Summary
Here’s a recap:
- Joe Biden visited a small, Black-owned and union-friendly flooring business in Chester, Pennsylvania today to promote his Covid-19 relief plan. He said that the aid provided by the American Rescue Plan he signed last week will “change lives”.
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Russia sought to influence the 2020 election in favor of Donald Trump, according to a report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Russia planted “misleading or unsubstantiated allegations” against Joe Biden, the report said. The administration could issue sanctions against Russia and other countries in the coming days in response to election interference findings.
- Veep Kamala Harris addressed the United Nations on gender equality and women’s rights. She said that “the status of democracy depends on fundamentally on the empowerment of women”.
- US coronavirus vaccine developer Moderna has begun advanced trials of its vaccine on babies and children under 12. The vaccine is currently being recommended for people over 18.
Updated
Ex-Covid tsar urges Donald Trump to tackle Republican vaccine hesitancy
Donald Trump’s former coronavirus testing tsar has urged the former president to address Covid vaccine hesitancy among Republicans, even as the man who some say has assumed Trump’s platform and megaphone, the Fox News host Tucker Carlson, criticized vaccine outreach by the Biden administration.
Several recent surveys have shown vaccine hesitancy is highest among Republican men. Public health experts are scrambling to respond.
Speaking to CNN, Adm Brett Giroir, in charge of coronavirus testing in the Trump administration, asked the former president and former vice-president Mike Pence, who have both been vaccinated, “to actively encourage all of their followers to get the vaccine”.
“We all have to get together and urge every American,” Giroir said. “The people who follow the former president are very committed to President Trump, and I think his leadership still matters a great deal.”
Giroir also highlighted the Trump administration’s role in getting the vaccine made, with its Operation Warp Speed program.
“This is something that the Trump administration developed under its time,” he said.
Trump has encouraged followers to get vaccinated, recommending the step in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, but he has been more muted than the other living former presidents.
In an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll last week, 49% of Republican men, 47% of Trump supporters and 41% of Republicans overall said they would not get a vaccine if one was available to them. In the survey, 11% of Democrats and 34% of independents said they would not get a vaccine.
Read more:
Alaska senator Lisa Murkowski was censured by the state’s Republican party for her decision to convict Donald Trump. The AP reports:
The Alaska Republican party has censured Senator Lisa Murkowski for voting to convict Donald Trump at his impeachment trial and now doesn’t want her to identify as a GOP candidate in next year’s election, a member of the party’s state central committee said on Tuesday.
“The party does not want Lisa Murkowski to be a Republican candidate,” said Tuckerman Babcock, the immediate past chair of the state party.
The vote to censure Murkowski was 53-17 at a Saturday meeting in Anchorage, he said. The decision has not been publicly announced by the party.
“It went further than censure, which was strong,” Babcock said. “But it also directed the party officials to recruit an opponent in the election and to the extent legally permissible, prevent Lisa Murkowski from running as a Republican in any election,” he said.
It’s a watershed moment for Republican politics in Alaska. Murkowski has been in the US Senate since 2002, when her father, Frank Murkowski, selected her to finish his unexpired Senate term after he was elected governor. A Murkowski has represented Alaska in the Senate since 1981.
Read more:
The judge overseeing the criminal trial of Derek Chauvin, the former officer charged in the killing of Gorge Floyd, reinterviewed jurors and is still mulling a request from Chauvin’s attorney to delay the case.
After Minneapolis agreed to a $27m settlement with Floyd’s family following his death at the hands of city police officers, Chauvin’s defense team have asked for the case to be delayed. Jurors are not allowed to read any news related to the case, but Chauvin’s attorney said jurors could come across news of the settlement on social media.
But an attorney for Floyd’s family said there’s little chance the settlement could affect the jury, given that video of Floyd’s death under Chauvin’s knee was soo widely shared, and news of the case made international news, triggering protests against police brutality not only in the US but around the world.
Here’s more background on the trial:
Updated
‘The border is closed’: US deters adults but allows processing for child migrants
Joe Biden’s homeland security secretary said on Tuesday that even as the US processes a growing number of unaccompanied child migrants at the US-Mexico border, the country remains closed to most asylum seekers.
“Now is not the time to come to the border,” Alejandro Mayorkas said.
US border patrol officials encountered more than 15,000 children traveling without adults in January and February and officials have warned the numbers continue to grow in the first weeks of March. The arrivals threaten to overwhelm stretched federal agencies, putting children at risk, though Mayorkas told ABC News it was a challenge his department could handle.
“What we are doing is addressing young children who come to the border to make claims under the humanitarian laws established years and years ago and we are building capacity to address the needs of children when they arrive,” Mayorkas said. “But we are also, and critically, sending an important message that now is not the time to come to the border.”
Mayorkas said the border was not permanently closed to adults and families, but urged people to wait before approaching it.
“Give us the time to rebuild the system that was entirely dismantled in the prior administration,” he said.
The secretary also issued a lengthy statement, warning that the US was on pace to encounter more individuals at the border with Mexico than it had in the past 20 years.
His projection did not reflect a record number of people crossing the border, however, because it only included people apprehended by US border patrol – not those who cross without getting caught. That group has shrunk dramatically since the early 2000s.
“This is not new,” Mayorkas said. “We have experienced migration surges before – in 2019, 2014 and before then as well.”
He also acknowledged several factors pushing people north, including poverty, violence, corruption and two damaging hurricanes which hit Honduras in November.
Read more:
Michigan man charged with death threats against Biden, Pelosi and governor Gretchen Whitmer
Michigan’s attorney general has charged a man for threatening Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer.
The charges against the 21-year-old are one count of terrorism and one count of using a computer to commit a crime. He turned himself in today and was arraigned, officials said.
“Threatening elected officials is against the law and my office will prosecute those who attempt to intimidate or terrorize our state and federal leaders,” said attorney general Dana Nessel. “I appreciate the thorough investigative work by the FBI and Michigan state police on this case, and I consider it another excellent example of showcasing the dedication that those working in law enforcement have to protect the public.”
The man had made direct death threats on social media in January, and said he would “be the catalyst” for revolution. He also had information for making a bomb and procuring the necessary materials on his phone.
Several other men have been arrested and charged in relation to a plot last year to kidnap Whitmer. You can read more about that here.
Updated
The Biden administration could announce new sanctions related to election interference, CNN reports, based on information from three US state department sources.
The sanctions will target “multiple countries including Russia, China and Iran”, per CNN.
“You’ve already seen us take a number of actions in response to Russia’s use of a chemical weapon in the attempted murder of Alexei Navalny,” an administration official told Reuters, referring to the administration’s sanctions on seven Russian government officials and 13 Russian and European companies in response to the poisoning of the opposition leader.
“There will be more soon,” the official said.
Updated
Afternoon summary
It’s been a lively day so far in US political news and there’s more to come as we hand over from east coast to west coast and my California colleague Maanvi Singh takes over for the next few hours.
Thanks for following us so far today and stay tuned. Here are the main events that caught our eye this morning and afternoon.
