White House condemns appointments of far-right Republicans to House oversight panel – live

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Trump eyeing return to Facebook, Twitter

Donald Trump is petitioning Facebook to reactivate his account and planning a return to Twitter as he looks to ramp up his presidential campaign, NBC News reports.

The former president had his Facebook account locked following the January 6 insurrection, while Twitter did the same until its new owner Elon Musk reversed the ban after buying the platform last year.

According to NBC News, Trump’s campaign wrote Facebook’s parent company Meta, saying “We believe that the ban on President Trump’s account on Facebook has dramatically distorted and inhibited the public discourse,” and asking for “a meeting to discuss President Trump’s prompt reinstatement to the platform.”

Trump hasn’t tweeted since Musk unblocked his account on 19 November, but NBC quotes an unnamed Republican as saying, “Trump is probably coming back to Twitter. It’s just a question of how and when.”

“He’s been talking about it for weeks, but Trump speaks for Trump, so it’s anyone’s guess what he’ll do or say or when,” the Republican continued.

Facebook’s ban was supposed to be for two years till 7 January of this year, but if the company balks at reinstating him, a Trump adviser told NBC the former president could lean on Republican majority in the House to make an issue out of it.

“If Facebook wants to have this fight, fine, but the House is leverage, and keeping Trump off Facebook just looks political,” the adviser said.

Twitter and Facebook became two of Trump’s most effective tools both during his campaign and presidency. Since his banning, he has remained active on the Truth social network that he founded. NBC reports it’s possible his arrangement with the site could complicate what he posts on other social media platforms.

The Biden White House has launched something of an offensive against House Republicans over the past 24 hours.

Yesterday, it was a statement demanding Kevin McCarthy reveal the “backroom deals” he made with rightwing lawmakers to become speaker, followed by today’s condemnation of the appointment to the oversight committee of lawmakers who denied the 2020 election and have called for violence against their colleagues.

Semafor reports that the administration is now encouraging Democratic lawmakers to attack the GOP’s economic policies, with the argument that they will drive up prices for Americans:

The memo, obtained by Semafor, highlights day-one legislation that would rescind money allocated to hire more IRS enforcement. The memo also instructs members to focus on Republicans who have called for entitlement cuts, a tax reform bill backed by some conservatives that would replace income tax with a national sales tax, and the debate around using the strategic petroleum reserve to lower gas prices in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Republicans are expected to consider a bill that would restrict releases from the strategic petroleum reserve without a plan to expand domestic oil and gas production — the White House memo argues it would “tie Presidents’ hands and hamstring one of the best tools we have to protect Americans from spiking gas prices.”

Together these policies will “make inflation worse, protect rich tax cheats, increase the deficit, raise taxes on middle-class families, and cut Social Security and Medicare” the White House memo warns.

White House says investigative committee tainted by rightwing lawmakers

The Biden administration has condemned the appointment of several far-right Republicans to the House committee overseeing investigations, Axios reports.

“[I]t appears that House Republicans may be setting the stage for divorced-from-reality political stunts, instead of engaging in bipartisan work on behalf of the American people,” White House spokesman Ian Sams said in a statement obtained by Axios.

Sams singled out the House oversight committee, which under chair James Comer will take a lead role in investigating the Biden administration. “Chairman Comer once said his goal was to ensure the Committee’s work is ‘credible,’ yet Republicans are handing the keys of oversight to the most extreme MAGA members of the Republican caucus who promote violent rhetoric and dangerous conspiracy theories.”

Among the lawmakers appointed to the panel are Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene, both of whom were stripped of their committee assignments in the last Congress for making violent threats. Also serving on oversight will be Scott Perry, a Donald Trump ally whose phone was seized last year reportedly as part of the FBI’s probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and Lauren Boebert, a promoter of conspiracy theories, including Trump’s false claim that his election loss was illegitimate.

Republican senator John Kennedy went on Fox News to describe the impending debt ceiling standoff with some colorful language.

He laid out the argument you can expect to hear from the GOP over the coming months: Democrats wracked up this debt, and Republicans won’t help them increase the borrowing limit unless they agree to rein in spending.

