Summary
- Joe Biden delivered remarks in Tulsa to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the city’s race massacre. The president emphasized the importance of acknowledging the lives and livelihoods lost in the massacre, which resulted in the death of at least 300 African Americans and the destruction of 35 blocks of Black real estate. “For much too long, the history of what took place here was told in silence, cloaked in darkness,” Biden said. “My fellow Americans, this was not a riot, this was a massacre.”
- Biden met with the three living survivors of the massacre before delivering his speech. All three survivors – Viola “Mother” Fletcher, Hughes “Uncle Red” Van Ellis and Lessie “Mother Randle” Benningfield Randle – are over 100 years old. Biden acknowledged them in his remarks, saying, “Now your story will be known in full view.”
- Ahead of the trip, the Biden administration announced a series of initiatives aimed at narrowing the country’s racial wealth gap. The administration pledged to take action to address racial housing discrimination and use its purchasing power to direct an additional $100bn to small disadvantaged business owners.
- Biden will meet tomorrow with Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito to discuss a potential compromise on infrastructure. The meeting comes a week after Republicans outlined their latest offer, which called for spending $928bn on infrastructure over the next eight years, far less than what Biden has proposed.
- Biden issued a proclamation to mark the start of LGBTQ+ Pride Month. “This Pride Month, we recognize the valuable contributions of LGBTQ+ individuals across America, and we reaffirm our commitment to standing in solidarity with LGBTQ+ Americans in their ongoing struggle against discrimination and injustice,” the president said in his proclamation.
- Kamala Harris was tapped to lead the administration’s efforts to protect voting rights.“In the last election, more people voted than ever before. Since then, more than 380 bills have been introduced across the country that would make it harder for Americans to vote,” she said. Harris and Joe Biden have long endorsed the Democrats’ two major voting rights bills – which face a steep road ahead
- The administration formally ended the Trump-era “remain in Mexico” policy that forced thousands of asylum seekers from Central America to wait in Mexico while the US to process their cases. The program w as paused in January. In a memo sent to agency leaders today, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the policy did not “adequately or sustainably enhance border management.”
– Joan E Greve and Maanvi SIngh
The Biden administration formally ended the Trump-era “remain in Mexico” policy that forced thousands of asylum seekers from Central America to wait in Mexico while the US to process their cases.
The administration had paused the program in January. In a memo sent to agency leaders today, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the policy did not “adequately or sustainably enhance border management.”
In March, Valerie Gonzalez wrote for the Guardian about the impact of Biden pausing the remain in Mexico policy earlier this year:
A dusty soccer ball lay idle and forgotten a few days ago at an empty dwelling that had been knitted together from billowing, fraying plastic tarps tied to dead trees in the Mexican city of Matamoros.
The vignette of the abandoned shelter is expected to replicate across the makeshift migrant camp in the coming weeks, wedged between the edge of the city and the swirling Rio Grande, across the border from south-east Texas.
Hundreds have been hovering, somewhere between living and existing, since 2019 under Donald Trump’s program known as “Remain in Mexico” while their immigration cases are processed in the US.
After several 11th-hour delays, people are now starting to depart the camp to argue their asylum cases in the United States.
Nearly 25,000 people out of at least 70,000 who crossed the US-Mexico border and were sent back, under the policy known more formally as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), are now eligible to be reprocessed on the US side.
Joe Biden pledged “more fair, orderly and humane” immigration processes and has ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to review MPP.
If squalid, dangerous camps in places like Matamoros become obsolete, few will mourn.
Although Biden has reversed many of Trump’s most restrictive border policies, he has left in place Title 42 – a provision that allows the US to send back migrants arriving at the southern border due to the pandemic. Immigration advocates say the policy blocks access for many asylum seekers who arrive at the US-Mexico border, trapping them in unsafe conditions.
Updated
Human rights groups call for an end to digital surveillance of immigrants
Human rights groups are calling on the Biden administration and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) to put an end to a digital surveillance program that keeps tabs on nearly 100,000 immigrants.
A new report called Ice Digital Prisons, authored by the Latinx organizing group Mijente and immigration legal rights group Just Futures Law, highlights how Ice uses apps, GPS-tracking ankle monitors and facial recognition software to monitor people – saying these tactics “do more harm and inhibit any true progress in providing the social and economic tools for immigrants to thrive in their communities”.
The report says that the use of such technologies further criminalizes immigrants and affects their social and economic wellbeing.
The Biden administration is under growing pressure to right the wrongs of the Trump administration’s immigration policies and keep families out of detention facilities. One of its solutions has been to stress the importance of funding digital methods for tracking immigrants rather than physically imprisoning them. The digital alternatives program has been growing in recent years, with funding increasing from $28m in 2006 to $440m in 2021.
