Today 's politics recap
- Joe Biden acknowledged the Senate will not likely be able to pass a voting rights bill, after Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin said they would not support changing filibuster rules to pass the legislation. “I hope we can get this done. The honest to God answer is, I don’t know whether we can get this done,” the president told reporters after meeting with Senate Democrats on Capitol Hill today.
- Biden’s comments came hours after the House passed a sweeping voting rights bill, in a party-line vote of 220 to 203. That bill will now languish in the Senate unless Democrats can convince Sinema and Manchin to change their minds about a filibuster carveout for voting rights.
- The supreme court blocked the Biden administration’s coronavirus vaccine mandate for companies with at least 100 employees. However, the justices allowed the administration’s vaccine requirement for health care workers to remain in place. In response to the court’s ruling, Biden called on individual states and companies to establish their own mandates to protect citizens and employees against the virus.
- Biden announced his administration will order an additional 500m at-home coronavirus tests to combat the surge in cases caused by the Omicron variant. The announcement brings the total number of tests ordered by the administration to 1bn, but the original batch of tests has not yet been distributed. Biden said the White House will launch a website next week to allow people to order tests to be shipped to their homes.
- Stewart Rhodes, leader of the far-right group Oath Keepers, was arrested and charged with seditious conspiracy in connection to his role in the Capitol insurrection. The arrest marks the first time that the justice department has brought a seditious conspiracy charge against someone involved in the January 6 attack.
– Joan E Greve
Facing diminishing odds of ushering through voting rights legislation before the midterms this year, Joe Biden is planning to continue pressing holdouts Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin to consider filibuster reform, Reuters and CNN have confirmed.
“I hope we can get this done, but I’m not sure,” Biden said. “But one thing for certain: With every other major civil rights bill that came along, if we missed the first time, we can come back and try it a second time.”
As my colleague Sam Levine writes, Biden faces long odds:
Sinema publicly and bluntly reaffirmed she would not support any change to the filibuster rules. She took to the Senate floor around noon on Thursday and said she would not support any changes to the filibuster, the Senate rule that requires 60 votes to advance legislation.
“While I continue to support these [voting rights] bills, I will not support separate actions that worsen the underlying disease of division infecting our country,” said Sinema.
Manchin also released his own statement on Thursday afternoon confirming he would not vote to change the filibuster.
Read more:
Six in 10 Americans ‘alarmed’ or ‘concerned’ about climate change – study
A new report has revealed that a record number of Americans are now alarmed about the climate crisis.
The study, published by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, found that Americans overall are becoming increasingly worried about global heating, more engaged with the issue and more supportive of finding solutions to the issue.
The six distinct groups are: the Alarmed, who are the most engaged and very worried about global warming; the Concerned, who think global warming is a significant threat but prioritize it less and are less likely to take action; the Cautious, who are aware of climate change but are uncertain about its causes and are not very worried; the Disengaged, who are largely unaware of global warming; the Doubtful, who doubt it is happening or human-caused and the Dismissive, who firmly reject its reality and oppose most climate change policies.
The study revealed that the largest group, Alarmed (33%) greatly outnumber the dismissive (9%) by more than three to one. Approximately six in 10 Americans (59%) are either Alarmed or Concerned while only approximately two in 10 (19%) are Doubtful or Dismissive.
Over the last five years, the Alarmed group has nearly doubled in size, growing 15 percentage points in total. From just March 2021 to September 2021 alone, the Alarmed segment increased by 9 percentage points. Meanwhile, the Dismissive group shrank from 11% to 9% in the past five years, with only about one in 10 Americans now firmly rejecting the reality of human-caused global warming.
When the group first began its surveys in 2008, the Concerned was the largest segment. Two years later, the group decreased slightly while the Cautious grew and became roughly equally as large. On the contrary, the Alarmed was the second smallest group as recently as early 2015.
The Cautious, Doubtful and Dismissive groups have all shrunk in recent years.
Read more:
A judge in Waukesha County has ruled that absentee ballot drop boxes cannot be used in Wisconsin, after Republicans brought a lawsuit seeking to prohibit voters from submitting ballots anywhere other than the local clerk’s office.
This is yet another victory for conservatives who are trying to roll back voting access ahead of the midterm elections. Republicans in Wisconsin are also seeking to limit ballot boxes and restrict their location.
The ruling from Waukesha county circuit judge Mark Bohren comes amid a stalemate in the Senate over passing voting reforms. Ballot drop boxes have long been used in Wisconsin, especially during the 2020 elections, when voters sought safer ways to vote amid the pandemic.
