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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Vivian Ho (now) and Lauren Gambino and Martin Belam (earlier)

US vaccine supplies look set to surge as Johnson & Johnson gets nod from panel advising FDA - as it happened

A pharmacy technician holds a dose of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine.
A pharmacy technician holds a dose of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine. Photograph: Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images

Evening summary

  • The House of Representatives is expected to vote on Joe Biden’s coronavirus aid bill tonight, in what would be his first big legislative win. House Democrats are optimistic it will pass, even after suffering a blow when a Senate parliamentarian ruled that a $15 minimum wage increase could not be included in the bill under Senate rules.
  • At a press conference, House Democrats emphasized their commitment to passing a federal $15 minimum wage increase, whether through this bill or afterwards. “If it doesn’t prevail because of Senate rules, we will persist,” said House speaker Nancy Pelosi. “We will not stop until we, very soon, pass the $15 minimum wage.”
  • An independent expert advisory panel has recommended that drug regulators authorize the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, a move that brings this vaccine one step closer to approval from US Food and Drug Administration. Together with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that are already being distributed, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine should provide the US with more than enough doses to vaccinate every vaccine-eligible person.

Updated

Joe Biden spoke to Univision on the Jamal Khashoggi report, calling it “outrageous what happened” and making a point to emphasize that he spoke “with the king, not the prince”.

“We’re going to be announcing significant changes today and on Monday,” Biden said. “We are going to hold them accountable for human rights abuses and we’re going to make sure that they, in fact, you know, if they want to deal with us they have to deal with it in a way that the human rights abuses are dealt with. And we’re trying to do that across the world.”

Updated

An update on the Joe Biden’s $1.9tn coronavirus aid bill:

Despite the long delays, House Democrats are still optimistic that the bill will be passed tonight.

Updated

While some Republicans at CPAC appear to be rallying around Texas senator Ted Cruz and his ill-timed trip to Cancún, some of his colleagues in the Senate appear to be having some fun.

NBC News is reporting that someone had taped around the Senate gym locker room images of Cruz dragging his overpacked suitcase through the airport, along with “welcome back” messages of “Bienvenido de Nuevo, Ted!

The rendering featured a manipulated photo of Cruz from his well-documented trip to Mexico, dragging his luggage across an arctic landscape while holding a tropical cocktail garnished with a slice of fruit in his other hand. He is shown walking toward an image of a masked Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. with his arms crossed and wearing striped, knitted gloves — a pose famously captured during January’s inauguration.

The posters were discovered Wednesday and removed the same day. NBC reports that it’s unclear if Cruz saw them.

Updated

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has issued a statement saying he supports Joe Biden’s decision to authorize airstrikes in Syria, his first military act as president, which has killed 22 near the border town of Abu Kamal.

“I believe the president acted well within the authorities of his office,” McConnell said.

Updated

Joe Biden was at a vaccination site in Houston, Texas, this evening to talk about FEMA and other federal responses in the aftermath of the winter storm.

He addressed the bipartisan rhetoric that arose with the discussion around Texas’s infrastructure, saying: “We’re not here today as Democrats or Republicans.

“We’re here today as Americans. American leaders with responsibilities,” Biden said. “When a crisis hits our states like the one that hit Texas, it’s not a Republican or a Democrat that’s hurting, it’s our fellow Americans who are hurting and it’s our job to help everyone in need, look out for one another, leave nobody behind.”

Updated

David Smith is back again with another virtual dispatch from CPAC, which Donald Trump Jr renamed “T-PAC” – a reference to his father’s stranglehold on the party.

Donald Trump Jr used his CPAC speech on Friday to draw battle lines in the Republican party, insisting that it should not go back to the era before his father.

“If there’s one thing the Republican party has been really good at over the last two decades, it’s snatching defeat from the jaws of victory,” the former president’s son said. “They caved to every special interest, they caved to corporate America, they caved and bowed to the radical left that hates their guts, hates their values and hates their freedom.”

His singled out Liz Cheney, the number three Republican in the House of Representatives, who voted for Trump’s impeachment after the 6 January insurrection. Cheney, daughter of former vice president Dick Cheney, this week also criticised Trump’s appearance at CPAC.

In his remarks, Trump Jr compared her to the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group of current and former Republican consultants.

“Lincoln Project Liz, as I like to call her, is the leader of that failed movement, and if we want to go back to losing, if we want to go back to an America last policy, we should be following that,” he said. “But I don’t and I don’t think anyone in this room does either.”

The pugnacious Trump Jr reserved some of his barbs for Joe Biden, telling CPAC: “The first 30 days have been a disaster. The lies the media told you wouldn’t happen are all happening. But hey, at least they have a diverse cabinet!

“It’s very diverse. That’s what we saw, right. What is the policy of the FDA? ‘Well, first and foremost, we appointed a woman.’ Well, that’s wonderful. Is she competent? Because there’s competent women and there’s incompetent women, just like tthere are competent men and incompetent men.

“We’ve seen that. We know that to be a fact. But when you don’t have policy to address the incompetent and think you can get away with it by just talking about diversity blindly, it’s sort of a problem, isn’t it?”

Trump’s own administration was notoriously dominated by white men, many of whom were criticised as incompetent.

His son was cheered as he concluded with a preview of the ex-president’s speech: “So we’re looking forward to Sunday. I imagine it will not be what we call a low energy speech, and I assure you that it will solidify Donald Trump and all of your feelings about the Maga movement as the future of the Republican party.”

House Democrats held a press conference ahead of the vote on Joe Biden’s $1.9tn coronavirus aid bill, which is expected to pass, and found themselves under fire over the $15 minimum wage increase that could not be included in the bill under Senate rules.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had a strong response when asked about the issue:

“As a matter of practice, I don’t get involved with the United States Senate,” Pelosi said. “But as a matter of values, I can just say, we will not rest until we pass the $15 minimum wage.”

“We have been engaged in the Fight for 15 for a long time,” she continued. “This is legislation that affects a majority of women. Over 60% of the people making minimum wage are women. Many are moms. It is so essential for us to do this.

“If it doesn’t prevail because of Senate rules, we will persist. We will not stop until we, very soon, pass the $15 minimum wage.”

Updated

Panel recommends authorization of Johnson & Johnson vaccine

An independent expert advisory panel has recommended that drug regulators authorize the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, a move that will greatly boost the nationwide vaccinations plans of the Biden administration.

My colleague Jessica Glenza reports that while the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not always take the advice of their advisory panels, the authorization is still a significant step toward FDA approval and the agency is expected to authorize the vaccine for emergency use.

In a Congressional hearing this week, Janssen, Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine subsidiary, testified that it expects to deliver 20m doses by March and a total of 100m before the end of June.

Together with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that are already being distributed, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine should provide the US with more than enough doses to vaccinate every vaccine-eligible person.

Read more about it here:

Updated

Hey all, Vivian Ho taking over the blog in the middle of breaking news!

It appears that an independent expert advisory panel has recommended authorization of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine. More on that in a minute.

Updated

Afternoon summary

Good afternoon. It’s been a busy Friday in Washington and around the country.

  • The DNI released its long-anticipated report directly implicating the Saudi prince in the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. However, the administration stopped short of punishing the the crown prince.
  • Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, visited storm-battered Houston on Friday, where they toured a food bank and visited a vaccination “super site”.
  • Senate Democrats are scrambling for a way to include a $15 minimum wage in the Biden administration’s $1.9tn stimulus package after the Senate parliamentarian ruled that the provision would have to be removed. The House is expected to pass the bill later this evening.
  • The CDC director, Rochelle Walensky, warned that now was not the time to lift public health restrictions, citing “concerning” new data that showed the rate of new infections ticking upward after weeks of decline.
  • Conservatives are gathering in Orlando for the annual CPAC conference. Our colleague, David Smith, has been sending virtual dispatches from the event, which has featured several of Trump’s allies on Capitol Hill.

