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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Maanvi Singh , Joan E Greve and Martin Belam

House votes to strip Republican extremist Marjorie Taylor Greene of committee assignments – as it happened

Marjorie Taylor Greene arrives at her office on Thursday.
Marjorie Taylor Greene arrives at her office on Thursday. Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

Summary

Here’s a recap of the day, from me and Joan E Greve:

  • The House voted 230-199 in favor of removing Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments. Eleven Republicans voted with Democrats. Greene was assigned to serve on the House budget committee and the House education and labor committee.
  • 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.”
  • Biden is freezing US troop redeployments from Germany that were approved by Donald Trump, the president announced in his state department speech. Biden also announced an end to American support for Saudi-led offensive operations in Yemen, and he pledged to sign an executive order raising US refugee admissions to 125,000 per year, after Trump lowered the refugee cap to historic lows.
  • Trump’s legal team signaled he would not testify in the Senate impeachment trial. Earlier today, the House impeachment managers requested the former president’s testimony in next week’s trial, but Trump’s legal team dismissed the request as a “public relations stunt”.
  • The Senate is currently holding a “vote-a-rama” on Democrats’ budget resolution this evening. The House approved the resolution yesterday, paving the way for Democrats to pass Biden’s coronavirus relief package without Republican support.
  • Johnson & Johnson said it has filed for emergency approval of its one-shot Covid-19 vaccine. The vaccine was found to be 66% effective against moderate to severe infection in a global trial.

Updated

Exclusive: indigenous Americans dying from Covid at twice the rate of white Americans

Covid is killing Native Americans at a faster rate than any other community in the United States, shocking new figures reveal.

American Indians and Alaskan Natives are dying at almost twice the rate of white Americans, according to analysis by APM Research Lab shared exclusively with the Guardian.

Nationwide one in every 475 Native Americans has died from Covid since the start of the pandemic, compared with one in every 825 white Americans and one in every 645 Black Americans. Native Americans have suffered 211 deaths per 100,000 people, compared with 121 white Americans per 100,000.

The true death toll is undoubtedly significantly higher as multiple states and cities provide patchy or no data on Native Americans lost to Covid. Of those that do, communities in Mississippi, New Mexico, Arizona, Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas have been the hardest hit.

The findings are part of the Lab’s Color of Coronavirus project, and provide the clearest evidence to date that Indian Country has suffered terribly and disproportionately during the first year of the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

The losses are mounting, and the grief is accumulating.

Read more:

Here’s a list of Republicans who voted to strip Greene of committee assignments:

Adam Kinzinger (IL)

Brian Fitzpatrick (PA)

Nicole Malliotakis (NY)

John Katko (NY)

Fred Upton (MI)

Carlos Gimenez (FL)

Chris Jacobs (NY)

Young Kim (CA)

Maria Salazar (FL)

Chris Smith (NJ)

Mario Diaz Balart (FL)

The group includes three representatives of Florida, who may not have appreciated the extremist congresswoman’s lies about the Parkland, Florida school shooting.

In all, 199 Republicans voted to keep the congresswoman who has espoused racist, anti-Muslim, and antisemitic views and threatened her co-workers on committees that make key policy on budgets and education.

Updated

‘Please send more vaccines’: Covid crisis engulfs California’s farming heartland

California officials have signaled optimism that the latest, most deadly wave of the pandemic is starting to abate as the most populous US state doles out vaccinations. But healthcare workers in Fresno county said their emergency rooms and intensive care departments are still inundated with patients.

“Sure, if your hospital goes from 200% capacity to 150%, of course they’ll say it’s looking better,” said Amy Arlund, an ICU nurse at the Kaiser Fresno hospital. “But in my entire 20-year career, I’ve not seen this many people, this sick.”

Situated in the heart of California’s Central Valley, Fresno county has been overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic. Hospitals in the region are still running short of ICU beds, medical staff and equipment. And the county is running critically short on vaccines – quashing hopes for a quick respite. Most affected are the tens of thousands of agricultural workers in the region, who have been toiling through the pandemic to supply what amounts to a quarter of the US food supply.

About one in every 11 people in Fresno have tested positive for the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, and even as hospital admissions begin to slow, the county of about 999,000 people is recording about 450 new cases per day.

“I work like 60 to 80 hours a week because there’s so much to do, and there’s not enough physicians,” said Kenny Banh, the emergency medical director at Community Regional medical center in Fresno.

The pandemic has thinned the region’s ranks of medical workers. Two weeks back, Community Regional was short about 400 physicians, nurses and other staff. “There were patients in the hallways because there weren’t enough nurses to keep all of our floors open,” Banh said. Intubated patients in the overflowing ICU were at times being tended to by nurses who had no experience with the procedure.

“It’s starting to get better now – where a lot of our staff have either gotten Covid-19 and recovered, or they’ve had the vaccine,” he said. But still, there aren’t enough trained health workers to staff the hospitals – which remain at or over-capacity – and the coronavirus testing and vaccination centers.

Read more:

Joe Biden has withdrawn Judy Shelton, a former Trump adviser and critic of the Federal Reserve, from nomination to the central bank’s board.

The president has also withdrawn the nomination of more than 30 other Trump nominees for judgeships, ambassadorships and other posts.

Shelton’s nomination was controversial – with even Republicans concerned that her partisanship would threaten the Fed’s independence. She has endorsed the gold standard and waffled on her views on interest rates. She failed to get enough support from the previous, Republican-controlled Senate.

Updated

Republican extremist congresswoman stripped of committee assignments

The House voted 230-199 in favor of removing Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments. Eleven Republicans voted with Democrats.

Greene was assigned to serve on the House budget committee and the House education and labor committee.

Greene had delivered a speech before her fellow lawmakers in which she denied her previous, baseless claims that the September 11 attack and Parkland massacre were staged. She insisted that she did not talk about QAnon during her campaign, despite evidence that she did. And she did not apologize for her many, many racist, anti-Muslim and antisemitic comments, or her threats of violence against Democrats in Congress, including speaker Nancy Pelosi.

During the debate, majority leader Steny Hoyer exhibited a Facebook post in which Greene is holding a gun next the faces of progressive congresswomen of color. “Imagine your faces on this poster. Imagine it’s a Democrat with an AR-15. Imagine what your response would be,” Hoyer said to his Republican colleagues.

Updated

Johnson & Johnson asks US regulators to approve its Covid-19 vaccine

Johnson & Johnson said it has filed for emergency approval of its one-shot Covid-19 vaccine.

The vaccine was found to be 66% effective against moderate to severe infection in a global trial. Whereas the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are administered as two doses, and the Pfizer vaccine must be stored in ultra-cold storage, the J&J vaccine can be given in a single dose and stored in regular refrigerators – meaning it will be easier to distribute, especially in rural areas.

“Upon authorization of our investigational COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, we are ready to begin shipping,” said Paul Stoffels, J&J’s chief scientific officer, in a statement. “We are working with great urgency to make our investigational vaccine available to the public as quickly as possible.”

During a recent briefing, top health official Dr Anthony Fauci said the Johnson & Johnson vaccine trial results mean “we have now a value-added additional vaccine candidate”.

Updated

The House is now voting on whether to strip Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments ...

Here’s some background on the issue:

Updated

Staff outraged at New York Times response to reporter's racist language

More than 150 New York Times staffers sent a letter on Wednesday to its executive leadership criticizing the paper’s response to complaints from parents that the journalist Donald McNeil Jr had used racist language while on a company-sponsored student trip, and for the handling of the scandal once those complaints were first reported.

“Our community is outraged and in pain,” staffers wrote, adding that despite the paper’s “seeming commitment to diversity and inclusion, [they’ve] given a prominent platform – a critical beat covering a pandemic disproportionately affecting people of color – to someone who chose to use language that is offensive and unacceptable by any newsroom’s standards”.

The letter called on the Times to investigate “any newly surfaced complaints”, noting that in the days since the allegations were first reported, current and former colleagues have spoken up about “bias against people of color in his work and in interactions with colleagues over a period of years”.

“We, his colleagues, feel disrespected by his actions,” staffers wrote, adding they were “deeply disturbed” by how the paper addressed allegations. “The company has a responsibility to take that experience seriously.”

Last week, the New York Times confirmed it had investigated and “disciplined” its high-profile public health and Covid-19 reporter after he used racial slurs during a trip with high school students in 2019, including using the N-word during a Times-endorsed educational trip to Peru.

The reporter also suggested he did not believe in white privilege and used stereotypes about Black teenagers, according to complaints filed to the paper, which were first reported by the Daily Beast.

The executive editor, Dean Baquet, however, insisted the investigation concluded that while the reporter allegedly used “offensive” language, and “showed extremely poor judgment”, McNeil’s “intentions were[n’t] hateful or malicious”.

