Evening summary
- Mitch McConnell called out Marjorie Taylor Greene without naming her and said the embrace of “loony lies and conspiracy theories” – and basically the racist QAnon movement – a “cancer for the Republican party”. In the same afternoon, he threw his support behind Liz Cheney, who is taking heat from pro-Trump Republicans for voting for impeachment.
- Investigators have made a preliminary determination that the Capitol police officer who fatally shot Ashli Babbitt during the 6 January Capitol riot shouldn’t be charged.
- Twitter officially banned the MyPillow account, less than a week after banning its chief executive, Mike Lindell.
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Dick Durbin accused Lindsey Graham of delaying the confirmation hearing of Merrick Garland with “no justification”.
Updated
Report: Investigators recommend that officer who fatally shot Capitol rioter shouldn't be charged
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that investigators have made a preliminary determination that the Capitol police officer who fatally shot Ashli Babbitt during the 6 January Capitol riot shouldn’t be charged.
Babbitt, whose Twitter feed showed her deeply entrenched in the racist pro-Trump QAnon movement, had traveled to Washington from her home in San Diego to demand that Donald Trump, not Joe Biden, be sworn in as president.
She entered the Capitol as part of a violent and destructive mob aiming to disrupt the certification of Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
Multiple videos captured the moment in a Capitol hallway where Babbitt was at the front of a crowd stopped at a barricaded door to the Speaker’s Lobby. Video shows the mob shouting at a cluster of officers who are guarding the door, telling them to step aside, as other Trump supporters pound on the door’s glass, shattering it.
One clip appeared to show Babbitt hopping up to push herself through one of the door’s glass panels, towards where members of Congress were. The footage shows a shot ringing out, and Babbitt falling to the ground.
The officer who shot her, a lieutenant, was placed on leave, according to the Wall Street Journal. The lieutenant “was essentially serving as a potential last line of defense between the rioters and members of Congress, thus providing some justification for his actions and falling well short of the standard necessary to charge a police officer with a civil-rights violation for a shooting”.
Remember that meeting between Joe Biden and a group of Republican senators to discuss the coronavirus relief package? After two hours, it appears to have wrapped up with no consensus on a package, according to the senators present.
Senator Susan Collins at the WH standing alongside other GOP senators says the senators had a “productive” two hour meeting with President Biden. She said it was a “good exchange of views” and they agreed to follow up on how they can continue to work together. pic.twitter.com/8tBzmGeFap
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) February 2, 2021
Utah Senator Mitt Romney says the meeting between Pres. Biden and Senate Republicans was cordial and the White House staff listened closely, but no official agreement was reached to accept their COVID-19 proposal.
— Paul Nelson (@KSLPaul) February 2, 2021
McConnell slams Majorie Taylor Greene's conspiracy theories
Mitch McConnell drew some lines in the sand on Monday for the Republican party when he gave a statement to the Hill regarding the embrace of “loony lies and conspiracy theories”, and another to CNN in support of Liz Cheney.
Though the Senate minority leader never called Majorie Taylor Greene out by name in his three-sentence statement to the Hill, it was clear who he was talking about when he referred to “somebody who’s suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr’s airplane”.
Greene, a freshman Republican representative from Georgia, has long been a supporter of the racist pro-Trump QAnon movement. In his statement to the Hill, McConnell said somebody who believes these conspiracy theories “is not living in reality” and that the embrace of “loony lies and conspiracy theories” is a “cancer for the Republican party”.
“This has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party,” he said.
Meanwhile, Liz Cheney, a representative from Wyoming, has taken heat from members of her party for voting to impeach Donald Trump. McConnell, who voted last week to keep alive an effort to dismiss the Senate impeachment trial, sent a clear message in his statement of support to CNN.
“Liz Cheney is a leader with deep convictions and the courage to act on them,” McConnell said. “She is an important leader in our party and in our nation. I am grateful for her service and look forward to continuing to work with her on the crucial issues facing our nation.”
Updated
It appears Twitter has officially suspended the My Pillow account, less than one week after suspending its chief executive, Mike Lindell.
The MyPillow account has been suspended. pic.twitter.com/XAAxjW6re2
— Donie O'Sullivan (@donie) February 1, 2021
And yes even after the year that was 2020, it still feels weird to bring this up on a politics blog, but to jog everyone’s memory, Lindell was the avid supporter of Donald Trump who was photographed carrying notes into the White House advocating for martial law.
Lindell was banned last week after he continued to perpetuate the baseless claim that Trump won the 2020 US presidential election.
Retailers like Bed, Bath & Beyond and Kohl’s have said they would stop carrying My Pillow products, Lindell has previously said. He is also facing potential litigation from Dominion Voting Systems for claiming their machines played a role in alleged election fraud.
Merrick Garland has yet to receive a confirmation hearing, weeks after Joe Biden nominated him to be his attorney general.
And that’s due to a hiccup that has left the Senate judiciary committee under the control of the Republicans.
While the Democrats have the Senate majority, the Senate hasn’t passed a power-sharing deal, leaving Republicans still in control of committees. Incoming committee chair Dick Durbin, the Democratic whip from Illinois, accuses Lindsey Graham, who is still the chair of the judiciary committee, of delaying the hearing with no justification.
Durbin wants a hearing for Merrick Garland on Feb. 8, but there’s a problem: Lindsey Graham is still chairman of the committee because the Senate’s power-sharing agreement has not been finalized yet. Until it is, Dems need GOP backing to schedule hearings https://t.co/MZKZ7Xlp9V
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 1, 2021
In a letter to Graham, Durbin wrote that delaying Garland’s confirmation “jeopardizes our national security” and that “there is simply no justification for delaying Judge Garland’s hearing any further”.
“He is a mainstream, consensus pick who should be confirmed swiftly both on his merits and because of the pressing need to respond to the 6 January insurrection and other national security risks,” Durbin wrote.
Read more on Merrick Garland’s background here:
Updated
The number of active hate groups in the US declined last year as more far-right extremists migrated online in ways that made them harder to track, the the Southern Poverty Law Center said in its annual report.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks racism, xenophobia and anti-government militias, identified 838 active hate groups operating across the country in 2020, a drop from the 940 documented in 2019 and the record-high of 1,020 in 2018.
“It is important to understand that the number of hate groups is merely one metric for measuring the level of hate and racism in America, and that the decline in groups should not be interpreted as a reduction in bigoted beliefs and actions motivated by hate,” the report reads.
Read more here:
In her first call to a foreign leader, the vice-president, Kamala Harris, spoke with the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau.
