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

House passes budget resolution, paving way for Covid relief – as it happened

Joe Biden with House speaker Nancy Pelosi in the Oval Office on Friday. House Democratic leaders have said the chamber should be ready to pass relief legislation by the end of the month.
Joe Biden with House speaker Nancy Pelosi in the Oval Office on Friday. House Democratic leaders have said the chamber should be ready to pass relief legislation by the end of the month. Photograph: Stefani Reynolds/EPA

Today so far

Signing off for the night. Here’s what happened on Friday evening:

  • Donald Trump’s team was in talks to trade a 40% stake of the social media company Parler for the former president’s exclusive use of the platform. BuzzFeed News broke the story of the unfinished deal, which could still land Trump and Parler in legal hot water.
  • Kyle Rittenhouse could be rearrested after violating the terms of his bail – which included the payment of a $2m cash bond.
  • Capital insurrectionist Jenny Cudd is heading to Mexico after a federal judge granted permission for the pre-planned vacation.
  • Senate Democrats have introduced a bill to reign in big tech’s power and hold platforms accountable for some content shared on their sites
  • Lou Dobbs Tonight has been canceled by Fox Business following the host’s spread of election misinformation even though it remains the most watched show on the network.

Have a good night!

Updated

In an interview with CBS Evening News on Friday night, President Joe Biden told anchor Norah O’Donnell that he doesn’t think Trump should be given access to intelligence briefings, citing his predecessor’s “erratic behavior”, and the possibility that he’d share secret information.

Typically, presidents are able to continue to receive some intelligence briefings even after they leave office. But Trump, who is facing his second impeachment trial next week, may be barred from them, Reuters reports:

“The Republican is facing his second impeachment trial next week, this time charged with sparking an insurrection at the Capitol by calling on people to “fight” the results of the Nov. 3 election that he lost. Biden said his view that Trump should not receive the briefings was not connected to the Capitol riots.

Updated

Lou Dobbs show has been canceled by Fox News Business

Friday evening marks the final airing of Lou Dobbs Tonight, the Fox Business show hosted by the ardent supporter of former president Trump with a history of espousing misinformation and racist rhetoric. He was a major contributor to the false narrative that the election was stolen, and even continued espousing those views on his program after admitting that they lacked actual proof.

“Eight weeks from the election and we still don’t have verifiable, tangible support for the crimes that everyone knows were committed,” he said on air in January.

Dobbs, 75, has hosted the program since 2011, which was considered must-see TV by Trump, who even reportedly patched the host through during key policy meetings. He is still considered the highest-rated host on the Fox Business Network, and has remained under contract even though he’s not expected to reappear on a new show. His show’s slot, which airs twice on weeknights, will now be filled with a show called Fox Business Tonight, which will feature hosts Jackie DeAngelis and David Asman.

Though the network has yet to give much detail on the cancellation, the move followed a lawsuit against Dobbs, the Fox Corporation, the Fox News Channel, and two other network anchors for the misinformation spread during the election. Dobbs, and other Fox News anchors, repeated unfounded claims of election fraud and told viewers the election tech company Smartmatic was involved in a scheme to hand the presidency to Joe Biden.

Citing the fabricated reporting on Dobbs’ show and others, Smartmatic sued to the tune of $2.7 bn. The 285-page lawsuit, filed in New York state supreme court, claims the network launched a “disinformation campaign” against the company, whose voting machines were only used in Los Angeles county. Trump’s former lawyers, Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, who appeared as guests on the network, were also named in the defamation suit.

But several people familiar with the decision told the Los Angeles Times, which first reported the sudden cancellation, that Dobbs’ show was going to be axed before Smartmatic filed its suit. Changes were made to the lineup after Biden was elected, to promote more balanced commentary on the conservative network.

“The decision on Dobbs – whose views are often incendiary – indicates that Fox News is considering the proper balance of commentary and news to satisfy conservative viewers, who turn to it as an alternative to so-called mainstream media outlets, while not alienating less ideological voters who make up a significant part of its audience,” the LA Times reports.

Updated

A federal minimum wage hike to $15 per hour may not make it into the new Covid relief plan, President Biden said Friday evening in an interview with CBS Evening News.

The pay increase had been a key part of Biden’s plan and proponents were hopeful it would pass with the $1.9tn relief package.

The Associated Press reports that pressure from a new job report, released Friday morning, may be to blame. Hiring stalled in January, the report showed, and full employment may not be achievable for years.

“I put it in, but I don’t think it’s going to survive,” Biden said in an interview with CBS Evening News. Biden added that he’d advocate for the wage increase in a separate bill. “No one should work 40 hours a week and live below the poverty wage. And if you’re making less than $15 an hour, you’re living below the poverty wage.”

Senator Bernie Sanders clearly doesn’t agree:

Updated

New bill would hold platforms accountable for content

A new bill introduced by Senate Democrats on Friday will seek to rein in big tech’s power by holding platforms accountable for some content hosted on their sites.

The measure, introduced by senators Mark Warner of Virginia, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, would reform Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a 1996 law that currently shields companies from legal liability for what is posted on their platforms.

The once-obscure legislation has been in the spotlight in the past year as both parties attack big tech companies for how they moderates platforms. Republicans accuse tech companies, without evidence, of censoring them while Democrats say the companies do not do enough to address hate speech and misinformation. Warner said in a statement Friday the bill would grant victims of cyber crime and online harassment more legal recourse without infringing on first amendment rights.

“Section 230 has provided a ‘get out of jail free’ card to the largest platform companies even as their sites are used by scam artists, harassers and violent extremists to cause damage and injury,” Warner said in a statement Friday. “This bill doesn’t interfere with free speech — it’s about allowing these platforms to finally be held accountable for harmful, often criminal behavior enabled by their platforms to which they have turned a blind eye for too long.”

The bill has drawn support from groups like the the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Anti-Defamation League, but some progressive organizations are already sounding alarm bells. Progressive digital rights group Fight for the Future released a statement against it on Friday saying it would “gut” section 230 protections and benefit larger corporations more able to comply with strict laws.

“We absolutely agree that Congress needs to take meaningful action to address the real world harm being done by Big Tech companies’ surveillance capitalist business models,” said Evan Greer, director of Fight for the Future.

“But unfortunately this bill, as written, would have enormous unintended consequences for human rights and freedom of expression.”

Updated

A letter signed by 144 First Amendment lawyers, distributed Friday afternoon, tore into a key part of the Trump team’s planned defense in his upcoming Senate impeachment trial, the New York Times reports.

“We all agree that the First Amendment does not prevent the Senate from convicting President Trump and disqualifying him from holding future office”, the group wrote, calling any use of the argument by the former President’s attorneys “legally frivolous”.

In a written filing, Trump’s lawyers indicated they would rely heavily on the claim that the former president’s right to free speech and thought were violated by the US House’s “incitement of insurrection” charge.

The New York Times reports:

The letter emerged as Mr. Trump’s legal team, which was hastily pulled together in recent days after he dismissed his original impeachment lawyers, worked feverishly on Friday to get up to speed on the case and prepare for the trial.

Mr. Schoen said that he and Mr. Castor had yet to learn anything about how the trial would operate — including its schedule, how much time the defense would have to present its arguments and the rules for entering evidence.

A federal judge ruled Friday that a Texas woman charged for her role in the US Capitol insurrection on 6 January can travel to Mexico later this month, according to CNN.

Jenny Cudd, a florist who was charged with two misdemeanors after breaking into the capitol building raised eyebrows when she petitioned the court to allow her to attend a 4-day retreat in Riviera Maya, Mexico, which was planned before her 6 January actions.

But DC district court judge Trevor N McFadden found little issue with the request, writing that Cudd has “no criminal history and there is no evidence before the court suggesting the defendant is a flight risk or poses a danger to others”.

Prosecutors did not dispute the ruling.

