Summary
Here’s a recap, from me and Joan E Greve:
- The Manhattan district attorney has subpoenaed Steve Bannon’s financial records, according to CNN. The development indicates that the investigation into the former Trump adviser’s crowdfunding effort to build a wall at the US-Mexican border is moving forward.
- Two Senate committees postponed votes on Neera Tanden’s nomination today. It remains unclear whether Tanden can be confirmed as the director of the Office of Management and Budget, after the Democratic senator Joe Manchin announced he would not support her nomination.
- Manchin said he would support Deb Haaland’s nomination to lead the interior department, likely ensuring her confirmation. If Haaland is confirmed, the progressive congresswoman will become the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary.
- The Food and Drug Administration released promising data on the effectiveness of Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine. The agency may issue an emergency use authorization to Johnson & Johnson as soon as this weekend.
- The Biden administration will deliver more than 25m face masks to vulnerable populations. The masks are meant to ensure a more equitable pandemic response, as many Americans still do not have access to masks, which have become a crucial tool in limiting the spread of coronavirus.
- Moderna has sent the National Institutes of Health the first batch of its updated Covid-19 vaccine designed to target the variant first identified in South Africa. The drugmaker says it is set to begin testing this new version in clinical trials.
Biden reverses several Trump actions on immigration, and architecture
Biden today reversed several Trump executive actions. Here’s a list:
- Biden revoked policy requiring federal agency heads to submit a report to the Office of Management and Budget on funds sent to Seattle, Portland New York and DC – which Trump had labeled “lawless zones”.
- He did away with an order mandating that federal buildings “should uplift and beautify public spaces, inspire the human spirit, ennoble the United States, and command respect from the general public.”
- Biden removed bans on issuing H-1B visas, H-2B visas, H-4 visas, L-1 visas and certain J-1 visas.
- He lifted a ban on people moving to the US on new green cards.
Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff, said Joe Biden will fight to get Neera Tanden appointed as director of the Office of Management and Budget.
On MSNBC, Klain said that Tanden – who has faced criticism from Republicans and moderate Democrat Joe Manchin for her past tweets critiquing senators – will likely have a place in the administration regardless of whether her nomination gets through the Senate. “We’re fighting very hard for Neera,” he said.
If the confirmation process fails, Tanden could hold a position that doesn’t require Senate approval.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic representative of New York, yesterday called out her colleagues for targeting Biden’s nominees of color.
Read more:
Updated
Opinion: Biden is locking up migrant children. Will the world still care with Trump gone?
his week, the Biden administration did the unthinkable. It reopened a Trump-era detention site for migrant children. The detention center, a reconverted camp for oil field workers in Carrizo Springs, Texas, is expected to hold 700 children between the ages of 13 and 17, and dozens of kids have already arrived there.
This is an awful development, reminding me of some of the worst abuses of the Trump years. And while we obviously don’t know how this ominous development will play out in the long run, what we do know is this: unaccompanied migrant children deserve compassion, not detention. But rather than seeking out new and better solutions, the Biden administration is instead trying to sell us an image of a kinder, gentler imprisonment.
How else are we to understand the words of Mark Weber, spokesperson for Health and Human Services (HHS), the agency that oversees the welfare of unaccompanied migrant children? Weber told the Washington Post that “the Biden administration is moving away from the ‘law-enforcement focused’ approach of the Trump administration to one in which child welfare is more centric”. That may play well as a soundbite, but how welfare-centric is it to place children in jail in the first place? And if you don’t think it’s a jail, you should know that the “unaccompanied teens sent to the Carrizo Springs shelter will not be allowed to leave the facility”, as reported by the news website BorderReport.com
Read more:
California lawmakers push to stop deportations and end jail transfers to Ice
California lawmakers are fighting to protect thousands of residents from deportation with new legislation that would stop state prisons and jails from handing over immigrants to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).
California’s controversial practice of coordinating with Ice agents has received widespread scrutiny in past months, including after the Guardian revealed that the state had transferred two immigrant prisoners to Ice for deportation after they had served as incarcerated firefighters on the frontlines – and after they had completed their sentences.
Kao Saelee, 41, was scheduled to leave prison after 22 years behind bars in August. But on the day of his release, when his sister was waiting to take him home, California instead handed him over to immigration authorities. He remains in Ice custody in Louisiana. Bounchan Keola, 39, was reported to Ice by California prison officials in October.
Both men had served the state as firefighters while in prison and both were threatened with deportation to Laos, a country their families had fled as refugees when they were young children. The two had been locked up since they were teenagers.
Assembly member Wendy Carrillo, of Los Angeles, and other lawmakers on Wednesday unveiled legislation that would ensure that immigrant community members eligible for release from state jails or prisons would not be sent to Ice, but instead would be able to re-enter society and reunite with their families.
Read more:
Former Cuomo aide says New York governor kissed her without consent
A former member of the New York governor’s administration said Cuomo kissed and touched her without consent.
From the AP:
Lindsey Boylan said that during her more than three years working as an economic adviser in the administration, Cuomo “would go out of his way to touch me on my lower back, arms and legs”, compared her to one of his rumored ex-girlfriends and once joked they should play strip poker.
Boylan, a Democrat running for Manhattan borough president, wrote in a post on the website Medium that the kiss happened after she gave Cuomo a one-on-one briefing on economic and infrastructure projects in his New York City office.
“As I got up to leave and walk toward an open door, he stepped in front of me and kissed me on the lips. I was in shock, but I kept walking,” she said.
“The idea that someone might think I held my high-ranking position because of the Governor’s ‘crush’ on me was more demeaning than the kiss itself.” She confirmed that she had posted the blog, but did not respond to a request for further comment.
Read more:
Moderna announces progress on updated vaccine
Moderna has sent the National Institutes of Health the first batch of its updated Covid-19 vaccine designed to target the variant first identified in South Africa.
The drugmaker says it is set to begin testing this new version in clinical trials. “Moderna is committed to making as many updates to our vaccine as necessary until the pandemic is under control,” said the company’s CEO, Stéphane Bancel.
Despite concern that some variants – including the B.1.351 variant first detected in South Africa – may render the currently approved vaccines slightly less effective, the vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer appear to reduce the severity of all Covid-19 infections, preventing hospitalization and deaths.
Moderna has suggested that an updated vaccine could be provided as booster shots after people have been inoculated with the currently available vaccines.
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:
- The Manhattan district attorney has subpoenaed Steve Bannon’s financial records, according to CNN. The development indicates that the investigation into the former Trump adviser’s crowdfunding effort to build a wall at the US-Mexican border is moving forward.
- Two Senate committees postponed votes on Neera Tanden’s nomination today. It remains unclear whether Tanden can be confirmed as the director of the Office of Management and Budget, after the Democratic senator Joe Manchin announced he would not support her nomination.
- Manchin said he would support Deb Haaland’s nomination to lead the interior department, likely ensuring her confirmation. If Haaland is confirmed, the progressive congresswoman will become the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary.
