Airport travel chaos continues amid longest ever shutdown in US history
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
Airports continue to warn passengers to arrive several hours early due to unpredictable Transportation Security Administration (TSA) wait times, as the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) became the longest shutdown in US history.
Congress and Donald Trump have made various attempts to direct government money toward the DHS, or directly to the DHS-funded TSA, but each have ended without success as an impasse over changes to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations remains deadlocked.
With 9.4% of the total federal workforce, numbering 193,867 employees, the DHS is the fourth-largest agency in the US government. The agency said that more than 480 TSA workers have left altogether since the start of the shutdown.
White House border czar Tom Homan said it depends on how many TSA employees would be returning to work after they start receiving their pay.
“ICE is there to help our brothers and sisters in TSA. We’ll be there as long as they need us, until they get back to normal operations and feel like those airports are secure,” he told CBS’ ‘Face the Nation’.
Speaking on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’, Homan said it also depends on how many TSA agents “have actually quit and have no plan on coming back to work.” Nearly 500 TSA officers have left the agency since the shutdown started, according to DHS.
He added that he hopeed TSA officers will be paid today or by Tuesday . “It’s good news because these TSA officers are struggling,” Homan said. “They can’t feed their families or pay their rent.”
Trump signed a memo late on Friday ordering DHS to restore pay to TSA employees, who have missed two paychecks, but it is unclear where that money will come from and if he can legally direct the agency to pay the employees.
The presidential memorandum directed the DHS secretary, Markwayne Mullin, to send funds “that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations” to pay TSA employees with the pay and benefits “that would have accrued” if no shutdown had happened.
Read the full story here:
In other developments:
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A generational divide over the Iran war has emerged between older attendees and their political heirs at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Texas, as the group’s leaders pleaded for unity ahead of a challenging midterm election year for Republicans. More here.
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Iran has warned the US that it is prepared to confront any ground assault, accusing Washington of secretly planning a land attack while publicly seeking talks, as the war that has killed thousands of people and caused the biggest ever disruption to global energy supplies entered its second month. More here.
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US lawmakers have responded to reports that the Pentagon is preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran as thousands of US troops assemble in the Middle East and the conflict showed signs of entering a more dangerous phase. More here.
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The abortion rate is holding steady in the US despite total and partial bans in some states – largely because of travel across state lines and a significant increase in telehealth appointments, a new report says. More here.
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Pope Leo has said God ignores the prayers of leaders who wage war and have “hands full of blood”, in an apparent rebuke to the Trump administration. The pontiff made the comments on Sunday as thousands of US troops arrived in the Middle East.
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More than 8 million people protested against the Trump administration at more than 3,300 No Kings events across the US and in more than a dozen countries on Saturday, according to organizers.
Key events
Tom Perkins
Donald Trump is dispatching a so-called “God squad” of top officials to revoke protections for endangered species in the Gulf of Mexico, purportedly to protect national security by expanding oil and gas industry operations.
If successful, the administration may kill off dozens of protected species – from Rice’s whales and whooping cranes to sea turtles.
The rarely used “God squad” provision in the Endangered Species Act (ESA) allows a president to convene a committee of agency heads empowered to effectively veto protections for species on the brink of extinction. The committee essentially weighs whether the benefits from a proposed project outweigh the continued existence of protected wildlife.
The Trump administration is attempting to justify the ESA exemption for “reasons of national security”, marking the first time a security claim has been made. However, oil and gas companies have not asked for the exemption, raising questions about why it is being requested, said Brett Hartl, government affairs director for the Center For Biological Diversity, which has sued to stop the committee from convening.
The move is presumably aimed at bringing down gas prices that are soaring amid the US-Israel war on Iran, opponents say. Trump wants to make it appear as if the administration is taking action over the growing crisis, but the claim that there is a national security threat is “nonsense” for a multitude of reasons, Hartl said.
Jason Wilson
The newly appointed College Republicans of America political director Kai Schwemmer has made racist, antisemitic, homophobic and sexist statements while espousing extremist rightwing views on abortion, a Guardian review of livestream recordings can reveal.
Schwemmer said he would accept a world in which slavery was legal if abortion was criminalised, describes himself as “very much an anti universal suffrage guy” and accepts a supporter’s description of him as “our Mormon Nick Fuentes” – referring to the white nationalist influencer whose platform he streamed on for years.
The comments were made after Schwemmer’s return from a two-year Mormon mission to Argentina, a period he recently claimed had seen him undergo a “process of growth” that led him to abandon previous racist beliefs. Schwemmer had previously expressed extremist and bigoted views.
The streams, many of which are not publicly available but remain accessible behind a paywall on Schwemmer’s Gumroad page, also contain previously unreported material from his earlier broadcasts. In one, he walks a user through a sequence of antisemitic leading questions on the Omegle platform before directing her to Fuentes’s streaming site. In others, he claims gay men are “weaponizing” gyms “to give you Aids” and celebrates a DNA test he says proved “I’m 0% Jewish”.