- A prosecutor in Georgia has reportedly called in a lawyer who’s an expert in racketeering law to assist in the investigation over whether Donald Trump interfered in the state’s election results to try to pressure officials into declaring him the winner over Joe Biden. The attempt was unsuccessful!
- Joe Biden visited a small, Black-owned and union-friendly flooring business in Chester, Pennsylvania, and said that the aid provided by the American Rescue Plan he signed last week will “change lives”.
- Russia sought to influence the 2020 election in favor of Donald Trump, by planting “misleading or unsubstantiated allegations” against Joe Biden. It’s a declassified report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
- Veep Kamala Harris addressed the United Nations on gender equality and women’s rights and said that “The status of democracy depends on fundamentally on the empowerment of women.”
- US coronavirus vaccine developer Moderna has begun advanced trials of its vaccine on babies and children under 12.
If Georgia’s Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, pursues racketeering charges against Donald Trump, she will need to prove a pattern of corruption by the former president, alone or with his allies, aimed at overturning the election results in order to stay in power.
Reuters, which is bringing out this report exclusively, further notes that:
While racketeering is typically pursued by prosecutors in cases involving such crimes as murder, kidnapping, and bribery, the Georgia statute defines racketeering more broadly to include false statements made to state officials.
The federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) was originally passed in 1970 to help tie Mafia bosses to the crimes of their underlings by allowing prosecutors to argue they conspired together in a “criminal enterprise.” Over the years, however, its reach has grown to include businesses and other organizations as enterprises subject to the law.
Willis specifically listed racketeering and lying to public officials in detailing the possible crimes her office intended to investigate in a Feb. 10 letter to four Republican state officials, asking them to preserve records related to the case.
“That letter was really a signal to the public that she was going after a number of possibilities,” said Clark Cunningham, a Georgia State University law professor.
Georgia lawyers familiar with the state RICO law said Willis may be considering whether it would apply to alleged false statements made by Trump and his allies as they sought to influence state officials to reverse his election loss.
“It’s not a stretch to see where she’s taking this,” said Cathy Cox, the dean of Mercer University’s law school in Macon, Georgia and a former Georgia secretary of state. “If Donald Trump engaged in two or more acts that involve false statements - that were made knowingly and willfully in an attempt to falsify material fact, like the election results - then you can piece together a violation of the racketeering act.”
Racketeering, a felony in Georgia, can carry stiff penalties including up to 20 years in prison and a hefty fine.
“There are not a lot of people who avoid serving prison time on a racketeering offense,” said Cox.
Here’s the Guardian’s report from January 3 about the crucial phone call Trump made to Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, part pressuring, part threatening him as he urged him to “find” the votes Trump needed to overturn Biden’s victory in Georgia. Raffensperger held his ground and told the outgoing president that Trump’s data was wrong (ie those votes were not out there to be ‘found’ and Biden had, in fact, won the state and the White House).
Racketeering expert hired in Trump election interference case in Georgia – report
Talking of election interference, let’s switch from Russia to Georgia, not in the former Soviet Union but the southern US.
Reuters brings a report it’s labeling exclusive.
The district attorney investigating whether the former US president Donald Trump illegally interfered with Georgia’s 2020 election has hired an outside lawyer who is a national authority on racketeering, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis has enlisted the help of Atlanta lawyer John Floyd, who wrote a national guide on prosecuting state racketeering cases. Floyd was hired recently to “provide help as needed” on matters involving racketeering, including the Trump investigation and other cases, said the source, who has direct knowledge of the situation.
The move bolsters the team investigating Trump as Willis prepares to issue subpoenas for evidence on whether the former president and his allies broke the law in their campaign to pressure state officials to reverse his Georgia election loss.
Willis has said that her office would examine potential charges including “solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies, conspiracy, racketeering” among other possible violations.
A representative for Trump did not respond to requests for comment.
Floyd’s appointment signals that racketeering could feature prominently in the investigation. It’s an area of law where Willis has extensive experience - including a high-profile Atlanta case where she won racketeering convictions of 11 public educators for a scheme to cheat on standardized tests.
The investigation of Trump focuses in part on his phone call to Georgia’s secretary of state, asking the secretary to “find” the votes needed to overturn Trump*s election loss, based on false voter-fraud claims.
Floyd declined to comment when asked about the appointment but spoke to Reuters about his past experiences working with Willis.
While racketeering is typically pursued by prosecutors in cases involving such crimes as murder, kidnapping, and bribery, the Georgia statute defines racketeering more broadly to include false statements made to state officials.
Updated
Joe Biden visited a small family flooring business in Chester, Pennsylvania, on the outskirts of greater Philadelphia, this afternoon. The owners said politicians didn’t often stop by that part of the world.
Here’s some of what the president said on the premises of Smith Flooring. “This is a great outfit. This is a union shop. You can make a decent wage, a living wage,” he said, according to the pool report.
Then he stressed how many Pennsylvanians lost their jobs during the coronavirus crisis. He talked of government cash on the way, for individual payments and aid for administering vaccines.
“More help is on the way,” Biden said.
The owners, Kristin and James Smith, thanked him for helping a small business, saying it meant a lot that he was there.
“Not many people come and stop here in Chester,” Kristin Smith said.
Meanwhile, a tidbit of extra news. The president will hold his first formal press conference next Thursday.
Psaki announces that Biden will hold a formal press conference on Thursday March 25th
— Lauren Gambino (@laurenegambino) March 16, 2021
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, in its declassified report, says that Moscow viewed the prospect of Joe Biden’s election to the White House in 2020 as potentially disadvantageous to Russia’s interests and that drove their efforts to undermine his candidacy.
“We have high confidence in this assessment,” the report says.
The primary race for the Democratic nomination was just the start.
“Moscow’s range of influence actors uniformly worked to denigrate President Biden after his entrance into the race. Throughout the primaries and the general election campaign, Russian influence agents repeatedly spread … claims against Biden and his family’s alleged wrongdoing related to Ukraine.”
It then goes on to say that Moscow worked online to promote candidates it viewed as “outside what it perceives to be an anti-Russia political establishment”.
After Biden had won the election, Moscow continued its covert influence campaign to question the result.
CNN has the report online here.
Updated
Meanwhile, more on the declassified report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that Russia attempted to influence the 2020 presidential election in favor of Donald Trump.
Among the report’s key findings is this conclusion that: “Russian President Putin authorized and a range of Russian government organizations conducted influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting former President Trump, undermining public confidence in the electoral process, and exacerbating sociopolitical divisions in the US …
“… Russian state and proxy actors who all serve the Kremlin’s interests worked to affect US public perceptions in a consistent manner. A key element of Moscow’s key strategy this election cycle was its use of proxies linked to Russian intelligence to push influence narratives - including misleading or unsubstantiated allegations against President Biden - to US media organizations, US officials, and prominent US individuals, including some close to former President Trump and his administration.”
ODNI also concludes that interference efforts came from Iran, China, Lebanese Hezbollah, Cuba and Venezuela.
Updated
The White House has provided the following information about Smith Flooring, the business Joe Biden just visited.
Smith Flooring has received Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, and also qualifies for additional programs such as the community navigator services and the employee retention tax credit under the American Rescue Plan (ARP).
