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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Maanvi Singh (now), Lauren Gambino and Martin Belam (earlier)

Biden vows to vaccinate 300m in the US by end of summer or early fall - as it happened

Today so far

Here’s a recap of the day, from me and Lauren Gambino:

  • Joe Biden announced plans buy a total of 200m more vaccine doses from Pfizer and Moderna. The additional doses will be delivered this summer, with the goal of vaccinating 300m people by the end of summer or early fall.
  • Senators were sworn in for Trump’s impeachment trial. Afterward, 45 Republican senators voted to dismiss the trial. That move failed, but it did signal that Democrats are extremely unlikely to win over enough Republicans to convict the former president.
  • Biden signed a slate of executive orders related to his racial equity agenda. The orders addressed criminal justice reform and housing.
  • The Senate voted to confirm Biden’s nominee for Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. And Kamala Harris swore in Janet Yellen as the nation’s first female Treasury secretary.
  • White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden held a phone call with Russian president Vladimir Putin. She said Biden pressed Putin on a litany of contentious issues, including election interference, the arrest of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and the country’s “ongoing aggression” to Ukraine, among other topics.
  • Bernie Sanders and progressive lawmakers in both chambers unveiled new legislation to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour. Sanders called it a “moral imperative”.

Updated

Fears grow that efforts to combat US domestic terrorism can hurt minorities

An expanded no-fly list. New crimes put on the books. Increased use of the death penalty.

These are some of the ways that politicians, pundits and law enforcement want to head off a repeat of the 6 January attack on the Capitol. But a renewed national security push aimed at addressing domestic terrorism has civil liberties groups steeling themselves, concerned that moves to combat far-right extremism will instead redound against communities of color and leftwing activists.

Last summer’s racial justice protests jump-started a national conversation over the endurance of racism within America’s law enforcement and security apparatus. But despite campaigning on the need to reform those institutions, some mainstream Democrats are now taking the lead on calls to expand them.

The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, has called for the Capitol rioters to be placed on the no-fly list. President Joe Biden, whose campaign website pledges his administration will “work for a domestic terrorism law”, has ordered a comprehensive assessment of domestic violent extremism. The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has called for a new “9/11-type commission”. And the first domestic terrorism legislation to follow the Capitol attack was introduced in the House last week by the Illinois Democrat Brad Schneider.

The Democratic party, however, isn’t entirely united on the issue.

Ten progressive members of Congress, led by the Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib have sent a letter to congressional leadership expressing opposition to an expansion of national security powers.

“The Trump mob’s success in breaching the Capitol was not due to a lack of resources at the disposal of federal law enforcement,” the letter reads. “We firmly believe that the national security and surveillance powers of the US government are already too broad, undefined, and unaccountable to the people.”

“Our history is littered with examples of initiatives sold as being necessary to fight extremism that quickly devolve into tools used for the mass violation of the human and civil rights of the American people,” the letter continues.

It cites as examples the McCarthy-era House Un-American Activities Committee, the surveillance of the civil rights movement in the 1960s and the invention of a category in 2017 called “Black Identity Extremism” the FBI claimed posed a risk of domestic terrorism.

More than 100 civil and human rights organizations have also joined in a statement of opposition to any new domestic terror legislation.

Read more:

Updated

YouTube extends ban on Trump amid concerns about further violence

Donald Trump is suspended from posting to YouTube indefinitely after the video platform’s parent company Google extended a ban put in place this month.

“In light of concerns about the ongoing potential for violence, the Donald J Trump channel will remain suspended,” a YouTube spokesperson said. “Our teams are staying vigilant and closely monitoring for any new developments.”

YouTube had announced on 12 January, following the insurrection at the Capitol, that it would suspend Trump’s account indefinitely. After revisiting the issue it has decided to keep that suspension in place, CNet first reported.

Under the suspension, Trump’s account will remain online but the former president will not be able to post new videos. Comments under existing videos will remain disabled, a YouTube spokesperson told the Guardian. The company did not give any indication as to when the suspension would be lifted.

YouTube is one of several major tech platforms that took action against Trump in early January, citing a risk his messages could incite violence.

Twitter on 8 January banned Trump permanently from its platforms in all capacities. It suspended Trump’s personal Twitter account and cracked down on other accounts Trump attempted to tweet from to evade the ban, including the official presidential account @POTUS and his campaign account @TeamTrump. After Trump left office, @POTUS was turned over to Joe Biden.

Trump remains suspended from Facebook and Instagram pending a decision from the platform’s oversight board. The board comprises 30 officials from around the world who work as Facebook’s “supreme court”, meant to have a more objective final say on the social network’s moderation decisions. It has not yet announced when the board will take up the issue.

Read more:

Updated

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the freshman Republican representative of Georgia, indicated support for executing Democratic politicians, according to a CNN analysis of her Facebook activity.

Greene, a backer of QAnon, liked posts including one that said “a bullet to the head would be quicker” to remove House speaker Nancy Pelosi, CNN reports. In response to a Facebook commenter on her page asking, “Now do we get to hang them ?? Meaning H & O ???” referring to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, she responded: “Stage is being set. Players are being put in place. We must be patient. This must be done perfectly or liberal judges would let them off.”

Greene said she had a team managing her Facebook page. “Many posts have been liked. Many posts have been shared,” she said in a statement, accusing CNN of being out to get her because she is a “conservative Republican”.

Screenshots posted by Media Matters for America last week showed that Greene also agreed with Facebook comments falsely claiming that the school shooting in Parkland, Florida was staged. She was suspended from Twitter for spreading election misinformation.

Updated

After receiving her second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine today, Kamala Harris spoke to employees at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, about what the institution meant to her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, a biomedical scientist.

“Growing up ... we always knew that Mommy was going to this place called ‘Bethesda’,” Harris recalled. “She was in the biochemical endocrinology study section. She was a peer-reviewer. And my mother had two goals in her life: to raise her two daughters and end breast cancer.

“I grew up then around science in a way that was taught to me by someone who was so profoundly passionate about a gift – which is the gift that scientists give to us – in that their whole reason for being is to see what can be unburdened by what has been,” she said.

Updated

Patrick Leahy, Senate president pro tempore, in hospital for evaluation

Patrick Leahy, the Democratic senator of Vermont who is meant to preside over the impeachment trial, is in hospital, per his spokesperson.

“This evening, Senator Leahy was in his Capitol office and was not feeling well,” said spokesman David Carle. “Out of an abundance of caution, the attending physician recommended that he be taken to a local hospital for observation, where he is now, and where he is being evaluated.”

The 80-year-old senator is third in line in the presidential succession, after Kamala Harris and House speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Updated

Joe Biden signed four more executive orders on Tuesday, as he aimed to fulfill a campaign promise to increase racial equity in the US.

The orders were the latest in a volley since Biden’s inauguration as president last week, meant to undo the legacy of Donald Trump’s time in the White House. The new orders related to housing and criminal justice reform. Broadly, Biden and his aides framed it as a step in their broader hopes to heal racial tensions across the country. In a speech before he signed the orders Biden recalled the death of George Floyd, who was Black, at the hands of police.

“What many Americans didn’t see or simply refused to see couldn’t be ignored any longer,” Biden said. “Those eight minutes and 46 seconds that took George Floyd’s life opened the eyes to millions of Americans and millions of people all over the world. It was the knee on the neck of justice and it wouldn’t be forgotten. It stirred the consciousness in millions of Americans and in my view it marked a turning point in this country’s view toward racial justice.”

He also noted that the mob attack by Trump supporters on the US Capitol was just a few weeks ago.

