Politics recap
That’s it for today. Here’s what’s happened:
- Joe Biden visited New Jersey to promote his economic agenda, as Democrats continue to negotiate over the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the reconciliation package. Delivering a speech in a suburb of Newark, Biden argued the two bills would help make America more competitive in the global economy. “When we make these investments, there is going to be no stopping America. We will own the future,” Biden said. “So let’s get this done.”
- Joe Manchin told reporters that he believes Democrats could reach a deal this week on the framework of the reconciliation bill. The centrist senator met with Biden in Delaware yesterday, and the president said their conversation “went well”, raising Democrats’ hopes of reaching an agreement.
- Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testified before British MPs about the harm caused by the company. Haugen’s testimony comes as UK lawmakers consider a bill that places a duty of care on social media companies to protect their users.
- The Biden administration outlined its new vaccination rules for international travel into the US. The rules indicate that nearly all foreign nationals flying into the US will be required to show proof of vaccination before boarding a flight, although there are exceptions for children who may not yet be eligible for a shot.
- A Bannon associate is being privately questioned by Capitol riot investigators, according to a new Politico report. Dustin Stockton, a conservative activist connected to Steve Bannon, has not been charged with wrongdoing but is being questioned by the congressional committee investigating the 6 January insurrection.
- Texas governor Greg Abbott signs anti-transgender sports ban into law. Texas governor Gregg Abbott signed HB25, which bans transgender students in grades K-12 from playing on sports teams that match their gender, making it Texas’s first statewide anti-trans bill.
- The Biden administration reportedly plans to name a GOP official to lead election security efforts. CNN is reporting that the Biden administration expects to name Kim Wyman, Washington state’s Republican secretary of state known for publicly rejecting Trump’s claims of election fraud, to head up the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to protect future elections from any interference.
Thanks for tuning in.
Updated
Jim Waterson and Dan Milmo report from the UK:
Mark Zuckerberg “has unilateral control over 3 billion people” due to his unassailable position at the top of Facebook, the whistleblower Frances Haugen told MPs as she called for urgent external regulation to rein in the tech company’s management and reduce the harm being done to society.
Haugen, a former Facebook employee who released tens of thousands of damaging documents about its inner workings, travelled to London from the US for a parliamentary hearing and gave qualified backing to UK government proposals to regulate social media platforms and make them take some responsibility for content on their sites.
The company’s internal culture prioritised profitability over its impact on the wider world, said Haugen, and “there is no will at the top to make sure these systems are run in an adequately safe way”. She added: “Until we bring in a counterweight, these things will be operated for the shareholders’ interest and not the public interest.”
She warned that Instagram, which is owned by Facebook and used by millions of children worldwide, may never be safe for pre-teens.
Addressing a group of MPs and peers on Monday, Haugen said much of the blame for the world’s increasingly polarised politics lay with social networks and the radicalising impact of services such as Facebook Groups.
These can encourage small and intense communities that breed conspiracy theories, she said. “I am deeply concerned that they have made a product that can lead people away from their real communities and isolate them in these rabbit holes and these filter bubbles. What you find is that when people are sent targeted misinformation to a community, it can make it hard to reintegrate into wider society because now you don’t have shared facts.”
Read more:
Updated
Joe Biden has rejected another one of Donald Trump’s attempts at asserting executive privilege over documents requested by the congressional committee investigating the 6 January insurrection.
In a letter obtained by CNN, White House counsel Dana Remus instructed the National Archives to hand over the tranche of documents requested by the committee.
Last week, Trump filed a lawsuit against the House committee in order to block a separate group of documents from being produced. The lawsuit alleged the House requests for documents “are unprecedented in their breadth and scope and are untethered from any legitimate legislative purpose.” According to CNN, Trump may add the new set of documents the National Archives is being instructed to produce to that lawsuit.
The letter CNN obtained reads: “President Biden has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States, and therefore is not justified, as to the documents provided to the White House on September 16, 2021, and September 23, 2021. Accordingly, President Biden does not uphold the former President’s assertion of privilege.”