The signatories were not satisfied, calling such a conclusion “irrelevant”.

Read more:

Exclusive: Ice cancels deportation flight to Africa after claims of brutality

US immigration and customs enforcement (Ice) canceled a deportation flight to west Africa because of allegations of brutality by Ice agents in the treatment of the deportees, the agency has said in a statement.

The statement emailed to the Guardian and the cancellation of the deportation flight, so that would-be deportees can be interviewed as witnesses, marks a dramatic change in tone by the agency, which has hitherto deflected and denied earlier allegations of human rights abuses.

The change suggests that the newly confirmed secretary for homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas, may have begun to exert control over what some critics have described as a “rogue agency”.

A plane carrying Cameroonian, Angolan and Congolese asylum seekers was due to take off from Alexandria, Louisiana, at 3pm on Wednesday but was canceled with minutes to spare.

“Ice has the utmost confidence in the professionalism of our workforce and their adherence to agency policy,” the statement said. “However, Ice has decided to cancel the [3 February] flight to allow any potential victims or witnesses an opportunity to be interviewed, and will conduct an agency review of recent use-of-force reports related to individuals on this flight, and issue any additional guidance or training as deemed necessary.”

“Ice is firmly committed to the safety and welfare of all those in its custody,” the spokesperson said, claiming that the agency “provides safe, humane, and appropriate conditions of confinement for individuals detained in its custody”.

In an affidavit presented on Monday, one of the Cameroonians due to be on Wednesday’s flight, identified by the initials HT, described being brought into a room with darkened windows on 14 January at the Winn correctional center, where he was forced by Ice agents to put his fingerprint on a document in lieu of a signature, waiving his rights to further legal process before deportation.

“I tried to stand up because of the force that they were using on me, and they tripped me,” HT said. “I fell on the floor; I kept my hands under my body. I held my hands tight at waist level so they could not have them. Five of the Ice officers and one of the officers in green … joined them. They pressed me down and said that I needed to give them my finger for the fingerprint.

“As one was pressing on my neck with their hands, the other came in front of me, pulling my head from above, straightening my neck so they could easily suppress me,” HT said in his statement. “One climbed on to my back. I had a lot of trouble breathing. This happened for more than two minutes. I was gasping for air. I told them: ‘Please, I can’t breathe.’ I asked them to release me. They said that they didn’t care; what they need is my fingerprint.”

Read more:

Today so far

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

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • The House is debating a resolution to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments over her extremist views. Greene delivered a floor speech this afternoon, in which she walked back her completely baseless claims that the September 11 attacks and school shootings were staged, but Greene not apologize for her past racist and anti-Semitic comments.
  • 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.”
  • Biden is freezing US troop redeployments from Germany that were approved by Donald Trump, the president announced in his state department speech. Biden also announced an end to American support for Saudi-led offensive operations in Yemen, and he pledged to sign an executive order raising US refugee admissions to 125,000 per year, after Trump lowered the refugee cap to historic lows.
  • Trump’s legal team signaled he would not testify in the Senate impeachment trial. Earlier today, the House impeachment managers requested the former president’s testimony in next week’s trial, but Trump’s legal team dismissed the request as a “public relations stunt”.
  • The Senate is currently holding a “vote-a-rama” on Democrats’ budget resolution this evening. The House approved the resolution yesterday, paving the way for Democrats to pass Biden’s coronavirus relief package without Republican support.

Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

House minority leader Kevin McCarthy denounced the resolution to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments over her extremist views.

McCarthy argued the resolution, if approved, would set a dangerous precedent that would only intensify partisan divisions in the House.

The Republican leader condemned Greene’s past racist and anti-Semitic comments, but McCarthy has refused to remove the congresswoman from her committee assignments.

McCarthy accused Democrats of being “blinded by partisanship and politics”.

The House floor debate over whether Marjorie Taylor Greene should be removed from her committee assignments over her past racist, anti-Semitic and extremist comments is underway.

Ted Deutch, the Democratic chairman of the House ethics committee, denounced Greene for supporting conspiracy theories suggesting that school shootings, like the Parkland shooting that took place in Deutch, were staged.

“The 17 people who never came home from school on Feb. 14, 2018 were my constituents. Their families’ pain is real. And it is felt every single day,” Deutch said.

Greene said in a speech today that school shootings were real, but she did not apologize for her past comments.

The House voted along partly lines, 205-218, to reject Republican congressman Chip Roy’s motion to adjourn for the day.

The House is now debating the resolution to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments over her racist, anti-Semitic and extremist rhetoric.

The Guardian’s Kari Paul reports:

Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook CEO, announced last week the platform will no longer algorithmically recommend political groups to users in an attempt to “turn down the temperature” on online divisiveness.

But experts say such policies are difficult to enforce, much less quantify, and the toxic legacy of the Groups feature and the algorithmic incentives promoting it will be difficult to erase.

“This is like putting a Band-Aid on a gaping wound,” said Jessica J González, the co-founder of the anti-hate speech group Change the Terms. “It doesn’t do enough to combat the long history of abuse that’s been allowed to fester on Facebook.”

Read Kari’s full report:

Trump's legal team signals he will not testify in impeachment trial

Donald Trump’s legal team has signaled that he will not testify in the Senate impeachment trial, despite the impeachment managers’ request for him to do so.

One of Trump’s senior advisers, Jason Miller, shared a letter to lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin describing the congressman’s request for the former president to testify as a “public relations stunt”.

The letter to Raskin is signed by two of Trump’s lawyers, Bruce Castor and David Schoen.

“Your letter only confirms what is known to everyone: you cannot prove your allegations against the 45th President of the United States, who is now a private citizen,” Castor and Schoen wrote.

Castor also told NBC News that the former president did not intend to testify in the impeachment trial.

The House has adopted the rule for the resolution to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments, clearing another procedural hurdle.

But Republican congressman Chip Roy has now introduced a motion to adjourn the chamber, which is expected to be defeated by the Democratic majority.

Roy’s motion will delay the final vote on Greene, who has been widely denounced for her racist and anti-Semitic views, until about 5:30 pm ET.

Joe Biden also used his state department speech to emphasize the importance of an independent press in a healthy democracy.

“We believe a free press isn’t an adversary, rather it’s essential,” the president said. “The free press is essential to the health of a democracy.”

The comments represented a stark contrast to Donald Trump, who repeatedly attacked the press as “fake news” and “the enemy of the people” for revealing unflattering facts about him and his administration.

Biden’s speech at the state department has now concluded.

Over his four years in office, Donald Trump brought down the cap on annual US refugee admissions to historic lows.

Joe Biden said in his state department speech today that he would sign an executive order to raise annual refugee admissions back up to 125,000.

But the new president acknowledged it would take time to “rebuild what has been so badly damaged” after four years of Trump’s leadership.

Biden to sign executive order raising US refugee admissions to 125,000

Joe Biden said he will sign an executive order to raise annual US refugee admissions to 125,000, after the Trump administration repeatedly slashed the refugee cap.

The president pledged that his administration would “begin the hard work of restoring our refugee admissions program to help meet the unprecedented global need”.

But Biden acknowledged it would take time to increase the US refugee capacity, after the Trump administration targeted some of the infrastructure that supports refugee admissions.

“It’s going to take time to rebuild what has been so badly damaged,” Biden said.

Biden says defense secretary will launch global posture review

Joe Biden said his newly confirmed secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, will lead a global posture review to assess US military operations.

In the meantime, any US troop redeployments from Germany that were approved by Donald Trump will be frozen, Biden said.

The president’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, announced the global posture review at the White House earlier today.

Biden also confirmed Sullivan’s announcement that the US is ending support for offensive operations and relevant arms sales in Yemen.

“We’re going to continue to help and support Saudi Arabia defend its sovereignty,” the US president added.

Joe Biden criticized the Vladimir Putin’s government, after a Russian court ruled that opposition leader Alexei Navalny should be jailed for two years and eight months.

Biden said Navalny “should be released immediately and without condition,” as protests rage over the opposition leader’s detainment.

“We will not hesitate to raise the cost on Russia and defend our vital interests and our people,” Biden said at the state department.

Biden at state department: 'Diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy'

Joe Biden is delivering a speech at the state department, outlining his vision for America’s foreign policy agenda.

“America is back,” Biden said, echoing his comments to state department staffers earlier this afternoon. “Diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy.”

The president also reiterated the need for America to strengthen its global alliances, after four years of Donald Trump belittling those relationships.

“We will repair our alliances and engage with the world once again -- not to meet yesterday’s challenges but today’s and tomorrow’s,” Biden said. “We can’t do it alone.”

Senate vote-a-rama on budget resolution begins

The Senate’s “vote-a-rama” on the Democratic budget resolution is now underway, and it will likely continue for hours.