- The Food and Drug Administration released promising data on the effectiveness of Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine. The agency may issue an emergency use authorization to Johnson & Johnson as soon as this weekend.
- The Biden administration will deliver more than 25m face masks to vulnerable populations. The masks are meant to ensure a more equitable pandemic response, as many Americans still do not have access to masks, which have become a crucial tool in limiting the spread of coronavirus.
Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Biden blames cabinet confirmation delays on mishandled transition
Joe Biden took a few questions from reporters after signing the executive order on improving American supply chains.
Asked if he was frustrated by the slow pace of the Senate confirming his cabinet nominees, Biden said he was. But he added, “I don’t so much blame it on the Senate. I blame it on the failure to have a transition that was rational.”
After Biden won the presidential election in November, Donald Trump refused to acknowledge the victory, and his administration held up critical transition resources to Biden’s team.
President Biden says he's disappointed more of his Cabinet secretaries haven't been confirmed yet, "but I don't so much blame it on the Senate — I blame it on the failure to have a transition that was rational" https://t.co/rangY2NRMB pic.twitter.com/FQBI2oONiq
— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 24, 2021
Biden was also asked about his planned call with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman. Reports had indicated that the two leaders would be speaking today.
“I am going to be talking to him,” Biden said. “I haven’t spoken to him yet.”
This comes as the US government prepares to release an unclassified report on the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which has been blamed on the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
Asked whether he has read the intelligence report on Khashoggi’s murder, Biden said he had.
Biden signs executive order to improve US supply chains
Joe Biden has just signed an executive order aimed at improving US supply chains to better prepare for future crises similar to the coronavirus pandemic.
The president said the order would do two things. The first is initiate a 100-day review of the production of semi-conductors, key minerals and materials that are used to make everything from hard steel to airplanes, pharmaceuticals and advanced batteries that power electric vehicles.
The order will also initiate a long-term review of six economic sectors to fortify US supply chains moving forward.
The president noted that he had a meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers today to discuss issues with supply chains, and Biden described the conversation as his “best meeting” since he took office.
“It was like the old days,” Biden said. “People were actually on the same page.”
The Guardian’s Sam Levine has more information on Joe Biden’s nominees to the USPS board of governors:
Two of the nominees, Amber McReynolds and Ron Stroman, have deep backgrounds in how the postal service facilitates mail-in voting, a process that Americans used in record numbers last year.
McReynolds, a former election official in Denver, is now CEO of the National Vote at Home Institute and is widely respected as an expert on vote by mail. This year, she worked with election officials across the country as they moved quickly to scale up their vote by mail operations during the pandemic.
Stroman stepped down last year as the deputy postmaster general, the second in command at USPS, after nearly a decade at the agency. Part of his responsibility there was overseeing the agency’s election mail operations.
In an interview with the Guardian last year, he said the changes Louis DeJoy was making were risky.
“The concern is not only that you’re doing this in a pandemic, but a couple of months before an election with enormous consequences,” he said in August. “If you can’t right the ship, if you can’t correct these fast enough, the consequence is not just, OK, people don’t get their mail, it’s that you disenfranchise people. Making these changes this close to an election is a high-risk proposition.”
Joe Biden’s picks to the board must be confirmed by the Senate. If confirmed, Democrats would hold enough seats on the board to fire DeJoy from his position.
In a statement announcing the three nominees to the the USPS board of governors, the White House said Joe Biden is “committed to the USPS’ success”.
“These experienced and tested leaders will ensure the USPS is running at the highest of service standards and that it can effectively and efficiently serve all communities in our country,” the White House said.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki has been repeatedly asked about Biden’s opinion on Louis DeJoy’s tenure as postmaster general, but she has told reporters that the president will leave that matter to the USPS board of governors, which is the only body that can fire DeJoy.
Ironically, the announcement about the three nominations to the USPS board comes hours after DeJoy told the House oversight committee that he intended to stay in his role for “a long time”.
“Get used to me,” DeJoy told House members.
WATCH: Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testifies in front of House panel #MTPDaily
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) February 24, 2021
Rep. Jim Cooper: "How much longer are you planning to stay?"
DeJoy: "A long time. Get used to me." pic.twitter.com/JkohYmmaBP
Updated
Biden announces three nominees for the USPS board of governors
Joe Biden has just announced plans to nominate three people to openings on the United States Postal Service’s board of governors.
The president intends to nominate Anton Hajjar, the former general counsel of the American Postal Workers Union; Amber McReynolds, the CEO of the National Vote at Home Institute; and Ron Stroman, the former deputy postmaster general.
The announcement comes amid intense criticism of the postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, due to severe delays in mail delivery since he took over USPS last year.
Testifying before the House oversight committee today, DeJoy apologized for the delays, saying: “We fell far short of meeting our service targets. Too many Americans were left waiting weeks for important deliveries of mail and packages.”
Democrats have been pushing Biden to quickly fill vacancies on the USPS board of governors in order to force DeJoy out, given that the president cannot fire the postmaster general directly.
Updated
Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington DC, announced that her sister has died of complications from coronavirus.
The DC mayor said in a statement that her sister, Mercia Bowser, passed away this morning.
My family and I are mourning the loss of my sister, Mercia Bowser, who passed away this morning due to complications related to COVID-19. Mercia was loved immensely and will be missed greatly, as she joins the legion of angels who have gone home too soon due to the pandemic.
— Muriel Bowser (@MurielBowser) February 24, 2021
“Mercia was loved immensely and will be missed greatly, as she joins the legion of angels who have gone home too soon due to the pandemic,” Bowser said.
“I ask that you continue to keep those who have been lost or impacted by the pandemic and those who are working so hard to protect us from it in your thoughts and prayers, and I respectfully request that my family and I are granted the time and space we need to mourn the loss of Mercia.”
Bowser specifically thanked the hospital workers who helped her sister in her final days, as she struggled with pneumonia caused by coronavirus.
Earlier today, Bowser declared a day of remembrance for coronavirus victims, as the DC death toll surpassed 1,000.
Updated
Manchin will support Haaland's nomination, likely ensuring confirmation
The Democratic senator Joe Manchin has announced he will support the nomination of Deb Haaland to lead the interior department.
The announcement comes after two days of Haaland testifying before the Senate energy and natural resources committee, which Manchin chairs.
INBOX: @JoeManchinWV says he WILL SUPPORT Rep. Deb Haaland to be Interior Secretary, likely paving the way for her confirmation. pic.twitter.com/R65zx5WjZG
— Leigh Ann Caldwell (@LACaldwellDC) February 24, 2021
“While we do not agree on every issue, she reaffirmed her strong commitment to bipartisanship, addressing the diverse needs of our country and maintaining our nation’s energy independence,” Manchin said.
The announcement likely guarantees Haaland will be confirmed, assuming every other Senate Democrat supports the nomination as well.
If confirmed, Haaland will be the first Native Americans to serve as a cabinet secretary.
Updated
Joe Biden is meeting with a bipartisan group of Congress members to discuss improving US supply chains to better prepare for future crises.
