Politics

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Major airline chief executives and other senior leaders will hold a virtual meeting on Thursday with U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on the busy travel season and recent flight disruptions, sources told Reuters.

Two U.S. senators recently raised concerns about flight delays and cancellations over the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

Buttigieg wants to discuss with regional and large airline leaders “plans to ensure safe and reliable service this summer, including their plans to ensure this service over” the July 4 holiday, the sources said.

Travelers are bracing for a difficult summer as airlines expect record demand and are still rebuilding staff after thousands of workers left the industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Friday, the U.S. airline industry told Congress the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) must ensure the nation’s airspace can handle rising air travel demand, according to a letter obtained by Reuters earlier this week.

Trade group Airlines for America said that “airlines are aggressively pursuing several options to align schedules with workforce availability” but added “the FAA must also work to ensure that the air traffic control system is capable of meeting demand.”

Last month, Democratic Senators Richard Blumenthal and Edward Markey asked A4A, which represents American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and others for answers after more than 2,700 Memorial Day weekend flights were canceled.

The senators said “while some flight cancellations are unavoidable, the sheer number of delays and cancellations this past weekend raises questions about airline decision-making.”

The FAA declined to comment on whether it will take part in Buttigieg’s meeting but in May said it would boost authorized air traffic control staff at its Jacksonville, Florida, center after bad weather and space launches have snarled flights.

The FAA noted that flight operations at many Florida airports have exceeded prepandemic levels and will meet with users of Florida airspace “throughout the summer.”

The senators separately asked Buttigieg to detail steps his office was “taking to hold airlines accountable for serious disruptions and to ensure consumers are wholly and justly compensated.

“The flying public deserves the same safety and reliability as before the pandemic, especially since American taxpayers invested $48 billion to keep aviation workers employed so the nation could maintain its high standard of air service,” USDOT’s Annie Petsonk wrote airlines last week in a June 8 email inviting them to a meeting, seen by Reuters.

“The department stands ready to support your work to address these challenges. In May, the FAA began making changes to its air traffic controller staffing to support the increased demand in the country. The agency is also working with airlines to expand the use of underutilized routes, especially in Florida.”

(Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Jason Neely and Chizu Nomiyama)

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By Patricia Zengerle and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The congressional committee investigating last year’s deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol turns its attention on Thursday to then-President Donald Trump’s attempts to pressure former Vice President Mike Pence to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

The House of Representatives select committee has scheduled a hearing for 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT), looking at efforts by Trump and some of his associates to convince Pence to prevent formal congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the November 2020 presidential election.

Thousands of Trump supporters – many chanting “Hang Mike Pence” – marched on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Pence oversaw a session in which lawmakers met for what is normally a routine procedure to certify election results. Some erected a makeshift gallows they said was intended for Pence.

The certification had become a focus for Trump, who saw it as a last-ditch chance to retain the presidency despite his loss at the polls. His supporters flocked to Washington to rally with Trump, who had made repeated false claims that the election was stolen through widespread voting fraud. They stormed the Capitol, attacked police and sent Pence and lawmakers fleeing for their safety.

Trump’s accountability for the Jan. 6 riot is “incidental to his responsibility and accountability for his attempt to steal the 2020 presidential election from the American people,” retired U.S. Appeals Court Judge J. Michael Luttig will tell the committee, according to written testimony obtained by CNN.

“It is breathtaking that these arguments even were conceived, let alone entertained by the president of the United States at that perilous moment in history,” Luttig, who was an informal adviser to Pence, said in his statement.

Had Pence obeyed, according to Luttig’s testimony, the country would have been plunged into a “revolution within a paralyzing constitutional crisis.”

Thursday’s hearing will also feature testimony from Greg Jacob, who served as counsel to Pence. Videotaped testimony of former Pence chief of staff Marc Short is expected to be shown as well.

The hearing is the third of at least six planned public hearings this month at which the nine-member, Democratic-led committee will discuss preliminary results of its nearly yearlong investigation of the events leading up to the Jan. 6 attack.

Committee aides said the hearing will examine the emergence of a plan advocated by Trump associates including attorney John Eastman that Pence could unilaterally reject certified electors from certain states where results had been challenged. Pence refused to accept that theory.

Pence in February of this year said Trump, under whom he served as vice president for four years, was wrong to believe that Pence had the power to reverse the election’s outcome.

“I had no right to overturn the election,” Pence told an audience in Florida.