Republicans have prepared hundreds of amendments to the budget resolution, meaning the vote-a-rama could stretch well into the night.

With the Democrats in the majority, most of the Republican proposals will likely fail, but the amendments will force Democratic senators to take some painful votes on issues like abortion and immigration.

Once the budget resolution is approved, it paves the way for congressional Democrats to pass Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief package using reconciliation, meaning they will not need any Republican support to get the legislation to the president’s desk.

Updated

The House has voted to move forward with the resolution to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments over her racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric.

The House voted 218-209, exactly along party lines, to approve the procedural motion in connection to the resolution. A second procedural vote is now underway.

Updated

Congressman Don Beyer, a Democrat of Virginia, said Marjorie Taylor Greene’s floor speech was “filled with whataboutism that concluded with comparing American journalists to violent QAnon conspiracy theories”.

“She continued claiming to be a victim. She took no responsibility for advocating violence. She did not apologize,” Beyer said.

The House’s procedural vote on removing Greene from her committee assignments over her racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric is still underway.

As of now, the vote has fallen exactly along party lines.

A procedural vote on the motion to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments is now underway in the House.

Earlier this afternoon, Greene delivered a floor speech to defend herself amid widespread condemnation over her racist and extremist rhetoric.

In the speech, Greene claimed that she has not promoted the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory QAnon since she was elected to Congress.

But as a Daily Beast reported noted, that is not true. In December, Greene sent a now-deleted tweet promoting QAnon.

Biden sends message to global leaders: 'America is back'

Joe Biden is speaking at the state department, thanking its staffers for their service to the country at home and abroad.

The president praised the state department employees as “an incredible group of individuals,” after four years of decreasing morale among diplomats due to Donald Trump’s attacks on them.

Biden said he would later go up to the eighth floor of the state department to deliver a message to world leaders about the direction of his foreign policy agenda.

“America is back,” Biden said. “Diplomacy is back.”

Democrats criticize Greene's remarks ahead of vote on committee assignments

Moments ago, Marjorie Taylor Greene took to the House floor ahead of the vote on whether to remove her from her committee assignments over her racist, anti-Semitic and extremist beliefs.

The Republican congresswoman addressed some of her most ridiculed comments. She acknowledged the September 11 attacks were not “fake,” after she raised doubts about the strike on the Pentagon.

Greene also said school shootings were “real,” after she signaled support for conspiracy theories claiming that the attacks were staged.

But Greene did not apologize or address her support for executing Democratic leaders, including House speaker Nancy Pelosi. The congresswoman also equated journalists with the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory QAnon, which she has previously voiced support for.

“Will we allow the media, that is just as guilty as QAnon, of presenting truth and lies to divide us?” Greene said.

House Democrats quickly denounced Greene’s remarks as utterly insufficient to change their minds about removing her from her committee assignments.

Jim McGovern, the Democratic chairman of the House rules committee said, “I did not hear an apology or denouncement for the claim, the insinuation that political opponents should be violently dealt with. I didn’t hear anybody apologize or retract the anti-Semitic or Islamophobic remarks that have been made.”

Voting tech company sues Fox, hosts, Giuliani,

A voting technology company is suing Fox News, three of its top hosts and two former lawyers for former US president Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, for $2.7 billion.

The lawsuit charges that the defendants conspired to spread false claims that the company helped “steal” the US presidential election. This despite officials declaring November’s presidential election, won by Joe Biden, the most secure in US history.

The 285-page complaint filed today in New York state court by Florida-based Smartmatic USA is one of the largest libel suits ever undertaken.

The Associated Press reports that:

On January 25, a rival election-technology company, Dominion Voting Systems, which was also ensnared in Trump’s baseless effort to overturn the election, sued Guiliani and Powell for $1.3 billion.

Unlike Dominion, whose technology was used in 24 states, Smartmatic’s participation in the 2020 election was restricted to Los Angeles County, which votes heavily Democratic.

Smartmatic’s limited role notwithstanding, Fox aired at least 13 reports falsely stating or implying the company had stolen the 2020 vote in cahoots with Venezuela’s socialist government, according to the complaint.

This alleged “disinformation campaign” continued even after then-Attorney General William Barr said the Department of Justice could find no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

For instance, a Dec. 10 segment by Lou Dobbs accused Smartmatic and its CEO, Antonio Mugica, of working to flip votes through a non-existent backdoor in its voting software to carry out a “massive cyber Pearl Harbor,” the complaint alleged.
“Defendants’ story was a lie,” the complaint stated. “But, it was a story that sold.”

The complaint also alleges that Fox hosts Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro also directly benefitted from their involvement in the conspiracy. The lawsuit alleges that Fox went along with the “well-orchestrated dance” due to pressure from newcomer outlets such as Newsmax and One America News, which were stealing away conservative, pro-Trump viewers.

Fox, Giuliani and Powell did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

For Smartmatic, the effects of the negative publicity were swift and devastating, the complaint alleges. Death threats, including against an executive’s 14-year-old son, poured in as Internet searches for the company surged, Smartmatic claims.

No evidence has emerged that the company rigged votes in favor of the anti-American firebrand, and for a while the Carter Center and other observers held out Venezuela as a model of electronic voting. Meanwhile, the company has expanded globally.

It seems unlikely that Donald Trump’s legal team will advise him that it would be a good idea to testify at his impeachment trial, essentially because the former president is so prone to lying, first, and the fact that he tends to make any issue entirely about himself, second.

Representatives Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Diana DeGette (D-CO), David Cicilline (D-RI), Joaquin Castro (D-TX), Eric Swalwell (D-CA), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Stacey Plaskett (D-US Virgin Islands AT-Large), Joe Neguse (D-CO) and Madeleine Dean (D-PA) on January 25 delivered an article of impeachment against former president Donald Trump to the Senate for trial on accusations of inciting the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
Representatives Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Diana DeGette (D-CO), David Cicilline (D-RI), Joaquin Castro (D-TX), Eric Swalwell (D-CA), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Stacey Plaskett (D-US Virgin Islands AT-Large), Joe Neguse (D-CO) and Madeleine Dean (D-PA) on January 25 delivered an article of impeachment against former president Donald Trump to the Senate for trial on accusations of inciting the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Photograph: Reuters

But Maryland representative and lead impeachment manager, aka prosecutor, Jamie Raskin has made an aggressive move here by writing to Trump. The former president has not been subpoenaed, merely asked to testify at his trial next week.

Raskin wrote: “Two days ago you filed an answer in which you denied many factual allegations set forth in the article of impeachment [which accused Trump of incitement of insurrection after exhorting supporters at a rally near the White House on January 6 to march on the US Capitol and overturn his defeat in the election, as both chambers of Congress were getting ready to certify Joe Biden’s victory].”

Raskin’s letter continues: “You have thus attempted to put critical facts at issue notwithstanding the clear and overwhelming evidence of your constitutional offense.” The letter then goes on to invite Trump to testify and states that to do so would be perfectly constitutional.

He then goes on: “If you decline this invitation” the refusal may be used at trial “to support a strong adverse inference regarding your actions.”

Democrats ask Trump to testify at impeachment trial

Former US president Donald Trump has been asked to appear in the US Senate next week and testify at his impeachment trial, where he faces the charge from House Democrats that he incited the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6.

Lead House impeachment manager Jamie Raskin has written to Trump asking him to testify under oath before or during his impeachment trial.

“You denied many factual allegations set forth in the article of impeachment. You have thus attempted to put critical facts at issue,” Raskin writes.

He goes on to say that if Trump refuses to do so, an adverse inference will be made from his reluctance.

Chicago’s mayor Lori Lightfoot has demanded that the city’s teachers’ union - whose members are close to striking over safety fears - reach agreement on Covid-19 safety protocols by the end of the day and bring students back to the classroom.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot listens during a press conference where she demanded the Chicago Teachers Union reach a deal with Chicago Public Schools on a reopening plan, at City Hall earlier today.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot listens during a press conference where she demanded the Chicago Teachers Union reach a deal with Chicago Public Schools on a reopening plan, at City Hall earlier today. Photograph: Pat Nabong/AP

Speaking during a news conference, Lightfoot was visibly angry at the Chicago Teachers Union, saying that her office and the school district officials have not received a straight answer on the union’s demands.

Here’s a clip of an impassioned Lightfoot, brought to you by a publication not often cited hereabouts, the Washington Examiner.

“We are failing those children by not giving them the option to return to school,” Lightfoot said, talking of “failing grades, depression, isolation, and so much more... our children cannot afford to wait any longer.”

Chicago teachers are not yet receiving vaccinations in large numbers, as they are in some other places, such as New York.

The Associated Press further reports:

“We waited for hours and hours last night and still did not receive a proposal from the CTU leadership, and as of this morning we are still waiting,” she said.

