Treasury secretary Janet Yellen tells Senate that US banking system ‘remains sound’ – live

Martin Pengelly

Ed Helmore reports on a startling story from Politico, to which 12 former staffers for Marianne Williamson described a campaign atmosphere starkly at odds with the bestselling author and Democratic presidential hopeful’s famous promise to ‘harness love for political purposes’…

Less than two weeks into her second campaign for the Democratic nomination, the self-help author Marianne Williamson was hit by claims her public message of love and compassion is undermined by behind-the-scenes behavior including “foaming, spitting, uncontrollable rage”.

Speaking to Politico, 12 former staffers painted a picture of unpredictable anger, tending toward verbal and emotional abuse, beneath the bestseller’s promotion of spiritual calm.

“It would be foaming, spitting, uncontrollable rage,” said one former staffer who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It was traumatic. And the experience, in the end, was terrifying.”

Williamson launched her second campaign earlier this month, saying that while she did not expect to win she was seeking to challenge the “system”.

The author of 14 books describes herself as “a leader in spiritual and religiously progressive circles” and says she “want[s] to be president because this country needs to make an economic U-turn”.

In 2020, Williamson made a splash when, addressing Donald Trump from the debate stage, she said: “I’m going to harness love for political purposes. I will meet you on that field. And, sir, love will win.”

Speaking to Politico, however, three former staffers said Williamson, 70, was apt to throw her phone at them amid outbursts so intense that on four occasions hotel staff knocked on her door to check if all was OK.

In one incident, four former staffers said, Williamson became so enraged about a poorly planned swing through South Carolina she repeatedly punched a car door. After her hand started to swell, she was taken to hospital.

All 12 staffers said Williamson would yell until people were brought to tears.

Williamson called the descriptions “slanderous” and “categorically untrue”. She denied throwing a phone at staffers but acknowledged the car door incident, saying a “car door is not a person”.

Martin Pengelly

Michael Caputo, a longtime friend and adviser to Donald Trump, believes the former president has “learned a lot from his experience with Mike Pence” and will therefore look “for someone cut from the same cloth he is, not from a different, complementary cloth” when it comes to picking a running mate in the 2024 Republican primary.

Pence brought evangelical Christians onside with Trump – a thrice-married, genitals-grabbing, porn star-paying New York billionaire – and was a doggedly loyal vice-president right up until January 6, when he refused to go along with Trump and block certification of election results.

The consequences of that decision, not least the mob’s wish to hang him, have estranged Pence from Trumpworld. That and the fact Pence looks likely to announce a presidential run himself.

Speaking to the Associated Press, Caputo said Elise Stefanik, the New York congresswoman and member of House Republican leadership, would be the best choice.

Other possibilities pondered by the AP include Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right bomb-thrower from Georgia, and Kari Lake, the defeated candidate for governor in Arizona who insists she lost as a result of electoral fraud, a (false) claim dear to Trump’s heart.

All three women attended Trump’s recent speech to CPAC, where Lake won a straw poll for Trump VP.

Lake told the AP she was “100% dedicated to serving as Arizona governor” – the post filled by Katie Hobbs, the Democrat who beat her.

As the AP points out, Steve Bannon, “Trump’s former chief strategist who frequently hosts Greene on his podcast, told NBC: ‘She sees herself on the short list for Trump’s VP … when MTG looks in the mirror she sees a potential president smiling back.’”

Stefanik said: “We have a lot of work to do over the next two years and I am gonna work no matter what to make sure that we have a Republican president, House and Senate in 2024. So that’s what I focused on, and it’s a big job.”

Joe Biden will support Congress’s efforts to repeal the legal authorizations behind the Gulf war and America’s 2003 invasion of Iraq, the White House announced.

“Repeal of these authorizations would have no impact on current US military operations and would support this Administration’s commitment to a strong and comprehensive relationship with our Iraqi partners. That partnership, which includes cooperation with the Iraqi Security Forces, continues at the invitation of the Government of Iraq in an advise, assist, and enable role,” the White House office of management and budget said today.