Although Smith Flooring lost around 20% of revenue in 2020, it was deemed essential and survived because of the PPP loans and a few key contracts.
Smith Flooring received the original installment of PPP in April of 2020 and their second installment in March of 2021.
It is using the second PPP loan, which it received during the Biden-Harris Administration’s two-week exclusivity period for small businesses with 20 or fewer employees, to retain workers and upgrade technology.
Pennsylvania congresswomen Chrissy Houlahan and Mary Gay Scanlon also visited.
Here with the wonderful owners of Smith Flooring and my good friend and colleague @RepMGS in Chester, PA.
— Chrissy Houlahan (@RepHoulahan) March 16, 2021
We are ready for @POTUS! pic.twitter.com/G6pvHNc1X2
Biden asked the Smiths, who own the small business, which employs at peak times less than two dozen people, what else the government needed to do for them and Americans.
Biden: latest Covid aid will "change lives"
Joe Biden has arrived in Chester, Pennsylvania, a small city in Delaware County, within the greater metropolitan area of Philadelphia.
The first place he visited was a small flooring company, a Black-owned, union-affiliated business not far from the Delaware River.
Biden is at the start of a tour to promote the $1.9tr American Rescue Plan coronavirus relief legislation passed by Congress and signed by him at the White House last week.
Biden met the owners of Smith Flooring, Kristen and James Smith, who had donned suits and seemed rather nervous at meeting the president and two Pennsylvania members of Congress.
Biden pointed out that 100m people in the US will soon be receiving individual Treasury checks of $1,400. “No joke, it’s going to change their lives,” he said.
His first stop on Help Is Here tour @POTUS talking about how he is working to help small businesses at Smith Flooring in Chester, PA pic.twitter.com/44UQs5EucQ
— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) March 16, 2021
Updated
Here’s more on Russian actions meant to undermine the 2020 US elections, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declassified report out today.
Russia made efforts that were intended to result in “denigrating President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting former President Trump, undermining public confidence in the electoral process, and exacerbating sociopolitical divisions in the US,” the report said.
It adds: “Unlike in 2016, we did not see persistent Russian cyber efforts to gain access to election infrastructure.”
And the report noted that there were “no indications that any foreign actor attempted to alter any technical aspect of the voting process in the 2020 US elections, including voter registration, casting ballots, vote tabulation, or reporting results.”
Today #ODNI released the declassified Intelligence Community assessment of foreign threats to the 2020 U.S. federal elections, view the full report here: https://t.co/XALE8fJQib pic.twitter.com/ujLaIyENBT
— Office of the DNI (@ODNIgov) March 16, 2021
Russia worked against Biden in 2020 – report
Russia sought to influence the 2020 election, a US government report out today says, by planting “misleading or unsubstantiated allegations” against Joe Biden.
The report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence carries strong echoes, of course, of extensive and long-running investigations of the 2016 election, which the US intelligence community agrees saw Moscow attempt to tip the scales in favour of Donald Trump and against Hillary Clinton.
Trump beat Clinton 306-232 in the electoral college (if you don’t take faithless electors into account), despite losing the popular vote by nearly 3m ballots. Biden beat Trump by the same score, despite winning the popular vote by more than 7m.
Here’s some of Reuters’ report on the new report, as it were, which it says…
…underscores allegations that Trump’s allies were playing into Moscow’s hands by amplifying claims made against Biden by Russian-linked Ukrainian figures.
US intelligence agencies found other attempts to sway voters, including a “multi-pronged covert influence campaign” by Iran intended to undercut Trump’s support. The report also punctures a counter-narrative pushed by Trump’s allies that China was interfering on Biden’s behalf, concluding that Beijing “did not deploy interference efforts”.
“China sought stability in its relationship with the United States and did not view either election outcome as being advantageous enough for China to risk blowback if caught,” the report said.
US officials said they also saw efforts by Cuba, Venezuela and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to influence the election, although “in general, we assess that they were smaller in scale than those conducted by Russia and Iran.”
And here’s David Smith’s interview with one of the sources for the most recent major book about Trump and Russia, American Kompromat by Craig Unger:
Michelle Obama – Meghan racism comments not 'a complete surprise'
Meghan Markle’s comments about the royal family in her bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, including allegations of racism, were not “a complete surprise”, Michelle Obama told NBC earlier today.
The Duchess of Sussex’s comments to Winfrey about why she and her husband, Prince Harry, escaped the royal family for California have roiled the royals, the British press and much of public life on the other side of the pond.
“Public service is a bright, sharp, hot spotlight,” Obama said, “and most people don’t understand it – nor should they.”
She added that Markle’s comments about alleged remarks about the colour of her son’s skin and other issues were “heartbreaking to hear, that she felt like she was in her own family – her own family thought differently of her.
“As I said before, race isn’t a new construct in this world for people of colour, and so it wasn’t a complete surprise to hear her feelings and to have them articulated.
“I think the thing that I hope for, and the thing I think about, is that this, first and foremost, is a family. I pray for forgiveness and healing for them so that they can use this as a teachable moment for us all.”
The royal family says it isn’t racist.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield has highlighted a portion of Kamala Harris’s speech to the UN a little earlier that we haven’t covered yet.
"As we confront a global health crisis and an economic crisis, it is critical that we continue to defend democracy. To that end, the United States is strengthening our engagement with the United Nations. We are also rejoining the Human Rights Council." — @VP Kamala Harris #CSW65 pic.twitter.com/45XCBIvH5s
— Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (@USAmbUN) March 16, 2021
America’s largest home improvement retailer, Home Depot, has gone out of its way to clarify that it is not opposed to sweeping voting restrictions being proposed in the Georgia legislature.
The company is one of several that activists in Georgia have been pressuring to aggressively oppose legislation in the state legislature that would require voters to show ID when they vote by mail, limit ballot drop boxes, and cut early voting options in Democratic-leaning and non-white areas of the state.
Yesterday, the company said it was “aligned” with the Georgia chamber of commerce, which said last week it was concerned and opposed to certain provisions in the Georgia bills (it did not say which).
After the Washington Post published a story yesterday saying the company was opposed to the bills, a spokesperson contacted the paper to clarify that Home Depot did not in fact oppose the restrictions.
Home Depot contacted the Washington Post after publication of a story last night to clarify they don't oppose proposed voting restrictions in Georgia. https://t.co/x1qBdY28Xi pic.twitter.com/dT0bvrgufR
— Sam Levine (@srl) March 16, 2021
“We believe that all elections should be accessible, fair and secure and support broad voter participation. We’ll continue to work to ensure our associates, both in Georgia and across the country, have the information and resources to vote,” Sara Gorman, a spokesman for Home Depot, said in a statement to the Guardian yesterday.
Activists continue to escalate their campaign to pressure Home Depot and other major companies in Georgia. They have taken out full page advertisements in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution daily paper, purchased billboards around company headquarters, and had 55,000 Georgia voters contact the companies, said Nsé Ufot, the CEO of the New Georgia Project, one of the groups leading the effort.