The “alternatives to detention” program tracks 96,574 individuals, but the Biden administration’s 2022 budget request calls to increase that number by approximately 45,000 to 140,000.
These alternatives “support migrants as they navigate their legal obligations”, the Biden administration has said, and are meant to be less-harmful alternatives to physical detention. But Julie Mao, an immigration attorney with Just Futures Law and an editor on the report, said that is not the case.
Read more:
A proposal to be tabled by the US president, Joe Biden, at the upcoming G7 meeting for a 15% global corporate tax rate could reap the EU €50bn (£43bn) a year, and earn the UK nearly €200m extra alone from the British multinational BP, according to research.
Should the tax rate be set higher at 25%, the lowest current rate within the seven largest world economies, the EU would earn nearly €170bn extra a year – more than 50% of current corporate tax revenue and 12% of total health spending in the bloc.
Among multinationals headquartered in the UK, it is claimed that BP’s corporate tax bill would increase at that rate by €484.9m, Barclays by €911m a year and HSBC’s by €4.2bn.
The estimates will be published on Tuesday by a new independent research organisation, the EU Tax Observatory, which models the “tax deficit” of multinationals, defined as the difference between current tax payments and the sums due if global profits were subject to the same rate wherever they are booked.
Under Biden’s proposal, multinational corporations would be prevented from shifting profits across borders to exploit the most attractive low-tax locations as their profits would be taxed at a minimum global corporation tax rate either where they are booked or headquartered.
The Biden administration initially proposed a rate of 21% but last week revised the target down, saying it should be “at least” 15%, although this is regarded by the White House as a “floor” and that discussions should continue to push that rate higher.
The UK chancellor, Rushi Sunak, is understood to be skeptical about higher levels mooted for a minimum corporate tax rate while expressing support for the principle. The Treasury has said they have concerns that the policy could lead to economic activity in the UK being taxed elsewhere. The UK has the lowest corporate tax rate in the G7 at 19% although it will rise to 25% by April 2023.
Kamala Harris, who was tapped today to lead the administration’s efforts to protect voting rights, has released a statement endorsing the Democrats’ The For the People Act and John Lewis Voting Rights Act.
“In the last election, more people voted than ever before. Since then, more than 380 bills have been introduced across the country that would make it harder for Americans to vote,” she said. These bills seek to restrict the options that make voting more convenient and accessible, including early voting and vote by mail.”
Harris and Joe Biden have long endorsed the Democrats’ two major voting rights bills – which face a steep road ahead. In the Senate, Republicans and some moderate Democrats like Joe Manchin of West Virginia have opposed the For the People Act. Manchin called it “too darn broad” and partisan. He, Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema and other Democrats have also resisted their colleague’s efforts to pass the bill by gutting the filibuster, a procedural obstacle that prevents most bills that don’t have the support of at least 60 senators from ever getting a vote.
It’s unclear what, if anything, Harris could do to change these realities. Having served in the Senate for four years, she has some ties in the chamber. But Biden, who served in the chamber for nine times has long, is thought to have much deeper relationships with Senators – and has been unable to win them over.
“I will work with voting rights organizations, community organizations, and the private sector to help strengthen and uplift efforts on voting rights nationwide,” Harris said. “And we will also work with members of Congress to help advance these bills.”
Harris has also been tasked with diplomatic efforts in the Northern Triangle, leading the efforts to expand broadband internet and other issues.
Updated
Biden closed out his speech in Oklahoma this afternoon by comparing white supremacist atrocities in the past, such as the Tulsa massacre, to extremist threats today.
“We must address what remains the stain on the soul of America. What happened in Greenwood was an act of hate and an act of domestic terrorism, with a through-line that exists today, still,” he said. “Remember what you saw in Charlottesville four years ago, on television, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, the KKK [Ku Klux Klan], coming out of those fields at night in Virginia, their lighted torches, the veins bulging as they were screaming.”
“Well, [massacre survivor] Mother Fletcher said that when she saw the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, it broke her heart,” he continued: “A mob of violent white extremists, thugs, said it reminded her of what happened here, 100 years ago, in Greenwood. Look around at the various hate crimes against Asian Americans and Jewish Americans, hate that never goes away.”
Someone from the audience called out “that’s true”. Biden went on: “And given a little bit of oxygen by its leaders it comes out from under the rock like it was happening again, as if it never went away.”
“We can’t give hate a safe harbor. According to the intelligence community, terrorism from white supremacy is the most lethal threat to the homeland today,” he said.
Updated
The Biden administration has suspended oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge that were issued in the final days of Donald Trump’s presidency.
