Warsh is a ‘sock puppet’ for Trump, says top banking committee Democrat
Elizabeth Warren, the ranking member on the Senate banking committee, slammed Kevin Warsh’s confirmation as chair of the Federal Reserve, repeating many of the reservations she had about the president’s pick to lead the central bank.
“Mr Warsh has proven to be a sock puppet for Trump,” she said on the Senate floor. “During his confirmation hearing, Warsh couldn’t even say that Trump lost the 2020 election. We need a Fed chair who evaluates economic data and sets monetary policy in the real world, not in Trump’s delusional alternative reality.”
Warren, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts, added that the criminal investigation into Jerome Powell, the outgoing Fed Chair, is still ongoing. “Take it from US attorney Pirro, who said that she, quote, ‘will not hesitate to restart a criminal investigation’. And she went on to promise that her office would, ‘continue to litigate the issue’,” Warren said.
This comes after Republican senator Thom Tillis threatened to block Warsh’s confirmation until the probe into Powell was dropped.
“The second that the Administration pretended to close the investigation, Republicans folded and advanced Mr Warsh’s nomination,” Warren said today.
Key events
Closing summary
Republican congressman Mike Lawler says Rand Paul’s son ‘said he hates Jews and hates gays’ in drunken diatribe
The White House, and El Salvador’s president, keep trying to make Margarita-gate happen, and Rand Paul’s son enters the boozy chat
Here’s a recap of the day so far
Warsh is a ‘sock puppet’ for Trump, says top banking committee Democrat
Fetterman, lone Democrat to confirm Warsh, calls Trump’s Fed pick ‘transparent and responsive’
Vance says US is ‘making progress’ on Iran peace deal, but fails to provide details about state of negotiations
Vance announces government is deferring $1.3bn in Medicaid reimbursements from California
Kevin Warsh confirmed as chair of Federal Reserve
Trump administration announces freeze on new home healthcare providers from enrolling in Medicare
Mississippi governor cancels special legislative session to redraw state supreme court maps
Senate fails to advance war powers resolution, while more GOP lawmakers break with party
Van Hollen posts copy of test that screens for unhealthy alcohol use on social media, urges FBI director to do the same
Trump greeted in China with red carpet and fanfare
Trump arrives in Beijing for summit with Xi
US and China trade envoys hold talks on ‘resolving’ economic and trade issues, state media reports
Trump takes tech leaders on mission to ‘open up’ China
Trump says he doesn’t ‘think about Americans’ financial situation’ as he travels to China
Closing summary
With Donald Trump recovering from jet lag in Beijing, we are concluding our live coverage of his second term in office for the day now, but our colleagues in Australia and China will resume live updates in a few hours. Here are the latest developments:
By a vote of 54-45, the Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh to be chair of the Federal Reserve for a four-year term. John Fetterman was the only Democrat to break with his party and vote in favor of Trump’s pick.
Elizabeth Warren, the ranking Democrat on the Senate banking committee, slammed Warsh’s confirmation as chair of the Federal Reserve. “Mr Warsh has proven to be a sock puppet for Trump,” she said.
Republican congressman Mike Lawler told reporters that Republican senator Rand Paul’s son William had drunkenly accosted him on Tuesday night at a bar in Washington on Tuesday night, and “said that he hates Jews and hates gays and doesn’t care if they die”. “I think that’s fucking disgusting,” Lawler added.
For the seventh time, the Senate failed to advance a war powers resolution that would curb military action in Iran. However, the vote, 49-50, was the closest one yet, with more Republican lawmakers voting in favor of the resolution. For the first time, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined her colleagues, Susan Collins and Rand Paul, in voting yes. John Fetterman was again the only Democrat to vote no.
The White House celebrated Donald Trump’s arrival in Beijing with a video that showed his son, Eric, and daughter-in-law, Lara, were front and center of his entourage, despite years of complaints from Republicans about Joe Biden bringing his son Hunter to China on Air Force Two to strike business deals.
Republican congressman Mike Lawler says Rand Paul’s son ‘said he hates Jews and hates gays’ in drunken diatribe
Republican congressman Mike Lawler told reporters on Wednesday that Republican senator Rand Paul’s son William had drunkenly accosted him on Tuesday night at a bar in Washington.
