The U.S. military shot down another unidentified flying object over Lake Huron in Michigan on Sunday – the third in three days and the fourth overall after also taking down a Chinese spy balloon off the South Carolina coast on Feb. 4.
Hours before the Sunday shootdown, new concerns emerged on Capitol Hill over the three earlier takedowns and the future of relations between the United States and China.
Lawmakers on Sunday’s talk shows put a new focus on national security, with Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, telling CNN’s State of the Union, “We certainly now ascertain there is a threat” to U.S. airspace.
Here’s what else is happening in politics:
- No Biden Super Bowl interview: President Joe Biden didn’t take part in a pregame interview with Fox, breaking with a relatively new presidential tradition.
- Schumer says there will be a “clean debt ceiling” increase: The Senate majority leader called on Republicans to raise the debt ceiling without any spending cuts.
- Are some of Santos’ fabrications protected by the First Amendment?: Legal experts weigh in on the Constitution and lying in some contexts.
In this photo provided by Chad Fish, a large balloon drifts above the Atlantic Ocean, just off the coast of South Carolina, with a fighter
Ron Klain talks ups, downs and final hours as Biden’s chief of staff
White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain speaks briefly with reporters at the U.S. Capitol following a lunch meeting with Senate Democrats on February 17, …
The White House was facing a lot of criticism from stalling out on top Democratic priorities and the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan as President Joe Biden neared the end of his first year in office, some of it aimed at the chief of staff, Ron Klain.
On one of the darker days, Louisa Terrell, Biden’s legislative liaison, stuck her head in Klain’s office. Walking over to his desk, Terrell plunked down a smooth, gray rock she had picked up walking along the Rhode Island coast when it felt like the White House was being hit from all sides. She wanted Klain to know the team was “rock solid” behind him.
“From that day on, I kept it right in the middle of my desk,” Klain told US.MisterTruth in an exclusive interview Tuesday, his last full day in the White House. Along with encouragement from the president and others on the team, the “plain and simple” rock was one of the reasons Klain fought through the rough patches and stayed in the job longer – as he likes to point out – than eight of the last nine White House chiefs of staff.
Pence-Trump relationship grows even more complicated with subpoena
Former Vice-President Mike Pence speaks at Florida International University, Friday, Jan. 27, 2023, in Miami. Pence was talking about the economy and promoting his new
There is likely no better witness to Donald Trump’s campaign to overturn the 2020 election than Mike Pence.
While the former vice president managed to avoid an appearance before a House committee investigating the Capitol insurrection, Pence is now confronting a potentially fraught political path in the form of a subpoena from the Justice Department’s special counsel overseeing criminal investigations involving Trump, including the former president’s efforts to block the transfer of power.
And one of the most striking of Trump’s attempts to subvert the election played out in a heated telephone call on the morning of Jan. 6, when the then-president berated his vice president as a “wimp” if he didn’t act to decertify President Joe Biden’s election.
Could some of George Santos’ fabrications be protected by the First Amendment?
Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., leaves a House GOP conference meeting on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Jan. 25, 2023.
Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., faces a series of investigations and growing hostility from Republicans for lying about his background while running for office. But legal experts say some of the fabrications, on their own, are likely protected by the First Amendment – along with other speech many Americans may find objectionable.
Not all lying is protected by the First Amendment: Americans can’t lie in connection with committing financial fraud, for instance. Lying under oath is perjury. Even when not under oath, lying to the federal government – such as to the FBI or the Securities and Exchange Commission – can lead to hefty fines and prison. But lying for votes, experts say, is not likely a crime on its own.
“I frequently tell my students there is a lot of sleazy, unethical, rotten conduct that isn’t criminal,” Randall Eliason, a former federal prosecutor and a professor at George Washington University Law School, wrote recently on his Sidebars blog. “Santos is a liar and a fraud who does not deserve to be in Congress. But his lies about his background almost certainly fall into that ‘sleazy but not criminal’ category.”