Just two weeks before Biden was inaugurated, the Trump administration had actioned the right to drill in the expansive, delicate tundra that is home to migrating waterfowl, denning polar bears and herds of Porcupine caribou. The move drew fierce opposition from Alaska Native activists and environmental groups – who lobbied Biden to quickly claw back the 1.5m acre of the refuge that has been opened up to fossil fuel production.
Here’s more background on the Trump administration’s move:
Today so far
Joe Biden’s speech in Tulsa has now concluded, and that’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Biden delivered remarks in Tulsa to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the city’s race massacre. The president emphasized the importance of acknowledging the lives and livelihoods lost in the massacre, which resulted in the death of at least 300 African Americans and the destruction of 35 blocks of Black real estate. “For much too long, the history of what took place here was told in silence, cloaked in darkness,” Biden said. “My fellow Americans, this was not a riot, this was a massacre.”
- Biden met with the three living survivors of the massacre before delivering his speech. All three survivors – Viola “Mother” Fletcher, Hughes “Uncle Red” Van Ellis and Lessie “Mother Randle” Benningfield Randle – are over 100 years old. Biden acknowledged them in his remarks, saying, “Now your story will be known in full view.”
- Ahead of the trip, the Biden administration announced a series of initiatives aimed at narrowing the country’s racial wealth gap. The administration pledged to take action to address racial housing discrimination and use its purchasing power to direct an additional $100bn to small disadvantaged business owners.
- Biden will meet tomorrow with Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito to discuss a potential compromise on infrastructure. The meeting comes a week after Republicans outlined their latest offer, which called for spending $928bn on infrastructure over the next eight years, far less than what Biden has proposed.
-
Biden issued a proclamation to mark the start of LGBTQ+ Pride Month. “This Pride Month, we recognize the valuable contributions of LGBTQ+ individuals across America, and we reaffirm our commitment to standing in solidarity with LGBTQ+ Americans in their ongoing struggle against discrimination and injustice,” the president said in his proclamation.
Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Updated
Joe Biden has just announced that he will tap Kamala Harris to lead the administration’s efforts to strengthen national voting rights.
Biden described the recent Republican efforts in dozens of states to limit access to the ballot box as “un-American”.
The president pledged he would “fight like heck with every tool at my disposal” to pass the For the People Act, Democrats’ expansive election reform bill, and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.
Biden also appeared to criticize two moderate Senate Democrats, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, referencing “two members of the Senate who vote more with my Republican friends”. Manchin has said he opposes the For the People Act.
'This was not a riot, this was a massacre,' Biden says in Tulsa
Joe Biden underscored the importance of recognizing the devastating impact that the Tulsa race massacre had on Black lives and livelihoods.
At least 300 African Americans were killed in the 1921 massacre, and about 35 blocks of Black real estate in the Greenwood neighborhood were destroyed.
“For much too long, the history of what took place here was told in silence, cloaked in darkness,” Biden said. “But just because history is silent it doesn’t mean that it did not take place. While darkness can hide much, it erases nothing.”
The president added, “My fellow Americans, this was not a riot, this was a massacre.”
Updated
Biden tells Tulsa race massacre survivors: 'Now your story will be known in full view'
Joe Biden noted that he is the first US president to ever visit Tulsa to commemorate the anniversary of the 1921 race massacre that killed at least three hundred African Americans.
“The events we speak of today took place 100 years ago – and yet I’m the first president in 100 years ever to come to Tulsa,” Biden said, emphasizing the need to “acknowledge the truth of what took place here”.
President Biden addresses three survivors of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre: "You are the three known remaining survivors of a story seen in the mirror dimly. But no longer. Now, your story will be known in full view." https://t.co/0kXzNfudf0 pic.twitter.com/ESpeEFGbel
— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 1, 2021
The president specifically acknowledged the three living massacre survivors with whom he met today – Viola “Mother” Fletcher, Hughes “Uncle Red” Van Ellis and Lessie “Mother Randle” Benningfield Randle.
“You are the three known remaining survivors of a story seen in the mirror dimly – but no longer,” Biden said. “Now your story will be known in full view.”
Updated
Biden delivers remarks in Tulsa to commemorate race massacre anniversary
Joe Biden is now delivering remarks on the 100th anniversary of the 1921 race massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Before launching into his prepared remarks, the president walked into the audience to speak to two young girls sitting toward the front of the crowd.
Returning to the mic, Biden explained, “I just had to make sure the two girls got ice cream when this is over.”
Ahead of remarks in Tulsa, Pres. Biden leaves the stage to talk to two young girls in the audience: "I just had to make sure the two girls got ice cream when this is over." https://t.co/8tsvN79IHC pic.twitter.com/TmCPLPRMf5
— ABC News (@ABC) June 1, 2021
Joe Biden will soon deliver remarks at the Greenwood Cultural Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the city’s race massacre.
