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US House Votes to Hold Trump Adviser Bannon in Contempt

The U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday to hold Steve Bannon, one of former President Donald Trump’s longtime advisers, in contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with a congressional inquiry into the January 6 rioting at the U.S. Capitol. 

The House voted 229-202, with a handful of Republican lawmakers, including Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, both members of the panel conducting the investigation, joining the Democratic majority in the House in voting against Bannon. 

The citation will now be sent to the federal prosecutor in Washington for presentation to a grand jury for possible indictment of Bannon. He could, if convicted, be sentenced to up to a year in prison, but contempt of Congress charges are unusual and rarely result in prison time.

The House debated the contempt citation for more than hour before voting. Democrats on the investigative committee argued that Bannon should not be allowed to ignore their subpoena for his testimony about his role in the mayhem at the Capitol and his conversations with Trump. 

“We cannot let this man flout the laws with impunity,” said Representative Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat and chairman of the investigative committee.

Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, another Democrat, told lawmakers, “In America, when you’re subpoenaed, you show up. You cannot blow off a subpoena.” 

But one Republican opposed to the contempt citation, Representative Jim Banks of Indiana, contended the committee members were “abusing their power to put [Bannon] in prison” and accused the panel of conducting “a sham investigation.” 

A vocal Trump supporter, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, said the investigation “is really about getting President Trump.” 

The riot unfolded nine months ago as lawmakers were certifying that Trump had lost last year’s election to Democrat Joe Biden, who was inaugurated as the country’s 46th president two weeks later.

The committee investigating the insurrection voted earlier this week to initiate the contempt charges, saying Bannon was the only witness who had completely refused to testify. The committee said Bannon spoke to Trump before the rioting and promoted the January 6 protest, after which about 800 Trump supporters stormed into the Capitol. 

Just ahead of the rampage, at a rally near the White House, Trump urged supporters to “fight like hell” to block certification of Biden’s victory. Some of those attendees entered the Capitol, vandalized the building, ransacked congressional offices and fought with police. More than 600 have been charged with an array of offenses. The chaos left five people dead.

Trump has sought to stymie the committee’s investigation of what precipitated the rioting and his role in it. He has urged Bannon and other former aides subpoenaed by the committee to reject its requests, claiming executive privilege for White House documents. Bannon was Trump’s chief strategist at the White House through the first seven months of 2017 and has remained one of his most vocal supporters.

Trump filed a lawsuit Monday, alleging the committee made an illegal, unfounded and overly broad request for his White House records.

Biden’s White House has argued that Trump has no legitimate privilege claim.

“The former president’s actions represented a unique — and existential — threat to our democracy that can’t be swept under the rug,” spokesman Michael Gwin said. “The constitutional protections of executive privilege should not be used to shield information that reflects a clear and apparent effort to subvert the Constitution itself.”

Senate Republicans blocked the creation of an independent commission to probe the mayhem, a panel that would have been modeled on the one that investigated the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

In response, the Democratic-controlled House then created the nine-member investigative panel, with seven Democrats, along with Cheney and Kinzinger, both of whom have been vocal Trump critics.

In July, the panel heard vivid, detailed accounts from four police officers who encountered the rioters inside the Capitol on January 6 but has not heard more public testimony since then.
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Lone Democratic Senator Blocks Biden’s Climate Agenda as COP26 Nears

With the U.N. Climate Change Conference set to begin in less than two weeks, a vital piece of the Biden administration’s climate agenda is in danger of dying in the U.S. Senate, at the hands of a member of the president’s own party.

Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat who represents the state of West Virginia, has said he will not support the most important clean energy provisions in the administration’s “Build Back Better” package of infrastructure and social spending programs. Because the Democrats have only 50 seats in the 100-member Senate, and expect zero votes from Republicans, Manchin can kill the entire bill by withholding his vote.

Last week, he indicated he would do just that if the Clean Energy Performance Program, considered the centerpiece of President Joe Biden’s climate plan, were part of the bill. The CEPP would reward electricity producers that begin converting to renewable energy at a rate of 4% per year or greater, and penalize those that do not.

