Summary
Here’s a summary of the day from Lauren Gambino and me:
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are in Atlanta meeting with Asian American leaders. Follow our coverage of their meeting here.
- “Science is back” Biden declared during a visit to the CDC in Atlanta on Friday.
- Four men linked to the far-right Proud Boys have been charged with plotting to attack the US Capitol.
- The Republican congressman Tom Reed has been accused of sexual misconduct by a former lobbyist. Reed, who is considering a run for governor of New York, has denied her account.
- DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is traveling Friday to El Paso, Texas, with a bipartisan group of senators amid spiraling political fallout from an increase in migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border.
- Mar-a-Lago Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida, country club has partially closed following a Covid-19 outbreak among the staff.
- Alyssa McGrath became the first current employee to accuse New York Governor Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment.
Updated
Dick’s Sporting Goods is offering to outfit the NCAA women’s basketball team’s weight room with truckloads of equipment. The NCAA came under fire after female athletes shared photos and videos of comparing their weight room, meals, and amenities to that of male athletes who are living in the March Madness bubble.
Here are the differences in amenities/provisions between the Women’s & Men’s NCAA Tournament I’ve seen so far
— AJ McCord (@AJ_McCord) March 19, 2021
- Weight room/equipment
- Food
- Swag Bags
Photos from: @Cpav15, @sedonaprince_, @danhenry3, @alikershner pic.twitter.com/2YfCeXaJNn
The NCAA admitted that they “fell short” and dropped the ball, in a statement posted to their Twitter page.
NCAA leaders address weight room, other amenities in San Antonio: https://t.co/XJrm0njBx4 pic.twitter.com/uvqcQdDALi
— NCAA (@NCAA) March 19, 2021
The church that the man charged with killing eight people in a recent mass shooting in Georgia attended has disavowed him, the Associated Press reports. In a statement, Crabapple First Baptist Church in Milton, Georgia says that Robert Aaron Long attended the church since childhood, and his actions completely contradict the Christian values he espoused.
No blame can be placed upon the victims,” Crabapple First Baptist told the AP. “He alone is responsible for his evil actions and desires.”
Updated
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris gave speeches at Emory University in Atlanta, following the devastating mass shooting that left eight people, including six Asian women, dead. The pair also met with several Asian leaders in Georgia.
The vice-president – who is half-Asian – definitively called the series of shootings a hate crime, while the Biden avoided the phrase, citing the ongoing investigation.
Pres. Biden on fatal Atlanta shootings: "Whatever the motivation, we know this: Too many Asian Americans have been walking up and down the streets and worrying, waking up each morning the past year feeling their safety and the safety of their loved ones are at stake." pic.twitter.com/KISzPvhQ3j
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) March 19, 2021
Updated
Joe Biden is doing just fine after taking three small falls while climbing up the stairs to Air Force one earlier today. Conservatives, including Donald Trump Jr, have seized on the video Biden’s loss of balance and argued that Democrats should scrutinize Biden’s wellness with the same intensity they did Donald Trump, whose mental and physical fitness was frequently questioned.
Officials insisted there was no damage done. Karine Jean-Pierre, the deputy White House press secretary, told reporters on Air Force One: “It’s very windy. I almost fell coming up the steps myself. He is doing 100% fine.”
Updated
Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s club and hotel, has been partially shut down following a Covid-19 outbreak, the Associated Press reports. Since he lost his bid for a second term Trump has been living at the Palm Beach, Florida, resort where he takes regular meetings with his remaining Republican allies.
Just five days ago Sarah Huckabee, former White House press secretary and current Republican candidate for Arkansas governor, had a campaign event at Mar-a-Lago. Trump made an appearance.
Great weekend on the campaign trail featuring a surprise appearance at one of my events by President Trump! pic.twitter.com/mn81i9AbsU
— Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) March 15, 2021
Updated
Right now Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are speaking at Emory University on the wave of hate and violence facing Asian Americans. My colleague Adam Gabbatt is following the speech here:
Updated
Today, a staffer in Andrew Cuomo’s office became the first current employee to come forward with sexual harassment claims against the governor. The Guardian’s Victoria Biekiempis has an overview of the latest bombshell that was published by the New York Times:
Alyssa McGrath, 33 told the newspaper that Cuomo made suggestive statements to her and another staffer. McGrath said that this co-worker is the woman who accused Cuomo of groping.
“He has a way of making you feel very comfortable around him, almost like you’re his friend,” McGrath reportedly said. “But then you walk away from the encounter or conversation, in your head going, ‘I can’t believe I just had that interaction with the governor of New York.’”
While McGrath does not work directly for Cuomo, she claimed that she and her co-worker were frequently selected from the group of executive chamber assistants to work at the governor’s mansion on weekends.
The governor has denied wrongdoing, and said that his relationships with staffers he considered to be friends might have been misinterpreted.
Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, and a bipartisan cohort of Senate members just finished a trip to the El Paso border to visit facilities that have seen a surge in accompanied minors.
