Summary
- The Senate passed a $35bn clean water bill that would send much-needed aid to communities in the US that lack access to clean drinking water. Advocates praise the legislation but say that its price tag still does not make up for decades of underinvestment.
- Joe Biden is in Georgia today on his 100th day in office. He paid a private visit to former president Jimmy Carter, who at 96 could not attend Biden’s inauguration due to coronavirus concerns, and held a rally in Duluth this evening.
- A report from the Washington Post says Donald Trump has become obsessed with the audit of election ballots taking place in Arizona. One source said “he talks about it constantly.” Many see the audit as a thinly veiled effort to continue calling Biden’s presidency into question, though there has been no evidence of significant voter fraud in the election.
- While the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act has stalled in the Senate due to Republican opposition, House speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested lawmakers are on a path toward compromise. The White House also said that senior adviser Cedric Richmond, domestic policy advisor Susan Rice, and White House counsel Dana Remus are meeting with the family members and representatives of George Floyd, Eric Garner, Terence Crutcher, Andrew Brown, and Botham Jean to discuss the urgency of passing reform.
– Lauren Aratani and Maanvi Singh
Updated
Why a filibuster showdown in the US Senate is unavoidable
During Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office, there are few issues more pressing than the escalating attack on the right to vote in America. Democrats may be running out of time to address it.
As Republicans have pushed more than 360 bills across the country to restrict access to the ballot, the president and Democrats have strongly condemned those efforts, but they’ve been unable to stop them. Even though Democrats control both chambers of Congress in Washington, they can’t pass a sweeping voting rights bill because they don’t have enough votes to get rid of the filibuster, an arcane senate rule that requires 60 votes to advance legislation. A showdown over the filibuster has loomed over the first 100 days of the Biden administration, but during the next 100 days, it’s clear that a showdown over getting rid of the procedure is unavoidable.
Amanda Litman, the executive director of the Run for Something, a group that recruits candidates for state legislative races, told me this week she thinks some Democrats still don’t fully appreciate how dangerous and consequential the GOP’s ongoing efforts are. “This is really an existential crisis. It’s a five-alarm fire. But I’m not sure it’s quite sunk in for members of the United States Senate or the Democratic party writ large,” she told me.
“If the Senate does not kill the filibuster and pass voting rights reforms … Democrats are going to lose control of the House and likely the Senate forever. You don’t put these worms back into a can. You can’t undo this quite easily,” she added.
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, last week set August as a deadline for Democrats to pass their sweeping voting rights bill, which would require early voting, automatic and same-day registration, among other measures. Ron Klain, Biden’s chief of staff, said the White House supports that effort.
But the window for Democrats to have the most impact with their legislation is rapidly closing. The decennial process of redrawing district lines is set to take place later this year, and a critical portion of the Democratic bill would set new limits to prevent state lawmakers, who have the power to draw the maps, from severely manipulating districts for partisan gain. While it’s probably already too late to set up independent redistricting commissions for this year, Democrats could still pass rules to prevent the most severe partisan manipulation.
Read more:
Florida lawmakers pass ‘cruel’ bill banning trans women and girls in school sports
Transgender women and girls will be banned from participating in school sports in Florida, if the state’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, signs what critics call a “cruel and horrific” bill rushed through by state legislators in a controversial late-night session.
The politicians revived, then passed, the bill that prohibits trans athletes competing in high school and college sports in short order on Wednesday, employing what opponents have called “shady, backroom tactics” to bind it to unrelated legislation on charter schools.
A previous, standalone bill passed the Florida house earlier this month, but died in the state senate after warnings from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) that it would not stage championship games and tournaments in states with discriminatory policies.
“It’s horrific,” said Gina Duncan, the director of transgender equality at Equality Florida. “This bill shows not only their lack of humanity but their astounding ignorance about the transgender community, not understanding that trans girls are girls and transgender women are women.
“Despite impassioned pleas by legislators who have gay and transgender kids and grandkids imploring supporters of this bill to understand the harm that it will do, Republicans followed their marching orders to implement this orchestrated culture war and move this bill forward.”
The move in Florida, where both chambers are controlled by Republicans, is part of a wave of anti-trans legislation sweeping across the nation, with dozens of measures proposed or passed in numerous states.
Read more:
The Senate has confirmed Gayle Manchin as co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission.
Manchin’s husband is Democratic West Virginia senator Joe Manchin; she was nominated to the position by Joe Biden.
