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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Lois Beckett, Joan E Greve and Martin Belam

'We must resist becoming numb': Biden marks 500,000 Covid deaths with national address – as it happened

Joe Biden speaks at the White House about lives lost to Covid.
Joe Biden speaks at the White House about lives lost to Covid. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP

Evening summary

We are wrapping up our live US politics coverage for tonight, but you can continue to get updates from my colleague Helen Sullivan on our global coronavirus blog.

Key events from today, updated from our earlier coverage:

  • The US coronavirus death toll surpassed 500,000, representing the highest death toll of any country in the world.
  • Joe Biden addressed a grieving nation, telling Americans “we must resist becoming numb,” and offering personal lessons about survivor’s guilt and the importance of taking time to mourn. He also referenced one of the contributors to the massive death toll, warning, “We must end the politics of misinformation.”
  • Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said in an interview that political divisions had contributed significantly to the “stunning” US Covid-19 death toll, and that half a million deaths “should not have happened” in “a rich and sophisticated country”.
  • Fauci also said that new coronavirus variants made the timeline of the pandemic’s end more uncertain.
  • The supreme court rejected Donald Trump’s request to block New York prosecutors from gaining access to his tax returns. The court’s decision clears the way for Trump’s accounting firm to hand over eight years of his tax returns and financial documents to a grand jury examining the former president’s business dealings.
  • The attorney general nominee Merrick Garland testified before the Senate judiciary committee. In his confirmation hearing, Garland pledged to protect the independence of the justice department if he is confirmed as attorney general. “I am not the president’s lawyer,” the federal judge said. “I am the United States’ lawyer.”
  • The House budget committee advanced Biden’s $1.9tn coronavirus relief package. In a nearly party-line vote of 19-16, the committee approved advancing the relief package. The bill now goes to the House rules committee before the full chamber votes on it later this week.

Updated

Small study finds teachers, more than students, driving Covid infections at school

From the Associated Press:

A new study finds that teachers may be more important drivers of Covid-19 transmission in schools than students.

The paper released Monday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studies nine Covid-19 transmission clusters in elementary schools in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta in December and January.

“Educators played an important role in the spread,” the CDC director, Dr Rochelle Walensky, told reporters in an online briefing Monday. “Covid-19 spread often occurred during in-person meetings or lunches and then subsequently spread to classrooms.”

The findings line up with studies from the United Kingdom that found teacher-to-teacher was the most common type of school transmission there, and a German study that found in-school transmission rates were three times higher when the first documented case was a teacher. In some American districts, schools have had to go all-virtual because so many teachers have been exposed to the virus.

Updated

First Black Bachelor speaks out on the show’s current and past racism controversies

The first Black star of The Bachelor has released a diplomatically-worded statement about his concerns with longtime host Chris Harrison’s handling of a racism controversy on the reality show.

James’ full statement below:

Updated

Wife of drug kingpin “El Chapo” arrested in US airport

From the Associated Press:

The wife of the Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán was arrested Monday at an airport in Virginia on international drug trafficking charges, the justice department said, spelling out in detail how she helped plot her husband’s daring escape from a Mexico prison.

Emma Coronel Aispuro, 31, who is a dual citizen of the US and Mexico, was arrested at Dulles international airport and is expected to appear in federal court in Washington on Tuesday.

She is charged in a single-count criminal complaint with conspiracy to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana in the US. The justice department also accuses her of helping her husband escape from a Mexican prison in 2015 and participating in the planning of a second prison escape before Guzman was extradited to the US in January 2017.

Vice News has more on Coronel Aispuro’s alleged role:

Updated

US coronavirus deaths already match toll of three wars

New from the Associated Press:

The Covid-19 death toll in the US topped 500,000 Monday, a staggering number that all but matches the number of Americans killed in the second world war, Korea and Vietnam combined.

The US recorded an estimated 405,000 deaths in the second world war, 58,000 in the Vietnam war and 36,000 in the Korean war.

Despite the rollout of vaccines since mid-December, a closely watched model from the University of Washington projects more than 589,000 dead by 1 June.

Updated

Fauci cautions Covid-19 variants could change timeline for end of pandemic

The emergence of more contagious variants of the coronavirus, especially ones from South Africa and Brazil that have been shown to reduce the immunity from natural infections and vaccines, have made it challenging to predict when the US will be able to put the pandemic behind it, Dr Anthony Fauci told Reuters in an interview Monday.

Fauci and Biden have said the United States should return to something approaching pre-pandemic normal life around Christmas. That could change, Fauci cautioned.

The variants also change the equation when it comes to herd immunity, in which a population becomes protected from infection because of high levels of immunity from vaccines or infections.

Asked whether that is still achievable, Fauci said, “I think we can get herd immunity at least against getting sick.”

Updated

Fauci: US death toll 'should not have happened' in a 'rich and sophisticated country'

Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said political divisiveness contributed significantly to the “stunning” US Covid-19 death toll, and said that half a million deaths “should not have happened” in “a rich and sophisticated country”, Reuters reports.

“Even under the best of circumstances, this would have been a very serious problem,” Fauci said in an interview with Reuters on Monday, noting that despite strong adherence to public health measures, countries such as Germany and the UK struggled with the virus.

“However, that does not explain how a rich and sophisticated country can have the most percentage of deaths and be the hardest-hit country in the world,” Fauci said. “That I believe should not have happened.”

While the United States has just about 4% of the global population, it has recorded nearly 20% of all Covid-19 deaths.

The country had recorded more than 28m Covid-19 cases and 500,054 fatalities as of Monday afternoon, according to a Reuters tally of public health data.

Updated

Biden, America’s designated mourner, shares personal lessons on grief

Joe Biden was just 29 years old when he suddenly lost his first wife, Neilia, and their young daughter, Naomi, in a car crash in 1972.

In 2015, another of Biden’s children, his 46-year-old son Beau, who had been following in his father’s political footsteps, died of brain cancer.

Throughout his political career, Biden has spoken openly about those losses. Today, as president, he did so again, faced with a national tragedy whose scale is hard to fathom: 500,000 people dead from coronavirus in one of the wealthiest countries in the world.

In a brief address today, Biden spoke directly and vividly from his own experience of grief, talking about what it is like to be able to be with your loved one when they die, what it is like to be far away, and about the survivor’s guilt that the living carry with them.

He described the additional burden of not being able to take part in the normal rituals of mourning, as the dangers of infection have made normal funerals and memorial services impossible.

Biden kept his remarks focused on the experience of grief, and the necessity, for individuals and for the nation, of taking time to grieve, rather than becoming numb to the mounting losses all around them.

Americans are still reckoning with how political incompetence, racism, partisan divisions and widespread lies and conspiracy theories about coronavirus have worsened the toll of a deadly global pandemic. The president spoke only briefly to this larger political context of America’s half a million dead, saying, “We must end the politics of misinformation.”

Updated

Candles at the White House to mark half a million dead from coronavirus

Updated

Biden: ‘We must resist becoming numb to the sorrow’

Biden: ‘So many rituals that help us cope have not been available to us’

“To heal, you must remember,” President Joe Biden says now, in a very personal address to the nation on what it means to grieve lost family members, with half a million Americans dead from coronavirus.

Biden’s life and political career have been marked by the tragic deaths of close family members, and he has been called America’s “designated mourner”, a man whose life has been haunted by loss, and who has channeled that loss into empathy.

“We’ve seen profound courage from all of you on the frontlines,” Biden says. “You give us hope. You keep us going. You remind us that we do take care of our own.”