The younger Paul, who recently served as a congressional aide to two of Lawler’s colleagues, went on “a 10-minute diatribe about Jews” at the Tune Inn Restaurant & Bar, the New York congressman said, and “said that he hates Jews and hates gays and doesn’t care if they die”.
“I think that’s fucking disgusting,” Lawler said.
Details of the incident were first reported earlier on Wednesday by a witness, Reese Gorman of the digital publication Notus, in a remarkable first-hand account.
William Paul, who has been charged at least three times for drunken assault or driving, reportedly told Lawler that he was enraged at “anti-American” Jews for supporting a primary challenge against his father’s libertarian ally, congressman Thomas Massie.
Lawler added that Paul initially told him that he thought he was Jewish. When the Irish and Italian Catholic corrected him, Paul reportedly said: “Oh wow, I’m so sorry for calling you a Jew.”
William Paul’s LinkedIn profile indicates that he spent part of last week in San Diego, attending a conference with the Christian Employers Alliance. His profile photo on the social network shows him pointing approvingly at a statue of Barry Goldwater, whose grandfather was an Orthodox Jew, in the US Capitol.
The White House, and El Salvador’s president, keep trying to make Margarita-gate happen, and Rand Paul’s son enters the boozy chat
The war of words over excessive drinking on Capitol Hill continued on Wednesday as sharp words, and memes, were exchanged in multiple confrontations pitting Democrats against Republicans, Republicans against Republicans, and El Salvador’s pro-Trump president and the White House against observable reality.
Online, the Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen took a virtual swipe at the FBI director, Kash Patel, urging him to make good on his promise, during a Senate hearing on Tuesday, that he would take the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (Audit) self-screening exam for hazardous or harmful alcohol use.
Van Hollen, who had pressed Patel on his reported abuse of alcohol, only for the FBI director to use false and misleading information to accuse the senator of having a drinking problem, posted a copy of the screening form he filled out indicating that he consumes a modest three drinks a week.
“Given all the lies he told yesterday, I imagine he’ll fudge the numbers here, but let’s see yours, Director Patel,” the senator wrote on social media.
While the FBI director has not responded, his allies in the White House, and El Salvador, jumped in to defend him, by attempting to smear Van Hollen with what the senator has credibly described as staged, hoax photographs of him meeting the wrongly deported Salvadoran man Kilmar Ábrego García last year next to cocktail glasses placed on the table by an aide to El Salvador’s far-right president, Nayib Bukele.
Although Van Hollen convincingly debunked the hoax photos he called Margarita-gate last year – pointing out last year that the supposed margaritas he and the deportee were accused of drinking were clearly untouched, since the salt rim on each glass was intact – Patel tried to dodge questions about his own reported drinking by wrongly asserting as fact that the senator had been photographed “drinking on taxpayer dime” in El Salvador.
In support of that false claim, first the White House, and then El Salvador’s president, reposted the same photographs Van Hollen said had been staged, apparently banking on rightwing partisans never having heard that the images were set up to frame the senator.
Van Hollen responded to the latest White House attempt to make Maragarita-gate happen by commenting on the hoax photo: “Glasses were placed in front of us but we did not drink them. I know that may be a confusing concept for Director Patel.”
While all this was unfolding, William Paul, a son of Republican senator Rand Paul, reportedly interrupted a conversation between a reporter and Republican congressman Mike Lawler at a Capitol Hill bar on Tuesday evening and “drunkenly hurled antisemitic insults” at Lawler, who is not Jewish.
According to a remarkable account from Reese Gorman of Notus, who was at the bar with Lawler, “Paul – who introduced himself as the Republican senator’s son – confronted Lawler about Rep Thomas Massie’s GOP primary election in Kentucky next week.”
The younger Paul, who recently worked as an aide to two other Republican congressman, Alex Mooney of West Virginia and Mike Collins of Georgia, then told Lawler that if Massie, an ally of his father, was defeated, it would be the fault of “you Jews”.
After Lawler pointed out that he was not Jewish, Paul, who confessed that he was drunk, said, “Oh wow, I’m so sorry for calling you a Jew,” before launching into an antisemitic tirade, urging Lawler “to watch more Tucker Carlson”, flipping off the congressman and tripping over his bar stool as he left.
