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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Vivian Ho, Kari Paul, Daniel Strauss and Martin Belam

Senate votes to confirm Deb Haaland as first Indigenous cabinet secretary – as it happened

Deb Haaland is sworn in during a hearing on her nomination in Washington DC on 23 February.
Deb Haaland is sworn in during a hearing on her nomination in Washington DC on 23 February. Photograph: Reuters

Evening summary

  • In a historic confirmation, the Senate voted to confirm Deb Haaland as secretary of the interior, making her the first Native American cabinet secretary in US history.
  • Joe Biden sent his three nominations for the board of governors of the United States Postal Service to the Senate.

A US Capitol police officer was suspended after antisemitic reading material was discovered near his work area on Monday.

Updated

Deb Haaland tweets a response to her historic confirmation:

Deb Haaland confirmed as first Native American cabinet secretary

The Senate has confirmed Deb Haaland as secretary of the interior, making her the first Native American cabinet secretary in US history.

In her role as secretary of the interior, Haaland will oversee policies guiding use of one-fifth of all US land – 500m acres of federal and tribal land – as well as the federal government’s relationship with 574 federally recognized tribal nations.

My colleague Nina Lakhani has more on the historic confirmation. Read more about it here:

Updated

A historic vote to confirm Deb Haaland as the secretary of the interior is now under way.

If confirmed, as she is expected to be, Haaland will be the first Native American cabinet secretary in US history.

The NDN Collective, an Indigenous-led organization for Indigenous empowerment, is having an emotional watch party right now. There are a lot of tears and happiness as women on this livestream reflect on the grassroots organizing and work that it took to get to this historic moment.

Updated

Hey there, Vivian Ho taking over the blog for Kari Paul.

The Texas state senate has passed a bill reversing billions in high rates charged during the storms last month.

To jog your memory: in February, devastating winter weather and below-freezing temperatures swept through Texas, pummeling its power grid and leaving millions without heat, food or safe drinking water.

Some Texans then suffered a disaster upon the disaster of a winter storm and failed infrastructure during a pandemic - a deregulated grid that allowed for skyrocketing electric bills and billions in overcharges.

This bill, which passed in the senate, seeks to reverse those overcharges.

Joe Biden on Monday sent his three nominations for the board of governors of the United States Postal Service to the Senate.

The appointments would mark the next step towards removing Louis DeJoy, the controversial postmaster general appointed under Donald Trump. DeJoy was largely seen as instrumental in a campaign to kneecap the postal service before the mail-in votes of the 2020 elections in an effort to help Trump’s run. He can only be dismissed by the board of governors.

DeJoy also oversaw the USPS over the 2020 holiday season, during which there were record mail and package delays. Despite these struggles, he said on Thursday he would give himself an “A” as a grade for “the planning and effort” he brought to the role.

Biden has nominated New York’s Bonnie Jenkins, Colorado’s Amber Faye McReynolds, and Washington, D.C.’s Ronald Stroman to the board.

Kari Paul here on the west coast, taking over the blog for the next couple of hours. Stand by for updates.

Updated

Evening summary

That’s it for me. I’m passing the blogging baton over to my colleagues on the west coast. Here’s what happened today:

  • Amid questions of what role Kamala Harris will play in the Biden administration, the vice-president is out in Nevada to highlight Biden’s stimulus law.
  • Gavin Newsom of California is sounding a publicly defiant note in the face of a move to recall him from the governorship.
  • The Alaska Republican party wants to find an alternative to Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, a Republican.
  • Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York’s legal counsel released a statement denying that conversations between his “vaccine czar” and local officials were improper.

Updated

Cuomo’s office released a new statement seemingly in response to this Washington Post story reporting that the governor’s “vaccine czar” was calling around to local officials to gauge their support.

The Post story is here.

The Post story over the weekend reported that Larry Schwartz’s “calls to county officials could fuel questions about an intermingling of politics with the state’s public health operation. The conversations came in advance of a March 8 announcement by the governor’s office that the state plans to open 10 new mass vaccination sites around New York – distribution hubs that have been keenly sought by local officials.”