Cudd has not expressed regret for taking part in the riot that resulted in five fatalities.

CNN reports:

“F--- yes, I am proud of my actions, I f---ing charged the Capitol today with patriots today. Hell, yes, I am proud of my actions,” Cudd said in the Facebook video, according to court records.

She also told local news reporters she would “absolutely do it again”.

Updated

A hearing has been scheduled to decide whether Kyle Rittenhouse — the 18-year-old accused of shooting three people and killing two during police brutality protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last summer – should be rearrested or have his bond increased $200,000 after he neglected to inform authorities of a change in address.

The Associated Press reports that prosecutors allege Rittenhouse violated the terms of the pre-trial release he was granted after he posted a $2m cash bond last November, when he moved out of the home he shared with his mother. The teen’s attorneys argue he transferred to an “undisclosed safe house” after receiving threats.

Kyle Rittenhouse booking photo

Prosecutors also said Rittenhouse, who pleaded not guilty to murder and weapons charges in January, was also spotted last month at a bar in Wisconsin sporting a shirt that read “Free as Fuck” while he posed for photos with members of the far-right and self-described male western chauvinist group the Proud Boys, and flashed white power hand signs.

Updated

When Trump was booted from Twitter and Facebook for spreading disinformation about election fraud that never occurred, many people expected him to join his supporters on Parler, a platform with less moderation that’s catered to the far-right, hate groups, and conspiracy theorists. A new report from BuzzFeed News details why the former president may never have showed up:

Former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said Trump was never directly involved in the discussions, but sources told BuzzFeed News that the Trump Organization was offered a 40% stake in the company. In exchange, the former president would have to use Parler exclusively, posting all content there at least 4 hours before he shared it elsewhere.

The deal, which was never finalized but was discussed while Trump was still in office, may land him in more legal hot water.

Kathleen Clark, a law professor at the Washington University in St Louis, said that, had the deal gone through while Trump was still in office, both Parler and the president could have been in violation of anti-bribery laws. Because the former president often used his Twitter and Facebook accounts to make official communications – for example, announcing the firings of government officials – seeking to gain something in exchange for making posts exclusive to another platform could be illegal.

“I think it would have actually violated the bribery statute in that he would have been offered something of value – a stake in this company – in exchange for influencing an official act – the act of where to publish his official comments,” Clark said.

Updated

Hello! Gabrielle Canon checking in here on the west coast to take you through the news this Friday evening.

First up:

Americans are divided over the impeachment of former president Donald Trump, the Associated Press reports, with less than half surveyed in a newly released poll responding that Trump should be convicted by the Senate in next week’s impeachment trail, for his role in the 6 January Capitol insurrection.

Unsurprisingly, the poll found divisions along party lines. More than 80% of Democrats supported the conviction while roughly 10% of Republicans did. Still, nearly two-thirds of respondents said they think Trump is at least partly responsible.

It’s the latest sign that Trump’s months-long disinformation campaign could have long-lasting ramifications for Biden as he tries to govern a fractured country and underscores the deep partisan divides that will outlast Trump’s presidency. But it also shows some degree of consensus, with even many Republicans saying that Trump was at least partially responsible for his supporters’ deadly storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6 in a bid to overturn the results of the November election.

Updated

Today so far

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

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • The US economy added just 49,000 jobs last month, according to the latest jobs report. The unemployment rate dipped slightly to 6.3%, underscoring the slow rate of the US economic recovery as the coronavirus pandemic continues.
  • The House passed the Senate-approved budget resolution, paving the way for Congress to advance Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief package without Republican support. In a speech today, Biden indicated he wanted to move forward with the package even if it did not have bipartisan support. “That’s my preference to work together,” the president said. “But they’re just not willing to go as far as I think we have to go.”
  • The defense department will send more than 1,000 active-duty troops to assist vaccine distribution. The White House coronavirus response team announced that the troops will be sent to the new mass vaccination sites in California next week.
  • Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared unrepentant a day after being removed from her House committee assignments over her racist and extremist views. Speaking at a press conference today, Greene also addressed the relationship between Donald Trump and Republicans now that the former president has left office. “The party is his – it doesn’t belong to anyone else,” Greene said.
  • A video obtained by ABC News showed Roger Stone interacting with members of a far-right militia group on January 6. Hours before the violent insurrection at the Capitol, Stone can be seen flanked by members of the Oath Keepers militia. Stone, a longtime confidant to Trump, received a pardon from the former president in December.

Gabrielle will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Two House Republicans, Louie Gohmert of Texas and Andrew Clyde of Georgia, have been fined $5,000 each for ignoring the metal detectors set up outside the House chamber, according to CNN.

The metal detectors were installed outside the House chamber after the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, which resulted in five deaths.

But some Republicans have refused to comply with the requirement that members walk through the metal detectors before accessing the floor.

Some members have kept walking after setting off the metal detectors, while others have ignored the detectors entirely.

On Wednesday, the House passed a rule calling for members to be fined for not complying with the metal detectors. Members will be fined $5,000 for their first offense and $10,000 for their second offense, and the money will be taken directly out of their salaries.

“It is beyond comprehension why any Member would refuse to adhere to these simple, commonsense steps to keep this body safe,” House speaker Nancy Pelosi said after the rule was passed.

“It is sad that we have been forced to move forward with a rule change imposing fines on those who refuse to abide by these protections, but the People’s House must and will be safe, so that we can honor our responsibility to do the People’s work.”

House speaker Nancy Pelosi has released a video marking that it has been one month since the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

“The insurrectionist attack on January 6 was not only an attack on the Capitol but was a traumatic assault targeting all of our congressional community,” Pelosi said in the video.

“In the aftermath of that horrible day, our nation has been inspired by the strength and resilience shown by all who work in these hallowed halls,” the Democratic speaker added. “But the trauma of that day remains real, and the heartbreak and the horror that we all feel cannot be ignored.”

Pelosi recounted how her staffers barricaded themselves in a conference room to protect themselves from the violent mob on January 6, as the speaker sheltered in place with other lawmakers at an undisclosed location.

The speaker pledged that she would continue working to ensure that “justice and accountability prevail” as Congress continues to examine the events leading up to the insurrection.

During her weekly press conference yesterday, a reporter asked Pelosi how she responded to arguments that Democrats should drop their efforts to convict Donald Trump, after the former president was impeached for incitement of insurrection in connection to the Capitol attack.

“Ask our Founders, ‘Why bother?’” Pelosi replied. “Ask those who wrote the Constitution, ask Abraham Lincoln, ask anyone who cares about our democracy why we are bothering. You cannot go forward until you have justice.”

Pete Buttigieg went to Washington’s Union Station this morning for his first official event since being sworn in as transportation secretary on Wednesday.

The new cabinet secretary thanked the frontline transit workers for their service amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Buttigieg emphasized the importance of Joe Biden’s executive order calling on Americans to wear masks whenever they are traveling on public transit.

“[Transit agencies] are being asked to work miracles with the resources they are given in the best of times, and now have faced the enormous challenge of sharp drops in farebox revenue,” Buttigieg said. “We’ll build back better than before.”

Democratic lawmakers are debating over how the direct cash payments in Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief package should be distributed.

The president has rejected calls from some Republicans to lower the size of the checks from $1,400 to $1,000.

“I’m not cutting the size of the checks,” Biden said today. “They’re going to be $1,400. Period. That’s what the American people were promised.”

But negotiations continue over who should receive the checks. Some moderate Democrats, including Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, have called for phasing out the checks at a lower income level.

NBC News has details on the talks:

The most recent round of stimulus checks were cut off for people making more than $99,000 a year, or couples that made above $198,000. [Biden] recommended the same threshold in his $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package. ...

Manchin wants no checks for individuals making more than $75,000 per year, or couples making $150,000, his office said. He wants the amount to start phasing down at $50,000 per person, or $100,000 per couple. ...

