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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Maanvi Singh (now), Joan E Greve and Martin Belam (earlier)

Joe Biden condemns Georgia voting law: 'This is Jim Crow in the 21st century' – as it happened

Joe Biden speaks at a press conference.
Joe Biden speaks at a press conference. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

Summary

  • Joe Biden condemned the Georgia law restricting voting access, describing the legislation as “Jim Crow in the 21st century”. “Instead of celebrating the rights of all Georgians to vote or winning campaigns on the merits of their ideas, Republicans in the state instead rushed through an un-American law to deny people the right to vote,” the president said in a statement released this afternoon. “This is Jim Crow in the 21st century. It must end. We have a moral and constitutional obligation to act.”
  • Two voting rights groups have already filed a federal lawsuit against the Georgia bill. The New Georgia Project and Black Voters Matter argued that the law, which was signed by the Republican Governor Brian Kemp last night, violates the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the US constitution.
  • Dominion Voting Systems has filed a $1.6bn defamation lawsuit against Fox News, accusing the network of having “sold a false story of election fraud in order to serve its own commercial purposes, severely injuring Dominion in the process”. Fox has criticized the lawsuit as “baseless” and defended the integrity of its election coverage.
  • The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said she remains “deeply concerned” about coronavirus case numbers, even as vaccinations ramp up across the country. Dr Rochelle Walensky noted coronavirus cases and hospitalizations have slightly increased in recent days. “Please take this moment very seriously,” the CDC director said.

Black farmers speak out against the 'festering wound' of racism in agriculture

For the first time in US history, members of the House agriculture committee heard from Black farmers on the impact of systemic discrimination by the department of agriculture (USDA).

Thursday’s hearing came on the heels of $5bn being allocated to socially disadvantaged farmers of color earlier this month as part of the coronavirus relief and economic stimulus package. The funding – $4bn for debt forgiveness, $1bn for other forms of support – is meant to account for generations of mistreatment of farmers of color by the USDA.

“This festering wound on the soul of agriculture must be healed,” said congressman David Scott of Georgia, who was born on a farm in South Carolina owned by his grandparents and now serves as the first ever Black person to chair the committee.

Black farmers offered familiar testimonies of racism in the industry and from the USDA. Sedrick Rowe, an organic peanut farmer in Georgia, spoke of crop buyers telling him they are done buying peanuts for the day when he shows up. PJ Haynie of the National Black Growers Council told of Black farmers getting by on non-irrigated land while their white neighbors used USDA assistance to irrigate theirs.

Once making up about 14% of US farmers, Black farmers make up less than 2% today. Many were forced out by racist lending practices by the agriculture department that led to vast losses of land, income, profits and generation wealth.

That wealth cannot be regained. Black farmers will never get the land they lost back. But the USDA seems to be trying to foster a renewed trust in the department.

Read more:

The health of millions of Americans may have been affected by weight gain and lack of exercise during the pandemic, even if they have avoided acute dangers of Covid-19 infection, emerging evidence collected by obesity researchers – and the anecdotal experiences of family physicians – suggests.

“Ninety-eight per cent of my day is, ‘You haven’t been exercising, you’ve gained weight, and your diabetes is no longer controlled. We need to help you with that,’” said Dr Andrew Carroll, who is part of a multidisciplinary family medicine practice in Chandler, Arizona. “It’s very rare I’m reducing medications over the last year.”

In several cases, doctors said major factors in worsening health were “lifestyle” factors, such as lack of exercise, poor diet and stress. More than 60% of American family doctors saw an increase in obesity among their patients, according to a survey of 910 doctors by American Academy of Family Physicians.

Weight gain is not necessarily unhealthy in and of itself. However, excess weight is associated with a number of chronic health problems, such as increased risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and certain types of cancer. Obesity is also associated with increased risks from Covid-19.

“The overwhelming stress of living in a pandemic time is really impacting [patients’] medical health significantly,” said Carroll. Typical patients are “gaining weight on the order of 10 to 30lb,” he said.

The immediate impact of Covid-19 in the US has been dire. More than 543,000 Americans have died of Covid-19 and 29 million have been infected. For every person who dies, an estimated nine more grieve. Further, millions of people may experience the potentially disabling effects of “long-haul Covid” or depression from the isolation the pandemic has caused.

Read more:

The governors of Arkansas and Tennessee signed into law measures that ban transgender youth from sports teams this week.

Republican Asa Hutchinson approved the measure, which bans transgender women and girls from competing in girls sports teams at their schools, over objections from child welfare groups and LGBTQ+ advocacy organizattions.

The move is part of a worrying pattern, my colleague Sam Levin writes:

Republican lawmakers in more than 25 US states have advanced legislation banning transgender children from certain sports teams and limiting their access to gender-affirming healthcare.

Trans youth represent just a fraction of the US population – recent estimates suggest they make up 0.7% to 2% of youth. But conservative lawmakers have introduced more than 80 bills regulating their lives in the first three months of 2021, the highest-ever number of anti-trans legislative proposals filed in a single year.

The volume of bills, which have spread in nearly every region of the country, and the coordinated campaigns behind some of them, suggests trans kids’ lives have become a central focus of the GOP culture war following the 2020 presidential election.

Read more:

Los Angeles officials have cleared out a large homeless encampment in a major city park, with police arresting those who refused to leave and detaining reporters covering massive protests.

Authorities first moved Wednesday night to evict unhoused residents at Echo Park Lake, prompting huge protests in support of the more than 100 people who have increasingly camped out at the public park in central LA. Unhoused organizers have said that residents have built a safe community there that the city should not dismantle, while the city has said it has become unsafe and that they were offering shelter to those sleeping in the park.

On Thursday night, during continued protests, LA police department (LAPD) officers detained an anchor and reporter from Spectrum News 1, an LA Times reporter and other independent journalists, prompting widespread backlash.

The reporters were later released. LAPD, which made more than 180 arrests, said the reporters were ordered to disperse. But the journalists have said they repeatedly made clear that they were covering the demonstrations and they couldn’t be confined to a “media pen” away from the protests. National Lawyers Guild legal observers were also detained and released. The Times reported that the final two unhoused residents who did not leave Echo Park were arrested Friday morning.