Updated

More from Biden’s speech to Americans on grieving the pandemic dead

Joe Biden addresses nation as US passes 500,000 coronavirus deaths

“I know what it’s like to not be there when it happens. I know what it’s like when you are there, holding their hands...the survivor’s remorse, the anger.”

Joe Biden is speaking about experiencing grief and loss as the United States marks 500,000 people dead.

Bells tolled 500 times in the National Cathedral to mark the pandemic dead

Mayor of small New York town unveils plan to abolish the city’s police department

The mayor of Ithaca, a small college town in western New York state, is releasing a detailed plan that would replace the city’s police department with a “Department of Community Solutions and Public Safety,” journalist Wesley Lowery reports.

The new department would be staffed by “armed ‘public safety workers’ and unarmed ‘community solution workers,’” and all current police officers would have to re-apply for jobs in the new department, according to the mayor’s in-depth plan.

‘It’s bananas’: dropping San Francisco rents mean deals for some, struggle for others

The average rent in San Francisco has dropped sharply during the pandemic, the Los Angeles Times reports. For renters with a high enough income, that has meant that it’s possible to find better rental deals in San Francisco than across the Bay in Oakland.

But for some working families in San Francisco who are struggling with pandemic job losses, the drop in prices for higher-end apartments has not helped their housing crisis.

“In my situation, it’s not true that the rent is down,” one 35-year-old parent told the newspaper. “They ask you to make two or three times the rent to qualify for an apartment. And when you don’t have it, they hang up the phone.”

Updated

For some, the post-Trump era in Washington feels calmer

After four years of a 24-7 news cycle feeding off Trump’s 24-7 Twitter feed, the Biden era feels very different for some people in the nation’s capital, the New York Times reports.

But for others, there has not been the same return to normalcy, Katie Rogers reports:

Washingtonians who don’t have to hang on the president’s every word are still struggling to adjust to life in a city where the Capitol and the White House have essentially been militarized, and where daily life has been upended by both the coronavirus and civil unrest.


Updated

Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen made a podcast together

The news that a former American president and an iconic New Jersey songwriter will be launching an eight-episode podcast together has prompted delight among some and confusion among others.

The podcast will feature Obama and Springsteen talking to each other.

A preview of the first episodes features a clip of Obama and Springsteen talking about their fathers and masculinity, as well as about their relationship with each other.

Read the full story here:

Updated

Report: Texas attorney general was in Utah during state power outages

As power outages across Texas left residents struggling, the state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, and his wife were in Utah, the Dallas Morning News reports.

It’s the third known example of a public official leaving the state during the crisis, including the US senator Ted Cruz, who went to Mexico, and state representative Gary Gates, who took a private jet to Florida, the Houston Chronicle reports.

Updated

US coronavirus death toll surpasses 500,000

More than 500,000 people have now died from Covid-19 in the US, just over a year after the country detected its first cases of a virus which has wrought almost unprecedented loss.

Deaths breached half a million on Monday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. More than 28 million people have also tested positive for coronavirus in the US.

Both numbers are the worst in the world and the pandemic has thrown a harsh spotlight on the US ability to cope with such a disaster, especially during the tumultuous tenure of Donald Trump, whose administration botched the government response.

After a devastating winter surge in cases, for the first time in months, the average number of daily new coronavirus cases in the US fell below 100,000 on 12 February. Even with the decrease in cases, the US is still experiencing 1,500 to 3,500 deaths per day and public health officials have warned recent progress could easily reverse.

You can follow more updates on The Guardian’s global coronavirus liveblog:

Updated

Democrats look for a way to keep minimum wage increase in Biden relief package

This is Lois Beckett in Los Angeles, picking up our live politics coverage as America’s official death toll from the pandemic hits 500,000 people dead.

Two centrist Democratic senators, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, are skeptical of including a minimum wage increase as part of Biden’s pandemic relief package, which is forcing other Democrats to devise potential compromise plans, Politico reports.

Today so far

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

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • The US coronavirus death toll will soon surpass 500,000, representing the highest death toll of any nation in the world. Joe Biden will soon deliver remarks to honor the half a million Americans who have died in the coronavirus pandemic.
  • The supreme court rejected Donald Trump’s request to block New York prosecutors from gaining access to his tax returns. The court’s decision clears the way for Trump’s accounting firm to hand over eight years of his tax returns and financial documents to a grand jury examining the former president’s business dealings.
  • The attorney general nominee Merrick Garland testified before the Senate judiciary committee. In his confirmation hearing, Garland pledged to protect the independence of the justice department if he is confirmed as attorney general. “I am not the president’s lawyer,” the federal judge said. “I am the United States’ lawyer.”
  • The House budget committee advanced Biden’s $1.9tn coronavirus relief package. In a nearly party-line vote of 19-16, the committee approved advancing the relief package. The bill now goes to the House rules committee before the full chamber votes on it later this week.
  • Biden announced changes to the Paycheck Protection Program, a small business loan program that was created by the first coronavirus relief bill. The Biden administration is establishing a two-week exclusive application period for businesses with fewer than 20 employees to help small businesses that are on the brink of closure because of the pandemic.

Lois will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Updated

Only one Democrat on the House budget committee, Lloyd Doggett of Texas, voted against advancing Joe Biden’s $1.9tn coronavirus relief bill today.

But a spokesperson for the Democratic congressman said Doggett’s vote was an accident.

“Rep Doggett was getting off the plane to DC from Texas and joined remotely in this hearing just as a vote was about to be announced,” a spokesperson said in a statement, per CNN. “He misunderstood that vote. He supports the Covid-19 relief legislation.”

Updated

A reporter asked the White House team about the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, which has not yet been approved for distribution in the US.

Senior adviser Andy Slavitt said he would wait to weigh in on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine until later this week, when the Food and Drug Administration’s advisory panel meets to discuss the company’s application for emergency use authorization.

The White House coronavirus response team’s briefing has now concluded.

Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was asked about assertions that the US coronavirus death toll seriously underestimates how many Americans have died in the pandemic.

Walensky noted that the pandemic is causing “excess mortality” from a number of causes, including delayed access to medical care.

The CDC director predicated that history books would record a US death toll from the pandemic that is “far greater than the numbers we have been counting”.

A reporter asked the White House team why Americans are encouraged to continue to wear masks, even if they have been vaccinated.

Dr Anthony Fauci emphasized that it’s still too early to determine how likely it is for someone who has been vaccinated to transmit coronavirus, even if the person does not develop symptoms.

The infectious disease expert said more research needs to be conducted before the government can offer guidelines on approved activities for those who have been vaccinated.

Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, outlined the agency’s guidelines to safely reopen schools.

The CDC director noted that the main cause of coronavirus spread in schools was between educators, which often occurred during in-person meetings and lunches.

That information came from a new CDC study of elementary schools in Georgia.

Andy Slavitt, a senior White House adviser, said the Biden administration would deliver 7m vaccine doses to states today.

The increased vaccine distribution is partly due to delayed deliveries because of the winter storm in the central US last week.

Slavitt said the administration expected to clear its vaccine distribution backlog by the middle of the week.

Updated

Senior White House adviser Andy Slavitt acknowledged that some vaccination sites in Texas remain closed because of last week’s winter storm.

Many vaccination appointments in Texas were canceled last week, as the state grappled with widespread power outages.

The winter storm also delayed delivery of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to several states last week.

