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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Gabrielle Canon (now) and Joan E Greve (earlier)

Biden: ‘I’ve never seen anything like the unrelenting assault on the right to vote’ – as it happened

Joe Biden delivers the keynote address at the South Carolina State University's 2021 fall commencement ceremony Friday.
Joe Biden delivers the keynote address at the South Carolina State University's 2021 fall commencement ceremony Friday. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP

Friday's summary

That’s all from me today. Here’s some of what we covered this evening:

  • Another Covid surge has sparked cancellations as the Omicron quickly variant spreads. NFL games this weekend had to be postponed due to a spike in player infections and the Rockette’s “Christmas Spectacular” was put permanently on pause.
  • The CDC is trying out a new plan to keep kids in school, issuing a “test to stay” strategy. Unvaccinated students will be able to go to class if they test negative twice, even after an exposure.
  • The Biden administration policy requiring large businesses to vaccinate workers or issue testing and mask-mandates is likely headed to the supreme court after being upheld in a federal Appeals court.
  • San Francisco mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency and pledged to crackdown on crime, alarming advocates and constituents.
  • Also, this happened:

Thanks for reading along! Have a great night.

Updated

On Friday San Francisco mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency in the Tenderloin district — an area near the heart of the city with high levels of homelessness and devastating numbers of drug overdoses — in a pledge to crack down on crime. New plans to aggressively address issues on what she called the “nasty streets” in her city, including bolstering the budget for policing, were also accompanied by a stunning shift in rhetoric for a leader of one of the country’s most liberal cities.

“We are in a crisis and we need to respond accordingly,” she said at a news conference on Friday. “Too many people are dying in this city, too many people are sprawled on our streets.” The emergency declaration, which is intended to last 90 days and must be ratified by the Board of Supervisors within 7 days, was issued to limit red tape around zoning and planning codes and enable funds to flow to the mayor’s plan more freely.

But the move targets more than drugs. The crackdown also comes weeks after San Francisco was targeted by coordinated thefts, where groups of people raided high-end stores armed with crowbars and hammers. In response, the city deployed police to the downtown area in full-force, bumping officer overtime to roughly 8,000 hours.

California governor Gavin Newsom has also responded to the incident — and the national attention it sparked — with a $300 million plan to target organized crime.

“We recognize this moment requires us to do more,” Newsom said during a news conference. “These organized efforts have created tremendous fear and anxiety to many Californians.”

But experts have highlighted larceny and the overall property crime rate have fallen in the city. Before the pandemic crime rates in many categories were also falling across the state.

Once a vocal champion of criminal justice reforms and a reducing the reliance on police in favor of stronger social programs, Breed is now embracing an approach she acknowledges is at-odds with what her progressive constituents have long-advocated for.

“It’s time that the reign of criminals who are destroying our city, it is time for it to come to an end,” Breed said, joined by the city’s Police Chief Bill Scott. “What I’m proposing today and what I will be proposing in the future will make a lot of people uncomfortable,” she added, “And I don’t care.”

The first two parts of a three-phased approach, described in a press release issued Friday, is already underway, and includes a significant increase in police presence instructed to target both drug sellers and users. Breed said that more than two people are dying per day to drug overdoses, mostly to fentanyl. Fatalities are on the rise and outpaced Covid deaths in the city last year by 2 to 1.

“We are collectively committed to a long term solution that includes law enforcement, redeploying resources, and including our @SheriffSF to assist with mitigating challenges with access to support and services” Supervisor Ahsha Safai wrote on Twitter this week after joining Breed in the announcement of the new plan. Safai added that one part of the plan will focus on unlicensed vendors selling goods on the streets and another will focus on drug-use. “We must have cleaner safer streets” he said. “Enough is enough.”

But statistics collected by the San Francisco Police Department show many types of crime, including larceny, are actually down from where they were in 2019. Breed’s plan also includes an expansion of police surveillance, a point that has sparked concerns from privacy experts and advocates that the mayor is attempting to circumvent San Francisco’s privacy laws.