“We need to get a deal done and get it done today. I expect to hear from them, no more delay.”

But the threat was only implied. Lightfoot declined to say what she would do if no deal was reached by day’s end.

Part of the reason, is perhaps, that students do not have class Friday. That means the union and the city could continue to negotiate through the weekend.

But Lightfoot made it clear she is not interested in any Sunday night negotiations, telling reporters that she has no plan to be standing in front of a podium talking about negotiations.

“If you’re going to be here, you’re going to be by yourself,” she said.

Lightfoot said one thing the city is not going to do is sue the school district, as was done this week in San Francisco for the simple reason that while the mayor of San Francisco doesn’t have any authority over the school district, in Chicago she does.

Lightfoot reiterated what she has been saying for days: It is safe for children and teachers to return to schools after Chicago Public Schools spent roughly $100 million on its safety plan, including purchasing air purifiers, deep cleaning schools and offering Covid-19 testing for teachers.

But the union, which last went on strike in 2019, says infections continue and the safest option is online learning. They also argue few students are interested in returning. Less than 20% of pre-K and special education students eligible to return to class last month, or about 3,200 of 17,000, attended.

McKinsey & Co has agreed to pay nearly $600 million for its role in consulting businesses on how to sell more prescription opioid painkillers amid a nationwide overdose crisis.

“We deeply regret that we did not adequately acknowledge the tragic consequences of the epidemic unfolding in our communities,“ McKinsey global managing partner Kevin Sneader said in a statement earlier today, adding “with this agreement, we hope to be part of the solution to the opioid crisis in the US.”

Most of the money is in a $573 million settlement reached with 47 states, the District of Columbia and five US territories, but the company said it had deals with a total of 49 states.

The Associated Press writes:

Washington’s attorney general announced a separate $13.5 million deal, and West Virginia has an opioid-related announcement scheduled for Thursday.

The only remaining state that has not announced a deal with the company is Nevada.

Most of the payments will come within the next two months under the multi-state agreement.

The payments are earmarked for abating the raging overdose and addiction crisis that has deepened during the coronavirus pandemic.

Opioids, which include prescription drugs such as OxyContin and its generic cousins based on the narcotic active ingredient oxycodone, and illegal substances such as heroin and illicit fentanyl, have been linked to more than 470,000 deaths in the US since 2000.

“Even though no amount of money can bring back the lives lost, I hope our settlement provides funding for programs to help those battling opioid addiction,“ Arizona attorney general Mark Brnovich said in a statement.

McKinsey’s role in the opioid crisis came into focus in recent months in legal documents that were made public as part of OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma’s efforts to settle claims against it through a bankruptcy court in New York.

They showed the company long worked with Purdue to boost sales even as the extent of the opioid epidemic became clear.

Some documents showed it was trying to “supercharge” flagging OxyContin sales in 2013.

While McKinsey emerged as a target of opioid investigations recently, there have been thousands of lawsuits filed by government entities against companies that make and distribute prescription drugs. Some of those could go to trial this year.

Other settlements have happened or are in the works, including with Purdue, which is attempting to settle with state and local governments after reaching a deal last year to plead guilty to federal criminal charges and settle a civil case.

Separately, certain members of the Sackler family who own the company, agreed to pay $225 million in a civil settlement, but admitted no wrongdoing.

Today so far

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • The House will soon vote on a resolution to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments, in response to the congresswoman’s racist and extremist views. Speaking at a press conference today, House speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized Republican leaders for failing to hold “extreme conspiracy theorists” accountable.
  • Joe Biden is freezing US troop redeployments from Germany that were approved by Donald Trump, the national security adviser said. The US president will speak at the state department this afternoon, and he is also expected to announce an end to American support for offensive operations in Yemen.
  • The Senate will hold a “vote-a-rama” on Democrats’ budget resolution this evening. The House approved the resolution yesterday, paving the way for Democrats to pass Biden’s coronavirus relief package without Republican support.

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

Jen Psaki once again deflected when asked about Marjorie Taylor Greene and the upcoming House vote to remove her from her committee assignments over her racist and extremist views.

“It’s not the role of the president or White House press secretary to do analysis on the fissures in the Republican party and the actions that may be taken in Congress as a result,” Psaki said.

The House will hold a vote on Greene’s committee assignments this afternoon. The chamber is now starting one hour of debate on the resolution.

The White House briefing has now concluded.

Jen Psaki offered a vague response when asked whether Joe Biden would invoke the Defense Production Act to accelerate the distribution of vaccines.

“All options are on the table,” the White House press secretary said.

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

Jen Psaki was asked about the news that Hunter Biden, the president’s son, will be publishing a memoir.

The White House press secretary read a statement from Joe and Jill Biden, who said they “admire our son Hunter’s strength and courage to talk openly about his addiction”.

The younger Biden, whose business activities became a target of Republican attacks during the presidential campaign, has previously discussed his struggles with substance abuse.

“This is a personal book about his own personal journey,” Psaki said of the memoir. “And I’ll leave it at that.”

Addressing Joe Biden’s speech at the state department this afternoon, Jen Psaki said the president was looking forward to reaffirming his “commitment to refugees”.

But the White House press secretary said Biden did not plan to immediately sign any executive orders related to the US handling of refugees.

Jen Psaki has taken control of the White House briefing, and the press secretary addressed calls from some Democrats, including Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, to cancel $50,000 in student loan debt.

Psaki said Joe Biden “has and continues to support cancelling $10,000 of student loan debt,” but she emphasized that Congress needs to pass a bill to make that happen.

Jake Sullivan announced that Joe Biden will announce a presidential memorandum on protecting the rights of LGBTQ individuals worldwide when the president speaks at the state department today.

The national security adviser also told reporters that the president is “reviewing the possibility of a new executive order” on Myanmar, after the country’s military coup this week.

Biden administration to freeze Trump-approved troop withdrawals

The national security adviser announced that the secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, will launch a “global force posture review”.

Amid the review, troop redeployments from Germany that were approved by the Trump administration will be frozen, Jake Sullivan said.

During his final days in office, Donald Trump moved aggressively to limit the presence of US troops overseas, after he campaigned against America’s “endless wars”.

Updated

Biden to announce end to US support for offensive operations in Yemen

Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, said that Joe Biden will announce an end to American support for offensive operations in Yemen later today, when he speaks at the state department.

Sullivan also noted that Biden’s state department speech will be “the first in a series of visits he makes to the national security workforce”.

Under the Trump administration, the state department suffered from decreased morale, as the then-president attacked diplomats as part of the “Deep State” out to get him.

White House previews Biden's state department speech

The national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, is in the White House briefing room to preview Joe Biden’s speech at the state department this afternoon.

Sullivan said the president’s speech would focus on how the new administration will bolster national security by fortifying US alliances.

“He wants to send a clear message that our national security strategy will lead with diplomacy,” Sullivan said.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked if she was worried about setting a dangerous precedent by removing Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments.

The Democratic speaker replied, “If any of our members threatened the safety of other members we’d be the first ones to take them off a committee.”

Greene, who has been widely condemned for her racist and extremist beliefs, has previously indicated support for executing Democratic politicians, including Pelosi.

After answering that question, Pelosi concluded her weekly briefing.

Pelosi: Congress 'must pass' coronavirus relief to 'save lives and save livelihoods'

House speaker Nancy Pelosi argued it was an urgent priority for Congress to pass Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief package.

“We want to save lives and save livelihoods,” the Democratic speaker said. “It’s going to cost some money to do so. But it is a good investment.”

Pelosi noted that even the Republican governor of West Virginia, Jim Justice, has called on Congress to go big with the next relief package.

“We must pass this bill to crush the virus,” Pelosi said.

Biden has called for spending $1.9 trillion in coronavirus relief, while Senate Republicans have proposed a much more modest $600 billion package.

The House passed a budget resolution yesterday, paving the way for Congress to approve Biden’s relief package using reconciliation, meaning Democrats will not need any Republican support to enact the legislation.

Pelosi criticizes Republicans' $600bn Covid relief proposal

House speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized the $600bn relief proposal from Senate Republicans, arguing it was insufficient to address the pandemic.

“Are we going to feed fewer children? Are we going to inoculate fewer people?” the Democratic speaker said.

Joe Biden has proposed a $1.9tn relief package, and Democrats are moving forward with passing such a bill, with or without Republican support.

Updated

House speaker Nancy Pelosi defended Democrats’ ongoing impeachment efforts, even though Donald Trump has left office.

A reporter noted that some people have said there is no point in pursuing impeachment because Joe Biden has already taken office.

“‘Why bother?’ Ask our founders why bother,” the Democratic speaker said. “You cannot go forward until you have justice.”

When a reporter noted that it looks like the Senate will almost certainly acquit Trump, Pelosi interrupted, saying the outcome is still unknown.