White House coronavirus response team holds briefing as death toll approaches 500,000

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

Andy Slavitt, a senior White House adviser, opened the briefing by acknowledging that the US coronavirus death toll will soon surpass 500,000.

Slavitt said the president, the first lady, the vice-president and the second gentleman will pay their respects to the 500,000 Americans lost in the pandemic by holding a moment of silence in a ceremony at sundown tonight.

“The occasion makes us more determined to turn the tide on Covid-19,” Slavitt said.

Updated

House budget committee advances coronavirus relief bill

The House budget committee has favorably reported out Joe Biden’s $1.9tn coronavirus relief bill.

The panel voted 19-16 to advance the legislation. All Republicans on the committee, as well as the Democrat Lloyd Doggett of Texas, opposed the measure.

The bill now heads to the House rules committee, and a full House vote is expected later this week.

Biden is hoping to sign the measure before 14 March, when extended unemployment benefits are currently set to expire.

Updated

In his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill, Merrick Garland was asked by Democratic Senator Cory Booker what was motivating him to become attorney general.

The federal judge became emotional as he recounted his family’s journey to the United States to escape anti-Semitism.

“I come from a family where my grandparents fled anti-Semitism and persecution. This country took us in, protected us, and I feel an obligation to the country to pay back,” Garland said, choking up as he testified. “And this is the highest, best use of my own set of skills to pay back.”

Garland also recounted his family background when Barack Obama nominated him to the supreme court in 2016. (Garland never received a confirmation hearing because Republican leader Mitch McConnell wanted to keep the seat open until after the 2016 presidential election.)

Trump condemns New York investigation as 'witch hunt' after supreme court loss

Donald Trump has released a statement condemning the New York investigation of his business dealings, after the supreme court rejected his request to block prosecutors’ access to his tax returns.

“This investigation is a continuation of the greatest political Witch Hunt in the history of our Country,” the former president said in the statement. “It just never ends!”

Trump added, “The Supreme Court never should have let this ‘fishing expedition’ happen, but they did. This is something which has never happened to a President before, it is all Democrat-inspired in a totally Democrat location, New York City and State, completely controlled and dominated by a heavily reported enemy of mine, Governor Andrew Cuomo.”

Trump closed the statement by pledging that he would “fight on” and win this legal battle.

The former president’s statement comes hours after the supreme court issued its unsigned opinion, clearing the way for a grand jury to obtain eight years of Trump’s tax returns and other financial documents from his accounting firm.

The supreme court earlier today rejected adult film producer and actor Stormy Daniels’ bid to revive her defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump over a Twitter post in which he accused her of a “con job” after she described being threatened over publicizing her account of a past sexual relationship with him.

Stormy Daniels; Donald Trump.
Stormy Daniels; Donald Trump. Photograph: Reuters File Photo/Reuters

Reuters reports that:

In bringing the case to a close, the justices left in place lower court decisions throwing out her suit. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year agreed with a Los Angeles-based federal judge who decided in 2018 that Trump’s remarks were not defamatory and were protected by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech.

“The ruling confirms what we have been saying all along: that Stormy Daniels’ lawsuit against the President was frivolous and sanctionable,” said Trump’s lawyer, Charles Harder.

Clark Brewster, Daniels’ lawyer, said he had expected the justices to take up the case because there is “confusion and uncertainty” in lower courts on the legal issue presented.

Daniels has said she had a sexual encounter with Trump at a Lake Tahoe hotel in 2006 - the year after he married his third wife Melania and more than a decade before the businessman-turned-politician became president.

Trump has denied the sexual encounter.

Daniels has said that in 2011, an unknown man approached her and her infant daughter in a Las Vegas parking lot and threatened her after she had agreed to talk about her experience with Trump in a media interview.

Daniels said the man “leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, ‘That’s a beautiful little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.’”

In 2018, more than a year after Trump became president, she released a sketch of the man. Trump responded on Twitter to the release of the sketch, writing.

He wrote: “A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!”

Daniels sued Trump in federal court claiming defamation, saying his comment conveyed his belief that she was a liar.

Her lawyers have said the judge was wrong to dismiss the lawsuit under a Texas state law that allows for speedy resolution of cases that are seen to burden the right of free speech. Trump was also awarded $292,000 in legal fees and $1,000 in sanctions.

Daniels formerly was represented by lawyer Michael Avenatti, who was later indicted in three separate cases on charges that he defrauded several clients including Daniels, lied to the Internal Revenue Service, and tried to extort Nike Inc. In February 2020, he was convicted in the Nike case.

Trump also faces separate defamation lawsuits related to alleged sexual assaults, both of which he denied, brought by two women - E. Jean Carroll, a former Elle magazine writer, and Summer Zervos, a 2005 contestant on his former reality TV show “The Apprentice.”

That was then. Stormy Daniels and Michael Avenatti in 2018.
That was then. Stormy Daniels and Michael Avenatti in 2018. Photograph: Mary Altaffer/AP

Updated

Morning summary

White House press secretary Jen Psaki has just wrapped up. The coronavirus task force is making a presentation at 3pm ET. And as we await the awful moment when the US death toll from Covid-19 passes the 500,000 mark, based on data from Johns Hopkins research center, we note that Joe Biden will address the nation on the subject at 6pm ET today. Then the president and the vice president, Kamala Harris, will lead a national moment of silence around 6.15pm to mark the lives lost in America in the last year to the pandemic.

So there’s a lot more coming up, stay tuned. Main events so far include:

  • Tonight, Biden will order all American flags to be flown at half-staff for five days in memory of the Americans lost in the pandemic.
  • The nominee for attorney general, Merrick Garland, who is at his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill, has pledged an independent Department of Justice in the Biden administration and stressed: “I’m not the president’s lawyer”.
  • In a flurry of decisions out of the US Supreme Court, the justices rejected Donald Trump’s request to block New York prosecutors from gaining access to his tax returns. It clears the way for the documents to be turned over to a grand jury.
  • Voting machines company Dominion Voting today sued MyPillow CEO and fanatical Trumpian Mike Lindell for defamation after he has repeatedly spread conspiracy theories about their machines while claiming wrongly that November’s election result giving Joe Biden the win was fraudulent.

Updated

Jen Psaki said Joe Biden is “eager” to travel to Texas, as the state continues to recover from a winter storm that caused widespread power outages.

The White House press secretary said the president may travel to Texas “as early as this week”.

Over the weekend, Biden declared a major disaster in Texas and has pledged federal resources to help those affected by the storm.

A White House reporter noted that Barack Obama and Donald Trump had already held solo press conferences by this time in their presidencies.

Asked whether Joe Biden would soon hold a solo press conference, press secretary Jen Psaki said that he will, but she would not specify when.

Psaki did say that the president will not be doing a solo press conference this week.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Joe Biden hopes that a minimum wage increase will be included in the final coronavirus relief package.

“The president would not have included an increase in the minimum wage if he does not want to see it in the final package,” Psaki said.

Psaki noted the Senate parliamentarian will determine whether the minimum wage proposal meets the requirements for reconciliation to be included in the relief bill.

Biden has previously indicated that he does not believe the minimum wage increase will be approved by the Senate parliamentarian.

A reporter asked Jen Psaki what specifically Joe Biden would be willing to cut from his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.

The White House press secretary said the president would wait to see what cuts Republicans proposed before rendering a judgment.

But Psaki added that Senate Republicans’ initial offer of a $600 billion relief package fell “far, far short” of what the country needs to respond to the pandemic.