According to a White House pool report, there are about 200 people in attendance for Biden’s speech, including civil rights leaders Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.
The speech comes immediately after Biden met with the three living survivors of the massacre – Viola “Mother” Fletcher, Hughes “Uncle Red” Van Ellis and Lessie “Mother Randle” Benningfield Randle – all of whom are over 100 years old.
Updated
Joe Biden is now meeting with the three living survivors of the Tulsa race massacre, according to the latest White House pool report.
Those survivors are Viola “Mother” Fletcher, Hughes “Uncle Red” Van Ellis and Lessie “Mother Randle” Benningfield Randle. They are all between the ages of 101 and 107.
The three survivors testified two weeks ago at a House subcommittee hearing on the need to financially compensate massacre survivors and their descendants.
“I will never forget the violence of the white mob when we left our home,” Fletcher told House members. “I still see Black men being shot, Black bodies lying in the street. I still smell smoke and see fire. I still see Black businesses being burned. I still hear airplanes flying overhead. I hear the screams. I have lived through the massacre every day.”
It is one of the extraordinary elements of the 1921 catastrophe that survivors are still alive. Three individuals are active today who as children experienced the horror of white sadism perpetrated on that day.
The oldest of the trio, Mother Viola Fletcher, just turned 107. At a recent event in Tulsa, she walked unassisted to the podium and recalled what happened to her as a seven-year-old girl.
“I still remember all the shooting and running,” she said. “People being killed. Crawling and seeing smoke. Seeing airplanes flying, and a messenger going through the neighbourhood telling all the Black people to leave town.”
Then Fletcher stopped speaking. Even after 100 years, the memories of that day still have the power to overwhelm her.
Joe Biden is now touring an exhibit on the 1921 race massacre at the Greenwood Cultural Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
.@POTUS touring the Tulsa Race Massacre Exhibit at Greenwood Cultural Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. pic.twitter.com/bKlD5XlJRQ
— Karine Jean-Pierre (@KJP46) June 1, 2021
The president will soon deliver remarks at the center to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the massacre, which killed at least 300 African Americans.
In his remarks in Tulsa this afternoon, Joe Biden is expected to formally unveil a new set of initiatives aimed at narrowing the racial wealth gap in America.
But the policies, which the White House announced this morning, are already attracting some criticism from the NAACP.
The Washington Post reports:
Biden’s proposals drew immediate criticism from the nation’s most prominent civil rights group, the NAACP, whose leader said the president’s plan omitted canceling student debt, one of the most effective ways to shrink the wealth gap, according to some researchers.
‘Components of the plan are encouraging, but it fails to address the student loan debt crisis that disproportionately affects African Americans,’ said Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP. ‘You cannot begin to address the racial wealth gap without addressing the student loan debt crisis.’
Although he applauded Biden’s focus on homeownership as a way to build wealth, Johnson pointed out that many African Americans simply won’t qualify for needed loans because of a high debt-to-income ratio. That’s particularly true, he said, among government workers.
‘That must be addressed if there is going to be a question of dealing with the racial wealth gap,’ Johnson said. He supports cutting as much as $50,000 per person in student debt but said it is not a ‘magic number.’
Biden arrives in Tulsa to meet with race massacre survivors and deliver remarks
Joe Biden has arrived in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the city’s race massacre.
The president is accompanied on the trip by housing and urban development secretary Marcia Fudge, domestic policy adviser Susan Rice and senior adviser Cedric Richmond.
Today, @SecFudge joins @POTUS for his visit to honor the victims of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. pic.twitter.com/w22QIVa9t6
— Meghan Hays (@MegHays46) June 1, 2021
The president will first tour the Greenwood Cultural Center, which is dedicated to honoring the hundreds of African Americans who died in the massacre.
Biden will later deliver remarks on the massacre, and he is expected to formally unveil a series of new initiatives that his administration is launching to narrow the racial wealth gap in the country.
The White House has also said Biden will meet with survivors of the massacre, three of whom testified before Congress two weeks ago.
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried has officially filed paperwork to run for governor next year.
The filing follows months of speculation that Fried, currently the only Florida Democrat serving in a statewide office, would jump into the race to unseat Republican incumbent Ron DeSantis.
“I’m here to break the rigged system in Florida,” Fried said in a video announcing her candidacy. “It’s corrupt, it’s anti-democratic, and it’s time for something new.”
It’s time to break the rigged, corrupt system in Florida with #SomethingNew.
— Nikki Fried (@NikkiFried) June 1, 2021
That’s why I’m running for Governor.
