions among the Republican majority in the House, funding for federal agencies will run out at midnight on 30 September unless Congress votes to pass a stopgap measure to extend government funding. Here’s what you should know about the impending shutdown.
-
The House Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy, suffered another embarrassing defeat, after hard-right lawmakers tanked his stopgap funding bill that would have averted a federal shutdown. McCarthy’s proposed stopgap measure, which would have funded the government for another month while enacting severe spending cuts on most federal agencies, failed in a vote of 198 to 232.
-
The Senate is scheduled to take another procedural vote at 1pm on Saturday to advance its stopgap bill to avert a government shutdown. Senate Republicans are reportedly discussing a short-term funding bill that would not include any significant money for Ukraine or disaster relief as part of a last-ditch effort to avoid a shutdown.
-
Dianne Feinstein, the oldest serving member of the US Senate who blazed a trail for women in American politics, has died aged 90. Joe Biden led tributes, calling Feinstein a “pioneering American” and “true trailblazer”. For Democrats, her death has significant political implications.
-
The United Auto Workers (UAW) union escalated its strike against the big three US automakers as the industrial action entered its third week. UAW president Shawn Fain said another 7,000 workers would be joining the action. About 25,000 workers are now on strike.
-
US district judge Tanya Chutkan has scheduled a 16 October hearing on federal prosecutors’ request for a limited gag order in the case charging Donald Trump with scheming to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Special counsel Jack Smith had requested a gag order barring Trump from making inflammatory and intimidating public statements about potential witnesses, lawyers and other people involved in the case.
-
Scott Hall, an Atlanta-area bail bondsman, pleaded guilty to multiple criminal charges in the Georgia election interference case, becoming the first defendant in the Fulton county case to take a plea deal. Hall was charged in relation to the alleged breach of voting machine equipment in the wake of the 2020 election in Coffee county.
-
Jeffrey Clark, the former justice department lawyer who schemed with Donald Trump and others to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia and other states, was denied in his attempt to move his case from state court to federal court.
-
A federal judge has denied requests made by three fake Trump electors seeking to transfer their criminal cases for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia to federal court. US district judge Steve Jones, in three separate rulings, rejected arguments made by David Shafer, Shawn Still and Cathy Latham that they had acted as federal officials at the time they voted for Donald Trump as electors for the Republican party in Georgia in December 2020.
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Robert F Kennedy Jr is reported to be ending his challenge to Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination and run instead as an independent candidate, in a move that could upset the 2024 race for the White House.
Senate Republicans are discussing a short-term funding bill that would not include any significant money for Ukraine or disaster relief as part of a last-ditch effort to avoid a government shutdown, according to reports.
Senate Republicans debated proposing a two-week continuing resolution (CR) to buy more time for themselves to draft a border security amendment, the Hill reported.
The report cited Republican senator Rand Paul as saying:
I think the most important thing is the CR with the Ukraine funding won’t pass the House. Everybody needs to know that. That’s what they’ve said in the House.
Funding for Ukraine remains popular among most Republicans in the Senate, and an hours-long meeting on Friday lacked consensus, the Washington Post reported.
“There’s interest, but no unanimity in any way,” Senator Mike Braun said.
Judge denies requests by three Georgia fake electors to move cases to federal court
A federal judge has denied requests made by three fake Trump electors seeking to transfer their criminal cases for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia to federal court.
US district judge Steve Jones, in three separate rulings, rejected arguments made by the three defendants that they had acted as federal officials at the time they voted for Donald Trump as electors for the Republican party in Georgia in December 2020.
He wrote in all three orders:
The Court first determines that presidential electors are not federal officers.
The ruling means that the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, can move forward with her prosecution in state court.
Donald Trump mocked the former speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, during a speech at the California Republican party’s fall convention.
“How’s her husband doing, anybody know?” Trump asked. A few members of the crowd could be heard laughing in response.
Paul Pelosi underwent surgery last year after he was attacked at the couple’s home in California with a hammer.
After saying he’ll “stand up to crazy Nancy Pelosi” at the Republican Convention in California, Donald Trump says, “How’s her husband doing, by the way? Anybody know?” pic.twitter.com/TL8Tsa4IXU
— The Recount (@therecount) September 29, 2023
House majority leader Steve Scalise told Republican members that a two-week recess planned next month has been cancelled, NBC reported, citing sources.
Instead, the House will spend the two weeks working on individual appropriations bills, according to the sources.