Updated

An unrepentant Josh Hawley, Republican senator for Missouri, earned rapturous cheers and applause when he bragged to CPAC about his key role in the effort to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory, writes David Smith in a virtual dispatch from CPAC.

“On January the 6th, I objected during the electoral college certification - maybe you heard about it,” Hawley told the conservative gathering in Orlando, Florida. “I did. I stood up and I said we ought to have a debate about election integrity. I said it is the right of the people to be heard and my constituents in Missouri want to be heard on this issue.”

The senator continued: “So I did that. I said I want to have a debate on election integrity. And what was the result of that? You know what the result was. I was called a traitor. I was called a seditionist. The radical left said I should be resigned and, if I wouldn’t resign, I should be expelled from the United States Senate.

“Well, as I said a moment ago, I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying right here. I’m going to stand up for you because if we can’t have free and open debate in this country, we’re not going to have a country left. If we can’t have free and open debate according to the laws in the United States Senate, what good is the United States Senate?

“Why do you send anybody to Washington at all? I thought it was an important stand to take and for that the left has come after me. They tried to silence me. They cancelled a book I was writing called The Tyranny of Big Tech. These people have no sense of irony. Still going to get published, by the way. It’ll be out soon.”

Hawley and other Republicans loyal to Donald Trump have perpetuated the lie of a stolen election despite state election officials, numerous courts and Trump’s own attorney general, William Barr, finding no significant evidence of voter fraud. Hawley and colleague Ted Cruz are facing an investigation from the Senate ethics committee over their conduct before the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January.

Updated

The Biden administration is “considering” the cancellation of arms deals with Saudi Arabia that pose human rights concerns while limiting future military sales to “defensive” weapons, Reuters reported on Friday.

This comes as the US reassesses its relationship with the Kingdom in the wake of a damning intelligence report that implicated the Saudi prince in the murder of Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi.

Reuters reports:

Four sources familiar with the administration’s thinking said that after pausing half a billion dollars in arms deals with Saudi Arabia out of concern over casualties in Yemen earlier this year, officials are assessing the equipment and training included in recent sales to determine what can be considered defensive. Those deals would be allowed.

A State Department spokesperson said, “Our focus is on ending the conflict in Yemen even as we ensure Saudi Arabia has everything it needs to defend its territory and its people,” adding Biden has pledged to end U.S. military support for the military campaign against the Houthis.

The Biden administration is recalibrating its relationship with Saudi Arabia, a country with which it has severe human rights concerns but which is also one of Washington’s closest U.S. allies in countering the threat posed by Iran.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters on Friday that the airstrikes carried out in Syria caused “casualties” but said it was too early to say how many militia fighters had been hurt or killed.

“We have preliminary indications of casualties on site,” Kirby said. “I’m not going to go any further than that.”

The strikes killed at least 22 people, according to a tally by the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which cites unconfirmed reports.

Houston Food Bank
US President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden visit the Houston Food Bank in Houston, Texas. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

The Bidens toured a Food Bank in Houston during their visit to the storm-battered city this afternoon.

Brian Greene, CEO of Houston Food Bank, walked the Bidens around the facility, described in a pool report as a “Costco on steroids”.

The president, known for glad-handing on the campaign trail, spotted a young boy helping to sort bags of chips and boxes of cookies into bins.

“What are you, 18? Eighteen years old?” he asked the boy, who seemed, according to the pool reporter, “befuddled”.

Then Biden meets the boy’s sister, who he offers a pep talk. He tells her that his own sister, Valerie, is his best friend.

“She’s smarter than I am,” he tells the girl. “She’s better than I am.”

The girl gives Biden a hug – and then runs over to her brother and gives him a hug as well.

biden houston
President Joe Biden hugs a child as he visits the Houston Food Bank in Houston Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Updated

John Durham, the US Attorney for the District of Connecticut who was appointed as special counsel to investigate the origins of the Russia investigation, has resigned, effective at midnight on 28 February.

Fox News is reporting that Durham will remain in his role as special counsel.

The Biden administration had asked all Trump-appointed US attorneys to resign by the end of the month. The announcement would have spared Durham, who was overseeing the politically-charged investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe.

However, CNN previously reported that Durham intended to resign anyway, even as he stayed on to complete the investigation.

“My career has been as fulfilling as I could ever have imagined when I graduated from law school way back in 1975,” Durham wrote in a statement. “Much of that fulfillment has come from all the people with whom I’ve been blessed to share this workplace, and in our partner law enforcement agencies. My love and respect for this Office and the vitally important work done here have never diminished. It has been a tremendous honor to serve as U.S. Attorney, and as a career prosecutor before that, and I will sorely miss it.”

Updated

As Biden tours a food bank in Houston, Republicans are taking turns railing against his administration at the annual CPAC conference. David Smith sends another virtual report from the gathering.

Speakers at CPAC continue to pledge fealty to former president Donald Trump. Matt Gaetz, a congressman from Florida, told the audience: “My fellow patriots, don’t be shy and don’t be sorry, join me as we proudly represent the pro-Trump America first wing of the conservative movement.

“We’re not really a wing; we’re the whole body. We’re the main attraction in the greatest show on earth.”

Gaetz, a self-proclaimed “Florida man” wearing blue jacket and purple tie, lashed out at “cancel culture” and “lockdown governors” including Democrat Andrew Cuomo of New York. He also defended Republican senator of Ted Cruz of Texas.

“It was awful the way the media treated Ted Cruz,” he said. “I mean, the left and the media were more worried about Ted Cruz going to Mexico to spend his own money than about the caravans coming through Mexico to take ours.”

If Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who voted for Trump’s impeachment after the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol, were on the CPAC stage she would be booed, he predicted. The party’s true leadership was not in Washington, Gaetz said.

He also described the biggest threats to freedom as big government and big business, in particular big tech. “There are no checks and balances when they can control-alt-delete anyone for any reason,” the congressman warned.

[blogger’s note: a number of House Republicans have asked their colleagues to vote on their behalf, under rule changes to make voting safer during the pandemic. And yet, many of those very same members are appearing alongside hundreds of conservative activists at CPAC.]

Treasury announces sanctions on leading Saudi figures - though not MBS

US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen has announced sanctions on former Saudi intelligence deputy chief Ahmad Hassan Mohammed al Asiri and the Rapid Intervention Force (RIF), known as the ‘Tiger Squad’ which supplied much of the hit team that killed Jamal Khashoggi, the US-based dissident who was murdered by Saudi operatives in Turkey in 2018.

My colleagues Julian Borger and Stephanie Kirchgaessner are all over this.

And

Yellen just said in a statement: “Those involved in the abhorrent killing of Jamal Khashoggi must be held accountable. With this action, Treasury is sanctioning Saudi Arabia’s Rapid Intervention Force and a senior Saudi official who was directly involved in Jamal Khashoggi’s murder.”

She added: “The United States stands united with journalists and political dissidents in opposing threats of violence and intimidation. We will continue to defend the freedom of expression, which is the bedrock of a free society.”

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia is not on the Biden administration’s list, even though he is accused of approving the murder of Khashoggi, according to the US unclassified intelligence report made public just under two hours ago.

Stephanie Kirchgaessner’s report in full:

Updated

Lack of energy regulation in Texas hurt state during historic storm - Biden official

As Joe Biden and Jill Biden go about their engagements in Texas, here is some more reporting from Reuters, including some interesting comments that went down on Air Force One en route from the capital to Houston.