The park has become a major battleground in the city’s worsening housing homelessness crisis during the pandemic, with activists urging the city to stop spending resources on policing unhoused people and instead prioritize long-term housing. Our earlier coverage:

Updated

Ban on US water shutoffs could have prevented thousands of Covid deaths – study

A national moratorium on water shutoffs could have prevented almost half a million Covid infections and saved at least 9,000 lives, according to new research.

Good hygiene is essential to preventing the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus. Amid pressure from public health experts and rights groups, hundreds of utilities and states suspended disconnections for overdue bills to ensure households kept running water for hand-washing and sanitation.

But many refused, others let the bans expire after a few months, and Congress refused to step in with a national moratorium. By the end of 2020, 211 million Americans – including a disproportionate number of households of color – faced the threat of having their taps turned off during the worst public health and economic crisis in modern history.

This patchwork protection cost thousands of American lives between April and December last year, according to research by Cornell University and the national advocacy group Food & Water Watch (FWW).

Researchers found that states which suspended disconnections significantly reduced their growth rates of Covid infections and deaths, compared to states without similar orders. The biggest reduction was seen in states with comprehensive bans covering all private and public utilities.

If similar policies had been adopted across the US, the study model shows that Covid cases might have been reduced by 4% and deaths by 5.5% in the 41 states without a full moratorium.

“This research clearly shows us that the pain and suffering caused by the pandemic was exacerbated by political leaders who failed to take action to keep the water flowing for struggling families,” said Wenonah Hauter, FWW’s executive director.

The findings come amid growing pressure on Michigan and New York state officials to extend their state moratoriums, both of which expire at the end of March. Failure to do so would leave a further 27 million people at risk of losing their water supplies for unpaid bills, as concerns grow about a potential third wave.

Advocates are also urging Joe Biden to impose a national moratorium and make water a priority in the forthcoming infrastructure bill.

Read more:

Hi there, it’s Maanvi Singh – blogging from the west coast.

Joe Biden spoke with Boris Johnson today.

The two leaders spoke about global health security, and “discussed the importance of developing ambitious climate goals” the White House said. Here’s the official readout of the call:

They discussed the importance of developing ambitious climate goals, noting the opportunities provided by the Leaders Summit on Climate and the UK’s G7 presidency. They agreed to work closely together on shared foreign policy priorities, including China and Iran. The leaders also affirmed the importance of preserving political stability in Northern Ireland.

A further note on those “foreign policy priorities”:

After the US and Britain, along with the European Union and Canada, imposed sanctions on Chinese officials accused of involvement in widespread abuses against Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, China responded with counter-sanctions against British and EU officials.

“The prime minister and president reflected on the significant action taken by the UK, US and other international partners earlier this week to impose sanctions on human rights violators in Xinjiang and expressed their concern about retaliatory action taken by China,” a spokesman for Johnson said.

Updated

Today so far

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

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • Joe Biden condemned the Georgia law restricting voting access, describing the legislation as “Jim Crow in the 21st century”. “Instead of celebrating the rights of all Georgians to vote or winning campaigns on the merits of their ideas, Republicans in the state instead rushed through an un-American law to deny people the right to vote,” the president said in a statement released this afternoon. “This is Jim Crow in the 21st century. It must end. We have a moral and constitutional obligation to act.”
  • Two voting rights groups have already filed a federal lawsuit against the Georgia bill. The New Georgia Project and Black Voters Matter argued that the law, which was signed by the Republican Governor Brian Kemp last night, violates the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the US constitution.
  • Dominion Voting Systems has filed a $1.6bn defamation lawsuit against Fox News, accusing the network of having “sold a false story of election fraud in order to serve its own commercial purposes, severely injuring Dominion in the process”. Fox has criticized the lawsuit as “baseless” and defended the integrity of its election coverage.
  • The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said she remains “deeply concerned” about coronavirus case numbers, even as vaccinations ramp up across the country. Dr Rochelle Walensky noted coronavirus cases and hospitalizations have slightly increased in recent days. “Please take this moment very seriously,” the CDC director said.

Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Updated

After arriving in Delaware moments ago, Joe Biden spoke to reporters about the Georgia voting law for a few minutes.

Asked about what action he might be able to take on voting rights, the president said, “We’re working on that right now. We don’t know quite exactly what we can do at this point. The Justice Department’s taking a look as well.”

A reporter then asked Biden whether the need for voting rights legislation changed the calculus on eliminating the Senate filibuster.

“Well, look, we’ll see. ... You have to have 50 votes, 51 votes,” Biden said. “Right now, that doesn’t exist. That doesn’t exist. So you know, look, the only thing I’ve been relatively good at in my long career in the Senate is figuring out when to move and when not to move. You got to have the votes.”

As of now, at least two Democratic senators -- Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona -- have indicated they do not support eliminating the filibuster.

Joe Biden has invited 40 world leaders to a virtual summit on climate change next month, the White House just announced.

“The Leaders Summit on Climate will underscore the urgency – and the economic benefits – of stronger climate action. It will be a key milestone on the road to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) this November in Glasgow,” the White House said in a statement.

“By the time of the Summit, the United States will announce an ambitious 2030 emissions target as its new Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement. In his invitation, the President urged leaders to use the Summit as an opportunity to outline how their countries also will contribute to stronger climate ambition.”

The list of invited leaders includes Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, although it’s unclear whether they will attend.

The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:

Activists in Georgia vowed on Friday to keep up an aggressive campaign to pressure Republicans over their support for the law restricting voting access, saying they were undeterred by its final passage through the legislature.

Two voting rights groups, the New Georgia Project and Black Voters Matter, filed a federal lawsuit challenging the law hours after Governor Brian Kemp signed it Thursday evening. They say the law violates both the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the US constitution, noting that provisions in it “serve no legitimate purpose other than to make absentee, early, and election-day voting more difficult – especially for minority voters.”

Several more lawsuits are expected in the coming days.

“We are filing this lawsuit for one simple reason: SB 202 should be classified as a violation of voting rights. It is a violation of our dignity and our power,” Nse Ufot, chief executive of the New Georgia Project, said in a statement.

“Georgia’s Black, Brown, young, and new voters are here to stay. We will organize, knock on doors, and show up to the polls ten times over. And we will fight for solutions and progress for all Georgia voters.”