The hearing will look at the pressure campaign on Pence, driven by Trump, the committee aides said on condition of anonymity. They promised new material documenting those efforts, with testimony from the witnesses in the room as well as taped testimony from some of the more than 1,000 depositions and interviews.

Democrat Jamie Raskin, a committee member, was asked on CNN about a New York Times report that Trump adviser John Eastman claimed to have knowledge of a “heated fight” among Supreme court justices over whether to hear arguments related to Trump’s efforts to overturn the election.

“We want to ferret that out if that’s true,” Raskin said. “To determine whether, you know, the same people who were establishing a back channel to the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, the 3 percenters and the domestic violent extremist movement also had a back channel somehow to the Supreme Court of the United States of America.”

The groups Raskin mentioned are far-right organizations.

The committee intends to lay out a timeline of Pence’s day on Jan. 6, which could detail contacts with Trump and Secret Service agents who spirited the vice president to a secure location as the crowd threatened him.

The attack on the Capitol delayed certification of the election for hours, injured more than 140 police officers and led to several deaths. More than 840 people have been arrested and charged so far.

The onslaught marked the only time in U.S. history that power was not passed peacefully from one president to another.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Richard Cowan; editing by Andy Sullivan, Will Dunham and David Gregorio)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The congressional committee investigating last year’s deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol turns its attention on Thursday to then-President Donald Trump’s multiple attempts to pressure former Vice President Mike Pence to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

The House of Representatives Select Committee is looking at efforts by Trump and some of his associates to convince Pence not to formally certify Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the November 2020 presidential election.

Thousands of Trump supporters – many chanting “Hang Mike Pence” – marched on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Pence met with lawmakers for what is normally a routine ceremony to certify the election. Some erected a gallows they said was intended for Pence.

The certification had become a focus for Trump, who saw it as a last-ditch chance to retain the presidency despite being defeated. His supporters flocked to Washington to rally with Trump, who had made repeated false claims that the election was stolen through widespread voting fraud.

Thursday’s hearing will feature testimony from Greg Jacob, who served as counsel to Pence, and retired U.S. Appeals Court Judge J. Michael Luttig, who was an informal adviser to the vice president.

Videotaped testimony of former Pence chief of staff Marc Short is expected to be broadcast.

The hearing is the third of at least six public hearings this month at which the nine-member, Democratic-led committee will discuss preliminary results of its nearly year-long investigation of the events up to and on Jan. 6, 2021.

Committee aides said the hearing would discuss emergence of a plan advocated by Trump associates including attorney John Eastman that the vice president could unilaterally reject certified electors from disputed states. Pence refused to accept that theory.

“It’s a violation of the vice president’s constitutional obligations and constitutional law,” but Trump chose the path of “escalating” this violation, an aide said.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, aides also said the session would look at the pressure campaign on Pence, driven by Trump. They promised new material documenting those efforts, with testimony from the witnesses in the room as well as taped testimony from some of the more than 1,000 depositions and interviews.

The committee intends to lay out a timeline of Pence’s day on Jan. 6, which could detail contacts with Trump and Secret Service agents who spirited the vice president to a secure location as the crowd threatened him.

The attack on the Capitol delayed certification of the election for hours, injured more than 140 police officers and led to several deaths. More than 840 people have been arrested and charged so far.

The onslaught marked the only time in U.S. history that power was not passed peacefully from one president to another.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Richard Cowan; editing by Andy Sullivan and David Gregorio)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A senior aide and a retired federal judge who advised former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence are set to testify on Thursday to the House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, the panel said on Wednesday.

Greg Jacob, who served as counsel to Pence, and retired U.S. Appeals Court Judge J. Michael Luttig, who was an informal adviser, are scheduled to testify at the third of an expected six public hearings the committee has planned for this month.

The hearing is due to focus on Pence’s role that day in overseeing formal congressional certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory over then-President Donald Trump, who has made false claims that the election was stolen through widespread voting fraud.

Subsequent hearings are expected to focus on topics including what the Democratic-led committee describes as Trump’s efforts to replace officials at the Justice Department with appointees who would help promote his efforts to overturn the election results.

Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to block the certification of the election results, attacking police and sending lawmakers fleeing for their safety. Some protesters chanted “hang Mike Pence” and set up a makeshift gallows outside the Capitol.

The committee is looking into Trump’s contacts with Pence in urging him to refuse to certify the election and the rioters’ chants that Pence should be hanged. Pence refused Trump’s requests that he block the certification.