Joe Biden narrowly defeated Donald Trump in Wisconsin during the 2020 presidential election. A Republican-led investigation into the result is ongoing despite multiple probes and recounts confirming Biden’s victory.
Updated
California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has denied parole for Sirhan Sirhan, the 77-year-old who has spent more than 50 years in prison for the assassination of Robert F Kennedy.
Newsom has previously cited Kennedy as his “political hero” and wrote in his decision rejecting parole: “After decades in prison, he has failed to address the deficiencies that led him to assassinate Senator Kennedy. Mr Sirhan lacks the insight that would prevent him from making the same types of dangerous decisions he made in the past.”
Sirhan was approved for release by the parole board last year after two of Kennedy’s sons argued in favor of his release and prosecutors did not object. The board ruled that he was not a danger to public safety in the wake of new laws that required the panel to consider that he committed the offense at a young age.
Sirhan originally faced a death sentence for the 1968 killing of Kennedy, who was a Democratic US senator from New York and the former US attorney general. He was murdered at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles moments after declaring victory in the California presidential primary. Sirhan repeatedly testified that he did not recall shooting Kennedy and injuring five others, but in his recent parole hearing, he said he took responsibility for the killing.
Read more:
Republican party signals plans to withdraw from US presidential debates
The Republican party has signaled plans to withdraw from traditional US presidential debates, which it claims are biased against it.
The New York Times first reported the move, citing a letter sent on Thursday by the Republican National Committee (RNC) to the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD).
The commission was set up in 1987, as a non-partisan body “to ensure, for the benefit of the American electorate, that general election debates between or among the leading candidates for the offices of president and vice-president … are a permanent part of the electoral process”.
In the most recent election, in 2020, Donald Trump made headlines with an aggressive performance in the first debate, in Cleveland, Ohio.
The second debate was cancelled after Trump was hospitalized with Covid-19 and the CPD sought to move the event online. Trump and Republicans protested that doing so would help Joe Biden.
The final debate took place in Nashville, Tennessee as planned, with Biden widely adjudged the winner. A vice-presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris also went ahead, in Salt Lake City.
In December this year, the Guardian first revealed the stunning news that Trump tested positive for Covid before the first debate but concealed the result, potentially putting Biden’s life in danger.
Trump said that was fake news. So did his former chief of staff Mark Meadows – who wrote the book which contained the bombshell.
The Times said the Republican move against the CPD was born of longstanding complaints that it favors Democrats, “mirroring increasing rancor from conservatives toward Washington-based institutions”.
Among Republican complaints in 2020 was that the first debate took place on 29 September, more than a month before election day but after nearly a million votes had been cast.
Trump and Republicans also complained about supposed bias among debate moderators – even from Chris Wallace, then of the conservative Fox News network, in the first debate.
Read more:
Mitch McConnell has been attacked by a key Trump ally and told to repair his relationship with the former president or face failure as Senate Republican leader.
The move by Lindsey Graham comes amid a rumbling dispute between McConnell and Donald Trump, whose grip on the GOP remains near-total despite his impeachment for inciting the deadly Capitol attack in service of his lie that his defeat by Joe Biden was caused by electoral fraud.
In the most recent round of the contest, McConnell sided with Mike Rounds, a South Dakota senator who said Biden won the election.
“If you want to be a Republican leader in the House or the Senate, you have to have a working relationship with Donald Trump,” Graham, of South Carolina, told Fox News on Wednesday night.
Acquitted in his second impeachment trial, Trump remains free to run for office.
“He’s the most consequential Republican since Ronald Reagan,” Graham said. “It is his nomination if he wants it, and I think he’ll get re-elected in 2024.
“I like Senator McConnell, he worked well with President Trump to get a bunch of judges including three supreme court justices on the bench, they got the tax cuts passed working together.
“But here’s the question: can Senator McConnell effectively work with the leader the Republican party, Donald Trump?
“I’m not gonna vote for anybody that can’t have a working relationship with President Trump, to be a team to come up with an America First agenda, to show the difference between us and liberal Democrats, to prosecute the case for Trump policies … because if you can’t do that, you will fail. I will tell you that.”
Graham’s comments duly prompted criticism, one columnist calling it “a spineless cop-out”.
The rightwing media personality Glenn Beck has Covid – again – but says this time it has spread to his lungs.
