Congress
Jeffries calls on Biden to pardon more Americans
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called on President Joe Biden to pardon more people convicted of nonviolent offenses amid controversy over the president’s pardon of his son, Hunter Biden.
“During his final weeks in office, President Biden should exercise the high level of compassion he has consistently demonstrated throughout his life, including toward his son, and pardon on a case-by-case basis the working-class Americans in the federal prison system whose lives have been ruined by unjustly aggressive prosecutions for nonviolent offenses,” Jeffries said in a statement.
Jeffries’ comments echo the calls from some other Democrats who in recent days have asked Biden to use his clemency powers for more Americans in federal custody besides Hunter and to address sentencing disparities. But it did not pass judgment on the pardon of Hunter Biden itself. Some in the caucus have openly criticized the president since the pardon was issued and said it could tarnish his legacy and open a lane for Donald Trump to issue similar sweeping pardons.
Graham Platner has formally withdrawn his candidacy from the Maine Senate race, according to election officials — triggering the process to name his replacement on the ballot.
“The Secretary of State’s Office today confirmed that a formal notice has been received from U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner,” the office said in a statement Friday. “Because the candidate officially withdrew before 5 p.m. of the 2nd Monday in July, … his name will not appear on the ballot, and his political party may replace him.”
The notice comes two days after Platner publicly announced he would end his bid, and follows POLITICO’s report that a woman he dated accused him of sexual assault — an allegation he denies.
The Maine Democratic Party has yet to detail in full what the process will look like to choose a new candidate who will face GOP Sen. Susan Collins in the fall, other than broadcasting its intent to hold a convention before the July 27 deadline to name a replacement. The scramble has already begun, with at least eight contenders throwing their hats into the ring so far, including several former gubernatorial candidates, like former public health official Nirav Shah, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson.
Platner on Friday posted the note of withdrawal that he sent to the Secretary of State’s office on social media. In it, he thanked voters for their support and said he will seek to “further the movement we have built together and the future we believe in.”
He delivered a similar note to campaign staff in a private group chat, according to a person in the chat who was granted anonymity to detail the message.
“I just submitted this to the division of elections. Thank you all so much, this was the best thing I have done in my life. I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat. I love you all,” Platner wrote to staff.
The Maine Democratic Party did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
State party officials announced late Thursday that hopefuls will have to submit 500 signatures from Democratic voters in order to qualify for the convention — a boon for the several candidates who can reactivate campaign infrastructure from their recently failed gubernatorial or congressional bids.
Lisa Kashinsky contributed to this report.
A bipartisan group of senators said Friday they reached an agreement with President Donald Trump’s administration to move forward a new version of legislation to sanction buyers of Russian oil, potentially advancing a long-stalled effort to ramp up pressure on Moscow.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters in Kyiv, where he’s visiting, that the lawmakers have been working closely with the administration on a version of the legislation that would be “acceptable” to the White House and that was “written in a way they could support.”
Neither he nor his colleagues in the effort — Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) — provided details on the legislative text.
The White House has resisted full support of legislation to limit the flow of funds to Moscow’s war chest through sanctions on countries purchasing Russian oil, in addition to Russian officials and entities. Instead, the administration has pushed for the bill to give Trump more latitude to pursue negotiations with Moscow to end the war on Ukraine.
But now might be the lawmakers’ moment to clinch White House backing. Trump has appeared to shift his stance on the more than four-year-long war of late, telling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the NATO summit this week that he would grant Kyiv licenses to produce Patriot interceptor missiles for Ukraine’s defense against Russian ballistic missiles.
“As Russia intensifies its slaughter of civilians, it is imperative that the legislative and executive branches work together to create tools to exact a heavy price on those who buy Russian oil and natural gas, fueling the Putin war machine,” Graham, Shaheen, Blumenthal and Wicker said in a joint statement Friday.
The lawmakers added that they expected to roll out the updated legislation “very soon,” but didn’t give a timeline.
The Graham-led effort to curtail cash flow to Russia’s war machine has appeared to advance multiple times — only to fizzle out. In January, Graham even said he’d gotten the green light from the White House on the legislation, which has more than 80 Senate cosponsors, but that didn’t pan out either.
It’s unclear whether this time is different. Trump has yet to address the latest bid to move the legislation forward, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
House GOP leaders are planning to put legislation on the floor next week that would make daylight saving time permanent in hopes of softening a revolt led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna.
According to four people granted anonymity to describe internal party strategy, GOP leaders are moving ahead with a vote on the so-called Sunshine Protection Act because the bill is a major priority for Florida Republicans, including Luna. It’s also a top priority for President Donald Trump, who in recent months has personally been calling lawmakers to urge them to back the measure that would add more sunlight to the evening hours and end the twice-yearly practice of changing the clocks.
Luna helped tank a procedural vote before the July 4 holiday in protest of the Senate not having passed the GOP elections bill known as the SAVE America Act, forcing the House to leave early for its weeklong recess. She has still not committed to allowing legislation to go through when Congress is due to return Monday.
The concept of making daylight saving time permanent is popular in Florida, which relies on the tourism and golfing industries. Her office, however, did not respond to a request for comment Friday about whether a vote on daylight saving time would change her calculus.
Meanwhile, it’s also not likely to change the calculus for other House GOP hard-liners who opposed the procedural rule alongside Luna — not as leverage over the SAVE America Act but to demand votes on unrelated border security and immigration legislation. They will need to be enticed in other ways, according to three of the people.
But the decision by Republican leaders to hold a standalone vote on the Sunshine Protection Act, which is already included in the surface transportation reauthorization measure pending consideration by the full House, signals a desperation to get the chamber back on track in short time left before the launch of the August recess and the final stretch of midterm campaign season.
Apart from Luna, passage of the measure at this time would give Trump an easy win as the transportation bill is not expected to advance by its Sept. 30 deadline — plus stands a very high chance of getting stripped out due to disagreements among lawmakers, particularly among those in agriculture-heavy states worried about the effects of additional hours of darkness on farmers.
Spokespeople for Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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