Departing Marjorie Taylor Greene ‘the canary in the coal mine’ for Republicans, says former House speaker – US politics live

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Trump defends report of Witkoff coaching Putin aide

The Kremlin this morning has confirmed that Witkoff is due in Moscow again next week – expected given the progress reported on a peace deal between Ukrainian and US negotiators earlier this week.

But hanging over that is a report that has emerged of a leaked recording of Witkoff advising Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, last month on how he should pitch to Trump on the peace plan.

At the time, Trump was appearing to lose patience with Putin.

“Just reiterate that you congratulate the president [Trump] on this achievement... that you respect that he is a man of peace and you’re just, you’re really glad to have seen it happen,” Witkoff is quoted as saying in the Bloomberg report. “I think from that it’s going to be a really good call.”

Following this, a Trump-Putin call did eventuate, right before Ukrainian leader Zelenskyy arrived at the White House for a meeting. And since then, the US has unveiled its peace plan, which appears to offer far more concessions to the Russian side, setting off rounds of furious negotiations.

Last night when asked by reporters about the leaked recording, Trump said he hadn’t heard it but defended Witkoff, saying the reported approach to the Russians was just “standard negotiating procedure”.

“He’s got to sell this to Ukraine. He’s got to sell Ukraine to Russia,” he said. “That’s what a dealmaker does.”

The deal as it stands appears to have been revised more in line with Ukrainian and European demands following US-Ukraine talks in Geneva this past weekend.

Zelenskyy has said a revised version could be “workable” but there are still several outstanding key issues. Zelenskyy is hoping to meet with Trump in coming days.

Kevin McCarthy says Marjorie Taylor Greene a 'canary in the coal mine' for Republicans

Former House speaker Kevin McCarthy has said Majorie Taylor Greene’s abrupt resignation is a sign of broader trouble for the GOP next year, given several House Republicans are leaving.

“She’s almost like the canary in the coal mine,” McCarthy told Fox News on Tuesday.

“And this is something inside Congress, they’d better wake up, because they are going to get a lot of people retiring, and they’ve got to focus.”

The GOP still has a slender House majority, and even with Greene’s departure has two votes to spare, but already, 22 House Republicans have said they will retire or forgo re-election next year. This is an above-average number analysts say.

Greene – a three-term representative from Georgia – resigned last Friday following weeks of an escalating public spat with president Donald Trump, over several issues including the release of the Epstein files.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to our US Politics blog for today. I’m Frances Mao and I’ll take you through the next few hours as lawmakers begin to head off for the Thanksgiving weekend.

The fall-out from President Trump’s attack on six Democrats who released a video urging US troops to defy “illegal orders” continues, after first the Pentagon and then the FBI reportedly launched investigations into the matter.

The two inquiries mark an extraordinary escalation in Trump’s use of federal institutions to go after political opponents, and sitting members of Congress. One of the Democrats who says she’s received questioning from the FBI called it a “scare tactic”.

Meanwhile, GOP veterans continue to weigh in on MAGA loyalist turned rebel Marjorie Taylor Greene’s departure – warning that the party’s facing several retirements next year that could leave it vulnerable ahead of the midterms.

And Russian officials have just confirmed that Steve Witkoff will return to Moscow next week to pursue a peace deal on the Ukraine war, after negotiations this week with the Ukrainian sides showed some progress.