Beck has said he has not been vaccinated.
Speaking to fellow shock jock Mark Levin on Wednesday, he said: “I am great … despite having Covid and seeing the destruction of our country.”
The virus, he said, was “starting to go into my lungs today and a little disturbing. I’m on all the medications and treatments and everything else, so.”
“It’s all good,” he added, with a cough.
Announcing his second bout with Covid on Instagram last week, Beck said: “So far it is way different than the first time I had it in Dec ’20. That time it wiped me out for almost three weeks. This time it is just the worst ‘cold’ I have ever had.”
His interview with Levin was punctuated by coughs.
Beck said he was taking Ivermectin – an anti-parasitic with human uses but mostly applied to livestock, which experts say has no use against Covid and can be dangerous – and said: “I have had [Covid] for about a week.
“I’m not going downhill. I mean, I think I’m feeling better. It’s just getting into my lungs. You will want to avoid that.”
Beck insisted he was “not concerned about it. I’m really not. I just am so done with this whole Covid thing. I know it is real.”
He also said that as he was “a fatty-fat-fatso”, getting Covid was “probably not the best thing, and I got some other issues”.
People with other health issues can be at risk from Covid even if they are vaccinated.
Over the past two years, deaths from Covid of rightwing figures who have campaigned against vaccines and other public health measures have made headlines across the US.
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 acknowledged the Senate will not likely be able to pass a voting rights bill, after Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin said they would not support changing filibuster rules to pass the legislation. “I hope we can get this done. The honest to God answer is, I don’t know whether we can get this done,” the president told reporters after meeting with Senate Democrats on Capitol Hill today.
- Biden’s comments came hours after the House passed a sweeping voting rights bill, in a party-line vote of 220 to 203. That bill will now languish in the Senate unless Democrats can convince Sinema and Manchin to change their minds about a filibuster carveout for voting rights.
- The supreme court blocked the Biden administration’s coronavirus vaccine mandate for companies with at least 100 employees. However, the justices allowed the administration’s vaccine requirement for health care workers to remain in place. In response to the court’s ruling, Biden called on individual states and companies to establish their own mandates to protect citizens and employees against the virus.
- Biden announced his administration will order an additional 500m at-home coronavirus tests to combat the surge in cases caused by the Omicron variant. The announcement brings the total number of tests ordered by the administration to 1bn, but the original batch of tests has not yet been distributed. Biden said the White House will launch a website next week to allow people to order tests to be shipped to their homes.
- Stewart Rhodes, leader of the far-right group Oath Keepers, was arrested and charged with seditious conspiracy in connection to his role in the Capitol insurrection. The arrest marks the first time that the justice department has brought a seditious conspiracy charge against someone involved in the January 6 attack.
Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Updated
Capitol attack panel subpoenas Google, Facebook and Twitter for digital records
The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack subpoenaed Twitter, Meta, Alphabet and Reddit on Thursday for records related to the 6 January insurrection, as it seeks to review data that could potentially incriminate the Trump White House.
Facebook is part of Meta and Google is part of Alphabet.
The move by the select committee suggests the panel is ramping up its examination of social media posts and messages that could provide evidentiary evidence as to who might have been in contact with the Trump White House around 6 January, one source said.
Congressman Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the select committee, said in a statement that he authorized the four subpoenas since those platforms were used to communicate plans about the Capitol attack, and yet the social media companies ignored earlier requests.
Read the Guardian’s full report:
White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked whether Joe Biden has resigned himself to the fact that the Senate will not be able to pass voting rights legislation, after Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema reiterated their opposition to filibuster reform.
“I think we’re going to keep fighting until the votes are had,” Psaki said at her daily briefing with reporters.
.@kaitlancollins asks about Senators Manchin and Sinema: "Has the President accepted that he cannot sway them when it comes to changing the filibuster and creating an exception?"@PressSec: "I think we're gonna keep fighting 'till the votes are had." pic.twitter.com/1znd1CcEgs
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 13, 2022
Another reporter asked Psaki whether the administration believes things overall are going well for them right now, given that the president has suffered significant defeats in recent weeks.
To name just a few: Biden’s Build Back Better bill has stalled in the Senate because of Manchin’s criticism of the spending package. Now the Senate cannot pass voting rights bills because of Manchin and Sinema’s opposition. Simultaneously, the supreme court has blocked Biden’s coronavirus vaccine mandate for large companies. And there is the small matter of a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“You do hard things in White Houses,” Psaki replied. “We could certainly propose legislation to see if people support bunny rabbits and ice cream, but that wouldn’t be very rewarding to the American people.”