“The Mayor’s proposal to massively expand police presence in San Francisco is regressive and harmful to those who are already underserved and overpoliced,” Public Defender Mano Raju said in a statement issued Tuesday, noting that Breed made promises to divest in policing after the murder of George Floyd.

He added that an increase in policing won’t help address the root causes of crime, including poverty, addiction, disease, and trauma. “Piling more resources into policing and punishment” he said, “— strategies that have consistently succeeded only in creating intergenerational trauma — have never been the solutions to public health crises, in the Tenderloin or elsewhere”

Biden vaccine policy reinstated by appeals court

A Biden administration rule that employers with more than 100 workers must require vaccinations or have to undergo weekly Covid testing and mask mandates was upheld by a federal appeals court today, overturning a lower courts ruling.

“The record establishes that Covid-19 has continued to spread, mutate, kill and block the safe return of American workers to their jobs. To protect workers, Osha can and must be able to respond to dangers as they evolve,” Judge Jane B Stranch wrote in an opinion.

The new ruling is expected to be appealed to the supreme court, the Washington Post reports:

More than two dozen Republican-led states, private businesses and conservative legal groups challenged the policy. Before the legal challenges filed in courts throughout the country were consolidated at the 6th Circuit, a different appeals court temporarily halted Biden’s plans.

The Louisiana-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeal said the Labor Department exceeded its authority and ordered the OSHA to not take any further steps to implement or enforce the rules.”

Updated

Rocketts Christmas shows canceled over Covid concerns

Citing “increasing challenges from the pandemic” the producers of the famed and beloved Radio City Music Hall show starring the Rocketts called it quits on the rest of the season.

The “Christmas Spectacular” was scheduled through 2 January, with several shows on each day. On Friday, producers announced that there had been breakthrough cases and that the day’s performances were off. By the evening, they’d canceled all remaining shows.

“We regret that we are unable to continue the ‘Christmas Spectacular’ this season,” they said in a statement. “We had hoped we could make it through the season and are honored to have hosted hundreds of thousands of fans at more than 100 shows over the last seven weeks.”

They aren’t alone. Several Broadway shows have had to shut down due to the surge in cases impacting New York City again, the New York Times reports. New York state has also experienced the highest single-day spike in new infections — with 21,027 cases reported Friday — breaking a previous record set on 14 January.

From the NYT:

The decision comes as Broadway has had to endure a raft of cancellations unlike any in its history. Several shows, including “Tina,” a jukebox musical about Tina Turner, “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” and “Hamilton” have all had to cancel at least one performance in recent days. On Thursday, six of the 32 current shows canceled performances, including “Moulin Rouge!,” where many patrons were already in their seats when the decision was made.

In a sign of the increasing level of concern over the Omicron variant, the Metropolitan Opera on Wednesday became the first major performing arts institution in New York to unveil a booster mandate: Beginning Jan. 17, all employees and audience members eligible for booster shots will be required to show proof that they have received them in order to enter the opera house.”

Updated

In an attempt to keep kids in the classrooms in the face of the fast-spreading Omicron variant, the Biden administration released a new strategy to increase Covid testing. Rather than sending children home, schools can now employ the CDC’s “test to stay” strategy, enabling unvaccinated students to remain in class if they test negative at least twice even if they have been exposed to the virus.

“If exposed children meet a certain criteria and continue to test negative, they can stay at school instead of quarantining at home,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky said during a press briefing on Friday.

Omicron is quickly gaining speed and could soon become the dominant variant in the US, surpassing Delta. Vaccines are still a strong line of defense against the virus but only 18% of kids between the ages of five and 11 have received one dose, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Roughly 61% between the ages of 12 to 17 have gotten a shot.