The economy of Manchin’s home state is disproportionately reliant on fossil fuel, so oil and gas firms, coal mining operations and natural gas pipeline companies all wield significant political muscle. The coal industry in West Virginia would be particularly hurt by the CEPP, because 90% of the electricity produced in the state comes from coal-fired power plants.

This week, Manchin also rejected a different effort to meet the administration’s emission reduction goals, this time by imposing a tax on carbon. To the frustration of many in his party, Manchin has not offered any alternatives that would come close to the kind of impact on emissions that the Biden administration is seeking.

Bold promises

On his first day as president, Biden announced that the U.S. would rejoin the Paris Agreement, a climate accord that his predecessor, Republican Donald Trump, had exited. In April, Biden announced that his goal was to reduce U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases that cause climate change to between 50% and 52% of 2005 levels.

Experts say the 4% annual increase in electricity generated by renewables required by the CEPP is essential to meeting the emissions reduction goal.

The bold promise was meant to demonstrate renewed U.S. leadership in the global effort to fight climate change, and was made with an eye on next month’s U.N. climate summit, also known as COP26. Recently, the administration announced it would be sending 13 members of Biden’s Cabinet to the summit, which will be held in Glasgow, Scotland, demonstrating a very high level of commitment spanning the breadth of the federal government.

Empty-handed at COP 26?

But Manchin’s unwillingness to budge on the climate issue leaves the president in danger of traveling to Glasgow with little, other than good intentions, to show for his first 10 months in office.

Other Democrats in Congress have warned of the danger of failing to take significant action. Former U.S. Senator John Kerry, Biden’s climate envoy, told The Associated Press it would compound the reputational damage the U.S. suffered when Trump pulled out of the Paris Agreement.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, told The Guardian newspaper it would make the U.S. delegation look “ridiculous,” adding, “It would be bad for U.S. leadership, bad for the talks and disastrous for the climate. Just disastrous.”

Manchin’s claims

Manchin has claimed the energy industry is making the change to renewables on its own, and that it makes little sense to spend taxpayer dollars on something that is already happening.

Chris Hamilton, president of the West Virginia Coal Association, said Manchin’s assessment of the industry’s progress is accurate.

“We can get there if we … allow for the various carbon capture technologies to be developed, commercialized and then utilized within the coal and natural gas sectors,” Hamilton said. “Our goal is to reduce the carbon footprint as well, you know. It’s not like anyone’s opposing that.”

But climate activists sharply dispute Manchin’s characterization of the industry’s progress on reducing emissions.

Manchin’s claims are “demonstrably false,” said Michael O’Boyle, director of electricity policy at Energy Innovation, an energy and climate policy think tank in San Francisco.

“Over the last five years, from 2016 to 2020, the U.S. added about 1.1% to its clean energy share annually,” he said. “In 2020, alone, we hit a record of 2.3%, so barely more than half of a 4% increase.”

Manchin’s personal interests

Critics of the West Virginia senator also point out that Manchin has a considerable personal financial interest in the coal industry. He owns between $1 million and $5 million in shares of Enersystems Inc., a coal brokerage that he founded and that is now run by his son. The company has paid him nearly $5 million over the past decade.

When asked about this apparent conflict of interest, Manchin has for years protested that his assets are held in a blind trust. However, his Senate financial disclosure forms expressly name Enersystems.

Manchin also receives major campaign donations from the fossil fuel industry at large, taking in well over $250,000 in the 2022 election cycle so far.

A dying industry

Adding to the frustration of Manchin’s fellow Democrats is that the coal mining industry that he is so intent on protecting has been shriveling for decades, as demand for coal across the United States decreases.

In 2020, the U.S. Energy Information Administration found that the coal industry in West Virginia, including “all employees engaged in production, preparation, processing, development, maintenance, repair shop or yard work at mining operations, including office workers,” employed 11,418 people, or about 1.4% of the state’s workforce.