Earlier this week Trisha Garcia reported on the mad dash to make room for migrant children who are coming into the city for the Guardian.
Latest data revealed that more than 4,200 unaccompanied migrant children were now in US custody, but only 500 beds were available, the Associated Press said, further reporting that hundreds were packed into tents, some sleeping on the floor and waiting five days for a shower.
Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut accompanied Mayorkas and shared his reflections in a series of tweets:
Just left the border processing facility. 100s of kids packed into big open rooms. In a corner, I fought back tears as a 13 yr old girl sobbbed uncontrollably explaining thru a translator how terrified she was, having been separated from her grandmother and without her parents.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) March 19, 2021
Updated
Hello, this is Abené Clayton from the west coast bureau. I’m going to be taking over the live blog for the next few hours.
Updated
Late afternoon summary
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are in Atlanta meeting with Asian American leaders. Follow our coverage of their meeting here.
- “Science is back” Biden declared during a visit to the CDC in Atlanta on Friday.
- Four men linked to the far right the Proud Boys have been charged with plotting to attack the US Capitol.
- Republican congressman Tom Reed has been accused of sexual misconduct by a former lobbyist. Reed, who is considering a run for governor of New York, has denied her account.
- DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is traveling Friday to El Paso with a bipartisan group of senators amid spiraling political fallout from a spike of migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border.
Updated
Earlier today, the House overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan resolution condemning the military coup in Myanmar on 1 February and calling for the release of those detained.
But fourteen Republicans voted against the measure. The list includes several arch-conservatives who objected to the electoral certification of Biden’s presidential victory following the insurrection at the US Capitol by supporters loyal to Trump.
14 House Republicans voted against a resolution condemning the military coup in Myanmar, per @kristin__wilson:
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 19, 2021
Lauren Boebert
Andy Biggs
Matt Gaetz
Tom Massie
Ken Buck
Mary Miller
Chip Roy
Jodey Hice
Alex Mooney
Scott Perry
Andy Harris
Ted Budd
Barry Moore
Marjorie Taylor Greene
A spokesman for Pennsylvania congressman Scott Perry, who voted against certifying his state’s electors, told Forbes that the measure was an “overt attempt to trap Republicans into condemning the claims of evidence of election fraud in Burma” while “perpetuating similar claims (in the Democrat’s views) of evidence in US elections.”
Arizona congressman Andy Biggs, who objected to the certification of his state’s electoral votes, denounced the violence in a video posted to Twitter, but said he believed that the resolution was a way for the US to “put our foot in the door in Burma.”
Myanmar is also known as Burma.
Updated
We have a separate live blog following the latest developments on the spa shootings that left eight dead, including six women of Asian descent. Tune in here for our full coverage of Biden’s visit with Asian American leaders in Atlanta.
Twitter said is temporarily suspended the account of congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene in error.
“We use a combination of technology and human review to enforce the Twitter Rules across the service,” a spokeswoman for the social media giant said. “In this case, our automated systems took enforcement action on the account referenced in error. This action has been reversed, and access to the account has been reinstated.”
Responding on Twitter after her account was restored, Greene cast doubt on the explanation and demanded the company’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, disclose the name of the employee who removed her account in error.
She wrote: “I was just told @Twitter suspended me for 12 hrs in “error,” on the same day Dems introduced a resolution to expel me from Congress. What a coincidence
Twitter’s little error wasn’t resolved until after 12 hrs. @jack which employee made the ‘error?’ Reply to my email, Jack.”
Greene, a conspiracy-peddling conservative acolyte of Donald Trump, had her account locked once before in January for what Twitter said was “multiple violations of our civic integrity policy,” including false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Greene’s last tweets before her account was temporarily suspended on Thursday night angrily denounced the Democratic effort to expel her from Congress.
Updated
Biden and Harris visited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta, where staff discussed their concerns about coronavirus variants as well as the challenges confronting the racial and ethnic disparities exposed by the virus during a briefing on the agency’s efforts to combat the pandemic.
“Science is back, all kidding aside,” Biden declared as he praised the leadership of the agency, saying the nation owed them a “gigantic debt of gratitude and we will for a long, long, long time.”
“We can build all the walls we want, we can have the most powerful armies in the world, but we cannot stop, we cannot stop, these viruses, other than be aware of where they are, move quickly on them when we find them,” he said.
The visit comes as Biden surpassed his goal to administer 100m vaccines within the first 100 days of his presidency, six weeks ahead of schedule. Before departing for Atlanta, Biden suggested he may set a new goal: 200m vaccinations before the end of his first 100 days.
A former lobbyist has accused Republican congressman Tom Reed of sexual misconduct, according to a new report in the Washington Post today. Reed is considering a run against New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who is facing mounting calls to resign after multiple women accused him of sexual harassment.
The Post reports:
“Nicolette Davis said she was 25, on her first networking trip as a junior lobbyist for an insurance company, when she felt the 45-year-old congressman’s hand on her back. She and other lobbyists had gathered at an Irish pub in Minneapolis after a day of ice fishing, Davis told The Washington Post, and Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y) was seated to her left. ‘A drunk congressman is rubbing my back,’ she texted a friend and co-worker at Aflac that evening in 2017, adding later, ‘HELP HELP.’