But studies done by the agency show that the new strategy is effective at stopping transmissions and limits school days missed. The CDC cited how the program, used at 90 schools in Illinois was able prevent 8,000 missed school days, NBC News reports. In Los Angeles county, where the strategy wasn’t used, students lost 92,000 school days.

“The studies demonstrate that ‘test to stay’ works to keep unvaccinated children in schools safely,” Walensky said.

Updated

Gabrielle Canon here in Los Angeles to take you through the rest of Friday’s news.

Three NFL games planned for this weekend had to be rescheduled due to a Covid outbreak among players, the New York Times reports. With the season winding down, the quick-spreading Omicron variant is having an impact on the important games leading up to the Super Bowl and more than 130 players have tested positive.

The NFL said in a news release that the games will be postponed due to the “new, highly transmissible form of the virus this week, resulting in a substantial increase in cases across the league.”

New protocols have also been issued, including mask mandates and limitations placed on in-person activities.

From the NYT:

If the outbreak worsens, the NFL has little room to maneuver. Only four more weeks of its regular season remain, and there are no breaks in the schedule besides the week before the Super Bowl, which is scheduled for Feb. 13. Games cannot be played in rapid succession, like in other leagues, because of the necessary recovery time for teams between games. And with just 17 regular season games, a forfeit or game that cannot be rescheduled could drastically affect who qualifies for the playoffs.”

Updated

Today so far

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Gabrielle Canon, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • Joe Biden once again underscored the urgent need to pass national voting rights legislation, which has stalled in the Senate due to Republican filibustering. “This battle is not over,” Biden said at South Carolina State University’s commencement ceremony this morning. “We’re going to keep up the fight until we get it done, and you’re going to keep up the fight, and we need your help badly.”
  • Omicron is expected to soon become the dominant strain of coronavirus in the US, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. “Although Delta continues to circulate widely in the United States, Omicron is increasing rapidly, and we expect it to become the dominant strain in the United States, as it has in other countries, in the coming weeks,” Dr Rochelle Walensky said at a press briefing today.
  • A Capitol insurrectionist was sentenced to more than five years in prison for attacking police officers on 6 January. The punishment of Robert Palmer represents the longest sentence given to a Capitol rioter so far. Palmer told the judge overseeing his case, “I’m really, really ashamed of what I did.”
  • Roger Stone invoked his fifth amendment rights against self-incrimination today, when he appeared for his deposition with the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection. “I did invoke my fifth amendment rights to every question – not because I have done anything wrong, but because I am fully aware of the House Democrats’ long history of fabricating perjury charges,” the Trump ally and political operative said.
  • A report suggests that former Texas governor and energy secretary Rick Perry was the author of a controversial text sent to Mark Meadows, the former chief of staff to Donald Trump, on 4 November 2020. The text was revealed as part of the documents that Meadows turned over to the select committee investigating the insurrection, and it reads, “HERE’s an AGRESSIVE (sic) STRATEGY: Why can t (sic) the states of GA NC PENN and other R controlled state houses declare this is BS (where conflicts and election not called that night) and just send their own electors to vote and have it go to the SCOTUS.”

Gabrielle will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Updated

Rick Perry wrote text to Meadows suggesting strategy to undermine election - report

A new report suggests that former Texas governor and energy secretary Rick Perry was the author of a controversial text sent to Mark Meadows, the former chief of staff to Donald Trump, on November 4, 2020.

The text was revealed on Tuesday night as part of the documents that Meadows turned over to the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection, before the former Trump aide ended his cooperation with investigators.

The text reads, “HERE’s an AGRESSIVE (sic) STRATEGY: Why can t (sic) the states of GA NC PENN and other R controlled state houses declare this is BS (where conflicts and election not called that night) and just send their own electors to vote and have it go to the SCOTUS.”

CNN reports:

A spokesman for Perry told CNN that the former Energy Secretary denies being the author of the text. Multiple people who know Rick Perry confirmed to CNN that the phone number the committee has associated with that text message is Perry’s number.