The numbers were down slightly in 2020 because of the pandemic and will likely rise when 2021 figures are released, but the longer-term trend is quite clear. Since the early 1950s, when more than 125,000 men mined coal with pickaxes and shovels in West Virginia, improved technology began steadily reducing the number of people needed to run the state’s coal mines.

By the 1990s, there were fewer than 40,000 people employed by the industry in the state, and the numbers have kept falling.

Add to that the decline in demand, as power companies switched to cleaner fuels, including natural gas, and the picture of a dying industry becomes complete. After peaking at 158 million tons in 2008, West Virginia’s coal production has fallen sharply, to well under 100 million tons for the past several years.
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US House to Decide Whether to Hold Bannon in Contempt

The U.S. House of Representatives is due to vote Thursday on a contempt citation against Steve Bannon, one of former President Donald Trump’s longtime advisers, for refusing to cooperate with a congressional inquiry into the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

The Democrat-majority House is expected to approve the contempt measure, with most House Republicans expected to vote against it.

If approved, the citation would be sent to the federal prosecutor in Washington for presentation to a grand jury for possible indictment of Bannon. He could, if convicted, be sentenced to up to one year in prison, but such contempt of Congress charges are unusual and rarely result in prison time.

A committee investigating the insurrection voted Tuesday to initiate the contempt charges, saying he was the only witness who had completely denied their call for him to testify.  The committee says Bannon spoke to Trump before the rioting and promoted protests on January 6.

The Democratic-controlled panel is investigating how and why hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building as lawmakers were certifying that Democrat Joe Biden had defeated Trump in last year’s presidential election.

In the waning days of his presidency, Trump urged supporters at a rally near the White House to “fight like hell” to block certification of Biden’s victory. Soon afterward, more than 800 Trump supporters stormed into the Capitol, some of them vandalizing the building and fighting with police. More than 600 have been charged with an array of offenses. The incident left five people dead.

Trump has sought to stymie the committee’s investigation of what precipitated the rioting and his role in it. He has urged Bannon and other former aides subpoenaed by the committee to reject its requests, claiming executive privilege for White House documents, even though he left office January 20. Bannon was Trump’s chief strategist at the White House through the first seven months of 2017 and has remained as one of his most vocal supporters.

Trump filed a lawsuit Monday, alleging the committee made an illegal, unfounded and overly broad request for his White House records.

Biden’s White House has argued that Trump has no legitimate privilege claim.

“The former president’s actions represented a unique — and existential — threat to our democracy that can’t be swept under the rug,” spokesman Michael Gwin said. “The constitutional protections of executive privilege should not be used to shield information that reflects a clear and apparent effort to subvert the Constitution itself.”

Senate Republicans blocked the creation of an independent commission to probe the mayhem, a panel that would have been modeled on the one that investigated the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

In response, the Democratic-controlled House then created the nine-member investigative panel, which includes two Republican lawmakers who have been vocal Trump critics.

In July, the panel heard vivid, detailed accounts from four police officers who encountered the rioters inside the Capitol on January 6 but has not heard more public testimony since then.

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press.
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US Senate Republicans Block Democrats’ Voting Rights Bill

A bill aimed at thwarting restrictive new voting laws enacted in Republican-led states failed to advance in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, as Republican lawmakers blocked a Democratic effort to begin debating the measure.

It was the third time this year Senate Democrats tried to advance a voting rights bill in reaction to new state balloting restrictions that were fueled by Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election.

Enough of the chamber’s 50 Republicans had voted to block the measure from advancing, a move that could bring new pressure on Democrats to change the Senate’s filibuster rule that requires 60 votes to pass most legislation.

Senator Angus King, an independent who aligns with Democrats, told reporters that if Republicans again block the bill, “we would either have to figure out a rule change or we have to try to have discussions toward a compromise solution.”

Many Democrats have been calling for a scaling back or elimination of the filibuster to make it easier to pass President Joe Biden’s agenda over the objections of top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell.

Biden, himself a veteran of the Senate, has voiced objections to doing so, although he suggested he was open to considering it during the recent showdown over hiking the debt ceiling.