“The last year has shown some of the vulnerability we have with some of the supply chains, including the PPE we needed badly but had to go abroad to get,” Biden told reporters at the start of the meeting.
Biden, meeting in Oval with members of Congress about supply chain problems, including a shortage of computer chips for the autos industry, says it’s causing some production lines to slow down and “people might be laid off.” pic.twitter.com/nHNN2CofN5
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) February 24, 2021
Biden said he and the lawmakers would be discussing the production of semiconductor chips, the shortage of which is severely impacting the automobile industry.
The president said a proposal from last year that was crafted by a group led by the Republican senator John Cornyn, who is attending the meeting, was “a pretty good effort on how to deal with these chips”.
Updated
Haaland faces more of Republicans' pointed questions at second confirmation hearing
The congresswoman Deb Haaland, Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the interior department, faced more pointed questions from Republicans during her second confirmation hearing today.
The Republican senator John Barrasso pressed Haaland, who would be the first Native American cabinet secretary if confirmed, on her past statements against fracking on public lands.
“The role of a congresswoman in one district in the country is much different than the role of a secretary who is fighting and working for every single American and all of our public lands across the country,” Haaland said. “Those are two different things, I recognize that.”
The hearing was the second of Haaland’s two appearances before the Senate energy and natural resources committee.
During yesterday’s hearing, Republicans similarly grilled Haaland about her past tweets criticizing them and her opinions on oil and gas leasing on public lands.
In response, Haaland emphasized that her leadership at the interior department would refect Biden’s agenda, not her own.
Updated
Manhattan DA subpoenas Bannon financial records - report
The Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance, has subpoenaed financial records related to Steve Bannon’s crowd-funding US-Mexico border wall effort, signaling that its criminal investigation into the one time chief strategist for the former US president, Donald Trump, is making progress, sources familiar with the matter have told CNN.
The outlet further reported that:
Prosecutors sent the subpoenas after Trump pardoned Bannon in late January for federal conspiracy crimes tied to the southern border-wall project, making Bannon among the Trump world figures -- including the former president -- subjects of criminal investigations by Vance.
The grand jury subpoenas were sent to Wells Fargo, one of the financial institutions that handled some of the accounts used in the fundraising effort, and to GoFundMe, the crowdfunding platform where Bannon’s project, “We Build the Wall,” once operated to drum up private funds for the wall project, the people said.
The state grand jury investigation revives the possibility that Bannon, the conservative and outspoken political strategist, could face state criminal charges after shedding the federal case last month.
In addition to the criminal investigation, the New Jersey attorney general’s office has launched a civil inquiry into We Build the Wall.
In September, the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs subpoenaed We Build the Wall for documents seeking a wide range of records, according to court filings.
The move by Vance comes as he is investigating Trump and the Trump Organization for potential financial crimes, including insurance fraud and tax fraud, according to people familiar with the matter. Trump has called the investigation a witch hunt and fishing expedition.
And from my Guardian colleague Martin Pengelly earlier, this.
Updated
Palm Beach county defied the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, today, refusing to lower its courthouse flags to half-staff in honor of infamous bigot Rush Limbaugh, the late radio host and rightwing agitator who helped recraft the conservative media landscape in the 90s and reveled in racist, sexist and homophobic talk on his show.
The Associated Press reports:
The county’s courthouse flags remained at full staff, ignoring DeSantis’ Tuesday order directing its US and Florida state flags to be flown at half-staff.
He also ordered the Town of Palm Beach and the State Capitol in Tallahassee to fly their flags at half-staff from sunrise to sunset today. Those flags were lowered.
Palm Beach County would only say it followed “normal protocols”, but commissioner Melissa McKinlay posted a statement on Twitter saying, “The lowering of flags should be a unifying gesture during solemn occasions, such as in remembrance of the young lives lost during the Parkland High School massacre or first responder line of duty deaths.”
She was referring to the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas in nearby Parkland that left 17 dead.
McKinlay continued: “Although Rush Limbaugh was a significant public figure, he was also an incredibly divisive one who hurt many people with his words and actions.”
Officials in the Town of Palm Beach, the wealthy island enclave where Limbaugh lived for two decades, issued a statement saying its policy is to comply with governor’s orders to lower the flags.
Limbaugh, 70, died of lung cancer last week.
DeSantis called Limbaugh a legend during a news conference.
But many Democrats objected. Nikki Fried, Florida’s agriculture commissioner and the only statewide Democratic officeholder, said Monday that she would not abide by the Republican governor’s orders.
She said she would notify all state officers she oversees to disregard the governor’s order.
St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman posted on Twitter that his city would not honor hatred, racism, bigotry, homophobia or anything else Limbaugh has spewed over the years.
The governor’s order does not apply to any of the offices controlled by Fried or the city of St. Petersburg.
Read my colleague Tom McCarthy’s account last week of Limbaugh’s death.
Updated
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Two Senate committees postponed votes on Neera Tanden’s nomination today. It remains unclear whether Tanden can be confirmed as the director of the Office of Management and Budget, after the Democratic senator Joe Manchin announced he would not support her nomination.
- The Food and Drug Administration released promising data on the effectiveness of Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine. The agency may issue an emergency use authorization to Johnson & Johnson as soon as this weekend.
- The Biden administration will deliver more than 25m face masks to vulnerable populations. The masks are meant to ensure a more equitable pandemic response, as many Americans still do not have access to masks, which have become a crucial tool in limiting the spread of coronavirus.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Updated
The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, faced multiple questions about the $15 minimum wage increase in the coronavirus relief package.
Psaki emphasized she did not want to get ahead of the Senate parliamentarian, who will soon issue a ruling on whether the minimum wage proposal meets the requirements for reconciliation.
The press secretary reiterated that Joe Biden supports gradually raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour – although the president has voiced skepticism that the parliamentarian will allow the proposal to remain in the relief package.
Updated
A White House reporter asked Jen Psaki whether Joe Biden was considering targeted relief for African Americans, who have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic fallout.
The reporter specifically mentioned potential job-training programs for African Americans.
Psaki would not commit to any such targeted relief, simply saying Biden was focused right now on getting his coronavirus relief package passed, which would deliver $1,400 checks to most African Americans.
Psaki noted job-training is certainly something that interests Biden and something he spoke about on the campaign trail, but the White House does not seem to have specific plans on expanding such programs as of yet.
A reporter again pressed Jen Psaki on the Biden administration’s decision to reopen a migrant detention center for minors in Texas.
Psaki reiterated that the facility was needed to comply with public health guidelines and protect the migrant children from contracting coronavirus.
A reporter noted Joe Biden and Kamala Harris previously criticized the Trump administration’s immigration policies, and he seemed to imply that criticism appears hypocritical now that this facility has been reopened.
But Psaki insisted Biden’s immigration agenda bears no resemblance to Trump’s because the current president is not attempting to separate young migrant children from their parents, as his predecessor did.
Jen Psaki said the White House was “surprised to learn” that Johnson & Johnson was behind on its vaccine production.