“We’ll see if it’s going to be a Senate of courage or cowardice,” Pelosi said.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned the Republican caucus for failing to hold “extreme conspiracy theorists” accountable.

“It’s just so unfortunate” that today’s vote on Marjorie Taylor Greene is happening, Pelosi said.

The Democratic speaker said she wished that House Republican leaders felt “some sense of responsibility to this institution”.

Pelosi noted that House Republican leaders chose to remove former congressman Steve King from his committee assignments over his comments on white supremacy two years ago.

“For some reason, they have chosen not to go down that path,” Pelosi said.

Updated

House speaker Nancy Pelosi again recognized the sacrifice of Brian Sicknick, the Capitol Police officer who died of his injuries from the January 6 insurrection.

Pelosi described Sicknick as a “martyr for democracy”.

A memorial service was held for Sicknick at the Capitol yesterday. Pelosi and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer both spoke at the event.

Pelosi holds press conference ahead of vote on extremist Greene

House speaker Nancy Pelosi is now holding her weekly press conference, ahead of the vote to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments over her racist and extremist views.

The Democratic speaker opened the press conference by celebrating the House’s passage of a budget resolution, paving the way for Democrats to pass Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief package without any Republican support.

“We have to act now because it’s urgent, and Americans cannot afford any further delay,” Pelosi said.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi just addressed this afternoon’s vote to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments over her racist, antisemitic and extremist beliefs.

A Capitol Hill reporter asked the Democratic speaker whether she was sacred about Republicans potentially removing Democrats from committees when they take the majority at some point in the future.

“If anybody starts threatening the lives of members of Congress on the Democratic side, we’d be the first to eliminate them from committees,” Pelosi said. “They had the opportunity to do so.”

Before joining Congress, Greene repeatedly indicated support for executing Democratic politicians, including Pelosi.

House Democratic leadership pressed minority leader Kevin McCarthy to remove Greene from her committees, but he refused to do so, prompting today’s vote.

Updated

About 8% of the US population has now received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, the White House coronavirus response team noted in a tweet.

“The work we’re doing to increase supply, increase locations, and increase staff to get shots in arms are all in service of sustaining and boosting this number,” the response team said.

Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said yesterday that an average of 1.3 million Americans received a vaccine dose each day over the past week.

That means the Biden administration is on track to exceed the president’s goal of distributing 100 million vaccine doses in his first 100 days in office. But some health experts have suggested Joe Biden should set a more ambitious goal in order to get all Americans vaccinated as quickly as possible.

The Democrat in the White House may be different, but the attacks are very familiar. Joe Biden’s early blitz to confront the climate crisis has provoked a hostile Republican backlash eerily similar to the opposition that stymied Barack Obama 12 years ago. Once again, efforts to reduce planet-heating emissions are being assailed as radical, job killing and elitist.

Republican lawmakers in Congress have denounced Biden’s flurry of executive orders on climate and have even introduced legislation to bypass the president and approve the contentious Keystone XL oil pipeline. Republican-led states are also joining the fray with Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, who is vowing to use the courts to block Biden’s move to halt oil and gas drilling on public lands. “Texas is going to protect the oil and gas industry from any type of hostile attack launched from Washington DC,” Abbott said.

While some younger, more moderate Republicans want to reform the party’s position on climate, the criticism of Biden has wandered into bizarre territory, such as Texas senator Ted Cruz tweeting that the president has shown he is “more interested in the views of the citizens of Paris than in the jobs of the citizens of Pittsburgh” by rejoining an international agreement to cut emissions that happened to be signed in Paris. John Kennedy, another Republican senator, mocked Biden’s plan to boost take-up of electric cars by telling Fox News on Tuesday that “my car doesn’t run off fairy dust, it doesn’t run off unicorn urine”.

This range of opposition “is pretty much the standard Republican message to any sort of climate proposals”, said Robert Brulle, an academic at Brown University whose own research has found fossil fuel companies spent $2bn lobbying lawmakers over climate change between 2000 and 2016. “This argument certainly resonates in areas with a large presence of fossil fuel employment.”

Congressman Adam Kinzinger, a Republican of Illinois, said he plans to vote in favor of removing Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments this afternoon.

Kinzinger told CNN that it was “disappointing by a factor of 1,000” to see members of the Republican caucus give a standing ovation to Greene yesterday, after the congresswoman has been widely condemned for her racist, anti-Semitic and extremist beliefs.

“I don’t like to reveal a ton of conference details, but she stood up and kind of gave a bit of contriteness, but then it pivoted to ‘they’re coming after you next,’” Kinzinger said of yesterday’s Republican caucus meeting.

“Obviously I had a huge problem with all of that, but the ‘they,’ being the Democrats, I think if you’re not buying into Jewish space lasers and false flag operations and QAnon stuff, to think that they’re just going to come after you next, I think is way a bridge too far.”

Kinzinger added that he wished his own party had taken the step to remove Greene from her committee assignments.

“I wish this vote on the floor today to remove her committees was something that we didn’t have to do because it would have been done by our side,” Kinzinger said. “But to see her come out of this in a strong position was crazy.”

The US Capitol Police has just announced that the force has secured enough coronavirus vaccine doses to vaccinate all of its officers.

“Thanks to the efforts of the Congressional Leadership, especially House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Administration, enough doses of the COVID-19 vaccines have been secured to vaccinate all USCP personnel,” the USCP acting chief, Yogananda Pittman, said in a statement.

“I also want to acknowledge retired Lt. General Russel Honoré, who is leading the external review of Capitol Complex security at the Speaker’s request, for his assistance with this effort.”

Yogananda Pittman pays respects to Brian Sicknick at the Capitol yesterday.
Yogananda Pittman pays respects to Brian Sicknick at the Capitol yesterday. Photograph: Erin Schaff/AP

Pittman said she expected the vaccines to be delivered “shortly,” and they would then be delivered to USCP personnel “as quickly and safely as possible”.

“The Department is grateful for the continued support of the Congressional community, especially during these unprecedented times, and I am tremendously grateful for the dedication of our officers who have worked tirelessly and sacrificed to uphold our mission,” Pittman said.

A memorial service was held for Brian Sicknick, the Capitol Police officer who died of his injuries from the January 6 insurrection, at the Capitol yesterday. Two other Capitol Police officers have died by suicide since the insurrection as well.

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

Here’s what the blog is keeping an eye on today: Joe Biden will deliver a speech at the state department this afternoon to thank the staffers there and outline his foreign policy vision.

This afternoon, the House will also vote on removing Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments over her racist, anti-Semitic and extremist rhetoric, after minority leader Kevin McCarthy refused to remove her.

The blog will have updates on both of those events coming up, so stay tuned.

Janet Yellen warns of 'tough months ahead' for Covid-hit US economy

Treasury secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday warned of “tough months ahead” before the US economy gets to the other side if the coronavirus-related crisis.

She also said that she and financial market regulators needed to “understand deeply” what happened in the trading frenzy involving GameStop and other retail stocks in recent days before taking any action.

Yellen, who is convening a meeting of top market regulators on Thursday, told ABC’s Good Morning America: “We really need to make sure that our financial markets are functioning properly, efficiently and that investors are protected.”

She added: “We’re going to discuss … whether or not the recent events warrant further action.”

In her first television interview since being confirmed as Joe Biden’s treasury secretary, having previously served as chair of the federal reserve – the first time a woman has held either of those posts – Yellen also urged Congress to “act forcefully” on the coronavirus relief package now under discussion there.

Read more here: Janet Yellen warns of ‘tough months ahead’ for Covid-hit US economy

Hunter Biden to release memoir in April entitled 'Beautiful Things'

There’s a lovely understated line in Hillel Italie’s report about a new Hunter Biden book this morning – “Biden and his publisher likely will face criticism from Republicans for his memoir”. I suspect for ‘likely’ you could swap in ‘absolutely certainly’. He reports for Associated Press that Hunter Biden’s book will come out on 6 April.

The book is called “Beautiful Things” and will center on the younger Biden’s well publicized struggles with substance abuse, according to Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Acquired in the fall of 2019, “Beautiful Things” was kept under wraps even as Biden’s business dealings became a fixation of then-president Donald Trump and others during the election and his finances a matter of investigation by the Justice Department.

Last December, Hunter Biden confirmed that the Justice Department was looking into his tax affairs, and the Associated Press subsequently reported that he had received a subpoena asking about his interaction with numerous business entities. Though Trump made clear publicly that he wanted a special counsel to handle the investigation, then-Attorney General William Barr did not appoint one. Biden has denied any wrongdoing.

In a snippet released by Gallery, Biden writes in his book, “I come from a family forged by tragedies and bound by a remarkable, unbreakable love.”

