Lawyer for Federal Reserve governor targeted by Trump says firing does ‘irreparable harm’ – US politics live

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Fired fed governor's lawyer argues that her removal does 'irreparable harm'

Cook’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, is arguing that her firing does “irreparable harm”. He says that Cook ultimately took an oath before Congress, and what she’s being “deprived of” is more than a paycheck, but the ability “to satisfy the oath” she took and “not to be removed from anything but cause”.

He added that while this lawsuit works its way through the court, the “status quo” should stay in place:

She [Cook] should not be taken out of her office. She shouldn’t be disconnected to her electronics. She should be able to participate in the meeting. She should do all the things that she did a week ago before all this started, because that is the status quo.

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In response to Abbot’s signing of the gerrymandered map pushed by Trump into law, Texas Democratic party chairman Kendall Scudder issued this statement:

With a stroke of the pen, Greg Abbott and the Republicans have effectively surrendered Texas to Washington, DC. They love to boast about how “Texas Tough” they are, but when Donald Trump made one call, they bent over backwards to prioritize his politics over Texans. Honestly, it’s pathetic.

I am proud of the Texas Democrats in the House and Senate who chose to fight, whether by a constitutionally protected quorum break, questioning these mapmakers, trying to pass amendments, or even attempting to filibuster.

This isn’t over— we’ll see these clowns in court. We aren’t done fighting against these racially discriminatory maps, and fully expect the letter of the law to prevail over these sycophantic Republican politicians who think the rules don’t apply to them.

Texas governor signs new redistricting bill, setting up loss of Democratic seats in US House

Maya Yang

Texas’s governor, Greg Abbott, has signed a new redistricting bill that will redraw the state’s congressional map to heavily favor Republicans.

Abbott signed today the highly controversial bill which prompted state Democrats to stage a weeks-long walkout earlier this month.

In a video on X, Abbott can be seen signing the bill and says it “creates the one big, beautiful map that ensures fairer representation in the United States Congress for Texas”.

Today, I signed the One Big Beautiful Map into law.

This map ensures fairer representation in Congress.

Texas will be more RED in Congress. pic.twitter.com/aOT7QCoSF8

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) August 29, 2025

Abbott’s signing comes after the Texas house of representatives approved the new map – which is set to create as many as five additional Republican congressional districts – on an 88-52 party-line vote. The state senate then approved the bill early on Saturday.

After the house’s approval, Donald Trump took to Truth Social and wrote: “Big WIN for the Great State of Texas!!! Everything Passed, on our way to FIVE more Congressional seats and saving your Rights, your Freedoms, and your Country, itself.”

“Texas never lets us down. Florida, Indiana, and others are looking to do the same thing,” he added.

The bill’s passage follows Trump’s request for the state to draw new congressional maps. Currently, 25 of Texas’s 38 districts have Republican majorities. The new redistricting will bring the Republican-favored districts to 30.

The new districting plans will remove Democratic-majority districts in several major cities including Houston, Austin and the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.

US denies and revokes visas to Palestinian officials ahead of UN general assembly

The US is denying and revoking visas from members of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority ahead of the United Nations general assembly meeting in September, the US state department has said in a statement.

The restrictions mean that Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas would likely not be able to travel to New York to deliver an address to the annual gathering, as he typically does, Reuters reports.

It follows the imposition of US sanctions on Palestinian Authority officials and members of the Palestine Liberation Organization in July, even as other western powers have moved toward recognition of Palestinian statehood.

In a statement, the state department said that “it is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace”.

Officials with the Palestinian Authority, which has limited self-rule in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, reject that they have undermined peace prospects, Reuters reports.

Under the 1947 UN “headquarters agreement” the US is generally required to allow access for foreign diplomats to the UN in New York. But Washington has said it can deny visas for security, terrorism and foreign policy reasons.

The state department said that the Palestinian Authority’s mission to the UN would not be included in the restrictions. It did not elaborate.

