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Shes been an honest broker, Id say that. Thats the greatest compliment around here. Shes kept her word, shes committed to something, Portman said in an interview. He acknowledged "differences of opinion," adding: She would want to spend more I would want to spend less. We have to find a way to get to the middle.

The group holed up for hours on Tuesday night after the Capito talks collapsed. Sinema ordered pizza and forced the group to cast their floor votes together before immediately returning to the basement hideaway where they were chatting to keep talks efficient. They had no time to waste.

Sinemas talks are operating on an accelerated timeline, with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democratic leaders impatient to make progress in the coming weeks before pursuing a unilateral approach that's been resisted by Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). For Biden, the key question is whether he will bend on asking for changes to GOP tax cuts or the overall scope of the bill after yielding nearly $1 trillion to Capito but still asking for $1 trillion in new spending.

She's a 44-year-old Senate newcomer, but Sinema has spent her first 2 years in office forging close relationships with Republicans that rival Manchin's bipartisan entreaties. And the next few days will test whether that can translate to 60 votes for a big bill that the president will sign.

In a statement for this story, Sinema acknowledged that forging an agreement, with her leadership, between Biden and at least 10 Republicans will be difficult" but would help show everyday Americans that we can work together to modernize and make our infrastructure resilient, and expand economic opportunities.

On Wednesday, deal-seeking Republicans gathered at lunchtime to present their fluid plans for spending several hundred billion dollars above current levels on infrastructure to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The Kentucky Republican said that hes only in listening mode on Wednesday, a shift from his explicit blessing of Capitos negotiations with Biden.

Sinema cant count on Capitos help at this point. The West Virginia Republican said in an interview shes stopped attending the bipartisan 20-senator meetings she had joined earlier this year and isnt getting involved in Sinema and Portmans cohort.

She did offer some advice: Make sure you actually agree on what the definition of infrastructure is and how you would pay for it. Those tips seem basic enough, but disagreement on those terms brought down Capitos negotiations with Biden before the duo ever got close to a deal.

Im really not participating in the other group I cant negotiate on two tracks, Capito said in an interview. Theyre working their own tracks. I wish them luck. Just gotta make sure what the president tells you is what matches the reality of what they really want.

Sinema has had two telephone conversations on infrastructure with Biden: one Tuesday in the wake of the collapse of the Capito-Biden talks and an in-person meeting in May centered on the issue. Shes also spoken to top White House aides including legislative director Louisa Terrell, Biden counselor Steve Ricchetti and chief of staff Ron Klain recently about the issue. But she purposely didn't upstage Capito, a close friend and ally, by keeping the talks with Portman low-key and on the back burner.

The Sinema-Portman group is also working with a bipartisan House group called the Problem Solvers Caucus, made up of 58 members divided evenly on party lines who helped the bipartisan Senate group resuscitate Covid relief talks at the end of former President Donald Trump's administration. Since then, they've convened every other week at Manchins bipartisan lunch meeting.

When the Problem Solvers Caucus released its version of an infrastructure bill on Wednesday, some of its members privately said it had buy-in from the bipartisan group of deal-seeking senators. As centrists in an increasingly partisan body, many Problem Solvers members already had close ties to Sinema, who previously served in the House.

Sinema also enjoys a better relationship with McConnell than most Democrats, who are deeply skeptical of him and whether he would allow 10 or more of his members to do anything that could boost Biden. McConnell on Wednesday defended Capito and chastised Biden pointedly, claiming he is unwilling to let go of some of the most radical promises he made to the left wing of his party.

McConnell wants Biden to fail, said Sen.Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). There arent even 10 Republicans who are even willing to talk to us about compromise. And if we get 10 Republicans you probably lose some Democrats if its too squishy, middle-of-the-road minimalist.

Sen.Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican member of the Sinema-Portman group, said that those trade-offs are a secondary issue. She wants to see more flexibility from the president, who is currently overseas.

The bigger question is, can the White House accept a more reasonable bill that is focused just on infrastructure and broadband and acceptable pay-fors? Collins asked.