Kamala Harris calls Justin Trudeau, the White House announces, her first call to a foreign leader as vice president.
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) February 1, 2021
Updated
Hey all, Vivian Ho on the west coast taking over for the unbeatable Joan E Greve.
As she already mentioned, we have a meeting with Joe Biden and a group of Republican senators to discuss the coronavirus relief package to look forward to later today.
As of now, CNN has a preview of what should expect of the House’s pre-trial impeachment brief on Tuesday:
The House impeachment team plans to argue the riot was the result of an intentional effort months in the making. They intend to show how Trump repeatedly claimed that the election would be stolen from him before November 3, then unleashed a flurry of disinformation as part of his “stop the steal” campaign to try to overturn the election result and question the validity of President Joe Biden’s win, which culminated in Trump’s actions on January 6 inciting the rioters that attacked the Capitol.
The case will be “starkly different” than the first impeachment trial of Trump in 2020, which drew on hours of complicated testimony - this time the impeachment team has video.
Updated
Today so far
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Vivian Ho, will take over for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Joe Biden will meet with a group of Republican senators today to discuss the coronavirus relief package. The Republican senators have proposed a $600 billion package, which is more than $1 trillion less than what Biden has called for spending. Democrats have urged Biden to stand firm in the meeting, and Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said the president is more concerned that the legislation will be too small rather than too large.
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Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and House speaker Nancy Pelosi filed their joint budget resolution. The move paves the way for congressional Democrats to pass the coronavirus relief package using reconciliation, meaning they may not need Republican support in the Senate.
- The US gross domestic product is expected to return to pre-pandemic levels by the middle of this year, according to a new report from the Congressional Budget Office. But the agency also noted that the country’s unemployment rate is not likely to return to its pre-pandemic level until 2024.
- Biden threatened to issue sanctions against Myanmar over the country’s military coup. “The United States removed sanctions on Burma over the past decade based on progress toward democracy. The reversal of that progress will necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action,” the president said in a statement. “The United States will stand up for democracy wherever it is under attack.”
- The Pentagon and the department of health and human services are working to expand access to at-home coronavirus tests. HHS is giving $230 million to the health care company Ellume to produce more of the tests, which are available over the counter and provide results within 15 minutes. The at-home tests have a 95% accuracy rate.
Vivian will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
The House rules committee will meet Wednesday at 5 pm ET to discuss the resolution to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from her two committees.
A number of Democratic lawmakers have said Greene, who has voiced support for the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory QAnon, should be stripped of her committee assignments.
Politico reported earlier today that House Democrats planned to give minority leader Kevin McCarthy a 72-hour deadline to remove Greene from her committees, or they would move to do so on their own.
Schumer and Pelosi file joint budget resolution
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and House speaker Nancy Pelosi have filed a joint budget resolution, paving the way to pass Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief package through reconciliation.
If Democrats use reconciliation, the relief package would need only 51 votes to pass the Senate, which is now evenly divided between the two parties.
“Congress has a responsibility to quickly deliver immediate comprehensive relief to the American people hurting from COVID-19,” Pelosi and Schumer said in a statement.
“The cost of inaction is high and growing, and the time for decisive action is now. With this budget resolution, the Democratic Congress is paving the way for the landmark Biden-Harris coronavirus package that will crush the virus and deliver real relief to families and communities in need.”
The news comes about an hour before Biden is set to meet with Republican senators who have proposed spending $600 billion on the next relief package. Biden’s plan has a price tag of $1.9 trillion.
“We are hopeful that Republicans will work in a bipartisan manner to support assistance for their communities, but the American people cannot afford any more delays and the Congress must act to prevent more needless suffering,” Pelosi and Schumer said.
The House unanimously approved a resolution allowing the remains of Brian Sicknick to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda.
The House took up and adopted H. Con. Res. 10 - Permitting the remains of the late USCP Office Brian D. Sicknick to lie in honor in the Rotunda of the Capitol.
— House Press Gallery (@HouseDailyPress) February 1, 2021
Sicknick was a Capitol Police officer who died as a result of his injuries during the January 6 riot.
The Lincoln Project has condemned John Weaver, a co-founder of the anti-Trump Republican group who is alleged to have made unsolicited sexual overtures to males as young as 14.
Weaver, 61, is a Republican consultant who worked with presidential candidates John McCain and John Kasich. His alleged online comments to young men were reported in mid-January by the American Conservative and Scott Stedman, an independent reporter who said he received messages from Weaver, data analyst Garrett Herrin and Axios.
Then, Weaver said: “The truth is that I’m gay. And that I have a wife and two kids who I love. My inability to reconcile those two truths has led to this agonizing place.
“To the men I made uncomfortable through my messages that I viewed as consensual mutual conversations at the time: I am truly sorry. They were inappropriate and it was because of my failings that this discomfort was brought on you.”
He also said he would not return to the Lincoln Project after a period of medical leave.
But on Sunday, the New York Times published a report based on interviews with 21 men, one of whom it said Weaver messaged when the man was 14, “asking questions about his body while he was still in high school and then more pointed ones after he turned 18”. Weaver did not comment.
In a statement, the Project said: “John Weaver led a secret life that was built on a foundation of deception at every level. He is a predator, a liar, and an abuser. We extend our deepest sympathies to those who were targeted by his deplorable and predatory behavior.”
Conor Lamb, a centrist House Democrat from Pennsylvania, criticized Senate Republicans’ coronavirus relief proposal in a new Twitter thread.
Lamb said the Republicans’ $600 billion plan was “just not good enough” for working families who have financially suffered because of the pandemic.
Our job is to fight for workers & the middle class.
— Conor Lamb (@ConorLambPA) February 1, 2021
The GOP takes from them after giving to big companies all year. You can't cover that up with unity or bipartisanship.
It's just not good enough.
“The cuts in the GOP Senators’ plan come from those same people who make around $60K or have lost jobs,” Lamb said.
“The GOP takes from them after giving to big companies all year. You can’t cover that up with unity or bipartisanship. It’s just not good enough.”
Joe Biden will meet with the Republican senators who crafted the $600 billion plan in about two hours. The president has called for spending $1.9 trillion on the next relief package.
Marjorie Taylor Greene said she would “soon” meet with Donald Trump, as the QAnon-supporting congresswoman faces calls to resign from the House.
The Georgia lawmaker said she had a call with Trump last week, claiming the former president offered her his support. (Trump’s team has not confirmed the call.)
“He’s doing really well,” Greene told the conservative outlet One America News in an interview today.