Joe Biden tours Harris County Emergency Operations Center, in Houston, TexasBiden, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo.
Joe Biden tours Harris County Emergency Operations Center, in Houston, Texas
Biden, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

The state is working to recover from a severe winter storm that caused serious damage to homes and businesses, left millions without power or clean water for days, and killed at least two dozen.

Biden and his wife, first lady Jill Biden, landed in Houston where he met Republican Governor Greg Abbott and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner to discuss the recovery from last week’s storm.

Biden was scheduled to meet with volunteers at a Houston food bank and tour a health center where Covid-19 vaccines are being distributed.

Deputy National Security Adviser Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall told reporters on Air Force One during the trip that Texas’s lack of energy regulation had hurt it during the storm.

“Texas has chosen not to make the kinds of decisions that would provide for the supplies that you would keep for an emergency, that is, to invest in a kind of resilience that other states which are regulated are required to invest in,” she said.

“They don’t have the backup in terms of supply or generation capability that they needed to have in this crisis,” she said, adding the state had the capacity to change that.

For 10 days this month, Texas was hit by an unusually prolonged period of very low temperatures. Electricity consumption surged, while many generating units failed to start up owing to frozen instrumentation, iced turbine blades and insufficient fuel supplies.

The state’s Republican leaders have come under fire for not heeding warnings that the Texas power grid needed significant upgrades to defend against deep freezes.

While much of the rest of the United States features electricity systems that are interconnected, allowing power to cross state lines, Texas has long stood out for having its own grid.

The disaster has been a test of Biden’s pledge to help unify the country. Abbott initially did not recognize Democrat Biden’s November election victory over former Republican President Donald Trump.”

The Guardian further notes that Abbott took aim at renewable energy during the big freeze, even though the worst problem was frozen natural gas pipes, not frozen windmills. There was a trait during the disaster of state officials and business leaders seeming to do more finger-pointing than finger-lifting to help people. We won’t even relive the details of right-wing Senator Ted Cruz’s Cancun jaunt here...

And Abbott then managed to ask the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Biden to issue a major disaster declaration for all of the state’s 254 counties.

Updated

Joe Biden has arrived in Texas. Air Force One touched down in Houston in the last hour. The president plans to tour areas that suffered winter storm damage in the Arctic conditions that engulfed the Lone Star state last week.

The presidential motorcade rolled to the Harris County Office of Emergency Management.

My colleague Erum Salam just emerged from that miserable and, for too many, deadly deep freeze.

Blinken announces 'Khashoggi Ban' for counter-dissident government actors operating outside their borders

Secretary of state Antony Blinken is issuing details of a new policy that will allow the US state department to act against individuals, such as the Saudi government operatives who killed Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, who directly engage in serious, extraterritorial counter-dissident activities.

My colleague Julian Borger notes as such.

A statement issued by Blinken notes that “the world was horrified by the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a lawful permanent resident of the United States, in the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey” in October 2018.

He goes on: “Individuals should be able to exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms without fear of government retribution, retaliation, punishment, or harm.

“Jamal Khashoggi paid with his life to express his beliefs. President Biden said in a statement released last October on the second anniversary of the murder that Mr. Khashoggi’s death would not be in vain, and that we owe it to his memory to fight for a more just and free world.”

In announcing what the department is calling the Khashoggi Ban, Blinken added that the government “is announcing additional measures to reinforce the world’s condemnation of that crime, and to push back against governments that reach beyond their borders to threaten and attack journalists and perceived dissidents for exercising their fundamental freedoms.”

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the ban allows the State Department to impose visa restrictions on individuals who, “acting on behalf of a foreign government, are believed to have been directly engaged in serious, extraterritorial counter-dissident activities, including those that suppress, harass, surveil, threaten, or harm journalists, activists, or other persons perceived to be dissidents for their work, or who engage in such activities with respect to the families or other close associates of such persons.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaks in the Benjamin Franklin room at the State Department in Washington, DC, during a virtual meeting with Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard, who is in Mexico City, Friday, Feb. 26, 2021.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaks in the Benjamin Franklin room at the State Department in Washington, DC, during a virtual meeting with Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard, who is in Mexico City, Friday, Feb. 26, 2021. Photograph: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

Updated

Aboard Air Force One, Psaki answered a handful of questions related to Khashoggi’s murder.

Asked if Biden raised the report in his call with the Saudi King earlier this week, Psaki referred to a readout, which said he raised the war in Yemen and concerns over human rights abuses.

Asked if Biden had concerns about MBS being in line to succeed King Salman, Psaki said that was a matter for the government of Saudi Arabia. “The president has been clear, and we’ve been clear by our actions that we’re going to recalibrate the relationship, including ensuring that engagement happens counterpart to counterpart,” she added.

Asked whether the state department was weighing sanctions in response Khashoggi’s killing, she replied: “We’ve been clear at every level that our intention is to recalibrate the relationship and this will be a different relationship with the Saudi government. At the same time, we of course we want to end the war in Yemen, we want to ensure that humanitarian crisis is addressed and the president and every member of our team is not going to hold back in voicing concern, and taking action as needed.

She told reporters to “stay tuned” for announcements about further actions the administration will take in response to the report’s findings.

More news is trickling out about how the US intends to respond to the intelligence report implicating the Saudi crown prince in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

According to Politico, the Treasury will unveil sanctions today targeting top Saudi officials for their involvement in Khashoggi’s assassination. However, the prince is not expected to be sanctioned despite the report’s conclusion that he approved of the plot to “capture or kill” Khashoggi.

The State Department is expected to make an announcement later this afternoon.

Updated

The State Department has identified 76 Saudi Arabian individuals who may be subject to sanctions under what it is calling the “Khashoggi policy,” according to Bloomberg News.

The State Department outlined the new policy in a fact sheet sent to lawmakers but not yet released publicly, according to Bloomberg. It part of an effort to hold accountable individuals involved in Khashoggi’s death.

The new policy, according to a copy of the fact sheet, would “impose visa restrictions on individuals who, acting on behalf of a foreign government, are believed to have been directly engaged in serious, extraterritorial counter-dissident activities.”

DNI: Saudi crown prince approved killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi

The Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, approved the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, according to an unclassified report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) on Friday.

“We assess that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi,” ODNI said in a partly-redacted four-page summary.

It based the assessment on the 35-year-old prince’s “control of decision-making in the kingdom, the direct involvement of a key adviser and members of [the prince’s] protective detail in the operation, and [his] support for the using violent measures to silence dissidents abroad, including Khashoggi”.

“Since 2017, the Crown Prince has had absolute control of the Kingdom’s security and intelligence organizations, making it highly unlikely that Saudi officials would have carried out an operation of this nature without the Crown Prince’s authorization,” the report states.

The release of the assessment was expected to be accompanied by further actions from the Biden administration.

Read the summary in full here [PDF].

Updated

Psaki: Khashoggi report expected to be released Friday

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters aboard Air Force One that the Director of National Intelligence would release the long-awaited intelligence report on the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi on Friday.

House minority leader Kevin McCarthy is holding a briefing with reporters before the chamber votes on Biden’s stimulus package later today.

House Republicans are urging the caucus to vote “no” on the legislation, assailing it as too costly and a progressive “payoff”.

During the briefing, he called workaround plans to target big companies that don’t pay workers $15 an hour “stupid.”

Asked about his recent conversations with Trump, McCarthy said he had not secured a commitment from the former president not to back primaries against Republicans who broke with him.

Among those Republicans is Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who has drawn conservative ire over her vote to impeach Trump. Though Cheney easily beat back an attempt to strip her of her leadership position, she already faces several primary challengers.

