US gunmakers summoned to Congress to justify soaring profits from gun violence – as it happened

President Joe Biden honored notable Americans with the country’s highest civilian honor, while details emerged of the January 6 committee’s plans for its next - and potentially last - hearings.

Here’s what else happened today:

• American women’s basketball star Brittney Griner pleaded guilty to drug charges in Russia, the latest development in a case that has captured the attention of the Biden administration.
• Another Democratic senator said she would support creating an exemption to the filibuster for abortion rights legislation. Meanwhile, lawmakers in South Carolina began debate on a bill to almost completely ban abortion.
• Details are trickling out about a new effort by Democrats to pass a big spending bill in what could be their final months controlling both houses of Congress.
• The CEOs of firearms manufacturers have been summoned by a congressional committee investigating the gun industry.
• Illinois police will investigate the father of the man who opened fire at an Independence Day parade on Monday for his involvement in his son’s purchase of a firearm.
• Sacha Baron Cohen, the comedian best known for portraying Borat, fended off a lawsuit from a former Republican Senate candidate in Alabama.

California’s Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein has come out in support of creating an exception to the Senate’s filibuster rules in order to pass legislation protecting abortion rights nationwide.

Reproductive rights activists are pressuring Democrats to pass a law protecting access to abortion nationwide after the supreme court last month overturned Roe v. Wade. But the filibuster, which allows the Republican minority to stop legislation in the Senate that does not win at least 10 of their party’s votes, has stood in the way of that, and until now, Feinstein hasn’t said if she would support modifying it to get an abortion law passed.

President Joe Biden has handed out the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’s highest civilian honor, to 17 people, including Olympic gymnast Simone Biles.

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Here’s more from when Biles received the award:

Former congresswoman and gun control advocate Gabrielle Giffords was also honored:

As was soccer star Megan Rapinoe:

Three people were given the award posthumously: Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, president of the AFL-CIO trade union federation Richard Trumka and senator John McCain. His wife Cindy McCain accepted on his behalf:

Biden, a longtime Democratic senator, remarked on his relationship with McCain, a Republican.

Actor Denzel Washington was also due to get the award, but could not attend the White House ceremony due to a positive Covid-19 test, according to a White House official:

South Carolina lawmakers have begun considering a bill to ban nearly all abortions in the state, Reuters reports.

The proposal would “ban all abortions from conception, except to save the life of the mother, and would make performing an abortion a felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison,” according to the report.

The measure would be more stringent than a law that a federal judge allowed to go into effect last month which outlaws the procedure after about six weeks of pregnancy. The court ruling followed the supreme court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade and allowing states to ban abortions.

The January 6 committee has for the past month held carefully choreographed hearings that are meant to be attention-grabbing to a degree rarely seen in Congress, but a poll released today found they aren’t doing much to sway Americans’ beliefs about what happened that day.

The survey from Monmouth University found only six percent of Americans say the hearings have changed their mind about January 6, in part due to the relatively few Republicans who are following the testimony. Only 10 percent of GOP supporters are turning in, versus 45 percent of Democrats and 16 percent of independents.

For Republicans who did watch the hearings, only five percent said it changed their minds, with some telling Monmouth, “they learned about the pressure Trump was exerting or that election fraud claims were spurious.” The poll said that other respondents “claim they have ‘learned’ that ‘police officers were not killed in that protest,’ or that ‘the Democrats were highly involved as well as the F.B.I.’”

The poll also documents a decline in Americans’ faith in their government. Only 36 percent of respondents told Monmouth that the American system of government is basically sound, a decline from February 2020, when it was 55 percent.

In the words of Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute:

There’s more than just partisanship at work in declining faith in the institutional framework of American democracy. Yes, electoral outcomes play a role. Yes, the current economic crisis plays a role. But attacks on our fundamental democratic processes – and the lack of universal condemnation of those attacks by political leaders from both sides of the aisle – have taken a toll.

The head of the IRS has asked for an investigation into a report that former FBI director James Comey and his deputy Andrew McCabe, both of whom clashed with ex-president Donald Trump, were subject to rare, intrusive audits, the Associated Press reports:

The IRS commissioner has asked the Treasury Department’s inspector general to immediately review the circumstances surrounding intensive tax audits that targeted ex-FBI Director James Comey and ex-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, both frequent targets of President Donald Trump’s anger.