“I’m excited to go visit him soon and continue to give him a call and talk to him frequently. Great news is, he supports me 100 percent, and I’ve always supported him. President Trump is always here for the people, and he’s not going anywhere. So I look forward to, to joining him and what his future plans may be.”
Trump has been staying at his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago since he left office last month.
Ron Wyden, the incoming Democratic chairman of the Senate finance committee, released a statement criticizing Republican senators’ coronavirus relief proposal.
Incoming Senate Finance Committee Chair @RonWyden, calls Senate GOPer Covid relief proposal "far too small to provide the relief the American people need." pic.twitter.com/LiO0bi6qmd
— Phil Mattingly (@Phil_Mattingly) February 1, 2021
Wyden, a Democrat of Oregon, argued the proposal was “far too small to provide the relief the American people need” amid the pandemic.
“In particular, a three-month extension of jobless benefits is a non-starter,” Wyden said. “Workers who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own shouldn’t be constantly worrying that they are going to lose their income overnight. An extension of benefits for at least six months is essential.”
Joe Biden will meet with the Senate Republicans who crafted the $600 billion proposal at the White House in about three hours.
With mere hours left before a deadline for Donald Trump to officially answer the impeachment charge against him, the former president is still scrambling to assemble a legal defense, announcing that he has hired two new lawyers after a five-person team abruptly quit their roles.
Trump has until noon on Tuesday to reply to a charge of incitement of insurrection, for encouraging the assault on the US Capitol on 6 January in which five people died. His trial in the Senate is scheduled to begin on 9 February.
With most Republicans signaling support for the former president, the trial is seen as having little chance of ending in conviction, which would open the way for the Senate to bar Trump, 74, from ever holding office again.
But the trial is still seen as a potentially explosive disruption in Washington, where the Biden administration is laboring mightily to get its agenda off the ground and some Republican leaders have been attempting to creep away from Trump.
Read the full report:
A fascinating report from Politico says Democrats under House majority leader Steny Hoyer are set to give Republican minority leader Kevin McCarthy 72 hours to take meaningful action against Marjorie Taylor Greene, or they will kick the QAnon-supporting, conspiracy spouting Georgia congresswoman off her committee assignments themselves.
Here’s a taste of the triple-bylined report:
The move comes amid intense fury within the Democratic caucus over Greene’s incendiary rhetoric, including peddling conspiracy theories that the nation’s deadliest mass shootings were staged. Greene also endorsed violence against Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats before she was elected to Congress.
Last week, Greene was officially awarded seats on the education and labor Committee and the budget committee. Republicans have been slow to act, with McCarthy saying only he’s planning to have a ‘conversation’ with Greene some time this week. And Greene has shown zero contrition.
The report goes on to say initial attempts to remove Greene’s committee assignments will stop short of moving for censure or expulsion, but that those options are on the table too.
Jahana Haynes, a Connecticut Democrat who represents the site of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, told reporters on Monday: “If we are waiting for Kevin McCarthy to have a moral compass ... that’s never going to happen.” Hayes also said Greene’s “elevation in the party is dangerous”.
At the weekend, Greene said she had spoken to Donald Trump. The former president had offered his full support, she said. Here’s some further reading from Joan E Greve, steward of this blog, about what all this says about the Republican party and its immediate future:
Today so far
The White House press briefing has now concluded. Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Joe Biden will meet with a group of Republican senators today to discuss the coronavirus relief package. The Republican senators have proposed a $600 billion package, which is more than $1 trillion less than what Biden has called for spending. Democrats have urged Biden to stand firm in the meeting, and Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said the president is more concerned that the legislation will be too small rather than too large.
- Biden threatened to issue sanctions against Myanmar over the country’s military coup. “The United States removed sanctions on Burma over the past decade based on progress toward democracy. The reversal of that progress will necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action,” the president said in a statement. “The United States will stand up for democracy wherever it is under attack.”
- The Pentagon and the department of health and human services are working to expand access to at-home coronavirus tests. HHS is giving $230 million to the health care company Ellume to produce more of the tests, which are available over the counter and provide results within 15 minutes. The at-home tests have a 95% accuracy rate.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said a decision has not yet been reached about revoking Donald Trump’s access to post-presidency intelligence briefings.
A reporter asked Psaki whether she believed Trump’s lack of access to Twitter had made it easier for the White House to negotiate with Republican lawmakers.
“We don’t spend a lot of time thinking about President Trump here,” Psaki replied. She added, “I can’t say we miss him on Twitter.”
A reporter asked Jen Psaki why Joe Biden was not being as “tactically ruthless” as Mitch McConnell was when Republicans held the Senate majority.
“President Biden ran on a commitment of, of course, unifying the country but also of caring from all sides,” the White House press secretary replied.
Although Democrats control both chambers of Congress, Biden is scheduled to meet with a group of 10 Senate Republicans to discuss the coronavirus relief package today.
Jen Psaki was asked about the White House’s communication with Senator Joe Manchin after Kamala Harris did an interview for a local West Virginia station to pitch Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief proposal.
“We’ve been in touch with Senator Manchin,” the White House press secretary said.
Manchin, who has signaled he is skeptical about aspects of Biden’s $1.9 trillion proposal, expressed frustration about the vice-president’s interview.
“No one called me,” Manchin said of the interview. “We’re going to try to find a bipartisan pathway forward, but we need to work together. That’s not a way of working together.”
Jen Psaki received more questions about the GameStop controversy that has caused severe stock market volatility in the US.
“The SEC is looking carefully at recent activities,” Psaki said, referring to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The press secretary said the controversy had raised an “important set of policy issues,” and she argued it was appropriate for Congress to review those issues.
Biden threatens sanctions against Myanmar over military coup
Joe Biden has released a statement threatening to sanction Myanmar over the country’s military coup.
“The military’s seizure of power in Burma, the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and other civilian officials, and the declaration of a national state of emergency are a direct assault on the country’s transition to democracy and the rule of law,” the US president said in the statement.
“The United States removed sanctions on Burma over the past decade based on progress toward democracy. The reversal of that progress will necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action,” Biden added. “The United States will stand up for democracy wherever it is under attack.”
Moments ago, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, was asked by a reporter whether the statement was meant as a message to China, who has refused to condemn the coup.
“I think it’s a message to all countries in the region,” Psaki said.
Jen Psaki indicated that it was not likely a final deal would emerge out of Joe Biden’s meeting with Republican senators later today.
“What this meeting is not is a forum for the president to make or accept an offer,” the White House press secretary said.
