Biden in Italy: President Biden is in Italy for the G7 Summit. He’s was to participate in an official meeting with Prime Minister Meloni of Italy, who is hosting the G7 Summit. Biden’s schedule called for participation in four sessions of the G7 then an event in the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment. The evening schedule included signing a bilateral security agreement with Ukraine and holding a joint press conference with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine. The G7 members decided to lend to Ukraine $50 billion of frozen Russian assets. Â
Trump at Capitol: Republican Senators Mitt Romney, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski announced their intention to skip today’s meeting on Capitol Hill among Republicans and Donald Trump. The announced purpose of the meeting was to discuss policies, but it was largely seen as a display of solidarity of the Republicans with Trump. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced his plan to attend the meeting, which would be his first face-to-face encounter with Trump in roughly three-and-a-half years. McConnell in the past said Trump should be held to account for trying to overthrow the government with his attempted coup.
Interest rates: The Federal Reserve, as expected, has decided to leave interest rates where they are for now. The Fed said that it is strongly committed to maintaining its goal of returning inflation to 2%. The Fed said that it does not expect it will be appropriate to reduce interest rates until it has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving from over 3% toward the 2% goal. The Fed said it will be prepared to adjust monetary policy as necessary, hinting that interest rates could be moved but didn’t hint whether that would be up or down in the future.
Wet weather: A state of emergency exists in Florida today in Broward, Collier, Lee, Miami-Dade and Sarasota counties because of flooding resulting from three days of heavy rains. Up to 20 inches of rain already has fallen in some areas and up to eight inches more is expected between today and tomorrow. The rain is expected to continue through the weekend. More than eight million people are under flood alerts including in the cities of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Naples.
Contempt vote: In a vote along party lines, Republicans in the House have passed a measure that holds Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for failing to honor a subpoena and turn over to a Republican-led committee an audio tape of President Biden. The recording is of an interview conducted by Special Counsel Robert Hur when he was investigating Biden’s handling of classified documents. A transcript of the interview previously was turned over to Congress. It’s believed Republicans want the audio recording to use in Trump election commercials. Among those leading the effort to hold Garland in contempt was Rep. Jim Jordan who himself ignored a Congressional subpoena.
Howard Fineman dies: Journalist Howard Fineman, who was with NBC News, MSNBC, spent 30 years with Newsweek and was an editor at Huffington Post, has died at age 75. He had been battling pancreatic cancer. Fineman appeared as a panelist on the PBS program “Washington Week in Review” for 12 years and also was seen on the CNN program “The Capital Gang Sunday.”