Still, the distrust of McConnell has Democrats openly pressing to abandon the bipartisan approach or at least have a party-line back-up plan ready if talks fail. Brown and Schumer are among the Democrats bracing for the deployment of the so-called budget reconciliation process to evade a GOP filibuster and pass a second huge spending bill this year after the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill passed on party lines in March.

The Democrats' go-it-alone chorus is growing louder by the day, but they will need Sinema and Manchin to join in. Controlling only 50 Senate seats means Biden and his party need total unity if they try and pass a bill without Republicans.

Now that Manchin and Sinema are knee-deep in arbitrating infrastructure talks with Biden and Senate Republicans, the pair will soon have an answer on whether their bipartisan aspirations harmonize with the presidents vision of spending trillions on clean energy, roads and bridges and paid family leave.

Its a good test. Because this is not deep policy. Its not particularly partisan, said Sen. Angus King (I-Maine). If we cant make it on this, its a bad sign.

Still, Democrats have made it clear they have essentially zero patience left after the Capito talks with Biden dragged out for about six weeks. Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), a member of the larger bipartisan group, said he expected it to meet on Thursday again.

His hope was that by the time senators headed to their home states Thursday afternoon, they would know whether a bipartisan agreement would materialize: If we dont get a deal pretty damn quick, we aint gonna have a deal.

Sarah Ferris contributed to this report.

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Kyrsten Sinema gets her make-or-break moment with Republicans - POLITICO

For the national Republican Party, this issue gives us the chance to do some good, win back millions of voters weve alienated, and move on to other important areas where we still have the moral high ground.

Some Republican operatives think theyre better off continuing to fight on this front of the culture war, and plenty of Democratic operatives think the same. The partisan vote in the House reflects an unwillingnesson both sidesto negotiate. But gay and trans rights are no longer the wedge issue they were in the early aughts. Times have changed, and Republicans best bet now is to reach a negotiated peace with the other side.

Democrats know the current version of the Equality Act could never pass in the Senate in its current form. And it might seem that in the current environment, common ground is out of reach. But senators of both parties have no chance of portraying themselves as reasonable unless they make a good-faith effort to reach a deal. Democrats cannot clear this hurdle unless they deal fairly with Republicans like Susan Collins or Lisa Murkowski, as well as conservative Democrat Joe Manchin. As for Republicans, they need to be willing to back an alternative rather than just saying no.

For religious conservatives, and by extension the Republicans who represent many of them, the problem with the current bill is that it appears to threaten their religious freedom and fails to adequately grapple with First Amendment concerns. They cannot support legislation that would imperil their operations, including the vital social services they provide in underserved communities around the country.

Several states have enacted laws similar to the Equality Act in recent years, but always with religious liberty protections. For instance, Rhode Island has a robust anti-discrimination law with reasonable protections for religious groups. These protections ensure that Catholic Social Servicesand any other religious groupscan continue to provide valuable services in the state.

Similarly, Utahs success in passing anti-discrimination legislation offers a path forward. Although its state government is controlled by Republicans at every level, Utah has some of the strongest protections for gay and trans people in the nation. In 2015, with the support of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and state LGBTQ leaders, Utahs Republican legislature passed a comprehensive non-discrimination bill with reasonable protections for religious organizations.

I worked on the campaign to pass it, and found that Republicans were far more open to gay rights if a bill simply respected these protections, and Democrats were able to get behind it as well. It was a fair outcome that both sides liked. As a result, the law has enjoyed widespread support among the public. The people of Utah are tied with Vermont for the second-highest rates of support for LGBTQ non-discrimination protections.

In Congress, instead of working toward such a deal, many Democrats grandstand and posture, insistingwronglythat they can pass the Equality Act as currently written. Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, for instance, has never complained about the religious exemptions in his own states anti-discrimination laws, yet for some reason he draws a line in the sand at the federal level, denouncing any effort to provide similar exemptions in the Equality Act. Meanwhile, most Republicans complain about these missing provisions without offering their support for a bill that included such guarantees.