Some Democratic lawmakers have urged Biden to stand firm in the meeting, rather than agreeing to a smaller relief package to attract Republican support for it.
Jen Psaki said Joe Biden is more concerned that the coronavirus relief package will be too small rather than too large.
A reporters asked the White House press secretary whether Biden was more focused on the relief deal being large or bipartisan because it seems like it won’t be both.
“I think the president believes we can” do both, Psaki said.
White House underscores 'the need to move swiftly' to deliver coronavirus relief
Joe Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, is now holding a briefing at the White House.
Psaki previewed the president’s meeting later today with 10 Republican senators who have proposed a smaller coronavirus relief package.
Psaki said the meeting demonstrated the Biden administration’s “close and ongoing engagement with members of both parties”.
The press secretary underscored “the need to move swiftly” to address the health and economic crises facing this nation.
She also read out quotes from some Republican leaders, including West Virginia Governor Jim Justice, calling on lawmakers to go big with the next relief package.
“The size of the package was designed with the size of the crisis,” Psaki said.
GDP will return to pre-pandemic level by mid-2021, CBO says
The Congressional Budget Office has released a report saying the US gross domestic product will reach its pre-pandemic level by the middle of this year.
The CBO projected that GDP would grow by 1.7% annually from 2020 to 2024, an increase of 0.7% from the agency’s July projection.
The CBO said the December stimulus played into the forecast improvement. The country’s economic outlook is also rosier “in large part because the downturn was not as severe as expected and because the first stage of the recovery took place sooner and was stronger than expected”.
But the agency also said it expected the US unemployment rate would not return to its pre-pandemic level until 2024.
That distinction could fuel arguments from some Democrats, including Joe Biden, that the country is experiencing a “K-shaped recovery,” meaning the wealthy are getting wealthier as the lowest-income Americans continue to suffer because of the pandemic.
The CBO’s report comes hours before a group of Senate Republicans are scheduled to meet with Biden at the White House to discuss the next coronavirus relief package.
Dr Anthony Fauci also said that states shouldn’t reserve vaccine doses for Americans’ second doses, echoing recent messaging from the Biden administration.
Instead, Fauci and other public health experts are urging states to release all available vaccine doses to get more people their first doses.
The coronavirus response team’s briefing has now concluded.
Dr Anthony Fauci said Americans should not be worried about the lower efficacy rate of Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot coronavirus vaccine.
The infectious disease expert said the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is about 70% effective compared to 95% for Pfizer and Moderna, would still help to lower the rate of hospitalizations and severe illness from coronavirus.
DoD and HHS work to expand access to at-home coronavirus tests
The department of defense and the department of health and human services are partnering with the health company Ellume to expand access to an over-the-counter, at-home coronavirus test, Andy Slavitt just announced.
Slavitt, the White House senior adviser for the coronavirus pandemic, said the tests are 95% accurate and provide results within 15 minutes.
The tests are taken using a nasal swab, which is less invasive than typical coronavirus tests.
HHS will provide Ellume with $230 million to expand access to the tests.
Updated
Dr Marcella Nunez-Smith, the chairwoman of the coronavirus health equity task force, provided data on how coronavirus hospitalizations vary across racial groups.
Nunez-Smith noted that Latino Americans, African Americans and Native Americans are more likely than white Americans to be hospitalized with coronavirus.
Nunez-Smith said that almost half of coronavirus case records lack data on patients’ race and ethnicity, which makes it harder to ensure an equitable pandemic response.
Dr Anthony Fauci emphasized the importance of distributing coronavirus vaccines “as quickly and as expeditiously as possible” to limit the spread of the new virus variants.
Fauci acknowledged that the vaccines are less effective against the new variants, but it is still crucial to get vaccinated as soon as one becomes eligible.
“If you stop their replication by vaccinating widely ... you will not get mutations,” Fauci said.
Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that coronavirus variants “continue to be a great concern” among health experts.
Walensky urged Americans to continue to take steps to limit their risk of contracting coronavirus. Namely, the CDC director asked Americans to wear a mask, stay six feet part from each other and avoid crowded spaces and travel.
Walensky also told Americans to get vaccinated as soon as they are eligible. She noted that 25 million Americans have already received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine.
White House coronavirus response team holds briefing
The White House coronavirus response team, which includes Dr Anthony Fauci, is now holding a briefing on the pandemic.
Andy Slavitt said there would be a couple of updates on the White House response at the end of the briefing, but Dr Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, first provided an analysis of US coronavirus case numbers across January.
Walensky noted coronavirus cases and hospitalizations have been trending downward in recent days, but coronavirus deaths, a lagging indicator, are on the rise.
Jim Justice, the Republican governor of West Virginia, called on Congress to go big with the next coronavirus relief package.
Gov. Jim Justice (R-WV) calls for large-scale stimulus:
— The Recount (@therecount) February 1, 2021
"Trying to be per se fiscally responsible at this point in time ... if we actually throw away some money right now, so what?" pic.twitter.com/OQ2LhFTIS0
“We need to understand that trying to be per se fiscally responsible at this point in time, with what we’ve got going on in this country, if we actually throw away some money right now, so what?” Justice told CNN.
The Republican governor added, “We have really got to move and get people taken care of.”
A group of Republican senators is meeting with Joe Biden today, but they are calling for spending about one-third as much money on coronavirus relief as the president has proposed.
West Virginia’s Democratic senator, Joe Manchin, has also expressed some skepticism about the $1,400 direct payments that Biden has endorsed.
Senator Rob Portman, one of ten Republicans who will meet with Joe Biden later today, previewed the group’s priorities when it comes to coronavirus relief.
Looking forward to meeting with @POTUS this afternoon to discuss #COVID19 relief. Let's work together on a bipartisan agreement that provides targeted relief to the families and small businesses that need it the most.
— Rob Portman (@senrobportman) February 1, 2021
“Looking forward to meeting with @POTUS this afternoon to discuss #COVID19 relief,” the Ohio Republican said in a tweet. “Let’s work together on a bipartisan agreement that provides targeted relief to the families and small businesses that need it the most.”
The Republican senators have proposed their own $600bn deal, but that is a far cry from the $1.9tn package that Biden has been pushing.
Portman announced his retirement last week, so he doesn’t have to worry about his reelection when it comes to negotiating with Biden.
Updated
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has released a new statement condemning the military coup in Myanmar.
“I call on Burma’s military to immediately release the civilian political leaders of the country and turn back from this abyss,” the Republican leader said. “We need to support the people of Burma in their journey toward democracy and impose costs on those who stand in their way.”