“We are hoping to invite them in this moment to lean into the leverage that they have to be a force for good inside the legislature,” she said.
Updated
In her address to the United Nations just now, the Vice President, Kamala Harris, spoke further about democracy and the connection with women’s equality.
“Democracy requires constant vigilance, constant improvement. It’s a work in progress and today we know that democracy is increasingly under great strain,” she said.
At this point the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, comes to mind, as a huge mob whipped up by Donald Trump at a rally moments before, rampaged through the Capitol, attempting to stop the House and Senate ratifying Joe Biden and Harris’s victory and calling for then-Veep Mike Pence to be hanged for refusing to defy democracy.
Not to mention the invasion and violation of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office.
Harris pointed out that in the last 15 years we have seen “a troubling decline in freedom throughout the world” and that experts believe the last year was the worst for the deterioration of democracy and freedom in the world.
She points out that the US is ready to engage again with international bodies promoting democracy, freedom and human rights.
“The status of democracy depends on fundamentally on the empowerment of women. Not only because the exclusion of women in decision-making is a marker of a flawed democracy but because the participation of women strengthens democracy.”
Harris mentions that for the last half century, more women than men in the US vote, more women than ever before are seated in Congress and more women are their household’s primary breadwinner.
She quoted Eleanor Roosevelt’s famous statement in 1944 that: “Without equality there can be no democracy.”
And Harris’s take on that today was: “In other words, the status of women is the status of democracy. For our part the US will work to uphold both.”
Kamala Harris addresses United Nations on women's rights
The US vice president just gave a short, pointed address to the UN on gender equality and women’s rights.
It was laced with points about representation and fair elections that did not need to be spelt out directly - she was standing there as living proof of progress, as America’s first female Veep, and of the treachery of Donald Trump and his superfans’ claims that she and Joe Biden did not legitimately win the 2020 election.
“This year, in considering the status of women, especially the participation of women in decision making, we must also consider the status of democracy,” she said.
Harris was giving the closing, virtual, address to the 65th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
“At its best, it [democracy] protects human rights, promotes human dignity and upholds the rule of law. It is a means to establish peace and shared prosperity. It should ensure every citizen, regardless of gender, has an equal voice,” she said.
Then added that democracy at its best also ensures that “free and fair elections that will respect the will of the people.”
Just remembering that Trump’s challenges to the election result were tossed out by the courts, more than 60 legal challenges, including by his right-wing-stuffed Supreme Court.
Officials at local, state and national level, right up to Trump’s normally-sycophantic attorney general Bill Barr, declared the November 2020 presidential election the most secure in US history.
More to come.
Updated
Veering to the climate crisis now, as we await Veep Kamala Harris’s address to the United Nations on gender equality and women’s rights. In the (increasingly) hot seat: oil giant Chevron.
EXPOSED: Chevron faces an unprecedented complaint over “misleading consumers” to appear climate-friendly & racial justice-oriented.
— Global Witness (@Global_Witness) March 16, 2021
Our new complaint with @Earthworks @greenpeaceusa asks US ads regulator @FTC to take on “greenwashing.” https://t.co/ZxwVmUFSaE pic.twitter.com/h5ycrZzQuR
Reuters reports:
Three environmental groups filed a false advertising complaint against Chevron with the Federal Trade Commission today, alleging that the US oil major has overstated its investment in renewable energy and actions to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
The groups - Global Witness, Greenpeace and Earthworks - said their complaint is the first to petition the FTC to use its “Green Guides” against an oil company for misleading consumers about its actions to combat climate change.
The commission’s 2012 guidelines aim to prevent companies from making false environmental claims.
The commission, which enforces rules against deceptive advertising, warned companies nine years ago that they should make environmental claims - such as “compostable” - for their products only if they can prove that they are true and if they are significant.
Chevron did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The groups said the complaint will force the Biden Administration to decide how it will respond to “greenwashing” campaigns by oil and gas companies as part of its broader plans to combat climate change.
“This is a first test to see if they [the Biden administration] will follow through with their commitment to hold big polluters accountable,” said Julie Anne Miranda-Brobeck, a spokeswoman for Global Witness.
She added that the FTC plays an important role in forcing companies to be truthful about their climate friendly claims.
The FTC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Updated
Chauvin defense argues for inclusion before jury of previous arrest of Floyd
This may not be overtly party political but there is no doubt it’s political. The trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, accused of murdering George Floyd last May, continues with jury selection and legal arguments.
This is all ahead of opening arguments, expected around March 29.
Another bitter dispute has broken out between the prosecution and defense, following tension in court yesterday over the timing of the $27m settlement agreed between the city and Floyd’s family, which is meant to be unrelated to the trial but of course cannot be completely isolated from it, to most minds.
This time the argument is about a previous arrest of Floyd by Minneapolis police.
This is going to go to the heart of the defense argument - disputed by many experts and contradicted by post mortem reports - that Floyd died of an opioid overdose and underlying poor health, not from Chauvin, who is white, kneeling on his neck as the Black man was pinned to the street, with the police officer casually keeping one hand in his pants pocket, while Floyd begged for his life.
Ex-officer on trial for George Floyd's death asks to show jury an earlier arrest https://t.co/UJzU8Vw1kQ pic.twitter.com/QiuOk37jkF
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 16, 2021
Reuters reports moments ago that the lead lawyer for Chauvin has asked the judge to allow the jury to see evidence of the earlier episode.
In the arrest of May 6, 2019, a panicking Floyd swallowed several opioid pain-killer pills as police approached. Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s lead lawyer, has argued that the main cause of Floyd’s death a year later, which was ruled a homicide, was the opioid fentanyl found in his blood at autopsy.
“The similarities are incredible, it’s the exact same behavior in two incidents almost exactly one year apart,” Nelson told the court before the resumption of jury selection, noting Floyd called out for his “mama” in both arrests, according to video footage.
Prosecutors opposed the move, saying the defense was seeking to dirty the character of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who died after being handcuffed by police on May 25, 2020.
Video of his death in which Chauvin, who is white, pushes Floyd’s head into the road with a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes ignited global protests against police brutality and racism.
Matthew Frank, a prosecutor in the Minnesota attorney general’s office, said the request showed “the desperation of the defense to smear Mr. Floyd’s character by showing that when he is struggling with an opioid addiction, like so many Americans do, it’s really just evidence of bad character.”
Updated
More on the coronavirus, as federal leaders and officials warn the country not to relax at what we all hope is the eleventh hour of the main thrust of the pandemic.
The Associated Press reports from North Carolina:
Duke University saw nearly as many cases of the coronavirus last week as it did during the entire fall semester, according to data released today.
The vast majority of the 231 new cases reported from March 8 through Sunday occurred within the university’s undergraduate student population.
This accounts for only about 0.06% of North Carolina’s population of 10.5 million people, but whose cases account for nearly 1.9% of the total number reported statewide last week. A total of 241 cases were reported during the entire fall semester.
The surge at Duke comes as transmission is decreasing across the state and country.
Campus administrators announced over the weekend that a campus-wide stay-in-place order would remain in place until 9am on March 21, with nearly all in-person classes transitioning to remote instruction.