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has said he would help Cheney in her election. Asked if he planned to do the same, McCarthy said evasively that Cheney hadn’t asked yet for his help.

But she shouldn’t have to ask. It has long been the policy of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) to back incumbents in their primaries.

Some progressives have called on Senators to “overrule” or even fire the Senate parliamentarian after she determined that a proposed $15-an-hour minimum-wage increase must be stripped from Biden’s covid relief bill.

But the White House has said vice president Kamala Harris – who would cast the tie-breaking vote in an evenly split Senate – has no intention of overruling the parliamentarian.

Yet even if the White House was willing to challenge the ruling, it’s not certain Harris would have the chance to do so. At least two Democratic senators have said they did not support legislation raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour and Harris only votes if there is a tie to break.

Guardian bureau chief David Smith sends another virtual dispatch from CPAC, where Republican senator Ted Cruz just left the stage.

Cruz has joked about his disastrous decision last week to fly to Cancun, Mexico, for a family holiday as people struggled for food and warmth following a snowstorm in his home state of Texas.

“Orlando is awesome,” Cruz told CPAC in Orlando, Florida. “It’s not as nice as Cancun, but it’s nice.”

The senator went on to rail against “cancel culture”, coronavirus restrictions in restaurants and the “shrill” and “angry” left in speech that earned laugher and applause. He paid tribute to late rightwing radio host Rush Limbaugh and mixed in references to Saturday Night Live, Star Wars, Star Trek and the Mel Gibson film Braveheart.

“We’re gathered at a time where the hard left, where the socialists control the levers of government, where they control the White House, where they control every executive branch, where they control both houses of Congress,” Cruz said.

“Bernie [Sanders] is wearing mittens and AOC [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] is telling us she was ‘murdered’.” Cruz put a shrill emphasis on the word “murdered” to mock the Democratic congresswoman who has told how she feared for her life during the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January.

He went on: “And the media desperately, desperately, desperately wants to see a Republican civil war. Liberty is under assault and what are we going to do? I’ll tell you, we will fight.”

Cruz was among the most prominent Senate Republicans who voted to challenge the result of the 2020 election. He issued a warning to members of his own party who want to “erase the last four years” and banish Trump’s “Make America great again” movement.

“They look at Donald Trump and they look at the millions and millions of people inspired who went to the battle fighting alongside President Trump, and they’re terrified and they want him to go away. Let me tell you this right now: Donald J Trump ain’t going anywhere.”

That promise got the biggest applause of his speech. Cruz went on: “The Republican Party is not the party just of the country club. The Republican Party is the party of steel workers and construction workers and pipeline workers and taxi cab drivers and cops and firefighters and waiters and waitresses and the men and women with calluses on their hands who are working for this country

“That is our party. And these ‘deplorables’ are here to say.”

Updated

Echoing Walensky, Fauci urged the nation’s mayors and governors to hold off on easing public health restrictions. If the number of Covid-19 cases stagnates at its current level – roughly 70,000 new infections per day, it risks leaving the US vulnerable to another deadly surge, he said.

If we plateau at 70,000 we are at that very precarious position that we were right before the fall surge where anything that could perturb that could give us another surge,” Fauci said. “We don’t want to be people always looking at the dark side of things but you want to be realistic. We have to carefully look at what happens over the next week or so with those numbers before you start making the understandable need to relax on certain restrictions. So just watch it closely and be prepared to react according to what actually happens.”

Slavitt ended the briefing on a similar note, stressing: “We are not there by a long shot. The progress we have made is better than where we were weeks ago but it is nowhere near the baseline that we need to achieve as a country.”

Updated

Dr Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, urged Americans to get the vaccine available to them as soon as they are eligible.

He said vaccines and other public health and virus mitigation efforts are the best defense against the spread of virus variants.

Updated

Dr Rochelle Walensky: 'Now is not the time to relax restrictions'

Despite a promising decline in Covid-19 deaths and hospitalizations over the last several weeks, Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned of a “very concerning shift in the trajectory”.

“The latest data suggest that these declines may be stalling, potentially leveling off at a very high number,” Walensky said, noting that the declines followed the deadliest and worst surge of the year-long pandemic.

She said cases have been ticking upward over the past three days and that the most recent seven-day average is slightly higher than the seven-day average earlier this week.

The data may be starting to reflect the impact of some of the virus variants, Walensky said. The CDC estimates that the B117 variant currently accounts for 10% of new cases in the US.

The agency, she said, is “sounding the alarm” about the spread of variants.

“Things are tenuous,” she said. “Now is not the time to relax restrictions.”

Updated

Andy Slavitt, White House senior adviser for Covid-19 response, is urging the Senate to quickly take up the administration’s coronavirus stimulus package, known as the American Rescue Plan, after the House passes the bill later today.

“We cannot defeat this virus as rapidly as we need to without action from Congress,” he said during a coronavirus briefing this morning.

He said the bill is “critical” to re-opening schools safely, expanding genetic sequencing to detect for mutations and addressing disparities in poor and minority communities that have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.

“This legislation will enable Americans across the country to defeat Covid-19 and get back to normal life more quickly,” he said.

Updated

Any doubts that former US president Donald Trump still commands a near religious following will be dispelled by the appearance of a golden statue at a major conservative conference.

A viral video shows two men in suits pushing the kitsch monument through the corridors of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida, where admirers snap photos of it.

The statue is larger than life, with a golden head and Trump’s trademark suit jacket with white shirt and red tie. Bizarrely, the disgraced ex-commander in chief also appears to be sporting stars and stripes shorts.

The statue is fitting because of the golden thread that runs through Trump’s career. An intelligence dossier compiled by Christopher Steele, a former MI6 officer, contained the salacious – and still unproven – allegation that Trump watched sex workers perform “golden showers” by urinating on each other in a Russian hotel room in 2013.

In 2018, the Guggenheim Museum in New York reportedly turned down a White House request to borrow a painting by Dutch master Vincent van Gogh and instead offered the administration an 18-carat gold toilet – an installation by artist Maurizio Cattelan.

Trump is due to give his first post-White House speech at CPAC on Sunday and there is plenty of other evidence that he remains hugely popular with this section of the Republican party.

Attendees can buy $2 bumper stickers that say “Trump is my president”, “Biden is not my president”, “Trump 2024” and a picture of the 45th president with the question “Miss me yet?” One t-shirt has a picture of Trump with the slogan “Undefeated impeachment champ”; another shows Joe Biden with an Adolf Hitler-style moustache and the words “Not my dictator”.

Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, got the event under way on Friday by claiming that his state’s lack of coronavirus restrictions were a success story.

“We are in an oasis of freedom in a nation that’s suffering from the yoke of oppressive lockdowns,’’ he told attendees. “We look around in other parts of our country, and in far too many places, we see schools closed, businesses shuttered and lives destroyed. And while so many governors over the last year kept locking people down, Florida lifted people up.”

More than 30,000 people in Florida have died from Covid-19.

Joe Biden departed the White House before for Houston, where he will tour the storm-battered city after millions of Texans lost power and water last week.

Holding hands with his wife, Jill Biden, the first couple took no questions as they climbed onto Marine 1 and headed to Joint Base Andrew.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki is expected to brief reporters aboard Air Force One shortly after take off.

The nomination of Neera Tanden to serve as Director of the Office of Management and Budget is dangling by a thread, her fate seemingly resting in the hands of one Republican senator: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

CNN is reporting that Murkowski, who has not announced how she plans to vote on the nomination, will meet with Tanden on Monday.