Updated

The lawyer for one of the women who are accusing Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York of sexual harassment released a new statement detailing her interview with investigators:

The Alaska Republican party is going a step further than other Republican state parties looking to punish their lawmakers who voted to impeach Donald Trump – they’re actively looking to prop up a primary challenge to Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

Here’s the Alaska Daily News’ writeup:

The Alaska Republican Party has voted to censure U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski and will recruit a challenger to run against her in next year’s election.

The Republican State Central Committee voted in favor of the censure during a meeting Saturday in Anchorage after district-level officials passed a series of similar resolutions.

Under party rules, a resolution of censure is just “an official rebuke and disapproval,” but a picture of Saturday’s resolution, posted online, explicitly states that the party “will hereby recruit a Republican Party challenger to oppose and prohibit Senator Murkowski from being a candidate in any Republican primary to the extent legally permissible.”

“We’re looking for somebody else to be our U.S. Senator in 2022, and somebody who will be more in line with the Republican philosophy,” said Kris Warren, who wrote Saturday’s resolution and serves as the chairman of the Republican Party in an Anchorage House district.

As it happens, Murkowski is no stranger to both being at odds with her party and running against a primary challenger. In 2010 after losing the Republican primary contest to a Tea Party-backed primary challenge she ended up winning reelection as a write-in candidate.

Updated

Governor Gavin Newsom of California is taking a publicly defiant tone to efforts to recall him from office:

California’s governor on Monday launched a political committee to raise money to defend his seat in a potential recall election, the strongest acknowledgment to date that he expects to be on the ballot this year.

“I won’t be distracted by this partisan, Republican recall – but I will fight it,” Gavin Newsom said in a tweet. “There is too much at stake,” he added.

Organizers of the recall face a deadline on Wednesday to submit the 1.5m petition signatures necessary to place the election on the ballot. They say they have collected over 2m signatures far, though hundreds of thousands must still be validated by election officials.

But Newsom’s new fundraising arm could soon send a powerful message to his possible rivals: under state rules, the governor alone is allowed to raise money in unlimited amounts, while other candidates must adhere to contribution limits.

It’s likely Newsom will soon receive a flood of cash from his familiar Democratic constituency, including powerful public worker unions that spent millions of dollars helping install him in office in 2018.

The perimeter around the Capitol is being scaled back, according to a new report in the Washington Post:

US Capitol police will reduce the security perimeter erected after the breach of the Capitol, having determined that “there does not exist a known, credible threat against Congress”, according to a security memo sent to US lawmakers on Monday.

Over the course of this week, Acting House Sergeant-at-Arms Timothy Blodgett said, security officials will begin “repositioning” inner-perimeter fencing closer to the Capitol to allow some pedestrian access to the grounds. The complex has been surrounded by the 7ft black metal fences topped with razor wire since just after the 6 January riot, in which hundreds of supporters of then president Donald Trump violently stormed the Capitol to try to disrupt the certification of the electoral college vote.

Blodgett’s memo said that while the Capitol police and national guard will maintain their “increased security posture”, he expects the national guard to ease its presence at the complex “in the coming weeks”.

Updated

Charles Booker, the former state representative from Kentucky who ran a longshot campaign to face Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader, is mulling another bid for Senate. This time it would be against Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, also a Republican.

Booker’s campaign gained some traction as a liberal alternative to frontrunner Democrat Amy McGrath’s but Booker still lost in the primary. In the end McConnell easily won reelection.

Biden: local doctors and preachers would have more impact promoting vaccines than Trump

Joe Biden does not think it would help more if Donald Trump publicly urged his supporters to take a Covid vaccine. Rather, the president said, it would be more helpful for local doctors and community figures to encourage taking the vaccine.

Biden made the remarks at an event this afternoon.

Updated

An enduring question of the Biden administration so far is what will Kamala Harris’s portfolio be? Bloomberg’s Jordan Fabian reports that questioning hangs over the vice-president’s first official trip to promote the Biden administration’s $1.9tn stimulus package:

Kamala Harris embarked Monday on her first official trip as vice-president to promote the just-signed $1.9tn stimulus law, a two-day swing that doubles as a chance to boost her own profile.