Join us at https://t.co/pSDjoC7HWW. pic.twitter.com/Vzb1MnBuSB
Fried will have some competition for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, as congressman Charlie Crist has already announced his campaign. Democratic state Senator Annette Taddeo is also considering launching a bid.
Whoever wins the Democratic primary race will have to run against DeSantis, who has positioned himself as a potential successor to Donald Trump in the Republican party.
Fried has repeatedly criticized DeSantis over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and has called for an FBI investigation into allegations that the governor gave early vaccine access to some of his donors.
Updated
Biden issues proclamation to mark LGBTQ+ Pride Month
In case you missed it this morning: Joe Biden issued a proclamation to mark the beginning of LGBTQ+ Pride Month.
“This Pride Month, we recognize the valuable contributions of LGBTQ+ individuals across America, and we reaffirm our commitment to standing in solidarity with LGBTQ+ Americans in their ongoing struggle against discrimination and injustice,” the president said in his proclamation.
Pride stands for courage, it stands for justice, and most of all it stands for love. As we recall the trials the LGBTQ+ community has endured and celebrate the trailblazers who’ve bravely fought for equality, let us recommit to the work that remains. Happy Pride Month!
— President Biden (@POTUS) June 1, 2021
Biden touted the level of LGBTQ+ representation in his administration, saying, “Nearly 14 percent of my 1,500 agency appointees identify as LGBTQ+, and I am particularly honored by the service of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the first openly LGBTQ+ person to serve in the Cabinet, and Assistant Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine, the first openly transgender person to be confirmed by the Senate.”
The president noted the LGBTQ+ community has achieved “remarkable progress” since the Stonewall Inn riots of June 1969, but he also emphasized that much work still needs to be done to ensure equal rights for LGBTQ+ Americans. He specifically mentioned the recent wave of state bills aimed at restricting trans students’ participating in school athletics.
“During LGBTQ+ Pride Month, we recognize the resilience and determination of the many individuals who are fighting to live freely and authentically. In doing so, they are opening hearts and minds, and laying the foundation for a more just and equitable America,” Biden said.
“This Pride Month, we affirm our obligation to uphold the dignity of all people, and dedicate ourselves to protecting the most vulnerable among us.”
"Tragic and devastating" - WH spox
Joe Biden will soon become the first sitting US president to visit the site of the white supremacist race massacre in Tulsa 100 years ago.
There’s been a press huddle aboard Air Force One en route to Oklahoma, where Biden plans to meet with the last survivors of the massacre and announce new investment in Greenwood, the area of Tulsa that was razed by a white mob in 1921, and communities like it where majority-Black populations endure entrenched disadvantage in business, work and housing as a result of racial discrimination.
Reuters reports:
“What these survivors have endured is tragic and devastating,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on the flight to Oklahoma on Tuesday. He plans to listen, learn and portray his heartfelt gratitude to them for sharing their stories, she said.
The president will address the U.S. legacy of racist violence, and the challenges to unity ahead, an administration official said. Biden cannot fulfill his promise to restore the “soul” of the nation without recognizing the complexity of U.S. history, the official said.
In a proclamation on Monday, Biden asked all Americans to “reflect on the deep roots of racial terror in our Nation and recommit to the work of rooting out systemic racism across our country.”
His visit comes during a racial reckoning in the United States as the country’s white majority shrinks, threats increase from white supremacist groups and the country re-examines its treatment of African Americans after last year’s murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer, which sparked nationwide protests.
Biden, who won the presidency on the strength of Black voter support, made fighting racial inequality a key platform of his 2020 campaign and has done the same during his short tenure in the White House.
Updated
The Republican governor of Florida, Ron DsSantis, has fired off another shot in the culture war by signing a bill banning transgender females from girls’ sports in schools.
“In Florida, girls are going to play girls sports and boys are going to play boys sports,” DeSantis said, signing the bill into law at a Christian academy in Jacksonville on Tuesday. “We’re going to make sure that that’s the reality.”
As the AP reports:
The new law inflames an already contentious discussion as Republican-controlled states move to limit the rights of LGBTQ people. It also could impose severe financial consequences on Florida.
The NCAA, which oversees college athletics, has threatened to relocate key games from states that discriminate against athletes. When the Florida legislature was considering the measure in April, the NCAA said it would commit championship games to “locations where hosts can commit to providing an environment that is safe, healthy and free of discrimination”.
The measure approved by the GOP-led legislature takes effect 1 July. Human Rights Campaign president Alphonso David said: “All Floridians will have to face the consequences of this anti-transgender legislation - including economic harm, expensive taxpayer-funded legal battles and a tarnished reputation.”
Democrats and LGBTQ advocates said the law will be challenged in court.