But some top Democrats don’t want to lower the eligibility level for checks.

Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who will be a key figure in crafting the reconciliation legislation, told NBC News he’s “not for changing the threshold” because that would exclude many Americans who are expecting relief.

‘The people who got two checks already are expecting a third on the basis of the pledges and what was said through the campaign,’ he said Thursday. ‘They have bills piling up, and they have difficulty paying their car insurance.’

The Texas Republican party has endorsed legislation that would allow state residents to vote whether to secede from the United States.

In a talkshow interview, the party chair, Allen West, argued that: “Texans have a right to voice their opinions on [this] critical issue.

“I don’t understand why anyone would feel that they need to prevent people from having a voice in something that is part of the Texas constitution,” the former Florida congressman said of the Texas Referendum Independence Act. “You cannot prevent the people from having a voice.”

West is the latest Republican to come out in support of declaring Texas an independent nation. Last month, the state representative Kyle Biedermann confirmed that he will introduce the bill for a referendum as early as this week.

“Texit,” named after the British referendum to leave the European Union, refers to the process of Texas exiting the United States to become an independent, self-governing nation.

The endorsement drew intense backlash from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Many took aim directly at Allen as party chair, continuing a slew of criticism that has been levied at him since first he took on the role in July.

Video shows Roger Stone with far-right militia group on January 6 - report

ABC News has obtained a video showing Roger Stone, Donald Trump’s former associate, interacting with members of the Oath Keepers, a far-right militia group, on the morning of the Capitol insurrection.

ABC News reports:

In the video, which was obtained and reviewed by ABC News, Stone takes pictures and mingles with supporters outside a D.C. hotel as Oath Keepers hover around him, one wearing a baseball hat and military-style vest branded with the militia group’s logo.

‘So, hopefully we have this today, right?’ one supporter asks Stone in the video, which was posted just after 10 a.m. on the morning of the rally. ‘We shall see,’ Stone replies.

It is not known to what they were referring.

Stone has maintained that he played ‘no role whatsoever in the Jan. 6 events’ and has repeatedly said that he ‘never left the site of my hotel until leaving for Dulles Airport’ that afternoon. He has also decried attempts to ascribe to him the motives of the people around him.

‘I had no advance knowledge of the riot at the Capitol,’ Stone on Friday told ABC News about the video. ‘I could not even tell you the names of those who volunteered to provide security for me, required because of the many threats against me and my family.’

Stone was previously convicted for lying to Congress in connection to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. He was later pardoned by Trump during the former president’s final month in office.

Updated

House passes budget resolution, paving the way for coronavirus relief

The House has just passed the Senate-approved budget resolution, paving the way for the chamber to take up Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief proposal in the coming weeks.

The House voted 219-209 along mostly partly lines to approve the resolution as amended by the Senate. Jared Golden was the only Democrat to vote against the measure.

The resolution includes instructions to House committees on crafting parts of the relief legislation within the confines of reconciliation.

The reconciliation process will allow Senate Democrats to pass the relief proposal without any Republican support, and Biden indicated today that he was ready to move forward on the package with or without Republican assistance.

House Democratic leaders have said the chamber should be ready to pass relief legislation by the end of the month, if not sooner.

Greene after losing committee assignments: This is Trump's party

The Republican extremist congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, fresh from being stripped of her committee assignments, seemed unrepentant on Friday morning, as she used a press conference to sum up the intertwining of the Republican party and Donald Trump.

“The party is his – it doesn’t belong to anyone else,” Greene told reporters in Washington this morning.

Greene was removed from the budget and education and labor committees last night, after a 230-199 vote in the House of Representatives.

Just eleven Republicans joined Democrats in ousting Greene, who faced discipline for past claims that space lasers had started wildfires, that mass shootings didn’t really happen, and for her support of assassinating Democratic politicians.

If onlookers expected Greene to be chastened, she didn’t appear to be, as she launched into her 20-minute conference outside the Capitol, where she rattled through a laundry list of traditional Republican grievances.

On Twitter, too, Greene seemed upbeat. “I woke up early this morning literally laughing thinking about what a bunch of morons the Democrats (+11) are for giving some one like me free time,” Greene posted.

“In this Democrat tyrannical government, Conservative Republicans have no say on committees anyway. Oh this is going to be fun!”

Updated

Today so far

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

  • The US economy added just 49,000 jobs last month, according to the latest jobs report. The unemployment rate dipped slightly to 6.3%, underscoring the slow rate of the US economic recovery as the coronavirus pandemic continues.
  • Joe Biden indicated Democrats would quickly deliver coronavirus relief with or without Republican support. “That’s my preference to work together,” the president said. “But they’re just not willing to go as far as I think we have to go.” Biden’s speech came hours after the Senate passed Democrats’ budget resolution, paving the way to pass the relief package without Republican support.
  • The defense department will send more than 1,000 active-duty troops to assist vaccine distribution. The White House coronavirus response team announced that the troops would first be sent to the mass vaccination sites in California next week.

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

Jen Psaki said the Biden administration is prepared to release an unclassified report on the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, pledged to release such a report to Congress during her confirmation hearing last month.

Khashoggi was killed by Saudi agents who were carrying out the orders of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2018.

Jen Psaki said the White House did not have a timeline for when his attorney general nominee, Merrick Garland, might be confirmed.

Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the Senate judiciary committee, refused to schedule a confirmation hearing for Garland while he was still in control of the panel.

Democrat Dick Durbin did not officially become chairman of the committee until Wednesday, when the Senate passed a power-sharing resolution to address the 50-50 split in the chamber.

Jen Psaki was asked whether Joe Biden would use the power of the bully pulpit to press teachers to return to the classroom, as some unions threaten to strike if its members are not vaccinated before schools reopen.

The White House press secretary said she rejected the premise of the question, arguing that teachers want to return to the classroom more than anyone.

“The president is absolutely committed to reopening schools. He wants them not just to reopen but to stay open,” Psaki said.

Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said today that the agency would soon release guidance on safely reopening schools, and Psaki noted the White House would defer to that.

Moments ago, Jen Psaki announced that Joe Biden would also share his conversation with an unemployed woman named Michelle with the American people tomorrow.

The press secretary said that the conversation, which will be shared on the White House’s digital channels, is part of Biden’s commitment to regularly communicating with the American people about the pandemic.

Psaki said the updates were in line with the “time-honored tradition” of presidents speaking directly to the country, in the vein of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “fireside chats” during the Great Depression.

Jen Psaki was pressed on Joe Biden’s willingness to advance his coronavirus relief package without Republican support, as the president’s speech today indicated.

The White House press secretary was asked whether Biden’s stance is at odds with his repeated promises to deliver unity to a deeply divided nation.

“The president ran on unifying the country,” Psaki said. “He didn’t run on a promise to unite the Democratic and Republican party into one party in Washington.”

Psaki reiterated that polls show Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief proposal has the support of a majority of Americans.

Jen Psaki announced that Joe Biden will visit more federal agencies next week, after delivering a speech at the state department yesterday.

On Wednesday, the president will visit the Pentagon and meet with the new secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin. Biden will also visit the National Institutes of Health on Thursday.

In addition to those visits, the president will virtually tour a coronavirus vaccination center on Monday.

Jen Psaki was asked why Joe Biden is spending the weekend in Delaware, when his administration is urging Americans not to travel because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The White House press secretary said the president will “spend the weekend with his wife and family” in his home state.

Psaki noted that Biden will be traveling on Air Force One, which is a private plane.

White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein pushed back against criticism that the Biden administration is ignoring the inflationary risks of its $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief proposal.

“Janet Yellen is our treasury secretary, okay? She knows a little something about inflationary risks,” Bernstein told reporters in the White House briefing room.

White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein defended the size of Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief package proposal.