“Reed, his hand outside her blouse, briefly fumbled with her bra before unhooking it by pinching the clasp, Davis told The Post. He moved his hand to her thigh, inching upward, she said. Frozen in fear, she said, she asked the person sitting to her right for help. He obliged by pulling the congressman away from the table and out of the restaurant, Davis said. Reed declined to be interviewed for this story.
In response to a detailed list of questions, he said in a statement provided by his office: ‘This account of my actions is not accurate.’”
Updated
Four men linked to the far right the Proud Boys have been charged with plotting to attack the US Capitol.
The Associated Press reports that:
The four men, described as leaders of the Proud Boys have been charged in the US Capitol riots, as an indictment ordered unsealed today presents fresh evidence of how federal officials believe group members planned and carried out a coordinated attack to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
So far, at least 19 leaders, members or associates of the neo-fascist Proud Boys have been charged in federal court with offenses related to the January 6 insurrection.
The latest indictment suggests the Proud Boys deployed a much larger contingent in Washington, DC, with over 60 users “participating in” an encrypted messaging channel for group members that was created a day before the riots.
The Proud Boys abandoned an earlier channel and created the new “Boots on the Ground” channel after police arrested the group’s top leader, Enrique Tarrio, in Washington.
Ethan Nordean and Joseph Biggs, two of the four defendants charged in the latest indictment, were arrested several weeks ago on separate but related charges. The new indictment also charges Zachary Rehl and Charles Donohoe.
Members of the Proud Boys met at the Washington Monument around 10am. on January 6 and marched to the Capitol before then-president Donald Trump finished addressing thousands of supporters near the White House.
They breached barricades and entered the Capitol, as windows and doors were smashed by rioters.
“This was not simply a march. This was an incredible attack on our institutions of government,” Assistant US attorney Jason McCullough said during a recent hearing for Nordean’s case.
Afternoon summary
It’s been a lively morning in US political news so far, and we’ll have more for you in the coming hours. For details on the aftermath of the shootings in Atlanta and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s visit there, please follow our special live blog. And for general politics, stay tuned right here.
The main events so far today:
- The Biden administration gave the 100 millionth coronavirus shot to a person in the US, beating the president’s stated goal of 100 million shots by the 100th day of his presidency by six weeks.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday relaxed physical distancing requirements for children in school, from 6 feet to 3 feet.The change will allow more schools to open. Masks will still be required.
- US secretary of state Antony Blinken will head to Europe next week for talks with the (post-Brexit) European Union bloc and the NATO military alliance.
- The US and China publicly clashed during their first face-to-face high-level talks since Joe Biden took office, with one senior Chinese official urging the US to address “deep-seated” issues such as racism. But Biden later praised Blinken for taking a tough stance with China.
Biden "100% fine" after stumbling while boarding Air Force One
Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House deputy press secretary, told reporters aboard Air Force One, that the president plans to “offer his support for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Georgia and across the country and talk about his fierce commitment to combating xenophobia, intolerance and hate.”
During his visit in Atlanta, Biden will meet with Asian American leaders “to hear about the impact on their community of Tuesday’s heartbreaking senseless acts of violence as well as their perspectives on increased anti-Asian incidents.”
Biden will also make a stop at the CDC “where they will receive an update from health and medical experts who are helping lead the fight against the pandemic,” she said. He will joined in the state by Senators Rev Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff, Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Stacey Abrams.
On Biden’s tumble up the stairs of Air Force One, Jean-Pierre blamed the wind.
“It was very windy – I almost fell coming up the steps myself. He is doing 100%,” she said, adding: “He’s doing fine.”
Updated
Dr Anthony Fauci warned that the US must stay vigilant because the rate of infections – though it’s plateaued – remains too high to relax public health guidelines.
“It’s really quite risky to declare victory before you have the level of infection in the community to a much much lower level than 53,000 cases per day,” Fauci said. “So it is unfortunate but not surprising to me that you are seeing increases in number of cases per day in areas – cities states or regions – even though vaccines are being distributed at a pretty good clip.”
“It is a time for optimism, but it is not a time for relaxation,” Zients added.
Updated
During the coronavirus briefing, Dr Rochelle Walensky outlined new CDC guidelines changing the physical distancing guidelines for children in schools from 6ft to 3ft, as long as universal mask-wearing is in effect.
The agency said middle school and high school students should remain 6ft apart in communities where positivity rates are above 10% or in settings where co-horting – when groups of students are kept together with the same staff throughout the day – is unavailable.
She cited three new studies from the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which found that children in kindergarten through grade 12 could safely reopen with proper mitigation strategies.
Biden administration reaches 100 millionth coronavirus vaccinations goal six weeks early
The Biden administration announced that it reached its goal of administering 100 million vaccines in the first 100 days of his presidency, six weeks ahead of schedule.