IRS spokesperson Jodie Reynolds said Thursday that IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig had personally reached out to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. Reynolds said the agency has officially referred the matter to the inspector general.

But Reynolds insisted it is “ludicrous and untrue to suggest that senior IRS officials somehow targeted specific individuals for National Research Program audits.”

Here’s the original New York Times article that led to the investigation.

The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell has more detail about what we can expect from next week’s two January 6 committee meetings - one of which will shine more light on what was happening inside the White House as the Capitol was being attacked:

President Joe Biden has weighed in on the resignation of British prime minister Boris Johnson, though the White House statement makes no mention of his name:

For the latest developments in the political upheaval across the pond, The Guardian is here for you:

President Joe Biden will soon hold a ceremony at the White House to give the medal of freedom to a group of recipients, including some of the country’s best known politicians, actors and athletes.

Perhaps the biggest names are two-time Academy Award winner Denzel Washington and Simone Biles, the most decorated American gymnast ever. Women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe will also be honored, as well as former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was badly injured during a mass shooting in 2010. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and Republican senator John McCain will receive the award posthumously in the event vice-president Kamala Harris and her husband will also attend.

The White House has a full rundown here.

DeSantis appoints elections police chief

Florida governor Ron DeSantis caused shock when he announced the creation of the Office of Election Crimes and Security in the state, to keep an eye on election fraud: a crime for which there is usually very little evidence that it exists.

Now, a CBS station in Orlando reports, we know the identity of the man who will head up that unit: Pete Antonacci, a former prosecutor and onetime supervisor of elections.

CBS reports: “Antonacci, 73, has a long history of being called upon by state leaders as a fix-it man of sorts. His career includes stints as executive director of the South Florida Water Management District, president of the state business-recruitment agency Enterprise Florida and state attorney in Palm Beach County.”

But in a sign that may ease - a few - fears about voter suppression in the state, it seems some Democrats welcome the appointment.

CBS added: “This elections police thing is terrible. However, Antonacci is a pretty no-nonsense administrator. Even us Dems praised his work in Broward. He is by far the best that could be hoped for. So much so I could see DeSantis growing to hate him if he doesn’t go on witch hunts,” Matt Isbell, a Tallahassee-based consultant for Democrats, tweeted Wednesday.”

The January 6 committee will hold a hearing on Thursday of next week that will be broadcast at the prime-time TV hour, Punchbowl News reports.

The House committee investigating the insurrection had earlier this week announced it will hold its next hearing on Tuesday, 12 July, which is expected to focus on the links between Donald Trump and extremist groups.

Congress is on recess, but details are slowly emerging about Democrats’ plans for a spending bill to be revealed perhaps in the coming weeks, while the party has announced a hearing to take firearms manufacturers to task over gun violence.

Here’s what has happened today:

• American women’s basketball star Brittney Griner pleaded guilty to drug charges in Russia, the latest development in a case that has captured the attention of the Biden administration.
• Illinois police will investigate the father of the man who opened fire at an Independence Day parade on Monday for his involvement in his son’s purchase of a firearm.
• Sacha Baron Cohen, the comedian best known for portraying Borat, fended off a lawsuit from a former Republican Senate candidate in Alabama.

A winner has been declared in the showdown between comedian Sacha Baron Cohen and former judge and failed Senate candidate Roy Moore, at least for now.

Reuters reports that Cohen, who is perhaps best known for portraying the Borat character, has fended off a defamation lawsuit by Moore over an interview broadcast on his show, “Who Is America?”:

In a 3-0 vote, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said the interview was constitutionally protected speech, agreeing with a lower court judge that it was “clearly comedy and that no reasonable viewer would conclude otherwise.”

The court also said Moore waived his right to pursue his $95 million lawsuit by signing a standard consent agreement before the interview, which he knew would be televised. It also dismissed related claims by Moore’s wife Kayla.

Larry Klayman, the Moores’ lawyer, called the decision a “travesty,” saying the consent agreement was ambiguous because Judge Moore crossed out a provision waiving claims related to alleged sexually oriented behavior and questioning.

“This should not have been taken away from the jury,” Klayman said in an interview. The Moores will ask the entire 2nd Circuit to review the case.

Accusation of sexual misconduct swirled around Moore when he stood as a Republican to represent Alabama in the US Senate in 2017, a race he lost to Democrat Doug Jones despite the state being among the most conservative in the country.