Amid changes to the rush process and other restrictions, nine fraternities decided to sever ties to the university and form a group called the Durham Interfraternity Council.
Cases have dramatically increased since the fraternities began recruitment. Top university officials have pinned the brunt of the blame on these organizations.
If conditions do not improve, top Duke administrators said over the weekend that the university may not be able to go forward with classes and graduation.
welp this was a surprise to no one, given the recent disaffiliation of many fraternities from Duke into their own council, in response to being told to wait until fall 2021 for rush. And instead hold in person parties/rush events 🙃 and why is Greek life still a thing?? https://t.co/SA1kgZWMh6
— Nali Julia Gillespie (@NaliJulia) March 14, 2021
Local ABC11 crews spotted “F**K FRATS” painted along the Free Expression Bridge on Sunday morning, in Durham, NC.
There's a strong reaction among Duke students after off-campus fraternity activities led to increased COVID-19 cases and a new stay-in-place order. https://t.co/mO0jdOpSxd
— ABC11 EyewitnessNews (@ABC11_WTVD) March 14, 2021
In addition to addressing the United Nations today, virtually, vice president Kamala Harris is physically visiting Colorado.
Harris and Second Gentleman, husband Doug Emhoff, will make their first stop in the state later at a Covid-19 vaccination clinic at Plan De Salud Del Valle in Fort Lupton, in northern Colorado.
After the that Harris and Emhoff will participate in a listening session with small business owners at Maria Empanada in Denver, according to the Denver Post.
Harris was in Nevada yesterday.
Vaccination sites like the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, have helped Nevada administer over 989,000 shots. The American Rescue Plan will open more sites like this, get more staff, and increase vaccine supply. Help is here to get you vaccinated. pic.twitter.com/P5Y5cjSpLk
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) March 15, 2021
This is all part of the promotion tour following Joe Biden’s inking last week of the humungous $1.9tr coronavirus relief bill, aka the American Rescue Plan.
Here’s my colleague, David Smith, on how Biden can’t afford NOT to go big on this, both the the money department and the marketing department.
The US president will be in Chester, Pennsylvania, this afternoon, on the outskirts of Philadelphia, visiting small businesses that can expect to benefit from Biden’s first major legislative victory.
Soon, US vice-president Kamala Harris will address the United Nations on the topic of gender equality.
She’s giving a virtual speech to the 65th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. The session starts at 11am ET/3pm GMT but Harris won’t be on deck for a while, as other speakers will precede her.
But it is a prestigious platform for America’s first female vice president and the first Veep of color.
We’ll try to get the timing right to bring you a stream of Harris speaking live.
UN secretary general António Guterres tweeted: “Gender equality is essentially a question of power. We live in a male-dominated world with a male-dominated culture. This discrimination harms us all. Only through the equal participation of women can we benefit from the intelligence, experience and insights of all of humanity.”
Gender equality is essentially a question of power. We live in a male-dominated world with a male-dominated culture.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) March 16, 2021
This discrimination harms us all.
Only through the equal participation of women can we benefit from the intelligence, experience & insights of all of humanity.
And just to get another glimpse of that boisterous wind in Las Vegas yesterday, where Veep and Emhoff were promoting the new $1.9tr Covid relief package known as the American Rescue Plan:
US Vice President Kamala Harris Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff step off Air Force Two in strong wind upon arrival at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas yesterday. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
The Moderna vaccine trials on babies and other children under 12 is taking place in collaboration with the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (where Anthony Fauci has ruled the roost for a generation) at the National Institutes of Health, and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority at the US Department of Health and Human Services.
The first young children have received their shots in this trial and Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said the vaccine was being tested on healthy children in select cities in the US and Canada.
“This pediatric study will help us assess the potential safety and immunogenicity of our Covid-19 vaccine candidate in this important younger age population,” Bancel said.
There are eight study sites and the first one to get underway is Phoenix, Arizona.
Local Fox 10 reported to the public that they can now sign up to get their children vaccinated against Covid-19 in the Moderna trial in the south-west city. Fox added:
“I am just really excited. I am excited to be a part of getting this out to the public,” Rachel Guthrie, a mother of three, told the station.
When she heard about the Moderna trial for children, she knew she wanted to sign up her three-year-old son Ollie and one-year-old daughter Charlotte.
“The risks are so minuscule compared to what the benefits are,” she said.
To qualify for the trial, kids need to be between six-months-old and 12-years-old.
Although the trial just began, a huge response has already started to pour in.
“It has just been amazing, mind-boggling and very reassuring and good,” said Dr. Steve Plimpton, who is the principal investigator for the Moderna study for Covid-19.
He says there are eight study sites in the US, and Phoenix is the first location to get started.
Participants are willing to travel from all over to Phoenix to take part, including those from the south.
The first 750 out of 6,000 kids in the trial will all receive the vaccine, then after that first phase, that is when the trial will implement a placebo study.
All patients will be monitored by doctors and trial organizers.
“The fact that we have more science behind this now and how these vaccines work, that is the big part,” Plimpton said, adding this is a step in the right direction.
With such a big response, he thinks our community could fill those first 750 spots before the other trial sites even get started.
Updated
The news of Moderna starting trials of its coronavirus vaccine on babies and younger children comes as Joe Biden’s White House is fighting to prevent a fourth surge in infections in the US.
The nation is nearing 30 million infections - currently the total according to the Johns Hopkins data is 29.5m, that’s almost a quarter of the global total. And the US has suffered more than 535,000 deaths, by far the highest numbers in the world.
Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the US president continue to urge Americans not to relax their guard just as we begin to see real light at the end of the tunnel, with more than 100 million shots already administered in the US.
But Walensky is alarmed about people jumping on planes again, taking spring break vacations in places like Florida, gathering without masks, and states such as Texas lifting mask mandates and other restrictions.
This as the so-called British variant of coronavirus is “increasing exponentially” in the US, according to this CNN report from earlier this month.
“We have seen footage of people enjoying spring break festivities, maskless,” Walensky said yesterday. “This is all in the context of still 50,000 cases per day.”
Updated
Moderna to begin trial of Covid vaccine on young children in US and Canada
Back to vaccines for a moment, Moderna has today announced that it is beginning trials of its Covid vaccine in children aged from six months up to 12 years.
The Moderna vaccine already has emergency authorization for use in over-18s in the US, but Reuters report that the company is to aiming to recruit 6,750 children in the United States and Canada to trial giving them two doses, 28 days apart.
A trial on children aged between 12 and 18 has already begun – having started in December.
Updated
The announcement yesterday that California Gov Gavin Newsom was beginning to raise money to defend his seat seemed to confirm that he believes organizers behind the attempts to recallhim have collected sufficient legitimate petition signatures to place the proposal on the ballot.
Recall supporters are required to submit nearly 1.5 million signatures this week to place the proposal before voters. Organizers say they have collected more than 2 million since starting in June. Collections surged in the fall and winter as anger intensified about Newsom’s handling of the pandemic.
Newsom and his Democratic allies have cast the recall attempt as a politically driven power grab. He tweeted Monday that he won’t be distracted by a “partisan” recall attempt “but I will fight it.”