There are several reform ideas that could stop short of a full ban on legislative filibusters. Those could include carving out an exemption just for the voting rights bill or limiting the number of filibusters against a bill.

But with no sign of Republicans willing to compromise, King told reporters on Tuesday that Democrats’ deliberations on next steps “cannot go on for months and months … it’s got to happen in this calendar year” so that states have enough time to prepare for any election law changes before the November 2022 congressional elections.

Moderate Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have voiced objections to ending the filibuster. Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer enlisted Manchin to seek a deal with Republicans on the voting rights bill. It was unclear whether a failure would persuade Manchin to support a rules change.

At least 18 states have enacted 30 laws restricting voting access this year, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, following false claims by Trump, the Republican former president, that he lost the 2020 election to Biden because of widespread voting fraud.

Democrats and voting rights advocates denounce the measures as partisan power grabs that will make it harder for Black and Hispanic voters, important voting blocs for Democrats, to cast ballots.

“No honest observer can look at the way the states have changed election laws this year and pretend that there’s nothing malicious afoot,” Schumer said in a Tuesday floor speech.

McConnell predicted that none of the senators in his caucus would support opening a debate on the Democrats’ voting rights bill.

“What our Democratic friends have been wanting to do forever is to have the federal government take over how elections are conducted all over America. There’s no basis for that whatsoever,” McConnell told reporters on Tuesday.

Since leaving office, Trump has continued to repeat his baseless election fraud allegations. Multiple courts, state election officials and members of Trump’s own administration rejected his claims.

The vote on Wednesday concerned a bill scaled back from the prior version blocked by Republicans. It would set broad standards for how states conduct elections, including ensuring all qualified voters can request mail-in ballots.

It also aims to expand voter turnout by making Election Day a federal holiday and would outlaw partisan drawing of congressional districts, known as gerrymandering, that both parties have engaged in for decades.
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Poll: US Global Standing Rebounds Under Biden

Approval of U.S. leadership around the world rebounded during the first six months of President Joe Biden’s term, after a record low in the last year of President Donald Trump’s administration. This according to a new Gallup survey of people in nearly 50 countries. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.

Produced by: Barry Unger
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Biden, Democrats Aim for Deal on Spending Package in Coming Days 

U.S. President Joe Biden and Democratic lawmakers are edging toward a deal on the scope of their cornerstone economic revival package and hope to reach a compromise as soon as this week, people briefed on the negotiations said Tuesday. 

Scrambling to broker an agreement, Biden met with 19 lawmakers on Tuesday in an unusually busy day of legislative negotiations. He aimed to secure what may be the signature effort of his administration, a multitrillion-dollar, two-bill legislative package that expands social safety net programs and infrastructure spending. 

One source said a deal could be announced midweek if things go well; two others said the White House was hoping for an announcement in coming days. 

“After a day of constructive meetings, the President is more confident this evening about the path forward to delivering for the American people on strong, sustained economic growth that benefits everyone,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a written statement issued Tuesday evening. 

The talks centered on a “shared commitment to the care economy, ensuring working families have more breathing room, addressing the climate crisis, and investing in industries of the future so that we can compete globally,” Psaki said. 

“There was broad agreement that there is urgency in moving forward over the next several days and that the window for finalizing a package is closing,” she said. 

A spending package that was originally estimated at $3.5 trillion over a decade could be reduced to $1.9 trillion to $2.2 trillion, said Representative Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Progressive Caucus in the House of Representatives, after meeting with Biden. 

Biden told Democrats in a private meeting that he believed a deal could be reached between $1.75 trillion and $1.9 trillion, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday evening. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer also said Democrats aim to reach a framework deal this week. Speaking to reporters following a closed-door lunch with fellow Democrats, he said: “There was universal agreement in that room that we have to come to an agreement, and we want to get it done this week.” 

A deal is likely to be far less ambitious than Biden’s original plan. Initiatives in that proposal that may see cuts include $322 billion for affordable housing, money for paid family leave and some $400 billion earmarked to increase home-based care for the elderly and disabled, according to a person familiar with the matter. 