She’s traveling to Nevada and Colorado, both important presidential election states where Democratic senators are defending seats in next year’s midterms. The trip is part of a cross-country blitz planned by President Joe Biden and top administration officials to sell the relief package and ensure Democrats get credit for it from voters.

Since taking office in January, Harris has been under scrutiny as she carves out a role for herself as vice-president – an office with few specific responsibilities that a former occupant, John Nance Garner, once called “a spare tire on the automobile of government”. Gaining important duties will be crucial for Harris, 56, should she choose to run for president again in the future.

With this week’s trip, Harris is developing a role as a key promoter for the stimulus, the first major legislation Biden signed into law. The White House views the plan as central to defeating the pandemic and engineering a strong economic recovery. Much of Harris’s focus has been on how the rescue package could help small businesses and women in the workforce.

A White House official downplayed the notion that the trip is intended to build Harris’s profile. The vice-president sees it as a chance to encourage Americans to get a Covid-19 vaccine, the official said, especially people of color who are more likely to be hesitant.

Updated

Back in Ohio, as the primary fields form major donors are lining up as well. Peter Thiel, the libertarian conservative venture capitalist, pumped money into a super Pac supporting JD Vance.

Separately, the Republican megadonor Mercer family is also putting money behind Vance as well.

Again, not every candidate who will run has formally jumped into the race so support from a few big name donors could end up deciding who the nominee is.

Updated

Speaking of Andrew Cuomo, a new Siena College poll released on Monday, found that half of New York voters do not think he should resign (Cuomo himself has vowed to stay in office).

Here’s the key line:

The poll found voters by a margin of 50% to 35% believe Cuomo should not resign immediately. A similar margin, 48% to 34%, believe the governor can effectively continue his job as governor.

Cuomo also continues to draw support from his base: 61% of Democratic voters, 69% of Black voters and 47% of voters in union households do not think he should step down.

The results come as Cuomo is facing multiple allegations of sexual harassment, inappropriate behavior as well as claims of bullying behavior.

Updated

Psaki is now getting a series of questions about Andrew Cuomo’s role as the chairman of the National Governors Association, which involves leading phone calls among governors. That questioning comes in light of reports that Cuomo allies and staff have been calling around to gauge loyalty to the New York governor.

Psaki said it’s “up to the NGA” to decide whether to keep Cuomo as the lead on those calls or the chairmanship.

During the Trump administration the then vice-president, Mike Pence, usually lead those calls.

Updated

Psaki was asked if the president has spoken to Cuomo. She responded with an emphatic “no”. She was also said no one in the White House has spoken to the governor on Biden’s behalf. To that she said “no” as well.

Updated

The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, is at the podium for the daily press briefing. She reiterated Joe Biden’s position that he wants to see a thorough investigation of Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York with an added line.

That’s in light of more allegations against Cuomo emerging. Nevertheless, Cuomo has said he will not resign, despite growing pressure from even some prominent Democrats in the state.

Updated

Carl Hiaasen, the venerated Miami Herald writer, has filed his last column for the Florida paper, a stark warning about the state of local journalism in America.

Across 35 years of opinion writing, Hiaasen has covered everything from corruption among Miami power brokers to scandal in the Florida state capital, Tallahassee, to the wanton environmental destruction of the Everglades and other natural areas, an issue close to his heart.

In his final column for the Herald, Hiaasen addressed the impact of the long-running crisis in local journalism, as US newspapers close in droves and journalists are laid off with depressing regularity.

“Retail corruption is now a breeze, since newspapers and other media can no longer afford enough reporters to cover all the key government meetings,” Hiaasen wrote.

“You wake up one day, and they’re bulldozing 20 acres of pines at the end of your block to put up a Costco. Your kids ask what’s going on, and you can’t tell them because you don’t have a clue.”

Note from a British editor always glad to see Americans enjoying pun-based newspaper headlines or columns – you need to read the following story about Carl Hiaasen’s column, all the way to the bottom…

More from the Associated Press, this time on this morning’s report from the FBI about the dramatic Christmas Day explosion in Nashville, Tennessee…

The man who blew himself up inside his recreational vehicle on Christmas Day in Nashville, Tennessee was grappling with paranoia and conspiracy theories but there are no indications he was motivated by social or political ideology, the FBI said on Monday.