“This is yet another hate-driven attack from the governor and Republican legislators, and it’s insulting that they’ve staged this morning’s photo-op on the first day of Pride Month,” said state senator Shevrin Jones. “At the end of the day, transgender kids are just kids.”
The Florida law mirrors an Idaho law, the first of its kind when enacted last year, that is now mired in legal challenges. Republican governors in Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee recently signed similar measures.
Updated
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Joe Biden is en route to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the city’s race massacre. The president will deliver remarks to honor the victims of the massacre and meet with survivors of the violence, which killed at least 300 African Americans in 1921.
- Ahead of the trip, the Biden administration announced a series of initiatives aimed at narrowing the country’s racial wealth gap. The administration pledged to take action to address racial housing discrimination and use its purchasing power to direct an additional $100 billion to small disadvantaged business owners.
- Biden will meet tomorrow with Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito to discuss a potential compromise on infrastructure. The meeting comes a week after Republicans outlined their latest offer, which called for spending $928 billion on infrastructure over the next eight years, far less than what Biden has proposed.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
The Fox News host Sean Hannity was criticised for appearing at a Donald Trump rally in 2018 but according to a new book he was involved again with Trump’s campaign in 2020, helping write an ad that aired on his primetime show.
Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost, by Mike Bender, senior White House reporter for the Wall Street Journal, will be published in August.
News of its contents, including “some amazingly hilarious revelations” about Mike Pence, Rudy Giuliani, Roger Stone, Tucker Carlson, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump “and the rest of the Trump posse”, was reported by Punchbowl News.
According to the news site, the ad known to Trump insiders as “the Hannity ad” and “the one Hannity wrote” ran only during Hannity’s show.
An anonymous Trump aide is reported as saying “Hannity said this is our best spot yet” but Bender reports: “Inside the campaign, the spot was mocked mercilessly – mostly because of the dramatic, over-the-top language and a message that seemed to value quantity over quality.
“Donald Trump himself, in a post-election interview with Bender, did not dispute that Hannity wrote the ad, which called [Joe] Biden a ‘47-year swamp creature’ who had ‘accomplished nothing’ and supported a ‘radical, socialist Green New Deal’.”
Hannity denied writing the ad, telling Bender: “The world knows that Sean Hannity supports Donald Trump. But my involvement specifically in the campaign – no. I was not involved that much. Anybody who said that is full of shit.”
Joe Biden is now en route to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the city’s race massacre.
The president did not stop to take questions from reporters as he boarded Air Force One for the trip to Tulsa, where he will meet with massacre survivors and deliver remarks to honor the victims of the violence.
Post obtains Fauci emails
The Washington Post has obtained more than 800 pages of emails to and from Anthony Fauci, the senior US health official who is now chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic last year.
The paper reports that the emails offer a window into the chaos, panic and confusion of the time, and of the considerable difficulties Fauci faced as a prominent figure in a Covid task force serving Donald Trump.
As Fauci recently told the Post, “I was getting every single kind of question, mostly people who were a little bit confused about the mixed messages that were coming out of the White House and wanted to know what’s the real scoop.
“I have a reputation that I respond to people when they ask for help, even if it takes a long time. And it’s very time consuming, but I do.”
The Post obtained the emails through the Freedom of Information Act. Some exchanges are with George Gao, a top Chinese health official.
“Lets work together to get the virus out of the earth,” Gao says in one message.
“We will get through this together,” Fauci replies.
US-China tensions have been high throughout the pandemic but the US is now investigating whether the virus, discovered in Wuhan province, came from animals, as has been the scientific community’s position for some time, or whether there is truth to the theory that the virus was being studied in a laboratory and escaped.
In a column for the Guardian on Tuesday, the author Thomas Frank said that if true, the laboratory leak theory “is the kind of thing that could obliterate the faith of millions” of Americans who have followed government advice throughout the pandemic.
In another exchange between Fauci and Gao, the Chinese official refers to “some news (hope it is fake) that [you] are being attacked by some people. Hope you are well under such [an] irrational situation”.
“Thank you for your kind note,” Fauci replies. “All is well despite some crazy people in this world.”
Fauci was often at odds with Trump and others who sought to play down the severity of the threat to US public health. The scientist ended up having to hire security.
Here’s our own interview with Fauci, published yesterday:
Obama skips over infamous 'guns or religion' voters remark
Joe Biden is “finishing the job” begun by Barack Obama, the former president told the New York Times in an interview released on Tuesday.
“I think that what we’re seeing now, is Joe and the administration are essentially finishing the job,” Obama said. “And I think it’ll be an interesting test.
“Ninety per cent of the folks who were there in my administration, they are continuing and building on the policies we talked about, whether it’s the Affordable Care Act or our climate change agenda and the Paris [climate deal], and figuring out how do we improve the ladders to mobility through things like community colleges.”