The meeting comes after Murkowski learned of a disapproving tweet by Tanden, a prolific, if problematic, tweeter whose liberal use of the platform has all but doomed her nomination. In the 2017 tweet, Tanden criticized Murkowski after the senator praised a Republican push to cut corporate taxes.

“No offense, but this sounds like you’re high on your own supply,” Tanden wrote. “You know, we know, and everyone knows this is all just garbage. Just stop.”

Tanden’s tweets have been at the center of the drama surrounding her nomination, with several senators pointing to her “divisive” and “overly partisan” tweets as a reason for voting against her.

Without Murkowski’s support, Tanden’s nomination is likely all but doomed. Several moderate Republicans have announced their opposition to her confirmation, as has Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat, leaving Tanden at least one vote shy of the 50 votes she needs to be confirmed.

So far, the White House has stood by their nominee, pointing to her contrition and arguing that there is still a path for her. Whether that’s true may be clearer after her meeting with Murkowski on Monday.

The decision by the Senate parliamentarian that the $15 minimum wage would have to be removed from the American Rescue Plan has renewed calls for senators to abolish a procedural took known as the filibuster.

The filibuster requires a 60-vote threshold to advance most legislation in the Senate, which is split evenly between the parties.

Democrats are using a budgetary maneuver known as reconciliation to bypass the filibuster and advance the $1.9tn rescue package on simple majority vote. But the project is subject to certain rules that limit what can be included in legislation passed through reconciliation.

Democrats aren’t even sure they have 50 votes in the Senate to approve a federal minimum wage increase of $15 an hour, making it highly unlikely that a standalone measure would attract the requisite 60 votes.

As such, many progressives are calling on Democrats to abolish the filibuster, which would allow the party to advance legislation with simple majorities. Partisan gridlock has already resulted in the abolishment of the filibuster for cabinet and Supreme Court nominations.

Though support for removing the filibuster is growing, Democrats currently do not have enough votes to do so. Senator Joe Manchin, one of the few moderate Democrats in the caucus, has said he is strongly opposed to eliminating the procedural tool because it forces a bipartisan consensus.

But progressives say the tool is an arcane relic, famously used to delay the advancement of civil rights legislation, that is standing in the way of good governance.

Democrats are not giving up the fight to pass a $15 minimum wage as part of the coronavirus stimulus package.

Senator Bernie Sanders, chair of the powerful budget committee who helped popularize calls for raising the federal minimum wage during his presidential runs, said he was considering an amendment to the bill that would remove tax deductions for big corporations that refused to pay workers at least $15 per hour, while offering incentives for smaller businesses to do so.

“Count me in,” said Senator Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii.

Senator Ron Wyden, chair of the Senate finance committee, said he would continue to explore all options, including a “tax penalty for mega-corporations that refuse to pay a living wage.”

Such a provision would effectively mandate a minimum wage hike without doing so explicitly and could help bring along skeptics like Democratic senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona who said they were opposed to raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the minimum wage increase would remain in the relief bill the House is expected to pass later this evening, leaving it to the Senate to strip it from legislation later.

“House Democrats believe that the minimum wage hike is necessary,” she said in a statement Thursday night. “Therefore, this provision will remain in the American Rescue Plan on the Floor tomorrow.”

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Robert Burns writes for the Associated Press today about the choice facing Joe Biden over Afghanistan – to withdraw all troops by May, as promised by his predecessor and risk a resurgence of extremist dangers, or stay and possibly prolong the war.

Afghanistan presents one of the new administration’s tougher and more urgent decisions. The US public is weary of a war nearly 20 years old, but pulling out now could be seen as giving the Taliban too much leverage and casting a shadow over the sacrifices made by US and coalition troops and Afghan civilians.

Biden has not commented in detail on Afghanistan since taking office. He said during the 2020 campaign that he might keep a counterterrorism force in Afghanistan but also would “end the war responsibly” to ensure US forces never have to return.

“I would bring American combat troops in Afghanistan home during my first term,” he wrote last summer in response to written questions from the Council on Foreign Relations, although the US mission there already shifted some years ago from combat to advising Afghan security forces. “Any residual US military presence in Afghanistan would be focused only on counterterrorism operations.”

The administration says it is studying the February 2020 so-called Doha deal in which the Taliban agreed to stop attacking US and coalition forces and to start peace talks with the Kabul government, among other things, in exchange for a complete withdrawal of foreign troops by 1 May, 2021. Senior US officials have asserted for months that the Taliban has fallen short of its Doha commitments.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said last week that he has assured US allies and partners in Afghanistan there will be no “hasty” pullout, and that Washington’s focus is on diplomacy. “Clearly, the violence is too high right now, and more progress needs to be made in the Afghan-led negotiations, and so I urge all parties to choose the path towards peace,” he told reporters.

A further hint of the administration’s thinking may be its repeated reference to reviewing “compliance” with the Doha agreement, suggesting the possibility that the administration ultimately will argue that Taliban noncompliance makes the 1 May deadline void, or at least moveable.

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Commissioners in the city where Black teenager Trayvon Martin was killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer nine years ago today have agreed to form an advisory committee to study how race, class and gender can lead to social inequities.

The Associated Press report that the 15-member “Race, Equality, Equity and Inclusion” group will be made up of residents, people who work in Sanford and business owners.

The committee “will be charged with taking a look at racial tension within the city and how the disparities in services, public and private, impact people of color more than they do their white counterparts,” Andrew Thomas, Sanford’s community relations and neighborhood engagement director, said during a recent commission meeting.

They’re being asked to deliver a report detailing its findings to the city commission in about eight months. The group will make recommendations on improving inequities that may exist in Sanford, including within governmental services related to housing, healthcare, education, criminal justice and employment, the newspaper reported.

Martin, who lived in Miami, was visiting his father when he was shot by George Zimmerman. Zimmerman claimed self-defense and was later acquitted during a jury trial. Martin’s death helped lead to the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2013.

A resolution approved by commissioners 22 February said: “The city of Sanford recognizes racism and social inequities unfairly disadvantages specific individuals and communities and saps the strength of the whole society through the waste of human resources. The collective prosperity of the City depends upon the equitable access to opportunity for every resident regardless of the color of their skin or social status.”

Commissioner Sheena Britton, a Black woman elected in June, hopes for action rather than talk. “It’s really important that we have a board like this,” said Britton. “But I want to make sure that it leads to something being implemented. That it leads to some change.”

Overnight, faced with the decision by unelected and nonpartisan Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough that the $15 minimum wage provison in the proposed Covid recovery bill be stripped out, Rep Ilhan Omar called for her to go. It isn’t without precedent, as Katie Shepherd notes for the Washington Post this morning:

Parliamentarians are essentially the umpires of the Senate, ensuring that lawmakers follow the rules that govern how legislation moves forward. In recent years, the most difficult calls have involved bills passed through budget reconciliation, which allows the Senate to end debate and call a vote with the support of a simple majority. MacDonough has struck prohibited measures from those bills several times, confounding both Republicans and Democrats.

Generally, the parliamentarian’s rulings are respected by whichever party is in power. But in 2001, Republicans took a drastic step after a series of rulings went against their plans. The Senate was evenly split at the time, with the GOP holding a razor-thin majority thanks to recently elected vice president Dick Cheney’s tiebreaking vote.

Republicans tried to usher tax cuts through Congress under the budget reconciliation process that allows the Senate to move legislation forward with a simple 51-vote majority rather than the 60 votes normally required to avoid a filibuster. But then-Senate Parliamentarian Robert Dove ruled that most of the tax cuts and a measure creating a $5 billion fund for natural disaster damage could not be considered using the reconciliation process. He was promptly dismissed by Secretary of the Senate Gary Sisco at the behest of then-Majority leader Trent Lott.

