Blinken and high Democrats push again towards Trump bid for US to take over Greenland – US politics stay | Joe Biden

Jimmy Carter is mendacity in state on the US Capitol, forward of the previous president’s funeral scheduled for Thursday.

His casket has attracted mourners from throughout the political spectrum, together with the previous Republican Senate chief, Mitch McConnell:

And supreme courtroom justice Sonia Sotomayor:

Donald Trump’s inauguration is mere days away, however main Democrats say they’ve little interest in going together with the incoming president’s plans to broaden america. Home minority chief Hakeem Jeffries mentioned his lawmakers weren’t elected to assist seize the Panama Canal by drive, whereas Senate minority chief Chuck Schumer challenged Trump to provide you with a plan to decrease prices for Individuals if he desires his occasion’s help for altering the identify of the Gulf of Mexico. On a go to to France, the outgoing secretary of state Antony Blinken mentioned Trump’s thought of taking management of Greenland is a foul thought that’s “not going to occur”. Elsewhere, authorized wrangling over particular counsel Jack Smith’s report documenting his fruitless prosecutions of Trump continues. The justice division advised a courtroom contemplating a problem to their launch that it deliberate to make public solely Smith’s findings round Trump’s alleged makes an attempt to overturn the 2020 election, and reserve the proof within the categorised paperwork case for a choose group in Congress.

Right here’s extra about what occurred immediately:

• Joe Biden advised USA At present in what could also be his final interview with a print publication as president that he thinks he might have gained re-election, however was undecided he might have served the entire time period.

• Trump appealed to the supreme courtroom to pause his sentencing listening to scheduled for Friday within the case towards him on hush cash costs.

• Denmark’s international minister mentioned his nation could be open to discussing with the US safety issues involving Greenland, which it controls, however downplayed speak of it turning into the 51st state.

Joe Biden is in Los Angeles as wildfires threaten a number of of its neighborhoods and suburbs, and shall be heading to a fireplace station in Santa Monica this afternoon, the White Home mentioned.

The president will obtain a briefing from California state firefighting officers throughout his go to, and has additionally spoken to the state’s governor Gavin Newsom in regards to the blazes.

We’ve got a stay weblog masking the catastrophe, which has destroyed 1,000 buildings up to now. Comply with alongside right here:

Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate minority chief, mentioned Donald Trump ought to concentrate on discovering a plan to decrease prices for Individuals, moderately than on points like renaming the Gulf of Mexico.

Yesterday, the president-elect mentioned the physique of water that stretches alongside the US and Mexican coasts must be renamed to the “Gulf of America”.

“Donald Trump throws out lots of unusual, and moderately random, concepts regularly. He did it yesterday, when suggesting we rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America,” Schumer mentioned immediately, in remarks on the Senate flooring.

“Nicely, let me say this: I’d conform to working with Donald Trump on renaming the Gulf of Mexico, provided that he first agrees to work with us on an precise plan to decrease prices for Individuals. That’s what the American folks need us to concentrate on first, not on renaming our bodies of water. Our Democratic priorities are a lot extra intently aligned with the issues of the American folks than Donald Trump’s appear to be.”

Democratic Home minority chief Hakeem Jeffries took a swipe at Donald Trump’s requires america to take management of Greenland and the Panama Canal and merge with Canada, saying his occasion’s lawmakers weren’t elected to pursue such insurance policies.

“Home Democrats consider that they don’t seem to be despatched Washington to invade Greenland, rename the Gulf of Mexico or seize the Panama Canal by drive. We have been despatched to Washington to decrease the excessive price of residing in america of America,” Jeffries mentioned at a press convention.

Requested if he would get behind Trump’s name yesterday to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”, Jeffries reiterated his earlier feedback about decreasing prices. “Housing prices are too excessive, grocery prices are too excessive, insurance coverage prices are too excessive, utility prices are too excessive and childcare prices are too excessive. We’ve got to construct an inexpensive financial system for laborious working American taxpayers.”

Jeffries mentioned he didn’t count on to satisfy with Trump later immediately, when the president-elect has a gathering scheduled with Senate Republicans, however expects to speak with him sooner or later.

Antony Blinken, the outgoing secretary of state, mentioned that Donald Trump’s thought of america taking up Greenland – maybe by army drive – is “not a very good one” and won’t occur.

“I feel one of many primary propositions we dropped at our work over the past 4 years is that we’re stronger, we’re simpler, We get higher outcomes once we’re working intently with our allies, not saying or doing issues which will alienate them,” Blinken mentioned at a press convention in Paris held alongside French international minister Jean-Noël Barrot.