House Republicans are privately admitting that a government shutdown could last for at least two weeks, the Washington Post reported, citing sources.
The report added that pressure is building for the government to reopen before military service members are set to receive their next paychecks in mid-October.
Joe Biden, speaking during a ceremony this afternoon honoring the outgoing chair of the joint chiefs of staff, Mark Milley, said the longer a shutdown lasts, the harder it becomes for military families to pay their bills. “It’s a disgrace,” the president said.
You can’t be playing politics when our troops stand in the breach. It’s an absolute dereliction of duty.
Senate to vote on stopgap bill tomorrow 1pm
The Senate is scheduled to take another procedural vote at 1pm on Saturday to advance its stopgap bill to avert a government shutdown.
Vote scheduled: Under the regular order, at 1:00pm, on Saturday, September 30th, the Senate will proceed to a roll call vote on the motion to invoke cloture on substitute amendment #1292 to Cal. #211, H.R.3935, legislative vehicle for the Continuing Resolution (November 17th).
— Senate Cloakroom (@SenateCloakroom) September 29, 2023
Trump to attend New York civil fraud trial in person – court filing
Donald Trump plans to attend at least the first week of his $250m civil fraud trial brought by the New York attorney general Letitia James, according to court documents.
James sued Trump and his adult sons last year, alleging widespread fraud connected to the Trump Organization and seeking $250m and professional sanctions. The trial is scheduled to start on 2 October.
Trump’s plan to attend the trial was revealed in court filings in a separate lawsuit Trump filed against his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, according to a Politico report.
The former president had been scheduled to undergo a deposition in the case on Tuesday in Florida, but the documents show that Trump’s attorneys “requested to reschedule his deposition so that he could attend his previously-scheduled New York trial in person”.
The filings state:
Through counsel, Plaintiff represented that he would be attending his New York trial in person—at least for each day of the first week of trial. He also stated that, because of the trial, he would be unavailable on any business day between October 2, 2023 and the end of his trial.
Judge sets hearing on Trump gag order in January 6 case
US district judge Tanya Chutkan has scheduled a 16 October hearing on federal prosecutors’ request for a limited gag order in the case charging Donald Trump with scheming to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Special counsel Jack Smith had requested a gag order barring Trump from making inflammatory and intimidating public statements about potential witnesses, lawyers and other people involved in the case.
Smith’s proposed order would bar “statements regarding the identity, testimony, or credibility of prospective witnesses” and “statements about any party, witness, attorney, court personnel, or potential jurors that are disparaging and inflammatory, or intimidating.”
Trump’s lawyers earlier this week denounced the gag order request as a “desperate attempt at censorship”.
Gabrielle Canon
National parks across the US will close to visitors as soon as Sunday if Congress is unable to avert a government shutdown, the Department of Interior has announced.
“Gates will be locked, visitor centers will be closed, and thousands of park rangers will be furloughed,” the interior department wrote in a news release on Friday.
Accordingly, the public will be encouraged not to visit sites during the period of lapse in appropriations out of consideration for protection of natural and cultural resources, as well as visitor safety.
The plan, outlined in an updated National Parks Service (NPS) contingency plan, emphasizes the need to protect park resources and ensure visitor health and safety.
The decision marks a notable departure from how the national park system was handled under the Trump administration during the last government shutdown. During a funding stalemate that stretched for 35 days through the end of 2018 into 2019, officials ordered parks to remain accessible to the public while they were without key staff, resources and services.
That decision culminated in destruction and chaos at some of the country’s most cherished landmarks such as Joshua Tree national park, with high levels of vandalism, accumulation of human waste and trash and significant risks to ecosystems and unsupervised visitors.
What does a US shutdown mean? Seven things you should know
Robert Tait
The US stands just days from a full government shutdown amid political deadlock over demands from rightwing congressional Republicans for deep public spending cuts.
Fuelled by bitter ideological divisions among the Republican majority in the House of Representatives, funding for federal agencies will run out at midnight on 30 September unless – against widespread expectation – Congress votes to pass a stopgap measure to extend government funding.
It is an event with the potential to inflict disruption to a range of public services, cause delays in salaries, and wreak significant damage on the national economy if it becomes prolonged.
At the heart of the looming upheaval is the uncertain status of the Republican House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, who is under fire from members of his own party for agreeing spending limits with Joe Biden, that members of the GOP’s far-right “Freedom Caucus” say are too generous and want to urgently prune.
Here are seven things you should know about the looming shutdown.