Jen Psaki was asked about the nomination of Neera Tanden to lead the office of management and budget, which seems increasingly unlikely to succeed.

A reporter noted that Democrat Joe Manchin and Republicans Susan Collins and Mitt Romney have now indicated they will oppose Tanden’s nomination, leaving the think tank leader with seemingly no path to confirmation.

But Psaki said the White House still believes Tanden could be confirmed. “We’ll continue to work in supporting her nomination,” the press secretary said.

Biden to order flags be flown at half-staff for coronavirus victims

Joe Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, is now holding her daily briefing at the White House.

Psaki noted that Biden will deliver remarks tonight to honor the nearly 500,000 Americans who have died of coronavirus.

In his remarks, Biden will order all American flags to be flown at half-staff for five days in memory of the Americans lost in the pandemic, Psaki said.

According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, 499,186 Americans have now died of coronavirus.

Updated

Joe Biden closed his short remarks by once again urging Congress to pass his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.

The president acknowledged that some of his opponents have criticized the size of the package, but Biden argued each element of the legislation is crucial to help Americans who are financially struggling because of the pandemic.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she wants the chamber to pass the relief package by the end of the week. Biden is looking to sign the package before March 14, when extended unemployment benefits are currently set to expire.

Biden announces changes to small business loan program

Joe Biden is now speaking at the White House to announce changes to the Paycheck Protection Program, a small business loan program created by the first coronavirus relief package.

PPP attracted bipartisan support in Congress, but the program has been criticized for directing money to large companies rather than small businesses, many of which are on the brink of closing because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden announced that his administration will be offering a two-week exclusive loan application period for businesses and non-profits with fewer than 20 employees, starting on Wednesday.

The president said his administration would ensure “every dollar is spent well” in the loan program.

Rather unsurprisingly, the odds of Merrick Garland being confirmed as attorney general are looking very good.

At least two Republicans on the Senate judiciary committee, Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, have indicated they intend to support Garland’s nomination.

When Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy was questioning Garland, the federal judge said that he looked forward to working with Leahy if he is confirmed.

Leahy replied, “You’re going to be confirmed. I’ll bet my farm in Vermont on that.”

Garland emphasizes DOJ independence: 'I am not the president's lawyer'

Merrick Garland has repeatedly emphasized that, if confirmed as attorney general, he will ensure the justice department is not affected by political interference from the White House.

“I am not the president’s lawyer,” Garland told the Senate judiciary committee at his confirmation hearing.

“I am the United States’ lawyer, and I will do everything in my power, which I believe is considerable, to fend off any effort by anyone to make prosecutions or investigations partisan or political in any way.”

Former attorney general William Barr was repeatedly accused of allowing Donald Trump’s political agenda to affect the cases and investigations pursued by the justice department.

Barr’s tenure had a severely negative impact on morale at the justice department, which Garland will be tasked with improving if he is confirmed as attorney general.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi just led a moment of silence in honor of the nearly 500,000 Americans who have now died of coronavirus.

In a statement addressing the country’s coronavirus death toll, Pelosi said, “The loss of 500,000 American lives from the coronavirus is an horrific human toll of staggering proportions and incomprehensible sadness. Every life lost is a profound tragedy that we mourn and that breaks America’s heart.”

The speaker added, “Members of Congress join Americans in prayer for the lives lost or devastated by this vicious virus. As we pray, we must act swiftly to put an end to this pandemic and to stem the suffering felt by so many millions.”

According to Johns Hopkins University, 499,128 Americans have now died of coronavirus. The death toll is expected to surpass 500,000 in the next day.

President Joe Biden is scheduled to deliver remarks later today to honor the nearly 500,000 Americans who have been lost in the pandemic.

Joe Biden spent an hour visiting with Bob Dole this weekend, after the former Republican presidential nominee announced he had been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer.

Biden and Dole worked alongside each other in the Senate for decades, and the two former colleagues talked about how the chamber has changed since their time there.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Naturally, these two friends discussed why the Senate they both love—and really, all of Washington—doesn’t work better right now. And maybe, as Bob Dole heads into battle once more, this time against cancer at the age of 97, his advice again can offer courage and wisdom to a capital that seems short of both.

‘We did talk about how we were able to work together in the Senate when we both were there, one a Democrat, one a Republican,’ said Mr. Dole. ‘We worked across the aisle and we compromised. We couldn’t solve everything, but most everything we could work out.’ ...

Some say the Senate can’t simply work that way now. Mr. Dole isn’t sure. ‘I believe the problem is there’s no willingness to work together. Until they overcome that, I don’t know what will happen.’

Meanwhile, over at Merrick Garland’s confirmation hearing, the federal judge has not shied away from criticizing some of the most controversial policies of the Trump administration.

Asked about the migrant family separations that occurred during Donald Trump’s presidency, Garland described the policy as “shameful”.

“I can’t imagine anything worse than tearing parents from their children,” the attorney general nominee said.

The family separations were part of Trump’s “zero tolerance” strategy on illegal immigration, and some families are still not reunited, more than two years after the policy was put into place.

Earlier this month, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to create a task force focused on reuniting the families who are still separated.

Updated

A spokesperson for House speaker Nancy Pelosi said the chamber will hold a moment of silence today to honor the nearly 500,000 Americans lost to coronavirus.

President Joe Biden is also expected to deliver remarks tonight on the lives lost in the pandemic, as the country approaches 500,000 coronavirus deaths.

Senator Mitt Romney has also signaled he will oppose the nomination of Neera Tanden to lead the office of management and budget.

“Sen. Romney has been critical of extreme rhetoric from prior nominees, and this is consistent with that position,” a spokesperson for the Republican senator said in a statement. “He believes it’s hard to return to comity and respect with a nominee who has issued a thousand mean tweets.”

With Manchin, Susan Collins and Joe Manchin all voting against Tanden’s nomination, it seems unlikely that she will be confirmed, given the 50-50 split in the Senate.

But the White House is so far standing by Tanden, insisting that she would make an excellent OMB director.

Supreme court rejects Trump's challenge to Pennsylvania election rules

The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:

The US supreme court turned away a lingering challenge from Donald Trump to Pennsylvania’s election rules, putting a final end to a closely-watched case the justices said was now moot.

The outcome was not unexpected. The Trump campaign objected to a decision from the Pennsylvania supreme court in the weeks before election day that overrode the deadline the state legislature set for returning mail-in ballots (8 p.m. on election day) and gave voters three more days to return their ballots. There were about 10,000 ballots that wound up arriving within that 3-day window, not enough to overcome the margin of victory for Joe Biden in the state.

The US supreme court declined to intervene in the case ahead of election day, deadlocking 4-4. Four of the court’s conservative justices - Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch - all said at the time they would have granted the request to intervene at the time.

Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch all said on Monday they would have heard the case. In his dissenting opinion, Thomas said the court needed to clarify for future elections whether state courts could step in and limit rules by the legislature for federal elections (the US constitution says federal election rules must be set by state legislatures).

“Changing the rules in the middle of the game is bad enough. Such rule changes by officials who may lack authority to do so is even worse,” he wrote in his dissenting opinion. “If state officials have the authority they have claimed, we need to make it clear. If not, we need to put an end to this practice now before the consequences become catastrophic.”

Alito noted that the unique circumstances under which Pennsylvania conducted its elections - a pandemic with surging vote by mail - are not likely to go away any time soon and the court should act now, while it still had a chance.