The commission works to secure funding and resources for the 13 Appalachian states.
“I am pleased the Senate has confirmed my wife, Gayle Manchin, to lead the Appalachian Regional Commission. ARC is a vital partner to all those working and living in Appalachia, and I know that Gayle will bring the experience and skills necessary to successfully lead the commission as it serves the region,” said Joe Manchin.
Updated
Joe Biden touts 100 days achievements in Georgia rally and is heckled for immigration record
As the president began speaking, protesters interrupted, chanting: “End detention now”.
Biden paused and offered to hand them a microphone, before continuing: “I agree with you.”
“I’m working on it!” he added. “There should be no private detention centers. We are working to close all of them.”
The administration has a mixed record on immigration so far, one that has disappointed many advocates who had applauded his campaign promises to end the detention of migrant families by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) and close private detention facilities.
Updated
The White House said that senior adviser Cedric Richmond, domestic policy advisor Susan Rice, and White House counsel Dana Remus are meeting with the family members and representatives of George Floyd, Eric Garner, Terence Crutcher, Andrew Brown, and Botham Jean.
The meeting is happening in tandem with lawmakers’ efforts to reach a bipartisan agreement on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act - which has stalled due to Republican resistance.
Pelosi has suggested a bipartisan path forward - but activists worry that key portions of the law, including a provision challenging “qualified immunity” protections that make it harder for victims to sue officers, will be dropped in the process.
An alternative path for lawmakers seeking to pass a police reform bill despite Republican opposition would be to eliminate the filibuster.
Updated
‘He did not deserve to die’: anger and protest over Andrew Brown’s killing by police
Lewis Kendall in Elizabeth City reports:
Raising signs, flags and fists, about 200 protesters walked through the streets of Elizabeth City in North Carolina on Wednesday night following a judge’s ruling, which denied the immediate release of police video footage of the killing of Andrew Brown last week.
The evening’s march wound its way through the flat streets of the majority Black city of roughly 18,000 in the state’s coastal plain near the Outer Banks.
The crowd blocked off several intersections, chanting “release the tape” and “20 seconds, not enough,” in reference to the short clip of body-camera footage that Brown’s family have been permitted to see.
“You’re just making it worse by not being transparent,” said Dustin Sidebottom, 50, an Elizabeth City resident who had been arrested protesting on Tuesday but was back on Wednesday, waving a large Black Lives Matter flag.
Sidebottom said officials’ handling of the Brown case had created a breach of trust that will be extremely difficult to repair.
“No matter what he did, he did not deserve to die,” he added.
Brown, a 42-year-old father of seven, was killed as Pasquotank county police attempted to serve search-and-arrest warrants on 21 April, one day after a former Minneapolis police officer was convicted of the murder of George Floyd, and on the heels of several other recent police killings, including the shooting deaths of Adam Toledo, 13, in Chicago and Ma’Khia Bryant, 16, in Columbus, Ohio.
North Carolina has its own history of police killings, including the highly publicized cases of Keith Lamont Scott and Jonathan Ferrell, both in Charlotte.
Through a separate proceeding earlier this week, Brown’s family and lawyers viewed a 20-second clip of body-camera footage, which they said showed officers firing at Brown’s car as he drove away. The family also released the results of a private autopsy, which determined Brown was killed by a gunshot wound to the back of his head.
Read more:
Today so far
Here’s a summary of everything that’s happened today so far:
- The Senate passed a $35bn clean water bill that would send much needed aid to communities in the US that lack access to clean drinking water. Advocates praise the legislation but say that its price tag still does not make up for decades of underinvestment.
- Joe Biden is in Georgia today on his 100th day in office. He paid a private visit to former president Jimmy Carter, who at 96 could not attend Biden’s inauguration due to coronavirus concerns, and will be holding a rally in Duluth this evening.
- A report from the Washington Post says Donald Trump has become obsessed with the audit of election ballots taking place in Arizona. One source said “he talks about it constantly.” Many see the audit as a thinly veiled effort to continue calling Biden’s presidency into question, though there has been no evidence of significant voter fraud in the election.
- While the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act has stalled in the Senate due to Republican opposition, House speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested lawmakers are on a path toward compromise.
Stay tuned for more live updates.
Updated
A rare coalition of supreme court judges sided with an immigrant challenging his deportation in a 6-3 decision released today.