“We reached our 100 million shots goal in just 58 days, weeks ahead of schedule,” White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said during a coronavirus briefing on Friday. He reiterated Biden’s pledge to make enough vaccines available for every adult in America by the end of May.
The current seven-day average in the US is 2.5 million Covid-19 shots per day, Zients said.
He also touted the White House decision to “loan” a combined 4 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Mexico and Canada. The vaccine has not yet been approved for use in the US.
“This loan will not reduce the available supply of vaccines,” he said. “No American will be without a vaccine because of this action.”
Updated
In a statement released before he departed for Georgia, the president called on Congress to “swiftly pass” legislation that would speed up law enforcement’s response to hate crimes amid a rise in violence and abuse against Asian Americans since the pandemic.
Biden’s visit to Georgia will be covered by our sister blog, which is following the latest on the spa shootings that left eight people dead, including six women of Asian descent.
Updated
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said “only five” employees lost their jobs as a result of a policy regarding past marijuana use, following a Daily Beast report that young staffers were pushed to resign or reassigned to remote work after disclosing their past use of the drug.
The outlet reported on Thursday that the employment status of several White House staffers were affected, including some who were asked to resign, after voluntarily disclosing their past use of marijuana. The policy even affected staffers whose cannabis use was in one of the 14 states – or Washington DC – where the drug is legal.
“We announced a few weeks ago that the White House had worked with the security service to update the policies to ensure that past marijuana use wouldn’t automatically disqualify staff from serving in the White House,” Psaki said in a statement posted on Twitter. “As a result, more people will serve who would not have in the past with the same level of recent drug use.”
As a result, more people will serve who would not have in the past with the same level of recent drug use. The bottom line is this: of the hundreds of people hired, only five people who had started working at the White House are no longer employed as a result of this policy.
— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) March 19, 2021
Citing three anonymous sources, the Beast said the affected staffers were taken aback because the White House had previously indicated that recreational use of cannabis would not be immediately disqualify them from personnel jobs.
“It’s exclusively targeting younger staff and staff who came from states where it was legal,” one person said.
Read the full story here.
Updated
Biden said he was “proud” of his secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, after the first high level talks between the Biden administration and Chinese officials got off to a fiery start.
What was supposed to be a short photo opp with senior Chinese officials turned into a lengthy sparring match, with both sides leveling attacks at one another in a rare public display of the tensions between the two world superpowers.
“I’m very proud of the Secretary of State,” Biden told reporters before departing for Georgia. During the campaign, Trump repeatedly attacked Biden for being “soft” on China.
In response to Russian president Vladimir Putin’s challenge that the leaders hold a live-streamed conversation, Biden said: “I’m sure we’ll talk at some point”
Would there be any new sanctions on Russia? “That will come in time”
On his goal to ramp up the pace of vaccinations, Biden said: “Hopefully we’ll keep the pace of about 2.5 million a day, which we may be able to get to — we may be able to double.”
Reporters observed Biden stumble and fall as he walked up the steps of Air Force One as he boarded. He quickly regained his footing and walked onto the plane.
Updated
Speaking during her weekly press briefing, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Gomez’s resolution to expel congresswoman Greene from Congress is his own endeavor and does not reflect the position of leadership.
She added that members are “very unhappy” about Greene’s behavior.
Asked about the sharp rise of unaccompanied minors at the US-Mexico border, Pelosi said: “I think the administration is pulling this thing under control.”
She said Republicans’ focus on the border was a “diversionary tactic” that showed the party was “bankrupt of ideas”.
Pressed about when the Capitol would begin to return to normal, easing some of the public health restrictions which result in lengthy votes, Pelosi said that depended on members being vaccinated.
“The more people who get vaccinated, the shorter the time we have to be separated on the floor,” she said. But asked about Republican members who have refused to be vaccinated, Pelosi said there was little she could do.
“You cant tell anyone to do anything,” she said. “Least of all around here”
Updated
CDC relaxes physical distancing requirements in schools from 6ft to 3ft
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday relaxed physical distancing requirements for children in school, from 6 feet to 3 feet.
The change will allow more students to be inside classrooms. Masks will still be required.
Updated
Joe Biden will officially nominate Bill Nelson, the former Florida senator, to serve as NASA administrator.
Joe Biden will nominate Bill Nelson to serve as NASA administrator, the White House confirms.
— Joan Greve (@joanegreve) March 19, 2021
The former Florida senator very narrowly lost his reelection race to Rick Scott in 2018. pic.twitter.com/n5nZEnGiUO
Nelson, a longtime friend of Biden’s who lost his re-election race in 2018, has been a staunch advocate for the space agency. As a congressman, he flew on a space shuttle mission in 1986.
On Friday, Democratic Congressman Jimmy Gomez formally introduced a resolution to expel Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, citing her “repeated endorsements of sedition, domestic terrorism, and political violence.”
I believe some of my @HouseGOP colleagues — and one in particular — wish harm upon this legislative body.