Pence in February of this year said Trump, under whom he served as vice president for four years, was wrong to believe that Pence had the power to reverse the outcome of the election.

“I had no right to overturn the election,” Pence told an audience in Florida.

(Reporting by Eric Beech and Richard Cowan; Editing by Will Dunham)

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ATLANTA (AP) — The conspiracy theories about Dominion voting machines that erupted during the 2020 presidential contest flared this week in a remote New Mexico county in what could be just a preview of the kind of chaos election experts fear is coming in the fall midterms and in 2024.

The governing commission in Otero County refused to certify the local results of the state’s June 7 primary because of the equipment, in what was seen as another instance of how the falsehoods spread by former President Donald Trump and his allies have infected elections and threaten the democratic process.

“We are in scary territory,” said Jennifer Morrell, a former election official in Colorado and Utah who now advises federal, state and local officials. “If this can happen here, where next? It’s like a cancer, a virus. It’s metastasizing and growing.”

There is no evidence of widespread fraud or manipulation of voting equipment in the 2020 election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden. But that hasn’t stopped the false claims, particularly those about Dominion machines.

“I have huge concerns with these voting machines,” Otero County Commissioner Vickie Marquardt said Monday as she and her two fellow commissioners — all Republicans — voted unanimously. “When I certify stuff that I don’t know is right, I feel like I’m being dishonest because in my heart I don’t know if it is right.”

The commissioners in the conservative, pro-Trump county could point to no actual problems with the Dominion equipment.

New Mexico’s secretary of state asked the state Supreme Court to step in and order the county to certify the votes, and the high court did so on Wednesday. That would ensure that the nearly 7,400 ballots that were cast in Otero County are recorded as legal votes. The deadline for county certification is Friday.

In the weeks and months following the election, various Trump allies claimed that Dominion voting systems had somehow been manipulated as part of an elaborate scheme to steal the election.

On Monday, the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol presented testimony that Trump was told repeatedly that his claims of a stolen election and rigged voting systems were false and dangerous. That included pushback from his inner circle to the claims about Dominion voting systems, which are used by jurisdictions in 27 states.

Former Attorney General William Barr, in a videotaped interview with House investigators, said he spoke with Trump about the “idiotic claims” surrounding Dominion.

Barr said he found them to be “among the most disturbing allegations” because they were “made in such a sensational way that they obviously were influencing a lot of people.” He added that the claims were doing a “grave disservice to the country.”

Trump ignored that, and his allies persisted in attacking Dominion. According to the House panel, the day after Barr spoke with Trump, the president released a video in which he claimed without proof that “with the turn of a dial or the change of a chip, you can press a button for Trump and the vote goes to Biden.”

Dominion has filed defamation lawsuits against various Trump associates and conservative media organizations, including Fox News.

The company said in a statement Wednesday that the action by the Otero County commissioners was “yet another example of how lies about Dominion have damaged our company and diminished the public’s faith in elections.”

Otero County, with a population of about 67,000, went for Trump by nearly 62% in 2020. One of the commissioners is Cowboys for Trump co-founder Couy Griffin, who was convicted of entering restricted U.S. Capitol grounds — though not the building — during the Jan. 6 uprising.

New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver said the commissioners were violating the law and their oaths of office in refusing to certify the vote. She said that there is a process to deal with any problems that arise with an election but that the commissioners did not specify any.

“Unfortunately, when one county decides to act completely outside the law, it gives credence to others who may want to do the same thing,” she said. “We have the potential to see this spread and have a domino effect.”

Numerous procedures are in place, including pre- and post-testing of voting equipment and post-election audits that ensure machines are working properly. In New Mexico, voters mark their paper ballots by hand. The ballots are then fed into a scanner to tally the results.

Vulnerabilities do exist, as with any technology, but election officials work to identify and fix them. A recent advisory issued by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency highlighted certain vulnerabilities discovered in Dominion voting systems and provided recommendations to election officials.

But those pushing false claims about voting systems want more than just paper ballots cast by hand — they also want ballots to be counted entirely by hand. Experts say this is unreliable, time-consuming, labor-intensive and entirely unnecessary given the various safeguards.

Among the most prominent advocates for this is Jim Marchant, a former state lawmaker who on Tuesday was selected as the Republican nominee for secretary of state in Nevada. Marchant is among a group of “America First” candidates seeking to oversee elections while denying the outcome of the last one.

Election experts say the Otero County case is a warning of what could happen if candidates who repeat electoral falsehoods and misinformation gain responsibility for overseeing voting.