An FBI statement set out to resolve some of the lingering mysteries of an explosion that perplexed investigators and the public because it appeared to lack an obvious motive. Though the blast damaged dozens of buildings, it took place early on a holiday well before streets would be busy and was preceded by a recorded announcement warning a bomb would detonate.

The FBI concluded that the bomber, Anthony Quinn Warner, chose the location and timing so that it would be impactful while minimizing the likelihood of “undue injury”.

The report found Warner acted alone and set off the bomb to kill himself, driven in part by conspiracy theories and paranoia. The report also found that stressors included “deteriorating interpersonal relationships”.

“The FBI’s analysis did not reveal indications of a broader ideological motive to use violence to bring about social or political change, nor does it reveal indications of a specific personal grievance focused on individuals or entities in and around the location of the explosion,” the statement said.

Investigators quickly settled on Warner, identifying him through DNA recovered from the blast site. They concluded early on that he acted alone.

Despite online speculation that Warner may have been motivated by conspiracy theories about 5G technology, given the proximity of the explosion to an AT&T building and the resulting havoc to cellphone service in the area, the FBI statement gives no indication that that is the case.

Law enforcement actions received scrutiny in the days after the bombing when it was revealed that in 2019 Nashville police visited Warner’s home after his girlfriend reported that he was building bombs. The police did not make contact with him or see inside his RV.

Warner took steps in the weeks leading up to the bombing that suggested he didn’t expect to survive. For instance, he gave away his car, telling the recipient he had cancer, and signed a document that transferred his home to a California woman for nothing in return. He told an employer he was retiring.

A neighbor who made small talk with Warner recalled that he said something to the effect of, “Oh, yeah, Nashville and the world is never going to forget me.”

The Associated Press has more on the new arrests connected to the death of Brian Sicknick, the Capitol police officer who died as a result of the attack by Trump supporters on 6 January:

Investigators initially believed that Sicknick was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher … [but] investigators now believe Sicknick may have ingested a chemical substance, possibly bear spray, that may have contributed to his death, officials have said.

Julian Khater is the man in a video obtained by the FBI that showed him spraying Sicknick and others with bear spray, according to court papers. The act hasn’t been directly tied to Sicknick’s death.

“Give me that bear [expletive],” Khater said to George Tanios on the video, according to court papers. Sicknick and other officers were standing guard near metal bike racks, the papers say.

Khater then says “they just [expletive] sprayed me” as he’s seen holding a white can with a black top that prosecutors said “appears to be a can of chemical spray”.

…Sicknick collapsed later on and died at a hospital on 7 January. The justice department opened a federal murder investigation into his death, but prosecutors are still evaluating what specific charges could be brought in the case, the people said.

The medical examiner’s report on Sicknick’s death is incomplete. Capitol police have said they are awaiting toxicology results.

Two men charged in Sicknick death

Two men have been charged in the death of Brian Sicknick, the police officer who died after Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol on 6 January, in support of the former president’s attempt to overturn his election defeat by Joe Biden.

A portrait of Brian Sicknick.
A portrait of Brian Sicknick. Photograph: Carol Guzy/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock

The Washington Post and other outlets report that Julian Elie Khater, 32, of Pennsylvania and George Pierre Tanios, 39 and from West Virginia, were arrested by the FBI on Sunday and expected to appear in federal court on Monday.

They are charged with assaulting Sicknick with bear spray, which Kater is reportedly alleged to be seen discharging into the officer’s face on footage of the riot.

Sicknick, 42 and one of five people to die as a direct result of the assault, died in hospital on 7 January. A police statement then said he “was injured while physically engaging with protesters” and “returned to his division office and collapsed”.

His body subsequently lay in state at the Capitol. The cause of his death has not been released – initial statements that he suffered blunt force trauma after being hit with a fire extinguisher were walked back.

According to the Be Bear Aware Campaign, humans exposed to the pepper-based spray, meant to be used against dangerous and charging bears, can experience “chest pain, cold sweat, or shallow breathing” while “asthma sufferers may experience acute stress”.