Biden has told lawmakers that a program providing free community college is on the chopping block and a child tax credit may be extended for fewer years than planned, according to people familiar with the discussions. 

All of the people who spoke to Reuters warned that negotiations were fragile, still under way and that a deal could still collapse. 

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has set October 31 as the deadline for the House to pass a $1.2 trillion infrastructure deal that the Senate has already approved and has broad bipartisan support. 

Biden met on Tuesday with House progressives, who have been unwilling to pass the infrastructure bill unless it is coupled with the larger budget bill that would fund Biden’s campaign pledges on climate, inequality and social programs. 

“We all feel still even more optimistic about getting to an agreement,” to get a large measure of what they wanted months ago, Jayapal said. 

She said there still weren’t “final” details on major portions of the initiative, including on climate change. Another progressive, Representative Ro Khanna, said Biden’s plan for universal preschool remained a priority. 

The president also met Tuesday with moderate Democratic senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who have voiced concern about the size of the bill and pushed Biden to reduce the original cost. They have a virtual veto over his agenda because both chambers of Congress are controlled only narrowly by Democrats. Republicans largely oppose the larger social-spending bill. 

Asked about the size of the spending bill, Manchin yelled, “I’m at $1.5” trillion to reporters in Congress on Tuesday evening. 

Democratic Senator Jon Tester, who attended a White House meeting with another group of moderates, said afterward, “I think we’re making really good progress, better progress than I ever thought we were making.” 

One of Biden’s major selling points in last year’s presidential campaign was his ability to find a middle ground at a time of deep political polarization, touting his 36 years as a moderate Democratic U.S. senator from Delaware. 

Weeks of negotiations nonetheless failed to bridge the gap on the spending bill. Biden said on October 1 that he would find an agreement “whether it’s in six minutes, six days or in six weeks,” but White House officials were increasingly concerned as the weeks ticked by. 
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Indictment Accuses US Congressman of Lying to FBI

A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted U.S. Representative Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska, accusing him of lying to the FBI and concealing information from federal agents who were investigating campaign contributions funneled to him from a Nigerian billionaire. 

The U.S. attorney’s office announced that the grand jury in Los Angeles had indicted the nine-term Republican on one charge of scheming to falsify and conceal material facts and two counts of making false statements to federal investigators. Fortenberry is expected to appear for an arraignment Wednesday afternoon in federal court in Los Angeles. 

The indictment stems from an FBI investigation into $180,000 in illegal campaign contributions from Gilbert Chagoury, a Nigerian billionaire of Lebanese descent. 

The contributions were funneled through a group of Californians from 2012 through 2016 and went to four U.S. politicians, including $30,200 to Fortenberry in 2016. Using an analysis of federal election records, Politico has identified the other three Republican recipients as former U.S. Representative Lee Terry of Nebraska in 2014; Representative Darrell Issa of California in 2014; and Senator Mitt Romney during his 2012 presidential campaign. 

Federal authorities haven’t alleged that any of the other three campaigns or candidates were aware that the donations originated with Chagoury. 

Allegations

Chagoury, who lives in Paris, admitted to the crime in 2019, agreed to pay a $1.8 million fine and is cooperating with federal authorities. Prosecutors have said Chagoury made some of the illegal contributions to politicians from smaller states because he thought the amounts would be more noticeable and give him better access. He also drew attention years ago for giving more than $1 million to the Clinton Foundation. 

The indictment alleges that a co-host of the 2016 fundraiser in Los Angeles told Fortenberry that the donations probably did come from Chagoury, but Fortenberry never filed an amended campaign report with the Federal Election Commission as required. It says he later “made false and misleading statements” to federal investigators during a March 23, 2019, interview at his home in Lincoln. 

According to the indictment, Fortenberry falsely told investigators he wasn’t aware of an associate of Chagoury being involved in illegal contributions. He also allegedly said that his donors were publicly disclosed, and he wasn’t aware of any contributions from a foreign national, which is illegal. 

In a second interview in Washington in July 2019, the indictment says Fortenberry denied that he was aware of any illicit donation made during the 2016 fundraiser. 