Chipping away at executive privilege could set a tricky precedent for Biden in the future. But for now, Biden has shown he’s intent on ensuring documents relevant to the insurrection investigation are produced given the “extraordinary events” of that day.
Updated
Biden administration reportedly plans to name GOP official to lead election security efforts
CNN is reporting that the Biden administration expects to name Kim Wyman, Washington state’s Republican secretary of state, to head up the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to protect future elections from any interference.
Wyman is known for publicly criticizing and rejecting Donald Trump’s insistence that the election was rigged against him, saying at the time the claims were “scary” and “irresponsible.” Wyman also criticized the “audit” of the Arizona election results. “I can’t get to calling this an audit, or even a recount, because you’re not doing it with any kind of established ground rules or policies or procedures,” Wyman, who has been overseeing elections for three decades, said at the time. “It’s an exercise at best. It’s political theater at worst.”
Scoop —> The Biden administration is expected to name Kim Wyman, a Republican secretary of state who challenged former President Donald Trump's false claims of election fraud, to lead the DHS’s election security efforts https://t.co/3wZu0638Cb
— Sean Lyngaas (@snlyngaas) October 25, 2021
Federal officials have been in talks with Wyman for weeks, according to CNN sources. As the election security lead for DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Wyman would act as “a federal liaison to state and local officials as they look for resources and support to protect election infrastructure from hacking and voters from disinformation campaigns,” the CNN report reads.
Wyman’s selection is not official yet and won’t be until all administrative paper work is cleared with the White House.
Updated
Texas governor Greg Abbott signs anti-transgender sports ban into law
Texas governor Gregg Abbott signed HB25, which bans transgender students in grades K-12 from playing on sports teams that match their gender, into law.
This is Texas’s first statewide anti-trans bill that has been signed into law and makes Texas the ninth state to restrict how trans athletes can participate in team sports.
Ricardo Martinez, CEO of Equality Texas, said they were devastated at the passage of the bill and that the organization will “begin to shift focus to electing pro-equality lawmakers who understand our issues and prioritize representing the vast majority of Texans who firmly believe that discrimination against trans and LGB+ people is wrong.”
As the Guardian’s LA correspondent Sam Levin previously reported, conservative state lawmakers have proposed more than 110 anti-trans bills in 2021. From his story in June:
This extraordinary legislative attack on trans rights has primarily targeted children and young adults and has dramatically escalated over the last several months, establishing anti-trans policy as a signature priority for state Republicans. The results could be catastrophic for vulnerable children, advocates and affected families say, given that the bills target healthcare, recreation and school life, with policies that intensify discrimination and exclusion of trans kids.
The proposals have spanned 37 states, affecting nearly every region of the country, according to Freedom for All Americans, a not-for-profit that has tracked the bills and compiled data for the Guardian.
Read more
Updated
The US Department of Justice has accelerated its two-year-old antitrust investigation into Apple, according to The Information. Sources familiar with the investigation who spoke to The Information on condition of anonymity say the investigation is likely to result in an antitrust lawsuit though the details are in flux.
Apple has so far largely escaped the antitrust scrutiny leveled at Facebook and Google. In August, the Federal Trade Commission revived its recently dismissed antitrust complaint against Facebook alleging the company engaged in an illegal “buy-or-bury” scheme to maintain its dominance when it couldn’t figure out how to innovate. As for Google, 36 states sued the company over antitrust violations related to its Android app store in July all while the company grappled with an ongoing DOJ lawsuit and preparations for a potential second inquiry from the department.
According to The Information, there has been a flurry of new activity in the Apple investigation. New investigators have been added to the probe and the DOJ has asked Apple as well as its competitors and customers questions about the control the company holds over the use of the iPhone, The Information’s sources said. That includes subpoenas that were sent to Apple’s business partners over the summer.
Apple has been victorious against recent antitrust complaints, namely the lawsuit the creators of video game Fortnite filed over the iPhone maker’s app development rules. The company was not found to be in violation of antitrust rules but was found to have violated unfair competition laws in California.