During one of last fall’s presidential debates, Joe Biden defended his son from attacks by Trump. “My son, like a lot of people, like a lot of people you know at home, had a drug problem,” the Democratic candidate said. “He’s overtaken it. He’s fixed it. He’s worked on it, and I’m proud of him. I’m proud of my son.”

First-time unemployment claims fall again for third week

779,000 people filed for first-time unemployment benefits in the US last week. That is lower than economists anticipated, and marks the third week in a row that they have fallen. It’s the first full week of data recorded during the Biden administration.

Yesterday the Republican caucus opted to take no action against Marjorie Taylor Greene, so that hasn’t headed off a vote today to try and throw her off from her committee appointments. Fox News’ Chad Pergram expects a preliminary debate at midday (that’s 5pm if, like me, you are in London).

Here’s the text of H. Res. 72 which calls for “Removing a certain Member from certain standing committees of the House of Representatives”.

Updated

One of the reasons behind president Joe Biden picking the state department as a very early stop-off during his presidency is to reassure a department that had a torrid time during the Trump era. As CNN remind us in a preview piece this morning:

The content and the symbolism of his appearance is meant to convey unmistakable signals: that this administration values diplomacy and its diplomats, it will center its foreign policy around cooperation with allies, and it will work to restore its reputation as a country that leads by example.

State department expertise was oftentimes shirked and viewed with suspicion by a President who once called the agency “the Deep State Department.”

Donald Trump visited the department just once in his four years in office for a ceremonial event. He repeatedly and publicly disparaged one of its most well-respected diplomats, Marie Yovanovitch, during the course of his first impeachment. His secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, failed to publicly or robustly defend her, deepening the decline in morale at Foggy Bottom.

CNN state that the incoming secretary of state wishes to change all that:

Antony Blinken pledged to have the backs of his workforce on his first full day as secretary of state, a commitment that US diplomats said was necessary after years of being denigrated. However, they have also said that actions will speak louder than words and it will take time to see exactly how the Biden administration lives up to its promises and elevates the diplomatic corps.

Read more here: CNN – Biden to signal commitment to US diplomats and allies with state department visit

Senator Amy Klobuchar, who is expected to be the next chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel, will introduce today a bill to strengthen antitrust enforcers’ ability to stop mergers, reports Diane Bartz for Reuters.

The bill would reduce the standard for stopping mergers, from saying that the government had to prove that a deal would “substantially lessen competition” to showing that it would “create an appreciable risk of materially lessening competition.”

It comes after a year in which federal and state governments filed big antitrust lawsuits against Alphabet’s Google and Facebook and sued to block big mergers, like Visa’s plan to buy fintech company Plaid.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar speaking during the inauguration of Joe Biden.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar speaking during the inauguration of Joe Biden. Photograph: Brendan McDermid/Reuters

One provision in the bill would give significantly more funds to the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, which divide up the work of enforcement.

The bill would increase authorizations to each agency by $300 million, bringing the FTC to $651 million and the Justice’s division to $484.5 million.

“What do I think we can immediately do, that matters the most, is increasing the resources. They can’t take a trillion dollar company on with Band-Aids and duct tape,” Klobuchar said, referring to the lawsuits against Google and Facebook.

But Klobuchar is not worried just about big tech, but also about communications, agriculture and drug prices, she said. The bill is “broader because we have a monopoly problem in our country,” she said.

The bill identifies several types of mergers - like deals valued at more than $5 billion or when a company buys a disruptive rival - where the burden of proof would shift so that the merging companies would have to show that the merger was legal under antitrust law.

Biden administration considering sending masks to all Americans – reports

You might be getting a mask through the post from the Biden administration – that’s the upshot of this story this morning from NBC News:

The Biden White House is considering sending masks directly to American households, according to three people familiar with the discussions, an action the Trump administration explored but scrapped.

The Covid-19 Response Team is evaluating the logistics of mailing out millions of face coverings, but no decision has been made, and the proposal hasn’t yet reached President Joe Biden for final approval, a White House official said.

The idea has been raised in several meetings among Biden’s top health experts in recent days, particularly as Biden continues to urge Americans to use masks as a primary defense against the spread of the coronavirus.

Biden has asked all Americans to wear masks for the first 100 days of his term, and he has signed several executive actions that mandate wearing face coverings on federal property and aboard public transit, moves President Donald Trump never enacted.

Experts have previously expressed some scepticism about such a policy. Earlier this week Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said “There is a group of 25 or 30% or more who see wearing a mask as shameful and they won’t. These are the same people who, if you mailed two N95s to their homes, they are not going to use them.”

Read more here: NBC – Biden administration weighs plan to directly send masks to all Americans

Michigan Rep. Peter Meijer, one of just 10 Republicans who voted to impeach then-president Donald Trump over the deadly attack on the Capitol, defended his decision while taking pointed criticism from voters last night.

“What we witnessed at the Capitol the attempted insurrection, the involvement of a sitting American president propagating the falsehoods that led up to that required a significant response,” he said during his first town hall, a virtual event that 400-plus people watched on Zoom or Facebook, reports David Eggert for the Associated Press. The lawmaker spoke from his office in Washington, DC.

Two constituents who asked questions said they were deeply disappointed with Meijer, a 33-year-old Iraq War veteran who represents the 3rd District in western Michigan.

Michigan’s 3rd District Congressional Republican Rep. Peter Meijer.
Michigan’s 3rd District Congressional Republican Rep. Peter Meijer. Photograph: Carlos Osorio/AP

“Why aren’t you doing what your constituents wanted you to do?” said Cindy Witke. “I went against people who said not to vote for you because I believed in you. I’ve lost that belief.”

Nancy Eardley accused Meijer, the only first-term legislator to back impeachment on 13 January, of betraying the district within two weeks of taking office.

“I don’t know that there’s really much you can say that will ever change my mind and not work toward primarying you out after two years,” she said, claiming no court looked at evidence of election fraud.

There was not widespread fraud, as was confirmed by a range of voting officials and by former Attorney General William Barr, a Trump appointee.

Meijer said Trump told “two fundamental lies” after losing to Democrat Joe Biden, falsely stating that the election had been stolen and that 6 January, the day Congress counted electoral votes, was a chance to “stop the steal.”

Trump, who had exhorted his supporters to “fight like hell” shortly before they swarmed the Capitol, took close to 2 1/2 hours to issue a video urging them to go home despite the riot having turned deadly, Meijer said.

“This was a moment when we needed leadership and the president, in my view, did not show that,” he said.

One participant, Kim Reeder, thanked Meijer for his vote. “I didn’t vote for you, but right now I’m sure glad you’re my representative,” she said.

At least one Republican has already vowed to challenge Meijer in the 2022 primary: Tom Norton, who finished third to Meijer in a five-way primary last year.

Meijer in November won the open, longtime GOP-held seat by nearly 6 percentage points over a Democrat, a larger margin than Trump’s 3-point victory there.

Meijer acknowledged that a majority of Republicans in his district, “maybe a strong majority,” are upset with his impeachment decision. “That weighed on me. That was one of the reasons why I felt ultimately sickened by having to take this vote,” he said. “How do I balance that immediate feeling with what we need to do as a country, what I feel my party needs to do and where I hope we can go?”

Oliver Milman writes for us today that Joe Biden’s plans to combat climate crisis have – predictably – provoked a GOP backlash:

Republican lawmakers in Congress have denounced Biden’s flurry of executive orders on climate and have even introduced legislation to bypass the president and approve the contentious Keystone XL oil pipeline. Republican-led states are also joining the fray with Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, who is vowing to use the courts to block Biden’s move to halt oil and gas drilling on public lands. “Texas is going to protect the oil and gas industry from any type of hostile attack launched from Washington DC,” Abbott said.

While some younger, more moderate Republicans want to reform the party’s position on climate, the criticism of Biden has wandered into bizarre territory, such as Texas senator Ted Cruz tweeting that the president has shown he is “more interested in the views of the citizens of Paris than in the jobs of the citizens of Pittsburgh” by rejoining an international agreement to cut emissions that happened to be signed in Paris. John Kennedy, another Republican senator, mocked Biden’s plan to boost take-up of electric cars by telling Fox News on Tuesday that “my car doesn’t run off fairy dust, it doesn’t run off unicorn urine”.

The Republican onslaught has been amplified and fueled by Fox News, which has aired a string of misleading claims over the Paris agreement and the economic impact of addressing the climate crisis. Much of this has centered upon the Keystone pipeline project, lamenting the loss of 10,000 temporary jobs that don’t actually exist yet. Meanwhile, despite Facebook’s attempt to promote accurate climate science, the platform is still routinely used by conservative entities such as Prager University, a non-profit media company, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute to spread dozens of climate disinformation adverts to millions of people.