Obama also mused about Biden’s much-discussed ability to reach voters, particularly in post-industrial midwestern states, who voted Obama then switched to Donald Trump.
“By virtue of biography and generationally,” Obama said, his vice-president, who is 78 and was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, “can still reach some of those folks”.
“People knew I was left on issues like race, or gender equality, and LGBTQ issues and so forth,” Obama said. “But I think maybe the reason I was successful campaigning in downstate Illinois, or Iowa, or places like that is they never felt as if I was condemning them for not having gotten to the politically correct answer quick enough, or that somehow they were morally suspect because they had grown up with and believed more traditional values.”
In fact Obama famously stirred controversy in 2008 when he said such voters “get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations”.
The New York Times interviewer did not raise those remarks.
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell once again defended Republicans’ decision to block the bill to create a bipartisan commission to study the January 6 insurrection.
“I don’t think anybody’s going to get away with anything,” the Republican leader said in Kentucky today. “I think we’ll know everything we need to know. We were all witnesses, we were right there when it happened. And I simply think the commission is not necessary.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reiterates opposition to January 6th commission, which Republicans blocked last week:
— The Recount (@therecount) June 1, 2021
“I think we’ll know everything we need to know — we were all witnesses, we were right there when it happened.” pic.twitter.com/kcxpxZzEB4
McConnell’s comments come four days after Senate Republicans blocked the commission bill from being taken up for debate, killing the legislation for now.
Six Republicans joined their Democratic colleagues in voting to advance the bill, but Democrats needed 10 Republican votes to overcome a filibuster of the legislation.
Alexandra Villareal reports for the Guardian:
Republicans in Texas are already plotting to resurrect their fight for sweeping voting restrictions after Democratic lawmakers walked out of the state capitol and blocked an 11th-hour attempt to ram through legislation that would have made it harder to cast a ballot.
The Texas governor, Greg Abbott – who leads the state’s domineering Republican majority – has announced he will include the high-stakes issue on his agenda when he reconvenes the legislature for a rapid-fire special session. He called the failure of the bill “deeply disappointing”.
Abbott, who says “election integrity” remains an emergency in Texas, wields control over what is essentially legislative overtime, where lawmakers consider issues on a sped-up timeline. When the session will begin remains unclear.
But advocates are still painting last night’s historic show of force as an inflection point for the Texas legislature and America, when Democrats shirked business as usual for aggressive tactics that matched the urgency of a teetering democracy.
“The fight you saw last night is the fight that will remain and continue,” state representative Trey Martinez Fischer, a Democrat representing San Antonio, told the Guardian. “That’s our commitment.”
Joe Biden’s visit to Tulsa comes almost exactly one year after Donald Trump traveled to the city to hold his first campaign rally since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, an event that sparked intense criticism and attracted protests.
The AP notes:
After suspending his campaign rallies because of the coronavirus pandemic, Trump, a Republican, chose Tulsa as the place to mark his return. But his decision to schedule the rally on June 19, the holiday known as Juneteenth that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States, was met with such fierce criticism that he postponed the event by a day. The rally was still marked by protests outside and empty seats inside an arena downtown.
Trump arrived in Tulsa during a highly charged moment, days after he had ordered the forcible clearing of Lafayette Square across from the White House, with federal officers pushing out those peacefully protesting [George] Floyd’s death. Trump reflexively embraced law enforcement throughout his presidency and was frequently accused of using racist rhetoric when painting apocalyptic — and inaccurate — scenes of American cities.
While in Oklahoma today, Joe Biden will meet with survivors of the Tulsa race massacre and visit the Greenwood Cultural Center.
The center describes itself as “the keeper of the flame for the Black Wall Street era, the events known as the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, and the astounding resurgence of the Greenwood District in the months and years following the tragedy”.
100 years ago, the thriving Black community of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma was ruthlessly attacked by a white supremacist mob—as many as 300 Black Americans were killed and 10,000 were left homeless. Today, I’m visiting the Greenwood Cultural Center and meeting with survivors.
— President Biden (@POTUS) June 1, 2021
The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:
Conservative activists across America are pushing efforts to review the 2020 vote more than six months after the election, a move experts say is a dangerous attempt to continue to sow doubt about the results of the 2020 election that strikes at the heart of America’s democratic process.
Encouraged by an ongoing haphazard review of 2.1m ballots in Arizona, activists are pushing to review votes or voting equipment in California, Georgia, Michigan, and New Hampshire.
Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, the powerful speaker of the state house of representatives recently hired ex-law enforcement officers, including one with a history of supporting Republicans, to spend the next three months investigating claims of fraud. At least one of the officers hired has a history of supporting GOP claims. The announcement also came after state officials announced they found just 27 cases of potential fraud in 2020 out of 3.3m votes cast.