‘Shocked’ and ‘stunned’

In a YouTube video posted Monday night, Fortenberry said he was “shocked” and “stunned” by the allegations and asked his supporters to rally behind him. Knowingly making false statements to a federal agent is a felony, punishable by up to five years in prison. 

“We will fight these charges,” he said in the video, filmed inside a 1963 pickup truck with his wife, Celeste, and their dog, against a backdrop of corn. “I did not lie to them. I told them what I knew. But we need your help.” 

Fortenberry’s campaign has insisted that he didn’t know the donations, which the campaign received during a fundraiser in Los Angeles, originated with Chagoury. 

Fortenberry said FBI agents from California came to his home after he had been out dealing with a major storm that had just hit Nebraska. He said they questioned him about the contributions then and in a follow-up interview. 

“I told them what I knew and what I understood,” he said. 

Fortenberry represents the state’s 1st Congressional District, a heavily Republican area that includes Lincoln and parts of several Omaha suburbs, as well as surrounding farmland and small towns in eastern Nebraska. 

According to the Nebraska secretary of state’s office, no other Nebraska congressman or U.S. senator has been indicted since at least 1901. 

Fortenberry was first elected to the seat in 2004. He won his last election in 2020 with 60% of the vote and has generally defeated Democratic challengers by lopsided margins. 

His statement that he expected to be indicted was first reported by the Omaha World-Herald. 

Celeste Fortenberry said her husband spoke with the agents voluntarily, without a lawyer, because he was under the impression that the agents needed his help to get to the bottom of the case. 

She said he later called his friend, attorney and former congressman Trey Gowdy, for legal representation. She said her husband sat for another interview with agents in Washington and was repeatedly assured that he was not a target of the investigation. 

 
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US House January 6 Probe Set to Advance Bannon Contempt Citation

The House of Representatives committee investigating the rioting at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 appears headed Tuesday to initiating contempt of Congress charges against Steve Bannon, one of former President Donald Trump’s longest-standing advisers, for refusing to cooperate with the probe.

The Democratic-controlled panel, investigating how and why hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building as lawmakers were certifying that Democrat Joe Biden had defeated Trump in last year’s presidential election, is expected to approve the contempt citation against the 67-year-old Bannon, sending it to the full House for a vote.

If the House also votes to hold Bannon in contempt, the citation would be sent to the federal prosecutor in Washington for presentation to a grand jury for possible indictment of Bannon. He could, if convicted, be sentenced to up to a year’s imprisonment, but such contempt of Congress charges are unusual and rarely result in prison time.  

Trump, in the waning days of his presidency, urged supporters at a rally near the White House to “fight like hell” to block certification of Biden’s victory. Soon afterward, more than 800 Trump supporters stormed into the Capitol, some of them vandalizing the building and fighting with police. More than 600 have been charged with an array of offenses. The incident left five people dead.

Trump has sought to stymie the committee’s investigation of what precipitated the rioting and his role in it. He has urged Bannon and other former aides subpoenaed by the committee to reject its requests, claiming executive privilege for White House documents, even though he left office January 20. Bannon was Trump’s chief strategist at the White House through the first seven months of 2017 and has remained as one of his most vocal supporters.

Trump filed a lawsuit Monday alleging the committee made an illegal, unfounded and overly broad request for his White House records.

Biden’s White House has argued that Trump has no legitimate privilege claim.

“The former president’s actions represented a unique — and existential — threat to our democracy that can’t be swept under the rug,” said spokesman Michael Gwin. “The constitutional protections of executive privilege should not be used to shield information that reflects a clear and apparent effort to subvert the Constitution itself.”

Senate Republicans blocked the creation of an independent commission to probe the mayhem that would have been modeled on the one that investigated the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

In response, the Democratic-controlled House then created the nine-member investigative panel, which includes two Republican lawmakers who have been vocal Trump critics.

In July, the panel heard vivid, detailed accounts from four police officers who encountered the rioters inside the Capitol on January 6 but has not heard more public testimony since then.
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Gallup Surveys Show Rebound in Approval of US Leadership

Approval for U.S. leadership rebounded during the first six months of President Joe Biden’s administration, according to a Gallup survey of people in nearly 50 countries. 