Manchin reiterates opposition to changing filibuster rules
This day could not get much worse for Joe Biden. Joe Manchin has now reiterated that he is opposed to changing filibuster rules to pass voting rights bills.
“As I have said many times before, I will not vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster,” Manchin said in a new statement, released shortly after Senate Democrats met with Biden on Capitol Hill.
“The filibuster plays an important role in protecting our democracy from the transitory passions of the majority and respecting the input of the minority in the Senate.”
Manchin argued the filibuster, which effectively requires a 60-vote supermajority to pass most Senate bills, had “protected us from the volatile political swings we have endured over the last 233 years”.
“The role of the minority is what ensures the policies of our nation have input from all corners of the country. We must never forget that the Senate governs for all 50 states, not just red or blue states,” Manchin said.
Given the 50-50 split in the Senate, majority leader Chuck Schumer needs to have every member of the Democratic caucus on board before he can get any rule changes approved.
Both Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have now indicated they are against filibuster reform, leaving Democrats with no path for passing their voting rights bills.
Joe Biden expressed disappointment in the supreme court’s decision to block his coronavirus vaccine mandate for companies with at least 100 employees, while celebrating the justices’ ruling to keep the requirement for health care workers in place.
“Today’s decision by the Supreme Court to uphold the requirement for health care workers will save lives: the lives of patients who seek care in medical facilities, as well as the lives of doctors, nurses, and others who work there,” the president said in a new statement.
“At the same time, I am disappointed that the Supreme Court has chosen to block common-sense life-saving requirements for employees at large businesses that were grounded squarely in both science and the law.”
With the federal government’s mandate blocked, Biden argued that individual states and employers now have an obligation to protect their citizens and employees by enacting vaccine requirements of their own.
“I call on business leaders to immediately join those who have already stepped up – including one third of Fortune 100 companies – and institute vaccination requirements to protect their workers, customers, and communities,” Biden said.
“We have to keep working together if we want to save lives, keep people working, and put this pandemic behind us.”
Supreme court blocks Biden's vaccine mandate for large employers
The supreme court’s conservative majority has blocked the Biden administration’s coronavirus vaccine mandate for companies with at least 100 employees.
The AP reports:
The Supreme Court has stopped the Biden administration from enforcing a requirement that employees at large businesses be vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing and wear a mask on the job.
At the same time, the court is allowing the administration to proceed with a vaccine mandate for most health care workers in the U.S. ...
The court’s conservative majority concluded the administration overstepped its authority by seeking to impose the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s vaccine-or-test rule on U.S. businesses with at least 100 employees. More than 80 million people would have been affected.
The ruling comes as the US is dealing with a surge in coronavirus cases caused by the Omicron variant, which has led to record-high levels of hospitalizations.
Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat of Georgia, argued that the party has a moral obligation to enact voting rights legislation and protect Americans’ access to the ballot box.
“The state of Georgia is ground zero for these voter suppression bills that we’re seeing emerge all across the country,” Warnock said after Senate Democrats’ meeting with Joe Biden.
“This is a defining moral moment. It is the most important thing we can do this Congress.”
Georgia, where Biden won by just 0.3 points in 2020, is one of 19 states that have enacted voting restrictions since the presidential election. Later this year, the state will hold high-profile races for the governorship and the US Senate, as Warnock faces reelection.
Joe Manchin said Joe Biden did an “excellent job” during Senate Democrats’ meeting today to discuss voting rights and filibuster reform.
But the West Virginia senator did not answer reporters’ questions about whether he was swayed by the president’s argument for the need to change the filibuster to pass voting rights bills.
Manchin has previously said he wants any Senate rule changes to attract bipartisan support, which will be virtually impossible given Republicans’ unified opposition to filibuster reform.
“He just did an excellent job.”
— The Recount (@therecount) January 13, 2022
— Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) praises Biden after leaving the Senate Democrats meeting, where Biden seemed to indicate filibuster rules change/voting rights bill is dead. pic.twitter.com/VdHevcZHHG
'I don’t know whether we can get this done,' Biden says of voting rights bill
Joe Biden acknowledged it will be difficult to get a voting rights bill through the Senate, after the president met with Democratic senators on Capitol Hill this afternoon.
“I hope we can get this done. The honest to God answer is, I don’t know whether we can get this done,” the president told reporters.