The cell phone number the text was sent from, obtained from a source knowledgeable about the investigation, appears in databases as being registered to a James Richard Perry of Texas, the former governor’s full name.

The number is also associated in a second database as registered to a Department of Energy email address associated with Perry when he was secretary. When told of these facts, the spokesman had no explanation.

Democrats had warned that the text message indicates Trump and his allies were working to overturn the results of the 2020 election even before a winner was declared in multiple battleground states.

One House progressive suggested he felt betrayed by the Senate’s failure to pass the Build Back Better Act after he supported the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

“The House acted in good faith and passed the infrastructure bill, on the promise that the Senate would do the same with Build Back Better,” congressman Ro Khanna said. “It’s time for the Senate to hold the vote that the president promised.”

It’s worth noting that six House progressives – Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib – opposed the infrastructure bill out of concern that its passage would slow momentum for the Build Back Better Act.

And indeed, since the infrastructure bill passed last month, centrist Democrat Joe Manchin has raised more objections to the Build Back Better Act, leaving a deal out of reach as the end of the year approaches.

Updated

Set the DVR: Joe Manchin will be speaking to Bret Baier on Fox News this Sunday, as the centrist senator’s talks with Joe Biden over the Build Back Better Act drag on.

The interview comes as Biden has acknowledged that Democrats’ $1.75tn spending package will not pass this year, largely because Manchin is not yet on board.

Manchin’s reluctance is enraging progressives, who have warned that the party will suffer widespread losses in the midterm elections next year if Congress cannot deliver.

“It is actually delusional to believe Dems can get re-elected without acting on filibuster or student debt, Biden breaking his BBB promise, letting [the expanded child tax credit] lapse, 0 path to citizenship, etc,” congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on Twitter today. “We need to act now.”

Updated

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has said the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection is seeking facts that “the public needs to know”.

Speaking to Spectrum News yesterday, the Republican leader said of the select committee, “I think the fact-finding is interesting. We’re all going to be watching it.”

McConnell did not offer any review of the committee’s performance so far, but he acknowledged the importance of the investigators’ work.

“It was a horrendous event, and I think what they’re seeking to find out is something the public needs to know,” McConnell said.

The Kentucky senator made similar comments earlier this week, telling reporters on Capitol Hill, “We’re all watching, as you are, what is unfolding on the House side, and it will be interesting to reveal all the participants who were involved.”

It should be noted that Senate Republicans blocked the creation of a 9/11-style commission to study the insurrection earlier this year.

Updated

Caroline Wren, one of the organizers of the January 6 rally that culminated in the attack on the Capitol, also met today with the House select committee investigating the insurrection.

Wren did not respond to questions when a CBS News reporter approached her earlier today:

Wren was a top fundraiser for Donald Trump’s campaign, and she was listed on the permit paperwork for the January 6 rally as a “VIP adviser”.

The select committee issued subpoenas to Wren and other organizers of the rally in late September.

Meanwhile, Brandon Straka, who spoke at a “Stop the Steal” rally the day before the Capitol insurrection, appears to have provided the government with information that may impact his sentencing after he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct during the riot.

Politico reports:

It’s an indication that Straka, one of the few Jan. 6 defendants who is also of interest to congressional investigators, has cooperated with prosecutors in a substantive way.

Straka, who describes himself as a ‘former liberal,’ became a relatively prominent figure in Trump-world in 2018, when he founded the ‘WalkAway campaign’ to encourage liberals to abandon Democrats. He was one of just two speakers at pro-Trump events on Jan. 5 and 6 criminally charged for their roles in the Capitol attack. Owen Shroyer, an InfoWars broadcaster and ally of Alex Jones, also faces misdemeanor charges in the case.

Straka pleaded guilty in October to a single misdemeanor charge and was set to be sentenced next week. But prosecutors have asked for a 30-day sentencing delay so that his new evidence ‘can be properly evaluated.’