The increase came after median approval of U.S. leadership in 108 countries where Gallup conducted surveys hit a record low of 30% in 2020, the last year of President Donald Trump’s administration.

Gallup, a Washington, D.C.-based analytics company, said its 2021 data is not yet complete, but in 46 countries where data was available as of early August, approval for U.S. leadership was up to 49%. 

Approval numbers fell in three countries, declining from 18% to 13% in Russia, 20% to 16% in Serbia and 54% to 50% in Benin.

Approval for U.S. leadership was sharply higher in 2021 from 2020 in several European nations, increasing 52 percentage points in Portugal, 45 points in the Netherlands and 41 points in Sweden. U.S. leadership’s approval also jumped from 17% to 55% in U.S. neighbor Canada, with double-digit increases also seen in Germany, Italy, France and Japan. 

Gallup pointed to different U.S. approaches to engaging with the world under the Trump and Biden administrations. Trump promoted his preference for “America first” policies, while Biden has sought to work more closely with other countries. 

“These words and actions likely reassured many longtime U.S. allies and the international community at large and help explain the surge in approval ratings across most of the 46 countries and territories surveyed through the first half of 2021,” Gallup said. 

Even with the higher approval ratings, the United States was still a distant second in several regions when compared to some of its peers.

When Gallup asked whether people approved of the leadership of the U.S., Germany, China and Russia, it was Germany that ranked first among respondents in Europe, Asia and the Americas. The United States ranked first only in Africa, with its 53% approval just ahead of Germany’s 49%. 
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US House Committee Rejects Bannon ‘Privilege’ Argument in January 6 Inquiry

The U.S. congressional committee investigating the deadly January 6 attack on the Capitol said Monday that it rejected Steve Bannon’s arguments for failing to cooperate with the inquiry, as the panel pursues a contempt of Congress charge against the longtime adviser to former President Donald Trump. 

Trump has claimed that materials and testimony sought by the House of Representatives Select Committee are covered by executive privilege, a legal doctrine that protects the confidentially of some White House communications. 

Bannon, through his lawyer, has said he will not cooperate with the committee until Trump’s executive privilege claim is resolved by a court or through a settlement agreement. 

In its report released Monday making the case for criminal contempt charges against Bannon, the committee said Bannon “relied on no legal authority to support his refusal to comply in any fashion,” and said his testimony is critical because he appears to have “had some foreknowledge about extreme events that would occur” on January 6. 

According to the report, Bannon in a podcast on January 5 told his listeners, “All hell is going to break loose tomorrow. … So many people said, ‘Man, if I was in a revolution, I would be in Washington.’ Well, this is your time in history.” 

The Select Committee is scheduled to meet Tuesday evening to vote on the report recommending that the House cite Bannon for criminal contempt of Congress and refer him to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia for prosecution. 

The U.S. Justice Department has not said whether it plans to prosecute Bannon for contempt of Congress, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine. 

Bannon’s attorney, Robert Costello, did not respond to a request for comment on the committee’s argument. 

The attack on the Capitol by thousands of Trump supporters took place as Congress met to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory over Trump, delaying that process for several hours as then-Vice President Mike Pence, members of Congress, staff and journalists fled. More than 600 people face criminal charges stemming from the event. 

The committee also said that Bannon has “had multiple roles” relevant to its investigation, including helping to construct and participate in the “stop the steal” public relations effort that helped motivate the January 6 attack. 

“Stop the steal” refers to Trump’s false claims that Biden’s victory was the result of widespread fraud. Multiple courts, state election officials and members of Trump’s own administration rejected those claims as false. 

 
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Case for COVID Boosters and Vaccine Mandates in US

Recently, a U.S. advisory panel unanimously endorsed booster shots of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine for adults over the age of 18. The move comes as vaccines and public health protocols in the United States remain politically charged issues. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports. 

Produced by:  Arash Arabasadi
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