Officials had previously expected that 10 million doses of the vaccine would be ready for distribution once Johnson & Johnson received an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration.
But Jeff Zients, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus response team, said today that 3 to 4 million doses would be ready to distribute next week, assuming the FDA approves the vaccine.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine could receive an emergency use authorization as soon as this weekend.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the office of the director of national intelligence will soon release a report on the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Khashoggi’s murder has been blamed on the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
Reports have said Joe Biden plans to talk to Saudi Arabia’s King Salman today, although the press secretary would not confirm that.
Psaki indicated the crown prince would not be a part of that call when it happens, saying it would be a “one on one” conversation.
Updated
The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, indicated no plans to withdraw the nomination of Neera Tanden to lead the Office of Management and Budget.
“We’re fighting for her nomination,” Psaki said.
It’s unclear whether Tanden can be confirmed, after Democrat Joe Manchin announced he would not support her nomination over concerns about her adversarial tone on Twitter.
When asked whether Tanden has offered to withdraw her nomination, the press secretary replied, “That’s not the stage we’re in.”
Psaki said that the White House remains in “close touch” with the nominee and lawmakers to determine whether she can be confirmed.
Updated
Jen Psaki noted Joe Biden, who has received the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, tested negative for coronavirus on Monday.
During the final weeks of the presidential campaign, Biden provided daily updates on the results of his coronavirus tests, but he has taken those tests much less frequently since being vaccinated.
This morning, a member of Kamala Harris’ press pool tested positive for coronavirus, forcing the White House to extensively clean the briefing room.
Updated
The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, has taken over the briefing, and she addressed last week’s winter storm that left dozens of people dead.
Psaki noted temperatures are improving across the central US, but she said clean water issues, “although improving, remain an ongoing issue across the region”.
Joe Biden is scheduled to travel to Texas on Friday, as millions of the state’s residents remain without access to clean water.
Updated
Sameera Fazili, the deputy director of the National Economic Council, also spoke at today’s White House briefing.
Fazili said the executive order that Joe Biden will sign today will strengthen supply chains and help ensure the country is better prepared for future crises.
“Even before the Covid crisis, the economy was not working for most Americans,” Fazili said.
Biden to sign executive order to strengthen US supply chains
Joe Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, is now holding her daily briefing at the White House.
Senior economic adviser Peter Harrell spoke at the beginning of the briefing to preview the executive order that Biden will sign later today.
Harrell said the order would help the country “build strong and resilient supply chains” amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Guardian’s Daniel Strauss reports:
A top Senate Republican who opposes Joe Biden’s nominee to run the Office of Management and Budget isn’t sure who a more reasonable alternative would be.
Rob Portman, the retiring senator from Ohio, was asked during a conference call with reporters who he would prefer the Biden administration nominate instead of Neera Tanden, the current president of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress.
Portman, who has already said he planned to vote against Tanden’s nomination, said he wasn’t sure but added that Sholanda Young, who was nominated to serve as the deputy director of the OMB, is popular on the Hill.
“Sholanda Young has a lot of support as a senior Hill staffer,” Portman said in response to a question from the Guardian.
Young was the first Black woman to serve as the staff director of the House Appropriations Committee. She has recently emerged as a top contender should Tanden’s nomination be voted down.
The comment from Portman, a former OMB director himself, comes as the Senate committees charged with holding hearings on Tanden’s nomination postponed their Wednesday meetings. The White House though continues to support Tanden’s nomination.
A few Republican senators and Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, one of the most conservative Democrats in the Senate, have already come out in opposition to Tanden, citing her sometimes adversarial Twitter presence and antagonistic comments to both Republicans and Democrats. Supporters have cried hypocrisy as those same Republican senators declined to criticize some of Donald Trump’s most incendiary tweets.
As of now, Tanden appears to lack the necessary support to be confirmed. If her nomination is withdrawn, she would be the first Biden nominee to fail to make it through the confirmation process.
Other names being floated include Martha Coven at Princeton University; Ann O’Leary, the former chief of staff to governor Gavin Newsom of California; Sara Bianchi, a former Biden aide, and Gene Sperling, a former aide to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
There was some ... tension at House Republicans’ press conference on Capitol Hill this morning.
The House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, was asked whether he believed Donald Trump should be speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference this weekend.
“Yes, he should,” McCarthy replied.
Q: Do you believe former President Trump should speaking at CPAC?@GOPLeader: "Yes he should."@RepLizCheney: "That's up to CPAC....I don't believe that he should be playing a role in the future of the party or the country."
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 24, 2021
McCarthy: "On that high note, thank you very much." pic.twitter.com/ZOkTUbpQCP
But a reporter then asked the same question to congresswoman Liz Cheney, the chairwoman of the House Republican conference.
Cheney has been a vocal critic of Trump over his role in inciting the Capitol insurrection, and she voted in favor of his impeachment last month.
“That’s up to CPAC,” Cheney told reporters. She added, “I don’t believe that he should be playing a role in the future of the party or the country.”
Cheney’s comments were met with a shake of the head from the House minority whip, Steve Scalise. After a noticeable pause, McCarthy told reporters: “On that high note, thank you very much.”
Updated
The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:
Louis DeJoy, the embattled postmaster general, apologized for delays in service over the holiday season during testimony before the House oversight committee on Wednesday.
“We fell far short of meeting our service targets. Too many Americans were left waiting weeks for important deliveries of mail and packages,” he said in his opening statement.
“This is unacceptable, and I apologize to those customers who felt the impact of our delays.”
DeJoy, a logistics executive without any prior USPS experience, has come under heavy scrutiny since taking control of the postal service last year. There were severe mail delays across the United States last year, a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and poorly-executed changes implemented by DeJoy, including an effort to get trucks to leave on time.
Joe Biden cannot fire DeJoy directly, but can fill a majority of the vacancies on the USPS board of governors, the body that could fire DeJoy. Democrats are calling on Biden to move swiftly to do that.
The post office has long been in financial peril and DeJoy is considering a plan to slow down some types of first class mail and raise rates, according to the Washington Post. Democrats in Congress are proposing legislation that would eliminate a requirement that USPS pre-fund pension obligations, which has been a severe financial burden on the agency, and offer other financial assistance, the Washington Post reports.
Updated
Jeff Zients said it will cost the federal government $86m to distribute more than 25m masks to vulnerable communities.
The coordinator of the White House coronavirus response team said the Biden administration considered this initiative so crucial because many Americans still do not have access to masks, and this will help ensure a more equitable pandemic response.
Updated
Dr Anthony Fauci delivered a presentation on long-term symptoms among coronavirus patients during the press conference today.
Fauci noted that studies have indicated some hospitalized coronavirus patients have reported symptoms – including fatigue, “brain fog” and gastrointestinal issues – for up to nine months after they returned home.
The National Institutes of Health has received funding to study what has come to be known as “long-haul syndrome”. Yesterday, the NIH made the first in a series of research opportunity announcements related to long-term coronavirus symptoms.