The House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection has also asked the National Archives to provide all Trump White House documents related to Straka.

Stone confirms he invoked Fifth Amendment rights with Capitol attack committee

Roger Stone confirmed that he did invoke his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination this morning, when he appeared for a deposition before the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection.

“This morning, in fulfillment of a federal subpoena, I did my civil duty, and I responded as required by law,” the Trump ally and political operative told reporters on Capitol Hill.

“I did invoke my Fifth Amendment rights to every question -- not because I have done anything wrong, but because I am fully aware of the House Democrats’ long history of fabricating perjury charges.”

Stone challenged the legitimacy of the inquiry, attacking the investigation as “witch hunt 3.0”.

Roger Stone pleads fifth before January 6th Committee.
Roger Stone pleads fifth before January 6th Committee. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

“I stress yet again that I was not on the Ellipse. I did not march to the Capitol,” Stone said. “I was not at the Capitol and any claim, assertion or even implication that I knew about or was involved in any way whatsoever with the illegal and politically counterproductive activities of January 6, is categorically false.”

According to the statement the committee issued when it subpoenaed Stone, investigators are interested in his movements on January 5 and allegations that he used members of the far-right group Oath Keepers as personal security guards while he was in Washington.

Stone claimed his actions on January 5 amounted to “constitutionally protected free speech” and were thus not a legitimate avenue of inquiry for the committee.

Capitol insurrectionist receives five-year prison sentence

One of the participants in the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for attacking police officers during the riot.

The AP reports:

Robert Palmer, 54, of Largo, Florida, wept as he told U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan that he recently watched a video of his actions that day and could not believe what he was seeing.

‘Your honor. I’m really really ashamed of what I did,’ he said weeping.

Palmer was one of a few rioters sentenced on Friday in District of Columbia court for their actions on Jan. 6 when the angry mob descended after a rally by then-President Donald Trump to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s victory. Scores of police were beaten and blooded, five people died and there was about $1.5 million in damage done to the U.S. Capitol. Palmer is the 65th defendant to be sentenced overall. More than 700 people have been charged.

Palmer’s punishment represents the longest prison sentence given to a Capitol rioter so far. That unwanted record was previously held by Jacob Chansley of Arizona and Scott Fairlamb of New Jersey, both of whom received 41 months in prison.

Leading progressive Democrat Pramila Jayapal is voicing the frustration felt by many as the year looks set to end with a legislative whimper not a bang for Joe Biden and his administration.

The Washington state congresswoman just tweeted:

Liberals tweeted their support, including this cartoon of the bill metaphorically bearing down on Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema on a bicycle made for two (centrist Democrats), who thus with the shakiest of platforms, hold it at bay:

Updated

New data analysis has revealed that if US Democratic voters were to make up their own country, it would have one of the world’s most vaccinated populations, with over 91% of adults having received at least one shot.

Meanwhile, only approximately 60% of Republican adults have received their first shot, according to data research by the New York Times.

And the gap in Covid’s death toll between blue and red states that voted mostly Republican this fall widened more quickly than at any previous point of the pandemic.

A total of 25 out of every 100,000 residents in counties that voted for Donald Trump died of Covid in October, compared to the 7.8 per 100,000 in counties that voted heavily for Biden, according to the data analysis from the Times.

October marked the fifth consecutive month that the percentage gap of death rates in red and blue counties widened.

Charles Gaba, an independent health care analyst, said that in October, the “reddest” tenth of the US saw death rates from coronavirus six times higher than the “bluest” tenth.

“Those numbers have dropped slightly in recent weeks,” he told National Public Radio. “It’s back down to 5.5 times higher.”

Counties where Trump received over 70% of the vote experienced an even higher average of Covid-19 deaths compared to counties where Trump won at least 60 percent, the new data research revealed.

On the contrary, Covid-19 deaths in heavily Biden counties and swing counties did not rise over the past two months, despite the nationwide surge in cases.