— Rep. Jimmy Gomez (@RepJimmyGomez) March 19, 2021
I won’t watch @RepMTG threaten our democracy and do nothing.
Today, I formally introduced a resolution to #ExpelGreene ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/FBrFJtAbvU
The resolution has no backing from Republicans and is falls well short of the two-thirds support it would need to remove her from Congress.
"I take no joy in introducing this resolution, but any member who cites political violence and threatens our lives must be expelled,” said Rep Jimmy Gomez in introducing resolution to expel Marjorie Taylor Greene, per @AnnieGrayerCNN. “I'm not saying this for shock value."
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 19, 2021
The move comes after Greene said she had been temporarily suspended from Twitter for violating the platform’s rules. Twitter has not confirmed the action.
On Telegram Marjorie Taylor Greene says she has been temporarily stopped from tweeting by Twitter for violating the platform's rules. pic.twitter.com/wdrqPMHIeP
— Donie O'Sullivan (@donie) March 19, 2021
Twitter previously locked out Greene, a staunch ally of Donald Trump, from the platform in January after she repeated false claims about election fraud.
Earlier this year, House Democrats stripped Greene of two of her committee assignments over her long record of expressing bigoted and anti-Semitic sentiments online, as well as her belief in the conspiracy theory QAnon. Moments before the vote on her Congressional exile, she denounced QAnon and apologized for some of her offensive remarks, which included endorsing a call to execute Democrats and accosting a student survivor of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
Updated
Biden said the US is on track to reach his goal of administering 100 million coronavirus vaccinations on Friday, weeks ahead of his initial target date.
This comes as Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, told a Senate panel on Thursday that he was concerned about a possible fourth surge in cases as infections rise in some states and Europe.
“I’m concerned that if we pull back in our enthusiasm for the fact that vaccines are rolling out, and things look good, if we pull back prematurely, we may trigger another surge. And that would really set us back in all the things that we’re trying to do,” he told lawmakers.
Democrats on Thursday passed two major immigration bills that would create a path to citizenship for Dreamers – immigrants brought to the US as children – and undocumented farmworkers.
Both bills received Republican support. Nine House Republicans voted for the Dream Act and 30 Republicans voted for the Farm Workforce Modernization Act.
Despite broad public support, particularly for Dreamers, the legislation is unlikely to win 60 votes in the Senate. Recently, senator Dick Durbin, the No 2 Democrat in the caucus and a veteran of the institution, said Republicans’ decades-long obstruction of the Dream Act prompted him to come out in favor of filibuster reform.
The prospects seem even unlikelier for Joe Biden’s ambitious immigration overhaul, which he proposed earlier this year. The legislation would create a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants, ease visa restrictions and deliver billions of dollars in aid to Central American countries in an attempt to alleviate the poverty and violence driving migration.
Updated
Abené Clayton reports for us this morning as part of our Rights and freedom series that a surge in gun violence is a stress test for Oakland’s defund the police campaign:
While some crime survivors support shifting resources from police and into prevention and healing services, others who have lost loved ones to shootings and live in high-crime areas worry that depleting police budgets without proven alternatives to fill any gaps will make Black and brown communities less safe.
And the further localities dive into the logistics of transforming public safety and lessening reliance on police, the more questions abound. Who are people to call after a shooting? How do we get the most-affected communities to trust new alternatives? How can we go beyond typical reforms into real, radical transformation?
“It’s a scary moment. The anxiety is in not knowing what the outcome of all of this is gonna be,” said Keisha Henderson, a resident of East Oakland, California.
Henderson, 28, said she has had to deal with bullets flying past her windows and the frustration of slow and sometimes nonexistent police responses to gunfire and other problems. Oakland is experiencing a 314% increase in homicides compared with the same time last year, and a 113% increase in firearms assaults.
Henderson protested alongside thousands of others last summer [about police violence] but said she didn’t want to see total abolition of police – at least until there are “stress-tested” alternatives in place. She is one of 17 members on Oakland’s Reimagining Public Safety Taskforce, an official board established last year which is currently parsing through dozens of recommendations to decide which ones they will present to the city council for adoption in the upcoming budget. Oakland’s goal is to cut police spending by 50%, or $150m a year.
“We can do all these pilot programs but there has to be a balance between holding police accountable to Black residents, while also making sure we are protected some way,” Henderson said. “We need to reallocate and rebuild our communities but we do not need to completely abolish the police so that everything goes haywire.”
Read more of Abené Clayton’s report here: Surge in gun violence is stress test for Oakland’s defund the police campaign
Andrea Salcedo reports for the Washington Post this morning that a study has found that racist anti-Asian hashtags spiked after Trump first tweeted “Chinese virus”:
On March 16, 2020, Trump first tweeted the phrase “Chinese virus.”
That single tweet, researchers later found, fueled exactly the kind of backlash the World Health Organisation had feared: It was followed by an avalanche of tweets using the hashtag #chinesevirus, among other anti-Asian phrases.
