Mike Johnson justifies Mayorkas impeachment, claiming ‘desperate times call for desperate measures’ – live – The Guardian US

In a statement, the chair of the Senate select committee on intelligence, Mark Warner, and the vice-chair of the committee, Marco Rubio, said the committee “has the intelligence” that House intelligence committee chair Mike Turner referred to in a Wednesday statement warning of a national security threat.

According to the statement, the committee “has been rigorously tracking this issue from the start”. The statement warned against “potentially disclosing sources and methods that may be key to preserving a range of options for US action”.

CNN has reported the alleged threat is related to Russian military capabilities.

Nikki Haley blasted Donald Trump for his comments on her husband, who is currently deployed overseas. The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly puts Haley’s remarks in context:

Donald Trump is “unhinged” and “diminished”, said Nikki Haley, the former president’s last rival for the Republican presidential nomination, on Wednesday.

“To mock my husband, Michael and I can handle that,” the former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador told NBC News’s Today, referring to comments by Trump about Michael Haley, a national guard officer deployed in Djibouti.

“But you mock one member of the military, you mock all members of the military … Before, when he did it, it was during the 2016 election, and everybody thought, ‘Oh, did he have a slip? What did that mean?’ The problem now is he is not the same person he was in 2016. He is unhinged. He is more diminished than he was.”

In the 2016 campaign, Trump mocked John McCain, an Arizona senator and former nominee for president who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Having avoided the draft for that war, Trump was expected to pay a heavy political price but did not, going on to attract controversy in office for allegedly deriding those who serve.

House speaker Mike Johnson has reportedly declared “no need for public alarm” regarding House intelligence committee chair Mike Turner’s national security warning. “Steady hands are at the wheel, we’re working on it, there’s no need for alarm,” Johnson told media on Wednesday afternoon.

His comments come after Turner issued a statement that Congress had been made aware of a “serious national security threat” and called on Joe Biden to “declassify all information” related to it.

During a press briefing, the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said he planned to meet with members of the House intelligence committee on Thursday.

“We scheduled a briefing for the for House members of the Gang of Eight tomorrow,” said Sullivan. “I am a bit surprised that Congressman Turner came out publicly today in advance of a meeting on the books for me to go sit with him alongside our intelligence and defense professionals tomorrow.”

Turner’s concerns are reportedly related to Russian military capabilities.

A Michigan Republican accused of participating in a fake elector plot after the 2020 presidential election testified on Wednesday that he did not know how the electoral process worked and never intended to make a false public record, the Associated Press reports.

“We were told this was an appropriate process,” James Renner, 77, said during a preliminary hearing for a half-dozen other electors who face forgery and other charges.

People who falsely posed as electors in a six-state scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election have been criminally charged in Georgia and Nevada. In Wisconsin, false electors agreed to a settlement in a civil case in December.

“You have a majority of Americans who believe that we need to protect our democracy,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in response to a question about recent polling showing about 18% of Americans believe in the conspiracy theory that Taylor Swift is part of a plot by Democrats to deliver the 2024 presidential election to Joe Biden. That poll also found people who believe the Taylor Swift theory are also more likely to doubt the validity of the 2020 presidential election.

The United States expects Israel to meet its commitment to allow a shipment of flour to be moved into Gaza, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

Sullivan was responding to a question about an Axios report on Tuesday that said the Israeli government was blocking a US-funded flour shipment to Gaza.

Jake Sullivan has finished taking questions from the media and has left the west wing now. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will now take the briefing onto more domestic matters in US political news.

Meanwhile, Axios wrote:

Israeli ultranationalist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is blocking a U.S.-funded flour shipment to Gaza because its recipient is the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), two Israeli and U.S. officials told Axios.

U.S. officials said this is a violation of a commitment Benjamin Netanyahu personally made to President Biden several weeks ago and another reason the U.S. leader is frustrated with the Israeli prime minister.

CNN reports the national security threat that Congressman Mike Turner called on Joe Biden to declassify is related to a “highly concerning and destabilizing” Russian military capability.

During a press briefing, the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, declined to comment on the specifics of the threat.

“We scheduled a briefing for the for House members of the Gang of Eight tomorrow,” said Sullivan. “I am a bit surprised that Congressman Turner came out publicly today in advance of a meeting on the books for me to go sit with him alongside our intelligence and defense professionals tomorrow.”

National security adviser Jake Sullivan was asked at the White House press briefing about efforts to secure a “temporary pause” in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, and how that might work.

There are international talks under way in Egypt about a ceasefire in Gaza and a deal with Hamas to return hostages it took during its attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, which provoked a crushing Israeli military response in Gaza. Our colleague Bethan McKernan reports that mediators are struggling to make progress in the face of a threatened Israeli offensive on Rafah, the Palestinian territory’s last place of relative safety.

Sullivan described that a plan could “start with the temporary pause … The idea is that we have multiple phases as part of the hostage deal and we move from phase 1 to the next and we can extend the pause [in fighting] as more hostages come out.”

He added: “What we would like to see is that Hamas is ultimately defeated, that peace and security come to Gaza, and then we work towards a longer term, two-state solution, with Gaza’s security guaranteed.”

Our colleague Léonie Chao-Fong wrote this explainer piece over the weekend about the latest US push for a solution in the Middle East that would result in Israel and Palestine coexisting in peace. You can read it here.

In a statement, Republican congressman Mike Turner, who chairs the House intelligence committee, warned that Congress had been alerted to a “serious national security threat” and called on Biden to “declassify all information related to this threat”. During a press briefing, the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, declined to directly address the nature of the alleged threat and said that he had plans to meet with congressional intelligence lawmakers tomorrow.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a press briefing that Tom Suozzi, the New York Democrat who won a special election for George Santos’ vacated seat in congress, had pulled off his win in part because of his support for legislation cracking down on immigration.