Wednesday marks the cutoff for organizers to submit signatures to county election officials, who have until 29 April to verify the authenticity and notify the secretary of state with the results.
However, given the legal hoops, it could take until September before an election date is scheduled, which strategists on both sides expect to be set for later this fall, perhaps November.
Recall organizers believe the Newsom and leaders in the Democratic-run Legislature will do everything possible to delay the election, hoping that his fortunes turn as virus cases fall, vaccinations increase and schools and businesses reopen.
“They can’t win at the ballot box. The only way they can win is to delay the system and delay the process,” said recall senior adviser Randy Economy. Thus far, more than 80% of the signatures turned in have been validated.
Two Republicans have already announced their candidacies: Kevin Faulconer, the former Republican mayor of San Diego, and Republican businessman John Cox, who was defeated by Newsom in 2018. Another name being discussed in Republican circles is former President Donald Trump’s then-acting director of national intelligence, Richard Grenell.
Asian Americans reported 3,800 hate-related incidents during the pandemic
Asian Americans reported nearly 3,800 hate-related incidents during the pandemic, a number that experts believe to be just a fraction of the true total.
From 19 March 2020 to 28 February 2021, Asian Americans from all 50 states experienced everything ranging from verbal abuse to physical assaults, from getting coughed on to getting denied services because of their ethnicity, according to a report released Tuesday by Stop AAPI Hate, a not-for-profit coalition tracking incidents of violence, discrimination and harassment.
More than 68% of the abuse was verbal harassment or name-calling, while 11.1% was physical, the report found.
The report also contains numerous first-person accounts. “I was at the mall with a friend. I was wearing a plumeria clip and was speaking Chamorro when a woman coughed and said, ‘You and your people are the reason why we have corona’,” read one testimonial from Dallas, Texas in the report. “She then said, ‘Go sail a boat back to your island’.”
“During an Asian American protest, a white man driving a silver Mercedes drove past the first wave of Asian protesters, yelling out of his window at them, ‘Stupid f*cking Asians!’” read one testimonial from Elk Grove, California. “Afterwards, he drove to where the remaining Asian protesters stood and was witnessed by multiple protesters aggressively driving onto the walkway where several protesters were gathered.”
The report come amid growing awareness of anti-Asian violence in the US following several recent attacks. In Oakland, California, a 75-year-old man from Hong Kong died after being robbed and assaulted by a man police said had a history of victimizing elderly Asian people. Earlier this year, an 84-year-old Thai man, Vicha Ratanapakdee, was killed in a seemingly unprovoked attack in San Francisco.
“The number of hate incidents reported to our center represent only a fraction of the number of hate incidents that actually occur, but it does show how vulnerable Asian Americans are to discrimination, and the types of discrimination they face,” the report authors wrote.
Read more of Vivian Ho’s report from San Francisco here: Asian Americans reported 3,800 hate-related incidents during the pandemic, report finds
The New York Times this morning has a report on vaccine hesitancy, this time among the Cherokee Nation. After a strong start to the vaccination program, progress has stalled. Jack Healy writes:
As people across the United States jockey and wait to get vaccinated, a surprising problem is unfolding in the Cherokee Nation: plenty of shots, but not enough arms.
It is a side effect of early success, tribal health officials said. With many enthusiastic patients inoculated and new coronavirus infections at an ebb, the urgency for vaccines has gone distressingly quiet.
It is a dizzying public health challenge that cuts across the country. It encompasses persuading skeptics, calling people who do not realize they are now eligible, and making vaccines accessible for homebound patients, overstretched working families and people in rural areas and minority communities.
The vaccine rollout in Native communities has been a surprising source of strength, especially as vaccinations of other communities, such as Black and Hispanic Americans, continue to lag behind white populations.
Working through the Indian Health Service and long-established networks of tribally run clinics, tribes are outpacing much of the country, already giving shots to healthy adults and eligible teenagers. Some have even thrown open the doors to non-tribal members inside their borders.
Read more here: New York Times – Plenty of vaccines, but not enough arms: a warning sign in Cherokee nation
That issue of how much of the US population will take a vaccine has become increasingly fraught on partisan lines. Jill Colvin and Heather Hollingsworth report for Associated Press that while polls have found vaccine hesitancy falling overall, opposition among Republicans remains stubbornly strong.
A new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 42% of Republicans say they probably or definitely will not get the shot, compared with 17% of Democrats – a 25-point split.
While demand for vaccinations still far outstrips the available supply in most parts of the country, there are already signs in some places of slowing registration. And the impact is expected to grow when supply begins to surpass demand by late April or early May, said Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.
“This is going to be the big issue,” he said. “And if we get stuck at 60 or 65% vaccinated, we are going to continue to see significant outbreaks and real challenges in our country, and it’s going to be much, much harder to get back to what we think is normal unless we can get that number higher.”
Ron Holloway is an example of the hurdles facing health officials. The 75-year-old Forsyth, Missouri, resident and his wife, who is 74, are at a higher risk of contracting the virus. But he was steadfast in insisting that they “don’t do vaccinations.”
“This whole thing is blown way out of proportion and a bunch of nonsense,” he said of the virus. “We still haven’t lost 1% of our population. It is just ridiculous.”
Laura Biggs, a 56-year-old who has already recovered from the virus, is a Virginia conservative who voted for Trump. She said partisan differences were obvious among her friends and family in all aspects of the pandemic, including vaccine acceptance.
“Family members who lean left have not left home for a year,” she said, while she and her husband “went everywhere. We traveled more in 2020 than I have in any year of our whole life. ... I just think that there was a hysteria about it.
The current death toll from Covid in the US stands at 535,283.
Dr Anthony Fauci has been on MSNBC’s Morning Joe this morning, once again stressing caution as the US proceeds with both a vaccination program and economic re-opening following a year of the coronavirus pandemic.
Fauci, who must feel a little like a stuck record in recent weeks, said: “We’ve really got to be careful that we don’t claim victory and pull back on all the public health measures that we know work in keeping the lid on these surging of infections. So although there is good news in the sense of the vaccine continues to get rolled out… if all of a sudden we declare victory, we can risk a surge”
He had a familiar warning too about the consequences of not getting enough of the US population vaccinated, saying: “If you do not get the overwhelming proportion of the population vaccinated, you’re still going to have the virus have the capability of circulating in society because there are so many vulnerable people. So the approach we are taking is to try and reach out and explain to people and ask what are the issues that make them hesitant about getting vaccinated and try to address them with good, solid, scientific facts.”
The Democrats aren’t just out and about promoting the Covid rescue plan, they have an ad campaign going on across multiple states that resembles something more like an election campaign than a public service information campaign. Jonathan Swan reports for Axios that:
The three major Democratic campaign committees — the DNC, DSCC and DCCC — are running ads promoting the American Rescue Plan.
The DNC will run TV ads in at least eight battleground states: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Nevada and Pennsylvania.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is running digital ads in swing districts to protect vulnerable House Democrats.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is already running digital ads targeting two Republican senators for voting against the $1.9 trillion bill: Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Marco Rubio of Florida.