The conservative justices appear eager to embrace the idea that state courts cannot step in and block state laws for federal elections, an idea that has come to be known as the independent state legislature doctrine. Many experts have expressed alarm at that idea, saying it would empower state lawmakers to pass extremely restrictive voting measures.

Even though the supreme court didn’t address the issue in this case, the idea is a “ticking time bomb,” that could go off in a future case, Richard Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Irvine, wrote on his blog.

Donald Trump’s efforts to conceal his tax returns from prosecutors in New York had already been brought to the supreme court once before.

Last year, the then-president tried to argue that the Manhattan district attorney could not enforce his subpoena for Trump’s financial documents because presidents are immune from requests related to grand jury investigations.

The supreme court rejected that argument. In a 7-2 decision, the court ruled that presidents are still subject to grand jury requests.

Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote the decision, noted Trump could still attempt to fight the subpoena on the same grounds that any other American could object to such an action, but those efforts have been unsuccessful.

Supreme court rejects Trump's request to shield tax returns from Manhattan DA

The supreme court has rejected Donald Trump’s request to block New York prosecutors from gaining access to his tax returns.

In a one-sentence unsigned order, the court ruled that it would not step in to prevent the Manhattan district attorney’s office from obtaining eight years of Trump’s financial documents from his accounting firm.

The court’s decision clears the way for the documents to be turned over to a grand jury that has been convened as part of an investigation into Trump’s business dealings in New York.

The decision marks a serious defeat for Trump, who has fought for years to keep his tax returns from the public. The tax returns will not be publicly released as part of the grand jury investigation, but the former president has nevertheless launched extensive legal battles to block access to the documents.

In a tweet addressing the decision, Manhattan district attorney Cy Vance said, “The work continues.”

Senate committee holds confirmation hearing for Merrick Garland

The Senate judiciary committee has now started the confirmation hearing for Merrick Garland, Joe Biden’s nominee for attorney general.

Garland, a federal judge, is best known as Barack Obama’s supreme court nominee in 2016, who never received a hearing because Republican leader Mitch McConnell wanted to keep the seat open until after the presidential election. (The seat was eventually filled by Neil Gorsuch.)

Garland’s opening statement for the hearing was released Saturday night, and in it, he pledged to combat white supremacy as attorney general.

“If confirmed,” Garland said, “I will supervise the prosecution of white supremacists and others who stormed the Capitol on 6 January – a heinous attack that sought to disrupt a cornerstone of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power to a newly elected government.”

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

The US coronavirus death toll is expected to soon surpass 500,000, representing the highest death toll of any country in the world.

The rate of coronavirus deaths in the US has declined in recent weeks, but hundreds of Americans are still dying of the virus each day.

President Joe Biden is scheduled to deliver remarks this evening to honor the 500,000 Americans lost in the pandemic.

The blog will have more details on that and the other events of the day coming up, so stay tuned.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki has just put that continued endorsement of Neera Tanden into her own Twitter words. Tanden’s confirmation has been derailed by first Democratic Senator Joe Manchin and then Republican Susan Collins saying they would oppose it.

Zack Harold reports for us today from Charleston, West Virginia on how minimum wage activists face an unlikely foe in the shape of Democrat Joe Manchin:

Hopes that the US will finally increase the federal minimum wage for the first time in nearly 12 years face a seemingly unlikely opponent: a Democrat senator from one of the poorest states in the union.

Joe Manchin of West Virginia, the state’s former governor and the Democrats’ most conservative senator, has long opposed his party’s progressive wing and is on record saying he does not support increasing the minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour, the first increase since 2009. “I’m supportive of basically having something that’s responsible and reasonable,” he told the Hill. He has advocated for a rise to $11.

None of this has found favor with some low-wage workers in a state where an estimated 278,734 West Virginians lived in poverty in 2019, 16% of the population and the sixth highest poverty rate in the US.

Last Thursday Manchin reaffirmed his stance during a virtual meeting with members of the West Virginia Poor People’s Campaign (WVPPC), a group pushing for an increased minimum wage and other policy changes that would benefit the working class.

That meeting was closed to the media but at an online press conference immediately afterward, participants said Manchin refused to budge. “He was kind of copping out,” said WVPPC member Brianna Griffith, a restaurant worker and whitewater rafting guide who, due to exemptions for tipped workers, only makes $2.62 an hour.

As a result of her sub-minimum wage job, Griffith received only $67 a week in unemployment benefits until that ran out in August. She lost her house and was forced to move in with her grandmother. Although she has now returned to work, business is slow and she estimates tips have fallen by 75%.

When Griffith told Manchin about her plight on Thursday, she said he asked about the $600 stimulus check approved by Congress in December. “He seemed to think that $600 … was enough to get me by,” she said. “I feel like he’s got his head in the clouds and he doesn’t understand what’s happening to poor people in West Virginia.”

Read more of Zack Harold’s report here: US minimum wage activists face unlikely foe – Democrat Joe Manchin

A year into the coronavirus pandemic, the running total of lives lost in the US is just under 500,000 – roughly the population of Kansas City, Missouri, and just shy of the size of Atlanta. The figure, compiled by Johns Hopkins University, surpasses the number of people who died in 2019 of chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke, Alzheimer’s, flu and pneumonia combined.

John Raby reports for the Associated Press that the US virus death toll reached 400,000 on 19 January in the waning hours in office for president Donald Trump, whose handling of the crisis was judged by public health experts to be a singular failure.

His successor Joe Biden, charged with clearing up the mess left behind, will deliver remarks at sunset today to honor the dead, in the kind of public remembrance ceremony at the White House that did not happen during the Trump era.

The first known deaths from the virus in the US happened in early February 2020, both of them in Santa Clara County, California. It took four months to reach the first 100,000 dead. The toll hit 200,000 deaths in September and 300,000 in December. Then it took just over a month to go from 300,000 to 400,000 and about two months to climb from 400,000 to the brink of 500,000.

Despite efforts to administer coronavirus vaccines, a widely cited model by the University of Washington projects the US death toll will surpass 589,000 by June 1. “People will be talking about this decades and decades and decades from now,” Dr Anthony Fauci said at the weekend on NBC’s “Meet The Press.”

That Axios report earlier, that Donald Trump intends to use his CPAC appearance to demonstrate that he still has an iron grip on the future of the Republican party [see 6.29] is backed up by some stats analysis that the Philadelphia Inquirer is carrying today. They report that almost 19,000 Pennsylvania voters have left the Republican Party since the Capitol attack – and they aren’t an exodus of Trump supporters.

About 19,000 Pennsylvanians have left the Republican Party since Jan 6. That’s a drop in the bucket for a state with more than 8.8 million registered voters, and almost 3.5 million Republicans. But it’s also an unusually high rate of defections: Almost two-thirds of the voters who have switched parties this year left the GOP, compared with a third or less typically.

And there are signs of a broader political shift underway. These are often longtime party loyalists, highly engaged voters who cast Republican primary ballots in low-profile, off-year elections, according to an Inquirer analysis of voter registration data. They haven’t changed their political ideologies, they said in interviews. But they’re registering as third-party or independent voters because they believe that their political home, now led by Trump, has changed around them.

Although voters are always changing their registration for a variety of reasons, former Republicans interviewed largely were united in why they left: They saw it as a protest against a party that questioned the legitimacy of their votes and the culmination of long-simmering frustration with Trump and his supporters, who now largely control the GOP.

That raises the prospect of a Republican primary electorate even friendlier to Trump and Trump-allied candidates — something that could have big implications for the party in competitive races for governor and US Senate next year.