“It’s just been weeks since all of America witnessed a group of thugs, insurrectionists, political extremists and white supremacists violently attack the Capitol of our democracy,” Biden said. “So now – now’s the time to act. It’s time to act because that’s what faith and morality calls us to do.”

Read more:

A key point here – Biden said the additional doses are “not in hand yet, but ordered”.

Here’s a clip of the Biden briefing:

The justice department has rescinded a Trump administration memo establishing a “zero tolerance” policy for migrants at the US-Mexico border.

The AP reports:

Acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson issued the new memo to federal prosecutors across the nation, saying the department would return to its longstanding previous policy and instructing prosecutors to act on the merits of individual cases.

“Consistent with this longstanding principle of making individualized assessments in criminal cases, I am rescinding – effective immediately – the policy directive,” Wilkinson wrote.

Wilkinson said the department’s principles have “long emphasized that decisions about bringing criminal charges should involve not only a determination that a federal offense has been committed and that the admissible evidence will probably be sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction, but should also take into account other individualized factors, including personal circumstances and criminal history, the seriousness of the offense, and the probable sentence or other consequences that would result from a conviction.”

The “zero tolerance” policy meant that any adult caught crossing the border illegally would be prosecuted for illegal entry. Because children cannot be jailed with their family members, families were separated and children were taken into custody by Health and Human Services, which manages unaccompanied children at the border.

Read more here.

Updated

“When we arrived, the vaccine program was in worse shape than we expected or anticipated,” Biden said.

The administration has been sending a similar message over the past week. Part of that is messaging: it’s advantageous for Biden to lower expectations and buy himself some time as he ramps up a coronavirus response.

But a few new policies, including Biden’s vow to help states, tribes and territories plan for the future by giving them a three-week forecast of how many vaccines are incoming will be a massive help to jurisdictions that have been unsure of how to ration their doses.

The New York Times recently reported on the supply issues:

Inoculation sites are canceling thousands of appointments in one state after another as the nation’s vaccines roll out through a bewildering patchwork of distribution networks, with local officials uncertain about what supplies they will have in hand.

In South Carolina, one hospital in the city of Beaufort had to cancel 6,000 vaccine appointments after it received only 450 of the doses it expected. In Hawaii, a Maui hospital canceled 5,000 first-dose appointments and put 15,000 additional requests for appointments on hold.

In San Francisco, the public health department had at one point expected to run out of vaccines this week because the city’s allocation dropped sharply from a week ago and California officials temporarily had to put thousands of doses on hold after a higher than usual number of possible allergic reactions were reported. In New York State, officials in Erie county have canceled thousands of vaccine appointments in recent days after a sharp decline in allocations from the state.

The situation is especially dire in Texas, which is averaging about 20,000 new coronavirus cases a day, fueling concerns over whether officials will be able to curb the spread when they cannot get their hands on the vaccines they desperately need to do so.

Updated

Biden ended the press conference without taking questions.

More details will be revealed during subsequent, regular briefings with public health officials, he signaled.

Biden: 'This is a war-time undertaking, it's not hyperbole'

The next few months could be bad, Biden said.

“Things are going to continue to get worse before they get better,” he said. “We didn’t get into this mess overnight and it’s going to take months for us to turn things around.”

The process of ramping up vaccinations while managing runaway infections will be a massive operational challenge, he emphasized.

But, he added, “Help is on the way.”

There will be enough vaccine to inoculate 300 million Americans by the end of summer or early fall, Biden said.

He’d rather have a problem of “too much vaccine” leftover this summer than not enough, he said. Vaccines will be distributed through pharmacies, as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency vaccine centers.

“That will enormously expand our reach,” he said.

National Guard troops will help set up vaccination centers and administer shots.

Updated

The administration will up weekly vaccine doses sent to states and tribes from 8.6m to 10m per week, Biden said.

“From this week forward, God willing, we will ensure that states, tribes, and territories will have a three-week forecast” of incoming supplies, he added.

The administration will also buy a total of 200m more vaccine doses from Pfizer and Moderna. The additional doses will be delivered this summer.

Biden begins coronavirus update

The president is expected to announce plans to buy more coronavirus vaccines, and ramp up vaccinations.

“This will be one of the most difficult operational challenges we have every undertaken as a nation,” he said.

Updated

Today so far

While we wait for Biden to deliver remarks on his administration’s efforts to boost vaccine supply, let’s look back at the day so far.

  • Senators were sworn in for Trump’s impeachment trial. Afterward, they rejected a Republican-led effort to dismiss the trial, though the vote revealed that there is almost certainly not enough support to convict Trump.
  • Biden signed a slate of executive orders related to his racial equity agenda.
  • The Senate voted to confirm Biden’s nominee for Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. And Kamala Harris swore in Janet Yellen as the nation’s first female Treasury secretary.
  • White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden held a phone call with Russian president Vladimir Putin and pressed him on a litany of contentious issues, including election interference, the arrest of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and the country’s “ongoing aggression” to Ukraine, among other topics.
  • Kamala Harris received her second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, telling Americans the shot will “save your life”.
  • Twitter removed MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, the latest Trump ally to be taken off the platform after amplifying false claims about the election.
  • Bernie Sanders and progressive lawmakers in both chambers unveiled new legislation to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour. Sanders called it a “moral imperative”.

Updated

The Associated Press reports that a federal judge is temporarily blocking the US government from enforcing a 100-day deportation moratorium that is a key immigration priority of Joe Biden.

US district judge Drew Tipton issued a temporary restraining order sought by Texas, which sued last Friday against a Department of Homeland Security memo that instructed immigration agencies to pause most deportations. Tipton said the Biden administration had failed “to provide any concrete, reasonable justification for a 100-day pause on deportations.”

Tipton’s order is an early blow to the Biden administration, which has proposed far-reaching changes sought by immigration advocates, including a plan to legalize an estimated 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. Biden promised during his campaign to pause most deportations for 100 days.

The acting US attorney investigating the violent breach of the US Capitol said today that he expected indictments in the rioting as soon as this week.

More than 150 people have been arrested in the 6 January insurrection, which left five people dead and obliged members of Congress, staff and press to be evacuated to safety.

Acting US attorney Michael Sherwin said authorities were still investigating the death of a Capitol police officer and the origin of pipe bombs found near the building.

Updated

There’s been a steady stream of activity on Capitol Hill today, paricularly leading up to the swearing-in of the senators for Trump’s impeachment trial.

At a weekly press conference, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said the chamber is prepared to work simultaneously to hold an impeachment trial, approve Biden’s cabinet nominees, and pass additional coronavirus relief.

The political fate of Biden’s $1.9tn stimulus plan, the linchpin of the new president’s coronavirus response, remains uncertain. Already the package has received pushback from a bipartisan group of senators, who raised objections to its overall cost.

Asked about the proposal, Schumer told reporters he would consider a vote on a budget resolution as early as next week. Doing so would pave the way for the Senate to pass the bill on a party-line vote, effectively sidestepping the 60-vote threshold for most legislative matters. This could have implications for the rest of Biden’s legislative agenda, which he hoped to pass with the backing of Republicans.

Schumer stressed that he hopes to work with Republicans on major legislation but also made clear that he’s willing to use the so-called reconciliation process if necessary.

Speaking at the Republicans’ weekly press conference, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell didn’t tip his hand on whether he believes Trump committed an impeachable offense. The uncertainty over how he might vote is noteworthy given McConnell’s staunch defense of Trump during his first impeachment trial.

He told reporters that he has not spoken to Trump since 15 December, the day after he announced that it was clear Biden had won the election.

Meanwhile, congressman Tim Ryan, a Democrat of Ohio, updated reporters after a conference call between lawmakers and Capitol Police about the security failures during the 6 January siege.