Updated

The US Postal Service (USPS) and NAACP have reached a settlement in a lawsuit over election mail.

USPS agreed for the 2022 mid-term congressional election to take the same extraordinary measures used to deliver ballots in the November 2020 election, Reuters writes.

The agency further reports:

The Postal Service also agreed for elections through 2028 to post guidance documents publicly reflecting its “good faith efforts to prioritize monitoring and timely delivery of Election Mail.

The NAACP president, Derrick Johnson said in a statement, “With the NAACP’s ability to now monitor the performance of the USPS during national elections, we will ensure that the right to vote is protected for of all citizens, including those often suppressed.”

Johnson also reiterated the need to pass national voting rights legislation, saying, “While this is an unprecedented victory, we are now laser-focused on passing federal voting rights protections through the Senate.”

Updated

Today so far

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • Joe Biden once again underscored the urgent need to pass national voting rights legislation, which has stalled in the Senate due to Republican filibustering. “This battle is not over,” Biden said at South Carolina State University’s commencement ceremony this morning. “We’re going to keep up the fight until we get it done, and you’re going to keep up the fight, and we need your help badly.”
  • Omicron is expected to soon become the dominant strain of coronavirus in the US, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. “Although Delta continues to circulate widely in the United States, Omicron is increasing rapidly, and we expect it to become the dominant strain in the United States, as it has in other countries, in the coming weeks,” Dr Rochelle Walensky said at a press briefing today.
  • Roger Stone appeared on Capitol Hill for his deposition with the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection. Stone’s lawyer had previously indicated that his client would invoke his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination to avoid complying with the committee’s subpoena, which was issued last month.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Major US companies are now pulling back on plans to return to in-person work in light of the Omicron variant’s rapid spread across America.

Employers planning to call remote workers back into the office in the new year are now pausing those efforts, and they are wary of setting new return dates only to push them back once again in the face of continued uncertainty and risks from the pandemic.

The pandemic is also driving changes in how in-person employees work, with a renewed push for strikes and unionization across several industries where workers have frequently faced long hours and unsafe conditions.

Alphabet’s Google, Meta, Apple, Uber, Lyft, Ford, DoorDash, DocuSign and Fidelity are among the companies that have delayed returns to the office.

“It’s warranted, given the uptick that we’ve seen in cases,” Bradford Bell, director of the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies at Cornell University’s ILR School, said. The delays also depend on where the offices are located, he said. “They’re very much looking at this on a location-by-location basis.”

The White House pandemic response team coordinator, Jeff Zients, reassured vaccinated Americans that, if they contract Omicron, their case will “likely be asymptomatic or mild”.

“We are intent on not letting Omicron disrupt work and school for the vaccinated. You’ve done the right thing, and we will get through this,” Zients said.

But the White House official issued a dire warning to unvaccinated Americans, saying Omicron poses a serious risk to them and their communities.

“For the unvaccinated, you’re looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm,” Zients said.

“Our message to every American is clear: there is action you can take to protect yourself and your family. Wear a mask in public indoor settings, get vaccinated, get your kids vaccinated and get a booster shot when you’re eligible.”

Joe Biden issued a similar warning yesterday, saying the unvaccinated face “a winter of severe illness and death”.

Omicron expected to become dominant variant in US, Walensky says

The White House pandemic response team held a briefing this morning to provide an update on the spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus in the US.

Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at least 39 states and more than 75 countries have now reported confirmed cases of the Omicron variant.

“Although Delta continues to circulate widely in the United States, Omicron is increasing rapidly, and we expect it to become the dominant strain in the United States, as it has in other countries, in the coming weeks,” Walensky said.

The CDC director noted that the agency is seeing cases of Omicron among people who are both vaccinated and boosted.

But Walensky added, “We believe these cases are milder or asymptomatic because of vaccine protection.”