The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, argued the Georgia law restricting voter access underscored the need to pass the For the People Act.

The Democratic-controlled House passed the election reform legislation earlier this month.

“We saw it in Georgia last night. We see it across the country,” Schumer said in a tweet. “A concerted, nationwide and racist effort by Republican state legislatures to limit the right of American citizens to vote. The #ForThePeople Act is a priority of this Congress to fight this and renew Democracy.”

With the filibuster in place, it will be very difficult for Senate Democrats to get the For the People Act passed because they will need to convince 10 of their Republican colleagues to join them in supporting the bill.

Many Republican senators have already signaled they do not support the election reforms proposed in the legislation.

Updated

Joe Biden continued to condemn the Georgia voting law moments ago, as he departed the White House to travel to his home state of Delaware for the weekend.

“It’s an atrocity,” the president said of the Georgia law, adding that the legislation was “designed to keep people from voting”.

Biden specifically cited the provision prohibiting people from giving water to voters waiting in line as inhumane.

“You don’t need anything else to know that this is nothing but punitive,” Biden said. “You can’t provide water for people about to vote. Give me a break.”

The president is traveling to Delaware with his son, Hunter, and Hunter’s wife and son.

Updated

The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said this afternoon that Joe Biden intended to release a statement about the Georgia law.

Psaki was also asked about the arrest of Park Cannon, the Democratic state legislator who was handcuffed while trying to watch Governor Brian Kemp sign the controversial bill yesterday.

“Anyone who saw that video would have been deeply concerned by the actions that were taken by law enforcement to arrest her,” Psaki said of Cannon.

“The largest concern here, obviously beyond her being treated in the manner she was, which is of course of great concern, is the law that was put into place,” the press secretary added. “It should not be harder, it should be easier to vote.”

Joe Biden concluded his statement on the Georgia law by arguing that the American people should get to decide the future of US voting laws.

“I will take my case to the American people – including Republicans who joined the broadest coalition of voters ever in this past election to put country before party,” the president said.

“If you have the best ideas, you have nothing to hide. Let the people vote.”

Polls have showed that a broad majority of Americans support some of the voting policies that Democrats have proposed, including same-day voter registration and automatic registration.

Joe Biden similarly criticized the Republican efforts to restrict voting access yesterday, during his first presidential press conference.

“What I’m worried about is how un-American this whole initiative is. It’s sick. It’s sick,” the president told reporters. “This makes Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle.”

The Republican governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, signed the bill restricting voting access into law hours later.

Biden condemns Georgia voting law: 'This is Jim Crow in the 21st century'

Joe Biden has just released a statement condemning the Georgia bill restricting voting access, which the Republican Governor Brian Kemp signed into law yesterday.

The president noted that Republican legislators in Georgia and across the country are trying to make it harder to vote, after the US saw record turnout in the November elections.

“Instead of celebrating the rights of all Georgians to vote or winning campaigns on the merits of their ideas, Republicans in the state instead rushed through an un-American law to deny people the right to vote,” Biden said.

The president lambasted the Georgia law as “a blatant attack on the constitution and good conscience”.

“This is Jim Crow in the 21st century. It must end. We have a moral and constitutional obligation to act,” Biden said.

He called on Congress to pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to make it easier for all Americans to cast their ballots.

Many Senate Republicans have already said they oppose those bills, making their passage very unlikely – unless the filibuster is eliminated.

Updated

“Democracy is in a 911 emergency” in Georgia, Democratic US Senator Raphael Warnock warns, after the Republican-controlled state legislature passed sweeping voter restriction legislation.

Georgia governor Brian Kemp signed the legislation last night, surrounded by white men and with a painting in the background showing a plantation which had relied on enslaved people in the antebellum south.

Warnock said the legislation was an effort to to “arrest the voices and the votes of the people. It will not stand.”

“So what’s the purpose behind all of this? So you’re literally going to make public policy based on a lie? Based on the feeling that some people have that things didn’t turn out the way they should have turned out? Is that how we make public policy?” Warnock said.

He said Republicans in the state were trying to “cherry-pick their voters,” adding that “our democracy is in a 911 emergency.”

Meanwhile, take a look at this whole thread.

Updated

In the latest on the mass shooting in Boulder, Colorado, earlier this week, the authorities have announced that the suspect who opened fire in a supermarket bought his assault rifle legally.

Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold briefs the media on the ongoing investigation into the King Soopers grocery store shooting that left 10 people dead on Monday.
Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold briefs the media on the ongoing investigation into the King Soopers grocery store shooting that left 10 people dead on Monday. Photograph: PJ Heller/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock

The Associated Press has the latest:

The suspect in the Colorado supermarket shootings bought a firearm at a local gun store after passing a background check, and he also had a second weapon with him that he didn’t use in the attack that killed 10 people this week, authorities and the gun store owner said Friday.

Investigators are working to determine the motive for the shooting, but they don’t know yet why the suspect chose the store in Boulder or what led him to carry out the rampage, Police Chief Maris Herold said at a news conference.

“Like the rest of the community, we too want to know why why that King Soopers, why Boulder, why Monday,” Herold said.

“Unfortunately, at this time, we still don’t have those answers.”
Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said the quick response by officers kept others inside the store out of danger, but he declined to say how many people were there.

Investigators have an idea of how many shots were fired in the gun battle between officers and the suspect, but aren’t revealing it yet, Dougherty said.

The officer who was the first on scene was killed.
“Their actions saved other civilians from being killed,” Dougherty said about the officers. “They charged into the store and immediately faced a very significant amount of gunfire from the shooter, who at first they were unable to locate.”

More charges will be filed against the suspect, 21-year-old Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, in the coming weeks in connection with the shots fired at officers, Dougherty said.

John Mark Eagleton, owner of Eagles Nest Armory in the Denver suburb of Arvada, said in a statement that his store was cooperating with authorities as they investigate.

The suspect passed a background check conducted by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation before purchasing a gun, Eagleton said.

While Joe Biden made it very clear yesterday that getting control of the coronavirus pandemic is his No 1 priority, he has been emphatic that Congress should pass gun control legislation.

Here’s more on all this from my colleague Ed Pilkington.