This range of opposition “is pretty much the standard Republican message to any sort of climate proposals”, said Robert Brulle, an academic at Brown University whose own research has found fossil fuel companies spent $2bn lobbying lawmakers over climate change between 2000 and 2016. “This argument certainly resonates in areas with a large presence of fossil fuel employment.”

It’s also a line of attack the Biden administration has prepared for, with the early salvo of executive orders framed as a job creation opportunity for millions of workers. “Unfortunately workers have been fed a false narrative, they’d been fed the notion that somehow dealing with climate has come at their expense. No, it hasn’t,” said John Kerry, Biden’s climate envoy, last week. Kerry noted that the solar industry was rapidly adding jobs prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, while the coal industry has entered a steep decline.

Read more of Oliver Milman’s report here: Joe Biden’s plans to combat climate crisis have – predictably – provoked GOP backlash

A Texas county judge has temporarily blocked the state’s efforts to remove Planned Parenthood from Medicaid, report CNN. Caroline Kelly writes:

A slew of Texas Planned Parenthood affiliates asserted in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that the Texas Health and Human Services Commission failed to issue “a proper notice of termination” from the program. The state had promised to remove the groups from the Medicaid program Thursday.

The chief press officer for the Texas Health & Human Services Commission, Christine Mann, declined to comment on the case citing pending litigation.

The impacts of such a shift could be stark. In 2019, Planned Parenthood provided health care to more than 8,000 Medicaid recipients in the state, according to the most recent figures available from the organization.

Texas has long sought to ban Planned Parenthood from the program -- though Medicaid funding does not cover abortions, except in cases of rape, incest or when the woman’s life is at risk, due to the Hyde Amendment, which dates back to 1976.

Read more here: CNN – Judge temporarily blocks Planned Parenthood’s ouster from Texas Medicaid program

Sam Baker and Andrew Witherspoon have a relatively upbeat analysis of the coronavirus situation across the US today for Axios. They write:

New coronavirus infections slowed by nearly 16% over the past week, continuing a trend of rapid improvement. The US still has a ton of coronavirus, and there’s still the potential for dark days ahead. But this is progress, and the improvement is significant. If this trend keeps going, the country will be in a far better and safer position as vaccines continue to roll out.

Nationwide, the US is averaging about 139,000 new cases per day — a 16% improvement over last week, which was a 16% improvement over the week before. The number of new hospitalizations was also down last week, by just over 26%. And deaths fell by about 6%, to an average of 3,097 deaths per day.

The US is back at about the same caseload we were experiencing shortly before Thanksgiving. 139,000 cases and 3,000 deaths per day is still a very bad pandemic, but at least the numbers are headed in the right direction.

Read more here: Axios – Coronavirus cases are falling all across the country

Every former American president picks up hobbies after leaving office (books, painting, skinny dipping, boxing). For the early days of Donald Trump’s post-presidency he has picked something a little different: revenge.

The 45th president has amassed a post-presidential war chest of $31m. He has endorsed a former aide in an upcoming gubernatorial election in the shape of his former press secretary Sarah Sanders in Arkansas.

And he has vowed to take revenge on high-profile Republicans who he sees as the chief reason he is out of office – like Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia or the House Republican Conference chairwoman, Liz Cheney, the highest-ranking member of her caucus to vote for impeaching the former president.

Some of Trump’s allies are also either keeping roles in the political campaign sphere to maintain Trumpism or beginning the siege on his opponents. Matt Gaetz, the Florida congressman and staunch Trump ally, has already traveled to Wyoming to encourage opposition to Cheney. In Arizona, pro-Trump Republicans censured the former senator Jeff Flake, Governor Doug Ducey and Cindy McCain, the widow of the late senator John McCain.

In Pennsylvania, the state Republican party recently reaffirmed its full support for Trump as well. And above the state parties, the Republican National Committee chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, a Trump ally, was re-elected to her post.

The former president has largely stayed out of public view while Congress moves forward with his second impeachment trial, but is poised to re-emerge in the months ahead. On Tuesday one of Trump’s lawyers, David Schoen, appeared on Fox News’ Hannity as well.

To cement his influence Trump has also not discounted the possibility of running for election again in 2024, forcing other would-be Republican candidates to tread carefully as they plot their own groundwork for the next presidential campaign.

But anti-Trump sentiment within the party is growing as well, albeit slowly, especially for a president who left office after one term with underwater approval ratings. Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, one of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach the president, recently set up a political action committee to help reclaim the party from Trump’s allies. Flake continues to make media appearances and uses them to fight Trump’s hold on the Republican party.

Read more of Daniel Strauss’ analysis here: Donald Trump takes up a post-presidency hobby – revenge

Reuters today have published the results of a survey they’ve taken of Republican House Representatives to try and determine whether they believe the narrative that Joe Biden somehow stole the election. As a reminder, on 6 January, only hours after the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol, 147 Republican lawmakers voted the way then-president Donald Trump and the rioters had demanded - to overturn his election loss.

A month later, Reuters report, the Republican party remains paralyzed by that false narrative. Fully 133 of those lawmakers, or 90%, are now declining to either endorse or repudiate Trump’s continuing insistence that he was cheated by systemic voter fraud.

Just two of those lawmakers told Reuters they believed the election was stolen through fraud; two others who did not respond to repeated inquiries made similar public statements previously. Ten of the 147 lawmakers told Reuters they do not believe the stolen-election narrative; they cited unrelated reasons for their failed attempt to invalidate millions of votes.

The refusal by the vast majority of the 147 lawmakers to take a firm stand on the truth of Trump’s central claim underscores the political peril they face as they struggle to appease voters on both sides of a rift in the Republican Party.

Many Republican lawmakers believe they can’t survive challenges in party primary elections without the votes of Trump supporters who are enraged at any suggestion that he lost a fair election to Democrat Joe Biden, Republican strategists said. The lawmakers also fear losing general elections against Democrats without the votes of more moderate Republicans and independents who are repelled by Trump’s false fraud claims and incitement of the Capitol insurrection.

The Reuters survey illuminates a semantic sleight-of-hand many Republican lawmakers have adopted to avoid taking a firm position on stolen-election claims that were discredited by judges in more than 60 lawsuits that failed to overturn the election result. Many lawmakers tried instead to thread a rhetorical needle - saying, for instance, that they would “stand with” Trump to protect “election integrity” or “the Constitution” - while avoiding any mention of Trump*s debunked fraud claims, the Reuters review of their public statements reveals.

Most lawmakers cited legal arguments that some states’ expansions of mail-in or early voting during the coronavirus pandemic violated the US Constitution – a contention rejected by multiple courts in Trump*s failed challenges to the election result.

The lawmakers who declined to provide a yes-or-no answer to the Reuters survey included some of the most strident backers of Trump’s bid to overturn the election, such as Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama. Brooks spoke at Trump*s rally before the Capitol riots and encouraged “patriots” in attendance to start “taking down names and kicking ass.”

In a 4 January public statement explaining his vote to overturn the election results, Brooks railed against “the largest voter fraud and election theft scheme in American history.” But when asked directly by Reuters if Trump lost because of fraud, Brooks avoided a clear answer. He instead relied on technical arguments involving some states’ voting process changes, saying in a statement that Trump lost because some votes, in his view, were not “Constitution-compliant” and “lawful.”

While the vast majority of the 147 lawmakers never endorsed Trump’s outlandish fraud allegations, their support of his bid to overturn the election played a crucial role in perpetuating the stolen-election myth that has become a central flashpoint in American politics. The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll on the subject, taken 20-21 January, shows that 61% of Republicans still believed Trump lost because of election-rigging and illegal voting.

The lawmakers’ attempt to appease newly polarized camps of voters within the Republican Party “won’t fly” with voters on either side of that divide, said Gabriel Sterling, a top Georgia election official – and a Republican – who has been debunking what he called “nonsensical” election fraud claims since the 3 November.

“They were trying to have their cake and eat it, too,” he said of the lawmakers.
That won’t work, Sterling said, because future voters will form their opinions on the lawmakers’ actions – their vote to overturn the election – rather than their words explaining their reasons. Both pro- and anti-Trump voters, he said, are going to see “147 people who agree with Trump that the election was stolen.”

Jon Schuppe at NBC News has this today on the fall-out from attending Donald Trump’s 6 January Washington DC rally for one sheriff deputy in Kentucky:

The detective, a Franklin County sheriff’s deputy named Jeff Farmer, did not join those who attacked the Capitol and has not been charged with a crime. But his participation in Trump’s rally put fresh focus on his work in Franklin County, where Goodrich and his co-workers say Farmer was known for his zealous pursuit of drug offenders.

Farmer, who is white, was popular among law enforcement and residents who’d sought his help with drug activity in their neighborhoods. But Goodrich and a local civil rights group knew his name because some of those Farmer arrested in recent years, including about half a dozen clients of the public defender’s office, claimed in court filings that he had improperly searched them, used excessive force or targeted them because they were Black.