“This is just a taste of what we could see in the future, as election deniers are running for positions with control over elections all over the country,” said David Becker, a former U.S. Justice Department attorney who leads the Center for Election Innovation and Research.

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By Trevor Hunnicutt and Jarrett Renshaw

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday demanded oil refining companies explain why they are not putting more gasoline on the market as they reap windfall profits, sharply escalating his rhetoric against industry as he faces pressure over rising prices.

Biden wrote to executives from Marathon Petroleum Corp, Valero Energy Corp and Exxon Mobil Corp, and complained they had cut back on oil refining to pad their profits, according to a copy of the letter https://docsend.com/view/qpg3e8a2s3fbxi3a seen by Reuters.

The letter was also sent to Phillips 66, Chevron Corp, BP and Shell, a White House official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.

“At a time of war, refinery profit margins well above normal being passed directly onto American families are not acceptable,” Biden wrote, adding the lack of refining was driving gas prices up faster than oil prices.

Biden said the industry’s lack of action is blunting the administration’s attempts to offset the impact of oil-rich Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, such as releases from the U.S. oil reserves and adding more cheaper ethanol to gasoline.

Meanwhile, energy companies are enjoying bumper profits as the invasion has added to a supply squeeze which has driven crude prices above $100 a barrel, and as fuel demand has remained robust, despite record high gasoline prices.

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday went as far to say refiners have a “patriotic duty” to increase supplies and cut consumer costs.

“We are calling on them to do the right thing, to be patriots here,” she told reporters.

U.S. refining capacity peaked in April 2020 at just under 19 million barrels per day (bpd), as refiners shut several unprofitable facilities during the coronavirus pandemic. As of March, refining capacity was 17.9 million bpd, but there have been other closures announced since.

U.S. refiners are running at near-peak levels to process fuel – currently at 94% of capacity – and say there is little they can do to quickly satisfy Biden’s demands.

“Our refineries are running full out,” Bruce Niemeyer, corporate vice president of strategy and sustainability at Chevron, said on the sidelines of a Reuters energy transition conference on Tuesday, before the letter was made public.

Shell is “producing at capacity” and looking at options to increase oil and gasoline production, a spokesperson said.

Exxon, which was the focus of the president’s ire against oil companies last week, has invested to expand its refining capacity by 250,000 bpd, the equivalent of a medium-sized refinery, said spokesman Todd Spitler.

The administration in the short term could lift the Jones Act provisions that force domestic shippers to use U.S. flagged vessels that employ union labor, or lift regulations that prohibit the use of cheaper, smog causing components in summer blends of gasoline, Spitler said.

Phillips 66, Valero and Marathon Petroleum said they would work with the administration. Chevron and BP did not immediately comment.

INFLATION WOES

Biden has been intensifying attacks against oil companies as gas pump prices race to record highs above $5 per gallon and inflation surges to a 40-year record.

Privately, White House officials have been reaching out to refiners to inquire about idled plants and spare capacity and whether there are other ways to increase gasoline supply, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.

Rising gas prices have helped drive unexpectedly persistent consumer price inflation and voter anger before Nov. 8 midterm elections where Biden’s Democratic Party is defending its control of Congress.

Biden has attributed rising oil prices primarily to U.S.-led sanctions that took Russian energy supplies off the global market.

But he has also taken the fight to major oil companies, which are riding rising energy prices to record earnings, and giving those profits to investors rather than spending on new drilling and refining capacity.

“Exxon made more money than God this year,” Biden said last week, referring to the major’s first quarter profit doubling from the previous year’s to $5.48 billion.

Exxon’s Spitler said the top U.S. producer has invested more than $50 billion over the past five years that resulted in a nearly 50% increase in U.S. oil output.

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm plans to host an emergency meeting on how refiners can respond to higher prices, Biden said, asking for a response from the oil companies beforehand.

Biden said they should provide “concrete ideas” to increase oil refining along with an explanation for why they may have cut such capacity in the last two years.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Jarrett Renshaw, David Gaffen, Ron Bousso and Gary McWilliams; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Heather Timmons and Marguerita Choy)

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By Eric Beech and Jason Lange

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Republican U.S. Representative Tom Rice, who voted to impeach Donald Trump after the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot, lost his re-election bid in South Carolina on Tuesday, while a second Republican incumbent targeted by the former president prevailed.

Trump-backed candidate Russell Fry handily defeated Rice, a five-term incumbent who became a prime target in Trump’s midterm revenge campaign against perceived political enemies.