I call on Burma’s military to immediately release the civilian political leaders of the country and turn back from this abyss. We need to support the people of Burma in their journey toward democracy and impose costs on those who stand in their way. My full statement: pic.twitter.com/C2uOjnIVQx
— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) February 1, 2021
The Guardian’s Patrick Wintour reports on the situation in Myanmar:
The military coup and suspension of democracy in Myanmar has been condemned by the US, and noted by China, as the world divided on largely predictable lines over the importance it attached to the young democracy.
Tony Blinken, the US secretary of state, facing his first major crisis since assuming office last week, expressed the US’s ‘grave concern and alarm’. He called on Myanmar’s military leaders to release all civilian government officials, including the state counsellor, Aung San Suu Kyi, and to respect the will of the people as expressed in democratic elections on 8 November.
He said the US ‘stood with the people of Myanmar in their aspirations for freedom, democracy and development’.
By contrast, the Chinese foreign affairs spokesperson merely noted the coup and refused to discuss if China, which has substantial oil and gas interests in Myanmar, had warned against such a move when the Chinese foreign minister met its military leadership last month after the heavy defeat of its proxy party at the polls.
Democrats urge Biden to stand firm in meeting with Senate Republicans
The group of Senate Republicans who will meet with Joe Biden today have proposed their own $600bn coronavirus relief package.
A package of that size would be about one-third as large as the relief legislation that Biden has proposed.
Democrats are already urging Biden to stand firm in the meeting and ensure that American families get the relief they need to weather the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s important to go big here,” Senate Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said on CNN moments ago, echoing arguments from House Democrats. “We don’t want talks to drag on and on and on without a good result.”
Updated
This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.
Here’s what the blog is keeping an eye on today: The president and the vice-president will meet with a group of Republican senators to discuss a coronavirus relief bill.
Some of the Republican senators have said they are open to another relief package, but they have generally expressed skepticism about Biden’s proposal, which would cost $1.9 trillion.
Democrats control the House and the Senate, but with the Senate filibuster in place, Biden will need 60 “yes” votes to get his bill through the chamber.
Some Democrats have discussed the possibility of using the budgetary mechanism called reconciliation to pass the bill, which would lower the number of needed Senate votes to 51. But that would give them no wiggle room in crafting the bill and could result in some provisions being thrown out.
Today’s meeting could give some clues as to how Democrats plan to move forward. Stay tuned.
Joe Biden’s first tweet of the day – well, the first tweet on the @POTUS account this morning, anyway – addresses his Covid recovery economic plan.
We’re facing an economic crisis brought on by a public health crisis, and we need urgent action to combat both. My American Rescue Plan will dig us out of the depths of these crises and put our nation on a path to build back better.
— President Biden (@POTUS) February 1, 2021
The House and Senate are on track to vote as soon as this week on a budget resolution, which would lay the groundwork for passing an aid package under rules requiring only a simple majority vote in the closely divided Senate, Aamer Madhani reports for Associated Press.
That is what has prompted a group of 10 Republican senators to try and strike a deal with the Biden administration for a smaller package, but one that would allow Joe Biden to say he had kept his promise to work on bipartisan solutions with Congress.
Winning the support of 10 Republicans would be significant for Biden in the 50-50 Senate where vice president Kamala Harris is the tie-breaker. If all Democrats were to back an eventual compromise bill, the legislation would reach the 60-vote threshold necessary to overcome potential blocking efforts and pass under regular Senate procedures.
“In the spirit of bipartisanship and unity, we have developed a Covid-19 relief framework that builds on prior Covid assistance laws, all of which passed with bipartisan support,” the Republican senators wrote. “Our proposal reflects many of your stated priorities, and with your support, we believe that this plan could be approved quickly by Congress with bipartisan support.”
The Republicans have priced their bill at $600 billion. But even as Biden extended the invitation to meet with the Republican lawmakers later today, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that $1,400 relief checks, substantial funding for reopening schools, aid to small businesses and hurting families, and more “is badly needed.”
“With the virus posing a grave threat to the country, and economic conditions grim for so many, the need for action is urgent, and the scale of what must be done is large,” Psaki said.
The senators attending the meeting today include Rpb Portman of Ohio, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Todd Young of Indiana, Jerry Moran of Kansas, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.
Stacey Abrams nominated for Nobel peace prize
Stacey Abrams becomes the latest US political figure to be publically nominated for the Nobel peace prize by a Norwegian MP, after Jared Kushner and the Black Lives Matter movement.
The voting rights activist was nominated for her work to promote nonviolent change via the ballot box, by Lars Haltbrekken, a Socialist Party member of Norway’s parliament.
“Abrams’ work follows in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s footsteps in the fight for equality before the law and for civil rights,” he said. King won the Nobel prize in 1964 and remains among its most famous laureates.
“Abrams’ efforts to complete King’s work are crucial if the United States of America shall succeed in its effort to create fraternity between all its peoples and a peaceful and just society,” Haltbrekken said, according to a report from Reuters.
The Norwegian Nobel committee, which decides who wins the award, does not comment on nominations, but nominators can choose to reveal their picks. The 2021 laureate will be announced in October.
Blinken: Iran may be able to produce enough material for nuclear bomb in 'a matter of weeks'
In that Antony Blinken interview there’s also a stark warning over Iran.
Blinken warned that Tehran was months away from being able to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon, saying it could be only “a matter of weeks” if Iran continues to lift restraints in the nuclear deal.
He said the US is willing to return to compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal if Iran does and then work with US allies and partners on a “longer and stronger” agreement encompassing other issues. Pressed about whether the release of detained Americans, which was not part of previous negotiations, would be an absolute condition for an expanded nuclear treaty, he did not commit.
“Irrespective of ... any deal, those Americans need to be released. Period,” he said, adding, “We’re going to focus on making sure that they come home one way or another.”
On another potential nuclear threat, Blinken said that the Biden administration would consider new sanctions against North Korea.
New secretary of state Antony Blinken has got plenty in his in-tray, which increased over the weekend with a crackdown on protests in Russia and a coup in Myanmar.
NBC News have an exclusive interview with him, in which he says he was “deeply disturbed by the violent crackdown” in Russia, and suggestions from Russian sources that the US was behind the pro-Nalvany protests.
The Russian government makes a big mistake if it believes that this is about us. It’s about them. It’s about the government. It’s about the frustration that the Russian people have with corruption, with autocracy, and I think they need to look inward, not outward.
Blinken said he was reviewing possible US responses on a range of issues with Russia.