Read more here: Philadelphia Inquirer – Almost 19,000 Pennsylvania voters have left the Republican Party since the Capitol attack

Updated

There’s a theory that it sometimes suits an incoming president to let the opposition strike down one of their cabinet nominees. Offering one symbolic victory to the other side can smooth the path to getting everybody else into their jobs.

However, it doesn’t look like the Biden team are taking the threats not to confirm Neera Tanden to the OMB lying down. Press secretary Jen Psaki says they will push ahead to get her confirmed, even after Republican Senator Susan Collins has come out against her.

Dominion Voting to sue MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell for defamation

One of those consequences is the latest legal action announced today by Dominion Voting – they are to sue MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell for defamation after he has repeatedly spread conspiracy theories about their machines and November’s election result. Alison Durkee writes for Forbes:

The $1.3 billion lawsuit alleges Lindell “sells the lie” involving the company’s voting machines fraudulently flipping votes to Joe Biden knowing it is false, “because the lie sells pillows.”

MyPillow sponsored rallies that pushed election fraud claims, offered discount codes related to the conspiracy theory and advertised on right-wing news networks where the claims were being pushed, the lawsuit notes, alleging Lindell “knowingly lied about Dominion to sell more pillows to people who continued tuning in to hear what they wanted to hear about the election.”

Dominion had previously sent Lindell three letters warning of potential litigation after he started spreading the conspiracy theory, saying his “smear campaign against Dominion has been relentless” and harmed the company. Lindell doubled down on his attacks against Dominion in response to their threats, releasing a documentary pushing his election fraud claims that included allegations about their voting machines.

In a statement Dominion attorney Megan Meier said:

Lindell advertised ‘absolute proof,’ but he delivered absolute nonsense and fake documents sourced from the dark corners of the internet. The cartoonish evidence that he offered in his video cannot be reconciled with any level of logic or truth. Mike Lindell needs to be held accountable for defaming Dominion and undermining the integrity of our electoral system all the while profiting from it.

Dominion has previously started legal action against Trump-associated lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani.

Lindell went viral a couple of weeks ago after his insistence on propagating his conspiracy theory led Newsmax host Bob Sellers to give up on the segment and walk off.

For his part, Lindell has told the Wall Street Journal that he was “very, very happy” to learn of lawsuit. “I have all the evidence on them,” he said. “Now this will get disclosed faster, all the machine fraud and the attack on our country.”

Updated

Rosalind Helderman reported overnight for the Washington Post on some of the consequences beginning to come through from the 6 January Capitol insurrection. She writes:

The state of Michigan and the city of Detroit have asked a federal judge to sanction attorneys who filed lawsuits that falsely alleged the November presidential vote was fraudulent, the first of several similar efforts expected around the country.

An Atlanta-area prosecutor has launched a criminal investigation into whether pressure that President Donald Trump and his allies put on state officials amounted to an illegal scheme to overturn the results of the election.

And defamation lawsuits have been filed against Trump’s allies — the start of what could be a flood of civil litigation related to false claims that the election was rigged and to the subsequent riot.

Although Trump was acquitted by the Senate on a charge that his rhetoric incited the deadly Capitol siege, public officials and private companies are pursuing a multi-front legal effort to hold him and his allies accountable in other ways. The actions target the former president and numerous others — including elected ­officials, media pundits and lawyers — who indulged and echoed his falsehoods that President Biden did not win the election.

Read more here: Washington Post – Impeachment is over. But other efforts to reckon with Trump’s post-election chaos have just begun

Updated

I got called a [N-word] a couple dozen times today protecting this building. Is this America? They beat police officers with Blue Lives Matter flags. They fought us, they had Confederate flags in the US Capitol.

Those are the words of Capitol police officer Harry Dunn, who has spoken to ABC News about his experiences on the day of the 6 January riot when a pro-Trump mob stormed the seat of the US government.

The rotunda … you just look up and it just goes up forever – it’s just an amazing architectural building. It’s hard to not be in awe of it when you see it. This time you look up, it’s just a cloud of smoke, fire extinguishers have been going off The floors are covered in white dust, water bottles, broken flagpoles, mask, empty canisters of pepper spray, helmets, Trump flags, everything in the rotunda, just laying there on the floor.

Dunn told ABBC News that he recalls gasping for air through the pepper spray, with blood on his knuckles amid the relentless noises from the rioters. Dunn is quite clear on how to define the mob.

They were terrorists. They tried to disrupt this country’s democracy – that was their goal... And you know what? Y’all failed because later that night, they went on and they certified the election.

Read more here: ABC News – Capitol Police officer recounts 6 January attack

Updated

Merrick Garland, Biden's nominee for US attorney general, to appear before Senate Judiciary Committee

Also in the diary for today, Merrick Garland, the president’s nominee for US attorney general, will go before the Judiciary Committee. The hearing is due to start at 9.30am EST (1430 GMT).

Sarah Lynch at Reuters reports that is expected to face questions on a range of issues including the threat posed by right-wing extremists, police and sentencing reforms and an investigation involving Biden’s son. Garland has said he plans to prioritize civil rights and combating domestic terrorism if confirmed.

He was nominated to lead a Justice Department now in the midst of intensive investigations into the 6 January attack on the US Capitol by a pro-Trump mob - an incident Garland called “heinous” in his prepared testimony released on Saturday.

Some of the more than 200 people arrested were associated with groups such as the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, underscoring rising concern about future violence from right-wing extremists. Garland has experience in tackling such threats, having managed the sprawling investigation into the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing by anti-government extremists and supervising the prosecution of Theodore Kaczynski after a deadly bombing spree.

Committee Republicans are expected to press Garland about other matters as well including seeking assurances that he will not remove a special counsel probing actions taken by federal law enforcement officials who investigated contacts between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.

Trump claimed the Russia investigation was intended to harm him politically. Bill Barr, Trump’s second attorney general, appointed a federal prosecutor named John Durham to look into the matter and last October elevated him to special counsel, making it more difficult to remove him.

Republican senators also may question Garland on a federal investigation into the Democratic president’s son Hunter Biden, who has disclosed that the probe involves his taxes.

In his prepared remarks, Garland also vowed to remain free from “partisan influence in law enforcement” and ensure proper protocols are followed for the FBI’s foreign intelligence-gathering activities. Democrats had accused Barr of partisan actions to benefit Trump.

From ‘cancel culture’ to ‘Cancun culture’ – can I still get away with that? – Lloyd Green writes for us today on the subject of Ted Cruz and Texas Republican hypocrisy:

Texas has been hit by a disaster of its own making and its Republican office holders expect the rest of the US to pay to clean up the mess. To quote Dana Bash of CNN questioning Michael McCaul, a veteran GOP congressman, on Sunday: “That’s kind of rich, don’t you think?”

For all of their bravado and anti-government rhetoric, in the aftermath of calamities like last week’s deep freeze Lone Star Republicans make a habit of passing the plate. Their suffering is ours too.

But when the shoe is on the other foot, they begrudge kindness to others. Said differently, Ted Cruz is merely a grotesque illustration, not an exception.

Take a walk down memory lane. In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy hammered New York and New Jersey. As the north-east reeled, Texas Republicans stood back, treating the region as if it were another country. As if the civil war had not ended. Cruz, his fellow senator John Cornyn and 23 of two-dozen Texas Republicans in the House gave a thumbs down to Sandy aid.

