Iowa entrance polls show MAGA fans turned out for caucus: Live updates

Bevan Hurley reports:

Alabama lawmakers introduced two bills on Tuesday that would shield medical providers that offer in vitro fertilisation services from civil and criminal liability.

The state Senate and House put forward the proposed bills nearly two weeks after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are legally protected children, forcing hospitals and clinics to halt treatments.

Senate Bill 159, introduced by Republican state senator Tim Melson, would provide “civil and criminal immunity provided for in vitro fertilization goods and services in certain circumstances”, according to the document’s text.

Later on Tuesday, Republican representative introduced House Bill 237 that would provide the same legal protections for IVF goods and services “except acts of omission that are intentional and not arising from or related to IVF services”.

Neither bill addressed the Supreme Court’s ruling that defined frozen embryos as children.

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House Oversight Chairman James Comer says he will hold a public hearing with Hunter Biden, following his closed-door deposition.

Rep Comer, who continues to struggle to find any evidence of impeachable crimes involving President Joe Biden, told reporters: “The public hearing hopefully will clear up some discrepancies between some of the statements that were made between some of the associates.”

Statement from President Joe Biden on Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell

American Democracy is based on elected representatives coming together and bridging their different points of view to find common ground on behalf of the American people. I’m proud that my friend Mitch McConnell and I have been able to do that for many years, working together in good faith even though we have many political disagreements. During his many years of leadership, we could always speak with each other honestly and put the country ahead of ourselves. America is now being rebuilt by the biggest infrastructure law in nearly 70 years. We’re making critical investments so our economy can outcompete China. We’re standing up for our values and our most urgent national security interests in the world because of it. America is making tremendous strides towards curing cancer. There is nothing America cannot do when we do it together. Mitch has lived the American dream, overcoming polio and going on to become the longest-serving Senate leader in American history. Jill and I wish the best to Mitch and Elaine.

Lauren Boebert’s teenage son has been charged with more than a dozen felony and misdemeanour offences in connection with a spate of property break-ins in Colorado, police say.

Tyler Jay Boebert, 18, was arrested on Sunday 27 February after a “recent string of vehicle trespass and property thefts”, according to a statement from the Rifle Police Department.

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The Independent’s Washington, DC team look at the seven Republican senators who can take over as the party leader in the upper chamber:

Against a tide of antidemocratic threats and a rise in autocratic movements around the globe, representative democracy still remains largely popular, but support has slipped over the last decade, according to the results of a wide-ranging survey from Pew Research Center.

Alex Woodward takes a look a the findings of this new research:

Statement of Robert Hunter Biden House Committees on Oversight & Accountability and the Judiciary

February 28, 2024

I am here today to provide the Committees with the one uncontestable fact that should end the false premise of this inquiry: I did not involve my father in my business. Not while I was a practicing lawyer, not in my investments or transactions domestic or international, not as a board member, and not as an artist. Never.

You read this fact in the many letters that have been sent to you over the last year as part of your so-called impeachment investigation. You heard this fact when I said it weeks ago, standing outside of this building. You heard this fact from a parade of other witnesses — former colleagues and business partners of mine, including my uncle — who have testified before you in similar proceedings. And now, today, you hear this fact directly from me.

For more than a year, your Committees have hunted me in your partisan political pursuit of my dad. You have trafficked in innuendo, distortion, and sensationalism — all the while ignoring the clear and convincing evidence staring you in the face. You do not have evidence to support the baseless and MAGA-motivated conspiracies about my father because there isn’t any.

You have built your entire partisan house of cards on lies told by the likes of Gal Luft, Tony Bobulinski, Alexander Smirnov, and Jason Galanis. Luft, who is a fugitive, has been indicted for his lies and other crimes; Smirnov, who has made you dupes in carrying out a Russian disinformation campaign waged against my father, has been indicted for his lies; Bobulinski, who has been exposed for the many false statements he has made, and Galanis, who is serving 14 years in prison for fraud. Rather than follow the facts as they have been laid out before you in bank records, financial statements, correspondence, and other witness testimony, you continue your frantic search to prove the lies you, and those you rely on, keep peddling. Yes, they are lies.

To be clear, I have made mistakes in my life, and I have squandered opportunities and privileges that were afforded to me. I know that. I am responsible for that. And I am making amends for that. But my mistakes and shortcomings are my own and not my father’s, who has done nothing but devote his entire life to public service and trying to make this country a better place to live.

During my battle with addiction, my father was there for me. He helped save my life. His love and support made it possible for me to get sober, stay sober and rebuild my life as a father, husband, son, and brother. What he got in return for being a loving and supportive parent is a barrage of hate-filled conspiracy theories that hatched this sham impeachment inquiry and continue to fuel unrelenting personal attacks against him and me.

Over the last year, Republicans have taken my communications out of context, relied on documents that have been altered, and cherry-picked snippets of financial or other records to misrepresent what really happened. Examples of this include a few references to my family in emails or texts that I sent when I was in the darkest days of my addiction. If you try to do that again today, my answers will reveal your tactics and demonstrate the truth that my father was never involved in any of my businesses.

My testimony today should put an end to this baseless and destructive political charade.

You have wasted valuable time and resources attacking me and my family for your own political gain when you should be fixing the real problems in this country that desperately need your attention.

Thank you.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer released the following statement regarding the news of the upcoming retirement of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

During my years in the Senate, Mitch McConnell and I rarely saw eye to eye when it came to our politics or our policy preferences. But I am very proud that we both came together in the last few years to lead the Senate forward at critical moments when our country needed us, like passing the CARES Act in the early days of Covid pandemic, finishing our work to certify the election on January 6th, and more recently working together to fund the fight for Ukraine.

I know it’s been a difficult year for him and his family and I wish them the very best.