Updated
Eric Berger reports for the Guardian:
The number of new Covid cases and deaths in the United States has been in a steady decline since early September, prompting many infectious disease experts to conclude that the worst impacts of the pandemic in America are probably in the past.
But in the same breath, those experts also caution that it’s not yet safe to abandon safeguards against the virus. That’s because parts of the US population and much of the world remain unvaccinated, which could allow for outbreaks and dangerous new variants of the virus to emerge.
“My most optimistic assessment is that if we keep vaccinating, sometime during late fall, into the winter, the pandemic phase of Covid will be substantially reduced over much of the United States,” said William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
He added: “We could move from pandemic to endemic, and endemic means that the virus remains in the community, akin to influenza, smolders along, keeps being transmitted, but the rate of disease that occurs is profoundly diminished, and the impact on individuals and health systems is very much controlled.”
Read more:
Updated
Bannon associate privately questioned by Capitol riot investigators
A new report from Politico says that a conservative activist linked to Steve Bannon is being questioned by the congressional committee investigating the 6 January insurrection. Dustin Stockton, the Bannon associate in question, has not been charged with wrongdoing, according to Politico, but has been previously linked to the investigation.
The news comes days after the House of representatives voted to hold Bannon in criminal contempt for his refusal to comply with a subpoena to appear in front of the committee investigating the insurrection.
Stockton, who was also linked to the We Build the Wall crowdfunding effort that led to Bannon being charged with and later pardoned for defrauding donors, spent the weeks leading up to the 6 January rallies promoting the event. He later defended some of the militia groups involved in the riot.
From Politico:
The Jan. 6 select committee subpoenaed 11 organizers of the pro-Trump rallies that preceded the riot. Stockton was not among them, but he has ties to some of those involved. Several of the top organizers, including Women For America First leader Amy Kremer and “Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander, were subpoenaed to testify this week. It’s unclear if they’ve indicated their plans to cooperate.
Updated
The Biden administration announced a couple of steps it plans on taking to make it easier and cheaper to access at-home rapid Covid tests. The announcement comes as businesses prepare to comply with the administration’s vaccine or test mandate that would apply to any company with more than 100 employees.
As a first step, the Food and Drug Administration will be streamlining its authorization process for at-home Covid tests. Second, the National Institutes of Health plans on spending $70m – which would come from the $1.9tn Covid relief package Joe Biden signed into law in March – on a program that would help test-makers through the regulatory hurdles.
The FDA announced it had also given emergency use authorization to Celltrion Diatrust. That would make it the tenth company that manufactures over-the-counter rapid Covid tests to be authorized to sell its products to the public. According to NBC News, the NIH, FDA and Centers for Disease Control will be working together to identify manufacturers of high quality tests to encourage them to bring their products to market.
“Access to easy-to-use, affordable and reliable Covid tests is key to bringing peace of mind to our families, especially as we approach winter,” said Xavier Becerra, secretary of the department of health and human services .
Updated
This is Johana Bhuiyan taking over from San Francisco.
Today the House oversight committee said that the US Customs and Border Protection agency did not sufficiently discipline agents who posted violent or offensive posts in a Facebook group in as early as 2016. The report the committee published today is a result of an investigation launched in 2019 into social media misconduct at the agency, specifically looking at a series of secret Facebook groups where some agents threatened violence against migrants and elected officials.
The committee found that the CBP was aware of misconduct in 2016 in a 9,500-member Facebook group, called “I’m 10-15”, but “took minimal action to strengthen social media training or guidance” until it was made public in 2019. The report found that only two of the 60 officers ultimately found guilty of misconduct were fired in spite of recommendations from the agency’s discipline review board. Most were given reduced penalties and continue to work with migrants today, according to the report.
Examples of agents who continued to work with migrants or faced lax discipline from the report include:
• A Border Patrol agent who posted a sexually explicit doctored image and derogatory comments about a member of Congress had his discipline reduced from removal to a 60-day suspension and was awarded back pay.
• A Border Patrol supervisor who improperly posted an internal CBP video of a migrant falling off a cliff to their death, as well as an explicit and offensive comment about a member of Congress, had their discipline reduced from removal to a 30-day suspension.