Ryan also said he will give “very serious consideration” to running for Senate after Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio announced his retirement.

Harris receives second dose of Covid-19 vaccine

Vice president Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, received her second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland.

Twenty-eight days after receiving her first shot, Harris removed her jacked, rolled up her sleeve and extended her left arm for the jab.

“When are you going to put it in,” Harris joked after the nurse administered the shot.

Kamala Harris receives her second dose of the vaccine in Bethesda, Maryland on Tuesday. ‘It was really painless!’ she said.
Kamala Harris receives her second dose of the vaccine in Bethesda, Maryland on Tuesday. ‘It was really painless!’ she said. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

“It was really painless!” Harris said.

Speaking directly to the public, Harris implored Americans to get their vaccines when they become available. “I want to urge everyone to take the vaccine when it is your turn. It is really pretty painless, and it will save your life.”

Updated

The acting chief of the US Capitol Police, Yogananda Pittman, offered lawmakers an unequivocal apology for “our failings on January 6th,” during a closed-door briefing on Tuesday, according to a copy of her prepared remarks obtained by The Guardian.

On January 6th, in the face of a terrorist attack by tens of thousands of insurrectionists determined to stop the certification of Electoral College votes, the Department failed to meet its own high standards as well as yours. Although the Department fulfilled its mission of protecting Members and democracy ultimately prevailed, the insurrectionists’ actions and the Department’s inability to immediately secure the US Capitol emboldened the insurrectionists and horrified millions of American. We fully expect to answer to you and the American people for our failings on January 6th,” wrote Pittman, who assumed the role after the deadly assault on the Capitol triggered the former police chief’s resignation.

“I am here to offer my sincerest apologies on behalf of the Department.”

In her statement, she stated that the former police chief had requested support from the National Guard in advance of the riot but was denied. The department had 1,200 personnel deployed across the Capitol, which she said was “no match” for the tens of thousands of Trump loyalists who stormed the building.

Pittman said additional preparation would have helped avoid “certain challenges” but concluded that she did not believe “there was any preparations that would have allowed for an open campus in which lawful protestors could exercise their first amendment right to free speech and at the same time prevented the attack on Capitol grounds that day.”

Senate rejects motion to dismiss Trump's impeachment trial

The Senate voted 55-45 to reject senator Rand Paul’s motion to dismiss the impeachment trial, meaning the trial will go ahead as scheduled.

However, as Paul hoped, the vote showed that Republicans overwhelming supported his attempt to forgo a trial, indicating that there is likely not enough support in the GOP conference to convict Trump.

The only Republican senators who voted against the motion, and in favor of holding a trial, were senators who have been consistently vocal in their condemnation of Trump’s conduct on 6 January. They include senators Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.

The Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who angrily declared from the floor of the Senate that Trump had “provoked” the mob that stormed the Capitol, voted to dismiss the trial.

After the vote, the Senate’s court of impeachment adjourned for two weeks. The trial will begin again on 9 February.

Updated

Senator Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, is now raising a “point of order” to force a vote in the chamber on whether it is constitutional to impeach a president after he has left office.

Paul said he expected the motion would fail, but believed the vote would show that there wasn’t sufficient support to convict Trump.

“I think there will be enough support on it to show there’s no chance they can impeach the president,” he told reporters. “If 34 people support my resolution that this is an unconstitutional proceeding, it shows they don’t have the votes and we’re basically wasting our time.”

In a floor speech shortly before the vote, Schumer responded to Paul’s motion, arguing that if the authors of the Constitution had intended impeachment as a punishment for those who are currently in office, they wouldn’t have included a provision allowing the Senate to vote to disqualify those who have been convicted from running for office again in the future.

At least 17 Republicans would have to join all Democrats to convict Trump. If convicted, the Senate could vote to disqualify him from ever again holding public office.

Rand Paul speaks to reporters on Tuesday.
Rand Paul speaks to reporters on Tuesday. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

Updated

Senate sworn in as jurors in Trump's second impeachment trial

The 100-member body of the US senate on Tuesday swore an oath to do “impartial justice” in the unprecedented second impeachment trial of Donald Trump.

Presiding over the trial, senator Patrick Leahy, the Senate pro tempore, administered the oath collectively.

“I do,” the senators said in unison.

Late Monday night, the House of Representatives formally delivered the article of impeachment charging Trump with “incitement of insurrection” for his incendiary speech before a mob of loyalists who attacked the US capitol on 6 January.

After the swearing in, Senate leaders have agreed to a two-week pause in the trial, in order to give Biden time to assemble his cabinet and Trump’s team time to prepare his defense. The trial is scheduled to resume the week of 8 February,

Updated

A bit of humor on this bustling Tuesday...

As Biden turned to leave after signing the executive orders, a reporter asked him what he spoke to Putin about on their color. Biden paused, looked at the reporter, Peter Doocy of Fox News, and said: “You.”

Biden is delivering remarks on what the White House is calling his “racial equity agenda” before signing a slate of executive orders aimed at advancing equity across the federal government.

He opened his speech by invoking the legacy of George Floyd, a Black man whose death under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer sparked a racial reckoning in the country.

It was “the knee on the neck of justice,” Biden said of Floyd’s death. “It marked a turning point in this country’s attitude towards racial justice.”

He said he believed that over the course of the last year the “blinders had been taken off the American people” and that the nation was ready to address deep-seated and systemic racism that has “plagued our nation for far too long.”

“For too long we’ve allowed a narrow, cramped view of the promise of this nation to fester. We bought the view that America is a zero sum game,” he said. “If you succeed, I fail. ... Maybe worst of all, if I hold you down I lift myself up.”

Read more about the orders Biden signed in this report by my colleague Daniel Strauss.

Updated

Fox News denied on Tuesday that former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany had joined the conservative TV channel, after a government ethics watchdog reported that she had. (See post at 11.52am.)

But Fox News also said it was open to hiring McEnany in the future.

Citing a “termination financial disclosure report”, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said: “McEnany reached an agreement with the company in January 2021 to start working there this month. During her stint in the Trump administration, McEnany regularly appeared on the network, including more than 20 times after Trump lost the 2020 election.”

The report published by Crew featured a reference to an “employment agreement with Fox News, starting work in January” 2021. Before entering the White House, McEnany worked for both Fox News and CNN.

A Fox News spokeswoman told the Guardian: “Kayleigh McEnany is not currently an employee or contributor at Fox News.”

A source familiar with the matter said conversations had been held after the presidential election in November, but had been paused.

“We do not discuss the details behind contracts with any personnel,” the source said, “but we are open to hiring her in the future given we do not condone cancel culture.”

“Cancel culture”, the perceived quietening of unwelcome voices by mainstream media and other institutions, has become an attack line on the political right.

Full story:

Biden pressed Putin on Navalny arrest

Psaki confirmed that Biden held his first call with Russian president Vladimir Putin. According to Psaki, Biden pressed Putin on Russia’s espionage campaign against the US and raised concerns about the arrest of Alexei Navalny, an opposition figure who recently recovered in Germany from novichok poisoning.

She also said Biden emphasized the US’ support for Ukraine, the Russian government’s treatment of peaceful protesters and reports that Russia placed bounties on the heads of US soldiers in Afghanistan.

The conversation marks a stark contrast between Biden and Trump, who repeatedly flattered Putin and once said he believed Russia’s denial of election interference over the conclusion of his own intelligence agencies.

There was some hope of diplomacy between the US and Russia. On the call, Biden expressed support for finalizing an extension of an arms control treaty, known as START, with Russia before it expires next month.

Updated

Biden raised expectations yesterday when he told reporters that his administration’s 100-day goal on the vaccine roll out may rise to 150 million, from 100 million.