Biden noted that past civil rights bills have required multiple attempts to get them passed, and he expressed hope that Democrats will have another opportunity to enact their proposals.
President Biden: "I hope we can get this done, but I'm not sure." pic.twitter.com/N7csgdbmjG
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 13, 2022
“We missed this time,” Biden said. “As long as I have a breath in me, as long as I’m in the White House, as long as I am engaged at all, I’m going to be fighting to change the way these legislatures have been moving.”
The president’s comments came hours after Senator Kyrsten Sinema voiced opposition to changing filibuster rules, effectively killing any hope of swiftly passing a voting rights bill.
Republicans have repeatedly used the filibuster to block Democrats’ voting rights proposals. Given the 50-50 split in the Senate, majority leader Chuck Schumer needs the support of every Democratic member to get rule changes approved.
A federal grand jury returned an indictment yesterday against Oath Keeper leader Stewart Rhodes, charging him with seditious conspiracy, and it was unsealed today.
In its press release about the newly announced charges, the justice department noted that Rhodes had been arrested this morning in Little Elm, Texas.
The justice department also said:
According to the seditious conspiracy indictment, the defendants conspired through a variety of manners and means, including: organizing into teams that were prepared and willing to use force and to transport firearms and ammunition into Washington, D.C.; recruiting members and affiliates to participate in the conspiracy; organizing trainings to teach and learn paramilitary combat tactics; bringing and contributing paramilitary gear, weapons and supplies – including knives, batons, camouflaged combat uniforms, tactical vests with plates, helmets, eye protection and radio equipment – to the Capitol grounds; breaching and attempting to take control of the Capitol grounds and building on Jan. 6, 2021, in an effort to prevent, hinder and delay the certification of the electoral college vote; using force against law enforcement officers while inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021; continuing to plot, after Jan. 6, 2021, to oppose by force the lawful transfer of presidential power, and using websites, social media, text messaging and encrypted messaging applications to communicate with co-conspirators and others.
Oath Keepers leader charged with seditious conspiracy for role in Capitol attack
Stewart Rhodes, leader of the far-right group Oath Keepers, has been arrested and charged with seditious conspiracy in connection to his role in the Capitol insurrection.
The AP reports:
Rhodes is the highest-ranking member of an extremist group to be arrested in the deadly siege and it is the first time the Justice Department has brought a seditious conspiracy charge in connection with the attack on the Capitol.
Rhodes is charged along with more than a dozen other members and associates of the Oath Keepers, who authorities say came to Washington intent on stopping the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.
Rhodes did not enter the Capitol building on Jan. 6 but is accused of helping put into motion the violence that disrupted the certification of the vote.
The House select committee investigating the insurrection also subpoenaed Rhodes in November, seeking information about the role that he and other Oath Keeper leaders played in planning the attack.
Civil rights leaders and voting rights groups fumed on Thursday after Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema publicly killed any chance of voting rights legislation passing, taking to the senate floor to say she would not support changes to the filibuster.
“History will remember Senator Sinema unkindly. While Sen. Sinema remains stubborn in her ‘optimism’, Black and Brown Americans are losing their right to vote,” said Martin Luther King III, the son of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
"History will remember Senator Sinema unkindly. While Sen. Sinema remains stubborn in her ‘optimism’, Black and Brown Americans are losing their right to vote," Martin Luther King III says in a statement following Sinema speech.
— Sam Levine (@srl) January 13, 2022
“Arizonans value leaders who can compromise and work across the aisle, but let me be clear: the filibuster is non-negotiable. Indivisibles, like myself, worked tooth-and-nail to get Sinema elected in 2018 -- we made calls, registered voters, and knocked on doors in the 120-degree weather,” said Signa Oliver, an activist with the Arizona chapter of Indivisible, a grassroots group.
“We know the weight of this trifecta, and we will not sit idly by as Sinema lets our hard work and the prospect of a better country for all wither so she can be branded as a ‘bipartisan’ leader.”
Sinema gave her speech just before Joe Biden was set to travel to Capitol Hill to try and persuade senators to support the bill. The White House said it had no comment in reaction to the speech.
Biden arrives on Capitol Hill to meet with Senate Democrats about voting rights
Joe Biden has just arrived on Capitol Hill for Senate Democrats’ caucus lunch to discuss voting rights legislation and filibuster reform.
But there may not be much to discuss, after Kyrsten Sinema made clear that she will not support amending the filibuster to allow voting rights bills to advance.