US Republican senator Joni Ernst of Iowa won't seek re-election in 2026 – report

CBS News is reporting that Republican senator Joni Ernst of Iowa plans to reveal next week that she won’t seek reelection in 2026.

Ernst, 55, who has served in the Senate since 2015, plans to make the announcement on Thursday, CBS reported citing multiple sources familiar with the matter.

Per CBS’s report:

Some Iowa Democrats have already jumped into the race, including state Sen. Zach Wahls, state Rep. Josh Turek, and Des Moines School Board chairwoman Jackie Norris.

Ernst has been evasive about whether she would run for a third term in 2026, but in public remarks earlier this month, predicted continued GOP control of Iowa.

“Every day we get a new Democratic member of the House or Senate that decides to run for this Senate seat — bring it on,” she said at a meeting of the Westside Conservative Club. “Bring it on, folks. Because I tell you, at the end of the day, Iowa is going to be red.”

White House officials had hoped Ernst would run again, instead of joining other Republicans who are leaving the Senate, including North Carolina’s Thom Tillis, Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville and Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell.

In a rebuttal, Abbe Lowell, Cook’s lawyer, offers a stern indictment of Trump’s basis for “cause”.

“Any reason is now cause,” Lowell says. “That could possibly mean the president decides it was cause because Governor Cook decides to attend to a meeting in a pant suit instead of a dress, and he didn’t think that has enough respect for the institution. That’s cause.”

Trump’s lawyer is citing case precedent now when it comes the question of Cook’s firing doing “irreparable harm”.

“The harm of having a somebody in office who was wrongfully there outweighs the harm of somebody being wrongfully removed from office,” he says.

The lawyer for the administration is going back-and-forth with Judge Cobb now, arguing that Cook has, in fact, had the opportunity to respond to Bill Pulte’s allegations.

“No response, no intent, no letter saying: ‘hey, I disagree with this’,” Trump’s lawyers say.

We’re now hearing from Trump’s lawyers. The justice department says that it doesn’t “see the argument that for a very senior financial regulatory official making contradictory representations on financial documents with no explanation” isn’t grounds for removal.

Fired fed governor's lawyer argues that her removal does 'irreparable harm'

Cook’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, is arguing that her firing does “irreparable harm”. He says that Cook ultimately took an oath before Congress, and what she’s being “deprived of” is more than a paycheck, but the ability “to satisfy the oath” she took and “not to be removed from anything but cause”.

He added that while this lawsuit works its way through the court, the “status quo” should stay in place:

She [Cook] should not be taken out of her office. She shouldn’t be disconnected to her electronics. She should be able to participate in the meeting. She should do all the things that she did a week ago before all this started, because that is the status quo.

New Trump rule to ban VA abortions for veterans even in cases of rape and incest

Aaron Glantz

Doctors at the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) would be barred from performing abortions, even in cases of rape and incest, under new rules proposed by the Trump administration.

The draft regulations, which also forbid providers from counseling female veterans about terminating a pregnancy, have generated nearly 20,000 comments in the federal register from conservative activists, abortion rights supporters and female veterans, many of them survivors of sexual assault.

“I am a veteran, a mother, and my abortion saved my life,” wrote Mary Dodson-Otten, a 41-year-old nurse and air force veteran who lives outside Atlanta, Georgia.

Dodson-Otten told the Guardian she ended a pregnancy in her 20s after she got pregnant by an abusive boyfriend who was a fellow service member. Without the abortion, she said, “I don’t think I would have survived, whether it would have been him hurting me or me hurting me.”

The rule proposed by the Trump administration has an exception that allows abortions to take place “when a physician certifies that the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term”. But abortion rights advocates said the exception was too limited.

“Women are going to die,” predicted Caitlin Russell, a former US army captain who served two tours in Afghanistan and studies female veterans’ health at the University of Pennsylvania.

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