Updated

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has selected the commander of the District of Columbia National Guard, William Walker, to become the next House of Representatives sergeant-at-arms.

General Walker would represent the first African American for the post, which is responsible for the chamber’s safety, as Congress overhauls its security arrangements in the wake of the Capitol insurrection by supporters of then-president Donald Trump on January 6.

At a Senate hearing on the Capitol insurrection on March 3, Walker had testified, as commander of the DC National Guard, that on January 6 he was required to receive Pentagon approval before deploying Guard troops to assist as police at the Capitol were becoming outnumbered by rioters.

Walker noted at the time that such an approval process was required for the summer protests in DC, following the police killing of George Floyd. During those protests, Walker was able to quickly deploy guard troops himself.

The general said his ability to deploy a quick-reaction force was restricted by acting defense secretary Christopher Miller on 5 January, the day before the insurrection.

Walker said that, if he had the ability to deploy a quick-reaction force, “I would have sent them there immediately as soon as I hung up” with US Capitol police chief Steven Sund.

Walker added he was “stunned” by the laborious approval process for troop deployment because he had never seen anything like it in his 19 years of service.

The commanding general previously testified that it took more than three hours to receive approval from the Pentagon to deploy guard troops on 6 January.

If Walker had the ability to deploy a quick-reaction force, he could have sent 150 troops to the Capitol in 20 minutes, he told senators.

Today so far

The White House press briefing has now concluded. Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • Georgia’s governor signed a bill imposing restrictions on voting access in the state, after Democrats saw victories there in November. Governor Brian Kemp signed the bill amid widespread outcry over the legislation, and one Democratic state legislator, Park Cannon, was arrested while attempting to attend the bill-signing ceremony. Joe Biden is expected to release a statement on the legislation later this afternoon.
  • Dominion Voting Systems has filed a $1.6bn defamation lawsuit against Fox News, accusing the network of having “sold a false story of election fraud in order to serve its own commercial purposes, severely injuring Dominion in the process”. Fox has criticized the lawsuit as “baseless” and defended the integrity of its election coverage.
  • The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said she remains “deeply concerned” about coronavirus case numbers, even as vaccinations ramp up across the country. Dr Rochelle Walensky noted coronavirus cases and hospitalizations have slightly increased in recent days. “Please take this moment very seriously,” the CDC director said.

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

Updated

Jen Psaki was asked about the news that a nine-year-old child from Mexico died last week while trying to reach the US border.

The press secretary said the tragic news was a reminder of how dangerous the journey to the border is, and she reiterated that now is not the time to come to the US.

Psaki urged Democrats and Republicans in Congress to work together to help address the recent increase in unaccompanied migrant children attempting to enter the US.

“This is not a partisan issue,” Psaki said. “This is an issue where we’re talking about people’s lives, children’s lives.”

Jen Psaki reiterated Joe Biden’s comments yesterday that Republican attacks on voting rights are “un-American”.

“It is not something that should be a part of society in any regard,” the press secretary said. “We will certainly continue to vocalize that.”

Psaki noted Biden met with voting rights leader Stacey Abrams when he traveled to Georgia last week, and she said the president will continue to engage with members of Congress to help move voting rights legislation forward.

Jen Psaki was asked for Joe Biden’s reaction to the arrest of Park Cannon, the Georgia state legislator who was handcuffed while trying to watch Governor Brian Kemp sign the controversial voting bill into law.

“Anyone who saw that video would have been deeply concerned by the actions that were taken by law enforcement to arrest her,” Psaki said.

The press secretary added, “The largest concern here, obviously beyond her being treated in the manner she was, which is of course of great concern, is the law that was put into place. ... It should not be harder, it should be easier to vote.”

Psaki said the president will release a statement on the Georgia voting law later today.

Updated

Joe Biden still intends to sign executive orders to address gun violence, but he has not yet determined when he will do so, Jen Psaki said.

The press secretary said the president still believes there are opportunities to engage with Congress when it comes to passing stricter gun regulations.

Biden has come under increased pressure to take executive action on gun violence since the mass shootings in Atlanta and Boulder.

Jen Psaki was asked about Joe Biden’s opinion on the comments from Dr Robert Redfield, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Redfield recently told CNN that he believed coronavirus may have originated in a Chinese lab.

Psaki noted the World Health Organization is currently examining the origins of coronavirus and is expected to soon release a report on the issue.

“We’ll look closely at that information when it’s available,” Psaki said.

Speaking at the coronavirus response team’s briefing earlier today, Dr Anthony Fauci expressed skepticism about Redfield’s comments, noting that many health experts have dismissed the lab theory.

Asked whether Joe Biden would consider taking executive action on voting rights, Jen Psaki said the president will “continue to review options in that regard”.

The press secretary noted Biden planned to release a statement on the voting law that Georgia’s governor just signed into law. Psaki said Biden was particularly dismayed by restrictions on offering water to people waiting in line to vote.

During his first presidential press conference yesterday, Biden said Republican efforts to curtail voting rights were “sick”.

The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, is now holding her daily briefing with reporters.

Psaki opened the briefing by noting Kamala Harris is in New Haven, Connecticut, with the secretary of education today to highlight the benefits of the coronavirus relief bill.

Specifically, the vice-president will bring attention to the bill’s expected impact on lowering child poverty and expanding childcare options, allowing more women to enter (or reenter) the workforce.

Fox criticizes 'baseless' Dominion lawsuit and defends election coverage

Fox News has issued a response to the $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems this morning.

“FOX News Media is proud of our 2020 election coverage, which stands in the highest tradition of American journalism, and will vigorously defend against this baseless lawsuit in court,” the network said in a statement.

In its lawsuit, Dominion claimed that Fox “sold a false story of election fraud in order to serve its own commercial purposes, severely injuring Dominion in the process”.

The lawsuit marks Dominion’s first defamation lawsuit against a media outlet, although it has filed similar lawsuits against some of Donald Trump’s allies who leveled fraud accusations against the company.

Rudy Giuliani, the former president’s personal attorney; Sidney Powell, a former member of Trump’s legal team; and Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, are also facing Dominion lawsuits.

Mitt Romney has won the Profile in Courage Award, which is bestowed by the family of President John F Kennedy on politicians who risk their careers by embracing unpopular positions in service of the common good.