“The week before Trump’s tweet the dominant term [on Twitter] was #covid-19,” Yulin Hswen, an epidemiology professor at the University of California San Francisco and a co-author of the study told the Washington Post. “The week after his tweet, it was #chinesevirus.”
Hswen is among a group of researchers who analyzed hundreds of thousands of #covid-19 and #chinesevirus hashtags drafted the week before and after Trump first referred to the coronavirus as the “Chinese virus” on the social media platform.
Not only did more people use the #chinesevirus hashtag days after Trump’s tweet, but those who did were more likely to include other anti-Asian hashtags in their tweets, according to the peer-reviewed study published by the American Journal of Public Health.
Read more here: Wasington Post – Racist anti-Asian hashtags spiked after Trump first tweeted ‘Chinese virus,’ study finds
Asian American lawmaker Grace Meng called out the violence and discrimination against her community at a hearing on Capitol Hill on Thursday. “Our community is bleeding. We are in pain. And for the last year, we’ve been screaming out for help,” she said. She told a panel the rising tide of anti-Asian bigotry was fuelled in part by rhetoric from Donald Trump and his allies, who have referred to Covid-19 as the “China virus” and “kung flu”.
Updated
Just two more jurors were needed for the trial of a former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd’s death, as the judge prepared to rule today on two major motions including whether to allow evidence from Floyd’s earlier 2019 arrest.
The 12 jurors seated through Thursday are evenly split by race, with six white jurors, four Black and two multiracial, according to the court. The last two jurors chosen will be alternates.
Steve Karnowski and Amy Forliti report for the Associated Press that opening statements will be 29 March if the jury is complete. That process was on track to finish nearly a week early.
Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill was to rule Friday on Chauvin attorney Eric Nelson’s motion to halt or move the trial due to concerns that a settlement reached by the city with Floyd’s family had tainted the jury pool.
But Cahill denied similar motions last year, and though some potential jurors were dismissed because they said news of the settlement would influence them, others were seated after saying either they hadn’t heard of it or could set it aside.
A likely bigger issue was Floyd’s 2019 arrest, just a year before his fatal encounter with Chauvin. Cahill also previously denied the defense’s attempt to allow the year-old arrest at trial. But he heard fresh arguments this week.
Prosecutor Matthew Frank said the defense was simply looking for a backdoor way to portray Floyd as a bad person, and the only relevant issue in Floyd’s death is how he was treated by police.
Representative Pramila Jayapal has posted a thread about her response to the Atlanta shootings this morning, and part of her focus is the law enforcement response. The chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus says:
Police spokesperson was pictured promoting an anti-Asian t-shirt. He also sympathetically said shooter was “having a bad day.” He was removed as spokesperson, but what does this say about law enforcement environment? Police also said shootings appeared to be a matter of “sex addiction” not racially motivated – as if the two can’t exist in tandem. That is absurd & belies the intersection between race, class & gender. It also ignores the fetishization of Asian women. Discrimination against Asian Americans [is] constantly minimized, even as it is deeply rooted in US immigration laws. The constant exclusion of Asian Americans – from polling data to representation to disaggregated data on health, income, etc. – is a form of invisibility that is deeply painful to all of us.
You can read it here:
Thread on #Georgia shootings:
— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) March 19, 2021
1. Police spokesperson was pictured promoting an anti-Asian t-shirt. He also sympathetically said shooter was "having a bad day." He was removed as spokesperson, but what does this say about law enforcement environment? https://t.co/F7XbnyuSNW
Updated
Blinken to visit Europe next week for talks with Nato and the EU
A quick one from Reuters here, that fresh from his talks with top officials from China – there’s a further meeting in Anchorage, Alaska today – Antony Blinken will be headed to Europe on his next diplomatic mission.
He will visit Brussels next week to meet with Nato foreign ministers and European Union officials, the US Department of State said, as the Biden administration seeks to repair transatlantic ties.
At the Nato meeting, Blinken will join other foreign ministers to discuss proposed changes to the transatlantic organization as well as concerns over China and Russia, climate change, cyber and energy security and other issues, the department said.
Blinken will also meet with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to discuss the Covid-19 pandemic and economic recovery, and efforts to strengthen democracy, it said.
“The meetings in Brussels reaffirm the United States” commitment to our Allies and European partners on our shared agenda,” the department said in a statement.
The trip follows four years of Donald Trump’s harsh rhetoric toward the military alliance. Trump repeatedly accused the European members of Nato of not spending enough on their own defense.
Updated
Joan Biskupic, CNN’s legal analyst has an interesting piece this morning arguing that the Supreme Court’s conservatives want to topple abortion rights – but can’t seem to agree on how. She writes:
The aims of individual justices, based on their recent writings, range from reversing Roe v. Wade to forbidding clinics from challenging restrictions on behalf of women to relaxing the standard that states must meet to limit women’s access to the procedure.