• A Border Patrol agent with a history of multiple infractions was allowed to retire with disability benefits rather than face removal or any other discipline after posting a photograph of a drowned father and child and referring derisively to them as “floaters”.
In a press release, committee chair Carolyn B Maloney said she was “deeply troubled by CBP’s broken disciplinary process that allowed for significant reductions in discipline and allowed agents to resume work with migrants and children after engaging in serious misconduct”.
Updated
Today so far
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Johana Bhuiyan, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Joe Biden visited New Jersey to promote his economic agenda, as Democrats continue to negotiate over the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the reconciliation package. Delivering a speech in a suburb of Newark, Biden argued the two bills would help make America more competitive in the global economy. “When we make these investments, there is going to be no stopping America. We will own the future,” Biden said. “So let’s get this done.”
- Joe Manchin told reporters that he believes Democrats could reach a deal this week on the framework of the reconciliation bill. The centrist senator met with Biden in Delaware yesterday, and the president said their conversation “went well”, raising Democrats’ hopes of reaching an agreement.
- Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testified before British MPs about the harm caused by the company. Haugen’s testimony comes as UK lawmakers consider a bill that places a duty of care on social media companies to protect their users.
- The Biden administration outlined its new vaccination rules for international travel into the US. The rules indicate that nearly all foreign nationals flying into the US will be required to show proof of vaccination before boarding a flight, although there are exceptions for children who may not yet be eligible for a shot.
Johana will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Updated
Kamala Harris made an unexpected appearance at a White House meeting with climate leaders to discuss the importance of addressing the climate crisis through Joe Biden’s Build Back Better agenda.
The meeting comes as progressives fear that the final version of the reconciliation package will not include robust climate initiatives, partly due to demands from centrist Senator Joe Manchin.
VP Kamala Harris pushes Biden’s climate agenda:
— The Recount (@therecount) October 25, 2021
“You don’t wanna watch sausage be made, and you don't want to watch a bill be made. Sometimes it's not a pretty sight, but the end result — I mean, unless you’re a vegan, of course — the end result is usually pretty good.” pic.twitter.com/7cqc468sPS
“This is a moment of crisis. And as I think we all think of crises, also a moment of opportunity. And we cannot afford, at least in our fights, we cannot afford to be incremental. We cannot afford to be patient,” Harris said.
“Nonetheless, we also have a system where there must be consensus when we’re talking about the Build Back Better agenda, and we will work together to accomplish what we all know we must do.”
Emphasizing the administration’s “unwavering” commitment to climate action, Harris added, “There’s an old saying, you don’t want to watch sausage be made. And you don’t want to watch a bill being made.”
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats are closing in on a final deal over the reconciliation package after a “productive weekend” of talks.
“No one ever said passing transformational legislation like this would be easy, but we are on track to get this done,” Schumer said in a Senate floor speech moments ago.
The Democratic leader said earlier today that there are three or four outstanding issues in the negotiations, per Politico.
However, those outstanding issues account for some of progressives’ top priorities, including climate provisions.
New: Schumer says Democrats making progress on reconciliation bill and says "there are 3-4 outstanding issues" that need to be resolved.
— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) October 25, 2021
Updated
Other exemptions to the Biden administration’s new international travel rules include participants in certain Covid-19 vaccine clinical trials, those with medical contraindications to the vaccines and those who are permitted to travel for emergency or humanitarian reasons.
Additionally, very rare exceptions will be made for foreign nationals traveling on non-tourist visas from countries with low-vaccine availability, according to a senior administration official. There are currently about 50 countries considered to have “low-vaccine availability”, an official said.
Unvaccinated citizens and lawful permanent residents traveling to the US by plane will be required to produce a negative coronavirus test within one day of departure.
For purposes of travel, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will accept vaccines that have been authorized or approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or listed for emergency use by the World Health Organization (WHO).
That includes the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, widely available in the US, as well as the AstraZeneca vaccine that was quickly rolled out in Europe, and China’s Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines. Excluded is Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, which has yet to be authorized or approved by the FDA or WHO.