Utah should serve as a blueprint for both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate. The Fairness for All Act, an alternative version of the Equality Act, draws from the popular Utah law. Senate Republicans should introduce this bill and use its language to amend the Equality Act.

Support by Republican lawmakers for these types of changes would deliver a broader win to religious conservatives as well: Perhaps surprisingly, the best and possibly only way to achieve robust religious-freedom protections nationwide is by agreeing to LGBTQ non-discrimination protections, codifying an expansion of civil rights for religion alongside protections for sex, sexual orientation and gender identity.

This move would also help Republicans gain back some of the ground they lost with voters over the past several years. Public opinion polling shows that support for LGBTQ civil rights continues to climb, particularly in more educated, suburban districts.

With public support at sky-high levels, a version of the Equality Act will pass eventually. The question is: Which version? And will Republicans take the opportunity to shape it?

Religious conservatives should seize this chance now to influence the process before the culture shifts even more decidedly against them on LGBTQ issues. By making peace on this issue, religious conservatives could get the legal protections they want while also showing themselves to be decent and reasonable peoplewinning them political goodwill for any future disagreements that might emerge, and allowing lawmakers to move on to pressing issues like the crushing federal debt, defeating coronavirus, unaccompanied minors at the border, human rights abuses by the Chinese Communist Party, crumbling infrastructure and energy independence.

Responsible legislation is within reach, but you cant win if you dont play. Reaching a settlement on these issues is better for people of faith, better for LGBTQ people, and better for the country. Republicans should sit down with Democrats and insist on a deal that works for both sides. Common ground is possible.

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Opinion | The Republican Case for Federal LGBT Rights - POLITICO

Americans should be worried that the Republican party is willing to embrace a way of thinking about our democracy that would be unrecognisable and unacceptable even five years ago, Barack Obama said on Monday.

The former president warned Americans to recognise that the path towards an undemocratic America is not gonna happen in just one bang but will instead come in a series of steps, as seen under authoritarian leaders in Hungary and Poland.

Obama was speaking to CNN the night before two Senate committees released a report on the deadly attack on the US Capitol on 6 January.

Five people died after supporters of Donald Trump stormed the building in service of Trumps lie that his conclusive defeat by Joe Biden in the electoral college and the popular vote was caused by electoral fraud.

Trump was impeached a second time, with support from 10 House Republicans. But Republicans in the Senate acquitted him of inciting an insurrection. He remains free to run for office and has returned to public speaking and hinted about plans for running for the White House again in 2024.

Last month, Republicans blocked the formation of a 9/11-style commission to investigate the Capitol attack. The Senate report released on Tuesday did not address political questions.

Away from Washington, in states including Texas, Florida and Georgia, Republicans are pursuing laws to restrict ballot access in constituencies likely to vote Democratic, and to make it easier to overturn election results.

In Washington, opposition from centrist Democrats such as the West Virginia senator Joe Manchin is blocking federal voting rights protections.

Obama told CNN large portions of an elected Congress [are] going along with the falsehood that there were problems with the election.

Some Republicans did speak up against Trumps lie after 6 January, Obama said, praising officials like Brad Raffensperger, the Republican Georgia secretary of state who resisted pressure to overturn Bidens win there, as very brave.

But then, Obama said, poof, suddenly everybody was back in line. Now, the reason for that is because the base believed it and the base believed it because this had been told to them not just by the president, but by the media that they watch.

My hope is that the tides will turn. But that does require each of us to understand that this experiment in democracy is not self-executing. It doesnt happen just automatically.

Obama, the first black president, has considered his impact on the American right at length, particularly in his memoir, A Promised Land, which was published after the 2020 election.

He told CNN the rightwing media, most prominently Fox News, was a particular driver of deepening division. Republicans and Democrats, he said, occupy different worlds. And it becomes that much more difficult for us to hear each other, see each other.

We have more economic stratification and segregation. You combine that with racial stratification and the siloing of the media, so you dont have just Walter Cronkite delivering the news, but you have 1,000 different venues. All that has contributed to that sense that we dont have anything in common.