Here’s what the senator had to say:

Keep in mind that the national debt has risen under both Democratic and Republican presidents, including Donald Trump, who presided over a massive increase even before the emergency spending approved to defend against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Guess who else is going to get to serve on committees in the House. That’s right, it’s admitted liar George Santos. Martin Pengelly has the news:

The chairman of one of two House committees on which George Santos will sit defended the decision, despite the New York Republican’s résumé having been shown to be largely made-up and amid allegations of deceitful and criminal behaviour now including bilking a disabled veteran out of $3,000 raised to save the life of his dog.

Roger Williams of Texas, chair of the small business committee, told CNN: “I don’t condone what he said, what he’s done. I don’t think anybody does. But that’s not my role. He was elected.”

Santos is also reportedly set to sit on the science, space and technology committee. CNN said requests for seats on panels dealing with the financial sector and foreign policy were rebuffed.

Santos won election in New York’s third district in November. Since then, he has been the subject of relentless media scrutiny, calls to resign from his own party and from Democrats, and multiple calls for investigations of his campaign finances.

Another consequence of the GOP’s renewed control of the House is the end of two rightwing lawmakers’ exile from committee work, the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports:

Two far-right members of Congress whose threatening behavior prompted their removal from committees when Democrats controlled the US House were given assignments on Tuesday by the new Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy.

Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia will sit on the House homeland security committee and the oversight committee. Paul Gosar of Arizona was named to oversight and natural resources.

Democrats removed Greene from committees in February 2021, citing incendiary behavior including advocating the assassination of opponents and voicing support for QAnon and other conspiracy theories, including bizarre claims about 9/11 and the Parkland school shooting.

Eleven Republicans supported Greene’s removal but despite being condemned by party leaders for speaking at a white supremacist conference last February, the Georgia congresswoman has since become close to McCarthy.

The GOP is still getting its ducks in a row in the House, but has already made clear that cutting government spending will be one of its top priorities this year.

But that could make reaching an agreement with Democrats in the Senate on funding the government nigh impossible, Politico reports, particularly if the Republicans stick to their guns on demanding at least $130bn in spending cuts from every aspect of the government except the military.

Exacerbating the dynamics is the deal Kevin McCarthy struck with conservative holdouts to win their votes for House speaker, where he reportedly agreed to back their demands for the cuts, and put many of the lawmakers on committees where they could influence any deal.

But as Politico reports, some in the GOP admit they haven’t quite agreed on exactly what spending reductions they want to see. “I don’t think we’ve had a really good full-throated discussion and debate about what is politically doable,” said Steve Womack, a Republican serving on the powerful appropriations committee.

There are two issues that the House will have to act on this year that are either important business or crucial leverage, depending on who you ask.

The first is funding the government. A bill passed in the final days of 2022 paid for its operations through this September, but Congress will have to act again to ensure the money is there for everything from federal employees’ salaries to keeping offices open. Failure to do so would result in the first government shutdown since 2019.

But as serious as that would be, it’s nothing compared to the consequences if the United States defaults on its debt. And it could do so as soon as June if Congress doesn’t agree to raise the debt ceiling, which is the legal limit for how much money it can borrow to pay for the government’s needs.

Democrats say they’re ready to raise the debt ceiling without conditions, and to negotiate in good faith over another government funding bill later this year. But for Republicans, these two issues are two of the most obvious ways to extract concessions from the White House and Senate, who otherwise have little reason to say yes to their demands.

House Republicans issue demands, but Democrats wary of deadlock

Good morning, US politics blog readers. After two years of Joe Biden and the Democrats in full control of Congress, Republicans are eager to use their majority in the House of Representatives to hold his presidency to account and bend his allies to their will. From spending cuts to investigations, they have big plans to ensure Congress enacts conservative policies – plans that Democrats fear will amount to only one thing: deadlock. If the two sides can’t overcome what look to be substantial differences, Democrats are warning that the government could shut down, or the nation could even default on its debt, for the first time ever. This dynamic will probably define Congress for the next two years, but expect to hear more about it today, as Republican leaders detail committee assignments and other business in Congress’s lower chamber.

Here’s what else is happening today:

• The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, will brief reporters at 3pm eastern time, who will no doubt demand more information about the administration’s response to Biden’s possession of classified documents.

• The House oversight committee chair, James Comer, is demanding information about Chinese donors to the University of Pennsylvania and the Penn Biden center, where some of the president’s secret material was located.

• The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, continues his visit to Washington DC, with a wreath laying planned at Arlington national cemetery.