The CDC also issued new contact tracing rules that require airlines to collect personal information from international air passengers. Under the rules, airlines will be required to keep the information readily available for 30 days so public health officials can follow up with travelers who may have been exposed to the virus.
Updated
Biden administration outlines vaccination rules for international travel to US
Nearly all foreign nationals traveling to the US by air will be required to show proof of vaccination before boarding a flight, according to new rules outlined by the Biden administration on Monday.
With the US set to lift its ban on travel from 33 countries on 8 November, federal health officials unveiled specific requirements for passengers arriving by air to the US.
With few exceptions, children under 18 among them, most non US citizens and nonimmigrants will be required to provide documentation of vaccination status and a negative coronavirus test taken at least three days before departure.
“Under this new international air travel system foreign nationals will need to be fully vaccinated in order to fly to the United States. The new system also includes enhanced testing requirements, strengthens contact-tracing, as well as masking,” senior administration officials said in a briefing with reporters on Monday.
“These are strict safety protocols that follow the science and public health to enhance the safety of Americans here at home, and the safety of international air travel.”
Under the new system, airlines will need to verify the vaccination status of all foreign travelers before boarding an airplane to the US. Foreign travelers will still be required to produce a negative test result within three days of travel.
Children under 18 years of age will be exempt from the vaccination requirement. Children between the ages of 2 and 17 are required to take a pre-departure test.
If the unvaccinated child is traveling with a fully vaccinated adult, a test is required within three days prior to departure. If the unvaccinated child is traveling alone or with unvaccinated adults, they will have to test within one day of departure.
During his New Jersey speech, Joe Biden emphasized the ways in which the bipartisan infrastructure bill will bolster America’s response to the climate crisis.
For example, the president noted, the bill’s investment in passenger railway systems like Amtrak will help alleviate air pollution by likely cutting down on Americans’ car usage.
The president’s argument was noteworthy because his speech came as he is preparing to attend the Cop26 climate change conference in Glasgow next week.
Biden had originally hoped to attend the conference after signing Democrats’ reconciliation package, which was meant to include a robust set of climate initiatives.
Those proposals are likely to be significantly scaled back in the final version of the legislation, partly due to demands from centrist Senator Joe Manchin.
Biden may be highlighting the climate aspects of the infrastructure bill in an attempt to allay concerns about those expected changes to the reconciliation package.
'Let's get this done': Biden pitches economic agenda in New Jersey
Joe Biden argued the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the reconciliation package would help ensure America’s competitiveness in the global economy.
“When we make these investments, there is going to be no stopping America. We will own the future,” Biden told an audience in Kearny, New Jersey.
“This initiative is about betting on America, about believing in America, about believing in the American people. ... So let’s get this done. Let’s move.”
The president also took a moment to once again promise that the entire reconciliation package will be paid for through revenue-raisers, although it remains unclear what the top-line cost of the final bill will be.
Praising US workers as the “most talented workforce in the world,” Biden concluded, “Let’s get to work. Let’s put people to work. And let’s once again reestablish America as the most advanced country in the world.”
Updated
It’s worth noting that Joe Biden is speaking at the groundbreaking of a bridge in Kearny, New Jersey, that will serve Amtrak trains.
The president is a huge fan of Amtrak because he used the train service to travel between Delaware and Washington during his decades in the Senate.
Biden said one Amtrak employee calculated that he had traveled more than 2 million miles by train over the course of his political career. (This is one of Biden’s most oft-repeated stories, but it may not be true.)
The president added, “I’m a train guy because it also is the single most significant way we can deal with air pollution.”
Biden said projects like the Kearny bridge will be “just the beginning” of American efforts to improve its infrastructure if Congress can pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill and Democrats’ reconciliation package.
Updated
Biden sells Build Back Better agenda in New Jersey
Joe Biden is now speaking in a suburb of Newark, New Jersey, to deliver a pitch for his Build Back Better economic agenda.
The president’s speech comes as Democrats attempt to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the reconciliation package.