Given the 50-50 split in the Senate, majority leader Chuck Schumer needs all 50 Democratic caucus members on board before he can get any rule changes approved.
President Biden arrives at @SenateDems lunch. pic.twitter.com/LI0cDZCp2Q
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 13, 2022
Sinema’s remarks will almost certainly disappoint Biden, who delivered an impassioned pitch for filibuster reform in Atlanta, Georgia, earlier this week.
“Let the majority prevail,” Biden said on Tuesday. “And if that bare minimum is blocked, we have no option but to change the Senate rules, including getting rid of the filibuster for this.”
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- The House passed a sweeping voting rights bill in a party-line vote of 220 to 203. The bill now heads to the evenly divided Senate, where Democrats will need to change filibuster rules to get the legislation passed. Joe Biden is traveling to Capitol Hill this afternoon to meet with Senate Democrats and discuss the path forward for the bill.
- But Senator Kyrsten Sinema killed any hopes of the bill’s swift passage after she spoke out against changing filibuster rules. Sinema, one of the two key holdouts in Democrats’ negotiations over the filibuster, said in a floor speech, “While I continue to support these bills, I will not support separate actions that worsen the underlying disease of division infecting our country.”
- Biden announced his administration will order another 500 million at-home coronavirus tests to combat the surge in cases caused by the Omicron variant. The announcement brings the total number of tests ordered by the administration to 1 billion, but the original batch of tests has not yet been distributed. Biden said the White House will launch a website next week to allow people to order tests to be shipped to their homes.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Sinema speaks against filibuster reform
Kyrsten Sinema has indicated – or simply confirmed – that Democrats’ push to change Senate rules to allow for the passage of voting rights legislation is indeed doomed.
In a speech on the Senate floor delivered shortly before Joe Biden was scheduled to arrive on Capitol Hill to attempt to force the issue, the Arizona senator said: “While I continue to support these bills, I will not support separate actions that worsen the underlying disease of division infecting our country.”
Those separate actions would involve abolishing or modifying the filibuster, the rule which empowers the minority by setting a 60-vote threshold for most legislation.
The Senate is split 50-50 and controlled by Democrats via the vice-president, Kamala Harris. Democratic senators represent vastly more voters than Republican senators, a point often made by supporters of filibuster reform.
Democrats who favour change also point out that federal legislation is needed to counter Republican attempts to restrict voting among minorities which tend to favour Democrats, by means of restrictive laws at the state level.
Voter suppression laws are also at issue, as Republicans who support Donald Trump’s big lie about electoral fraud seek to instal allies in key posts and to make it easier to overturn election results.
Nonetheless, Sinema and her fellow moderate Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, have remained steadfastly against filibuster reform – even though both support some form of federal voting rights protection.
They fear the ramifications of filibuster reform if and when Republicans take back the chamber, which could well happen later this year. Some observers suggest that is naive, as Republicans under Mitch McConnell, a man who has made constitutional hardball an art form, may well dynamite the filibuster themselves.
Either way, without Sinema and Manchin, all efforts on the issue by Biden and the majority leader, Chuck Schumer of New York, are doomed to fail.
Updated
Woman faces weapons charges after US Capitol arrest
US Capitol police have announced the arrest of a woman from Michigan who “wanted to talk about information she had about 6 January 2021” but was found to be carrying four guns and ammunition, including a “long gun” or semi-automatic rifle.
“At approximately 1.40pm” on Wednesday, a statement said, “a woman parked a 2001 Chevrolet Silverado in the ‘No Parking’ zone in front of US Capitol Police headquarters. The woman was identified as Kery Lynn McAttee.
“McAttee told our officers she drove here from Michigan and wanted to talk about information she had about 6 January 2021.”
That was the day supporters of Donald Trump attacked the Capitol in attempt to stop certification of Joe Biden’s election win. Five people died around the riot, including a Capitol officer and a rioter shot dead by law enforcement, and more than 100 officers were injured.
Capitol police said that as officers spoke to McAttee, one “spotted a gun case and the butt of a long gun in the Silverado” and McAttee “confirmed there were firearms in her vehicle”.
“At this time,” the statement said, “there is no evidence the 58-year-old suspect was coming here to do anything except speak with our officers. We cannot provide the details of that conversation because they are now part of an open investigation. She was not on file with the USCP.
The statement detailed the guns in McAttee’s car, and said she faced charges including unlawful possession of a weapon and unlawful possession/transportation of a semi-automatic rifle.
