Trump to meet Darline Graham at White House later today
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
Donald Trump is due to meet Darline Graham – the sister of the late Republican senator Lindsey Graham, was sworn in to temporarily fill his Senate seat – later today.
The president will meet with the new senator, just five days after her brother’s sudden death, in the Oval Office at 9.30am local time. Graham was appointed on Tuesday by Henry McMaster, South Carolina’s governor, to fill the remainder of her brother Lindsey’s current term.
Lindsey died on Saturday night, aged 71, after what his office called a “brief and sudden illness”. The chief medical examiner then preliminarily ruled on Sunday that he died of aortic dissection due to cardiovascular disease. With the backing of Donald Trump, Darline was swiftly appointed to serve the remaining months of his Senate term, which ends on 3 January.
In brief remarks at a press conference on Monday, Darline said it was an “honor” to replace her older brother – who became her legal guardian after their parents died when she was a girl – in the Senate. She said he had always been there for her and vowed: “Now, I will be there for him.”
“I promise to work hard over the next several months to support the president and carry forward the efforts of my brother on behalf of the citizens of South Carolina and the United States,” she said. “I think this is what Lindsey would have wanted, and I plan to honor him in this way.”
At the time of his death, Graham was seeking a fifth Senate term, having won the Republican nomination only last month.The state GOP will hold a separate special election on 11 August to choose a new Senate nominee, who will face off against Democrat Annie Andrews in the November midterms.
The US president is scheduled to meet the El Salvador president Nayib Bukele at 11am local time, also in the Oval Office.
In other developments:
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103 House Democrats voted to cut military aid to Israel as accusations that Israel’s government carried out a genocide in Gaza are gaining more traction in the party.
-
Two of Donald Trump’s nominees for powerful positions, Todd Blanche and Jay Clayton, buckled under pressure during their confirmations hearings. Blanche, the acting attorney general, described himself as Trump’s lawyer, before correcting himself. Clayton, the would-be national intelligence director, refused to say who won the 2020 election when asked by senator Jon Ossoff.
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Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna, who wrote the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the law requiring the release of investigative files on the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, introduced a sequel that would allow state officials, victims and members of Congress to sue the attorney general over withheld records.
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In an interview with the podcaster Joe Rogan, US vice-president JD Vance discounted the conspiracy theory that Trump’s long association with Epstein had been used by Israel to blackmail the president into attacking Iran.
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The treasury department announced Wednesday that the US Mint has started producing a new commemorative $1 coin featuring Donald Trump as part of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration.
Key events
Ben Quinn
Friedrich Merz has warned Donald Trump’s administration against interfering in German elections after the US state department announced a scheme to fund Maga-aligned causes in Europe.
The German chancellor was responding to a US initiative offering grants of up to $3m (£2.2m) for European charities, thinktanks and individuals.
The funding will be for those seeking to “address national sovereignty, migration, censorship and lawfare challenges in line with shared political philosophy, law and our common western civilizational heritage”.
Amid growing concerns that the US is seeking to directly influence European politics, Merz said he did not want the US to interfere in German state elections in September.
“For our part, we do not interfere in American elections,” he told a press conference on Wednesday. “Conversely, I do not want the American government or institutions close to the government to interfere in German elections.”
Former US officials say the grant scheme is part of a months-long effort by the state department to repurpose US government funds to support far-right groups and potentially political parties in Europe.
President to deliver primetime speech on election security
Donald Trump plans to deliver a primetime speech today focused on election security, bringing renewed attention to his long-running complaints about voting systems and election administration.
The White House was deciding whether the president’s remarks would include the disclosure of sensitive intelligence related to China’s intention or ability to interfere in the 2020 US election, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing four sources.
Some Trump officials worried the information could be misleading, sources said. Trump has spent years sowing doubts about electoral outcomes, falsely asserting that his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden was rigged.
He has also advanced other false claims, including that mail-in balloting is rife with fraud, voting machines are vulnerable and non-citizen voting is widespread.
“As usual, anonymous sources are speculating about what president Trump will say during his speech on Thursday evening,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said. “The truth is, nobody knows yet what president Trump will ultimately say.”
Trump to meet Darline Graham at White House later today
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
Donald Trump is due to meet Darline Graham – the sister of the late Republican senator Lindsey Graham, was sworn in to temporarily fill his Senate seat – later today.
The president will meet with the new senator, just five days after her brother’s sudden death, in the Oval Office at 9.30am local time. Graham was appointed on Tuesday by Henry McMaster, South Carolina’s governor, to fill the remainder of her brother Lindsey’s current term.
Lindsey died on Saturday night, aged 71, after what his office called a “brief and sudden illness”. The chief medical examiner then preliminarily ruled on Sunday that he died of aortic dissection due to cardiovascular disease. With the backing of Donald Trump, Darline was swiftly appointed to serve the remaining months of his Senate term, which ends on 3 January.
In brief remarks at a press conference on Monday, Darline said it was an “honor” to replace her older brother – who became her legal guardian after their parents died when she was a girl – in the Senate. She said he had always been there for her and vowed: “Now, I will be there for him.”
“I promise to work hard over the next several months to support the president and carry forward the efforts of my brother on behalf of the citizens of South Carolina and the United States,” she said. “I think this is what Lindsey would have wanted, and I plan to honor him in this way.”
At the time of his death, Graham was seeking a fifth Senate term, having won the Republican nomination only last month.The state GOP will hold a separate special election on 11 August to choose a new Senate nominee, who will face off against Democrat Annie Andrews in the November midterms.
The US president is scheduled to meet the El Salvador president Nayib Bukele at 11am local time, also in the Oval Office.
In other developments:
-
103 House Democrats voted to cut military aid to Israel as accusations that Israel’s government carried out a genocide in Gaza are gaining more traction in the party.
-
Two of Donald Trump’s nominees for powerful positions, Todd Blanche and Jay Clayton, buckled under pressure during their confirmations hearings. Blanche, the acting attorney general, described himself as Trump’s lawyer, before correcting himself. Clayton, the would-be national intelligence director, refused to say who won the 2020 election when asked by senator Jon Ossoff.
-
Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna, who wrote the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the law requiring the release of investigative files on the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, introduced a sequel that would allow state officials, victims and members of Congress to sue the attorney general over withheld records.
-
In an interview with the podcaster Joe Rogan, US vice-president JD Vance discounted the conspiracy theory that Trump’s long association with Epstein had been used by Israel to blackmail the president into attacking Iran.
-
The treasury department announced Wednesday that the US Mint has started producing a new commemorative $1 coin featuring Donald Trump as part of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration.
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