Underscoring the need to invest in initiatives like free pre-K access for all Americans, Biden noted that studies indicate the US has fallen far behind peer nations in terms of early education.
“We cannot be competitive in the 21st century global economy if we continue to slide,” Biden said.
When asked whether a paid family leave program will be part of Democrats’ reconciliation package, centrist Senator Joe Manchin deflected, telling NBC News that there are “an awful lot of moving parts”.
Joe Biden has already indicated that the paid leave program will be much narrower than what he had originally envisioned, offering workers four weeks of leave rather than 12.
On if paid leave is part of reconciliation framework Manchin told me he’s not gonna talk abt what’s in/out “bc there’s an awful lot of moving parts but theres a lot of concerns we have.” Asked if paid leave was 1 of those concerns: “I’m concerned about an awful lot of things.”
— Ali Vitali (@alivitali) October 25, 2021
But Manchin’s comments seem to indicate the program may still be cut entirely, which will likely outrage progressives who consider the policy to be a top priority.
Manchin told reporters earlier today that he believes Democrats may reach a deal this week on the framework of the reconciliation bill, but there are clearly some important outstanding issues that lawmakers need to address.
Joe Biden’s special envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, said earlier efforts to restart nuclear negotiations with Tehran are “in a critical place”.
Donald Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 international deal with Iran regarding its nuclear ambitions. Biden restarted relations.
Malley told reporters today there was a “deep and growing” concern about Iranian intransigence and refusal to commit to resuming negotiations in Vienna.
“We’re in a critical place,” Malley said, noting that talks were suspended after a sixth round in June due to Iran’s elections, but that new Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, has had plenty of time since taking office in August to decide on a policy.
“At this point it’s hard to find an innocent explanation as to why it’s taking so long,” Malley said. “The ‘Plan B’ being implemented right now appears to be the Iranian one, and that’s something we have to be prepared for.”
Here’s our diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, from earlier in October:
The Republican governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, plans to offer $5,000 bonuses to lure police officers from other states who resist vaccine mandates.
“We’re actually actively working to recruit out-of-state law enforcement,” DeSantis told Fox News on Sunday.
Many US cities and government agencies have introduced vaccination mandates for public employees. Resistance among police officers and other first responders has been widely picked up by rightwing media figures and politicians using opposition to Covid public health measures to attack the Biden administration and other Democratic authorities.
“We do have needs in our police and our sheriff’s departments,” DeSantis said. “So, in the next legislative session, I’m going to hopefully sign legislation that gives a $5,000 bonus to any out-of-state law enforcement that relocates in Florida.
“NYPD [New York], Minneapolis, Seattle, if you’re not being treated well, we will treat you better here. You can fill important needs for us, and we will compensate you as a result.”
DeSantis polls strongly among Republican voters in surveys of possible presidential nominees for 2024. He has reached such a position by tightly aligning himself with Donald Trump, the former president who seems likely to run again.
Last week, video circulated showing the two men deploying similar gestures and rhetorical gambits.
Authoritarians always spawn male imitators in terms of body language, performance, and attitude. Remember @mikepompeo's "swagger"? Now it's @GovRonDeSantis. Read #Strongmen to learn how the system populates with these "little Mussolinis." https://t.co/O7ctXxZ5DW
— Ruth Ben-Ghiat (@ruthbenghiat) October 22, 2021
The Fox News host Neil Cavuto has “begged” viewers to toss out political talking points about Covid-19 vaccinations and get the shot.
“My God, stop the politics,” he told the network’s Media Buzz show.
“Life is too short to be an ass. Life is way too short to be ignorant of the promise of something that is helping people worldwide. Stop the deaths, stop the suffering, please get vaccinated, please.”
He also said he expected to be attacked for his appeal.
“I hear from a lot of people in ongoing nasty emails,” he said. “‘You’re a Never Trumper’, or you’re this or ‘We don’t trust you, we don’t believe a word you’re saying.’
“And that’s just coming from my family.”
Full story:
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Joe Biden is visiting New Jersey to promote his economic agenda, as Democrats continue to negotiate over the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the reconciliation package. The president has already visited an elementary school, and he will soon deliver a speech in a Newark suburb to emphasize the importance of passing both bills.