Dharna Noor
The US energy secretary, Chris Wright, spoke at a conference on Wednesday hosted by an influential rightwing libertarian thinktank.
The event was convened by the Cato Institute, a group co-founded by fossil fuel billionaire Charles Koch, whose vast network of political organizations has long worked to sow doubt about climate science.
At Wright’s “fireside chat” on Wednesday afternoon, Wright discussed the philosophy guiding his energy policies. A key reason to produce energy, he said: “better human lives”.
“My political line is, when you think about energy, [you] should only think about two things. Humans – that’s why we produce energy. And math … does the math show that’s an effective way to better human lives,” he said. “That’s why energy is there. It’s not to score political points.”
As head of the energy department, Wright has presided over an array of policies aimed at boosting fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are the primary cause of the climate crisis, which is experts agree is exacerbating dangerous extreme weather events, allowing diseases to spread faster, and worsening illnesses from allergies to lung disease.
Wright also said that though he has worked on other forms of energy, including researching solar power in graduate school, “the biggest innovations … are almost certainly going to be in oil, gas and coal because they’re what matter”.
But In March, the US generated more of its electricity from renewable power than it did from gas, marking the first time clean energy surpassed the planet-heating fossil fuel for a full month nationally, research showed last month.
Wright is the founder and former CEO of Liberty Energy, a fracking company.
Here’s a recap of the day so far
For the seventh time, the Senate failed to advance a war powers resolution that would curb military action in Iran. However, today’s vote, 49-50, was the closest one yet, with more Republican lawmakers voting in favor of the resolution. For the first time, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined her GOP colleagues, Susan Collins and Rand Paul, in voting yes. Meanwhile, John Fetterman was again the only Democrat to break with his party and vote no.
By a vote of 54-45, the Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh to be chair of the Federal Reserve for a four-year term. John Fetterman was the only Democrat to break with his party and voted in favor of Trump’s pick to lead the central bank. Warsh will officially step into the role on 14 May, when the term of outgoing Fed chair Jerome Powell ends.
JD Vance announced today that the Trump administration is deferring $1.3bn in Medicaid reimbursements from the state of California. “The simple reason,” the vice-president said, is because “California has not taken fraud very seriously”. Earlier, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) also announced a six-month freeze for new home healthcare and hospice providers from enrolling in Medicare.
The Republican governor of Georgia called a special session for next month to redraw electoral maps, the latest southern state to initiate new map-making after the US supreme court’s dismantling of the Voting Rights Act. Brian Kemp announced the special session will start on 17 June. However, he said that the state will not redraw its boundaries for this year’s elections.
Meanwhile, Mississippi’s governor, Tate Reeves, said that he is canceling a special legislative session that was scheduled to redraw the state’s supreme court districts next week. However, Reeves, a Republican, noted that he does expect the state to redraw its four congressional districts at some point in the near future. Mississippi held its primary elections for congressional seats in March, before the supreme court’s Louisiana v Callais ruling.
Donald Trump touched down in Beijing earlier today, and was greeted with a red carpet and fanfare ahead of a high-stakes summit with Xi Jinping. As the president stepped off Air Force One, he was met by China’s vice-president, Han Zheng, before traveling to his hotel. Before departing for his trip to China, Trump told reporters he does not consider the economic impact the war is having on Americans and that stopping Iran from having a nuclear weapon was his top priority.
Warsh is a ‘sock puppet’ for Trump, says top banking committee Democrat
Elizabeth Warren, the ranking member on the Senate banking committee, slammed Kevin Warsh’s confirmation as chair of the Federal Reserve, repeating many of the reservations she had about the president’s pick to lead the central bank.
“Mr Warsh has proven to be a sock puppet for Trump,” she said on the Senate floor. “During his confirmation hearing, Warsh couldn’t even say that Trump lost the 2020 election. We need a Fed chair who evaluates economic data and sets monetary policy in the real world, not in Trump’s delusional alternative reality.”