Following the House passage of Democrats’ voting rights bill, Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice, called on senators to follow their colleagues’ example.
“The House’s bold action is exactly what this moment requires,” Waldman said. “Now the Senate must act. In the long fight for voting rights, this is a critical moment. Every senator must choose, and every senator must vote.”
But again, in order to pass the bill, the Senate will need to amend the filibuster, and Democrats don’t have the votes for that at the moment. Stay tuned.
House passes voting rights bill, sending it to the Senate
House Democrats have passed their voting rights bill, sending it to the Senate, where the legislation will face many challenges.
The House vote was 220 to 203, and it fell along party lines as expected, with every Republican opposing the measure.
The House concurred in the House Amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 5746 - Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act by a vote of 220-203.
— House Press Gallery (@HouseDailyPress) January 13, 2022
As of now, the bill has no path to passage in the evenly divided Senate, as centrists Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema remain opposed to amending the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation.
Joe Biden will attend Senate Democrats’ caucus lunch this afternoon, giving the president and majority leader Chuck Schumer another opportunity to convince the holdout senators.
House votes on sweeping voting rights bill that faces long odds in the Senate
The US House is currently voting on a bill that combines two sweeping voting rights measures. They’re expected to pass it shortly and send it over to the US Senate, where there will be a showdown over the filibuster.
The procedure is a little arcane, but Democrats combined their two major pieces of voting rights legislation into a single bill Wednesday evening in order to expedite it over to the senate.
Chuck Schumer, the senate majority leader, has pledged to hold a vote on the measure and potential rule changes to the filibuster by Monday.
But as that deadline fast approaches, Democrats still don’t have the votes to change the filibuster. Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona both still reportedly don’t support changing the procedure.
MORE: Sinema has told the White House about a possible floor speech, per Senate source, adding "Sinema is having Joe Biden for lunch." https://t.co/gKPflKBoV2
— Tara Palmeri (@tarapalmeri) January 13, 2022
Joe Biden is set to travel to Capitol Hill Thursday to meet with senate Democrats to try and persuade them to pass the bill.
Democrats’ procedural maneuvering has ensured that they will have a debate on the bill in the senate, but still require 60 votes to end debate and move to a vote.
Joe Biden also confirmed that US military personnel will be deployed to six states to help overwhelmed hospitals deal with the surge in coronavirus cases caused by the Omicron variant.
The medical personnel will be sent to New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, Michigan and New Mexico over the coming weeks, Biden said.
After Biden concluded his prepared remarks on the pandemic, he did not take any questions from reporters.
One reporter then suggested Biden should soon hold a press conference, as he has held fewer press conferences than his recent predecessors.
The president replied that he would look forward to that, per NBC News:
The president declined to take questions today and continued his COVID briefing off camera. As we left I said, "Maybe a press conference soon Mr. President? We would look forward to that." And the president responded ,"Me too." pic.twitter.com/9NfYkNi62Z
— Kelly O'Donnell (@KellyO) January 13, 2022
Joe Biden acknowledged many Americans’ disappointment that masks are still necessary, nearly two years into the coronavirus pandemic.
“I know we all wish that we could finally be done with wearing masks. I get it. But they’re a really important tool to stop the spread, especially of a highly transmittable Omicron variant,” Biden said. “So please, please wear the mask.”
The president said he will announce next week how his administration plans to make “high-quality masks available to the American people for free”.
President Biden says he will announce next week a plan to make "high-quality masks available to the American people for free"
— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 13, 2022
"I know we all wish that we could finally be done with wearing masks. I get it. But they're a really important tool to stop the spread" pic.twitter.com/gNXT43wyQt
Biden confirms administration will order another 500m at-home Covid tests
Joe Biden confirmed that his administration will order another 500m at-home coronavirus tests to address the surge in cases caused by the Omicron variant.
That brings the total number of tests ordered by the administration to 1bn but the first batch of 500m tests has not yet been distributed to Americans.
Biden said the White House will be launching a website next week to allow Americans to order at-home tests that will be shipped to their homes.
The president added that he will also outline plans next week to make high-quality masks available for free, as some progressives, like Bernie Sanders, have called for.
All Americans should have face masks that will keep them safe. I will be introducing legislation tomorrow for N95 masks to be sent to every household in the country. This will save lives and reduce health care costs.
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) January 11, 2022
Updated
Joe Biden is now delivering remarks on his administration’s response to the surge in coronavirus cases caused by the Omicron variant.