The immigrant, Agusto Niz-Chavez from Guatemala, argued that the justice department violated federal law by giving a deportation notice that did not include a date or time. A second notice he received included the information, but the majority of the judges said in an opinion that the government’s “notice by installment” violated the constitution’s right to fairness and due process.
Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion and was joined by fellow Republican appointees Clarence Thomas and Amy Coney Barrett along with all of the Democratic-appointed judges.
Updated
Joe Biden is currently in Georgia, preparing for a rally he’s holding tonight to commemorate his 100th day in office. Biden took a detour to Plains, Georgia, a small town in the souther half of the state, to visit former president Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn. The 96-year-old former president and his wife, 93, were unable to attend Biden’s inauguration due to coronavirus concerns. The pair have since been vaccinated and have started to attend church services at a nearby Baptist Church.
Reporters were not present for the meeting, but photographers captured the former First Lady at the door of her home as Biden and his wife, Jill, departed.
US Catholic bishops are considering discouraging Joe Biden from receiving Communion for continuing to advocate for abortion rights.
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops will be meeting in June, and the groups plans to clarify its stance on abortion.
Biden is the second practicing Catholic president and the first to be vocally pro-choice.
So far, it’s not looking too good for Biden as the chair of the group’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities said that supporting abortion is “a grave moral evil,” Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City told the Associated Press.
“How can he say he’s a devout Catholic and he’s doing these things that are contrary to the church’s teachings?” he said.
Donald Trump has become obsessed with the unprecedented audit of 2020 election ballots that is taking place in Arizona, according to the Washington Post.
In what many see as a thinly veiled effort to continue calling the presidential election results into question, Republicans in the state have handed over 2.1m ballots and the machines that counted from Maricopa county to private company Cyber Ninjas, whose chief executive has shared unfounded conspiracy theories that the election was stolen.
Given that Trump was on Fox Business this morning claiming that he won the election, it comes as no surprise that the audit in Arizona has caught his attention. The former president asks aides for updates multiple times a day, according to the Post, and “he talks about it constantly”, one source told the newspaper.
There has been no evidence of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election, and voting rights groups have expressed concern that Arizona’s actions will deepen the political divide on election integrity.
Senate passes $35bn clean water bill
The Senate just passed a bill that would send much needed aid to communities that lack clean drinking water and sanitation. Here’s more from Guardian environmental justice reporter Nina Lakhani, who has been following America’s water crisis:
The Senate has passed a bill to begin tackling America’s water crisis by investing $35bn in infrastructure and assistance for low-income households to improve access to clean, affordable drinking water and sanitation.
The Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act 2021, sponsored by Tammy Duckworth, a democratic senator for Illinois and member of the Environment and Public Works (EPW), passed by a vote of 89 to 2. It’s the first major infrastructure legislation passed by the Senate during this Congress and has strong bipartisan support – perhaps reflecting the depth and breadth of the mounting crisis which has left millions of Americans without access to safe drinking water and sanitation. Republicans Ted Cruz and Mike Lee voted against the bill.
The bill authorizes an annual investment of $7bn for the next five years on local projects focused on upgrading aging infrastructure, addressing the threat of climate change to water systems, new technologies, and assistance for underserved communities. It seeks to tackle environmental injustices by targeting grant programs and technical assistance to small, disadvantaged, rural, and tribal communities. This includes money to speed up the replacement of lead pipes and to connect households to water and sanitation services in Alaska rural and Native Villages.
If this bill, which now passes to the House, becomes law and funding is appropriated, it would be the highest annual funding for water since President Obama’s one-time cash infusion as part of his post-Great Recession American recovery stimulus package more than a decade ago.
Overall, the legislation has been welcomed as an important first step by advocacy, trade, local government and environmental justice groups, but they have warned that $35bn will not make up for decades of underinvestment. Federal investment in water systems peaked in 1977, since when local utilities have been left to raise money through higher bills and commercial loans to pay for infrastructure upgrades.
Read more about America’s Water Crisis here.
Updated
A new poll from Monmouth University on the filibuster shows public sentiment on the filibuster, the Senate rule that requires 60 votes to advance major legislation, is almost evenly divided, with 34% of Americans approving of the rule and 34% disapproving of it. The last third of Americans have no opinion, which is unsurprising given that 29% of Americans said in the poll that they have not heard of the filibuster.