The Guardian emailed detailed requests for comment to Schwemmer and the College Republicans of America.
José Olivares
Cory Booker, the Democratic senator from New Jersey, renewed his calls for new leadership of the Democratic party, saying the party has “failed this moment”.
“As a whole, our party has failed this moment,” Booker said on Sunday. “I’ve called for a generational renewal, because this left-right divide is killing our country and our adversaries know it.” He also said that “purity tests” within the party have led to more division in the US.
During an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, Booker also said the Democratic party has “too small of a coalition”, especially as the party seeks to confront “new challenges”, including Trump administration policies and the expansion of artificial intelligence and technology.
Booker’s comments come amid growing divisions within the party, as frustration with Democratic senator Chuck Schumer grows. Some Democrats, specifically on the more progressive wing of the party, have discussed replacing Schumer, the minority leader, as midterm elections approach. Progressive senators reportedly see Schumer as an impediment to change for the party, due to his centrist politics, and as an obstacle to standing up to Donald Trump.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that some senators, including Chris Murphy from Connecticut, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Tina Smith of Minnesota have been having conversations with colleagues, expressing frustration with Schumer and discussing strategies to remove him from his leadership position.
Trump says he has ‘no problem’ with Russian oil tanker bringing relief to Cuba despite blockade
President Donald Trump on Sunday night said he has “no problem” with a Russian oil tanker off the coast of Cuba delivering relief to the island, which has been brought to its knees by a US oil blockade.
“We have a tanker out there. We don’t mind having somebody get a boatload because they need … they have to survive,” Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington.
When asked if a New York Times report that the tanker would be allowed to reach Cuba was true, Trump said: “I told them, if a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem whether it’s Russia or not.”
On Monday, Russia’s transport ministry said the oil tanker Anatoly Kolodkin arrived at the Cuban port of Matanzas carrying “humanitarian supplies” of about 730,000 barrels of oil, AP reported.
The vessel is sanctioned by the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom following the war in Ukraine.
Airport travel chaos continues amid longest ever shutdown in US history
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
Airports continue to warn passengers to arrive several hours early due to unpredictable Transportation Security Administration (TSA) wait times, as the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) became the longest shutdown in US history.
Congress and Donald Trump have made various attempts to direct government money toward the DHS, or directly to the DHS-funded TSA, but each have ended without success as an impasse over changes to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations remains deadlocked.
With 9.4% of the total federal workforce, numbering 193,867 employees, the DHS is the fourth-largest agency in the US government. The agency said that more than 480 TSA workers have left altogether since the start of the shutdown.
White House border czar Tom Homan said it depends on how many TSA employees would be returning to work after they start receiving their pay.
“ICE is there to help our brothers and sisters in TSA. We’ll be there as long as they need us, until they get back to normal operations and feel like those airports are secure,” he told CBS’ ‘Face the Nation’.
Speaking on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’, Homan said it also depends on how many TSA agents “have actually quit and have no plan on coming back to work.” Nearly 500 TSA officers have left the agency since the shutdown started, according to DHS.
He added that he hopeed TSA officers will be paid today or by Tuesday . “It’s good news because these TSA officers are struggling,” Homan said. “They can’t feed their families or pay their rent.”
Trump signed a memo late on Friday ordering DHS to restore pay to TSA employees, who have missed two paychecks, but it is unclear where that money will come from and if he can legally direct the agency to pay the employees.
The presidential memorandum directed the DHS secretary, Markwayne Mullin, to send funds “that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations” to pay TSA employees with the pay and benefits “that would have accrued” if no shutdown had happened.
Read the full story here:
In other developments:
-
A generational divide over the Iran war has emerged between older attendees and their political heirs at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Texas, as the group’s leaders pleaded for unity ahead of a challenging midterm election year for Republicans. More here.
-
Iran has warned the US that it is prepared to confront any ground assault, accusing Washington of secretly planning a land attack while publicly seeking talks, as the war that has killed thousands of people and caused the biggest ever disruption to global energy supplies entered its second month. More here.
-
US lawmakers have responded to reports that the Pentagon is preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran as thousands of US troops assemble in the Middle East and the conflict showed signs of entering a more dangerous phase. More here.
-
The abortion rate is holding steady in the US despite total and partial bans in some states – largely because of travel across state lines and a significant increase in telehealth appointments, a new report says. More here.
-
Pope Leo has said God ignores the prayers of leaders who wage war and have “hands full of blood”, in an apparent rebuke to the Trump administration. The pontiff made the comments on Sunday as thousands of US troops arrived in the Middle East.
-
More than 8 million people protested against the Trump administration at more than 3,300 No Kings events across the US and in more than a dozen countries on Saturday, according to organizers.
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