And there are third party ad packages running as well.
Read more detail here: Axios – Democrats spending millions in full-scale campaign to sell Biden’s Covid relief
A couple of quotes stand out in the Politico Huddle newsletter this morning, illustrating how the Democrats and Republicans are positioning themselves over the £1.9 trillion Covid relief plan. For the Democrats, spokesperson Chris Taylor told Politico:
The American people will remember that House Republicans voted against cutting childhood poverty in half, getting stimulus checks into the hands of struggling Americans, extending unemployment insurance, giving parents confidence their kids could return to school safely and they could get back to work. House Republicans left American families out to dry – the people won’t forget that.
Unsurprisingly that’s not how the House Republicans see it. Their spokesman Michael McAdams said:
We look forward to ensuring every voter knows that Democrats passed a corrupt, $1.9 trillion boondoggle that cuts Medicare, raises taxes and doesn’t require schools to reopen and then left the taxpayers to foot the bill.
I’m not sure we hear the word “boondoggle” enough these days. But as Olivia Beavers puts it for Politico, “One of the most common and simple mantras about politics is people vote by how their pockets feel.”
There’s a lot of pockets going to feel fuller in the next few weeks as Joe Biden promises his administration will get 100 million Covid relief direct payments out to people by 25 March.
Here’s a bit more from Reuters on those words from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas defending the US response to the number of unaccompanied minors at the nation’s border with Mexico. He said the region was on track to see more people trying to enter than any time in the last 20 years.
Mayorkas said the government is creating a joint processing center to transfer the children, as young as six, to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services and is trying to find additional shelters for them.
“The situation we are currently facing at the southwest border is a difficult one. We are tackling it,” he said in a statement. He also said:
This is not new. We have experienced migration surges before – in 2019, 2014, and before then as well. Since April 2020, the number of encounters at the southwest border has been steadily increasing. Border Patrol Agents are working around the clock to process the flow at the border and I have great respect for their tireless efforts. To understand the situation, it is important to identify who is arriving at our southwest border and how we are following the law to manage different types of border encounters.
The administration of president Joe Biden has been racing to speed up the processing of hundreds of unaccompanied children who are crossing the southern border every day.
Officials have warned “the border is not open” and said they are sending back adults and families who have tried to cross the border illegally since Biden took office promising to reverse some of predecessor Donald Trump’s hardline policies.
Nearly 4,300 unaccompanied children were being held by border patrol officials as of Sunday, according to an agency official who requested anonymity to discuss the matter with Reuters. By law, the children should be transferred out of Customs and Border Protection facilities to HHS-run shelters within 72 hours.
“The Border Patrol facilities have become crowded with children and the 72-hour timeframe for the transfer of children from the Border Patrol to HHS is not always met,” Mayorkas acknowledged. HHS also has not had the capacity to take in the number of children, he said.
Mayorkas ended his statement saying:
I came to this country as an infant, brought by parents who understood the hope and promise of America. Today, young children are arriving at our border with that same hope. We can do this.
By the way, if you needed a reminder that diplomacy is the velvet glove that cloaks the fist of power, Defense secretary Lloyd Austin has just the tweet for you this morning – words no doubt also intended for those listening in China:
As we lead with diplomacy on a range of issues @SecBlinken mentioned, I want you to know we at the @DeptofDefense stand ever ready to buttress the hard work of our diplomats. pic.twitter.com/L6novbyFWV
— Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III (@SecDef) March 16, 2021
Here’s Rebecca Shabad at NBC News with what she says we can expect from President Joe Biden’s trip to Pennsylvania today – and why he is doing it:
Biden will visit a small business in Chester, Pennsylvania, in the mid-afternoon, where he plans to talk to people about the benefits of the American Rescue Plan, which was signed into law last week.
Biden has said he wants to publicize the plan to the public, saying Democrats paid a political price for not doing so after passage of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
She reminds us that the locations for the visits have not been picked at random:
The White House is targeting key battleground states for the sales strategy. Harris and Emhoff stopped in Nevada Monday, and Biden is scheduled to visit Georgia on Friday, which, like Pennsylvania, is another key swing state he won last year — the first time a Democrat carried it in nearly three decades.
'Do not come now' - Secretary of Homeland Security Mayorkas in plea to migrants on southern US border
“Do not come now. Give us the time to rebuild the system that was entirely dismantled under the prior administration.”
That’s the message from Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas on television this morning, addressed to people attempting to enter the US through the southern border.
DHS Secretary @SecMayorkas on @GMA tells anyone thinking about making the trip to the U.S. boarder "Do not come now."
— Molly Nagle (@MollyNagle3) March 16, 2021
"Give us the time to rebuild the system that was entirely dismantled in the prior administration," Mayorkas said.
With Republicans circling and using the numbers at the border to criticise the new administration, Mayorkas isn’t the only person who has been on the airwaves this morning. Roberta Jacobson, Biden’s coordinator for the southern border, has been on CNN with a similar message:
With numbers surging, Roberta Jacobson, Biden’s coordinator for the southern border, says on CNN their immigration policy is “a more humane system, but it is not open borders.”
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) March 16, 2021
FBI facing allegation that its 2018 background check of Brett Kavanaugh was ‘fake’
The FBI is facing new scrutiny for its 2018 background check of Brett Kavanaugh, the supreme court justice, after a lawmaker suggested that the investigation may have been “fake”.
Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democratic senator and former prosecutor who serves on the judiciary committee, is calling on the newly-confirmed attorney general, Merrick Garland, to help facilitate “proper oversight” by the Senate into questions about how thoroughly the FBI investigated Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing.
The supreme court justice was accused of sexual assault by Christine Blasey Ford and faced several other allegations of misconduct following Ford’s harrowing testimony of an alleged assault when she and Kavanaugh were in high school.
Kavanaugh denied the claims.
The FBI was called to investigate the allegations during the Senate confirmation process but was later accused by some Democratic senators of conducting an incomplete background check. For example, two key witnesses – Ford and Kavanaugh – were never interviewed as part of the probe.
Among the concerns listed in Whitehouse’s letter to Garland are allegations that some witnesses who wanted to share their accounts with the FBI could not find anyone at the bureau who would accept their testimony and that it had not assigned any individual to accept or gather evidence.
“This was unique behavior in my experience, as the Bureau is usually amenable to information and evidence; but in this matter the shutters were closed, the drawbridge drawn up, and there was no point of entry by which members of the public or Congress could provide information to the FBI,” Whitehouse said.
He added that, once the FBI decided to create a “tip line”, senators were not given any information on how or whether new allegations were processed and evaluated. While senators’ brief review of the allegations gathered by the tip line showed a “stack” of information had come in, there was no further explanation on the steps that had been taken to review the information, Whitehouse said.
“This ‘tip line’ appears to have operated more like a garbage chute, with everything that came down the chute consigned without review to the figurative dumpster,” he said.
Read more of Stephanie Kirchgaessner’s report from Washington DC here: FBI facing allegation that its 2018 background check of Brett Kavanaugh was ‘fake’
Blinken warns China against 'coercion and aggression' during trip to Japan
Secretary of state Antony Blinken is in Japan and has been posting pictures of his trip on social media.
