McConnell says ‘era of bipartisanship is over’ as talks in Congress grind to a halt – live

House Democrats have written a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland urging the Justice Department to reverse its decision to represent Donald Trump in a defamation lawsuit brought by E Jean Carroll.

Carroll, a writer with the Atlantic and advice columnist, accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s. Trump responded by claiming she lied about the incident to sell a book, saying she was “not my type”. Carroll sued for defamation, and Trump loyalist William Barr stunned the legal world by substituting the Justice Department for Trump in the suit, saying that he denied the accusation in his official capacity as US president.

The Justice Department announced yesterday that it would continue to reprsent Trump, a move House Democrats called “misguided.”

“Although DOJ maintains that its position has nothing to do with the merits of Ms. Carroll’s case, the facts surrounding the lawsuit matter greatly in understanding the deeply problematic implications of the Department’s actions,” the letter reads. “As a policy matter, we are concerned that DOJ has taken the position that federal officials act within the scope of their employment—and, therefore, enjoy immunity from civil liability—whenever they defame someone, so long as there is some connection between the statement and their official responsibilities. Are we to understand that federal employees are free to engage in private tortious conduct for personal gain, so long as they maintain federal employment and can assert some pretextual benefit to the public for their actions? President Trump’s disgusting comments about Ms. Carroll had nothing to do with his official responsibilities as President, and the whole world knows it. Survivors of sexual assault, among other victims, deserve better.”

Read the whole letter here.

In a new executive order today, Joe Biden withdrew a series of orders issued by Donald Trump that sought to ban new downloads of WeChat and TikTok.

If you’ll recall, Trump issued orders in August blocking these Chinese-owned apps from being downloaded after 45 days, saying it was in the interest of national security due. He later said in another order that TikTok would face a complete ban if it did not sell to a US company by 14 November.

The orders were blocked by a US court. TikTok, which has over 100 million users in the US, and WeChat have denied posing national security concerns.

With the G7 summit slated to begin this weekend, one of the big topics will be the issue of global tax avoidance – the issue of firms and rich individuals operating across international borders shifting profits around to exploit the most attractive low-tax locations.

The proposal that Joe Biden put forth – a global minimum rate of at least 15% and an agreement that countries should be able to tax some of the profits made by big companies based on the revenue they generate in that country, rather than where they are based – has the backing of the G7 group.

But at home, Republicans are calling the proposal “crazy” and are threatening to block the passage in the US.

The Guardian’s Dominic Rushe, Phillip Inman and Richard Partington have more details here:

This death knell for bipartisanship comes as progressive Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders warned about what to expect from Republicans.

“I have very limited patience,” Sanders said in an interview with CNN. “We learned a lesson from the Obama years. And that is, Republicans will talk and talk, ‘We want to work with you. Bipartisan.’ Month after month after month, nothing happens.”

But as Republicans and Democrats hit an impasse, alliances are forming elsewhere. Sanders talked about his unlikely partnership with the moderate Joe Biden – and how Biden reached out to meet with him during the 2016 presidential election against Hillary Clinton, a courtesy Sanders said he’d never forget.

“He is more conservative than I am, obviously,” Sanders said. “But on the other hand, he is not only a smart guy, he is a good politician, who has a sense of where people are at and what is possible. He understands that at this particular moment of American history, you have to go big, not small.”

With Joe Biden somewhere over the Atlantic, on his way to the United Kingdom, it appears Democrats and Republicans are at an impasse on multiple fronts in Washington.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made the declaration yesterday that “the era of bipartisanship is over” as it pertained to the Paycheck Fairness Act, saying that it was clear in the bills that the Democrats were introducing this month that they were going after “extreme, left-wing provisions” that no Republican could ever support.

Republicans pulled off their second successful filibuster of the Biden era with the gender pay gap bill. Though Democratic senators like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, may be against abolishing the filibuster, other Democratic senators have been clear about the need to do, especially when it comes to the issue of voting rights.