Asking how do we start once again being able to tell a common story about where this country goes?, Obama said Americans on either side of the divide needed to meet and talk more often.

The question now becomes how do we create meeting places, he said. Because right now, we dont have them and were seeing the consequences of that.

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Barack Obama warns Republicans will kill US democracy in series of steps - The Guardian

The estimated cost of the recall election, according to state finance officials, is $215 million statewide, including an estimated $20 million for San Diego County

SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. On the eve of California's highly-anticipated reopening, Republicans who have been critical of Governor Gavin Newsom's handling of the pandemic say it is time for new leadership. Already, more than six dozen candidates have filed paperwork to run in the upcoming recall election.

Monday night, five of those hopefuls, including former Olympian and trans-rights advocate Caitlyn Jenner, spoke in front of hundreds of local Republicans.

Two of the most high-profile candidates vying to take Governor Gavin Newsom's place, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and businessman John Cox, did not appear at the event, organized by the Republican Party of San Diego County.

But those who did take the stage had a unified message: in their view, it is time for new leadership in California.

"Why are we all here?" asked Jenner. "We are running against the corruption and the mismanagement, and it has only been accelerated under Gavin Newsom's rule."

Candidate after candidate took the stage and made their case.

"Gavin Newsom has got to go, and we need real leadership in his place," said candidate Joseph Luciano.

"What we have experienced in California this last year is nothing less than a socialist-communist takeover by the leadership of this state," said candidate Sarah Stephens

Candidate Anthony Trimino talked about his grandfather fleeing Communist Cuba for a better life in the United States.

"My grandfather would be rolling over in his grave right now if he realized this country he was running to is starting to look more and more like the country he was fleeing from," Trimino said.

"We are hearing from the farmers in Fresno, the entrepreneurs in the Bay Area, the moms in Hollywood," said candidate Jenny Rae Le Roux. "There are an unreal number of people who are excited about this election."

A recent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California finds 40% of likely voters say they would vote to remove Newsom from office.

"California lays claim to the lowest [COVID-19] positivity rate in America," Newsom said recently. "Now is not the time to waste hundreds of millions of dollars on a recall effort that is nothing more than a partisan power grab."

The estimated cost of the recall election, according to state finance officials, is $215 million statewide, which includes an estimated $20 million for San Diego County.

The election will be held most likely sometime between September and November, with some Democrats pushing to hold it before the end of summer.

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Republican candidates vying to unseat Gov. Newsom in recall election take the stage - CBS News 8

A few hours after Michael Flynn, the retired three-star general and former national-security adviser and convicted felon, told a group of QAnon conspiracists who met in Dallas over Memorial Day weekend that the Biden Administration should be overthrown by force, Democratic legislators in the Texas statehouse, two hundred miles away in Austin, did something remarkable: they stopped their Republican colleagues from passing one of the most restrictive voting bills in the country. Flynns pronouncement and the Republicans efforts rely on repeating the same untruth: that the Presidency was stolen from Donald Trump by a cabal of Democrats, election officials, and poll workers who perpetrated election fraud. No matter that this claim has been litigated, relitigated, and debunked. Based on data collected by the conservative Heritage Foundation, the incidence of voter fraud in the two decades before last years election was about 0.00006 per cent of total ballots cast. It was negligible in 2020, too, as Trumps Attorney General, William Barr, acknowledged at the time.

Senate Bill 7 was stymied at the last minute, when Democrats in the Texas House walked out, depriving Republicans of a quorum. The legislation is full of what are becoming standard suppression tacticsmost of which burden people of color, who in 2020 overwhelmingly voted Democraticand includes measures that would, for example, allow a judge to overturn an election result simply if a challenger claimed, without any proof, that fraudulent votes changed the outcome. Sarah Labowitz, of the A.C.L.U. of Texas, called the bill ruthless. Texas was already the most difficult state in which to cast a ballot, according to a recent study by Northern Illinois University. In 2020, voter turnout there was among the lowest in the nation. Even so, with nonwhites making up more than sixty per cent of the population under twenty, Texas is on its way to becoming a swing state. S.B. 7 is intended to insure that it doesnt. Governor Greg Abbott has promised to call a special session of the legislature to reintroduce it.