Updated
At the press briefing, Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus response team coordinator, also addressed the positive news about the effectiveness of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Zients said he expected 3-4m doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to be ready once the Food and Drug Administration grants the company an emergency use authorization, which could come as soon as this weekend.
Assuming the authorization comes through, Johnson & Johnson is expected to deliver about 20m doses by the end of March, Zients said.
Updated
The White House noted in its fact sheet that the masks offered to vulnerable populations will be “no cost, high-quality, washable and consistent with the mask guidance from the CDC”.
“All of these masks will be made in America, and will not impact availability of masks for healthcare workers,” the White House said.
“The masks will be available beginning in March and into May. As a result of these actions, an estimated 12 to 15 million Americans will receive masks.”
Updated
Biden announces plans to deliver 25m masks to vulnerable populations
The Biden administration has just announced plans to deliver more than 25m masks to vulnerable communities who have been severely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
According to a fact sheet released by the White House, the masks will be delivered to 1,300 community health centers and 60,000 food pantries and soup kitchens across the country.
At a press briefing, Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus response team coordinator, said the action was needed to address some communities’ lack of access to masks, which have proved crucial in limiting the spread of coronavirus.
“These masks will be available at no cost,” Zients said. “With this action, we’re helping to level the playing field.”
Updated
The White House briefing room received a thorough cleaning this morning, after a pool reporter tested positive for coronavirus.
The White House briefing room gets a cleaning after a reporter tested positive this morning. pic.twitter.com/1GTshvUnq0
— Michael Wilner (@mawilner) February 24, 2021
The White House announced this morning that a member of Kamala Harris’ press pool tested positive for coronavirus during routine screening before the swearing in of Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the new US ambassador to the UN.
“As soon as we were notified, we disbanded the Vice President’s pool and sent them home,” the White House said in a statement.
“They will be tested again tomorrow. Out of an abundance of caution, we made arrangements for the briefing room to be cleaned. We have also begun the process of contract tracing. This individual did not have any contact with the Vice President or White House staff.”
Updated
Moments ago, Vice-President Kamala Harris swore in Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the new US ambassador to the UN.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield (who aides call LTG) was sworn in as @USUN ambassador with her hand on the family bible, accompanied by her husband, Lafayette Greenfield, and their son, Lafayette Greenfield II (who goes by Deuce). @LindaT_G pic.twitter.com/mSrgTDRFwW
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) February 24, 2021
Thomas-Greenfield, a longtime diplomat who served in the Obama administration, was confirmed by the Senate yesterday, in a vote of 78 to 20.
The mayor of Washington DC, has declared today as a day of remembrance for lives lost to coronavirus.
Mayor Muriel Bowser called on city residents to pause today and remember the more than 1,000 Washingtonians who have died of coronavirus.
1/ I hereby proclaim February 24, 2021 in Washington, DC as “A DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR LIVES LOST TO COVID-19” and call on all Washingtonians to pause and remember more than 1,000 neighbors, family, and friends whose lives were lost to the virus. pic.twitter.com/4hHHGQG7Is
— Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) February 24, 2021
City officials announced this morning that three more Washington residents died of coronavirus yesterday, bringing the total DC death toll to 1,001.
The national coronavirus death toll surpassed 500,000 earlier this week.
Updated
Today marks the beginning of a two-week exclusive application period to the Paycheck Protection Program for businesses with fewer than 20 employees.
Small businesses need relief, but many were muscled out of the way by big companies last year. That’s why starting today, we’re opening an exclusive 14-day loan application period for businesses and nonprofits with fewer than 20 employees.
— President Biden (@POTUS) February 24, 2021
Learn more: https://t.co/JlLS2kNadK pic.twitter.com/Nn36MTol8E
Joe Biden announced changes to the small business loan program, which was created by the first coronavirus relief bill, on Monday.
PPP has been criticized by members of both parties for distributing too much money to large corporations rather than small businesses.
This exclusive application period is meant to ensure that small businesses, many of which are on the brink of closure because of the pandemic, get the assistance they need.
The Democratic senator Kyrsten Sinema is apparently keeping Neera Tanden’s nomination alive – for now, at least.
According to CNN, the White House has not yet pulled Tanden’s nomination because officials are not sure whether Sinema will support her confirmation.
The delay has to do with uncertainty over Sinema’s position. If she’s a no, it’s over for Tanden. If she’s a yes, there’s a chance she gets confirmed if Murkowski saves it. That’s why WH hasn’t pulled her yet
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 24, 2021
If Sinema votes against confirming Tanden to lead the Office of Management and Budget, that’s probably the final nail in the coffin for her nomination.
But if Sinema supports confirmation, the White House could still save the nomination if Democrats can successfully lobby the Republican senator Lisa Murkowski to vote “yes” as well.
Today will likely provide clues as to whether Tanden can still be confirmed, so stay tuned.
Updated
This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.
Yesterday, two Senate committees held a joint hearing on the security failures that led to the Capitol insurrection on 6 January.
The Republican senator Ron Johnson was criticized for using his questioning period at the hearing to read from a piece in the rightwing publication the Federalist, which pushed baseless claims that the insurrection was carried out by “provocateurs” and “fake Trump protesters”.
In reality, the insurrection was carried out by a pro-Trump mob who was incited by Donald Trump to storm the Capitol as lawmakers certified Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election.
WATCH: @senrobportman on @SenRonJohnson raising a conspiracy theory about who assaulted the Capitol: “The person who was quoted said things that are entirely counter to what I know to be true from law enforcement… We've got to be sure we’re sticking to the facts.” pic.twitter.com/EicviI3i4o
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) February 24, 2021
Senator Rob Portman, the top Republican on the Senate homeland security committee, criticized Johnson in an interview with CBS News this morning.
“The person who was quoted said things that are entirely counter to what I know to be true from law enforcement,” Portman said of the Federalist piece. “So I don’t think that’s helpful.”
Portman noted that law enforcement officials had intelligence about far-right extremist groups potentially attacking the Capitol, and members of those groups, such as the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, were later arrested after the riot.
“We know who these individuals are,” Portman said. “So we’ve got to be sure we’re sticking to the facts.”
Updated
Senate postpones votes on Neera Tanden confirmation to OMB director role
We were expecting votes today on Neera Tanden’s nomination to be director of the OMB. That is not happening now. CNN reports that senators want more time to consider the nomination:
A senior aide on the Senate Budget Committee told CNN its hearing also postponed and that Chairman Sen Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats and who has clashed with Tanden in the past, personally informed Tanden on the phone Tuesday night about the committee’s plans to postpone the markup.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has also postponed their part of the process. Earlier this morning the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, indicated that the Biden administration would still be backing Tanden for the job.
Neera Tanden is a leading policy expert who brings critical qualifications to the table during this time of unprecedented crisis.
— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) February 24, 2021
Updated
FDA say Johnson & Johnson's one-shot Covid-19 vaccine is effective and safe
Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot Covid-19 vaccine appeared safe and effective in trials, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in documents published just now. Reuters report that this paves the way for its approval for emergency use.