New internal tensions in the age-old controversy have emerged, as the six Republican-appointed justices on the right wing diverge on curtailing precedent and more sharply clash with the court’s three remaining Democratic-appointed liberals. The justices could move a step closer to their next chapter as they meet privately on Friday to consider whether to take up Mississippi’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Then again, the newly reconfigured court may want to wait to take any dramatic action on abortion. Multiple related laws are headed its way as states continue to adopt new prohibitions, including the near-total Arkansas abortion ban passed earlier this month with no exceptions for cases of rape or incest.
While the number of abortions nationwide has declined over the decades, culturally and religiously fraught state restrictions, and subsequent litigation, have not diminished. If the justices were to take up a 15-week abortion ban and consider reversing decades-old precedent, it would intensify national divisions. Even if the justices ultimately deny the Mississippi petition, the case could give individual justices a chance to issue statements relative to the denial, laying out their arguments for future rollbacks of reproductive rights.
Read more here: CNN – Supreme Court conservatives want to topple abortion rights, but can’t seem to agree on how
Nina Lakhani reports for us today from Texas, asking is there a crisis at the border?
After four years of racist, chaotic, anti-immigration policies by the Trump administration – as well as growing desperation fuelled by the pandemic and extreme climate events – the number of people seeking to enter the US is rising.
But advocates in the Rio Grande Valley, where undocumented migrants have long been relied upon for cheap farm labour, reject incendiary claims that the numbers are overwhelming.
“Migration goes up and down, that’s the reality of the border. Biden has different values and has given people hope, but there’s no border crisis, to say so is political manipulation,” said Ramona Casas, director of the migrant advocacy group Arise. “We need to address the root causes and transform the broken immigration system, not more militarization.”
The current uptick started before Biden’s election, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) figures.
Jenn Budd, a former senior border patrol agent turned whistleblower, said: “The only crisis at the border is the children, which the administration is trying to deal with, anything else is simply not true and an attempt to play politics, make Biden look bad and ensure the money keeps flowing to the border security industry.”
In 2000, a total of 9,212 border patrol agents detained an average of almost 137,000 undocumented migrants per month on the southern border. In the 2021 fiscal year until February, the average was just over 76,000 per month, but the number of agents is more than double compared to 2000.
Earlier this month, the Texas governor Greg Abbott deployed state troopers and the national guard to the border after claiming, without evidence, that illegal immigrants were spreading the coronavirus. Abbott’s unsubstantiated Covid claims came shortly after he announced plans to end the state mask mandate and ordered businesses to reopen at 100% capacity.
But illegal or undocumented migrants are not being released into the US. The two groups being allowed in are some existing asylum seekers, thanks to the repeal of Trump’s Remain in Mexico policy, and some new arrivals presenting at legal ports of entry, including unaccompanied children and young families, who have been permitted to remain in the country pending asylum court hearings. In Texas, everyone else continues to be turned back, say advocates.
Read more of Nina Lakhani’s report here: Is there a crisis at the border?: a look at both sides of the immigration argument
The Atlanta shootings, where a white gunman killed eight people, most of them Asian American women, has thrown a national spotlight onto the community, and the way it is treated by the political establishment.
“We’re becoming increasingly more visible and active in the political ecosystem,” said Georgia state Sen. Michelle Au, a Democrat who represents part of the growing, diversifying suburbs north of the city. Yet, Au said, “What I’ve heard personally, and what I have felt, is that people sometimes don’t tend to listen to us.”
Au said today’s White House visit, especially amid tragedy, is welcomed by a community whose influence and struggles are often overshadowed in national conversations about diversity. She notes President Donald Trump and other Republicans merely brushed off charges of racism when they dubbed coronavirus the “China virus” because of its origins.
Activists say they saw a rise of racist attacks. Nearly 3,800 incidents have been reported to Stop AAPI Hate, a California-based reporting center for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and its partner advocacy groups, since March 2020.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the first person of South Asian descent to hold national office, will be part of the visit to Atlanta today.
Associated Press report that the presidential trip was planned before the shooting, as part of a victory lap aimed at selling the benefits of pandemic relief legislation. But Biden and Harris will instead spend their visit consoling a community whose growing voting power helped secure their victory in Georgia and beyond.
Incidentally there’s been a slight hint of a row-back from the confrontational meeting on the Chinese side this morning. Reuters have a quick snap that at China’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian’s regular press briefing this morning, he said there was a lot of confrontation at the Sino-US talks in Alaska, and that was not what Beijing was aspiring to.
US and China publicly rebuke each other in first major talks of Biden era
The big overnight development has been the open public rebukes between the US and China at a high level meeting in Anchorage, Alaska. Justin McCurry reports for us:
The United States and China have publicly clashed during their first face-to-face high-level talks since Joe Biden took office, with one senior Chinese official urging the US to address “deep-seated” issues such as racism, and accusing his American counterparts of “condescension”.
Any hopes that the meeting, in Anchorage, would reset bilateral ties after years of tensions over trade, human rights and cybersecurity during Donald Trump’s presidency evaporated when the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, opened their meeting with China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi and the state councillor Wang Yi.