It’s worth noting that the Senate could simply overrule the parliamentarian, rather than fire them, but Sen Joe Manchin has already publicly vowed to oppose going against the parliamentarian, meaning they probably wouldn’t have the votes.

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Two US Navy ships in Middle East are experiencing coronavirus outbreaks

Two US Navy ships deployed to the Middle East are experiencing coronavirus outbreaks, according to this report from ABC News:

The amphibious transport ship USS San Diego has gone into port in Bahrain after 12 service members tested positive for the virus, the Navy’s Fifth Fleet said.

The cruiser USS Philippine Sea was at sea when it was discovered that several sailors aboard had also been exposed to the virus and were considered to be “persons under investigation.”

The cruiser has since arrived in Bahrain, where those sailors tested positive for Covid-19, a Fifth Fleet spokesperson told ABC News Friday.

Read more here: ABC News – 2 US Navy ships in Middle East facing Covid-19 outbreaks

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Republicans appear eager to derail the cabinet nomination of Deb Haaland, a Native American congresswoman who wants to conserve federal lands and slow climate change as secretary of the interior to Joe Biden.

In two days of confirmation hearings before the Senate energy and natural resources committee, Haaland faced hostile questions from a group of GOP senators who attempted to cast her as an extremist and a danger to American jobs.

Haaland, a 35th-generation New Mexican who would be the first Native American cabinet secretary, supports the Green New Deal and opposes fracking on federal land. As secretary of the interior, she would implement Biden’s climate agenda, which, though relatively ambitious, may not go as far as she would prefer.

Hostile questioning at her confirmation hearings was led by senators who have taken huge amounts of campaign cash from the oil and gas industry. Some are personally invested in fossil fuels.

John Barrasso of Wyoming, the ranking Republican on the committee, said he was “troubled by many of Representative Haaland’s views”, which he characterized as “radical”.

“We shouldn’t undermine our energy production and we shouldn’t hurt our own economy,” he said in an opening statement. “Representative Haaland’s positions are squarely at odds with the mission of the Department of [the] Interior.”

Haaland had to correct Barrasso after he mischaracterized Biden’s temporary pause on new federal oil, gas and coal leases, calling it a ban.

Barrasso, who has questioned whether humans contribute to the climate crisis, also complained about a tweet in which Haaland said Republicans don’t believe in science. What he didn’t say was that the oil and gas industry has bankrolled his political career and he is personally invested in a company that transports a sizable portion of US natural gas.

From 2015 to 2020, Barrasso’s campaign and leadership political action committee, or Pac, took in more than $480,000 from the pacs of oil and gas companies, more than from any other industry, according to data analyzed by OpenSecrets.org.

In 2018, his most recent election year, his campaign got the maximum amount of $10,000 from the pacs of companies such as natural gas driller Chesapeake Energy, which extracts oil from wells in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming; oil giant Chevron, which owns oil and gas properties in Haaland’s state, New Mexico; and fossil fuel conglomerate Koch Industries.

Read more of Alex Kotch’s report here: The Republicans criticizing Haaland’s nomination – and their ties to fossil fuels

The US Air Force says it will be distributing bottled water to thousands of residents and business owners near its base in suburban Phoenix until at least April, marking the latest case of chemicals from military firefighting efforts contaminating the water supply in a nearby community.

The Associated Press report that Luke Air Force Base announced this month that studies showed high levels of contaminants had affected drinking water for about 6,000 people in roughly 1,600 homes as well as a few neighboring businesses.

A contractor is scheduling deliveries of drinking water to the homes of people who picked up their first bottles this week, said Sean Clements, chief of public affairs for the 56th Fighter Wing at the base. Those deliveries will go on until a long-term filtration facility can be set up in April, Clements said.

The base has recommended people use bottled water for drinking and cooking but deemed tap water safe for bathing and laundry.

Similar contamination tied to the use of firefighting foam has been found in water supplies near dozens of military sites in Arizona, Colorado and other states and has triggered hundreds of lawsuits. Growing evidence that it’s dangerous to be exposed to the chemicals found in the foam has prompted the US Environmental Protection Agency to consider setting a maximum level for those chemicals in drinking water nationwide.

A statement from Luke Air Force Base last week said testing had detected levels of perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctane sulfonate above the EPA’s health advisory for how much should be consumed in drinking water over a person’s lifetime. The so-called forever chemicals from a class known collectively as PFAS were found during tests of water from Valley Utilities Water Co.

How can we protect ourselves? Public health advocates and researchers say there’s only one real way to protect ourselves – a virtual ban on PFAS production.

Otherwise, there are very few meaningful steps that we can take, though a water filtration system is one good option. PFAS can slip through many filters, but researchers at Duke and North Carolina State universities found reverse osmosis and two-stage filters are the most effective. I bought a Berkey filtration system, which the company claims removes short- and long-chain PFAS.

What else? I also got rid of my nonstick Teflon pots and pans, switched dental floss brands, bought a different bike lube (though I’m uncertain if it’s PFAS-free) and have stopped buying any products that I know contain PFAS. Instead of sweeping with a broom, which kicks up dust and contaminants, I now use a vacuum that has a Hepa filter that traps them.

Courtney Carignan, an environmental epidemiologist with Michigan State University, said these are good steps to take, but people who are “trying to buy their way out of a problem” may get a “false sense of security”. Unless I plan to stop eating out and consuming animal products altogether, for example, then I’m generally going to be exposed to PFAS in food and its packaging.

What about regulation? The regulatory approach as it’s currently designed is ineffective. Advocates say the only solutions are to regulate PFAS as a class of chemicals instead of on an individual basis, and to enact a ban except for essential uses, as the European Union is proposing. Tom Perkins

Brig Gen Gregory Kreuder, commander of Luke Air Force Base, said a study showed the chemicals may have affected “supply wells that provide drinking water” to properties nearby. “We share community concerns about the potential impact of these compounds on drinking water,” he said.

The US Air Force Academy in 2019 said unsafe levels of PFAS chemicals were found in groundwater at four sites on its Colorado Springs campus, south of Denver. The chemicals also have been discovered around the Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs.

Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, has been on the television this morning talking about the $15 minimum wage rise. He’s said that Joe Biden is absolutely committed to it, but has repeated the line that we’ve already heard from press secretary Jen Psaki – that they will not be seeking to overturn the decision of Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough that it can’t be passed in its present form as part of the $1.9 trillion rescue package.

Deese said the next step was “We’re going to consult with our congressional allies, congressional leadership today to talk about a path forward. The president has campaigned on the $15 minimum wage, he believes in the $15 minimum wage, he’s committed to getting it done.”

There is considerable pressure from within the party to get Biden to stick to that.

Reuters report that pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Co has said that the US government has agreed to buy at least 100,000 doses of its newly authorized Covid-19 dual antibody cocktail for $210 million, with doses to be delivered through March-end.

The US government will have the option to purchase up to an additional 1.1 million doses through 25 November, the company said.

The therapy contains two antibodies bamlanivimab and etesevimab and had got US emergency use authorization earlier this month for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 in patients who are at high risk of progressing to severe disease or hospitalization.

The hospitalization level from Covid declined again yesterday, falling to 52,669 according to the Covid Tracking Project. It is the lowest level since 5 November.

The were 77,291 new cases of coronavirus in the US recorded yesterday by the Johns Hopkins University, with 2,417 more deaths.

The trip of president Joe Biden and first lady Dr Jill Biden to Houston, Texas today has two aims: to survey damage and relief efforts caused by the severe winter weather that lead to massive power outages, and to encourage people to get the Covid vaccine.