On Tuesday, Psaki said Biden didn’t offer the figure as a “new goal” but as an aspiration.

Updated

On Monday, Schumer called for Biden to declare a “climate emergency”, a move that would give the administration sweeping powers to combat global warming. Asked about it during the press briefing, Psaki suggests Biden might be open to doing so. She said Biden has long identified climate change as one of the four crises facing the nation and considers it “central to his presidency”.

“I don’t think leader Schumer has any doubt about the president’s commitment to this,” she said.

Updated

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki, taking over the briefing, was asked whether the administration would impose a testing requirement on domestic travel to slow the spread of Covid-19. Psaki said that was not the recommendation at this stage but left open the possibility, saying the administration is constantly reviewing and updating federal recommendations on travel based on conversations with experts.

She was also asked about Biden’s comment on Monday that Trump’s trial “has to happen.” She said the remark was simply a reflection of what he saw as the Senate’s constitutional duty now that the article has been delivered from the House.

Asked why he has been so reluctant to give his personal view of impeachment, Psaki again said that Biden is no longer in the Senate and instead believes his job now is to focus on his agenda.

“We will leave the vote counting to leaders in the Senate from now on,” she said, attempting to clean up his comment to CNN last night.

Psaki wouldn’t say the last time Biden spoke to McConnell. On a question about the administration’s vaccination campaign, Psaki said Biden would speak directly to that in his remarks later this afternoon.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Updated

Asked about why Biden hasn’t acted to close gun loopholes, as he promised on the campaign trail, Rice said vowed that it was “just the beginning”.

She was also asked about Biden’s order to end the federal government’s use of private prisons. The directive directs the Department of Justice not to renew contracts with private prisons but does not apply to the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration detention facilities, Rice said.

Updated

Susan Rice, the director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, is making an appearance at the White House press briefing this afternoon to lay out Biden’s agenda for advancing racial, gender and LGBTQ equality.

Later today, Biden will sign four executive actions that address housing policies, voting rights, police reform and xenophobia against Asian American and Pacific Islanders.

Rice said these aren’t “feel-good” policies. “Investing in equity is good for economic growth,” she said. “Building a more equitable economy is essential if Americans are gong to compete and thrive in the 21st Century.”

She also announced that Biden has ordered the intelligence community to “compile a comprehensive assessment” on the threat posed by white supremacy. “We are taking it quite seriously.”

Updated

Senate confirms Antony Blinken to be Secretary of State

The US Senate on Tuesday confirmed Antony Blinken, a veteran diplomat and defender of multilateral alliances, to be the next Secretary of State, in a 78-22 vote.

Biden tapped Blinken, his longtime foreign policy adviser, to be the nation’s top diplomat as his administration seeks to rebuild the country’s relationship with allies, frayed after a tumultuous four years under Trump.

Janet Yellen sworn in as Treasury Secretary

Vice president Kamala Harris presided over the ceremonial swearing in of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, making her the first woman to serve in the role in the department’s 232-year history.

Staged outside on the East Landing of the White House, which overlooks the Treasury building, Yellen raised her right as Harris, physically distanced across the entryway, administered the oath of office. She was joined by her husband, George Akerlof, and son, Robert Akerlof.

Yellen inherits an economy battered by the coronavirus pandemic, which has exacerbated longstanding inequalities.

She joins Biden’s history-making cabinet, which so far includes Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the first African American to lead the Pentagon, and National Intelligence Director Avril Haines, who is the first woman to serve in the role.

Updated

Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has joined Fox News as a contributor, the watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said on Tuesday, lamenting “the revolving door between Fox News and the Trump administration”.

Kayleigh McEnany.
Kayleigh McEnany. Photograph: Leigh Vogel/EPA

News of McEnany’s move to Fox News followed former press secretary Sarah Sanders’ exit from the same outlet, shortly before she announced a run for governor in Arkansas with a statement including an attack on the mainstream media.

“According to her termination financial disclosure report,” Crew said in a release, “McEnany reached an agreement with the company in January 2021 to start working there this month. During her stint in the Trump administration, McEnany regularly appeared on the network, including more than 20 times after Trump lost the 2020 election.”

The report published by Crew featured a reference to an “employment agreement with Fox News, starting work in January” 2021. Before entering the White House, she worked for both Fox News and CNN.

A Fox News spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

McEnany was Donald Trump’s fourth White House press secretary, succeeding Sean Spicer, Sanders and Stephanie Grisham in April 2020.

“I will never lie to you,” she declared on her debut in the White House briefing room. “You have my word on that.”

In an administration founded on misleading statements and outright lies spread from the president down, they proved to be famous first words.

McEnany spent her last days in the White House role repeating Trump’s baseless claims that the election was stolen.

Updated

My colleague Daniel Strauss got his hands on an invitation for a conference call between the National Governors Association and Biden administration officials to discuss the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

The call, scheduled for 3.00 pm EST on Tuesday, will include White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients, CDC Director Dr Rochelle Walensky, remarks by General Gustave Perna, the chief operating officer of the Department of Defense, White House COVID-19 Response Team vaccination coordinator Bechara Choucair, and fellow team member and supply coordinator Tim Manning, according to an invitation for the call obtained by the Guardian.

A question and answer portion will be facilitated for the governors participating on the call by NGA executive director Bill McBride.

This is the first meeting of its kind the Biden has had with governors since taking office last week. The Biden team had previously held calls during the transition period. The Trump administration held similar calls with top officials, sometimes including then-vice president Mike Pence.

The call with governors comes as Democrats and the Biden administration prioritizes COVID relief through the levers of government at their disposal.

On Monday Biden said he could see reaching 1.5 million vaccine shots per day, an increase from a previously low goal the Biden team had set and the Trump administration was on course to meet.

Senate panel advances Mayorkas nomination for DHS

The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs advanced the nomination of Alejandro Mayorkas to lead the Department of Homeland Security, overriding the objections of several Republicans on the committee.

Mayorkas, who served as DHS deputy secretary under president Barack Obama, would be the first Latino and the first immigrant to lead the department.

A handful of Republicans, led by the panel’s outgoing chairman, senator Ron Johnson, raised concerns about Mayorkas’ previous tenure at the department and misleadingly attempted to tie him to Trump’s family separation policy.

Mayorkas will next receive a vote by the full Senate.

Updated

Though McConnell dropped his objection, the fight over the filibuster – which effectively requires 60 votes to advance a measure – is far from over.

The fate of Biden’s legislative agenda hangs in the balance of an evenly-divided Senate, and Democratic activists are pushing lawmakers to dispense with the rule, arguing that it is the the only way to achieve any of their legislative priorities before the 2022 midterms.

Speaking on the floor Monday, McConnell delivered a stark warning for Democrats.

“When I could have tried to grab this power, I turned it down,” McConnell said, referring to to the possibility that he could have abolished the filibuster as majority leader. “I am grateful that’s been reciprocated by at least a pair of our colleagues across the aisle. I’m glad we’ve stepped back from this cliff. Taking that plunge would not be some progressive dream. It would be a nightmare. I guarantee it.”

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Late Monday night, Senator Mitch McConnell dropped his demand that Democrats promise to protect the filibuster, paving the way for a power-sharing agreement that will allow Democrats to officially assume control of the chamber.

The climbdown followed weeks-long negotiations between McConnell, now the minority leader, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who refused to make the commitment, as activists in his party push them to abolish the procedural tool often used to grind Senate activity to a halt.

Two Democrats on Monday – senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona – said they were opposed to abolishing the filibuster, which McConnell pointed to as an assurance that it would be preserved.