Updated

During South Carolina State University’s commencement ceremony this morning, Joe Biden also received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from the historically Black college.

In his remarks at South Carolina State University’s commencement ceremony, Joe Biden also addressed Congress’ failure to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

Biden noted he has gotten to know George Floyd’s family well in the year and a half since the Black man was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020.

The bill bearing Floyd’s name has passed the House, but it has stalled in the Senate, after bipartisan negotiations over policing reform broke down earlier this year.

“On police reform, I share the frustration,” Biden said. “It’s not been passed in the Senate, but the fight’s not over.”

'We’re going to keep up the fight until we get it done,' Biden says of voting rights

Joe Biden is now speaking at South Carolina State University’s commencement ceremony, and he once again underscored the urgent need to strengthen voting rights.

“We have to protect that sacred right to vote, for God’s sake,” Biden said. “I’ve never seen anything like the unrelenting assault on the right to vote.”

The president’s comments come as Senate Democrats are discussing potential changes to the filibuster to allow voting rights legislation to advance in the evenly divided chamber.

Senate Republicans have used the filibuster to block multiple voting rights bills, as Democrats do not have the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster.

“This battle is not over. We must pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. We must,” Biden told the graduates of the historically Black university.

“We’re going to keep up the fight until we get it done, and you’re going to keep up the fight, and we need your help badly.”

Updated

House majority whip Jim Clyburn noted that his wife, Emily Clyburn, graduated from South Carolina State University as well.

Emily was the person who encouraged her husband to endorse Joe Biden in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. That endorsement was crucial to Biden’s victory in the South Carolina primary, which was the start of his successful comeback campaign.

“When I looked among those 20-some odd candidates running for the Democratic nomination, several of whom were very close friends of ours, I remembered what she said to me,” Clyburn said. “And I followed her directions, just as I did for the 58 years that we were married.”

Emily passed away a few months before the South Carolina primary, so she did not live to see Biden’s victory and inauguration.

The commencement ceremony at South Carolina State University is now underway, and Joe Biden is expected to soon begin his remarks.

Prior to the president’s speech, House majority whip Jim Clyburn, a graduate of the historically Black university, delivered remarks as well.

Clyburn encouraged the students to never give up on their goals, recounting how he lost three races for Congress before being elected to the House.

“If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again,” Clyburn said. “No matter how many times you attempt, you keep trying until you get it right.”

During the commencement ceremony, Clyburn will walk across the stage because he never got the opportunity to do so when he graduated from the university in 1961.

The Washington Post explains:

In December 1961, James E. Clyburn was a 21-year-old at South Carolina State University who had completed all his credits and was set to graduate. However, because the school at the time allowed only one commencement ceremony a year — usually in the spring — Clyburn received his diploma in the mail instead of marching alongside his classmates. He could have returned to walk in the 1962 ceremony, but by then he was busy with a new teaching job in Charleston.

Sixty years later, Clyburn, now an 81-year-old Democratic congressman from South Carolina and the House majority whip, will get the opportunity to experience the pomp and circumstance of the college graduation ceremony he never had. And a special guest will hand him his diploma: President Biden, who is giving the commencement address at the school on Friday.

‘It means a great deal to me,’ Clyburn said Thursday on MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe.’

Trump supporters and members of far-right extremist groups who took part in the violent insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January are raising hundreds of thousands of dollars from online crowdfunding sites by portraying themselves as maligned American patriots, martyrs and “political prisoners”.

Several of the highest-profile participants in the “stop the steal” insurrection which attempted to disrupt Joe Biden’s certification as US president are raising substantial sums on fundraising sites.

They include members of the far-right Proud Boys and many of the 6 January individuals being detained in a Washington DC jail, awaiting trial for allegedly attacking police officers.

In their donations appeals they are drastically rewriting history. Their scripts transform 6 January from what it was – a violent attempt to overthrow the democratic results of the 2020 presidential election on behalf of Donald Trump – into the fantasy that it was a peaceful and patriotic protest to uphold voter integrity.