With slim control of Congress and a president in the White House, Democrats have what some think is their last opportunity to change the filibuster rule, which would allow them to more easily pass legislation, including a sweeping voting rights bill that would counter voting restrictions states are implementing.
The Democrats’ most conservative senators, including Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, have been staunch opposers of getting rid of the filibuster. Democrats will need to convince them and all other Democratic holdouts to get rid of the rule.
Monmouth polled the filibuster:
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) April 29, 2021
-59% say they’re somewhat or very familiar with it, 41% say they are not familiar with it
-34% approve of it, 34% disapprove of it, 33% have no opinion
-19% say get rid of it entirely, 38% say keep and reform it, 38% say keep it with no changes
Afternoon summary
Here’s a quick summary of today so far:
- House speaker Nancy Pelosi said she’s optimistic that there will be bipartisan compromise on a policing bill that is going through the Senate. A bipartisan group of lawmakers are meeting this afternoon in attempts to compromise on the bill, which has stalled due to GOP resistance
- NYC mayor Bill de Blasio said that the city is planning to “fully reopen” by 1 July. The mayor said he envisions people returning to theaters, offices and restaurants by that time.
- Donald Trump got on the phone with Fox Business news to affirm he won the election and say if it wasn’t for him, “you wouldn’t have a vaccine”.
- The federal government is investigating the possible use of directed energy devices on two US officials in the DC area. The officials reported mysterious brain trauma similar to a syndrome experienced by diplomats and spies abroad.
Stay tuned for more live updates.
Updated
Admittedly adorable moment between Joe Biden and Jill Biden from late in the morning as they prepared to board Marine 1. Biden stops to pluck a dandelion from the ground and hands it to the First Lady.
President Biden stops and picks a dandelion for First Lady Dr. Jill Biden as they board Marine One en route to Georgia. pic.twitter.com/unPZ7nrJU9
— CSPAN (@cspan) April 29, 2021
Donald Trump was pitched the idea of a “Trump Media Group” that would have three divisions all meant to rival current tech companies, according to Axios.
The pitch included the idea of Trump+, a content streaming service similar to Disney+ and Netflix, Trump Social Media, which would rival Facebook and Twitter, and Trump Technologies, which would go against internet services like Amazon Web Services.
Though Trump has expressed interest in starting a rival media company to Fox News, Trump was apparently not a huge fan, and the pitch fell flat.
The CIA, state department and Pentagon are all investigating the possible use of a directed energy device that led to two US officials in the DC area contracting “Havana syndrome” – mysterious brain trauma that American diplomats and spies abroad have suffered. Symptoms include hearing strange sounds, dizziness, nausea, severe headaches and memory loss.
Here’s the Guardian’s Julian Borger on the mysterious cases:
CNN reported on Thursday that two possible incidents on US soil are part of the investigation. One took place in November last year near the Ellipse, the large oval lawn on the south side of the White House, in which an official from the national security council suddenly fell sick.
The other was in 2019 and involved a White House official walking her dog in a Virginia suburb of Washington. That incident was reported in GQ magazine last year.
Officials cautioned that the investigations into these and other incidents have not reached a conclusion.
“The health and wellbeing of American public servants is a paramount priority for the Biden administration. We take all reports of health incidents by our personnel extremely seriously,” a White House spokesperson said.
Pelosi expresses optimism in bipartisan support for George Floyd Justice in Policing Act
House speaker Nancy Pelosi just had a press briefing where she affirmed the Democratic party’s unified support behind Biden’s domestic policy plans. She noted the “historic” moment of having two women standing behind the president during an address to Congress, saying it will “send a message to girls and women that… there is no limit.”
Pelosi also said that she is optimistic there will be progress “in a bipartisan way” on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. The bill, which bans tactics like chokeholds and no-knock warrants on a federal level and ties funding to local police department to such policies, has stalled in the Senate amid Republican opposition. A bipartisan group of lawmakers will meet to discuss the bill.
The speaker also said that all but a quarter of lawmakers in the House have been vaccinated. Pelosi said the House cannot require its members to get vaccinated. “That’s just not what we can do,” she said.
Updated
Ted Cruz published an interesting op-ed in the Wall Street Journal last night saying that the GOP should no longer buddy-up to corporations.
Cruz admitted that in defending corporations, “Republicans usually shrug their shoulders, call these companies ‘job creators,’ and start to cut their taxes.” He also said, “in my nine years in the Senate, I’ve received $2.6 million in contributions from corporate political-action committees.”