Great discussion with @Secdef, @moteging, & @KishiNobuo on the importance of a free, open, & inclusive Indo-Pacific anchored by universal values & uninhibited by coercive power. We’re committed to cooperation with Japan including as part of the Quad & trilaterally with the ROK. pic.twitter.com/37VkmiMfrR
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) March 16, 2021
Reuters report that Blinken warned China this morning against using “coercion and aggression” as he sought to use this first trip abroad to shore up Asian alliances in the face of growing assertiveness by Beijing.
China’s extensive territorial claims in the East and South China Seas have become a priority issue in an increasingly testy Sino-US relationship and are an important security concern for Japan.
“We will push back, if necessary, when China uses coercion and aggression to get its way,” Blinken said.
His visit to Tokyo with Defense secretary Lloyd Austin is the first overseas visit by top members of President Joe Biden’s cabinet. It follows last week’s summit of the leaders of the Quad grouping of the United States, Japan, Australia and India.
Blinken also expressed concern over the Myanmar military’s attempt to overturn the results of a democratic election, and its crackdown on peaceful protesters, and reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to human rights, adding, “China uses coercion and aggression to systematically erode autonomy in Hong Kong, undercut democracy in Taiwan, abusing human rights in Xinjiang and Tibet.”
The US officials ended the visit with a courtesy call on prime minister Yoshihide Suga, who is set to visit the White House in April as the first foreign leader to meet Biden.
Meetings in Alaska on Thursday will bring together for the first time senior Biden administration officials and their Chinese counterparts to discuss the frayed ties between the world’s top two economies.
In the final hours ahead of the vote on Joe Biden’s Covid relief bill, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia had thrown his fellow Democrats a curveball. He had effectively put the entire bill in jeopardy by possibly joining Republicans on unemployment benefits.
Manchin seemed immovable. The White House legislative affairs team couldn’t get him to relent. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the top Democrat in the chamber, met with him as well, but couldn’t get him to budge, according to two Democrats with knowledge of those discussions. Eventually Manchin and Biden got on the phone directly, twice. The unemployment benefits in the bill were scaled back by a few weeks and the bill regained momentum.
The episode underscores an important dynamic between Schumer and Biden. For decades, the two Democrats have been striving to get the jobs they now have -Schumer as the Senate majority leader under a Democratic president, and Biden the president with his party in control of both chambers of Congress.
But now the two Democrats have to wrangle with a sometimes unruly and razor thin Democratic majority in Congress amid an ongoing global pandemic and a teetering economy. For Biden, successfully accomplishing his policy goals depends on close coordination with Schumer. For Schumer, working with Biden and ushering through his agenda could decide the length of time he’s majority leader or even if he has to worry about a primary challenge from the left.
While Biden and Schumer have run in very powerful Democratic circles and served as second-in-command to party leaders who fostered strong relationships, their history together is comparatively thin for two Democrats who have been in national politics for decades. They have a good relationship, but they aren’t besties.
“Look, are they bosom buddies? No,” said a former Obama administration official. “But is there like a great deal of respect and fondness for one another? Yes. They’re pretty different people but I think they’re mutually fans of each other. This is not a situation where their kids hang out or they go to family barbecues.”
Biden, 78, and Schumer, 71, are Democratic party mainstays. Both are known for their love of retail politicking and talking. Both come from comparatively humble beginnings. Both of them have spent decades in the Senate. And both of them have sometimes aligned more closely with the more moderate wing of the Democratic party and at other times the more liberal wing.
Read more of Daniel Strauss’s report here: Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer – a key relationship to a successful presidency
Biden heads to Pennsylvania in push to sell US Covid relief plan to nation
President Joe Biden is joining top messengers already crisscrossing the country to highlight what they say are the benefits of the Democrat’s Covid-19 rescue plan. The White House have set out a theme for each day, and Tuesday is promoting aid for small businesses.
Biden is set to visit a small business in suburban Philadelphia on Tuesday, his initial trip outside Washington for the “Help is here” tour that got underway yesterday when VP Kamala Harris dropped in on a Covid-19 vaccination site and a culinary academy in Las Vegas, while first lady Dr Jill Biden toured a New Jersey elementary school.
“We want to avoid a situation where people are unaware of what they’re entitled to,” Harris said at the culinary academy. “It’s not selling it; it literally is letting people know their rights. Think of it more as a public education campaign.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, “We want to take some time to engage directly with the American people and make sure they understand the benefits of the package and how it is going to help them get through this difficult period of time.”
The Associated Press report that the White House is wasting no time promoting the $1.9 trillion relief plan, which Biden signed into law last week, looking to build momentum for the rest of his agenda and anxious to avoid the mistakes of 2009 in boosting that year’s recovery effort. Even veterans of Barack Obama’s administration acknowledge they did not do enough then to showcase their massive economic stimulus package.
“Hope is here in real and tangible ways,” Biden said Monday at the White House. He said the new government spending will bankroll efforts that could allow the nation to emerge from the pandemic’s twin crises, health and economic.
“Shots in arms and money in pockets,” the president said. “That’s important. The American Rescue Plan is already doing what it was designed to do: make a difference in people’s everyday lives. We’re just getting started.”
Biden said that within the next 10 days, his administration will clear two important benchmarks: distributing 100 million stimulus payments and administering 100 million vaccine doses since he took office.
Predictably, the sales pitch is leaving Republicans cold. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell dismissed the target of doses that Biden set when he took office as “not some audacious goal” but just the pace that he inherited. And he mocked Biden’s talk of Americans working toward merely being able to gather in small groups by July 4th as “bizarre.”
Updated
Hi and welcome to our live coverage of US politics for today. Here’s a catch-up on where we are, and some of what we have in the diary for today…
- President Joe Biden said his administration was on track to achieve 100 million shots of Covid-19 vaccines since his inauguration and 100 million Covid relief direct payments by 25 March.
- In a historic confirmation, the Senate voted to confirm Deb Haaland as secretary of the interior, making her the first Native American cabinet secretary in US history.
- The defense attorney for Derek Chauvin, who is charged with George Floyd’s murder, asked the judge to delay the trial, saying the announcement by the city of a settlement for Floyd’s family could make a fair trial impossible.
- The FBI is facing new scrutiny for its 2018 background check of Brett Kavanaugh, the supreme court justice, after a lawmaker suggested that the investigation may have been “fake”.
- The Texas state senate passed a bill reversing billions charged by skyrocketing electric bills and overcharges during the storms last month.
- Gavin Newsom of California is sounding a publicly defiant note in the face of a move to recall him from the governorship.
- Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York’s legal counsel released a statement denying that conversations between his “vaccine czar” and local officials were improper.
- Joe Biden will be in Chester, Pennsylvania today at 3.30pm EDT (1930 GMT) to visit a small business and promote his American Rescue Plan.
- Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff are visiting a vaccination clinic in Colorado
- There’s no press briefing at the White House from Jen Psaki today, though she will meet the media aboard Air Force One.
Updated