“Having mentioned that, the concept expressed about Greenland is clearly not a very good one, however possibly extra vital, it’s clearly one which’s not going to occur. So we in all probability shouldn’t waste lots of time speaking about it.”

Blinken will step down as soon as Joe Biden leaves workplace on 20 January. Trump has nominated Marco Rubio, the Republican Florida senator, to succeed him.

The justice division plans to make public a part of particular counsel Jack Smith’s report detailing his investigation into Donald Trump’s try to overturn the 2020 election, however not the portion that appears into the categorised paperwork he’s accused of hiding at his properties, the Related Press reviews.

The division made its intent recognized in a courtroom submitting responding to a call yesterday by a Florida choose that quickly halted launch of Smith’s report, which is anticipated to element the proof behind the 2 indictments he introduced towards the previous president.

Smith dismissed the fees in November, after Trump gained re-election.

Elsewhere in his interview with USA At present, Joe Biden mentioned he might need overwhelmed Donald Trump within the November election, although shouldn’t be positive he would have been in a position to serve the whole lot of a time period that may have concluded when he was on the age of 86.

He additionally says that the president-elect complimented his financial insurance policies after they met following Trump’s re-election, regardless that the Republican had anchored his marketing campaign on sharp criticisms of Biden’s administration.

Right here’s extra, from USA At present:

• “Who is aware of what I’m going to be once I’m 86 years previous?”, Biden mentioned relating to whether or not he would have been in a position to deal with one other 4 years within the job. At 82, he’s the oldest president ever to serve.

• May he have gained? “It’s presumptuous to say that, however I feel sure,” Biden mentioned within the interview.

• The president made his assembly with Trump sound pretty cordial. “He was very complimentary about a few of the financial issues I had performed. And he talked about − he thought I used to be leaving with a very good file,” Biden mentioned.

USA At present’s interview is the final one Biden has scheduled with a print journalist earlier than he departs the White Home. The president did far fewer interviews and press convention in his time period than a lot of his latest predecessors, in response to the College of California, Santa Barbara.

Attorneys for Donald Trump this morning appealed to the US supreme courtroom to pause proceedings within the president-elect’s prosecution on enterprise fraud costs in New York, forward of his sentencing scheduled for Friday, Reuters reviews.

Two earlier appeals to cease the sentencing have failed, and now the president-elect’s attorneys are petitioning the nation’s highest courtroom, the place conservative justices, three of whom Trump appointed, maintain a six-seat supermajority. Trump’s attorneys need the case placed on pause whereas a separate attraction they’ve filed, which cites the courtroom’s determination final 12 months in a separate Trump-related case that grants presidents immunity for official acts, performs out.

Juan Merchan, the New York choose presiding over the case, has signaled that he won’t sentence Trump to jail after being convicted of 34 felony costs associated to concealing a cost to an grownup movie actor made forward of his 2016 election victory. Right here’s extra:

Good morning, US politics weblog readers. Joe Biden is in his remaining days in workplace, and nonetheless has a couple of items of unfinished enterprise to cope with earlier than he fingers energy to Donald Trump on 20 January. Considered one of them is deciding whether or not to challenge preemptive pardons to political enemies of the incoming president, comparable to former congresswoman Liz Cheney or Anthony Fauci, who spearheaded the battle towards Covid-19 in Trump’s first time period. In an interview with USA At present revealed immediately – a uncommon, remaining sit-down interview by a president who spent a lot of his time period avoiding the press – Biden confirmed he should still choose to guard Trump’s enemies from prosecution, and signaled he would resolve based mostly on who the president-elect appoints to high roles in his administration.

In the meantime, Trump is scrambling to halt the sentencing in his felony enterprise fraud case that’s scheduled to happen in a Manhattan courtroom on Friday. Reuters reviews that his attorneys have requested the US supreme courtroom to intervene to pause the proceedings, although the New York choose presiding over the case has signaled he’s unlikely to condemn the president-elect to jail time. We are going to allow you to if the nation’s highest courtroom responds.

Right here’s what else is going on immediately:

• Trump will this night trek to Capitol Hill for a technique assembly with the Republican senators tasked with enacting his administration’s priorities, starting from mass deportations to extending tax cuts enacted throughout his first time period.

• Marjorie Taylor Greene, the rightwing Georgia congresswoman, says she’s going to introduce laws to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”, as Trump proposed at a rambling press convention yesterday.

• Los Angeles continues to be battered by three separate wildfires fueled by excessive winds. Comply with our stay weblog as greater than 1,400 firefighters makes an attempt to comprise the flames.