The FDA’s panel of independent experts meets on Friday to decide whether to approve the shot. While it is not bound to follow the advice of its experts, the FDA did so when authorizing the Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc vaccines.
Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine was 66% effective in preventing Covid-19 against multiple variants in a global trial involving nearly 44,000 people, the company said last month.
Its effectiveness varied from 72% in the US to 66% in Latin America and 57% in South Africa, where a new variant has spread, though the vaccine was 85% effective overall in stopping severe cases of the disease.
Three vaccine recipients had severe side effects in the trial, but the FDA said that its analysis did not raise any specific safety concerns that would preclude issuance of an emergency use authorization. Johnson & Johnson had not previously released details of its clinical trial data beyond efficacy rates.
Updated
A senior adviser to Democrat Joe Biden in his campaign for president believed “Covid is the best thing that ever happened to him”, a new book reports.
It was, the authors add, a necessarily private comment that “campaign officials believed but would never say in public” as the US reeled from the impact of the pandemic amid hospitals stretched to breaking and with deaths mounting and the economy falling off a cliff.
The remark, made to “an associate” by Anita Dunn, a Washington powerbroker who the Atlantic called “The Mastermind Behind Biden’s No-Drama Approach to Trump”, is reported in Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely Won the Presidency, by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes.
The first major book on the 2020 election, a campaign indelibly marked by the coronavirus, will be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy.
This week, President Biden commemorated the 500,000th US Covid death with solemn ceremony and a request that Americans “remember those we lost and those we left behind”.
Allen and Parnes, of NBC News and The Hill, also collaborated on Shattered, a similarly speedy history of Hillary Clinton’s White House run in 2016. In their new book they record Biden’s view of his predecessor in her defeat by Trump – he thought her a “terrible candidate” – and the views of Barack Obama, whom Biden served as vice-president from 2009 to 2017, as the 2020 campaign unfolded.
Obama first “seemed to be enamored with a former Texas congressman, Beto O’Rourke”, Allen and Parnes write, then later told Biden’s aides he feared his friend, aged 77 when the primary began, would only succeed in embarrassing himself and tarnishing a distinguished Washington career.
Read more here: Key aide said Covid was ‘the best thing that ever happened’ to Biden, book says
White House stands firm on Neera Tanden nomination to be OMB director
White House press secretary Jen Psaki has just issued a statement indicating that the Biden administration will press ahead with its attempts to get Neera Tanden confirmed as the new director of the Office of Management and Budget. Her nomination has stalled in the Senate with opposition from Democrat Joe Manchin as well as the more anticipated objections from the Republican side. Psaki says:
Neera Tanden is a leading policy expert who brings critical qualifications to the table during this time of unprecedented crisis. She also has important perspective and values, understanding firsthand the powerful difference policy can make in the lives of those going through hard times. She has a broad spectrum of support, ranging from the US Chamber of Commerce to labor unions, and has a strong record of working with both parties that we expect to grow in President Biden’s cabinet as the first South Asian woman to lead OMB.
Updated
Sam Levine reports for us today on how the Black women who powered Democrats to their stunning win in Georgia have been fielding calls from other states eager to learn:
“Everybody in the south that I talk to is talking about what happened in Georgia,” said Oleta Fitzgerald, a Mississippi organizer who runs the Southern Black Women’s Rural Initiative, which targets barriers faced by southern Black women. “It’s like we’ve been electrified.”
Mobilizing voters in the south is not easy, Fitzgerald and other organizers said. Many southern states, including Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Texas, make it difficult to cast a ballot with strict voter ID laws and draconian restrictions on voting by mail.
White Republicans hold the levers of power in state houses and governor’s mansions. And gerrymandered electoral districts have helped entrench Republican power and Jim Crow-era laws disenfranchising people with felony convictions leave swaths of the Black voting population unable to vote.
“Georgia couldn’t carry a torch to the racism in Alabama,” said Sheila Tyson, a Democratic county commissioner in Birmingham.
Each state also has its unique politics and geography. Mississippi, for example, has a sizable and growing non-white population, but does not have the same kind of growing urban areas that helped carry Democrats to victory in Georgia, Politico reported in January. Voting in the state has become racially polarized – White people overwhelmingly vote Republican while Black voters back Democrats – making it difficult to build a multiracial coalition to back a Democratic candidate. There has not been a Black official in statewide office in Mississippi in over 150 years.
Some learnings from Georgia, however, could spread elsewhere in the south. Over the last two decades, organizers in Georgia have built a strategy around investing in Black communities, even when there’s no election around the corner, signalling to voters that the goal is building their communities, not just helping a particular candidate win. When an election does come around, organizers are already deeply embedded and connected to the communities they want to turn out and vote.
Read more of Sam Levine’s report here: ‘We’ve been electrified’: after success in Georgia, Black organizers look to transform the south
White House chief of staff Ronald Klain has described the letter from 150 CEOs and business leaders in support of Joe Biden’s planned Covid relief bill as “Strong bipartisan support from those who know what’s at stake.”
Jennifer Jacobs at Bloomberg notes that “the letter’s signatories included several past supporters of former president Donald Trump, including Stephen Schwartzman, the chairman and CEO of Blackstone, one of the biggest contributors to Trump’s re-election bid from the world of high finance, and New York real estate magnate Richard LeFrak.”
Strong bipartisan support from those who know what’s at stake. https://t.co/0IAJDd1Rbl
— Ronald Klain (@RonaldKlain) February 24, 2021
The frigid winter storm and power failure that left millions of people in Texas shivering in darkness has been used to stoke what is becoming a growing front in America’s culture wars – renewable energy.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (Ercot), which oversees the Texas grid, has been clear that outages of solar and wind energy were only a minor factor in blackouts which, at their peak, left 4 million Texans without electricity.
Crucially, the supply of natural gas, which supplies about half of Texas’s electricity, seized up due to frozen pipes and a lack of standby reserves. The grid failed after about a third of Ercot’s total capacity – supplied by coal, nuclear and gas – went offline as demand for heating dramatically surged. Regardless, the Republican leadership in Texas has sought to pin the crisis on wind turbines and solar panels freezing when the Lone Star state needed them most.
“The Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America,” Greg Abbott, Texas’s governor, told Fox News last week, in reference to a plan to rapidly transition the US to renewable energy that currently only exists on paper. “Our wind and our solar got shut down … It just shows that fossil fuel is necessary.”
Abbott subsequently walked backed these comments but others have been less hesitant to use the crisis to attack renewables. Fox News blamed renewables for the blackouts 128 times in just a 48-hour period last week, according to Media Matters.
The scorn heaped on renewables has echoes of the blackouts suffered by California during devastating wildfires last year, which caused several prominent Texas Republicans such as Dan Crenshaw, a member of Congress, and Senator Ted Cruz, who last week fled his stricken home state for sunny Cancún, to mock California’s shift to cleaner energy.
The expansion of wind and solar, a key policy goal of Joe Biden, is now developing into yet another cultural battle line, despite strong public support for renewables. Jesse Keenan, an expert in climate adaptation at Tulane University, said the use of “targeted disinformation” and conspiracy theories is obscuring the more pressing issue of how states like Texas cope with the challenges of extreme weather linked to the climate crisis.