Sen Ted Cruz checks in for a flight at Cancun International Airport.
Sen Ted Cruz checks in for a flight at Cancun International Airport. Photograph: MEGA/GC Images

Peter King, then a Republican representative from Long Island, understood malice and stupidity when he saw it. He called for a halt to donations to Republicans who opposed rescuing sister states.

“These Republicans have no problem finding New York when they’re out raising millions of dollars,” King said. “What they did last night was put a knife in the back of New Yorkers and New Jerseyans. It was an absolute disgrace.”

But Cruz in particular is nothing if not performative, ever Janus-faced. After Hurricane Harvey slammed Houston in 2017, he offered this explanation for his vote four years earlier: Sandy relief had become “a $50bn bill that was filled with unrelated pork”.

Cruz also intoned: “What I said then and still believe now is that it’s not right for politicians to exploit a disaster when people are hurting to pay for their own political wish list.”

Other than possibly Cruz’s long-suffering wife, it is unclear whether anyone believed Flyin’ Ted even then.

Read more here: Lloyd Green – Texas Republican hypocrisy over federal aid is nothing new – ask Flyin’ Ted Cruz

Sen Susan Collins will vote against confirming Neera Tanden for OMB role

In what sounds suspiciously like an example of ‘cancel culture’ in action, Sen Susan Collins has said she will vote against the confirmation of Neera Tanden as director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in part because of her record on Twitter. The Maine senator says:

The Director of OMB is responsible for overseeing the development and implementation of the federal budget and plays a significant role in any Administration’s fiscal and regulatory agenda. Congress has to be able to trust the OMB director to make countless decisions in an impartial manner, carrying out the letter of the law and congressional intent. Neera Tanden has neither the experience nor the temperament to lead this critical agency. Her past actions have demonstrated exactly the kind of animosity that president Biden has pledged to transcend. In addition, Tanden’s decision to delete more than a thousand tweets in the days before her nomination was announced raises concerns about her commitment to transparency.

Politico report that this “may be a death blow to the nomination of Tanden”

Tanden’s best hope for confirmation now lies with finding support from Mitt Romney or Lisa Murkowski. There are two reasons they might step forward. Tanden is close to White House chief of staff Ron Klain, and her defeat would be seen not just as a defeat for Biden but as a personal rebuke to Klain. If Biden and Klain want to go all-out to save Tanden, they could offer Romney or Murkowski something significant in return.

But the more intriguing motive for Romney or Murkowski to back Tanden has to do with the internal dynamics of the 50-50 Senate, where there’s a budding competition among centrists for primacy. If Tanden is defeated, Manchin will get credit for it.

Updated

Trump to tell CPAC he is still 'man to drain Washington swamp' as 'presumptive 2024 nominee'

Donald Trump will reportedly tell the Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida this week he is the man to drain the Washington swamp – as Republicans’ “presumptive 2024 nominee”.

Trump will address CPAC on Sunday, his subject the future of the Republican party. Citing anonymous sources, the news site Axios has reported his plan to assume the mantle.

Axios quoted an unnamed “longtime adviser” as saying Trump’s speech to the rightwing event would be a “show of force” with the message: “I may not have Twitter or the Oval Office, but I’m still in charge.”

A named source, close Trump adviser Jason Miller, said: “Trump effectively is the Republican party. The only chasm is between Beltway insiders and grassroots Republicans around the country. When you attack President Trump, you’re attacking the Republican grassroots.”

Thousands have left the Republican party since the Capitol attack of 6 January, which Trump incited in his attempt to overturn an election defeat he has not conceded, and in which five people including a police officer died.

But polling of those left shows the former president with a clear lead over a range of potential 2024 candidates, both supportive of him and not, in a notional primary contest.

Trump’s grip on the party is clear. On Sunday, for just one example, a key member of GOP House leadership, Steve Scalise, repeatedly refused to say Trump lost the election or bore responsibility for the attack on the Capitol.

Scalise told ABC News he had visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort.

“I noticed he was a lot more relaxed than in his four years in the White House,” he said. “He still cares a lot about this country and the direction of our country. But, you know, it was a conversation more about how he’s doing now and what he’s … planning on doing and how his family is doing.”

Axios cited an unnamed Trump source as saying some potential 2024 contenders have sought Trump’s endorsement already. Axios’s source reportedly said: “Much like 2016, we’re taking on Washington again.”

Many observers expect Trump to give the impression that he will run again in 2024, but ultimately pass the baton on to a favored candidate. He would be 78 on election day.

Updated

Hours after Georgia elected its first-ever Black and Jewish senators, a mob of white Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol. They set up a gallows on the west side of the building and hunted for lawmakers through the halls of Congress.

As he monitored the attack from his home in South Carolina, the local historian Wayne O’Bryant was not surprised. He recognized the 6 January attack as a return to the political playbook of white mob violence that has been actively used in this country for more than a century. Mobs of white Americans unwilling to accept multi-racial democracy have successfully overturned or stolen elections before: in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1898, in Colfax, Louisiana, in 1873 and New Orleans in 1874, and, in Hamburg, South Carolina, in 1876.

O’Bryant, who lives just five miles from the ruins of Hamburg, once a center of Black political power in South Carolina, has become an expert on the 1876 massacre. He has relatives on both sides of the attack: one of his ancestors, Needham O’Bryant, was a Black Hamburg resident who survived the violence, while another, Thomas McKie Meriwether, was a young white man killed while participating in the mob.

O’Bryant has spent years researching how the Hamburg massacre unfolded, and how, despite national media coverage and a congressional investigation, the white killers were never held accountable. Now, he is watching history repeat itself. The attack on the Capitol, he said, was “almost identical” to the way white extremists staged a riot in Hamburg during the high-stakes presidential election of 1876.

The Hamburg attack and other battles successfully ended multi-racial democracy in the south for nearly a century. Black Americans, who had filled the south’s state legislatures and served in Congress after the civil war, were forced out of power, then barred from voting almost altogether, as white politicians reinstituted a full system of white political and economic rule. The south became a one-party state for decades. It would take Black Americans until the 1960s to win back their citizenship.

Now, as Republicans have shut down any attempt to hold Trump and other politicians accountable for inciting the attack, historians like O’Bryant are warning of the known dangers of letting white mob violence go unchecked, and about the fragility of democracy itself.

Read more of Lois Beckett’s interview with O’Bryant here: ‘The past is so present’: how white mobs once killed American democracy

Biden to make changes to Paycheck Protection Program to favor small businesses

As well as a ceremony marking the US Covid death toll at the White House today, we are expecting an announcement from president Joe Biden on small businesses. Here is how Morgan Chalfant has teed that up for the Hill:

Biden will announce policy changes to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) aimed at targeting assistance to businesses that employ 20 or fewer workers and those that are minority-owned.

He plans to announce that his administration will institute a 14-day period beginning 24 Feb and running through 9 March during which only businesses with 20 or fewer employees can apply for PPP loans, according to senior administration officials. Businesses with more than 20 employees will not be able to apply for assistance during this two-week period.

Biden will also announce that his administration is changing its loan calculating formula for sole proprietors, independent contractors, and self-employed individuals to help them obtain more financial support through the program.

In addition, the president plans to eliminate two restrictions preventing business owners from receiving loans through the program: one restricting individuals with prior non-fraud felony convictions from receiving assistance and another that does the same for individuals who are delinquent on their federal student loans.