- Joe Manchin told reporters that he believes Democrats could reach a deal this week on the framework of the reconciliation bill. The moderate Democratic senator met with Biden in Delaware yesterday, and the president said their conversation “went well,” raising Democrats’ hopes of reaching an agreement.
- Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testified before British MPs about the harm caused by the company. Haugen’s testimony comes as UK lawmakers consider a bill that places a duty of care on social media companies to protect their users.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Manchin says deal on reconciliation bill could come this week
Joe Manchin told reporters on Capitol Hill that he believes Democrats may reach a deal this week on the framework of the reconciliation package.
But the moderate Democratic senator also said he is “still at 1.5tn” in terms of his preferred price tag of the legislation, per CNN.
New - Manchin tells us he believes there’ll be a deal on a “conceptual framework” on Biden’s package this week
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 25, 2021
“I think a framework should be, it really should be.”
Says he’s concerned about expanding benefits — and pushed back on a Medicare expansion. Says he’s “still at $1.5T”
That could create issues with Manchin’s progressive colleagues, who have tried to keep the bill’s price tag as high as possible to ensure their priorities, such as Medicare expansion and universal pre-K, are included in the package.
However, Manchin also expressed concerns about the cost of expanding Medicare and closing the Medicaid gap in certain states, which could cause more tension between him and progressive lawmakers.
Joe Biden visited a classroom at East End Elementary School in North Plainfield, New Jersey, and he spoke with some of the students there.
One of the students in the class was wearing a sweatshirt saying “Future President,” so Biden offered some advice to the young boy.
Gesturing to the reporters accompanying Biden on his trip, the president said, “They’re with you all the time. They get to ask you all kinds of questions. And you try to figure out how you’re going to avoid answering them sometimes.”
Biden jokes with a student at East End Elementary in NJ that he has to figure out how to avoid answering questions when he’s president. pic.twitter.com/RRoV15BNVf
— The Recount (@therecount) October 25, 2021
Joe Biden is kicking off his events in New Jersey, where he will be visiting an elementary school and delivering a speech to promote his economic agenda.
A Bloomberg News reporter noted that the president was met by protesters as he arrived at East End Elementary School in North Plainfield.
The protesters were waving flags that read “Fuck Biden,” right next to one of the school’s athletic fields:
Protesters at a *school* that President Biden is visiting in New Jersey are waving flags that read “F🇺🇸K BIDEN, continuing the very normal discourse we have these days.
— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) October 25, 2021
(We could only see them over the port-a-potty.) pic.twitter.com/7kJ8qfnUKv
Joe Biden has arrived in New Jersey for events promoting his Build Back Better agenda, and he will be joined by the state’s Democratic governor, Phil Murphy.
Murphy is up for reelection next week, and he has recently been slipping in the polls, although he is still widely expected to win his race given New Jersey’s Democratic leanings.
Barack Obama visited New Jersey over the weekend to campaign for Murphy, and he told voters, “I believe you’re going to show the rest of the country and the world that we’re not going to indulge our worst instincts. ... We’re going to move forward, with people like Phil leading the way.”
The deputy White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, briefly gaggled with reporters aboard Air Force One as Joe Biden flew to New Jersey for today’s events promoting his economic agenda.
Echoing the president’s comments from earlier this morning, Jean-Pierre said Biden’s meeting with Democratic senator Joe Manchin yesterday was “constructive” and that progress was made toward reaching a final deal on the reconciliation package.
Asked whether there is concern about Biden leaving for Europe later this week, during a key phase of the negotiations, Jean-Pierre emphasized that the president will be “engaged closely” with his advisers even while traveling.
“He’s going to be headed to Europe this week,” Jean-Pierre said, dismissing a question about whether Biden may delay the trip to focus on the negotiations.
“Even if it doesn’t happen before he leaves, the president can do the work that he needs to do abroad, like many presidents before him have done.”