The civil rights group, Focus on Race Relations: Frankfort, had shared Black residents’ concerns about Farmer with Sheriff Chris Quire last summer. Little had come of it: Many of the complaints were informal, and of the allegations that were raised in court, most had been dismissed by judges or abandoned when defendants agreed to plea deals.

But that changed 6 January, with Farmer suddenly in the spotlight. A public outcry led Quire to launch an investigation into Farmer’s participation in the rally and the previous complaints against him, which prompted a furious response from the deputy’s supporters. The debate has split a community already divided over Trump, the election results and the public’s trust in law enforcement.

Read more here: NBC News – A Kentucky deputy went to Trump’s DC rally. Now he’s under investigation at home

Total Covid deaths in US now exceed 450,000

The national daily death figure from Covid nearly hit 4,000 again yesterday. The Johns Hopkins University reported that there were 121,469 new cases, and 3,912 Covid deaths.

That takes the total caseload for the US to 26,534,366, and deaths have now exceeded 450,000.

The number of people in hospital in the US was 91,440. While still high, this is the lowest figure since 27 November, and a significant drop from the peak level of 132,474.

At least 27.5 million people have now received one or both doses of a Covid vaccine.

Indigenous Americans dying from Covid at twice the rate of white Americans

Nina Lakhani has this disturbing exclusive for us this morning:

American Indians and Alaskan Natives are dying at almost twice the rate of white Americans, according to analysis by APM Research Lab shared exclusively with the Guardian.

Nationwide one in every 475 Native Americans has died from Covid since the start of the pandemic, compared with one in every 825 white Americans and one in every 645 Black Americans. Native Americans have suffered 211 deaths per 100,000 people, compared with 121 white Americans per 100,000.

The true death toll is undoubtedly significantly higher as multiple states and cities provide patchy or no data on Native Americans lost to Covid. Of those that do, communities in Mississippi, New Mexico, Arizona, Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas have been the hardest hit.

The findings are part of the Lab’s Color of Coronavirus project, and provide the clearest evidence to date that Indian Country has suffered terribly and disproportionately during the first year of the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

The losses are mounting, and the grief is accumulating.

“Everyone has been impacted. Some families have been decimated. How can we go back to normal when we’ve lost so many after so many layers of trauma? It’s unbearable,” said Amber Kanazbah Crotty, a tribal council delegate in the Navajo Nation.

On Tuesday, the former Navajo president and Arizona state representative Albert Hale died from Covid, bringing the tribe’s death toll to 1,038, the equivalent of losing one in every 160 people on the reservation.

Read more of Nina Lakhani’s report here: Indigenous Americans dying from Covid at twice the rate of white Americans

All eyes yesterday were on what action House Republicans would take against Liz Cheney and rightwing extremist Marjorie Taylor Greene. Lauren Gambino reports:

Liz Cheney, the third-most powerful Republican in the House of Representatives, easily beat back an effort by far-right conservatives to oust her from her leadership post as payback for her vote last month to impeach Donald Trump.

At the same time, the Republican House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, declined to take any action against the Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has a record of embracing extremist views and conspiracy theories, and who tomorrow will face a vote that could strip her of her committee assignments.

“It’s just an example: this Republican party is a very big tent,” McCarthy told reporters after the tense, hours-long meeting on Wednesday night, which culminated in a secret ballot vote to retain Cheney. “Everybody is invited in.”

According to several accounts of the marathon House Republican meeting, billed as a “family discussion”, dozens of Republicans took turns admonishing Cheney for her impeachment vote. By contrast, Greene, a devotee of the antisemitic conspiracy theory QAnon, who, prior to her election, indicated support for executing Democratic politicians, received a standing ovation from some members after a brief speech, in which she apologized for her past remarks.

Despite her apparent contrition, Greene has remained unapologetic in public.

Read more of Lauren Gambino’s report here: Republicans take no action against Cheney or extremist Greene after vote

Any headlines coming out of Joe Biden’s speech today are likely to focus on China and Russia – although Iran and North Korea will also be high on Biden’s agenda. Over at Voice of America, Nike Ching has this to say about Biden’s approach to the world’s biggest nuclear powers:

During a call to Russian president Vladimir Putin, the White House said Biden raised contentious issues such as the arrest of opposition figure Alexei Navalny, as well as Moscow’s cyber-espionage campaign, while seeking common ground by agreeing to extend a landmark nuclear arms deal with Russia.

“We remain clear-eyed about the challenges that Russia poses to the United States and the world,” secretary of state Antony Blinken has said in a statement.

He added the US would “work to hold Russia to account for adversarial actions as well as its human rights abuses, in close coordination with our allies and partners.”

How to handle supply chain and intelligence threats from China is among the top priorities of the administration. It has been reported that Biden is soon expected to sign an executive order to review US supply chains, with a focus on coronavirus relief suppliers from foreign competitors.

“We know that China is engaged in a range of conduct that hurts American workers. It blunts our technological edge, it threatens our alliances and influence in international organizations, and China is engaged in gross human rights violations that shock the conscience,” state department spokesman Ned Price Price said this week.

Read more here: VOA – Biden to set foreign policy tone in Thursday remarks

The Biden administration views the New Start Treaty clinched with Russia this week as the beginning of engagement on strategic issues including multilateral arms control, report Reuters.

Robert Wood, US ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, called in a speech to the UN-sponsored Conference on Disarmament for a new arms control drive that “covers more weapons, and eventually more countries”.

“The United States will also seek to engage China on nuclear arms control and risk reduction. I hope that China will join us in that effort,” said Wood, who also serves as US commissioner for the New Start Treaty’s Bilateral Consultative Commission.

The United States and Russia announced yesterday they had extended the New Start arms control treaty for five years, preserving the last treaty limiting deployments of the world’s two largest strategic nuclear arsenals.

Russian Ambassador Gennady Gatilov, a former deputy foreign minister, also took the floor at the Geneva talks to praise the treaty extension. Israeli Ambassador Meirav Eilon Shahar said the pact and direct dialogue between the two world powers testified to a “shared goal of enhancing global security and stability”.

Argentina’s delegate said the Geneva forum - moribund for the last 20 years, unable to launch negotiations - was in need of a “new breath of life” and the US-Russian deal had renewed hope that multilateral negotiations could be re-initiated.

Biden will give first speech outlining his foreign policy goals since taking office

Joe Biden will today give his first speech outlining his foreign policy goals since taking office. He’s already sent some clear signals that there is an end to the isolationist Trump era by rejoining the Paris climate agreement, renewing the New Start nuclear treaty with Russia, but also facing immediate crises with the coup in Myanmar and Russia’s treatment of Alexei Navalny and his supporters.

Today’s speech had actually been due to take place on Monday, but it was pushed back due to the heavy snowfall that affected the north-east of the US earlier this week.

Kevin Liptak at CNN had already previewed it at the weekend, suggesting that:

Making his first stop at the state department, rather than the Pentagon or CIA, is meant to underscore Biden’s renewed focus on repairing American alliances and using diplomacy as a tool abroad, an official said.

While his speech is not expected to outline in detail the specifics of a new strategy on China, Iran, North Korea, Russia or other US adversaries, he will seek to frame his foreign policy around shoring up alliances and returning to multilateralism after the Trump administration, which was marked by unilateral actions and disdain for traditional diplomacy.

Biden has spoken by phone to roughly a half-dozen foreign counterparts since taking office but has been focused in public mainly on the coronavirus pandemic and domestic executive actions. A draft calendar of the administration’s opening days obtained by CNN listed “Restoring America’s place in the world” as a theme for February.

Read more here: CNN – Biden plans first major foreign policy speech on restoring ‘America’s place’

Hi, and welcome to our live coverage of US politics for Thursday. Here is a catch-up on where we are and what we can expect to see today…

  • President Joe Biden will visit the state department, and is expected to give his first major speech on foreign policy since taking office at 2.45pm EST (7:45pm GMT).
  • The House Republican caucus voted to retain Liz Cheney in her leadership role, despite a backlash against her decision to vote for the impeachment of former president Donald Trump.
  • They didn’t reach a conclusion on rightwing extremist Marjorie Taylor Greene. Reports say she apologised for her previous statements supporting QAnon and appearing to endorse social media posts promoting violence against Democrats. The House will hold a Democrat-led vote on removing her from committee assignments today.
  • The Johns Hopkins University figures show that 121,469 new cases of coronavirus were recorded yesterday, and there were 3,912 further deaths.
  • New figures have revealed Covid is killing Native Americans at a faster rate than any other community in the United States.
  • White House press secretary Jen Psaki will hold a briefing at 11.30pm EST (4:30 GMT).
  • The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will hold a confirmation hearing for Marty Walsh, the labor secretary nominee.
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