“I am glad the Republican leader finally relented,” Schumer said in floor remarks on Tuesday morning.

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During her opening remarks, Raimondo stressed that her priorities as commerce secretary would include strengthening trade enforcement and boosting US manufacturing.

Introducing herself to the committee, Raimondo recalled growing up in Rhode Island, the daughter of a factory worker. When her father lost his job at the Bulova watch factory he was forced into early retirement in his 50s.

I know the pain that losing a job causes a family, and I’ve seen that pain in communities that have lost jobs to outsourcing and to the pandemic,” she said, according to a transcript of her testimony. “At its heart, the Commerce Department is about opportunity. The opportunity to start or grow a business. The opportunity to get a good, stable job. The opportunity to pursue the American Dream, regardless of where you live.”

She also touts actions she took as governor to combat climate change, saying: “We need to recognize that tackling climate change goes hand-in-hand with creating good-paying jobs.”

The Senate confirmation hearing for Biden’s secretary of commerce nominee Gina Raimondo, which began at 10am, is off to an auspicious start. Chairman Roger Wicker, a Republican of Mississippi, said he expects Raimondo, a former venture capitalist in her second term as governor of Rhode Island, to be confirmed by the Senate.

Biden’s cabinet is starting to come together. This afternoon, vice president Kamala Harris will swear in Janet Yellen, who will make history as the first woman to serve as Treasury Secretary. Yellen, the former chair of the Federal Reserve, was confirmed by the Senate on an 84-15 vote on Monday.

The full Senate is also expected to vote to confirm Antony Blinken to be Biden’s secretary of state shortly after the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee votes on Alejandro Mayorkas the DHS secretary.

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Jonathan Turley, a law professor and Fox News contributor, will join Republican senators for lunch on Tuesday to discuss the constitutionality of Trump’s upcoming impeachment trial.

Turley, who was Republicans’ lone expert during Trump’s first impeachment, has argued that impeaching a former president is “at odds” with the Constitution. It’s a question that has divided scholars.

A bipartisan coalition of constitutional experts that included members of the conservative Federalist Society legal group wrote in an open letter that “our carefully considered views of the law lead all of us to agree that the Constitution permits the impeachment, conviction, and disqualification of former officers, including presidents.” Turley offered a rebuttal to the letter.

Many Republican senators, squeezed between a Trump-loving base and brazen actions of the former president, have turned to this argument as a way to object to the trial without passing judgement on whether Trump committed an impeachable offense.

Democrats have dismissed this argument, pointing to historical precedented – the 1876 impeachment of Secretary of War William Belknap, who was tried after he resigned over allegations he received kickbacks. On Monday, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer also countered that it’s only possible to disqualify an official from ever holding public office again after the official has been convicted in a Senate impeachment trial – a punishment officials could avoid by resigning or leaving office.

“It makes no sense whatsoever that a president—or any official—could commit a heinous crime against our country and then defeat Congress’ impeachment powers by simply resigning, so as to avoid accountability and a vote to disqualify them from future office,” Schumer said.

Senator Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, has said he intends to force a vote on the question, putting his colleagues on the record over where they stand on the constitutionality of an impeaching a former president. Though the effort is likely to fail, it will provide insight into the thinking of several senators who have been more circumspect about their views on impeachment, including the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell.

We were expecting Joe Biden to speak at 2pm EST today about his racial equity agenda, and to sign executive orders which will address policing, housing and prison conditions. Another event has just been added to his public schedule – a 4:45pm address on the fight against the Covid pandemic.

A strange story about Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler emerging from the weekend, as the Washington Post report:

On Sunday, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler was walking outside a craft brewery on the Oregon city’s southwest side when a man walked up to him and shouted, “Thanks for ruining the city!”

Moments later, the Democratic mayor blasted the man in the eyes with pepper spray.

“Oh my God!” the man cried in an audio recording of the encounter published by the Willamette Week. “Wow ... I can’t see. The mayor has just thrown something at me.”

The encounter between Wheeler and the unidentified man was recorded by former Portland mayor Sam Adams, who later told police that the man, who was unmasked, had accosted them on the street with a video camera.

Tim Becker, a spokesman for the mayor’s office, told The Washington Post in an email Monday that Wheeler is cooperating with police “and encourages others involved to do the same.” Adams declined to comment.

The man, who told Wheeler he had taken pictures of him at the pub, accused the mayor of disregarding coronavirus safety measures during his meeting with Adams, Wheeler wrote in an emailed statement to police.

“He accused me of sitting in a restaurant without a mask,” Wheeler said. “I informed him the current covid regulations allow people to take their mask off for the purpose of eating and drinking.”

Read more here: Washington Post – Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler pepper-sprayed a maskless man who accused him of disregarding coronavirus measures

Sanders in new push for $15 minimum wage under Biden

Senator Bernie Sanders says the widespread suffering caused by the pandemic-induced economic crisis has made it “morally imperative” to increase the US’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. And in an interview with the Guardian, Sanders and other lawmakers pushing for a higher minimum wage say the chances of enacting a $15 minimum are better than ever before now that President Joe Biden has called for a $15 federal minimum as part of his emergency Covid legislative package.

Raising the minimum to $15 would more than double the current $7.25-an-hour federal minimum wage, but many Republicans oppose the move, saying it would hurt business.

In an interview, Sanders, who championed a $15 minimum wage as a presidential candidate in 2016 and 2020, voiced excitement about the prospects of raising the minimum wage, which hasn’t increased since 2009, the longest stretch without an increase since Congress first enacted a minimum wage in 1938.

“This country faces an enormous economic crisis that is aggravated by the pandemic,” Sanders said. “We’re looking at terrible levels of unemployment. We’re looking at growing income and wealth inequality. What concerns me as much as anything is that half our people are living paycheck to paycheck. Millions of people are trying to survive on starvation wages. For me, it’s morally imperative that we raise the minimum wage to a living wage that’s at least $15 an hour.”

The House voted last July to raise the minimum wage to $15 in steps through 2025, but then Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell blocked a vote on it. With the White House, Senate and House under Democratic control, Sanders said the chances are good to enact a $15 minimum, although he said it would be hard to attract 10 Republican Senators to support it, making it hard to overcome a filibuster.

Sanders, the incoming chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, sees another route to passage, saying it could be done under the “budget reconciliation” – a process where measures deemed to have budgetary impact can be approved by simple majority vote. “It clearly has to be done by reconciliation. That’s something I’m working very hard on,” said Sanders.

Read more of Steven Greenhouse’s report here: Sanders in new push for $15 minimum wage under Biden: ‘For me, it’s morally imperative’

President Joe Biden is up and tweeting. Or, at least someone from his campaign is anyway. The first Biden tweet of the day doesn’t have quite the same feeling that he’s hunched over his phone while watching a news network that the last White House incumbent always seemed to have.

Biden’s @POTUS account is setting the scene for today’s expected announcements on the administration’s racial equity agenda, saying that “America has never lived up to its founding promise of equality for all.”

About 150 people have now been charged in connection with the 6 January Capitol riot. Authorities have had quite a bit of help tracking people down – in fact in dozens of cases, supporters of Donald Trump downright flaunted their activity on social media on the day of the deadly insurrection. Later, apparently realizing they were in trouble with the law, they deleted their accounts only to discover their friends and family members had already taken screenshots of their selfies, videos and comments and sent them to the FBI.

Even with the help from the rioters themselves, investigators must still work rigorously to link the images to the vandalism and suspects to the acts on 6 January in order to prove their case in court. And because so few were arrested at the scene, the FBI and the US Marshals Service have been forced to send agents to track suspects down.