“It’s shocking to say, but America now has legitimate political prisoners, en masse,” says the fundraising page titled American Gulag for Jan 6 Political Prisoners which has so far raised $41,000. The page, created by Jim Hoft, founder of the conspiracy site Gateway Pundit, claims that there are “scores of political prisoners wrongfully imprisoned as a result of the protest on January 6th”.

Roger Stone arrives for deposition before Capitol attack committee

Meanwhile, Trump ally and political operative Roger Stone has arrived on Capitol Hill for his deposition before the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection.

Stone declined to comment as he entered the Capitol, per Politico:

Stone is expected to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination in an attempt to avoid complying with the committee’s subpoena, which was issued last month.

According to CNN, Stone’s lawyer, Grant Smith, wrote in a letter to the committee last week that “pursuant to the rights afforded him by the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, he declines to be deposed or to produce documents”.

Joe Biden is now en route to South Carolina, where he will be delivering remarks today at South Carolina State University’s 2021 fall commencement ceremony.

The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, gaggled with reporters aboard Air Force One during the flight, and she gave an update on the Build Back Better negotiations.

“The president’s going to get this done and we’re going to get it across the finish line,” Psaki said. “And yes, it’s going to take more time than we anticipated.”

The press secretary argued Biden was the right leader to navigate his party through these complicated negotiations, pointing to his experience in helping major legislation like the Affordable Care Act advance through Congress.

On the issue of families not receiving checks from the expanded child tax credit program next month, Psaki suggested families may receive double payments in February if Democrats can pass their bill in time.

However, the president and Joe Manchin remain far apart in the talks, so it’s unclear whether the party can pass the bill next month either.

In his statement yesterday, Joe Biden also provided an update on the state of Senate Democrats’ negotiations over amending the filibuster to advance a voting rights bill.

“We must also press forward on voting rights legislation, and make progress on this as quickly as possible,” Biden said. “I had a productive conversation today with several Senators about how we can get this vital legislation passed. Our democracy is at stake.”

A group of moderate Democratic senators has been trying to determine what filibuster changes could win the support of Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema and thus allow a voting rights bill to move forward.

Senate Republicans have successfully used the filibuster to block multiple voting rights bills because the rule requires a 60-vote majority to advance legislation, and that is an extremely high bar in a 50-50 chamber.

However, Sinema has signaled she is still staunchly opposed to amending the filibuster, stifling Democrat’s hopes of getting a voting rights bill to the president’s desk anytime soon.

Biden acknowledged Build Back Better Act will not pass this year

Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.

Joe Biden has acknowledged what many in Washington have known for at least several days at this point: the Build Back Better Act will not pass Congress this year.

In a lengthy statement released yesterday evening, Biden said he has updated congressional leaders about his recent talks with centrist Senator Joe Manchin, the key swing vote in the negotiations.

“In these discussions, Senator Manchin has reiterated his support for Build Back Better funding at the level of the framework plan I announced in September,” Biden said.

Joe Manchin updates reporters about his position on the bill, at the Capitol in Washington.
Joe Manchin updates reporters about his position on the bill, at the Capitol in Washington. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

The president pledged that Democrats will “advance this work together over the days and weeks ahead” and bring a final bill to the Senate floor “as early as possible”.

“My team and I are having ongoing discussions with Senator Manchin; that work will continue next week,” Biden said. “It takes time to finalize these agreements, prepare the legislative changes, and finish all the parliamentary and procedural steps needed to enable a Senate vote.”

For millions of American families, the slow pace of the negotiations means they will not be receiving a check next month from the expanded child tax credit program, which has become a lifeline for many working parents. (The bill was supposed to extend the expanded program for another year.)

And the longer the talks stretch on, the more unlikely it seems that Democrats will ever be able to pass any version of the bill at all.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

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