Warren, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts, added that the criminal investigation into Jerome Powell, the outgoing Fed Chair, is still ongoing. “Take it from US attorney Pirro, who said that she, quote, ‘will not hesitate to restart a criminal investigation’. And she went on to promise that her office would, ‘continue to litigate the issue’,” Warren said.
This comes after Republican senator Thom Tillis threatened to block Warsh’s confirmation until the probe into Powell was dropped.
“The second that the Administration pretended to close the investigation, Republicans folded and advanced Mr Warsh’s nomination,” Warren said today.
Fetterman, lone Democrat to confirm Warsh, calls Trump’s Fed pick ‘transparent and responsive’
As I mentioned earlier, John Fetterman was the only Democratic senator to break ranks with his party and vote to confirm Kevin Warsh as the chair of the Federal Reserve.
Fetterman said today that he believes Warsh will be “transparent and responsive to Congress and the public”.
“His promise to maintain Fed independence in setting interest rates is crucial and I look forward to working with him,” the Pennsylvania Democrat added, while encouraging Jerome Powell to stay on the Fed board “as long as he wants”.
Rachel Leingang
The Republican governor of Georgia called a special session for next month to redraw electoral maps, the latest southern state to initiate new map-making after the US supreme court’s dismantling of the Voting Rights Act.
Brian Kemp announced the special session, which will start on 17 June, on Wednesday. It will focus on “enacting, revising, repealing or amending” district lines for the state legislature and congressional district, in light of the US supreme court’s decision in Louisiana v Callais.
Kemp, whose term ends next January, has said that the state will not redraw its boundaries for this year’s elections. The state’s primaries are set for next Tuesday. Instead, the redistricting special session will seek to lock in Republican-leaning maps while the party still holds power in the state legislature and governor’s office.
Vance says US is ‘making progress’ on Iran peace deal, but fails to provide details about state of negotiations
The vice-president was unclear about the state of negotiations between the US and Iran, when pressed by reporters today.
“I’m not going to tell you everything, because we’re trying to have a productive conversation,” Vance said, when asked if administration officials are in touch with Tehran. A reminder that Trump said this week that the latest peace proposal from Iran was “completely unacceptable” and the current ceasefire was “on life support”.
“I think that we are making progress,” Vance said today. “The fundamental question is, do we make enough progress that we satisfy the president’s red line? And the red line is very simple, he needs to feel confident that we’ve put a number of protections in place such that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.”
While taking questions from reporters today, Vance joked about Donald Trump pitting him against the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, to be the president’s tapped successor.
Earlier this week, Trump encouraged attenders at a Rose Garden Club dinner to cast their votes in an oral straw poll about which of the two should lead the ticket in 2028. Vance appeared to come out as the favorite.
“I just don’t think it sounds like the president of the United States to have a televised competition for who would succeed him as his apprentice,” Vance joked today, referencing the president’s reality TV credentials in relation to his stunt. “[Trump’s] always been fascinated by politics … so I think it’s natural for him to joke around with us a little bit, to play around with the idea.”
Vance announces government is deferring $1.3bn in Medicaid reimbursements from California
The vice-president announced today that the Trump administration is deferring $1.3bn in Medicaid reimbursements from the state of California.
“The simple reason,” Vance said, is because “California has not taken fraud very seriously”.
“There are California taxpayers and American taxpayers who are being defrauded because California isn’t taking its program seriously,” he added. “These fraudulent healthcare providers are getting rich by giving people medications they don’t even need, a violation of the trust that should exist between every American and the people who prescribe the medications.”
Kevin Warsh confirmed as chair of Federal Reserve
By a vote of 54-45, the Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh to be chair of the Federal Reserve for a four-year term.
John Fetterman was the only Democrat to break with his party and voted in favor of Warsh.
Trump administration announces freeze on new home healthcare providers from enrolling in Medicare
Earlier, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) also announced a six-month freeze for new home healthcare and hospice providers from enrolling in Medicare – the federal health insurance program that largely serves Americans aged 65 and older, and younger people with disabilities.
The order will prevent new providers from signing up for Medicare reimbursements, but will not affect providers already enrolled in the program. “Today we’re shutting the door on fraud – preventing new bad actors from entering Medicare while we aggressively identify, investigate and remove those already exploiting them,” Mehmet Oz, the CMS administrator, said in a statement.