“We have a package that is calibrated to meet the urgency of the moment,” Bernstein told reporters in the White House briefing room.

Bernstein added that he “firmly disagrees” with Larry Summers, the former director of the National Economic Council under Barack Obama, who has argued that the massive relief package could jeopardize the health of the US economy in the future.

Jared Bernstein, a member of the White House council of economic advisers, said the jobs report “revealed a stall in the American job creation machine and underscores how precarious the situation our economy is in”.

Bernstein argued the grim report reinforced the need for Congress to pass more coronavirus relief, echoing comments from Joe Biden and congressional Democratic leaders.

White House acknowledges 'disappointing' jobs report in press briefing

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

Psaki opened the briefing by acknowledging this morning’s jobs report, which showed the US economy added just 49,000 jobs last month, was “disappointing”.

Jared Bernstein, a member of the White House council of economic advisers, then took the briefing room podium to dig more into the jobs report numbers.

Bernstein noted that American women are leaving the labor force “in numbers that are of great concern to us”.

Joe Biden’s speech today marked an important shift in his tone about bipartisanship when it comes to coronavirus relief.

Earlier this week, the president met with a group of Republican senators who had proposed a $600 billion relief bill, which was much smaller than Biden’s $1.9 trillion plan.

Biden said he was open to the senators’ ideas, but the White House acknowledged the president made clear in the meeting that he considered the Republican package to be too small to address the country’s financial needs right now.

Biden, a longtime senator who based his presidential campaign around the idea that he could work with Republicans to achieve bipartisan compromise, is now saying Democrats are willing to go it alone on coronavirus relief.

The president’s speech came hours after the Senate passed the Democratic budget resolution exactly along party lines, with Vice-President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote to approve the proposal. That vote paved the way for Congress to approve Biden’s relief proposal without any Republican support.

Biden: 'What Republicans have proposed is either to do nothing or not enough'

Joe Biden argued that a massive relief package would pay dividends for the overall health of the US economy.

“The simple truth is, if we make these investments now with interest rates at historic lows, it will generate more growth, higher incomes, a stronger economy, and our nation’s finances will be in a stronger position,” Biden said.

The president dismissed Republicans’ relief proposals as insufficient to address the magnitude of the financial suffering taking place in the US today.

“What Republicans have proposed is either to do nothing or not enough,” Biden said. “All of the sudden, many of them have rediscovered fiscal restraint and concern for the deficits. Don’t kid yourself, this approach will come with a cost: more pain for more people for longer than it has to be.”

Biden concluded the speech without taking questions from reporters.

Joe Biden promised that he would not reduce the size of the direct payments in the coronavirus relief package, despite calls from some Republicans to do so.

“I’m not cutting the size of the checks. They’re going to be $1,400. Period. That’s what the American people were promised,” Biden said.

In the days running up to the Georgia Senate runoff elections, Biden pledged that he would deliver $2,000 in direct relief to most Americans if Democrats took the Senate.

Democrats won both the Georgia runoffs, giving them the Senate and the opportunity to follow through on Biden’s promise. (The $1,400 checks are in combination with the $600 checks that Congress approved in December, bringing the total to $2,000.)

Biden pledges to deliver coronavirus relief with or without Republican support

Joe Biden reiterated that he hoped to work with Republicans to deliver coronavirus relief, but he made it clear that he would move forward with or without their support.

“That’s my preference to work together,” the president said. “But they’re just not willing to go as far as I think we have to go.”

Biden said that if he must decide between working with Republicans and quickly delivering financial relief to American families, the choice is clear.

“That’s an easy choice: I’m going to help the American people who are hurting now,” Biden said.

Biden: 'It’s very clear our economy is still in trouble'

Joe Biden is now delivering remarks on the economy and the need for more coronavirus relief at the White House.

The president pointed to this morning’s grim jobs report, which showed the US economy added just 49,000 jobs last month, to make the argument for more financial relief.

“It’s very clear our economy is still in trouble,” Biden said.

The president’s remarks come hours after the Senate passed the Democratic budget resolution, clearing the way for Congress to approve Biden’s relief package without Republican support.

Jim Clyburn, the House majority whip, said Democrats were open to more targeted aid when it comes to the $1,400 direct payments in Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief package.

“We believe that it should go to the people who need it most,” Clyburn said of the relief checks.

The White House has also said it is open to lowering the income eligibility level for receiving a $1,400 check.

As of now, Biden’s plan calls for phasing out the $1,400 checks for individuals who make more than $75,000 a year.

House Democratic leaders and committee chairs have emerged from their White House meeting with Joe Biden.

Speaking to reporters, House speaker Nancy Pelosi said she wanted the chamber to send a coronavirus relief package to the Senate in two weeks.

The Democratic speaker indicated the reconciliation bill would be introduced in the House on Monday, and she said she hopes that it will attract bipartisan support.

The message from Democrats is clear: they would like some Republicans to support the relief bill, but they are very willing to go it alone if bipartisanship seems out of reach.

The Guardian’s Ankita Rao reports:

The US recorded more than 5,000 Covid-19 deaths on Thursday.

The surge, the highest number to date, seems to be largely due to a backlog of data that was just released from Indiana, adding 1,500 deaths to the countrywide number, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Though cases have otherwise been slowing down, the death toll is often a reflection of what happened in the weeks prior, since it’s usually a lagging indicator of the virus spread. Yesterday, there were 5,077 US deaths in total, according to John Hopkins University data, and 122,473 new cases.

Southern California and Arizona remain hotspots in the country, though the California governor, Gavin Newsom, has been easing restrictions in recent days, including the return of outdoor dining. Meanwhile, the vaccine rollout has been trudging along, with about 1.3m shots being administered every day, shy of Joe Biden’s goal of 1.5m jabs daily.

Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the agency will be releasing guidance on safely reopening schools “in the week ahead”.

Earlier this week, Walensky said schools could safely reopen before all teachers received coronavirus vaccines. But the White House later walked that back, saying Walensky’s comments should be not treated as the official guidance of the CDC.

The conversation about vaccinating teachers comes as some teachers’ unions have threatened to strike if their members are asked to return to schools before being vaccinated.

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

A reporter asked whether the White House coronavirus response team has already seen any benefit from Joe Biden’s order asking Americans to wear masks for the first 100 days of his presidency.

Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said it was still too early to draw any conclusions about the impact of the order.

But Walensky added that initial studies in 10 states indicated that coronavirus hospitalization rates went down after three weeks of the mask order.

The Defense Production Act will be invoked to help Pfizer obtain equipment to meet its vaccine production targets, the White House pandemic response team announced.

The DPA is a law allowing the president to compel companies to manufacture certain products to address urgent national needs.

Tim Manning, the pandemic response team supply coordinator, also said that 61 million at-home coronavirus tests will be available to Americans by the end of summer.

Defense department will send 1,000 troops to support mass vaccination sites

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

Andy Slavitt, a senior White House adviser on the pandemic response, announced that the defense department has approved sending more than 1,000 active-duty personnel to support vaccine distribution.

The troops’ efforts will start in California, where two mass vaccination sites are now opening in Los Angeles and Oakland.

Slavitt also announced that six companies will help expand production of at-home coronavirus tests, with the goal of having “millions” of tests available by the summer.

Earlier this week, the pandemic response team announced a partnership with the healthcare company Ellume, which has produced the first at-home, over-the counter coronavirus test.

Democrats are pointing to this morning’s grim jobs report to make the case for Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.

“The latest jobs report is another confirmation that Americans need relief now—and that’s why Senate Democrats took a big first step toward passing a historic COVID relief package early this morning, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the deciding vote,” Jaime Harrison, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement.

“Democrats are delivering on our promises: relief checks that will put more money directly in Americans’ pockets, help for small businesses and individuals who have lost their jobs or gotten sick during this pandemic, funding for local governments to speed up vaccinations and increase testing, and so much more,” Harrison added. “This is leadership. This is what Americans voted for in November.”