Read more here: The Hill – Biden readies changes to PPP to prioritize small, minority-owned businesses

Updated

Overnight Mike Allen has written for Axios that the big test facing Joe Biden for the summer is whether he can keep the American public happy that vaccinations are going fast enough. Biden pledged 100 million shots in his first 100 days, and that vaccines will be available to all Americans by the end of July. Allen writes:

Biden’s presidency is built on the notion of restoring competence — and confidence — in government. So, he’ll need the huge infusion of cash from his virus relief bill — and heroics by drugmakers and distributors — to carry out mass vaccinations. He’ll need to hit or near this mark if America is truly going to return to normal for the fall school season. And he’ll need to hit or near this mark to make good on his belief that life will return to “approaching normalcy” by Christmas.

The concern is that while the doses might be there – the people willing to be injected might not:

Administration officials say the US will have enough vaccine (600 million doses) to give everyone two shots by July 29. But they know not everyone will take it. “The reluctant and the hesitant will drag this out all fall,” a top official tells me. That’s partly because of the historically rooted suspicion of vaccines among minorities, and many largely poor or isolated populations.

Read more here: Axios – Biden’s big summertime verdict

Updated

Daniel Strauss and Tom McCarthy write for us this morning on the Republican members of the Senate and the House who are being targeted by the their state parties for insufficient loyalty to Donald Trump:

Some state parties have hit out at Republican senators for voting to convict Trump in his impeachment trial. Others have taken steps to reaffirm their loyalty to Trump in the aftermath of his re-election campaign loss, as other prominent Republicans look to assume larger roles at the head of the party.

Republicans are divided on whether these moves are a good idea. Some argue that Trump is still the key conduit to grassroots support within the Republican party. Others say these fights distract from what Republicans need to do to win elections with the broader electorate.

“Some of the actions by state parties – Arizona and Oregon come to mind – are just not helpful to winning elections,” said Henry Barbour, a Republican National Committee member from Mississippi.

The most recent such move came from the North Carolina Republican party which censured the state’s senior senator, Richard Burr, for voting to convict Trump at his impeachment trial. Burr joined six other Republicans and every Senate Democrat in voting for conviction. That vote failed to pass the two-thirds threshold needed to convict the former president.

Even though it was unsuccessful, the impeachment vote inflamed intra-party tensions between those who remain steadfastly loyal to Trump and those who are tired of having to swear fealty to the one-term president or feel he was guilty of inciting the mob riot at the United States Capitol on 6 January.

In Louisiana, the state party censured Senator Bill Cassidy for voting to impeach Trump. The chair of the Louisiana Republican Caucus also warned Cassidy to not “expect a warm welcome when you come home to Louisiana”. In Alaska, local Republican party chapters have voted to censure Senator Lisa Murkowski. In Nebraska, Senator Ben Sasse has been slapped with local party censures and the state party is poised to vote on censuring him during a meeting in March.

Other senators are facing the possibility of censures as well, such as the retiring Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania and Susan Collins in Maine. Some Republicans in Utah want to censure Senator Mitt Romney as well. The censures are largely symbolic, but they underscore the deep divide between the Republican political infantry and some of its elite.

Read more of Daniel Strauss and Tom McCarthy’s analysis here: Republicans failing to toe the Trumpist line feel wrath of their state parties

In announcing tonight’s ceremony to mark the grim milestone of the US approaching 500,000 Covid deaths, a White House statement said:

In the evening, the President will deliver remarks on the lives lost to Covid-19 in the Cross Hall. The first lady, the vice president, and the second gentleman will be in attendance. Then, the president, the first lady, the vice president, and the second gentleman will hold a moment of silence and candle lighting ceremony at sundown in the South Portico.

It will not be the first moment that Joe Biden has taken to remember the victims of the pandemic this year. On 19 January, the day before his inauguration, Biden took part in a lighting ceremony at the Lincoln memorial alongside Kamala Harris and their respective spouses.

The president, vice president and their spouses at the Lincoln Memorial Covid ceremony in January 2021.
The president, vice president and their spouses at the Lincoln Memorial Covid ceremony in January 2021. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

US Covid death toll stands at 498,540, expected to reach half a million within 24 hours

There were 56,495 new cases of coronavirus recorded in the US yesterday, taking the total caseload to 28,109,053.

1,249 more deaths were added to the total toll, which stands, according to the Johns Hopkins University figures, at 498,540.

The Covid Tracking Project, which is planning to end their counts shortly, has counted 56,159 people in hospital in the US with coronavirus yesterday. That’s the lowest figure since 8 November. The number of people in hospital has now been decreasing for forty consecutive days.

At least 43.6 million people have now received either one or both doses of a Covid vaccine.

Welcome to our live coverage of US politics for Monday, with the US death toll from the coronavirus pandemic standing at 498,540. Here’s where we are and what we can expect today.

  • At 6pm EST today (2300 GMT) president Joe Biden will address the nation and deliver remarks on the lives lost to Covid-19 over the last year. The total number is expected to rise to over 500,000 in the next 24 hours.
  • After his remarks, he will be joined by Dr Jill Biden, vice president Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff to hold a moment of silence and a candle lighting ceremony at the White House.
  • Yesterday the US recorded a further 56,495 coronavirus cases, with the total caseload now standing, according to Johns Hopkins University figures, at 28,109,053.
  • Texas Republican Michael McCaul has said the state will use federal funds to help pay exorbitant energy bills hitting ordinary Texans after a deep freeze crippled the state and its energy grid this week.
  • Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced overnight that fund-raising efforts to provide relief for those affected in Texas had now exceeded $5m.
  • National security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday the US had begun to communicate with Iran over the detention of American citizens, calling the matter a “complete and utter outrage”.
  • Lawyers and family members of the late civil rights and Black nationalist leader Malcolm X released new evidence they claim shows the NYPD and FBI conspired in his murder.
  • Republican House minority whip Steve Scalise appeared on television and still refused to acknowledge that Joe Biden had won November’s election.
  • As well as the ceremony for Covid victims today, the president is also expected to make “an announcement related to small businesses” just after noon.
  • Jen Psaki will give a White House press briefing at 12.30pm EST. There will also be a briefing from the Covid-19 team at 3pm.
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California women try to hit on men by sending them hashbrowns at London restaurant. It doesn’t go as planned:‘Yeah you can’t really do that in London’
Sending someone restaurant food is a pretty common flirting tactic in the U.S. However, as one TikToker found out, the same can’t be said for the U.K.
The Mary Sue
The Mary Sue
The Hidden Effects of Screen Time on Children's Health, Sleep, and Development
Discover how excessive screen time affects children's health, sleep, and development, and learn practical tips to manage digital habits for healthier, balanced growth.
Medical Daily
Medical Daily
Barry Keoghan: 'There’s a lot of hate online. It’s a lot of abuse of how I look'
Barry Keoghan has considered quitting acting due to abuse over his looks and says he finds it hard to deal with the comments.
BANG Premier
BANG Premier
Best thing I ever ate? My first In-N-Out burger in LA
Why the Double-Double is ‘the near perfect expression of burger-ness’
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
How AI English and human English differ – and how to decide when to use artificial language
Suspicion and affection. Apprehension and excitement. Most people have mixed feelings about AI English, whether or not they always recognize it. When reading text generated by AI, people feel it sounds off, or fake. When reading English by a human, people are more likely to feel it has a characteristic…
The Conversation
The Conversation
Delilah and Me
Back in 2002, I heard a great question, from Betchen and Paul Barber: Who cut off Samson's hair? Of course… The post Delilah and Me appeared first on Reason.com.
Reason
Reason
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