“To secure our democracy for all our children, we have to stand up in this defining moment in America,” said Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock. “We can’t dance around senate procedure. No senate procedure, no senate rule, is more important than people’s constitutional rights.”

Before he left, Biden ended negotiations Republican senators on an infrastructure plan. “While he was willing to reduce his plan by more than $1 trillion, the Republican group had increased their proposed new investments by only $150 billion,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats are now also working to pass an infrastructure measure that would circumvent the need for bipartisan agreement.

With Senate Republicans coming off their second successful filibuster in the Biden era, it appears Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is now looking to up the pressure on his party on ending the filibuster once and for all.

If you’d all be so kind as to jog your memories with me for a moment, you’ll recall that a lot of people in the party are mad at Democratic West Virgina Senator Joe Manchin this week. In a column that ran in the Charleston Gazette-Mail on Sunday, he committed to not voting for the For The People voting rights bill, and defended the filibuster.

The filibuster, which gives 41 of 100 senators the ability to block action by the majority, has been used roughly twice as often by Republicans than Democrats to prevent the other party from passing legislation, according to a study by the Center for American Progress.

Democrats have long called for the end of the filibuster, but in addition to Manchin, they have Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who is against abolishing it.

Read more from Hugo Lowell on Schumer’s plan to get the party in line on this issue.

Democratic members of Congress are rallying on the steps of the Supreme Court for voting rights this morning, urging Senate to pass the For The People Act.

“To secure our democracy for all our children, we have to stand up in this defining moment in America,” said Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock. “We can’t dance around senate procedure. No senate procedure, no senate rule, is more important than people’s constitutional rights.”

Here’s Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on the Paycheck Fairness Act. Basically, instead of it being about the issue of gender pay inequality, it’s about Democrats going after “extreme, left-wing provisions” that no Republican could ever support.

The family of Ashli Babbitt, killed by Capitol police when she stormed the US Capitol in the 6 January attack, is suing to force to hand over records revealing the identity of the officer who shot her, CNBC is reporting.

This litigation is separate from the civil lawsuit seeking upwards of $10m in damages from the Capitol police.

The Justice Department announced in April that it would not pursue criminal charges against the officer who shot and killed Babbitt. Shortly after that, Babbitt’s husband Aaron Babbitt filed a request for records from the the Metropolitan Police Department under the Freedom of Information Act.

According to the lawsuit, the Metropolitan Police Department has not complied with the request, missing a May deadline.

In their second successful filibuster in the Biden era, Senate Republicans blocked legislation targeting pay inequality.

The Paycheck Fairness Act would have built on the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Fair Labor Standards Act in requiring employers to demonstrate that any gap in pay between a man and a woman was due to performance rather than gender.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer indicated that this was not the end.

Speaking of cicadas: the Associated Press is reporting that the chartered plane for reporters traveling with Joe Biden and Jill Biden on the first foreign trip of the administration was actually delayed because it was overrun with the insects.

“Watch out for the cicadas,” Biden told reporters after one landed on him. Seriously.

If you’d like to read more about the Brood X cicadas:

Ahoy there, live blog readers. Happy Wednesday.

As Joe Biden and Jill Biden take off to the United Kingdom on the first foreign trip of the administration, Democrats are keeping the flag raised on a number of issues back home.

This morning, senators Chuck Schumer of New York, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Raphael Warnock of Georgia, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota will be speaking at a rally on the Supreme Court steps alongside other members of Congress to urge the Senate to pass the For The People Act, sweeping legislation on voting rights.

The rally comes after Democratic West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin confirmed in a weekend column that he would not be voting for the bill, citing the need for bipartisan legislation. In an interview with CNN, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders warned that Republicans “will talk and talk” about bipartisanship, but then “nothing happens.”

“I have very limited patience,” Sanders told CNN. “We learned a lesson from the Obama years.”