The Senate approved the Democratic budget resolution early this morning, paving the way to pass Biden’s relief package without Republican support.

Biden on coronavirus relief: 'We can’t do too much here'

Joe Biden is holding a meeting with House Democratic leaders and committee chairs in the Oval Office.

Speaking to reporters at the start of the meeting, the president emphasized the need to pass another massive coronavirus relief package. Biden said the governmental response to the financial crisis had taught him the negative impact of going too small with relief proposals.

“The one thing we learned is we can’t do too much here. We can do too little. We can do too little and sputter,” Biden said.

“It’s not just the macroeconomic impact on the economy and our ability to compete internationally,” the president added. “It’s people’s lives. Real live people are hurting and we can fix it. We can fix it and the irony and all ironies is: if we help them, we are also helping our competitive capacity through the remainder of this decade.”

The Senate approved the Democratic budget resolution early this morning, paving the way to pass Biden’s relief package without any Republican support.

Updated

Pelosi says House will pass coronavirus relief by the end of the month

House speaker Nancy Pelosi said she wanted the chamber to pass Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief package by the end of the month.

In a new “Dear colleague” letter to her fellow Democratic caucus members, Pelosi celebrated the Senate’s passage of the budget resolution early this morning, which paved the way to pass coronavirus relief without Republican support.

“As we all know, a budget is a statement of our values. Our work to crush the coronavirus and deliver relief to the American people is urgent and of the highest priority. With this budget resolution, we have taken a giant step to save lives and livelihoods,” Pelosi said in the letter.

The House speaker and the Democratic chairs of key House committees are now meeting with Biden at the White House to discuss the relief package.

“Next week, we will be writing the legislation to create a path to final passage for the Biden American Rescue Plan, so that we can finish our work before the end of February,” Pelosi said in her letter.

The Senate is working on a different timetable for passing coronavirus relief because the chamber must conduct Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial next week, delaying next steps on the relief package until after a verdict has been reached.

Updated

Financial experts are noting that this morning’s jobs report showed the US labor force participation rate dropped slightly to 61.4%.

That means that about 400,000 Americans left the job market last month because they hadn’t found work and decided to stop looking.

In comparison, the US economy added just 49,000 jobs last month, according to the jobs report.

Those figures help to explain why the US unemployment rate ticked down last month, but the number is clearly decreasing for the wrong reasons.

The Washington Post has published an op-ed from Larry Summers, the former director of the national economic council under Barack Obama, that is causing some trouble for Democrats this morning.

In the op-ed, Summers argues that Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief proposal is too large. He writes:

I agree with the general consensus of progressive economists that it would have been much better if the Obama administration had been able to legislate a much larger fiscal stimulus in early 2009, in response to the Great Recession. Yet a comparison of the 2009 stimulus and what is now being proposed is instructive. In 2009, the gap between actual and estimated potential output was about $80 billion a month and increasing. The 2009 stimulus measures provided an incremental $30 billion to $40 billion a month during 2009 — an amount equal to about half the output shortfall.

In contrast, recent Congressional Budget Office estimates suggest that with the already enacted $900 billion package — but without any new stimulus — the gap between actual and potential output will decline from about $50 billion a month at the beginning of the year to $20 billion a month at its end. The proposed stimulus will total in the neighborhood of $150 billion a month, even before consideration of any follow-on measures. That is at least three times the size of the output shortfall.

In other words, whereas the Obama stimulus was about half as large as the output shortfall, the proposed Biden stimulus is three times as large as the projected shortfall. Relative to the size of the gap being addressed, it is six times as large.

Some Democratic lawmakers, such as Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii, were quick to dismiss the op-ed, saying Summers did not have credibility on the matter given his response to the financial crisis.

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

Joe Biden will soon meet with House Democratic leaders and committee chairs to discuss his proposed coronavirus relief package.

After the meeting, Biden will deliver a speech on the new jobs report and the need to deliver more coronavirus relief as many families continue to struggle financially because of the pandemic.

That’s all coming up soon, so stay tuned.

Robinhood, the financial trading platform that is credited with both enabling, and then inhibiting, the unprecedented rise of Gamestop stocks, lifted all trading restrictions this morning, allowing users to buy shares in Reddit-promoted companies after a week of financial tumult.

The company has been criticized by users after it limited the amount of Gamestop and AMC shares individuals could purchase following a Reddit-led spike in certain companies’ share prices. “There are currently no temporary limits to increasing your positions,” Robinhood said in a statement on its website.

Robinhood had only allowed users to trade 500 shares in GameStop, a video game store chain, and 5,500 AMC shares, according to Reuters, after an initial surge in mid-January. The lifting of restrictions came as the US treasury department reportedly began to explore preventing a similar set of events from happening again.

Robinhood had been accused of protecting hedge funds, some of whom pay the company to execute its users’ trades, when it introduced restrictions on purchases.

Thousands of small traders had used Robinhood – which positioned itself as a user-friendly platform for inexperienced investors – to purchase Gamestop, AMC, Blackberry and other companies after the WallStreetBets sub-Reddit inspired a mass trading event.

Politicians as ideologically diverse as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ted Cruz have criticized Robinhood, with Ocasio-Cortez suggesting a congressional hearing into the company. But Robinhood said the restrictions were necessary for it to cover potential losses.

Read more here: Robinhood lifts all trading restrictions including Gamestop and AMC shares

CBS News report this morning that the Pennsylvania home of Capitol riot suspect Rachell Powell has been raided by the FBI. She has become known as the “bullhorn lady” or “pink hat lady”, and had been the subject of public wanted requests by the agency.

She also recently featured in a piece by the New Yorker where she said: “I was not part of a plot—organized, whatever. I have no military background. . . . I’m a mom with eight kids. That’s it. I work. And I garden. And raise chickens.”

The CBS report this morning says:

Agents swarmed the house searching for any evidence to help build a case against Powell and any clues that may indicate where she may have gone. Neighbors say Powell and some of the younger children haven’t been seen for a week or more and are apparently in hiding.

Powell can clearly be seen in videos taking a battering ram to the Capitol. She’s become known as “the bullhorn lady” who seemed to have knowledge of the Capitol building’s floor plan. She was seen on video instructing insurrectionists on where to go. Powell is of special concern to federal investigators because if she had that knowledge, it could indicate the assault was pre-planned.

Read more here: CBS News – FBI raids home of Capitol riot’s suspected ‘bullhorn lady’ Rachel Powell

The Washington Post have an interesting piece this morning which reflects one of the complexities of the social media environment we live in. Rachel Lerman reports that lawyers for Dominion Voting Systems have asked Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Parler to preserve posts about the company, even if the material was already removed for spreading misinformation. She writes:

The posts need to be kept “because they are relevant to Dominion’s defamation claims relating to false accusations that Dominion rigged the 2020 election,” according to the demand letters from Dominion’s law firm Clare Locke. Dominion sued Rudolph W. Giuliani and Sidney Powell for more than $1.3 billion each in January, alleging that the lawyers defamed Dominion by saying the machines were used to steal the election from President Donald Trump.

Dominion asked each company to keep posts from slightly differing lists of people. Those included right-wing pundit Dan Bongino, Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and Powell. It also included news organizations Fox News, One America News Network and Newsmax and — in Twitter’s case — Trump.

Dominion warned in its letters to the social media companies that more lawsuits would be coming.

You imagine the situation might be particularly difficult for Parler, which was knocked offline by its hosts in the wake of the 6 January Capitol riot, has only been able to partially restore the service with support from a Russian-owned technology firm, and this week ousted its CEO John Matze.