“The people of New York’s third district issued a strong repudiation of Republicans who put politics ahead of national security,” said Jean-Pierre, referring to a bill that Republicans killed last week which would have implemented immigration restrictions in exchange for the release of foreign aid.

Her comments match a shift in tone by Democrats, who have moved to the right on immigration politics during Joe Biden’s first term in office.

Jake Sullivan, talking in the west wing at the weekday White House press briefing, said that while Nato allies are doing a lot to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia, “there is no substitute for the US coming forward with this funding”.

Sullivan, the national security adviser, said that Ukrainians are “a brave, courageous people defending their homeland” and, when asked how long Ukraine can hang on against the Russian invasion, he added: “They will keep fighting but they will fight from a less strong position” if they don’t get more funding from the US to help get their territory back.

He said the difficulties intensified with “each passing day, each passing week” that US aid does not arrive.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan is urging the US House to take up and pass the $95bn national security bill – moved through the Senate early yesterday – that would supply more support for Ukraine, Israel and other US allies such as Taiwan, as well as further aid.

The need for more US aid for Ukraine is particularly acute in its grinding resistance to the almost two-year-old invasion and bombardment of its territory and people by Russia.

Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, wants talks on his terms to end the conflict.

Sullivan said: “We know from history that when you do not stand up to dictators they keep going. So President Biden is determined to get this [funding legislation] done, to get this aid out the door so that we are helping friends and partners.”

The White House press briefing is just beginning. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has wished the gathered media a happy Valentine’s Day and said that Joe Biden called New York Democrat Tom Suozzi to congratulate him last night after he flipped the congressional seat vacated by the disgraced and expelled Republican George Santos in the special election.

She’s now handed the foreign policy section of the briefing over to the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, who is there today instead of national security spokesperson John Kirby.

Sullivan will take questions, after praising the US Senate for having passed the $95bn national security bill early yesterday that will supply more support for Ukraine, Israel and other US allies such as Taiwan, as well as further aid. So far, the legislation’s prospects in the Republican-controlled House are dim.

Sullivan, however, predicts that if the bill can be brought to a full vote on the floor of the House that it will pass with bipartisan support.

• House Speaker Mike Johnson defended the House’s decision to impeach the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas. “Desperate times call for desperate measures. We had to do that,” he said during a weekly press conference of Republican leadership.

• An impeachment trial for Mayorkas will happen in two weeks when the Senate returns from a recess. Removal from office, which requires the votes of two-thirds of senators, is extremely unlikely. The Senate isn’t expected to spend very long on the trial, CNN reports.

• Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, has called the impeachment a “sham”. Joe Biden said: “History will not look kindly on House Republicans for their blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honorable public servant in order to play petty political games.”

• Johnson also downplayed concern for Republicans after Democrats flipped a congressional seat in New York in a special election on Tuesday. “That is in no way a bellwether of what is going to happen this fall,” he said. Meanwhile, there has been some finger-pointing among Republicans on Capitol Hill over who is to blame for losing the seat, Punchbowl News reports.

• House Republican leadership was more than happy to use their weekly press conference to highlight special counsel Robert Hur’s report on Biden’s handling of classified documents. “The American people know that if someone is mentally unfit to stand trial, they are unfit to serve as commander-in-chief,” said Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican. Biden has pushed back hard on any suggestion that he does not have the mental capacity to be president. The White House has blasted Hur’s decision to include an assessment of Biden’s memory as outrageous and irrelevant to the investigation.

Ted Lieu, the vice-chair of the House Democratic caucus, said on Wednesday that Asian American voters had played a key role in Tom Suozzi’s victory in a special election on Tuesday. Lieu is the highest ever ranking Asian American in House Democratic leadership.

Pete Aguilar, the chairman of the House Democratic caucus, threw some shade at the House speaker, Mike Johnson, on Wednesday, suggesting the speaker was inexperienced and learning on the job.

In an email to supporters, Donald Trump shared his valentine to his wife, Melania. It’s a bit … unusual.

“Even after every single INDICTMENT, ARREST, and WITCH HUNT, you never left my side. You’ve always supported me through everything,” reads the note, which has the subject line “I love you, Melania!”

“I wouldn’t be the man I am today without your guidance, kindness, and warmth,” he adds. “You will always mean the world to me, Melania!”

The message is signed “From your husband with love, Donald J. Trump.”

Johnson is downplaying a Democratic win last night in a Long Island district formerly represented by Republican George Santos.

“That is in no way a bellwether of what is going to happen this fall,” he said.

He noted that Tom Suozzi, the candidate who won, had formerly represented the district in Congress and was widely known already. He also said that many of the positions Suozzi took on issues like immigration resembled Republican ones.

“The result last night is not something that Democrats should celebrate too much,” he added.

There has been some finger-pointing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday over the result, according to Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman.

House Speaker Mike Johnson defended the Republican vote on Tuesday to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures. We had to do that,” he said during a weekly press conference of Republican leadership. It was a quote that can be read with remarkably different meaning depending on if you’re a Democrat or Republican.

“He has abdicated his responsibility, he’s breached the public trust, and he’s disregarded the laws Congress has passed,” Johnson added.

The speaker went on to suggest there were still significant differences between senate and house Republicans on passing a border bill. A bipartisan bill that paired securing the border with foreign aid failed last week after conservative Republicans blocked it, which was humiliating for the GOP.

“The Republican-led House will not be jammed into passing a foreign aid bill that was opposed by most Republican senators and does nothing to secure our own border,” he said.