In the last few weeks, the FBI has received more than 200,000 photos and video tips related to the riot. Investigators have put up billboards in several states with photos of wanted rioters, report the Associated Press. Working on tips from co-workers, acquaintances and friends, agents have tracked down driver’s license photos to match their faces with those captured on camera in the building. In some cases, authorities got records from Facebook or Twitter to connect their social media accounts to their email addresses or phone numbers. In others, agents used records from license plate readers to confirm their travels.

More than 800 are believed to have made their way into the Capitol, although it’s likely not everyone will be tracked down and charged with a crime. And those that do feel the long arm of the law may not face the maximum charges available. A special group of prosecutors is examining whether to bring sedition charges against the rioters, which carry up to 20 years in prison. One trio was charged with conspiracy; most have been charged with crimes like unlawful entry and disorderly conduct.

“Just because you’ve left the DC region, you can still expect a knock on the door if we find out that you were part of criminal activity inside the Capitol,” Steven D’Antuono, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington office, said earlier this month. “Bottom line — the FBI is not sparing any resources in this investigation.”

Akin Olla, political strategist and organizer who hosts the This is The Revolution podcast, writes for us this morning, arguing that the FBI can’t investigate white extremism until it first investigates itself:

The FBI has a long history of fulfilling the function of white supremacy in the United States. While the Tulsa Massacre was ongoing, the FBI’s predecessor was busy investigating Marcus Garvey and his Universal Negro Improvement Association. The FBI’s first director, J Edgar Hoover, waged war on the Civil Rights Movement from its onset. The war was ramped up in the age of Cointelpro, an FBI program designed to surveil, dismantle, and destroy any movement working to end racism or capitalist exploitation in the United States. The FBI occasionally investigated white supremacists during this era (1956 to 1971),but spent the vast majority of its resources fighting those committed to Black and Indigenous liberation.

While the FBI likes to pretend that those were crimes of the past, there are more recent examples of white supremacist behavior in the organization. There is evidence that some FBI agents and other federal agents frequented an annual party called “The Good Ol’ Boys Roundup” from 1980 to 1996. The “Roundup” was known as a whites-only gathering that involved the selling of fake “N----r hunting licenses” and T-shirts with King’s face in a sniper’s crosshairs. While the Department of Justice insists that federal agents weren’t overwhelmingly engaged in racist behavior, their investigation of the Roundup was primarily conducted through interviews with participants of the event itself.

The modern FBI has a problematic track record, too. In 2017 the bureau created a new counter-terrorism designation in response to the rise of Black Lives Matter and a new wave of the Black Liberation Movement. The new designation “Black Identity Extremists” has already been used to surveil and arrest at least one Black activist, Rakem Balogun, an open socialist and member of a number of leftwing Black power organizations. The FBI cited Balogun’s Facebook posts to justify raiding his home and arresting him; all the charges against him were unsubstantiated and later dropped. The designation has been criticized by many, including the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, the nation’s largest organizations of Black police officers. And while Balogun was the first to be openly targeted, it is clear he is far from the only Black activist currently being surveilled.

Read more here: Akin Olla – The FBI can’t investigate white extremism until it first investigates itself

Also on the foreign policy front, one of the Biden administration’s most pressing task will be to develop a relationship with China. Joe McDonald and Paul Wiseman have written for Associated Press today how they think that might play out.

They report that economists say Biden won’t confront Beijing right away because he wants to focus on the coronavirus and the economy. But he looks set to renew pressure over trade and technology grievances that prompted Donald Trump to hike tariffs on Chinese imports in 2017.

Negotiators might tone down Trump’s focus on narrowing China’s multibillion-dollar trade surplus with the United States and push harder to open its state-dominated economy, which matters more in the long run, economists say. But no abrupt tariff cuts or other big changes are expected.

“I think Biden will focus more on trying to extract structural reforms,” said Louis Kuijs of Oxford Economics. “It’s going to take some time before we get any shift or explicit announcements.”

Biden is evaluating tariffs on Chinese goods and wants to coordinate future steps with allies, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Monday. She gave no indication of possible changes. “The president is committed to stopping China’s economic abuses,” Psaki said.

China faces more opposition than ever in Washington due to its trade record, territorial disputes with neighbors, crackdown on Hong Kong, reports of abuses against ethnic Muslims and accusations of technology theft and spying.

“The ground has shifted in a significant way,” said Nathan Sheets, a former Treasury undersecretary for international affairs in the Obama administration.

Katherine Tai, Biden’s choice to succeed US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, sounded a hawkish note on China in a speech this month.

“We face stiffening competition from a growing and ambitious China,” said Tai. “A China whose economy is directed by central planners who are not subject to the pressures of political pluralism, democratic elections or popular opinion.’’

Iran threatens to block short-notice inspections of nuclear facilities

A quick foreign policy snap from Reuters here, that Iran has threatened to block short-notice inspections of its nuclear facilities by the United Nations atomic agency as it presses Joe Biden’s new administration to reverse the economic sanctions imposed on Tehran by Donald Trump.

Trump pulled Washington out of Iran’s 2015 nuclear pact with world powers in 2018 and reimposed US sanctions that had been lifted under it, prompting Tehran to violate its conditions. Biden has said he will rejoin the pact if Tehran resumes strict compliance.

The agreement requires Tehran to implement an Additional Protocol, which provides inspectors with wide-ranging access to information on Iran’s nuclear activities and the ability to inspect any site it deems necessary to verify that those activities are peaceful.

In what appeared to be a display of brinkmanship, Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei said the first steps to restrict inspections related to the Additional Protocol would begin in the first week of the Iranian month of Esfand, which starts on 19 February.

“Our law is very clear regarding this issue,” he told a televised news conference. “But it does not mean Iran will stop other inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.”

Iran’s parliament passed a law in December that obliges the government to harden its nuclear stance if US sanctions are not lifted in two months. But Iran has repeatedly said it can quickly reverse its course if they are removed.

In July 2015, Iran and a six-nation negotiating group reached a landmark agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that ended a 12-year deadlock over Tehran’s nuclear programme. The deal, struck in Vienna after nearly two years of intensive talks, limited the Iranian programme, to reassure the rest of the world that it cannot develop nuclear weapons, in return for sanctions relief.

At its core, the JCPOA is a straightforward bargain: Iran’s acceptance of strict limits on its nuclear programme in return for an escape from the sanctions that grew up around its economy over a decade prior to the accord. Under the deal, Iran unplugged two-thirds of its centrifuges, shipped out 98% of its enriched uranium and filled its plutonium production reactor with concrete. Tehran also accepted extensive monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has verified 10 times since the agreement, and as recently as February, that Tehran has complied with its terms. In return, all nuclear-related sanctions were lifted in January 2016, reconnecting Iran to global markets.

The six major powers involved in the nuclear talks with Iran were in a group known as the P5+1: the UN security council’s five permanent members – China, France, Russia, the UK and the US – and Germany. The nuclear deal is also enshrined in a UN security council resolution that incorporated it into international law. The 15 members of the council at the time unanimously endorsed the agreement.

On 8 May 2018, US president Donald Trump pulled his country out of the deal. Iran announced its partial withdrawal from the nuclear deal a year later. Trump's successor, Joe Biden, has said that the US could return to the deal if Iran fulfilled its obligations.

Saeed Kamali Dehghan, Iran correspondent

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reiterated that possibility at a news conference in Moscow on Tuesday.

“If favorable actions are taken before that time...Iran will not interfere with the admission of (IAEA) inspectors under the additional protocol,” he said.

Iran this month resumed enriching uranium to 20% fissile strength at the underground Fordow nuclear plant, a level Tehran achieved before striking the 2015 deal aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear programme.

