Wednesday morning news: April 17, 2024

Mayorkas impeachment » The Senate’s Sergeant-at-arms Karen Gibson heard there as House impeachment managers officially handed off the articles to the upper chamber.

That handoff compels the upper chamber to convene a trial. But Democrats are expected to try to dismiss or table the charges this week before arguments start.

GOP Sen. Roger Marshall said Tuesday:

MARSHALL: A vote to stop this impeachment, whether it’s through tabling it or discharging it, is a vote to keep the border open.

Republicans say Mayorkas has breached the public trust and betrayed his oath of office by willfully refusing to enforce immigration laws.

Democrats say the impeachment is a political charade and that Republicans have improperly impeached him over policy disagreements.

Motion to vacate the speaker Johnson » House Speaker Mike Johnson is pushing back against mounting anger from some Republican members over his proposed aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and other allies.

He also rejected a call on Tuesday to step aside or risk a vote to oust him from office.

MIKE JOHNSON: I am not resigning, and it is, in my view, an absurd notion that someone would bring a vacate motion when we are simply here trying to do our job.

Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie says he intends to support Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s motion to vacate. But Johnson said that will not deter him, adding that party needs a “steady hand at the wheel.”

JOHNSON: Look, I regard myself as a wartime speaker. I mean, in a literal sense, we are. I knew that when I took the gavel. I didn’t anticipate that this would be an easy path.

The speaker is pressing forward with plans for voting this week on a series of foreign aid bills which would likely require help from Democrats to pass.

Trump back in NYC court/jurors » Seven of the 12 jurors have now been seated in the so-called hush money case against Donald Trump.

Former federal prosecutor David Weinstein picking a jury in the unprecedented trial of a U.S. president isn’t easy.

WEINSTEIN: It will be difficult, but not impossible, to find 12 jurors who can sit in judgment of this particular defendant. But it is going to be a tall task, and one that will require honesty on the part of everybody in the process.

But Trump’s lawyers say they have doubts that he can get a fair trial in this case. And the former president himself told reporters …

TRUMP:  We think we have a very conflicted, highly conflicted judge. He shouldn't be on the case. And he's rushing this trial and he's doing as much as he can for the Democrats.

He called the trial a political witch hunt designed to benefit President Biden.

Iran sanctions, etc. » The White House says it is readying new sanctions against Iran after its unprecedented direct weekend attack against Israel.

Although President Biden is urging Israel to exercise military restraint in its response to the attack, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says the United States will use economic weapons to counter Iran’s ‘malign and destabilizing activity.’

AUDIO: We have been working to diminish Iran’s ability to export oil. Clearly Iran is continuing to export some oil. There may be more that we could do.

The White House says the coming sanctions will also target Iran’s missile and drone program along with entities supporting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iran’s Defense Ministry.

Republicans have been criticizing the Biden administration sharply for not doing more to keep Iran in check.

SCOTUS Jan 6 » Did federal prosecutors go too far in charging some of the people involved in the January 6th Capitol riot?

That’s the question before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The justices heard oral arguments Tuesday in the case of Joseph Fischer. He’s one of more than 300 people facing a federal charge of Obstruction of an Official Proceeding.

During oral arguments, Justice Neil Gorsuch questioned whether Fischer’s actions qualify as ‘obstruction’ under the law the Justice Department is claiming.

JUSTICE GORSUCH: Would a sit-in that disrupts a trial or access to a federal courthouse qualify? Would a heckler in today’s audience qualify or at the State of the Union address? Would pulling a fire alarm before a vote qualify for 20 years in federal prison?

Fischer’s lawyer argues the law the Justice Department is using shouldn’t apply, because it’s intended to prevent evidence tampering, not public disruptions.

Reporters in the courtroom say Justice Samuel Alito also appeared to question the strength of the government’s case, but that it’s hard to read which way the full court is leaning.

A decision is expected by late June.

Copenhagen fire » In Denmark, onlookers watched in horror as flames engulfed Copenhagen’s 400-year-old stock exchange … sending the building’s iconic dragon-tail spire tumbling to the ground.

LOCAL MAN: I saw the tower with the four dragons fall…and there was flames all over and it was a terrible sight…It is our Notre Dame in Copenhagen. This. And you can never restore, rebuild.

Emergency responders and bystanders rescued historic art, furniture, and other artifacts from the flaming building.

No casualties were reported and investigators are trying to determine the cause of the fire.

NPR suspension » National Public Radio has suspended a veteran editor who criticized the news outlet for what he says is a deepening liberal bias. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVN: Uri Berliner made headlines earlier this month when he went public with his concerns about his employer.

In an op-ed piece he accused NPR of failing to abide by its own ethics guidelines. Its handbook pledges that NPR will report with fairness and pursue a diversity of voices.

Berliner says that’s not happening and that instead, the network’s news coverage has veered more to the left and now approaches every story with a rigidly left-wing mindset.

He also criticized the radio network’s handling of the so-called Russiagate scandal and investigation into Hunter Biden’s laptop.

In response, NPR has suspended Berliner for one week without pay.

A portion of National Public Radio’s revenue does come from taxpayer dollars.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

West Virginia trans law » A federal appeals court has blocked enforcement of a West Virginia law which shielded female athletes from having to compete against boys and men. More from WORLD’s Mark Mellinger:

MARK MELLINGER: West Virginia passed the “Save Women’s Sports Act” in 2021. It stated that student-athletes must compete against opponents of the same sex.

But a 13-year-old boy who’d been taking puberty blockers challenged the law, saying he should be allowed on the girls’ track and cross country teams at his school.

Back in January, a U.S. district judge upheld the law. But a federal appeals court on Tuesday reinstated a preliminary injunction while the legal battle plays out.

The 13-year-old had the backing of the liberal activist group the ACLU, which claims the law violates the 14th amendment and Title IX.

West Virginia’s attorney general has vowed to continue fighting for the law.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mark Mellinger.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Investigating alleged Biden family corruption on Washington Wednesday. Plus, World Tour.

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