“Starting today, I no longer accept money from any corporate PAC. I urge my GOP colleagues at all levels to do the same.”
While this change of heart may make it appear that Cruz is advocating an alignment with their Democratic colleagues who are less friendly to corporations, Cruz said that corporations have started to “attack out values with no response”, referring to the corporations who have come out against Georgia’s new restrictive voting laws last month.
“We’ve let them smear Republicans without paying any price,” he wrote.
New York Magazine pointed out that Cruz was also on Fox News yesterday proclaiming “when the federal government cuts taxes and reduces regulation, we see more and more jobs and wages going up”, meaning it’s unclear what the GOP’s attack on corporations would look like exactly.
New York City mayor says city will 'fully reopen' by 1 July
The New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio, said the city’s plan is to “fully reopen” on 1 July, the mayor told MSNBC this morning.
“We are ready for stores to open, for businesses to open, offices, theaters, full strength,” De Blasio said. “What we’re seeing is people have gotten vaccinated in extraordinary numbers – 6.3m vaccinations in New York City to date.”
“Our plan is to fully reopen New York City on July 1” --@NYCMayor pic.twitter.com/2CqSC9XqJr
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) April 29, 2021
According to city data, just over a third of the city’s population is fully vaccinated.
De Blasio’s push for a summer reopening comes on the heels of announcements from New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, who said yesterday that the state will lift bans on dining curfews and bar seating in May.
Updated
It appears Donald Trump got some air time this morning on Fox Business with Maria Bartiromo to rant about Joe Biden’s first 100 days.
Trump affirmed to Bartiromo, in a nearly hour-long phone call to the host this morning, that he won the presidency. “I’ll tell you what, that election was won by us. It was not won by Biden.” He also criticized the appearance of Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris, who were standing behind Biden while he was addressing Congress last night, saying that their masks made them look “like they were choking”.
Trump also claimed that if he “wasn’t president, you wouldn’t have a vaccine”.
"You didn't tell me this would be the world's longest interview," former President Trump says 54 minutes into a Fox Business phoner with Maria Bartiromo this morning.
— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) April 29, 2021
The political force behind the former president has largely faded away since he left office in January. Trump has been hanging out at his resort in Florida, doing the occasional speech and some interviews with Fox News.
The White House is commending the diversity of Joe Biden’s 1,500 appointees, releasing data on the racial and gender makeup of the new members of the executive branch.
Over half – 58% – of the appointees are women. Nearly half come from diverse racial backgrounds: 18% are Black, 15% are Hispanic and 15% are Asian American or Pacific Islander. Nearly a third of the appointees are naturalized citizens or children of immigrants, and 14% identify as LGBTQ+.
In a press release, the White House gave further details of the specific makeup of certain departments, saying the Department of Labor’s appointees are 70% women and at the Department of Education, a fourth of new appointees were the first in their family to graduate from college.
Many of the department leaders of Biden’s cabinet have been history making, including Janet Yellen, who is the first woman to be Treasury Secretary, Lloyd Austin, the first Black Defense Secretary.
“President Biden’s commitment to representation from communities that haven’t always been at the table can be seen across the federal government,” the White House said in a press release.
Joe Biden marks 100th day in office
Good morning, this is Lauren Aratani with today’s politics live blog.
Today is officially Joe Biden’s 100th day in office. To mark the milestone, the president addressed Congress for the first time last night. In his speech, unveiled his $1.8tn “blue-collar blueprint” to invest in families and education. The package is the second part of the administration’s broader plans for domestic reform. In his party’s rebuttal to Biden’s speech, Republican senator Tim Scott referred to Biden’s plans as “socialist dreams”.
The president will be traveling to Georgia today to meet with former president Jimmy Carter and hold a rally in Duluth celebrating his first 100 days.
Here’s what else we’re watching today:
- A report from the US commerce department showed that the economy soared 6.4% in the first quarter of 2021, suggesting that the US economy is finally on a firm road to recovery.
- After plateauing at just over 60,000 new cases a day, daily coronavirus cases are finally falling, averaging about 55,000 new cases a day in the past week. On the flip side, the US vaccination pace has been slowing.
- The US has advised its citizens inside India to leave the country “as soon as it is safe” given the devastating rise of coronavirus in the country.
Stay tuned for more live updates.
Updated