Rice was one of 10 congressional Republicans to vote for Trump’s impeachment and now is the first of that group to lose re-election. Some others opted not to run.

“The voters have spoken and Tom Rice is coming home,” Fry, a state legislator, told supporters in the strongly Republican district he is expected to win in the November general election. “Today, Donald Trump won.”

Jim Marchant, who falsely claims the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, won the Republican primary election for Nevada secretary of state, Edison Research projected.

Among 2020 election deniers running for elections posts across the country, Marchant, a former state legislator, distinguished himself by claiming that elections have been rigged for decades and by arguing that electronic voting machines should be replaced by paper ballots. He had also blamed his own 2020 U.S. House loss to Democratic Representative Steven Horsford on election fraud.

In another South Carolina district, freshman U.S. Representative Nancy Mace fended off a challenge from Trump-endorsed opponent Katie Arrington, Edison Research said.

Rice and Mace each ran afoul of Trump after his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, while Congress worked to certify the 2020 presidential election. The riot is now the subject of a bipartisan congressional investigation that focused this week on Trump’s false claims of a stolen 2020 election.

Mace drew Trump’s ire by refusing to back Republican efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential election results.

The results on Tuesday will be seen as a measure of Trump’s continued influence over the Republican Party as he hints at another run for the White House in 2024. His endorsees so far have had mixed success in battleground states including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina.

Voters also cast ballots on Tuesday in Nevada, Maine and North Dakota to choose party nominees to compete in the November general elections for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

With Democratic President Joe Biden slumping in the polls and soaring inflation souring voters’ moods, Republicans are expected to win control of the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate. That would bring Biden’s legislative agenda to a halt and give Republicans the power to launch investigations that could be politically damaging.

A Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll completed on Tuesday showed Biden’s public approval rating at 39%, in its third straight weekly decline, approaching the lowest level of his presidency. Fifty-six percent of Americans disapprove of Biden’s job performance.

REPUBLICAN FLIPS HOUSE SEAT

Republicans got a boost in South Texas, where party candidate Mayra Flores defeated Democrat Dan Sanchez in a special election to capture the seat vacated by former Democratic Representative Filemon Vela in March, according to Edison Research.

Flores will fill the vacancy for the remainder of Vela’s term, which expires in early January. Although the victory raises Republican hopes of flipping more Democratic seats in November, the district’s boundaries have been redrawn for the fall vote to make it more favorable to Democrats.

In Nevada, Trump-endorsed Adam Laxalt, a former state attorney general, won the Republican primary for a crucial U.S. Senate race, defeating a crowded field of contenders, according to Edison Research.

In November, he will run against Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, considered one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the 2022 midterm campaign.

Marchant will face a Democrat in the Nov. 8 general election for a post that oversees elections in Nevada. Trump did not endorse a candidate in the Republican primary. However, Marchant received endorsements from high-profile conservatives, including former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and pro-Trump businessman Mike Lindell.

Marchant beat six other Republican candidates in the secretary of state contest and had a lead of 16.7% against the candidate closest to him at the time he was projected the winner by Edison Research.

Republicans also were selecting nominees to run against three vulnerable House Democrats from Nevada – Horsford, Dina Titus and Susie Lee.

Titus defeated a challenge from progressive Democrat Amy Vilela, according to Edison Research.

In Maine, Paul LePage, whose turbulent eight years as the state’s governor foreshadowed Trump’s rise, ran unopposed for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Governor Janet Mills in November.

LePage, who once described himself as “Donald Trump before Donald Trump became popular,” was widely criticized as governor for his inflammatory remarks on a host of topics from immigration, the environment and LGBTQ issues to abortion and voting rights. He left office with an approval rating below 40%.

(Reporting by Eric Beech, Jason Lange, Kanishka Singh and Moira Warburton; Writing by David Morgan; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Cynthia Osterman and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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By Trevor Hunnicutt

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday demanded oil companies explain why they aren’t putting more gasoline on the market, sharply escalating his rhetoric against industry as he faces pressure over rising prices.

Biden wrote to executives from Marathon Petroleum Corp, Valero Energy Corp, and Exxon Mobil Corp and complained they had cut back on oil refining to pad their profits, according to a copy of the letter seen by Reuters.

“At a time of war, refinery profit margins well above normal being passed directly onto American families are not acceptable,” Biden wrote, adding the lack of refining was driving gas prices up faster than oil prices.

