Politics and views in the United States.

Republicans proceed with the Biden impeachment investigation, frustrating Democrats. House Speaker Mike Johnson faces GOP pressure as government shutdown looms and the Alabama governor signs a bill banning ballot harvesting.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2024 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

Rudy Giuliani on behalf of then-President Donald Trump tasked me with a mission to travel the globe finding dirt on the Bidens so that an array of networks could spread misinformation about them, thus securing the 2020 election for Donald J. Trump.

Lev Parnas, a convicted former aide to Rudy Giuliani, testifying to Congress to what he describes as a coordinated effort to falsely accuse the Bidens of corruption in Ukraine.

Republicans are moving forward with an inquiry into impeaching President Joe Biden.

The New York progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez challenged them to name his specific crimes.

Impeachment 101.

The majority party or whomever is raising impeachment must accuse the president of a high crime, a specific high crime or misdemeanor.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson says he's about to release the text of spending bills that would avoid a Friday government shutdown.

But with what he calls a wide chasm of partisan policy differences and only a three vote margin, Johnson may need Democratic votes to get it passed.

I think the final product is something that we were able to achieve a lot of key provisions in and wins and to move in the direction that we want, even with our tiny, historically small majority.

There are concerns about how fast the Senate could move the legislation, as some conservatives have said they plan to hold a passage.

Alabama's governor signed legislation that bans ballot harvesting and makes it a felony to help someone request, fill out or return an absentee ballot.

Supporters say it'll safeguard election integrity, but Dom Kelly with New Disabled South says it puts barriers in front of seniors, college students and people with disabilities.

SB1 would make it much harder, if not impossible, for many of those voters to request, complete and return their vote by mail ballot.

Former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner showed support for a Nassau County, New York order banning female sports teams with transgender athletes from using county owned facilities.

The solution is simple.

When it comes to athletics participation with the biological sex, you have to compete in the biological sex that you were born.

This is critical to protecting the integrity of competition in women's sports.

Jenner, a transgender woman, has voiced her opposition to trans women in women's sports before.

The LGBTQ network, a Long Island based advocacy group, calls Jenner's comments "a baffling contradiction."

President Biden was in the battleground state of Arizona yesterday.

He announced that as a result of the CHIPS Act, Intel will get a federal subsidy to build semiconductor plants in Arizona, Oregon, Ohio and New Mexico.

A new landmark agreement under the CHIPS and Science Act between my administration and Intel for up to $8.5 billion.

It's a smart investment.

I'm Alex Gonzalez for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.