The reviews are not going to change the 2020 election results or find widespread fraud, which is exceedingly rare. Nonetheless, the conservative activists behind the effort – many of whom have little election experience – have championed the reviews as an attempt to assuage concerns the 2020 election was stolen. If the probes don’t turn up anything, they will only serve to increase confidence in elections, proponents say.
Joe Biden also released a statement yesterday to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre, calling on Americans to “recommit” to efforts to address systemic racism in the US.
“On this solemn centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre, I call on the American people to reflect on the deep roots of racial terror in our nation and recommit to the work of rooting out systemic racism across our country,” Biden said in the statement.
The president noted that the federal government “must reckon with and acknowledge the role that it has played in stripping wealth and opportunity from Black communities”.
The Biden administration announced today a series of initiatives aimed at narrowing the racial wealth gap in the US, including efforts to support affordable housing and minority-owned small businesses.
Reflecting on the lives and businesses lost in Tulsa in 1921, Biden said yesterday, “We honor the legacy of the Greenwood community, and of Black Wall Street, by reaffirming our commitment to advance racial justice through the whole of our government, and working to root out systemic racism from our laws, our policies, and our hearts.”
The full-page advert in a special Black History edition of USA Today presents a technicolor vision of modern-day Tulsa, with sparkling images of public parks and brightly-painted murals celebrating the local Black community under the banner headline: “Tulsa Triumphs”.
“Tulsa is leading America’s journey to racial healing,” the text says, inviting visitors from across the US to sample the delights of Oklahoma’s second-largest city. The enticements include “an emotional opportunity for learning and reflection” and a “space for reconciliation… Tulsa triumphs, and you can be a part of this pilgrimage.”
The advert is a brazen attempt to turn Tulsa’s grim distinction as the setting of one of the most grotesque mass lynchings in US history into a tourist draw. It is the work of the Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission, a body of prominent state and city politicians and other local notables who have put together the city’s established version of the 100th anniversary of a very special day.
On that day, 31 May 1921, white Tulsans ran amok, shooting any Black person in sight, dropping incendiary devices from the air onto their homes and burning to the ground one of the most flourishing Black business districts in the country, known as “Black Wall Street”. Some 35 blocks of Black real estate in the Greenwood neighbourhood were destroyed.
At least 300 men, women and children were murdered. Over 24 hours, Tulsa witnessed what is thought to be the worst single event of white supremacist violence against African Americans in the nation’s history.
From the terror of 31 May 1921 to the “triumph” of 31 May 2021 – it makes for a powerful attraction for visitors. The only hitch with this depiction of Tulsa rising from the ashes is that from the perspective of the Black survivors and many of the descendants of the massacre, it has no bearing in reality.
Updated
Ahead of Joe Biden’s Tulsa trip, his administration also outlined how his American Jobs Plan will directly benefit communities of color.
The president’s proposal includes a $10 billion community revitalization fund that will help fund community-led infrastructure projects and a $15 billion grant program to bolster transportation infrastructure.
Biden has also called for the creation of a Neighborhood Homes Tax Credit to support the development of affordable housing and a $5 billion grant program to expand housing options for Americans with low or moderate incomes.
Finally, the president has indicated he would like to invest $31 billion to expand efforts to support minority-owned small businesses.
However, it is very unclear if any of these initiatives will make it into the final version of the infrastructure bill. Senate Republicans have proposed a $257 billion bill, much smaller than the $1.7 trillion infrastructure package that Biden is pushing, and it’s possible that proposals like those above may end up getting cut from the legislation.
The White House has just confirmed Biden will meet with Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito to discuss her team’s latest offer. That meeting will likely offer insight into the size and scope of the final bill.
Biden to visit Tulsa to commemorate race massacre anniversary
Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.
Joe Biden will travel today to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the city’s race massacre, which targeted affluent African Americans and their businesses.
Ahead of the president’s trip, the White House announced this morning a series of new initiatives aimed at narrowing the country’s racial wealth gap.
The administration pledged to take action to address racial housing discrimination and use its purchasing power to direct an additional $100 Billion to small disadvantaged business owners.
The trip and the administration’s announcement come two weeks after three living survivors of the massacre -- Viola Fletcher, Hughes Van Ellis and Lessie Evelyn Benningfield Randle -- testified to Congress about the need to compensate massacre survivors and their descendants.
“I am here seeking justice,” Fletcher said at the House subcommittee hearing. “I am here asking my country to acknowledge what happened in Tulsa in 1921.”
The blog will have more details on the trip coming up, so stay tuned.