On China he was critical of the way the country is handling a World Health Organization fact-finding mission to Wuhan over the coronavirus. Andrea Mitchell and Abigail Williams report that:
He also criticized Chinese actions in Hong Kong, where he said China had acted “egregiously” to undermine its commitments to the semi-autonomous island.
Blinken said the US must open its doors to those fleeing the crackdown, as Great Britain, which controlled Hong Kong until 1999, has said it will do.
“We see people who were, again, in Hong Kong standing up for their own rights, the rights that they thought were guaranteed to them,” Blinken said. “If they’re the victims of repression from Chinese authorities, we should do something to give them haven.”
He said the US will gain strength in confronting China by re-engaging in global affairs and with international institutions, “because when we pull back, China fills in.”
“The challenge posed by China is as much about some of our own self-inflicted weaknesses as it is about China’s emerging strength,” Blinken said, a clear reference to Trump’s aversion to groups like Nato, the UN and WHO.
Read more here: NBC News – Blinken criticizes Putin for crackdown on Navalny protesters
There’s also a clip of Blinken talking that was broadcast on the Today show this morning:
In an @NBCNews exclusive, Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with @mitchellreports about Russian’s handling of activist Alexei Navalny and other foreign relations challenges facing the Biden administration. pic.twitter.com/65Ga2HDJsV
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) February 1, 2021
“We had tremendous confidence in him, and I think his handling of that very challenging situation was flawless,” said Jamie Gorelick, Merrick Garland’s boss at the time of the Oklahoma City attack in 1995 and one of the country’s longest-serving deputy attorneys general.
“If you look at his background, he was very well suited for working both with the FBI and the other investigative agencies, and well-regarded by all of them, and he had a wonderful way of bringing people together on the ground.”
Stewing in pernicious lies about election fraud spread by Donald Trump, the United States is once again facing a rising threat of violence from anti-Washington extremists and white supremacists, according to a rare bulletin warning issued last week by the department of homeland security – and the Oklahoma City attack is riding high in some minds.
“The Oklahoma City bombing and its legacy are critical to understanding the domestic extremist movements of today,” the Southern Poverty Law Center said in a report last year.
In spite of his being the target of an infamous Republican stunt four years ago that blocked his nomination to the US supreme court, Garland is expected to be confirmed by the US Senate as attorney general in the coming weeks.
People who know Garland from his work in Oklahoma believe that the country could have no better ally in the fight against homegrown extremism, a broad job whose challenges include not only prosecuting the recent insurrectionists but also preventing the next attack, disrupting extremist groups on social media, rooting out white supremacists from police forces and the military, and restoring public trust in the rule of law.
Read more of Tom McCarthy profile of Garland’s career here: Merrick Garland’s ‘flawless’ work in Oklahoma City crucial in white supremacy fight
One of two attorneys who will defend Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial represented Roger Stone, believes Jeffrey Epstein did not kill himself and numbers among his clients “all sorts of reputed mobster figures”, including “a guy the government claimed was the biggest mafioso in the world”.
The other declined to prosecute Bill Cosby.
Trump’s trial starts next week. He is due to respond to the charge on Tuesday. At the weekend his first team of lawyers quit, reportedly because he insisted his defence against a charge of inciting the deadly US Capitol attack on 6 January should be based on the lie that his defeat by Joe Biden was the result of electoral fraud.
Given that 45 of 50 Republican senators voted against even holding a trial, Trump seems likely to escape conviction. But the Ohio senator Rob Portman told CNN on Sunday it would not help Trump “if the argument is not going to be made on issues like constitutionality”.
The same day, Trump’s office announced the appointment of Bruce Castor, from Philadelphia, and David Schoen, of Georgia.
Castor is a former Pennsylvania district attorney known for his decision not to prosecute Cosby in 2005 after Andrea Constand accused the comedian of sexual assault. In 2017, Castor sued Constand for defamation, claiming she destroyed his political career. Cosby was convicted and sentenced in 2018.
Last September, Schoen told the Atlanta Jewish Times: “I represented all sorts of reputed mobster figures: alleged head of Russian mafia in this country, Israeli mafia and two Italian bosses, as well a guy the government claimed was the biggest mafioso in the world.”
He also discussed the Stone case, in which Trump’s close ally was convicted of lying to Congress in the Russia investigation. Trump pardoned Stone in December.
Schoen called the self-confessed political dirty trickster “very bright, full of personality and flair” and “the case against him was very unfair and politicised”.
Schoen also said he trained as an actor, “at the Actors Studio and Herbert Berghof Studio”, and discussed how that helped when he appeared in a Discovery Channel documentary about Epstein, a well-connected convicted sex trafficker who killed himself in custody in New York in 2019.
Schoen said promotional work for the documentary included interviews with “Fox, Good Day New York, and (UK) Daily Mail” but said he’d “had enough. Takes too much time away from legal work. Three different agents have called.”
Asked for a “last word on Jeffrey Epstein”, Schoen said: “I still think he was murdered.”
Shane Goldmacher and Rachel Shorey at the New York Times have a story today looking at just where the money Donald Trump raised off the back of his election fraud claims went. Spoiler: it mostly wasn’t on legal fees actually contesting the election results. They write:
Trump and the Republican Party entered this year having stockpiled more than $175 million from fund-raising in November and December based on his false claims of voter fraud.
The picture that emerges in Federal Election Commission reports is of Trump mounting a furious public relations effort to spread the lie and keep generating money from it, rather than making a sustained legal push to try to support his conspiracy theories.
His campaign’s single biggest expense in December was a nearly $5 million media buy paid to the firm that bought his television advertisements. His second-largest payment, $4.4 million, was for online advertising. And the Republican National Committee pocketed millions of dollars in donations — collecting 25 cents for every dollar Trump raised online — in the final weeks of the year as it spent relatively little on legal costs.
Trump’s campaign spent only $10 million on legal costs — about one-fifth of what it spent on advertising and fund-raising.
Read more here: New York Times – As Trump raked in cash denying his loss, little went to actual legal fight
Former president Donald Trump is due to file a response to the impeachment charge against hime tomorrow, having replaced his lead legal counsel over the weekend.
His new team, led by lawyers David Schoen and Bruce Castor, will have just over a week to get ready before the trial begins on 9 February, Richard Cowan and James Oliphant report for Reuters.
House Democrats, who will be prosecuting the case in the Senate, will submit a pre-trial brief laying out their case against Trump. They are also due to indicate as soon as Tuesday whether they plan to call witnesses - a flash point in last year’s impeachment trial.