Read more here: Washington Post – Dominion Voting tells Facebook, Parler and other social media sites to preserve posts for lawsuits

US economy added 49,000 jobs last month as coronavirus restrictions eased

The US economy added back 49,000 jobs last month as coronavirus restrictions eased and fiscal stimulus from Washington goosed up the economy, the labor department announced Friday.

The unemployment rate dropped to 6.3%, down significantly from its pandemic high of 14.7% in April, but big problems remain.

On Thursday, the labor department said 779,000 people filed new unemployment claims last week, down from the week before but still close to four times pre-pandemic levels. The latest figures showed some 17.8 million Americans are still claiming unemployment benefits.

In December the US lost 140,000 jobs as the latest wave of Covid-19 infections led to more shutdowns across the country and a slowdown in economic activity.

The jobs figure come as the Biden administration is trying to push through a $1.9tn stimulus package which would send $1,400 cheques to many Americans and provide fresh aid for struggling businesses. It would also increase the Federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 – the first increase since 2009.

The plan has widespread support from voters, with a Quinnipiac survey showing more than two thirds of respondents in favor of the plan. But it has met with opposition from Republicans in Congress, who have balked at the size of the stimulus and proposed a far smaller package. Biden’s plan was approved in the Senate early Friday by a 51 to 50 vote but still faces hurdles and is not expected to become law before mid March.

The recovery in the jobs market may embolden opponents but some economists warned that the economic toll of the virus is far from over.

Jason Reed, assistant chair of finance at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, said: “We shouldn’t forget that the economy is still down about 10 million jobs since the start of the pandemic. We aren’t anywhere close to where we were this time last year.

“The rollout of the vaccine will surely help Americans get back to work, but we shouldn’t expect a return to normal until late 2021 or early 2022.”

House will vote today on final approval of Senate-amended budget measure

An extremely quick and to-the-point snap from Reuters confirms that the House of Representatives will vote today on the final passage of a budget resolution that would allow Democrats in Congress to approve Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package without Republican support. That’s per a Democratic leadership aide.

Yesterday, president Joe Biden announced his intention to welcome 125,000 refugees to the US in the next year, a far cry from the much smaller number pushed by his predecessor Donald Trump. This week, in our Politics Weekly Extra podcast, Jonathan Freedland speaks to president and chief executive officer of the International Rescue Committee and former British politician David Miliband about the new president’s true capacity to recalibrate America’s approach to globalism.

For two decades, Fox News has reigned supreme as America’s number one cable news channel. Until January, that is. Nielsen numbers, published this week, found that Fox News ranked third out of the three main cable news channels. It was the first time since 2001 that Fox News found itself in third place, and continued a pattern from the end of 2020, when Donald Trump urged his supporters to abandon Fox News in favor of even more rightwing rivals like NewsMax and One America News.

The response from Fox News has not been a period of sombre self-reflection. Instead, the network seems to have made a chaotic lunge towards the right wing.

“Fox News has led in the ratings for two decades. They have historically been unrivaled in attracting an audience,” said Matthew Gertz, a senior fellow at the progressive media watchdog Media Matters. Gertz said he had detected a shift at Fox as the network attempts to win back “the most hard-edge” Trump supporters.

Tucker Carlson, whose show is the most watched in cable news, is among those leading the charge. After Democrats called for a crackdown on white nationalists and domestic terrorism following a wave of extremist attacks, Carson had an interesting, and revealing, take for his audience. “They’re talking about you,” Carson told his viewers on 26 January.

A day earlier, Carlson had defended QAnon, a racist and antisemitic conspiracy theory linked to multiple violent acts, including alleged kidnappings, the derailing of a train and arrests over threats to politicians. Carlson played a series of clips from left-leaning networks, in which analysts described QAnon as a dangerous, “frightening” conspiracy theory. The FBI has agreed with that sentiment, and warned of its dangers.

Carlson, however, was having none of it. He proceeded to stand up for QAnon supporters, as he claimed that believing in and espousing QAnon ideas is an issue of free speech. “No democratic government can ever tell you what to think. Your mind belongs to you. It is yours and yours alone,” Carlson said.

Read more of Adam Gabbatt’s report here: Fox lurches further to the right to win back ‘hard-edge’ Trump supporters

Schumer: Senate vote is 'giant first step' to passing Biden's comprehensive coronavirus aid bill

The overnight budget resolution vote in the Senate makes good on president Joe Biden’s promise to move swiftly on relief measures for those in the economy affected by the coronavirus pandemic. At 8:30am EST (1:30pm GMT) we’ll get the latest jobs report numbers, which will be the first major indicator of how the economy is faring since he took office.

The $1.9 trillion relief package proposed would be used to speed Covid-19 vaccines throughout the nation. Other funds would extend special unemployment benefits that will expire at the end of March and make direct payments to people to help them pay bills and stimulate the economy. Democrats also want to send money to state and local governments dealing the worst health crisis in decades.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said the vote was a “giant first step” toward passing the kind of comprehensive coronavirus aid bill that Biden has put at the top of his legislative agenda.

Richard Cowan notes for Reuters that shortly before the final vote, Democrats flexed their new Senate muscles by offering an amendment reversing three earlier votes that Republicans had won.

They had hijacked the coronavirus aid battle to voice support for the Canada-to-United States Keystone XL pipeline that Biden has blocked and support for hydraulic fracking to extract underground oil and natural gas.

Also overturned was a Republican amendment barring coronavirus aid to immigrants living in the US illegally.

The Senate also approved a series of amendments to the budget outline, which had already passed the House of Representatives on Wednesday. As a result, the House must now vote again to accept the Senate’s changes, which could occur as early as today. The Senate, for example, added a measure calling for increased funding for rural hospitals whose resources are strained by the pandemic.

None of the approved amendments will carry the force of law in a budget blueprint and mainly are guidelines for developing the actual coronavirus aid bill in coming weeks.

Gloria Oladipo reports for us on how Black and Latino Chicagoans in dire need of vaccines are struggling to get them:

The need is dire: Despite Black people only accounting for 30% of Chicago’s population, Black Chicagoans make up 60% of all Covid-19 cases. And lack of hospitals, prominence of food deserts, and other inequalities has turned Covid-19 into an even more lethal health crisis for these communities. But even during Chicago’s Phase 1A, when only healthcare workers and long-term care facility residents and staff were eligible for vaccination, the majority of those vaccinated were from more affluent areas such as downtown and the North Side.

Kimberly Smith, a patient care technician at Northwestern Memorial hospital and union chief steward for the Service Employees International Union Healthcare Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas (SEIU), hasn’t received her vaccine despite working in proximity to Covid patients. Though told she would get vaccinated at Northwestern once she opted in, she was later directed to far away hospitals in Lake Forest and McHenry county. Smith was set to get the vaccine at Loretto Hospital on Chicago’s West Side on Friday, thanks to arrangements made by SEIU.

“[It’s] the fact that my union is advocating for me [to get the vaccine] and I have to get it at another hospital that’s a safety net [when] I work at Northwestern Medical Hospital... [they] just tell me to go anywhere and don’t really care,” said Smith, an Englewood resident.

City officials have publicly committed to funneling the vaccine to Chicago’s most vulnerable areas. Last week, Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot in coordination with the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) announced “Protect Chicago Plus”, a plan meant to make sure that “vaccine reaches the individuals and communities most impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic,” as stated on the official City of Chicago Covid-19 informational website.

Dr Allison Arwady, the Commissioner at the CDPH, told the Guardian, “it’s not just that equity is in our plan. Equity really is our plan. And it’s a space that we care about as a health department probably the most.”

Read more of Gloria Oladipo’s report here: Black and Latino Chicagoans in dire need of vaccines struggle to get them

US records over 5,000 daily Covid deaths for first time – Johns Hopkins University figures

We shouldn’t forget that the reason the Senate was working overnight on a Covid economic relief resolution was because the US is in the middle of a pandemic, one which just recorded its highest number of daily deaths according to the Johns Hopkins University.