Darlene Superville writes for the Associated Press that Biden is expected to visit a food bank and meet with local leaders to discuss the storm, relief efforts and progress toward recovery. He is to be accompanied by Republican Texas Gov Greg Abbott.

The post-storm debate in Texas has centered on the state maintaining its own electrical grid and lack of storm preparation, including weatherization of key infrastructure. Some state officials initially blamed the blackouts on renewable energy even though Texas is a heavy user of fossil fuels like oil and gas.

The White House said Biden’s purpose in visiting would be to support, not scold.

“The president doesn’t view the crisis and the millions of people who’ve been impacted by it as a Democratic or Republican issue,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday. “He views it as an issue where he’s eager to get relief, to tap into all the resources in the federal government, to make sure the people of Texas know we’re thinking about them, we’re fighting for them and we’re going to continue working on this as they’re recovering.”

Psaki said policy discussions about better weatherization and preparation could come later, “but right now, we’re focused on getting relief to the people of the state.”

Biden has declared a major disaster in Texas and asked federal agencies to identify additional resources to aid the recovery. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has sent emergency generators, bottled water, ready-to-eat meals and blankets.

Galveston County Judge Mark Henry said in an interview that he didn’t know what more the federal government could do to help because the failures were at the state level. But Henry, a Republican who is the highest county official in the suburban Houston county, said that if Biden “thinks it’s important to visit, then come on down.”

As Donald Trump prepares to address the crowds at the Conservative Political Action Conference this weekend, Jonathan Freedland speaks to Evan McMullin, who is leading the charge to create an alternative option to the current Republican party for conservatives.

That’s our Politics Weekly Extra podcast this week – and you can listen to it right here:

The events of 6 January, when a pro-Trump mob ransacked the seat of US government in an attempt to stop Congress ratifying Joe Biden’s election victory continue to reverberate. Jordain Carney at the Hill writes this morning about the faltering steps for Congress to agree on how to investigate what happened:

Plans for a 9/11-style commission to probe the 6 January attack are running into partisan stumbling blocks in Congress. House Democrats are hoping to vote on legislation establishing the investigative panel before they leave town in mid-March, giving them a matter of days to try to reach a deal with Republicans.

But clashes among congressional leaders over both the structure and scope of the panel are threatening to derail the commission before it even gets underway. Nancy Pelosi pledged during her weekly press conference that she would do “anything to have it be bipartisan.”

But so far, a draft bill has come under fire from Republicans, whose support will be needed in the Senate in order to establish the commission. There is also public skepticism from some Democrats and leaders of the 9/11 panel that Pelosi is citing as a model.

Those tensions have resulted in a back-and-forth of high-profile barbs after Mitch McConnell appeared to pour cold water on much of Pelosi’s draft legislation, a copy of which had been shared with his staff. “An inquiry with a hard-wired partisan slant would never be legitimate in the eyes of the American people. An undertaking that is uneven or unjust would not help our country,” McConnell said.

Read more here: The Hill – Partisan headwinds threaten Capitol riot commission

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Republicans have unveiled two minimum wage bills in response to Democrats' $15 push

Republican lawmakers have been vocal about their opposition to Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief bill, particularly to Democrats’ inclusion of a provision that would raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $15 an hour – now stymied by progessing in its current form by the judgement of Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough.

Two sets of Republicans from opposite sides of their party have now introduced bills that show what they believe are more palatable policies that address criticism of America’s current minimum wage.

In keeping with the party’s deep division between its dominant Trumpist faction and its more traditionalist party elites, the twin responses seem aimed at appealing on one hand to its corporate-friendly allies and on the other hand to its populist rightwing base. Both have an anti-immigrant element.

Senators Mitt Romney and Tom Cotton unveiled on Tuesday a proposal for a $10 federal minimum wage, to be implemented over the course of four years with a slower, phased approach for small businesses. Their bill also requires employers to use the federal government’s E-Verify program to ensure they are not hiring undocumented workers.

Meanwhile, the far-right Republican senator Josh Hawley of Missouri released his alternative to an increase in the minimum wage: a tax credit for those who make less than $16.50 an hour. The credit would be applied based on the number of hours a person worked and would be available only to those with an American social security number, barring non-US citizens and undocumented workers. A full-time worker could get up to $4,680 in tax credits a year, according to the bill.

Read more of Lauren Aratani’s report here: Republicans unveil two minimum wage bills in response to Democrats’ push

Russia complains US gave it 'inadequate' advance warning of strikes in Syria

A quick snap from Reuters here with some Russian reaction to that US strike in Syria. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this morning that the US gave Russia several minutes of advance warning before it carried out a strike in Syria, a timeframe he described as inadequate, the RIA news agency reported.

Lavrov also called on the US to renew contacts with Moscow over Syria to clarify president Joe Biden’s position on Syria, the Interfax news agency reported.

Corey Lewandowski chosen to run a new super PAC for Donald Trump – reports

The sub-plot of this years CPAC is how it reveals what Donald Trump and the Trumpist wing of the Republican party have in store for the next couple of years. Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney, Mike Pence, Liz Cheney and Niki Haley are notably among senior Republicans who are not there. Overnight Alex Isenstadt had more details on Trump’s post-presidency plans for Politico:

Donald Trump told political advisers Thursday that he’s chosen longtime ally Corey Lewandowski to run a yet-to-be-formed super PAC as part of his expanding post-presidential political apparatus, according to multiple people familiar with the discussion.

The decision was made in a multi-hour meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on Thursday. Trump gathered his top political lieutenants, including Donald Trump Jr, former campaign manager Bill Stepien, former deputy campaign manager Justin Clark, former campaign manager Brad Parscale, former White House social media director Dan Scavino and senior adviser Jason Miller. Alex Cannon, an attorney who has been advising the Trump team on the post-White House plans, was also present.

“MAGA supporters and candidates supporting President Trump’s America First agenda are going to be impressed with the political operation being built out here,” Miller said. “We expect formal announcements of the full team in the coming weeks, which will include some very talented operatives not yet named.”

Read more here: Politico – Trump shares plans for new super PAC in Mar-a-Lago meeting

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The Georgia prosecutor investigating potential efforts by Donald Trump and others to influence last year’s general election has a message for people who are eager to see whether the former president will be charged: Be patient.

“I’m in no rush,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said this week in an interview with the Associated Press. “I think people think that I feel this immense pressure. I don’t.”

Willis, a Democrat elected in November, sent letters to state officials on 10 February instructing them to preserve records related to the election, particularly those that may contain evidence of attempts to influence elections officials. But she said this week that she’s not sure where the investigation will go or how long it will take.

Her office confirmed that the probe includes a call in which Trump urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the state. Willis also said she has questions about a call US Sen Lindsey Graham made to Raffensperger, the sudden departure of a top federal prosecutor and statements made before Georgia legislative committees.

Kate Brumback reports for the Associated Press that Democrats and a few Republicans have condemned Trump’s call to Raffensperger, with some critics saying the recording is proof of criminal election interference. State and federal officials have repeatedly said the election was secure and that there was no evidence of systemic fraud.

Willis wrote in the letters to state officials that her office had opened a criminal investigation into “potential violations of Georgia law prohibiting the solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local government bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office and any involvement in violence or threats related to the election’s administration.”

After a coronavirus-related pause, two grand juries are to be seated next week, which will allow prosecutors to seek subpoenas.

Following the November general election, Trump refused to accept his loss by about 12,000 votes in Georgia. He and his allies made unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud and hurled insults at Raffensperger, Gov Brian Kemp and Lt Gov Geoff Duncan – all fellow Republicans – for not acting to overturn his loss.