Trump’s response to the charge likely will indicate whether he will continue to argue without merit that he lost the presidential election because of widespread voter fraud. Republican Senator Rob Portman signaled that it would not help Trump if his defense is simply reasserting his unfounded claims of election fraud.
Trump’s legal team could also argue that Trump was simply exercising his First Amendment right to free speech on 6 January when he addressed his supporters outside the White House before they marched to Capitol Hill.
Schoen previously represented Trump’s longtime advisor Roger Stone, who was convicted in November 2019 of lying under oath to lawmakers who were investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump pardoned Stone in December.
Castor is a former Pennsylvania district attorney known for his decision to not prosecute entertainer Bill Cosby in 2005 after a woman accused Cosby of sexual assault. In 2017, he sued Cosby’s accuser in the case for defamation, claiming she destroyed his political career in retaliation.
Whichever tack defense lawyers take, the 100 Democratic and Republican senators who will serve as jurors are anticipating a trial of possibly only a few days, far shorter than Trump’s first trial, which lasted three weeks.
Many health officials and public health experts are relieved to see federal guidance on Covid-19 health measures after months of confusing and often contradictory information from the Trump administration. But even if the new administration has a clear vision of the exit from the pandemic, the responsibility to implement public health measures is shared with state leaders, some of whom have become accustomed to seeing measures against the virus as a threat to their political party.
As soon as Biden was declared winner of the election in November, a handful of red-state governors – some who refused to acknowledge that Biden won the presidency until weeks later – said they would not heed to his calls for tighter public health measures, like universal masking, even as Covid-19 cases were soaring in their states.
In the weeks following the election, the virus surged throughout many parts of the country. Republican governors in Iowa, Oklahoma and Utah who initially voiced skepticism over tightened measures ended up implementing some of their own. But conservative resistance to public health measures is still very much alive, teeing up roadblocks to Biden’s attempt at a coast-to-coast, coordinated response to the virus.
State leaders have broad powers to open or close businesses, implement mask mandates and determine how the Covid-19 vaccine is distributed in their states. Clashes have already been seen between local counties looking to implement tighter Covid-19 restrictions and state leaders who vehemently oppose strict public health measures. Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, has banned cities and counties from enforcing mask mandates and limiting capacity in restaurants. Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, filed a lawsuit, which was eventually dropped, against the city of Atlanta over its mask mandate.
Read more of Lauren Aratani’s report here: How red states might block Biden’s roadmap to Covid recovery
As the number of Americans ready for their second Covid-19 vaccine shot grows, some are falling through the cracks of an increasingly complex web of providers and appointment systems.
While many people are getting the required second doses, the process is taking a toll on some of the most vulnerable - older adults who in many cases rely on family members or friends to navigate complex sign-up systems and inconvenient locations.
Available vaccines need to be given as two separate doses weeks apart, and confusion is further taxing an already challenged system.
Deena Beasley reports for Reuters that, for example, Houston’s health department on Friday told those seeking a second dose to be patient, saying the volume of calls was creating long wait times at its call center.
Meanwhile, Seminole County in Florida schedules follow-ups during the 15-minute observation period after people get their first shots. New York’s Onondaga County holds off on scheduling second appointments until days before the shot. It’s a hotchpotch.
After an online system showed no appointments, Stacey Champion secured a second appointment for her 78-year-old friend Dan Pochoda at Cardinal Stadium in Phoenix, Arizona - at 1:51 am. It took several calls to get even that, Champion said.
“If they had been saving appointments for second doses, would they really need to send people way out to the edges of the city in the middle of the night?” Champion asked.
Many providers expect their vaccine allocations to fall sharply this week.
“When this started, it was only for hospitals. Now a smaller pot needs to be divided between many more - the pharmacies, the mega sites and everyone else,” said Felipe Osorno, executive administrator of continuum of care operations and value improvement at Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California.
Almost 5 million have nevertheless obtained a second shot so far, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
US guidelines call for a second shot of Moderna vaccine four weeks after the first dose, while the gap is three weeks for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. The CDC has said an interval as long as six weeks is acceptable for either vaccine. This is in contrast to some countries, where authorities have decided twelve weeks or more may be acceptable.
25.5 million people in US have now received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine
Yesterday there were 111,896 new coronavirus cases in the US, and 1,794 deaths. The total caseload, according to the Johns Hopkins University figures, has reached 26,187,424. The total death toll from the pandemic in the US stands at 441,331.
Hospitalizations fell again, and for the second day were under the 100,000 mark, at 95,013. That is the lowest they have been since 30 November. 25.5 million people in the US have now received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine.
Despite the numbers and the threat of new coronavirus variants, Maggie Fox reports for CNN that public health experts are pessimistic Americans are going to change their ways. She reports:
The Americans who are going to wear masks already are doing so. Those who can or are willing to stay home are already doing it. Lockdowns have been unpopular and local officials are not willing to enforce them, anyway.
“We have not been seeing governments taking action to apply cautionary measures as quickly as expected, and have incorporated that information into the modeling,” said Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation director Dr. Christopher Murray in releasing his team’s latest bleak forecast, which predicts at least 130,000 more people would die in the next three months.
Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said “There is a group of 25 or 30% or more who see wearing a mask as shameful and they won’t. These are the same people who, if you mailed two N95s to their homes, they are not going to use them.”
“People who say if we just tested everybody and did home testing, we could really cut transmission way down. Do you think the people who are going out to bars and the people who are exposing themselves in large groups are going to take a test? The people who don’t leave their homes – they will. They’ll test themselves every day when they don’t need to.”
America condemned, and China noted, the military coup and suspension of democracy in Myanmar as the world divided on largely predictable lines on the importance it attached to the young democracy.
Tony Blinken, the US secretary of state, facing his first major crisis since assuming office last week, expressed America’s “grave concern and alarm”. He called on Myanmar’s military leaders to release all civilian government officials, including state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and to respect the will of the people as expressed in democratic elections on 8 November.
He added the US “stood with the people of Myanmar in their aspirations for freedom, democracy and development”.
By contrast, the Chinese foreign affairs spokesman merely noted the coup, and refused to discuss if China, which has substantial oil and gas interests in Myanmar, had warned against such a move when Chinese foreign minister met its military leadership last month in the wake of the heavy defeat of its proxy party at the polls.
“We have noted what has happened in Myanmar and are in the process of further understanding the situation,” the foreign ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, told a daily news briefing in Beijing.