Yesterday there were 122,473 new cases, taking the total US caseload to 26.6m.

The daily death toll has been recorded at 5,077. This is significantly higher than any other daily total, and the first time that the US has recorded more than 5,000 deaths in one day. The previous highest daily toll was 4,466 on 12 January.

The hospitalization figures continued to fall, going below 90,000 for the first time since 27 November. They stand at 88,668 according to the Covid Tracking Project.

CDC figures state that 28.2 million people have now received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine in the US and its territories.

Reports this morning suggest that court papers are gradually showing the co-ordinated and organised methods employed by members of the right-wing Proud Boys movement in the ransack of the US Capitol last month. This week Canada designated them a terrorist organization. Alan Feuer reports for the New York Times:

In a flurry of court papers filed in recent days federal officials have [been] assembling the first draft of a narrative that suggests the Proud Boys brought some coordination to the Capitol attack. While prosecutors have not issued an overarching indictment accusing the group of a detailed conspiracy to storm the halls of Congress, they have left hints in the record that they believe a measure of planning went into disrupting the certification of the presidential vote.

In a criminal complaint released on Wednesday night, prosecutors said that days before the Capitol attack, Ethan Nordean, the “sergeant of arms” for the Seattle Proud Boys, issued a call on social media asking for donations of “protective gear” and declared during his podcast, “We are in a war.”

In previous filings, the government has said that some group members went to the Capitol with communication equipment and that leaders ordered subordinates to show up undercover, not in their typical black-and-yellow shirts.

Prosecutors say, in late December, chairman of the group, Enrique Tarrio, apparently planning for a pro-Trump “Save America” rally in Washington 6 January, posted a message on Parler, telling the Proud Boys to attend the event in small teams and “incognito,” instead of in their trademark polo shirts.

Two days before the march, prosecutors noted Nordean posted an episode of his podcast in which he likened the Proud Boys to “soldiers of the right wing.” He also discussed what he described as “rampant voter fraud” in the presidential election, saying that the Proud Boys could not afford to be complacent, but had to “bring back that original spirit of 1776 of what really established the character of what America is.”

Read more here: New York Times – Did the Proud Boys help coordinate the Capitol riot? Yes, US suggests

Giovanni Russonello writes for the New York Times On Politics newsletter this morning on the highly unusual move by the House yesterday to strip rightwing extremist Marjorie Taylor Greene from her positions on committees. He writes:

While party caucuses have from time to time stripped their own members of their committee assignments as a disciplinary measure, yesterday’s vote was the first time in modern US politics that the majority party had used a chamber-wide vote to depose a member from the minority.

Greene called her previous comments “words of the past” that “do not represent me” and said she should be given an opportunity to learn from her mistakes. “I was allowed to believe things that weren’t true, and I would ask questions about them and talk about them, and that is absolutely what I regret,” she said.

But Democrats were unimpressed, and some pointed out in speeches of their own that Greene had not apologized at any point in her eight-minute address. The Democratic caucus voted unanimously to remove Greene from her posts, arguing in particular that she did not belong on the Education Committee given her history of claiming that the school shooting in Parkland, Florida was a hoax.

Only a handful of Republicans backed the move, despite at one point House majority leader Steny Hoyer exhibiting a Facebook advert for Greene in which she is depicted holding a gun next the faces of the high profile progressive congresswomen of color Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.

Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has just given his social media reaction to the vote, praising his caucus for their unity.

In truth, there are a few Democrats, like West Virginia’s Sen. Joe Manchin who have issues with some of the details of the plan. He was behind one of the amendments that passed, in conjunction with Maine Republican Susan Collins who proposed a ceiling barring “upper-income taxpayers” from eligibility for stimulus checks.

“I don’t think a single person on this floor would disagree to target the relief to our neighbors who are struggling,” Manchin said during the debate. “There are other families who have not missed a single paycheck as a result of this pandemic. It does not make sense to send a check to those individuals.”

Amendments aren’t binding on the eventual plan that gets passed, but the 99-1 vote in favor of the limit suggests a clear direction of travel for the drafting of the legislation that will now take place.

The White House digital comms team have already been working on a campaign video to try and win Republican voters over to the idea of Biden’s Covid stimulus plan.

Yesterday they pushed live a video entitled “Conservatives speak on the American rescue plan” which features ordinary voters saying things like “I’m a political conservative” and “I grew up in a Republican family” before going on to express support for the rescue package.

White House campaign video in favor of Joe Biden’s Covid stimulus.

There’s some Republicans they have no hope of winning over. Last night during the debate, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said “This is not the time for trillions more dollars to make perpetual lockdowns and economic decline a little more palatable. Notwithstanding the actual needs, notwithstanding all the talk about bipartisan unity, Democrats in Congress are plowing ahead. They’re using this phony budget to set the table to ram through their $1.9 trillion rough draft.”

It’s important to stress that the overnight Senate vote does not mean that Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid relief package is a done deal – but it is certainly now a lot closer to becoming a reality. As Jaclyn Diaz puts it for NPR:

The resolution allows Democrats to move forward with an eventual coronavirus relief bill that can circumvent the 60-vote threshold required to end a filibuster. They could now potentially pass the future bill with a simple majority.

The House must now pass the same version of the budget measure before lawmakers can begin writing the final relief package. That vote may come later Friday.

The budget resolution gives committees the authority to draft legislation reflecting Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package. It’s expected to eventually include $1,400 stimulus checks for Americans and expanded pandemic unemployment aid.

Republicans oppose the size of Biden’s proposal and have offered a smaller alternative. The president said he “will not settle” on his pandemic relief bill.

Away from domestic politics and coronavirus for a moment, a National Security Council principals committee meeting is due today to discuss the nuclear threat of Iran. First reported by Axios overnight, Hans Nichols and Barak Ravid say:

The Biden administration is still refining its strategy about how to resurrect the 2015 deal that president Trump backed out of in 2018, but it wants to work with allies to slow Iran’s effort to enrich uranium and prevent an arms races in the Middle East.

Principals committee meetings — held in the Situation Room and attended by the secretaries of Defense and State and other key national security players — are designed to discuss policy at the highest level before presenting recommendations to the president.

One of the main action items Friday is whether to push toward returning to the nuclear deal before the June presidential elections in Iran or wait until after, a source familiar with the issue said.

New secretary of state Antony Blinken had already instructed Iran envoy Rob Malley to form a negotiating team made up of diplomats and experts, but Biden’s foreign policy speech yesterday was notable for not repeating his message that the US might walk back to the Iran nuclear deal.

The Trump administration policy of quitting the deal and applying sanctions has met with limited success – last month Iran said it had achieved uranium enrichment levels of 20%, much higher than the 5% for civilian use permitted by the deal brokered by the Obama administration alongside China, Russia, France, Germany and the UK.

Here’s Ted Barret and Paul LeBlanc’s take on it for CNN, pointing out that while there was some agreement between Democrats and Republicans over the measures needed, the move will also sow some distrust in an already deeply divided Congress. They write:

One of the more significant amendments came from a bipartisan group of senators, led by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, that would prevent “upper income taxpayers” from being eligible to receive $1,400 Covid relief checks. While the amendment was adopted 99-1, it is not binding and does not mean that the eligibility requirements will be changed in the final Covid relief bill. But it expresses broad consensus to make the changes.

The budget resolution that passed is not the Covid relief bill. It simply sets the stage for Democrats to be able to use a process known as “budget reconciliation” to pass the relief bill on a party-line vote.

Embedded in the budget resolution are reconciliation instructions for multiple congressional committees to formally draft and approve legislation on things like funds for vaccine production and distribution, unemployment insurance, stimulus checks and more.

The House already passed the budget measure earlier in the week. But because it was amended in the Senate it will need to go back to the House for a final vote, possibly today.