“Of course, Washington will not have all the time in the world ... the window of opportunity is very limited,” Rabiei said.

US companies using pandemic as a tool to break unions, workers claim

Dalroy Connell has worked as a stagehand for the Portland Trailblazers since 1995 when the basketball team began playing games at the Rose Garden Arena. When the pandemic hit the US in March 2020, public events were shut down and NBA games were briefly suspended before the season moved to a “bubble” in Orlando, Florida, and the season recommenced without fans in July 2020.

Connell and his colleagues have been on unemployment ever since, but when the 2020-2021 NBA season began in December 2020, instead of bringing back several of these workers, the Portland Trailblazers replaced most of the unionized crew who work their games with non-union workers, even as their jobs running the sound and lighting equipment are required whether or not fans are in attendance.

Like many workers around the US Connell believes he has been locked out from his job by a company that has used the coronavirus pandemic as a tool to break unions.

“It’s a blatant slap in the face,” said Connell. “They’re using positions in the house, people who already work there to do things we normally do.”

The workers’ union, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 28, has filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board and held protests outside of Portland Trailblazers home games.

Connell alleged management at the Portland Trailblazers has frequently fought the union over the past several years, with the latest refusal to recall union workers an extension of this trend.

“Here we are wasting a ton of money on legal fees just to give a few guys some work. It’s a five-hour job. It’s so easy to work this out,” he added.

Read more of Michael Sainato’s report: US companies using pandemic as a tool to break unions, workers claim

Avril Haines, who now oversees all 16 US intelligence agencies, is unlike any of the spies who came before her, and not just because she is the country’s first female director of national intelligence.

She is also the first intelligence chief to have to make an emergency landing while trying to cross the Atlantic in a tiny plane; the first to take a year out in Japan to learn judo; and surely the first anywhere in the world to have owned a cafe-bookstore that staged frequent erotica nights.

“What’s interesting about Avril is that she’s just a voraciously curious person who will throw herself into whatever she’s doing,” said Ben Rhodes, Barack Obama’s former speechwriter and foreign policy aide who is a close friend of Haines.

The Haines backstory makes her an unlikely spy, but proved no obstacle to getting bipartisan support. She was the first Biden nominee to be confirmed, with 84-10 Senate vote on Wednesday night.

David Priess, a former CIA official now chief operating officer at the Lawfare Institute, said her unusual life story is an advantage in the world of espionage.

“She has to be able to understand and to lead everyone from analysts to intelligence collectors to engineers to pilots to disguise artists to accountants,” Priess said.

“Having that diverse set of experiences very much helps her to lead the very diverse and disparate intelligence community.”

Haines’ period of lifestyle experimentation anyway ended decades ago, in 1998 when she started a law degree. Since then she has been a legal counsel in the Senate, state department and White House, the deputy director of the CIA and deputy national security adviser.

Senate Republicans, who had confirmed her Trump-appointed predecessor, John Ratcliffe, despite his lack of any significant experience in intelligence and his exaggeration of his previous brushes with security work, had few excuses to oppose her.

The main source of scepticism comes from human rights activists, over whether she might be too much of an insider, with too much baggage. She redacted the report on torture – some argue over-redacted it – and she codified a set of procedures and rules for the use of drone strikes in the assassinations of terror suspects.

Read more of Julian Borger’s profile here: Avril Haines’s unusual backstory makes her an unlikely chief of US intelligence

“Their socialism and cancel culture will not heal America” said Sarah Huckabee Sanders yesterday when launching her bid to be the next Governor of Arkansas. She wasn’t that keen to divorce herself from her legacy of working with the Trump administration – her launch video had plenty of references to the former president.

However, it is likely that her campaign will be dogged by reminders of her time in the White House. Mehdi Hasan overnight did a TV sport ranking her “worst lies” while fronting the Trump press operation.

These include claiming that 4,000 known or suspected terrorists had been trying to cross the border when the true number was 6, and that the then-president had never encouraged or condoned violence, forgetting the time Donald Trump had told supporters to punch hecklers in the face and offering to pay their legal fees.

You can watch the clip here:

Igor Vamos writes for us today on how Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with ads for combat gear:

On 16 January, Facebook announced that it will be “banning ads that promote weapon accessories and protective equipment in the US at least through January 22”. To those of us who have been observing the world of Trump-supporting social media, this announcement is a manipulative piece of whitewashing that obscures how Facebook’s algorithms continue to divide people the world over.

As part of my research while working as a consulting producer on Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, I made many pro-Trump social media accounts. The accounts were a window into the Trump echo-chamber, where the unhinged threats and vitriol posted by radicalized users are chilling. Yet as shocking as the posts can be, they make perfect sense if you look at the ads that bombard those accounts.

Roughly four out of five ads shown to my pro-Trump profiles sell tactical gear clearly intended for combat. This is not a new thing – it has been going on since I started looking at these accounts in June 2019, and it was probably going on much longer than that.

Despite not actually selling guns, the vast majority of the ads nevertheless display military-style weapons somewhere in their design. An automatic rifle slides into the tactical backpack. The body armor is worn by someone actively poised to shoot a semi-automatic weapon. A black T-shirt presents an image of a medieval crusader in full armor holding a contemporary handgun, accompanied by a biblical quote: “Blessed be the lord my rock who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle.”

My pro-Trump feeds are personalized e-commerce sites for Capitol invaders. The rare ads that do not sell tactical gear and accessories for armed combat pitch survival and security products, from enhanced door locks to backup generators. But the fact that you can buy stuff by clicking the links doesn’t even matter. What matters is what being surrounded by those ads does to your mind.

Read more here: Igor Vamos – Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with ads for combat gear. See for yourself

Google to stop political donations to Congress members who voted against election results

Google said last night it will no longer make contributions from its political action committee this election cycle to any Congress member who voted against certifying the results of the presidential election, report Reuters

Earlier this month, following the violent storming of the US Capitol, the tech giant had paused all political contributions to reassess its policies toward political contribution.

“Following that review, the NetPAC board has decided that it will not be making any contributions this cycle to any member of Congress who voted against certification of the election results,” a Google representative said in a statement.

Fears grow that efforts to combat US domestic terrorism can hurt minorities

An expanded no fly list. New crimes put on the books. Increased use of the death penalty. These are some of the ways that politicians, pundits and law enforcement want to head off a repeat of the 6 January attack on the Capitol. But a renewed national security push aimed at addressing domestic terrorism has civil liberties groups steeling themselves, concerned that moves to combat far-right extremism will instead redound against communities of color and leftwing activists.

Last summer’s racial justice protests jump-started a national conversation over the endurance of racism within America’s law enforcement and security apparatus. But despite campaigning on the need to reform those institutions, some mainstream Democrats are now taking the lead on calls to expand them.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has called for the Capitol rioters to be placed on the no fly list. President Joe Biden, whose campaign website pledges his administration will “work for a domestic terrorism law”, has ordered a comprehensive assessment of domestic violent extremism. House speaker Nancy Pelosi has called for a new “9/11-type commission”. And the first domestic terrorism legislation to follow the Capitol attack was introduced in the House last week by Illinois Democrat Brad Schneider.

The Democratic party, however, isn’t entirely united on the issue.

Ten progressive members of Congress, led by Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib have sent a letter to congressional leadership expressing opposition to an expansion of national security powers.

“The Trump mob’s success in breaching the Capitol was not due to a lack of resources at the disposal of federal law enforcement,” the letter reads. “We firmly believe that the national security and surveillance powers of the US government are already too broad, undefined, and unaccountable to the people.”

“Our history is littered with examples of initiatives sold as being necessary to fight extremism that quickly devolve into tools used for the mass violation of the human and civil rights of the American people,” the letter continues.