Mitt Romney.
Mitt Romney. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

The Utah senator twice voted to convict Donald Trump in impeachment trials: the first time in 2020 over approaches to Ukraine for dirt on political rivals, the second this year for inciting the Capitol attack.

Six other Republican senators voted for Trump’s guilt in the second instance (rendering the other 43, in Rick Wilson’s memorable phrase, “Profiles in Chickenshit”) but Romney was alone in the first, a fact which won him the Kennedy award.

The former venture capitalist, Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican presidential nominee told NBC there was “no question, there are a few people that are not happy with me” in the Republican party.

“I understand that that’s the nature of the job that I’ve got,” he said.

We swore, under God, that we would apply impartial justice. I took that very, very seriously. I listened to the various testimonies that were provided … and I felt that that was a severe enough violation of his oath of office to require a guilty verdict.

Romney is a unique figure in US politics, seen by many on the left, as the liberal columnist Molly Jong-Fast put it to the Guardian recently, as “a very good-faith actor” and therefore a rare Republican open to working across the aisle, yet also a doctrinaire conservative who for just one example had no problem backing Mitch McConnell’s more-than-slightly hardball decision to ram Amy Coney Barrett on to the supreme court shortly before last year’s election, a decision which tipped the court 6-3 to the (hard) right.

Speaking to NBC, Romney said there was “some irony” in his receiving the Kennedy award, because in 1994 he ran for the US Senate against JFK’s younger brother, Ted Kennedy – and lost.

“We became very good friends as time went on and actually collaborated together on a piece of legislation to provide healthcare to all the citizens of our state,” Romney said, referring to the reform he enacted in 2006 in Massachusetts, a rather Obamacare-esque gambit which is another source of lasting suspicion on the right.

“I think common ground is the best way to unify the country,” Romney said. “I’m afraid if the president of either party instead just follows the demands of the most aggressive wing in his party, you may have that wing satisfied but the nation has become more divided. You’ve got to find common ground and work with people in both parties and get answers to issues that are bipartisan.”

Romney has something else in common with JFK, at least in a literary sense. When he has published books, he has had help in the writing. In 1957, famously or perhaps infamously, Kennedy won a Pulitzer prize for his book, Profiles in Courage. Other people, however, most prominently the speechwriter Ted Sorensen, wrote almost all of it.

In case you missed it: Donald Trump falsely said the Capitol insurrectionists posed “zero threat” to lawmakers.

Speaking to Fox News’ Laura Ingraham last night, the former president complained that law enforcement officials were “persecuting” those who participated in the insurrection, which resulted in five deaths.

While acknowledging the rioters “went in and they shouldn’t have done it,” Trump argued they had “great relationships” with the law enforcement officers on Capitol Hill.

“Some of them went in and they’re, they’re hugging and kissing the police and the guards,” Trump said. “You know, they had great relationships. A lot of the people were waved in and then they walked in and they walked out.”

One Capitol Police officer, Brian Sicknick, died as a result of his injuries from the insurrection. Two men have now been charged for allegedly assaulting Sicknick with bear spray.

Trump was impeached by the House for inciting the Capitol insurrection, and 57 senators voted to convict him on the charge, although that fell short of the two-thirds majority needed for conviction.

Customs and border patrol said a 9-year-old child from Mexico died last week while trying to reach the US border.

“U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to Del Rio Sector’s Marine Unit rescued two migrants attempting to cross the Rio Grande, Mar. 20. U.S. Border Patrol Marine Unit agents responded to assist three individuals stranded on an island on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande River,” the agency said in a statement released yesterday.

Border agents administered first aid to the three migrants. Two of them, a woman from Guatemala and her three-year-old child, regained consciousness, but the third, a child from Mexico, did not and was later pronounced dead by medical professions.

“We extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of this small child,” Del Rio sector chief patrol agent Austin L. Skero II said in the statement.

The heartbreaking news comes as border officials have reported an increase in the number of migrants, particularly unaccompanied migrant children, attempting to enter the US.

Joe Biden was pressed on his administration’s response to the migrant increase during his first presidential press conference yesterday. Biden announced earlier this week that he had put Vice-President Kamala Harris in charge of stemming the wave of migration to the US.

Democrats call for $1bn shift from missile program to universal vaccine

Congressional Democrats are introducing legislation to transfer $1bn in funding from a controversial new intercontinental ballistic missile to the development of a universal Covid vaccine.

The Investing in Cures Before Missiles (ICBM) Act, introduced in the House and Senate on Friday, would stop funding on the proposed new missile, known as the ground-based strategic deterrent (GBSD) which is projected to cost a total of $264bn over its projected lifespan, and discontinue spending on a linked warhead modification program.

Instead, the life of the existing US intercontinental ballistic missile, the Minuteman III, would be extended until 2050, and an independent study commissioned on how best to do that.

“The United States should invest in a vaccine of mass prevention before another new land-based weapon of mass destruction,” Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts, co-author of the bill, said.

“The ICBM Act makes clear that we can begin to phase out the cold-war nuclear posture that risks accidental nuclear war while still deterring adversaries and assuring allies, and redirect those savings to the clear and present dangers presented by coronaviruses and other emerging and infectious diseases.”

Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, closed the briefing by reiterating the need to remain vigilant about limiting the spread of the virus.

Echoing Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Zients acknowledged that Americans are experiencing fatigue a year into the pandemic.

“We certainly understand that people are tired,” Zients said. “But we can’t let down our guard.”

The coronavirus response team said the White House expected the three approved vaccine producers to meet their first-quarter supply goals.

That is particularly surprising when it comes to Johnson & Johnson, which had promised to deliver 20 million vaccine doses by the end of the month.

Earlier this week, White House officials sounded skeptical that Johnson & Johnson would be able to meet that goal, but it appears the company will be successful on that front.

Dr Anthony Fauci was asked about comments from Dr Robert Redfield, who told CNN that he believes coronavirus may have originated in a Chinese lab.

Fauci expressed skepticism about that theory, and other public health experts have previously dismissed such speculation.

Fauci added that most experts believe coronavirus was circulating in Wuhan for about a month before it was clinically recognized.

CDC director remains 'deeply concerned' about coronavirus case numbers

Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, provided an update on the US coronavirus caseload.