During the call with Raffensperger, Trump also appeared to suggest that Byung J Pak, the Trump-appointed US attorney in Atlanta, was a “never-Trumper” a term often used for conservative critics of Trump. Pak abruptly announced his resignation the day after the call became public. He’s never publicly explained his departure.

“I find it particularly peculiar the way that he left and when he left,” Willis said of Pak. “It’s something that, to do my job correctly, I have to ask questions about. That’s just logical.”

We're suing to hold Trump accountable for 'treasonous acts', NAACP chief says

Civil rights group the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has argued thats its suing of Donald Trump using the Ku Klux Klan Act – a historic law enacted to combat white supremacy – is in order to hold the former president accountable to Black voters that his Republican administration sought to invalidate.

The lawsuit alleges Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani sought to undermine the will of American voters by orchestrating a “series of events that unfolded [with] the Save America rally and the storming of the Capitol” on 6 January in events that shocked the world.

“We could not stand by and not pursue a course of action to hold those accountable for their treasonous acts,” Derrick Johnson, president, told the Guardian in an interview, noting the act was designed for “the very incident the world witnessed on 6 January”.

Opponents have argued the twice-impeached Trump and his associates are still subject to civil and criminal penalties, including the Republican minority leader, Mitch McConnell,who blamed Trump for the insurrection in a speech on the Senate floor shortly after voting to acquit him at his impeachment trial.

Accusing 43 Republicans senators who acquitted Trump of putting “partisanship over the constitution”, Johnson notes that in the past some civil judgements have still bankrupted hate groups or forced them and enablers to shut down.

Passed in 1871, the KKK Act originally sought to prevent violence and intimidation that members of Congress were subjected to carrying out their constitutional duties throughout the south during the Reconstruction era.

The NAACP is representing the Mississippi congressman Bennie Thompson in the suit but confirmed they expect more members to join. Founded in 1909, the group argues the KKK Act was designed to protect against election conspiracies peddled by Republicans.

“We settled these disagreements at the ballot box, but the former administration and Giuliani sought to disqualify our votes,” Johnson said, accusing Trump of “operating under a white supremacist doctrine that was a derived from days of the Confederacy”.

Read more of Kenya Evelyn’s report here: We’re suing to hold Trump accountable for ‘treasonous acts’, NAACP chief says

Here’s a bit more detail on Joe Biden’s schedule for today in Houston, by the way. As well as making remarks while visiting the FEMA vaccination facility at the NRG Park, the president will also visit the Harris County Emergency Operations Center.

He’ll join his wife Dr Jill Biden at the Houston Food Bank where they will meet volunteers. They leave Houston in the evening and should be back at the White House by 10pm EST.

Not unexpectedly, the news that the US has carried out airstrikes against Iran-backed militia in Syria has also exposed division within the Democrats. It was the first specific military action authorised by president Joe Biden as commander-in-chief.

The Pentagon said the strikes were retaliation for a rocket attack in Iraq earlier this month that killed one civilian contractor and wounded a US service member and other coalition troops.

“This proportionate military response was conducted together with diplomatic measures, including consultation with coalition partners,” the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, John Kirby, said in announcing the strikes.

“The operation sends an unambiguous message: President Biden will act to protect American and coalition personnel. At the same time, we have acted in a deliberate manner that aims to deescalate the overall situation in eastern Syria and Iraq.”

Kirby also said the US airstrikes “destroyed multiple facilities at a border control point used by a number of Iranian- backed militant groups”.

Rep Steny Hoyer, the Democrats’ leader in the House, welcomed the action as a demonstration of Joe Biden’s “resolve to prevent Iran from targeting America’s personnel and allies with impunity.”

His colleague Rep Ilhan Omar was less impressed. She quote-tweeted White House press secretary Jen Psaki from 2017 asking what legal authority the Trump administration had for carrying out strikes within Syria, a sovereign country that the US is not at war with. “Great question” Omar pointed out.

If Senate Democrats can’t find a path forward to get the wage increase enacted – one option might be to pair it with tax penalties for companies not paying the wage, which might then overcome the ruling – it will set up a clash with the progressive side of the party, which was already very vocal about the developments last night.

Washington Rep Pramila Jayapal, who leads the Democrats’ progessive caucus in the House, said that “the advisory opinion” of an “unelected parliamentarian” should not be allowed to stand in the way of the policy.

Progressives in the House also used their voice last night to describe the existing level as a “starvation wage” and called for Senate reform.

Sen Chris Murphy from Connecticut chipped in to say that “The filibuster is killing democracy.”

Democrats currently have the presidency, control of the House, and the casting vote in the Senate, but are unable to move forward with some of their policies because the filibuster mechanism means Republicans in the Senate can endlessly hold up legislation. The Senate is split 50-50, but the Democratic half represents some 41.5m more people than the Republican half.

Democrats' $15 minimum wage rise under threat after Senate’s parliamentarian ruling

Getting the federal minimum wage raised to $15 per hour from its current level of $7.25 an hour has been a key policy goal for progressive Democrats. It has hit an obstacle in the Senate. As Erica Werner writes for the Washington Post:

Biden’s proposed $15-an-hour minimum-wage increase cannot remain in his coronavirus relief bill as written, the Senate’s parliamentarian said Thursday. The ruling could be a major setback for liberals hoping to use Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief bill as the vehicle for their long-sought goal of raising the federal minimum wage.

And it could create divisions in the party as some push Democratic leaders for dramatic action to get around the parliamentarian’s ruling. Democrats next steps are not clear. Liberals are pressuring Senate majority leader Charles Schumer to challenge the ruling on the Senate floor, although the White House has dismissed that idea.

Schumer himself described the decision as disappointing, saying “We are not going to give up the fight to raise the minimum wage to $15 to help millions of struggling American workers and their families. The American people deserve it, and we are committed to making it a reality.”

The White House was less bullish on the matter. A statement from White House press secretary Jen Psaki last night said that Joe Biden “respects the parliamentarian’s decision and the Senate’s process.”

She added “He will work with leaders in Congress to determine the best path forward, because no one in this country should work full time and live in poverty. He urges Congress to move quickly to pass the American Rescue Plan.”

Updated

Hi, and welcome to our live coverage of what is set to be a busy day of US politics, with quite a lot in the diary. Here’s a quick catch-up on where we are, and what we expect to see.

  • The House will vote on the Covid rescue plan today – the $1.9 trillion package is a centrepiece of the Biden administration’s plan for US economic recovery.
  • But it has already hit a hurdle in the Senate, where parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, a little-known non-partisan figure, has ruled that a measure to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour cannot be part of it.
  • Biden said that 50 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered across the US since he took office, outpacing his administration’s goal to distribute 100m shots in his first 100 days in office. He said it is ‘weeks ahead of schedule’ and ‘the more people get vaccinated, the faster we’ll beat this’.
  • An FDA panel will meet later today to discuss emergency authorisation of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
  • Joe Biden spoke with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, ahead of the publication of a US intelligence report expected to implicate the Saudi crown prince in the 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
  • Yesterday, the House passed a sweeping LGBTQ+ rights bill. It amends the 1964 Civil Rights Act, but faces an uncertain future in the Senate.
  • The US carried out airstrikes against Iran-backed militia in Syria, which it said came after a series of attacks against US targets in Iraq.
  • Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley and Donald Trump Jr are the main attractions at CPAC, which gets underway in Florida in earnest today.
  • The president and first lady Dr Jill Biden are in Houston, Texas today. They will visit the FEMA Covid-19 vaccination facility at NRG Stadium. Biden will speak at 6.00pm EST (2300 GMT).
  • There’s also a Covid briefing in the White House at 11am, and Jen Psaki will speak to the press aboard Air Force One en route to Texas.
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