The president is joined by the secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, and Fema administrator Deanne Criswell, who will likely address plans to deploy military staff to several states to help deal with the surge in cases.
Biden began his remarks by reiterating that this remains “a pandemic of the unvaccinated”. While many vaccinated people have contracted the Omicron variant of coronavirus, they are far less likely to be hospitalized or die from their illness, Biden noted.
Biden to announce purchase of 500m more at-home coronavirus tests
Joe Biden will announce today that his administration is ordering another 500m at-home coronavirus tests to combat the surge in cases caused by the Omicron variant.
“Today, as a part of the president’s remarks and briefing, he will announce that in addition to the 500m tests that we are in the process of acquiring, he is directing his team to procure 500m more tests to meet future demand,” a White House official told the press pool.
The announcement will bring the total number of tests ordered by the administration to 1bn, but it may still take some time for Americans to begin receiving those tests.
The 500m tests that Biden ordered last month have not yet been distributed, and some health experts are skeptical about the tests arriving in time to make a difference for this surge in cases.
Dr Michael Mina, an epidemiologist and former Harvard professor, told the New York Times that he expected the first batch of tests to be distributed over the next couple of months.
“Had this been started a long time ago, maybe things would be a bit different,” Mina said late last month. “But this is where we are now, and we kind of have to deal with it.”
Updated
Kamala Harris was pressed on when Americans will begin to receive the 500m free at-home coronavirus tests that the Biden administration has promised to deliver.
The vice-president told Craig Melvin of the Today show that the at-home tests will start to be distributed “shortly”.
The 500 million tests that have been ordered ... do we know when those are going out? -@craigmelvin
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) January 13, 2022
Shortly … I think it’s going to be by next week. -@VP
Should we have done that sooner? -@craigmelvin
We are doing it. -@VP pic.twitter.com/ptkEf0r2Mu
“I think it’s going to be by next week but soon, absolutely soon, and it is a matter of urgency for us,” Harris said.
Melvin then asked Harris twice whether she believed that the administration should have taken that action sooner, as some health experts have argued.
Harris dodged the question, saying: “We are doing it.”
Updated
Data from the UK indicates that the country may have already passed its peak in Omicron cases, giving hope to the US as it weathers its own surge.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
The seven-day average of new daily cases of Covid-19 in the U.K. has been falling for a week and on Tuesday dropped below the 14-day average for the first time since November, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of official data. Both are signs that caseloads are diminishing.
The rate of increase in the number of new Covid-19 hospitalizations has also slowed and in England—and especially London, which experienced the Omicron wave sooner than other regions—new hospital admissions with Covid-19 are falling. The first cases of Omicron were detected in the U.K. on Nov. 27.
Scientists caution, however, that caseloads and hospital admissions may yet reverse course as social mixing increases with the end of the holiday season and the start of the new school term.
As the Guardian’s Ian Sample notes, it’s quite possible that Omicron cases in the UK will continue to raise and fall over the coming weeks depending on people’s behavior and the government’s strategy to mitigate spread.
Federal health authorities in America have said the Omicron Covid-19 variant is so contagious it is likely most people in the US will be infected, and compared the pandemic to a “natural disaster”.
Authorities said even as Omicron shatters records for new cases, they are hopeful the surge will quickly subside, and said the US needs to focus on ensuring hospital systems do not collapse amid the surge.
“I think it’s hard to process what’s actually happening right now, which is [that] most people are going to get Covid, all right?” said Janet Woodcock, the acting head of the Food and Drug Administration.
“What we need to do is make sure the hospitals can still function … [that] transportation, other essential services are not disrupted while this happens.”
Woodcock made the comments at a Senate hearing on Wednesday where senators, especially Republicans, harshly questioned administration officials tasked with responding to the pandemic, including Woodcock, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Rochelle Walensky, and the president’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci.
Biden to address Covid response amid record-high level of hospitalizations
Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.
Joe Biden is scheduled to deliver a speech this morning on his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, as the Omicron variant continues to spread across the US.
Biden will be joined by the secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, and Fema administrator Deanne Criswell, who will likely address plans to deploy military staff to several states to help deal with the surge in cases.
The highly Omicron transmissible variant has caused record-high levels of hospitalization and price-gouging of at-home coronavirus tests.
The situation has sparked accusations that the Biden administration did not adequately prepare for the arrival of the Omicron variant, and the president will likely address that criticism today.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