Today, JD Vance announced an audit, previously reported by the Wall Street Journal, of state Medicaid Fraud Control Units (MFCUs). These are the watchdogs responsible for rooting out waste, fraud and abuse within the agency.
“If they do not aggressively prosecute Medicaid fraud, we are going to turn off the money that goes to these anti-fraud units,” Vance said, while noting that the Trump administration is sending letters to each state’s MCFU. “We can only help these state programs if those state programs are willing to help themselves,” the vice-president added.
In a short while, the Senate will officially confirm Kevin Warsh as chair of the Federal Reserve.
On Tuesday, Warsh’s nomination was advanced in a 51-45 vote, with John Fetterman being the only Democratic senator to cross the aisle and vote with the Republican majority.
Mississippi governor cancels special legislative session to redraw state supreme court maps
Adria R Walker
in Jackson, Mississippi
This morning, Mississippi’s governor, Tate Reeves, said that he is canceling a special legislative session that was scheduled to redraw the state’s supreme court districts next week. However, Reeves, a Republican, noted that he does expect the state to redraw its four congressional districts at some point in the near future.
Reeves, in an appearance on SuperTalk radio, a conservative talk radio network, also said that it would be difficult for the state to redraw the congressional districts in the Republicans favor in time for the upcoming midterm elections, slated for November. Doing so might also hurt Republicans in congressional races.
Mississippi held its primary elections for congressional seats in March, before the supreme court’s Louisiana v Callais ruling, which narrowed a key protection of the Voting Rights Act and spurred a number of Republican-led states to reconfigure their maps. But an immediate redrawing of the Mississippi’s congressional districts with the goal of eliminating Democratic seats would more than likely mean invalidating its primary results and making firmly Republican areas more competitive by adding more Democratic voters instead.
In a post on X following the news, Reeves wrote:
Just to clarify, I said I expect lawmakers to redraw congressional lines BETWEEN NOW and 2027 elections! I also expect them to redraw legislative and Supreme Court lines between now and 2027 elections!
Reeves made it clear that he wants the state to redraw its congressional districts, specifically targeting Democratic congressman Bennie Thompson’s seat. He said that he is working with the Trump administration on when and how the state should redraw congressional and legislative districts.
“It is not a question of if, it’s a question of when,” Reeves said of redrawing the state’s congressional district with a focus on Thompson’s district.
Thompson, the state’s lone congressional Democrat, is also the longest-serving black elected official in Mississippi and in Congress. He represents Mississippi’s second congressional district, about 275 miles long, which encompasses much of the Mississippi Delta, an area that is predominantly black.
And here’s my colleague Joseph Gedeon’s story on Donald Trump saying yesterday that the growing financial pressure inflicted on Americans by his war on Iran is “not even a little bit” motivating him to make a peace deal with Tehran.
With US inflation at a three-year high, and fuel costs still climbing after a sharp rise in oil prices, the US president said on Tuesday that he is not focused on the economic hardship sparked by the conflict.
Trump told reporters at the White House before boarding a plane to China:
The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran [is] they can’t have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all.
The president’s remarks come ahead of a US midterm election campaign season which looks to be defined by mounting concerns around affordability.
Adding to that last post, in a new interview with Reason magazine, the Democratic senator John Fetterman has said that the US war on Iran is worth the higher gas prices and costs to Americans because it’s for a “noble cause”.
Fetterman, who has repeatedly broken with his party to vote against advancing war powers resolutions that would curb US military action against Iran, said:
Yeah, it’s real expensive for America right now, but that’s a noble cause to just hold Iran regime accountable for the mass chaos, murder and destruction that they’ve underwritten for decades.
Fetterman also critiqued comparisons to the disastrous US war in Iraq, saying that with regards to Iran, “we have a nuclear power at the cusp and it’s entirely appropriate to hold them accountable for what they’ve done”.
His comments echo those made by Donald Trump and his allies to justify the war as being necessary and worth the costs to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Even just yesterday, Trump was asked by a reporter how much the impact of the war on Americans’ personal finances factored into his thinking in negotiations with Iran, to which he – astoundingly – replied:
Americans’ financial situation … I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing. We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all.
You can also watch Fetterman’s interview here.