Walensky noted the US recorded an average of about 57,000 new cases a day over the past week, representing an increase of about 7% from the previous week.

Coronavirus hospitalizations have also slightly increased, and the US daily death toll continues to hover at around 1,000 deaths per day.

Walensky warned that, despite the encouraging data about vaccination rates, the US risks losing hard-earned ground in the fight against coronavirus if these numbers do not decline.

“I remain deeply concerned about this trajectory,” Walensky said. “Please take this moment very seriously.”

The White House announced it will establish three new federally funded coronavirus vaccination sites over the coming days.

The sites will be located in Boston, Massachusetts; Norfolk, Virginia; and Newark, New Jersey.

White House officials have previously said that such federal sites are a part of their strategy to develop a more equitable pandemic response, as a higher proportion of shots at these sites go to people of color.

Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said that 71% of those 65 and older have now received at least one vaccine dose.

That is a major achievement, given that older people are more likely to become severely ill after contracting coronavirus.

“It is clear that there is a case for optimism, but there is not a case for relaxation,” Zients said, emphasizing the need to continue taking precautions to limit the spread of the virus.

Half of all US adults to receive at least one vaccine dose by 29 April

The White House coronavirus response team is now holding a briefing to deliver an update on the vaccine distribution process.

Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, opened the briefing by noting Joe Biden’s new goal to have administered 200 million vaccine doses by his 100th day in office.

Meeting such a goal would mean that more than half of all adult Americans will have received at least one vaccine dose by 29 April, Zients noted.

“No one even contemplated reaching this goal a few months ago,” Zients said. “But it’s now possible.”

About 2.5 million Americans are being vaccinated each day, Zients added, and the country must keep up this pace for the next five weeks to meet the 200 million goal.

For reference, that is the equivalent of vaccinating the entire population of the city of Houston every day.

“That’s the scale of this effort each and every day,” Zients said. “No country has ever vaccinated this many people this fast.”

Updated

The Guardian’s Daniel Strauss reports:

A steady stream of federal lawmakers have been trickling into Alabama to cheer on workers hoping to unionize at an Amazon Inc warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, cementing the union drive as the highest profile American labor fight in recent memory.

The labor push has seen a stream of Democrats but even won the support of some Republicans who are keen to posit their party as one that backs the working class – and whose top leaders are also hostile to Amazon owner Jeff Bezos.

On Friday, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, one of the most influential progressive lawmakers in American politics, is scheduled to appear alongside a small set of other liberal figures at a public event to meet Amazon workers looking to unionize.

Sanders’ visit follows congresspeople Andy Levin of Michigan, Jamaal Bowman of New York, Cori Bush of Missouri, Nikema Williams of Georgia, joining congresswoman Terri Sewell of Alabama in traveling to the warehouse in support of the unionizing efforts.

Joe Biden has also suggested support for unionization, albeit rather opaquely.

Joe Biden is nominating Gayle Conelly Manchin, the wife of Senator Joe Manchin, to serve as a federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission.

“An educator from West Virginia, Gayle Manchin worked in Marion County Schools, served on the faculty of Fairmont State University, and was the Director of the university’s first Community Service Learning Program,” the White House said in its statement about the nomination.

“Gayle Conelly Manchin attended West Virginia University, attaining her Bachelor of Arts in Language Arts and Education and a Master of Arts in Reading, and a second master’s specialization in Educational Technology Leadership from Salem International University. While at WVU, Gayle met and married Joe Manchin, III, elected as US Senator from West Virginia, to fill the unexpired term of Senator Robert C Byrd in 2010, and re-elected in 2012, and 2018 for full terms. Joe and Gayle have been married for 53 years and have three children and ten grandchildren.”

Manchin, a Democrat of West Virginia, is key to Biden’s legislative agenda, given Democrats’ narrow majority in the Senate. Manchin could also determine whether Democrats are able to alter the Senate filibuster. The West Virginia senator has indicated he is hesitant to eliminate the filibuster entirely.

This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.

The White House coronavirus response team will hold a briefing in about an hour to provide an update on the vaccine distribution process.

The briefing comes one day after Joe Biden announced a new goal to administer 200 million vaccine doses over his first 100 days in office, doubling his initial pledge.

The president’s announcement came a week after the US achieved his original goal of 100 million doses, weeks ahead of schedule.

The coronavirus response team said on Wednesday that the country administered an average of 2.49 million doses a day over the previous week, so the US is on track to meet Biden’s new goal.

The briefing will start in about an hour, and the blog will have updates and analysis on it, so stay tuned.

Fox News – for some reason – aren’t carrying news of Dominion Voting’s lawsuit against them [see 7.20am] on their website homepage at the moment. They are however majoring on saying that President Joe Biden was using “cheat sheets” at yesterday’s press conference.

It has been a repeated Republican refrain that Biden has needed assistance at press events, including conspiracy theories alleging that he has secretly used earpieces to have answers dictated to him.

Joe Biden speaks during the first formal press conference of his presidency.
Joe Biden speaks during the first formal press conference of his presidency. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

Thomas Barrabi writes:

President Biden referenced “cheat sheets” detailing key policy points and the identities of attending journalists when he conducted the first formal press conference of his presidency on Thursday.

Photos taken at the event showed Biden holding a card labeled “infrastructure,” with key statistics and talking points. One bullet point noted that “China spends 3 times more on infrastructure than US”

In another photo, Biden was seen consulting a sheet that appeared to show the pictures and news outlets of journalists who attended his press conference. Some of the pictured reporters had a circled number next to their images.

Former president Donald Trump was, of course, no stranger to needing notes during his presidency. He held one which said “I want nothing. I want nothing” in the run-up to his first impeachment trial.

A close-up view of US President Donald J. Trump’s notes.
A close-up view of US President Donald J. Trump’s notes. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

In 2018 Trump was pictured with notes that appeared to be a reminder for him to show empathy to school shooting survivors visiting the White House.

President Donald Trump holds notes during a listening session with high school students.
President Donald Trump holds notes during a listening session with high school students. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP

That’s it from me, Martin Belam. I’m handing over to Joan Greve in Washington now to take you through the rest of the day. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you again soon…

Our Politics Weekly Extra podcast this week looks at the Republican party’s problem with race. Jonathan Freedland speaks to Michael Steele, a former chair of the Republican national committee. The pair discuss why he chose to campaign for a Joe Biden victory, and how the Republicans are getting it wrong when it comes to Black and minority voters.