Since January, Republican lawmakers in forty-eight states have introduced nearly four hundred restrictive voting bills. What distinguishes these efforts is that they target not only voters but also poll workers and election officials. The Texas bill makes it a criminal offense for an election official to obstruct the view of poll watchers, who are typically partisan volunteers, and grants those observers the right to record videos of voters at polling places. In Iowa, officials could be fined ten thousand dollars for technical infractions, such as failing to sufficiently purge voters from the rolls. In Florida, workers who leave drop boxes unattended, however briefly, can be fined twenty-five thousand dollars. In Georgia, poll watchers can challenge the eligibility of an unlimited number of voters.

Even before the pandemic, sixty-five per cent of jurisdictions in the country were having trouble attracting poll workers. The threat of sizable fines and criminal prosecution will only make that task harder, and thats clearly the point. Polls cant operate without poll workers. Voters cant vote if there are no polling places, or if they cant stand in hours-long lines at the sites that are opennot to mention if other means of casting a ballot, such as by mail, have been outlawed.

What began as thinly veiled attempts to keep Democrats from voting has become a movement to undermine confidence in our democracy itself. How else to understand the recount under way in Maricopa County, Arizona (which gave Joe Biden the state), six months after the election was certified? Despite an audit in February that showed no malfeasance, Republicans in the Arizona Senate took possession of the countys more than two million ballots and turned them over to a private Florida-based company, Cyber Ninjas, which has no election-audit experience. The firms C.E.O. had reportedly tweeted that he was tired of hearing people say there was no fraud. Its unclear who is paying for the recount, which was supposed to have concluded last month. According to the Arizona Republic, recruiters for the project were reaching out to traditionally conservative groups. At least one of the recounters was at the January 6th Stop the Steal rally outside the U.S. Capitol. Some have been examining ballots for bamboo fibres, which would purportedly prove that counterfeit ballots for Biden were sent from South Korea. The official chain of custody has been broken for the voting machines, too, which could enable actual fraud, and may force the county to replace them.

Its easy to joke about conspiracy hunters searching for bits of bamboo. But the fact is that more than half of Republicans still believe that Trump won, and a quarter of all Americans think that the election was rigged. Republicans in at least four other statesNew Hampshire, Michigan, Georgia, and Pennsylvaniaare now considering recounts. Soon, Trump will begin to hold rallies again and will use them to amplify his Big Lie lie; he has reportedly suggested that he could be back in the White House in August, after the recounts are completed. The real, and imminent, danger is that all the noise will make it easier for a cohort of Americans to welcome the dissolution of the political system, which appears to be the ultimate goal of the current Republican efforts.

Last Tuesday, in a speech commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the Tulsa massacre, Biden vowed to fight like heck to preserve voting rights, and he deputized Vice-President Kamala Harris to lead the charge. Chuck Schumer, the Senate Majority Leader, said that he would bring the For the People Act to a vote this month. Among other provisions, the act mandates automatic voter registration, prohibits voter intimidation, and reduces the influence of dark money in elections. If it became law, and survived the inevitable legal challenges, it could stop much of the Republican pillage, and perhaps prove the most pivotal piece of legislation in a generation.

Nearly seventy per cent of Americans favor measures in the bill, but its unlikely to gain the support of Senator Joe Manchin, the conservative West Virginia Democrat, let alone of enough Republicans to clear the sixty-vote hurdle imposed by the filibuster. So far, to Bidens evident annoyance, Manchin and another Democratic senator, Kyrsten Sinema, of Arizona, oppose eliminating the filibuster. Its up to Democratic leaders to impress upon their colleagues that their legacies, and that of their party, are now entwined with the survival of American democracy.

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The Republicans Wild Assault on Voting Rights in Texas and Arizona - The New Yorker