Haugen testifies before British MPs on harm caused by Facebook
The Facebook whistleblower is to giving evidence to MPs and peers scrutinising the online safety bill, amid calls for a toughening up of the landmark legislation.
Frances Haugen has triggered a deep crisis at Mark Zuckerberg’s social media empire after she released tens of thousands of internal documents detailing the company’s failure to keep its users safe from harmful content.
On Monday Haugen, 37, will testify in person at the joint committee scrutinising the draft online safety bill, a piece of legislation that places a duty of care on social media companies to protect users – with the threat of substantial fines if they fail to do so.
Speaking to the Observer before the hearing, Haugen said Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder, chief executive and controlling shareholder, had not shown any readiness to protect the public from the harm his company is causing.
“Right now, Mark [Zuckerberg] is unaccountable. He has all the control. He has no oversight, and he has not demonstrated that he is willing to govern the company at the level that is necessary for public safety.”
Read the Guardian’s UK Politics live blog to get the latest updates on the hearing:
Reconciliation negotiations with Manchin 'went well,' Biden says
Joe Biden is now en route from Delaware to New Jersey for a couple of events to promote his economic agenda.
The president briefly spoke to reporters before boarding Air Force One, and he was asked about his meeting yesterday with Democratic Senator Joe Manchin to discuss the reconciliation package.
Reporter: “Do you expect a vote this week?”
— The Recount (@therecount) October 25, 2021
President Biden: "What do you think? I don’t know. It’d be very positive to get it done before the [Europe] trip [on Thursday]." pic.twitter.com/rS5PQDCPxL
“It went well, a few more things to work out, but it went well,” Biden said of his conversation with Manchin.
Regarding the timing of the negotiations, the president said it would be “very positive” to reach a final deal on the reconciliation package before he leaves for Europe.
The president is scheduled to leave Washington later this week to meet with Pope Francis in Vatican City, participate in the G20 summit in Rome and attend the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow.
Documents and recordings obtained by the Guardian shed new light on a powerful and secretive rightwing network and the influence it was able to exert on Trump administration policies favoring the super-rich.
The recordings include speeches given to the Council for National Policy (CNP) by conservative media stars including Dennis Prager, emerging Republican power players such as Charlie Kirk, and close economic advisers to Donald Trump.
Some of the previously published recordings appear to no longer be publicly available.
The Guardian’s independently sourced recordings offer an insight into how much influence conservative economic thinkers – from bodies representing the interests of some of the richest individuals in the country – were able to exert on the supposed populist Trump.
Read the Guardian’s full report:
Democratic senator Joe Manchin has pushed for a smaller reconciliation package, and it appears that the final bill will cost $1.5tn to $2tn, compared to the original $3.5tn price tag.
Among other demands, Manchin has opposed extending the expanded child tax credit in its current form. The expanded credit was first approved in Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief package and is expected to expire at the end of the year.
And Manchin is facing some noteworthy criticism for his views on the child tax credit. Politico reports:
At a recording of West Virginia Public Radio’s ‘Mountain Stage’ program at the Kennedy Center on Sunday night, singer Carsie Blanton called out Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who was in attendance, in a song she’d written called ‘Dealing to the Devil.’ It’s a story about her ex-boyfriend and Donald Trump, but she shifted the dedication to Manchin over his resistance to fully extending the child tax credit, drawing cheers from the crowd. Awkward.
Biden to visit New Jersey as he faces crucial week for economic agenda
Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.
Joe Biden will visit New Jersey today to promote his economic agenda, as congressional Democrats attempt to (finally) get the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the reconciliation package across the finish line.
The president will visit East End Elementary School in North Plainfield and then deliver remarks on his Build Back Better agenda in a suburb of Newark.
Meanwhile, the House is looking to hold votes this week on both the reconciliation package and the infrastructure bill, but it remains unclear whether Democrats can reach a final deal this week.
Biden met with Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, a key vote in the reconciliation debate, in Delaware yesterday, raising hopes that both bills may soon pass.
“We have 90% of the bill agreed to and written. We just have some of the last decisions to be made,” House speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNN yesterday. “We’re pretty much there now.”
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
