“Your false accusations do not rattle me,” Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland-security secretary, wrote in a letter to Mark Green, the Republican leading the effort to impeach him. Since Tuesday morning the House homeland-security committee, which Mr Green chairs, has been considering articles of impeachment that accuse Mr Mayorkas of defying immigration laws on the southern border. A full House vote could happen as soon as next week.
Joe Biden said he had decided on a response to Sunday’s attack in Jordan that killed three American soldiers. John Kirby, a White House spokesperson, suggested that the administration would pursue a “tiered approach” of “multiple actions” against the Iran-backed militants that launched the strike. Mr Biden said he did not want a “wider war” in the region; earlier some Republican lawmakers pressed him to target Iran directly.
Nineteen Democrats pressed the Biden administration for information about recent arms transfers to Israel, highlighting the party’s growing divide over the president’s handling of the war in Gaza. In a letter, the lawmakers noted the administration’s “highly unusual” use of emergency authority to get around Congress, and sought information about any conditions it attached to reduce civilian casualties.
The Justice Department is investigating Cori Bush, a progressive Democratic congresswoman from Missouri, for possibly misspending campaign funds on security. She denied wrongdoing. Last year Congress’s independent ethics body cleared her over allegations that, having hired her then boyfriend (now husband) to be her security detail, she overpaid him, concluding that he did “bona fide” work and was properly compensated.
Eric Adams, the mayor of New York, lost a showdown with the city’s council over two criminal-justice policies. The council overrode Mr Adams’ vetoes of bills that would ban solitary confinement in the city’s jails, and require police officers to document more details about stops they make. Mr Adams, an ex-police captain, has said that the bills would “make our city less safe”.
An Internal Revenue Service contractor who leaked Donald Trump’s tax returns was sentenced to five years in prison. In October Charles Littlejohn pleaded guilty to unauthorised disclosure of tax filings. These included returns belonging to Mr Trump (which Mr Littlejohn leaked to the New York Times in 2019) and to thousands of wealthy Americans (which he leaked to ProPublica in 2020).
In 2020 Georgia was a hub of election drama. In 2024, as our story explains, the state will again take centre stage. Donald Trump will be tried for conspiring to overturn the election in Fulton County. Fierce debates over election security will play out in the courts. And as Georgia’s Republicans tighten voting laws, Democrats—trying to get unlikely voters registered—have been forced into new battles.
Daily quiz
Hawaii and Alaska were the last states to be admitted in 1959, bringing the total to 50. Which was the 48th state to be admitted?
Every weekday we’ll quiz you on one question about American politics.
The weekly winner, chosen at random, will be announced here on Fridays.
Email your answers to [email protected].
Figure of the day
281, the number of acres held by Chinese owners in Iowa—an area smaller than the state fairgrounds in Des Moines. Read our story about American lawmakers’ obsession with mythical Chinese land grabs.
HEARD ON X:
—Tucker Carlson, right-wing media personality, responding to Republican calls for direct strikes on Iran
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