It cites as examples the McCarthy-era House Un-American Activities Committee, the surveillance of the civil rights movement in the 1960s and the invention of a category in 2017 called “Black Identity Extremism” the FBI claimed posed a risk of domestic terrorism.

More than 100 civil and human rights organizations have also joined in a statement of opposition to any new domestic terror legislation.

Read more of Noa Yachot’s report: Fears grow that efforts to combat US domestic terrorism can hurt minorities

Business owners have unsurprisingly hailed Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to lift stay-at-home orders across California in response to improving coronavirus conditions, but local health officials have expressed concern that it may cause residents to let down their guard.

Kathleen Ronayne reports from Sacramento for the Associated Press that the lifting of the stay-at-home order allows restaurants to serve diners outdoors and places of worship to offer services outside. Hair and nail salons and other businesses may reopen and retailers can have more shoppers in their stores.

California is experiencing a “flattening of the curve,” Newsom said during a virtual news conference on Monday. “Everything that should be up is up, everything that should be down is down case rates, positivity rates, hospitalizations, ICUs.”

The metrics are markedly improved since last month, when some Southern California hospitals overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients were crafting emergency plans for rationing care.

Newsom drafted the stay-at-home order in December as virus cases spiked and in anticipation of surges from holiday gatherings. He divided the state into five regions and ultimately the order was imposed in four of them because their ICU capacity fell below the state-mandated 15%. Only rural far Northern California stayed above the threshold.

Southern California, which accounts for more than half the state population of nearly 40 million, still has an ICU capacity of 0%, according to state data. But Newsom said state modeling for the next four weeks projects cases will fall and ICU capacity will rise to 33%, the highest of any of the state’s regions.

California’s latest and worst surge of the pandemic started in mid-October. In a little more than two months the state recorded more than 2 million cases and hospitalizations grew nearly tenfold to almost 22,000.

As the sickest patients die, the death toll has exploded. The state is averaging 504 deaths a day and its total now tops 37,000, second only to New York.

Not everyone is impressed. “This new executive order is surprising,” tweeted Lena Gonzalez, a California state senator. “My quintessential question: How are low income communities of color and essential workers being impacted by this order? Why do I have to keep asking this question?”

Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a University of California, Los Angeles professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases, said little evidence exists to show that outdoor dining or personal care services are major sources of coronavirus spread and that the state’s overall metrics are improving.

“I think it does make sense to allow people to get back to work and get back to their lives somewhat, and to also continue to emphasize the issue of masking and physical distancing indoors” and vaccinations, he said.

In Los Angeles County, home to 10 million people, county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer stressed the need for residents to continue to abide by social distancing and mask recommendations otherwise “we’ll be in the horrible position of needing to once again backtrack.”

42 states reporting downward Covid infection trends but new variants concern experts

Yesterday there were 151,112 new coronavirus cases and 1,915 further deaths in the US. According to the figures from Johns Hopkins university, the total US caseload stands at 25,275,706, with an overall death toll of 420,800.

There was some better news from the nation’s hospitals. For the first time since 13 December, the number of people in hospital with Covid in the US dipped below 110,000. Hospitalizations have been above 100,000 since 2 December.

Christina Maxouris at CNN reports that health experts in the US are concerned about the transmission of new variants, even as infection rates are begining to drop, with 42 states reporting downward trends.

“We’ve seen what happens in other countries that have actually had coronavirus under relatively good control, then these variants took over and they had explosive spread of the virus, and then overwhelmed hospitals,” emergency physician Dr. Leana Wen told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

Officials in Minnesota announced Monday they detected the P.1 variant of the virus in a traveler from Brazil. The variant is one of four being closely watched by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and appears to be more easily transmissible. CDC officials have also said another variant -- called B.1.1.7 and first spotted in the UK -- has been detected in more than 20 states.

“If there is something more contagious among us, if we thought that going to the grocery store before was relatively safe, there’s actually a higher likelihood of contracting coronavirus through those every day activities,” she said.

My Pillow chief Mike Lindell suspended from Twitter over false election claims

My Pillow chief Mike Lindell has become the latest high profile person to be permanently suspended by Twitter for repeated violations of the company’s policy on election misinformation, report Reuters.

Lindell, a devout supporter of former president Donald Trump, financed post-election protest movements in a bid to overturn the election win of president Joe Biden.

Lindell used his personal Twitter account, which had nearly half a million followers before being suspended, and the company’s account to spread unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud in the presidential election. Courts have repeatedly rejected such baseless claims, and Dominion Voting Systems have taken legal action against both Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani over spreading similar conspiracy theories.

The founder and CEO of My Pillow, Lindell’s political commentary and advertisements are a regular fixture on conservative media. A self-described former cocaine addict and alcoholic who says he found sobriety through Christianity, Lindell helped sponsor a two-week March for Trump bus tour that ended in Washington on 14 December and spoke at five stops.

The Capitol riots that left five people dead did not change his views on contesting the election. “I’m never letting the fraud go,” Lindell told reporters after it happened.

Ghislaine Maxwell asks to throw out case over Epstein plea deal

Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite charged with recruiting teenage girls for the US financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse in the 1990s, has asked a judge to dismiss the case on multiple grounds, including that a deal years ago not to prosecute Epstein and others should shield her from prosecution.

Lawyers for Maxwell said the indictment against her was obtained unjustly and did not allege crimes specific enough to bring before a jury.

But they listed first among 12 arguments attacking the indictment that a non-prosecution deal Epstein reached with the federal government a dozen years ago should shield Maxwell from prosecution too.

The agreement sought to protect Epstein and those around him, but Maxwell was not identified by name in the document that was signed as Epstein agreed to plead guilty to state charges in Florida that forced him to register as a sex offender.

Maxwell, 59, was arrested in July and has remained jailed on grounds she might flee. She has pleaded not guilty to charges that she recruited three teenage girls, including a 14-year-old, for Epstein to sexually abuse from 1994-97. The indictment alleged she sometimes joined in the abuse.

Read more here: Ghislaine Maxwell asks to throw out case over Epstein plea deal

Biden to sign new executive orders on his racial equity agenda

Joe Biden has frequently cited racial equity as one of the crises that his incoming administration promises to tackle. Today the new president will attempt to take further concrete steps to addressing it, with a speech at 2pm EST (7pm GMT) and some executive orders. Stephen Collinson at CNN runs down what is expected:

Biden on Tuesday will sign executive actions establishing a commission on policing, partly in response to the death of Minnesota man George Floyd with a policeman’s knee on his neck last year.

He is also expected to order improvements in prison conditions and to mandate the Department of Housing and Urban Development to promote equitable housing policies.

Last week, in the first hours of his presidency, Biden signed an executive order requiring all government departments to put racial and other forms of equality at the center of everything that they do during his term.

One, established that “advancing equity for all -- including people of color and others who have been historically underserved and marginalized -- is the responsibility of the whole of our government.”

Like much of Biden’s presidency, his capacity for action, and to secure the massive funding that serious reform requires, will be constrained by narrow majorities in Congress and Washington’s fractured political scene in the post-Trump era. But he does have the moral authority of having won office against a President who tore at the nation’s racial chasm with a hard line “law and order” campaign based on false claims that the Democratic nominee wanted to dismantle policing as it is currently known.

Read more here: CNN – Biden aims to tackle another American crisis: Race

Hi, welcome to our live coverage of US politics for Tuesday. There won’t be anything like the high drama of yesterday’s delivery of the article of impeachment to the Senate, but there’s still plenty going on. Here’s a catch up on where we are, and what we might expect to see

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