“The lack of refining capacity – and resulting unprecedented refinery profit margins – are blunting the impact of the historic actions my Administration has taken to address Vladimir Putin’s Price Hike and are driving up costs for consumers.”

The letter is also being sent to Phillips 66, Chevron Corp, BP and Shell, a White House official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.

Biden has been intensifying attacks against oil companies in recent days as U.S. gas prices raced to record highs above $5 per gallon this past weekend and ahead of the summertime driving season.

Rising gas prices have helped drive unexpectedly persistent consumer price inflation and voter anger ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm elections where Biden’s Democratic Party is defending its control of Congress.

U.S. consumer inflation unexpectedly accelerated in May, leading to the largest annual increase in four decades. White House officials have hotly debated how to respond to a problem they once thought would fade and now see as largely out of their control.

Biden has attributed rising oil prices primarily to U.S.-led sanctions that took Russian energy supplies off the global market after its invasion of Ukraine.

But in recent days, Biden has taken the fight to major oil companies, which are riding rising energy prices to record earnings.

The president, who came into office vowing to reduce U.S. dependence on fossil fuels, now wants to speed up oil production, which is expected to hit record highs in the United States next year.

“Exxon made more money than God this year,” Biden said last week. Exxon made $5.48 billion in the quarter ended March 31, double the year prior, and told investors to expect strong profits to last into next year.

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm plans to host an emergency meeting on how refiners can respond to higher prices, Biden said, asking for a response from the oil companies beforehand.

He said they should provide “concrete ideas” to increase oil refining along with an explanation for why they may have cut such capacity in the last two years.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Lombardo wins Republican nomination for governor in Nevada primary election.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced his support Tuesday for his chamber’s emerging bipartisan gun agreement, boosting momentum for modest but notable election-year action by Congress on an issue that’s deadlocked lawmakers for three decades.

The Kentucky Republican said he hoped an outline of the accord, released Sunday by 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans, would be translated into legislation and enacted. McConnell’s backing was the latest indication that last month’s gun massacres in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, had reconfigured the political calculations for some in the GOP after years of steadfastly opposing even incremental tightening of firearms curbs.

“If this framework becomes the actual piece of legislation, it’s a step forward, a step forward on a bipartisan basis,” McConnell told reporters. He said the proposal “further demonstrates to the American people” that lawmakers can work together on significant issues “to make progress for the country.”

McConnell’s comments were striking, coming five months before midterm elections in which Republicans hope to win control of the Senate and seem likely to win a majority in the House. For years, GOP candidates could risk their careers by defying the views of the party’s loyal gun-owning and rural voters, who oppose moves seen as threatening their ownership and use of firearms.

McConnell seemed to suggest that backing this gun measure wouldn’t doom some Republicans’ prospects in November. While he said senators should take a position “based upon the views of their states,” he said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a chief architect of the deal, presented GOP polling data at a closed-door senators’ lunch saying support among gun-owners for the agreement’s provisions is “off the charts, overwhelming.”

The plan would for the first time make the juvenile records of gun buyers under age 21 part of required background checks. Money would be sent to states for mental health and school security programs and for incentives to enforce local “red flag” laws that let authorities win court approval to temporarily removes guns from people considered dangerous.

Senators and aides hope to translate their broad agreement into legislation in days, in hopes that Congress could approve it before leaving for its July 4 recess. Both sides acknowledge that is a difficult process that could encounter disputes and delays.

Some Republicans expressed unhappiness with the plan Tuesday, with much of the criticism aimed at its encouragement of “red flag” laws. Nineteen states mostly dominated by Democrats and the District of Columbia have them, but Republicans have blocked efforts in Congress to pass federal legislation on the subject.

“If we’re not going to pass a federal red flag law, and we shouldn’t, why would we incentivize states to do something that we think is a bad idea?” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.

A final agreement on overall legislation would be expected to receive solid support from Democrats. But it would need at least 10 GOP votes to reach the Senate’s usual 60 vote threshold, and McConnell’s praise raised hopes that Republican backing would grow even beyond that.

Approval seems likely by the Democratic-run House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has praised the measure as a first step toward strong restrictions in the future.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he would schedule votes on the legislation as soon as it is ready. He contrasted recent days’ progress with Congress’ failure to act after a parade of mass shootings in recent decades.

“After Uvalde and Buffalo, perhaps this time could be different. To many senators on both sides, this debate certainly feels different,” Schumer said.

Congress’ last major gun measure was an assault weapons ban that took effect in 1994 but expired 10 years later.

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