Still a Republican, Steele believes his party needs to abandon its recent populist rhetoric and widen the net of potential voters beyond older white Americans. As he explains in this fascinating interview with Jonathan, if it doesn’t do so, the party could rue the decision for years to come.

US Senator Mitt Romney was awarded the Profile in Courage Award on Friday for his decision to split with his party by becoming the only Republican to vote to convict former President Donald Trump during his first impeachment trial in February 2020.

“I’m very appreciative of the honor, but also humbled by it…I sleep well because I know that I did what my conscience told me was the right thing to do,” the senator from Utah told NBC’s Today.

The Profile in Courage Award was created by the family of the late President John F. Kennedy to honor public figures who risk their careers by embracing unpopular positions for the greater good, reports AP.

Trump’s first trial in 2020 focused on the former president’s relationship with Ukraine. Romney became the first senator in US history to vote for the conviction of a president who belonged to his own party, and was subject to intense criticism by Trump’s supporters.

Republican Senator from Utah Mitt Romney walks to the Senate floor. He voted to impeach Donald Trump twice.
Republican Senator from Utah Mitt Romney walks to the Senate floor. He voted to impeach Donald Trump twice. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

Senator Romney again voted to convict Trump at his second impeachment trial earlier this year. Trump was ultimately acquitted after a 55-45 vote, with Romney being one of five Republicans along with Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania who voted to impeach.

However, Romney wasn’t always prepared to oppose Trump on key votes and his decision to support the advancement of Trump’s supreme court nominee was a major factor in the eventual nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the court.

Award-winning investigative journalist David Sirota has written his column for us today, talking about how outdated filibuster rules allow a small minority of the US population to hold the rest of the country hostage:

Right now, the 50 Senate Democrats represent roughly 61% of the country’s population, according to census data. The 50 Senate Republicans represent just 49% of the population. All of the Republicans plus Manchin (the Democrat most likely to oppose progressive legislation) represent less than half the country’s population. And yet in a filibuster-free Senate, they could still use a simple-majority vote to stop anything pushed by 49 Senate Democrats who represent 61% of the country. (Note: the percentages don’t add up to 100 because six states have one Democratic and one Republican senator.)

If you happen to be one of those constitutional originalists worried about preserving the power of small states, don’t fret. The power imbalance becomes more pronounced when you take party out of the equation and just look at states with the least population. A whopping 52 senators from the least populated states currently represent just 17% of America’s total population – but they would still be able to stop all legislation in a filibuster-free Senate under simple-majority rules.

A different way to consider the situation is to think of each American being represented by two Senate votes. Right now, 49 Democrats represent 56% of all those votes. The Republican-Manchin caucus represents just 43% of all of those Senate votes. But again, even without the filibuster, conservatives would have 51 Senate votes to stop anything.

These numbers actually understate the situation. That’s because while senators technically represent their entire states, they only need half the voter turnout in their states to actually get into the Senate.

Read more here: David Sirota – Just how severe will America’s minority rule become?

President Joe Biden pushed back against suggestions that his administration’s policies are responsible for the rising number of people seeking to enter the country at his press conference since taking office.

Pressed repeatedly on the border issue, Biden hit back, saying his administration was taking steps to address the situation, reports Ben Fox for AP.

He noted that his administration, as was done under President Donald Trump, is continuing to quickly expel most adults and families under a public health order imposed at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak. The crucial difference is that the government is allowing teens and children, at least temporarily, to stay in the country, straining government resources during the pandemic.

“The only people we’re not going to let be left sitting there on the other side of the Rio Grande by themselves with no help are children,” he said.

The situation along the U.S.-Mexico border has become an early challenge for the administration, drawing more questions than any other subject at the maiden news conference, and diverting attention as the administration addresses the pandemic and the economy.

Recently published statistics show that over 100,000 migrants were stopped at the border in February, the highest level since spring 2019.

Biden sought to portray it as a seasonal spike and not, as critics have said, a result of moves such as his decisions to halt construction of border wall projects started under Trump or support for broad immigration legislation.

“It happens every year,” he said. “Does anybody suggest that there was a 31% increase under Trump because he was a nice guy and he was doing good things at the border? That’s not the reason they’re coming.”

“It’s because of earthquakes, floods. It’s because of lack of food. It’s because of gang violence,” he said. “It’s because of a whole range of things that when I was vice president had the same obligation to deal with unaccompanied children.”

Biden said that his administration is working to help the countries where migrants are coming from with long-term solutions to their issues, citing $700 million in aid going to Central America.

Trump was heavily criticised in 2019 for requiring migrants to wait in Mexico while the U.S. evaluated their asylum petitions or to make claims instead in Guatemala, El Salvador or Honduras. This effectively meant sending people fleeing violence back into dangerous situations.

The Supreme Court will today discuss taking up a major new gun rights case involving a National Rifle Association-backed challenge to a New York state law that restricts the ability of residents to carry concealed handguns in public.

The nine justices will discuss the case at their private weekly conference at a time of heightened concern about gun violence in the United States following a pair of mass shootings in a span of a week, one in Georgia and the other in Colorado, that killed a total of 18 people.

Two gun owners and the New York affiliate of the NRA, an influential gun rights group closely aligned with Republicans, are asking the justices to hear an appeal of a lower court ruling throwing out their challenge to a policy that requires a state resident to show “proper cause” to obtain a permit to carry a concealed handgun outside the home.

Andrew Chung for Reuters reports that lower courts rejected the argument made by plaintiffs that the restrictions violated the US Constitution’s Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. The Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority is seen as holding an expansive view of Second Amendment rights.

The court is not expected to announce whether it will take action on the appeal until Monday at the earliest. If the justices do eventually take up the case and hear oral arguments, they would once again step into a swirling debate over gun rights in a nation that has a gun fatality rate consistently higher than other rich countries.

Joe Biden had on Tuesday urged the Senate to approve two bills passed by the Democratic-led House of Representatives on March 11 that would broaden background checks on gun buyers. Biden also called for a national ban on assault-style weapons, while the White House said he is considering executive actions to address gun violence that would not require the approval of Congress.