Read more of our diplomatic editor’s report here: Myanmar coup – US and China divided in response to army takeover
In its annual report, to be released Monday, the Southern Poverty Law Center says it has identified 838 active hate groups operating across the US in 2020. That’s a decrease from the 940 documented in 2019 and the record-high of 1,020 in 2018, said the law center, which tracks racism, xenophobia and anti-government militias.
“It is important to understand that the number of hate groups is merely one metric for measuring the level of hate and racism in America, and that the decline in groups should not be interpreted as a reduction in bigoted beliefs and actions motivated by hate,” said the report, first shared exclusively with the Associated Press.
The Montgomery, Alabama-based law center said many hate groups have moved to social media platforms and use of encrypted apps, while others have been banned altogether from mainstream social media networks.
Still, the law center said, online platforms allow individuals to interact with hate and anti-government groups without becoming members, maintain connections with likeminded people, and take part in real-world actions, such as last month’s siege on the US Capitol.
White nationalist organizations, a subset of the hate groups listed in the report, declined last year by more than 100. Those groups had seen huge growth the previous two years after being energized by Donald Trump’s campaign and presidency, the report said.
The number of anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and anti-LGBTQ hate groups remained largely stable, while their in-person organizing was hampered by the coronavirus pandemic.
Bottom line though, the levels of hate and bigotry in America have not diminished, said SPLC President and CEO Margaret Huang.
“What’s important is that we start to reckon with all the reasons why those groups have persisted for so long and been able to get so much influence in the last White House, that they actually feel emboldened,” Huang told the AP.
The final year of the Trump presidency, marked by a wide-ranging reckoning over systemic racism, also propelled racist conspiracy theories and white nationalist ideology into the political mainstream, the law center said.
According to an SPLC survey conducted in August, 29% of respondents said they personally know someone who believes that white people are the superior race. The poll also found that 51% of Americans thought the looting and vandalism that occurred across the country around Black Lives Matter demonstrations was a bigger problem than excessive force by police.
Here’s Stephen Collinson’s analysis of the dilemma facing president Biden today over working more closely with Republican senators on putting together a Covid stimulus package that can garner bipartisan support. He writes for CNN:
The president must now evaluate whether the new Republican offer is a good faith opening bid in an effort to find common ground, or a bluff calling exercise that would cause lasting damage to a new President’s authority and political capital if he were to accept it.
And while Biden is keen prove his capacity to make divided Washington work, he knows he risks fracturing support from Capitol Hill Democrats if he significantly downsizes his own plan to win Republican support in the Senate.
“As leading economists have said, the danger now is not in doing too much: it is in doing too little. Americans of both parties are looking to their leaders to meet the moment,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement on Sunday evening.
Prospects for cross party talks in the Senate are hardly rosy, as the chamber gears up for Trump’s impeachment trial next week in which it is already clear sufficient Republicans to avoid a two-thirds majority intend to acquit him over the most outrageous attack on the US government by a president in history.
Biden meanwhile will seek to keep up the momentum of his first few weeks in office with a major foreign policy address (rescheduled from Monday until later in the week owing to a snowstorm) and with new initiatives to tackle the jobs crisis.
Read more here: CNN – Biden faces presidency-defining dilemma over Republican offer on Covid-19 rescue plan
Donald Trump may have left the White House, but his shadow still looms large in Washington and the Republican party as the Senate prepares for his second impeachment trial.
The 50 Republicans in the Senate are grappling with how to appease Trump’s supporters, who still make up a hefty share of the party’s base, while acknowledging that the former president incited the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.
The senators’ quandary underscores how Republican lawmakers remain tethered to Trump, even after his term in office has ended, and it raises questions about in which direction the party will move forward when so much of its base is still loyal to a president who oversaw the loss of both chambers of Congress and the White House.
Trump’s continued power over Republican lawmakers was on full display last week, as 45 senators voted to pre-emptively dismiss the impeachment trial. The senators avoided defending Trump’s behavior on 6 January, instead arguing that it was unconstitutional to impeach a former president.
Tara Setmayer, a conservative commentator who left the Republican party in November, described the senators’ support for dismissing the trial as “the most craven example” of Republican lawmakers’ unwillingness to stand up to Trump.
“It really is mind-boggling when you look at how many opportunities the party has had to take the exit ramp and get away from Trumpism,” Setmayer said. “The result has become that the Republican party now is an anti-democratic, illiberal, pro-seditionist party.”
Read more of Joan E Greve’s analysis here: ‘This path is untenable’: can the Republican party split with Trumpism?
Here’s how the Washington Post have reported on the moves in Washington DC to try and secure a bipartisan agreement on a Covid relief package. They write:
The planned meeting comes even as Democrats prepare to move forward this week to set up a partisan path for Biden’s relief bill, which Republicans have dismissed as overly costly.
The Republican proposal jettisons certain elements that have drawn opposition, such as increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.
It would also reduce the size of a new round of checks from $1,400 per individual to $1,000 — while significantly reducing the income limits that determine eligibility.
A $600 billion plan that is a fraction of the size of Biden’s proposal is unlikely to draw much Democratic support. However, the GOP offer presents a challenge for Biden, who campaigned on promises of bipartisanship and must decide whether to rebuff the overture or make a genuine effort to find common ground across the aisle.
“We want to work in good faith with you and your administration to meet the health, economic and societal challenges of the covid crisis,” the Republican lawmakers wrote, adding they were responding to his “calls for unity.”
Read more here: Washington Post – Biden to meet with Senate Republicans offering covid relief counter-proposal
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of US politics for Monday. Here’s a quick catch-up on where we’ve got to over the weekend, and what we might expect to happen today…
- President Joe Biden and vice president Kamala Harris will meet with Republicans at 5pm EST (10pm GMT) to try and press ahead with obtaining a bipartisan coronavirus relief package for the economy. Republicans senators made a lowball offer yesterday for their cooperation.
- Yesterday there were 111,896 new coronavirus cases in the US, and 1,794 deaths. Numbers are often below the weekly average at the weekend due to the way the data is collected. Hospitalizations fell again, and for the second day were under the 100,000 mark, at 95,013.
- The White House coronavirus response team will hold a briefing at 11 am EST (4pm GMT). White House press secretary Jen Psaki is giving a press briefing at 12:30 EST.
- Jared Kushner follows Black Lives Matter in his nomination for the Nobel peace prize becoming public.
- State Republican parties appear to be drifting further into extremism, backing conspiracy theories and rebuking representatives who voted to impeach former president Donald Trump.
- Trump himself has hired a new legal team, after an apparent falling out with Butch Bowers over strategy. The trial will start in the week commencing 8 February.