Read more of Oliver Milman’s report here: Texas freeze casts renewable energy as next battle line in US culture wars
Judge issues ban on Biden's plan for 100-day moratorium on most deportations
There was a blow to the Biden administration’s plans on immigration policy late last night, when a federal judge indefinitely banned them from enforcing a 100-day moratorium on most deportations.
Associated Press report that US District Judge Drew Tipton issued a preliminary injunction sought by Texas, which argued the moratorium violated federal law and risked imposing additional costs on the state.
Biden proposed the 100-day pause on deportations during his campaign as part of a larger review of immigration enforcement and an attempt to reverse the priorities of former president Donald Trump. Biden has proposed a sweeping immigration bill that would allow the legalization of an estimated 11 million people living in the US illegally. He has also instituted other guidelines on whom immigration and border agents should target for enforcement.
Tipton, a Trump appointee, initially ruled on 26 January that the moratorium violated federal law on administrative procedure and that the US failed to show why a deportation pause was justified. A temporary restraining order the judge issued was set to expire Tuesday.
Tipton’s ruling did not require deportations to resume at their previous pace, but in the days that followed his ruling, authorities deported 15 people to Jamaica and hundreds of others to Central America. It was not immediately clear, say the AP, if the Biden administration will appeal Tipton’s latest ruling.
White House chief of staff Ronald Klain has already been using news of that letter from CEOs to push again his line that Biden’s Covid economic package has got bipartisan support everywhere except in Congress itself.
It’s bipartisan! https://t.co/NBoMh4iFmV
— Ronald Klain (@RonaldKlain) February 24, 2021
Business leaders back Biden relief package
CNN have been boasting of a scoop this morning from Phil Mattingly, that president Biden’s Covid economic rescue plan is to get the backing of more than 150 top business leaders in a letter today. Mattingly writes:
The group of executives includes the top executives representing some of the powerful business interests in the US, ranging from bank and investment firms like Goldman Sachs and Blackstone, to technology companies like Google, Intel and IBM, to hospitality companies like Loews Hotels & Co and airlines including American and United Airlines. Top executives from real estate, insurance and utility firms also signed on to the letter.
“Previous federal relief measures have been essential, but more must be done to put the country on a trajectory for a strong, durable recovery,” the executives wrote in the letter addressed to bipartisan congressional leaders that will be sent Wednesday. “Congress should act swiftly and on a bipartisan basis to authorize a stimulus and relief package along the lines of the Biden-Harris administration’s proposed American Rescue Plan.”
The weight of the businesses getting behind the proposal provides a boost to Democrats as the House moves towards a final vote on the package later this week, with the Senate slated to follow suit shortly after.
Republican support, to this point at least, has remained non-existent, with even moderate GOP senators amenable to talks calling Biden’s proposal too large in scale and scope given the trillions in emergency aid deployed over the first year of the pandemic. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky attacked the plan as “totally partisan,” and Republicans in the House and Senate appear unified in voting against the proposal, aides in both chambers say.
Biden, however, has been steadfast that his mandate is to “go big,” and in recent days has challenged opponents of his plan to outline specifically what they’d like to strip from the package.
Read more here: CNN – Biden’s Covid plan gets backing from more than 150 top business leaders
Updated
William Burns to face Senate confirmation hearing to be CIA director
Joe Biden’s nominee to be director of the CIA, William Burns, is expected to sail through his Senate confirmation hearing today, with discussion largely focused on challenges from China and Russia and threats from international hacking networks.
Burns, 64, a former career diplomat who worked in both Democratic and Republican administrations, has already been confirmed by the Senate five times for his stints as ambassador to Jordan and Russia and three senior positions at the State Department.
In his testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Burns was expected to outline his four top priorities - “people, partnerships, China and technology” - if he is confirmed to head the agency, according to an official familiar with the issue.
Patricia Zengerle and Mark Hosenball report for Reuters that competition with China is a top priority for the Biden administration - and for members of Congress, who want a tough line toward Beijing. Russian aggression is a constant concern in Washington, especially its involvement in US elections and the recent SolarWinds hack that penetrated government agencies and that US officials have blamed on Russian hackers.
Burns will also note that he often worked with the Central Intelligence Agency during his years as a diplomat. “He understands the mission and knows the people. It means politics will stop where intelligence work begins,” the official told Reuters.
Burns’ arrival at the CIA would come after a difficult four years under former president Donald Trump, who frequently disregarded spy agencies’ findings, especially the determination that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election to boost his chances of winning the White House.
Unlike some appointments which have faced opposition – for example Neera Tanden and Xavier Becerra – Biden has been able to get most of his national security team into place with support from many Senate Republicans as well as Democrats. Secretary of state Antony Blinken, secretary of defense Lloyd Austin and director of national intelligence Avril Haines all easily won confirmation.
President Joe Biden is preparing today to sign an executive order to review US supply chains for large-capacity batteries, pharmaceuticals, critical minerals and semiconductors that power cars, phones, military equipment and other goods. It may sound dull and technical, but it has potentially huge ramifications for US manufacturing, as the Biden administration attempts to steer the economy out of the pandemic.
Josh Boak and Tom Krisher note for the Associated Press that the US has become increasingly reliant on imports of these goods — viewed as a potential national security and economic risk that the Biden administration hopes to address with the planned 100-day review and the possibility of increased domestic production.
The order being signed Wednesday will include sectoral reviews to be completed within one year for defense, public health and biological preparedness, information communications technology, energy, transportation and food production.
Over the past year, the fragility of vital supply chains has been revealed repeatedly. The coronavirus outbreak led to an initial shortage of masks, gloves and other protective medical equipment. Automakers in the United States and Europe are now dealing with a shortage of computer chips.
Administration officials have met with automakers and are talking with foreign counterparts on how to boost supplies in the short term. But there is no magic bullet to immediately fixing the lack of semiconductors for automakers, an administration official said.
The chip shortage is indicative as to why Biden is trying to be proactive with the reviews, so that they can strengthen the supply chains to prevent additional challenges from emerging.
David Lowe, a partner at law firm Gowling WLG, said: “Biden is to be applauded for recognising the need to proactively manage supply chains. Resilient supply chains are not just crucial for business, they are crucial for all of us. Every nation and every business should be carrying out this kind of review. The challenge is to ensure that seeking resilience does not lead to harder borders.”
Also talking about Donald Trump yesterday was his former vice president Mike Pence. Glossing over the bit where Trump supporters were marauding through the Capitol chanting “Hang Mike Pence”, he said he maintained a close relationship with the former president. Manu Raju at CNN reports:
Pence told a group of conservative lawmakers on Tuesday that he maintains a close personal friendship with former President Donald Trump, while noting that he plans to launch a political organization that will defend their administration’s record over the past four years.
Rep Jim Banks, an Indiana Republican who chairs the conservative Republican Study Committee, told CNN that a group of members met at Pence’s transition office in the Washington area on Tuesday afternoon, talking about the way forward for their party while also touting the accomplishments of the past.