The Senate will today take the initial votes to repeal the 1991 and 2002 authorizations for use of military force against Iraq, which greenlit America’s involvement in the Gulf War and the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein 20 years ago. The measure has attracted support from both Republicans and Democrats, but it is currently unclear whether it has enough support to pass both chambers of Congress.

“President Biden remains committed to working with the Congress to ensure that outdated authorizations for the use of military force are replaced with a narrow and specific framework more appropriate to protecting Americans from modern terrorist threats,” the White House said.

“Toward that end, the Administration will ensure that Congress has a clear and thorough understanding of the effect of any such action and of the threats facing US forces, personnel, and interests around the world. As the Administration works with Congress, it will be will be critical to maintain the clear authority to address threats to the United States’ national interests with appropriately decisive and effective military action.”

First there was the January 6 insurrection, then there was the congressional committee to investigate the January 6 insurrection, and now there will be a committee to investigate the committee that investigated the January 6 insurrection.

As the Guardian reported last week, Barry Loudermilk, a Georgia Republican who was accused after the insurrection of giving tours of the Capitol building just before it was stormed, will chair the committee convened by the GOP leadership of the House of Representatives. In a new interview with CBS News, he said the panel will probe the security failures that led to the Capitol breach, as well as the congressional investigation that took place in the last Congress.

“What I’d like to do is show what really happened on Jan 6,” Loudermilk said, meaning, “Where was the security failure and why were we not ready?”

The top Democrat on the committee will be Norma Torres, who is no fan of what the GOP has set out to do.

“I think it’s obscene to go back and try to redo the work of a bipartisan committee that was very focused on learning what happened,” she told CBS.

“It serves no purpose other than if you are an insurrectionist or if you support an insurrectionist and want to portray a different story than what truly happened that day.”

When she appears before the Senate finance committee this morning, Janet Yellen’s job will be to tell lawmakers that, despite the dramatic bank collapses of the past week, the America financial system is in good shape.

“I can reassure the members of the Committee that our banking system remains sound, and that Americans can feel confident that their deposits will be there when they need them,” the secretary will say, according to prepared testimony published by the Associated Press.

Senators have their own job, and that’s to get as much information out of Yellen as possible. Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren is one of Wall Street’s biggest foes in Congress, and will likely demand the secretary’s opinions on whether regulations that were repealed in 2018 would have prevented the collapses.

“It’s time to put those regulations back in place,” she told Boston’s WBZ yesterday, adding that it was time to “send a very strong message to bank CEOs – you’re not going to be able to load up on risk in order to juice your profits.”

Senator James Lankford, meanwhile, epitomized the concerns of many Republicans earlier this week when he complained that the US government’s actions to help the California bank appear to be a bailout funded by a fee on other financial institutions.

“Banks in Oklahoma in rural towns are about to pay a special fee to be able to bail out millionaires in San Francisco. Now, what Oklahoma banks and bankers had to do with that bank failure in San Francisco, I have no idea,” he said on the Senate floor.

It’s worth noting that the hearing itself is not specifically about the bank collapse, but rather Joe Biden’s 2024 budget proposal, which contains his administration’s priorities but has no chance of being enacted as written.

Good morning, US politics blog readers. It seems like the American banking system is out of the woods for the moment, after coming very close to a crisis at the start of this week when the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and other financial institutions sparked fears of a wave of insolvencies. We’re going to hear more about how that crisis was averted (at least for now) from Treasury secretary Janet Yellen beginning at 10 am eastern time, when she speaks before the Senate finance committee. Democrats will undoubtedly press her on whether tighter regulations could have stopped the bank’s collapse, while Republicans are expected to demand answers on whether Washington’s steps to stop its depositors from losing money constitute a bailout.

Here’s what else is happening today:

• The Senate will convene at 10 am today to vote on repealing the legal authorizations behind the Iraq war, 20 years after the American invasion.

• White Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre briefs reporters at 2 pm.

• Kamala Harris is in Iowa to discuss the Biden administration’s efforts to protect reproductive healthcare.