After Blinken referred to rising global concern over Beijing’s human rights record, Yang said: “We hope that United States will do better on human rights. The fact is that there are many problems within the United States regarding human rights, which is admitted by the US itself,” he said in a 15-minute speech that appeared to irritate Blinken.
He added that US human rights issues were “deep-seated … they did not just emerge over the past four years, such as Black Lives Matter”.
In his opening remarks Blinken had said world leaders had voiced “deep satisfaction” that the US was re-engaging with the international community after four years of Trump’s “America first” doctrine. “I’m also hearing deep concern about some of the actions your government is taking.”
Blinken, who added he had heard similar sentiments during his visits this week to Japan and South Korea, said the Biden administration and its allies were united in pushing back against China’s increasing authoritarianism and assertiveness at home and abroad.
In response, Yang angrily demanded that the US stop pushing its own version of democracy at a time when it was dealing with discontent among its own population.
Read more of Justin McCurry’s report here: US and China publicly rebuke each other in first major talks of Biden era
Cleve Wootson Jr and Amy Wang write for the Washington Post this morning about Biden’s trip to Georgia, and his administration’s wider attempts to engage with the Asian American community, saying:
President Biden has refocused his trip to Georgia on Friday so he can meet with Asian American leaders about violence against their community. He has ordered flags flown at half-staff after the shooting that killed six Atlanta-area women of Asian descent. His administration is backing a bill that allows the Justice Department to review coronavirus-related hate crimes.
And White House officials have spent two days working the phones, reaching out to leaders and advocates in the Asian American and Pacific Islander community and reaffirming their commitment to fighting anti-Asian hatred.
“What I’m conveying to them is, we want you to be a part of the solution,” Cedric L. Richmond, a White House senior adviser, said in an interview. “You all have been in the community running these programs. We want your expertise, we want your input into how we get past this. But it’s also been an intensive two days of making sure that we’re listening.”
But the flurry of activity comes as the massacre at three spas that left eight people dead is raising new questions about whether Biden has enough people of Asian descent on his staff to fully understand the needs and struggles of the more than 21 million Americans with Asian ancestry.
Several AAPI leaders said Thursday that they appreciate the White House effort — including forceful statements from Biden and Vice President Harris denouncing the shootings — but that the incident underscores the importance of having Asian representation in the most senior levels of Biden’s administration.
Read more here: Washington Post – Biden reaches out to Asian Americans after killings — but many remain frustrated by lack of representation
Biden and Harris trip to Atlanta to focus on meeting Asian American community leaders
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris head to Atlanta in Georgia today in what was a planned trip, but which has now taken on additional significance after this week’s Atlanta spa shootings, in which six of the victims were women of Asian descent. The itinerary of the trip has changed significantly as a result. as NBC News reported overnight:
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that Biden and Harris will meet with representatives of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, state lawmakers and community advocates to “hear about the impact of the incident on the community and to get their perspective on the rise of Anti-Asian hate incidents.”
Biden and Harris’ visit to Atlanta, which will be their first joint trip since taking office, had initially been scheduled as part of the administration’s “Help is Here” tour promoting the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package.
The shooting Tuesday night caused the White House to shift the focus of the visit, announcing Thursday afternoon that the American Rescue Plan event would be postponed to a later date.
Psaki said that Biden would offer his support to the Asian American community on Friday and highlight his commitment to “combating xenophobia, intolerance and hate.”
Good morning and welcome to Friday’s live coverage of US politics. The national focus on hate crimes against the Asian American community continues in the aftermath of the shooting in Atlanta, while strained US relations with China were on open display yesterday. Here’s where we are and what can we expect to see today.
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President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with Asian American community leaders at Emory University in Atlanta in the wake of this week’s shootings in which six Asian American women were killed. That is at 3.35pm (1935GMT), and Biden will speak an hour later.
- The visit to Georgia was already scheduled as part of their tour promoting their American Rescue Plan while in the state, and Biden and Harris will still visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention while there today.
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Joe Biden said the US is on track to reach 100m administered vaccine doses by tomorrow, his 58th day in office. The president had initially set the goal of reaching 100m doses by his 100th day in office.
- Dr Anthony Fauci raised concerns about a potential surge of Covid-19 in the US even as the vaccine rollout continues. Fauci noted that in past surges, the vaccine had plateaued before inching up in numbers and surging. During Senate testimony, Fauci also got into a spar with Republican senator Rand Paul, who called wearing a mask “theater”.
- Two Biden appointees were confirmed by the Senate. Xavier Becerra was confirmed as health and human services secretary, the first Latino to serve in that role, while William Burns was confirmed as the new director of the CIA.
- Vladimir Putin responded to comments Biden made agreeing that Putin was “a killer”. Putin said that people tend to view others as they see themselves and wished Biden good health.
- The House passed a bill to give undocumented immigrants, including Dreamers, a path to citizenship. The vote sets up a legal pathway to citizenship for about 2.5m people.
- There’s no White House press briefing today, although there will be a “gaggle” between the media and Karine Jean-Pierre on Air Force One. The Covid response team briefing is at 12.30.