Republicans are unhappy Democrats are resorting to the aggressive tactic, though, arguing it will set a partisan tone for the rest of Biden’s presidency and that he’s not operating as the political unifier he pledged to be.

Read more here: CNN – Senate passes key procedural step to allow Democrats to pass Covid-19 relief without threat of GOP filibuster

Here’s Sen Bernie Sanders’ reaction to the passage of the budget process in the Senate in the early hours of the morning in Washington DC.

Newly installed Sen. Jon Ossoff has specifically thanked the voters of Georgia. It was his victory, alongside Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock in the runoff races in January that flipped the Senate to the 50-50 split that enabled the measure to be carried today with the casting vote of vice president Kamala Harris.

Here’s what Erica Werner and Jeff Stein had to say for the Washington Post about the lengthy budget “vote-a-rama” session in the Senate overnight:

Passage of the budget bill came just after 5:30 a.m. Friday morning, after an all-night Senate session during which senators plowed through dozens of amendments in a chaotic process known as a “vote-a-rama.” Democrats cheered the progress on measures to address the pandemic, while Republicans complained of partisanship and excessive spending.

The House, which approved its own budget bill on Wednesday, must now act on the Senate’s version, which it is expected to do within a day.

With the budget resolution complete, Congress can turn in earnest to writing Biden’s expansive pandemic relief proposal into law — and push it through the Senate without Republican votes if necessary under the special rules unlocked by the budget legislation. That process will take weeks, with Democrats eyeing mid-March as the deadline for final passage of the relief legislation because that is when enhanced unemployment benefits will expire if Congress doesn’t act first.

Read more here: Washington Post – Senate approves budget bill to pass Biden economic relief plan

Senates passes budget plan to allow Covid relief package without Republican support

The US Senate has just passed a budget plan that will allow for the passage of president Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package in coming weeks without Republican support.

Vice president Kamala Harris broke a 50-50 tie by casting a vote in favor of the Democratic measure, sending it to the House of Representatives for final approval.

Separate, more detailed legislation still would have to be crafted and passed to carry out Biden’s coronavirus-relief bill, which also could provide more time for negotiations with Republicans, report Reuters

If your question was “I wonder what Mike Pence did next?”, then today is a good day. This morning the former vice president has announced that he will be joining the Young America’s Foundation as the Ronald Reagan Presidential Scholar.

In a statement Governor Scott Walker, president of Young America’s Foundation, said “Vice president Pence has been a stalwart defender of individual freedom, traditional values, free markets, and limited government throughout his career of distinguished service to our country. Now, by partnering with YAF, the vice [resident will continue to attract new hearts and minds to the conservative cause, passing along the ideas of freedom—just as [resident Reagan did before, during, and after his time in office. Vice president Pence’s energy and enthusiasm for Reagan’s values has and will continue to inspire a new generation of young people.”

As part of the new role, Pence is also due to be hosting a podcast for the YAF.

Yesterday, conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation announced that Pence would be joining as a distinguished visiting fellow, and would write a regular column for the think tank’s news outlet, the Daily Signal.

Updated

Senate votes against $15 federal minimum wage

One of the signature elements of Joe Biden’s Covid relief plans – the $15 an hour federal minimum wage – suffered a setback in the Senate overnight, as the New York Times notes:

By a voice vote, senators backed an amendment from Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, to “prohibit the increase of the federal minimum wage during a global pandemic.” It was a signal that the wage hike would be difficult to pass in an evenly split Senate, where at least one Democrat, Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, was on record opposing it.

“A $15 federal minimum wage would be devastating for our hardest-hit small businesses at a time they can least afford it,” Ernst said on the Senate floor. “We should not have a one-size-fits-all policy set by Washington politicians.”

The Senate’s leading proponent of the $15 minimum wage, Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, seemed unfazed. He said that his plan was to carry out the wage increase over five years and that he had never wanted to raise it during the pandemic.

“We need to end the crisis of starvation wages in Iowa and around the United States,” Mr. Sanders said, taking a swipe at Ms. Ernst’s home state. He added that he planned to try to get the phased-in wage increase included in a budget reconciliation bill that would allow Biden’s stimulus plan to circumvent the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster rule.

And it has been a long night voting in the Senate…

10 Republican senators send letter to Biden over efforts on bipartisan Covid relief package

President Biden is going to address efforts to get a coronavirus economic relief package passed today. Phil Mattingly at CNN reports on the progress – or lack of it – in trying to get a bipartisan approach agreed with the 10 Republican senators who met with Biden earlier this week. He writes:

While both sides praised the nearly two-hour meeting in the Oval Office this week, the deep divergence between Biden’s $1.9 trillion the $618 billion Republican proposal persists. Still the Republican group is using a detailed letter sent to the White House to push for talks to continue.

“We remain committed to working in a bipartisan fashion and hope that you will take into account our views as the legislative process moves forward,” the group, led by Maine Sen. Susan Collins, said in the letter sent Thursday to Biden, and obtained by CNN.

The letter underscores just how far apart the White House and the Senate GOP group remain on the policy and marks the first time Republicans have contacted the White House since the meeting. The White House, at Biden’s request, sent memos to the group on Tuesday. Those memos, obtained by CNN, detail a defense of Biden’s proposal on areas like school funding and direct payments

But where the White House laid out details about the importance and need for the scale and longer-term investments in their proposal, the Republican response goes into detail about the amount of funds from past relief bill that remain unspent and pressed for more detail on the justification on several specific elements of the overall plan.

Read more here: CNN – 10 Republican senators respond to White House but underscore deep divide on Covid-19 relief package

If you fancy something to listen to, might I point you in the direction of our Today in Focus podcast for Friday?

The US Senate will be transformed into a courtroom next week when Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial begins. After hearing evidence against the former president, the Senate’s 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats will have to decide whether Trump was guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors” when he incited supporters to storm the Capitol building and disrupt the election certification process.

Lawrence Douglas, an Amherst College professor and Guardian opinion contributor, explains what kind of defence Trump is planning to mount, and whether any Senate Republicans are likely to vote to convict him. And the former Democratic senator Russ Feingold, who served during Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial in the 90s, tells Anushka Asthana how the process has become more partisan than ever.

Welcome to our live coverage of US politics for Friday. Here’s a catch-up on what happened overnight, and what we can expect from today, when new president Joe Biden is expected to focus on the economy and his coronavirus stimulus plans.

  • The monthly jobs report will be released at 8.30am EST (1:30pm GMT). The president is expected to deliver remarks on the economy and the need for coronavirus relief, linked to those numbers, at 11.45am EST (4:45pm GMT).
  • Biden will earlier meet with House Democratic leaders and committee chairs to discuss coronavirus relief efforts.
  • The US has recorded more than 40,000 deaths from Covid in the past two weeks, with concerns growing that parties linked to the Super Bowl may lead to another spike in infections.
  • The White House coronavirus response team will hold a briefing at 11am EST (4pm GMT).
  • Yesterday Joe Biden outlined his foreign policy vision in a speech at the state department. “America is back,” the president told state department staffers. “Diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy.”
  • In a reversal of the foreign policy of both Donald Trump and Barack Obama and a rebuke to crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, Biden announced an end to US support for Saudi-led offensive in Yemen.
  • The House voted 230-199 in favor of removing rightwing extremist Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments. Eleven Republicans voted with Democrats. Greene had been assigned to serve on the House budget committee and the House education and labor committee. She won’t. We are expecting a press conference from her, also at 11am.
  • Trump’s legal team signaled he would not testify in the Senate impeachment trial despite the House impeachment managers requesting the former president’s testimony in next week’s trial. Trump’s legal team dismissed the request as a “public relations stunt”.
  • US immigration and customs enforcement canceled a deportation flight to west Africa because of allegations of brutality by agents in the treatment of the deportees.
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