“He spoke very favorably about his relationship with President Trump,” Banks told CNN. “I got the sense they speak often and maintain the same personal friendship and relationship now that they have for four years.”
Banks said that he expected Pence – who declined an invitation to speak at this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference meeting in Florida – to be more visible in the months to come.
Read more here: CNN – Pence speaks highly of Trump in meeting and plans to launch a political group
Romney: Trump would win 2024 Republican nomination 'in a landslide'
Republican Mitt Romney, who you wouldn’t put down as the greatest fan of Donald Trump, has nevertheless come out to say that he suspects that the former president would win the Republican nomination for 2024 if he decided to stand, even though Romney himself would not offer support. Fox News are leading their site with the quotes at the moment, writing:
“He has by far the largest voice and a big impact in my party,” Romney told the New York Times’ DealBook. “I don’t know if he’s planning to run in 2024 or not, but if he does, I’m pretty sure he would win the nomination.”
Romney noted that he’s not always good at making predictions and “a lot can happen between now and 2024,” but he said in recent polls comparing Trump to other potential Republican candidates, “he wins in a landslide.”
He said if Trump runs again he would support a candidate who “more represented the tiny wing of the party that I represent.”
CNN’s analysis of yesterday’s testimony says that is shone a light on the role of white supremacists in the riot. They write:
Videos from the attack and court documents in cases against rioters have clearly demonstrated that some people with White supremacist views attended the pro-Trump rally and breached the Capitol. The hearing Tuesday gave top security officials a chance to affirm these findings.
All four witnesses said “yes” when asked by Sen Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, “would you agree that this attack involved White supremacists and extremist groups?”
Carneysha Mendoza, a Capitol Police captain, reminded lawmakers that “multiple White supremacist groups, including the Proud Boys and others” came to DC for the first two pro-Trump rallies after the November election. Many members of groups returned for the 6 January rally and were at the frontlines of the mob that stormed the Capitol.
This testimony undercut attempts by some influential Republicans to downplay or deny the role that racist right-wing groups played in the insurrection. For example, the conservative Fox News host Tucker Carlson claimed on his show Monday night that “there is no evidence that White supremacists were responsible for what happened on 6 January. That’s a lie.”
Read more here: CNN – Takeaways from the Senate hearing on the US Capitol attack
Ed Pilkington in New York and Joan E Greve in Washington reported on yesterday’s hearing for us:
On Tuesday, the two top officials in charge of securing the Capitol the day of the deadly assault were called to give evidence to Congress.
Paul Irving, the former sergeant-at-arms for the House, and Michael Stenger, his equivalent for the Senate, both resigned after the breach. Their testimony marked the start of a congressional investigation into security lapses behind the insurrection.
Stenger said: “This was a violent, coordinated attack where the loss of life could have been much worse.”
Irving said: “Based on the intelligence, we all believed that the plan met the threat, and we were prepared. We now know we had the wrong plan.”
Two other officials, former Capitol police chief Steven Sund and the acting chief of police for Washington’s Metropolitan police, Robert Contee, also offered testimony. Sund also resigned in the wake of the catastrophe.
“These criminals came prepared for war,” Sund told senators.
Sund and Contee both expressed astonishment at delays at the Pentagon after the appeal went out for reinforcements at the Capitol and the deployment of the national guard. Sund said: “I was certainly surprised at the delays that I was hearing and seeing.”
Contee recalled a phone call between Sund and Pentagon officials in which Sund could be heard “literally pleading” for backup. When no immediate affirmation was forthcoming, Contee said, “I was just stunned. I have officers who are out there literally fighting for their lives.”
A captain in the Capitol police, Carneysha Mendoza, described 6 January as “by far the worst of the worst” of all the days she has worked.
“We could have had 10 times the amount of people working with us, and I still believe the battle would have been just as devastating,” Mendoza said.
Read more of Ed Pilkington and Joan E Greve’s report here: US Capitol rioters ‘came prepared for war’, Senate hears in testimony
The big draw in the Senate yesterday was the beginning of a hearing into the events of 6 January, when a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol in an armed attempt at insurrection. Appearing before senators were four men who had been in charge of security that day – three of whom subsequently resigned after their failings led to the seat of US government being over-run. Here’s the clips from their testimony. Former Capitol police chief Steven Sund said the insurrectionists “came prepared for war”.
Biden to host bipartisan economy meeting amid supply chain fears
The main item on the agenda for the Biden administration today is the economy – and fears that a global chip shortage is holding back US manufacturing, which is already suffering from the year-long impact of the coronavirus pandemic. It has been described as “a dangerous weak spot in our economy and in our national security” by Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer. Overnight the Washington Post reported that:
As part of the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2021, Congress authorized federal subsidies for companies investing in domestic semiconductor manufacturing and more federal funding for chip research, but Congress has yet to appropriate money for the programs.
Schumer on Wednesday said he and a bipartisan group of colleagues would include those appropriations in a bill they plan to introduce soon. Dubbed the Endless Frontier Act, the bill will also devote resources for 5G mobile networks and for research priorities such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing, Schumer said.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki this month said the chip shortage is “one of the central motivations” for an executive order Biden plans to sign soon “to undertake a comprehensive review of supply chains for critical goods.”
“The review will be focused on identifying the immediate actions we can take, from improving the physical production of those items in the U.S., to working with allies to develop a coordinated response to the weaknesses and bottlenecks that are hurting American workers,” Psaki said.
Read more here: Washington Post – Growing computer-chip shortage alarms Biden and Congress
Welcome to our live coverage of US politics for Wednesday. Here’s a catch-up on what’s happening, and what we have in the diary for today…
- In the first congressional hearing on the US Capitol attack, the chief of Capitol police who resigned over the riot said the pro-Trump mob which stormed the building “came prepared for war”.
- The hearing came the day after Biden pick for attorney general Merrick Garland said he would expand investigations into the 6 January assault.
- Justin Trudeau praised president Joe Biden for rejoining the Paris climate accord during their first bilateral meeting, saying: “US leadership has been sorely missed over the past years.”
- Police officers shown on body camera video holding Daniel Prude down naked and handcuffed on a city street last winter until he stopped breathing will not face criminal charges.
- There were 69,828 new coronavirus cases recorded yesterday, and 2,284 more deaths in the US. Members of Congress held a candlelight vigil for the 502,301 US victims so far.
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The economy and supply chains will be the focus for the Biden administration today. The president and vice president Kamala Harris will host Democrats and Republicans from both houses at 2pm EST (for a meeting about the economy amid concerns that a global shortage of semiconductors is holding back US manufacturing. Later on Biden is expected to sign an executive order about supply chains.
- Dr Jill Biden is undertaking her fist solo engagement today since becoming first lady. She heads to Richmond, Virginia to visit the VCU Massey Cancer Center.
- There’s a coronavirus press briefing at 11am, and Jen Psaki gives her White House press briefing at 12.30.