Numerous mass shootings in the United States have failed to spur Congress to pass gun control legislation sought by Democrats, thanks in large part to opposition from congressional Republicans and the NRA.

Georgia lawmaker released after arrest following passage of voter suppression laws

Georgia’s Republican lawmakers have passed a sweeping set of new voter restrictions, and in the course of that yesterday Georgia state Rep Park Cannon was arrested and removed from the Georgia Capitol. CNN report:

After knocking on the office door during Kemp’s signing of SB 202 – an election overhaul bill – Cannon is seen being led away by several officers with her hands cuffed behind her back.

In a statement Thursday night, Georgia State Patrol said that at 6.33pm, Cannon “was beating on the door to the Governor’s Office,” and, when told to stop, moved on to the Governor’s Ceremonial Office door marked with a “Governor’s Staff Only” sign and knocked on that door.

After being told twice to stop knocking on the door in light of the press conference occurring inside, and twice warned that she would be arrested if she did not stop, “Rep Cannon refused to stop knocking on the door. Rep Cannon was placed under arrest and escorted out of the Capitol,” according to the statement. She was taken to Fulton County Jail.

Cannon has tweeted since being released:

Here’s a reminder of what Joe Biden said yesterday when announcing he was doubling his initial target for 100m vaccine doses in 100 days, to 200m doses.

Dominion Voting sues Fox for $1.6bn over 2020 election claims

Dominion Voting Systems on Friday filed a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, arguing the cable news giant falsely claimed in an effort to boost faltering ratings that the voting company had rigged the 2020 election.

It’s the first defamation suit filed against a media outlet by the voting company, which was a target of misleading, false and bizarre claims spread by President Donald Trump and his allies in the aftermath of Trump’s election loss.

Dominion argues that Fox News, which amplified inaccurate assertions that Dominion altered votes, “sold a false story of election fraud in order to serve its own commercial purposes, severely injuring Dominion in the process,” according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by the Associated Press.

Colleen Long notes for the AP that some Fox News on-air reporting segments have debunked some of the claims targeting Dominion. There was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Nearly all the legal challenges from Trump and his allies were dismissed by judges.

Still, some Fox News employees elevated false charges that Dominion had changed votes through algorithms in its voting machines that had been created in Venezuela to rig elections for the late dictator Hugo Chavez. On-air personalities brought on Trump allies Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, who spread the claims, and then amplified those claims on Fox News’ massive social media platforms.

Dominion said in the lawsuit that it tried repeatedly to set the record straight but was ignored by Fox News. The company argues that Fox News, a network that features several pro-Trump personalities, pushed the false claims to explain away the former president’s loss. The cable giant lost viewers after the election and was seen by some Trump supporters as not being supportive enough of the Republican.

Attorneys for Dominion said Fox News’ behavior differs greatly from that of other media outlets that reported on the claims.

“This was a conscious, knowing business decision to endorse and repeat and broadcast these lies in order to keep its viewership,” said attorney Justin Nelson, of Susman Godfrey LLC.

Updated

Fact-checking Joe Biden’s presidency is a lot less intensive than fact-checking the stream of things that former president Donald Trump used to come out with at his press appearances. Nevertheless here’s the verdict from the Washington Post, which includes this suggestion of Biden asserting something without any facts:

Biden claimed, without apparent evidence, that children “starved to death” in Mexico under President Donald Trump’s 2019 policy allowing border officers to return non-Mexican asylum seekers to locations in Mexico as their claims are adjudicated in immigration courts. Asked for evidence of such deaths, a White House official referred to reports of “widely reported treacherous conditions at camps along the border on the Mexican side that formed as a result of the Trump Administration’s use of the Migrant Protection Protocol, more commonly known as ‘Remain in Mexico.’”

Biden also made errors when taking about his infrastructure plans. The Post writes:

Biden initially misspoke, plunking the United States near the bottom of the World Economic Forum’s global infrastructure rankings. The world doesn’t even have 85 developed countries, as defined by intergovernmental organizations, with similar systems of transportation and utilities to compare.

Read more here: Washington Post – Fact-checking President Biden’s first news conference

Joe Biden’s first presidential news conference was notable for what was missing after predecessor Donald Trump, writes Davids Bauder for the Associated Press: no contentious exchanges with reporters, no Fox News and no questions about Covid-19. The last omission was probably the least expected.

Many in the news media had been impatient since Biden had not submitted to a formal question-and-answer session with reporters until his 65th day in the office. When he finally did Thursday, it was carried live on the major broadcast and cable news networks.

Before taking a question, Biden announced he was setting a new goal of having 200 million vaccine doses for the coronavirus administered during his first 100 days in office.

And that was it. None of the 10 reporters who questioned him, some on multiple topics, brought the topic up. Noting that in a tweet, Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times said the questions “suggest that coronavirus is no longer Topic A.”

“Pretty sure it is for the American people and the Biden White House,” White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain tweeted in response.

Four questioners brought up immigration and the Mexican border, while three asked about the filibuster, the arcane Senate rule that will be key to getting legislation passed. Not quite three months into office, Biden was asked whether he would run for reelection and if vice president Kamala Harris would be on his ticket.

Biden was occasionally direct, occasionally windy and occasionally cagey in response to questions. When a Bloomberg reporter asked specific questions about economic policy and China, Biden instead embarked on a lengthy verbal treatise on relations between the two countries.

A question about gun control devolved into a long discussion of the president’s infrastructure plans.

Some reporters, noting the unlikelihood of being called on again as Biden consulted a list for reporters to take questions from, made queries on multiple topics – a practice that seldom yeilds results and is often infuriating to the viewer.

While former President Trump’s sessions with reporters sometimes included nasty exchanges, there was none of that with Biden. While he was sometimes pressed, like when NBC’s Kristen Welker tried unsuccessfully to pin Biden down on media access at the Mexican border, there was nothing notably harsh.

With only 10 reporters called upon, some were left out. That quickly became an issue at Fox, where the headline “Biden Snubs Fox News during First News Conf” was put onscreen.

Good morning, and welcome to our live coverage of US politics for Friday. Here’s a catch-up on where we are and what we expect to see today…

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