Cory Booker, a Democratic senator from New Jersey, paid tribute to Sicknick in remarks on the Senate floor, calling his death a “crime” that “demands the full attention of federal law enforcement.”.

“When white supremacists attacked our nation’s capital,” Booker said, “they took the life of one of our officers. They spilled his blood, they took a son away from his parents. They took a sibling away from their brothers.”

More than 300 people have been arrested for their part in the Capitol riot. Donald Trump was impeached for a second time for inciting the insurrection – and acquitted when only seven Republican senators decided he was guilty.

Updated

Afternoon summary

Here’s what happened today so far.

  • Former governor Eric Greitens of Missouri is eying a political comeback by running for the US Senate. Republicans aren’t happy about it.
  • Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is flexing his political muscle through his chairmanship of the Senate Budget Committee.
  • The race for US Senate in Ohio is a perfect sample of some of the dynamics at play in both the Republican and Democratic primaries.
  • Senators Mitt Romney of Utah and Ted Cruz of Texas both have op-eds out on boycotting the Olympics in Beijing.

Updated

Fauci is stressing not to be fixated on the “elusive number of herd immunity” because it’s still a somewhat anomalous number. Rather, he said in closing out the conference that the country should be focused on getting as many people vaccinated as possible.

Fauci is stressing now that all three vaccines available are “highly efficacious” – this comes as some have questioned whether they should get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine instead of the other two. Health professionals have stressed, though, that whichever vaccine someone can get they should take.

Updated

Dr Wolensky just said 37.5 million people have been fully vaccinated.

Updated

US will cover 100% of cost for children to be vaccinated

The White House is holding a press briefing featuring Dr Anthony Fauci, Andy Slavitt, and Dr Rochelle Wolensky.

Just now Slavitt, senior adviser to the Covid-19 response coordinator, announced the Biden administration will “nearly double Medicare’s reimbursement rates for administering Covid vaccines from about $23 per shot to $40 per shot.”

Slavitt also announced the “administration will now be covering 100% of the cost from Medicaid and children’s health beneficiaries to get vaccinated.”

Updated

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas seems to be proposing a slightly different approach that the United States should take to the Olympics. He writes in an op-ed for Fox News that there should be no boycott:

Our athletes should go to Beijing next year proudly, bring home medal after medal, and show the world what it means to compete on behalf of a free society. We shouldn’t give China an easy way to run up its medal count by preventing Americans from going to the Olympics.

As you may have read below, Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, also a Republican, proposed in a New York Times op-ed that there be a diplomatic and economic boycott. Cruz and Romney hail from competing wings of the Republican Party so disagreement would be unsurprising.

I’ve reached out to Cruz’s office to see if he disagrees with Romney’s proposal.

Ohio has emerged as an intersection of the major internal dynamics at play in the Democratic and Republican parties. That’s because Senator Rob Portman, a Republican, is retiring.

On the left, Nina Turner, a longtime ally of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, is hoping to tap into the energy of the Sanders sect of the left. Here’s The Wall Street Journal’s Eliza Collins:

A year ago, President Biden was wrapping up the Democratic nomination, helped by strong support among Black voters. His top rival, Mr. Sanders, had promised a liberal future, drawing the largest crowds and the most money. Still, voters chose Mr. Biden and his message of unity and incrementalism, and the race for the Democratic presidential nomination was over by the time Ohio staged its primary.

Now, Ms. Turner is hoping to capitalize on the same energy, but with different results. She says she will push Democratic leaders to the left on healthcare, climate and the economy if elected. She didn’t rule out joining with a handful of liberal members to threaten to vote against legislation if it doesn’t include progressive priorities.

Meanwhile, on the right Republican candidate Jane Timken, a former chairwoman of the Ohio Republican Party wants to rename a state park after Donald Trump. Here’s the press release from Timken’s campaign:

CANTON, OH – U.S. Senate candidate Jane Timken applauded Rep. Mike Loychik’s effort to rename Mosquito Lake State Park after the 45th President.

“After swinging Trumbull County towards Republicans by more than 20 points in 2016, President Trump increased his margin by another 4 points in 2020. It is clear Trumbull County and Ohio supports President Trump,” Timken said. “In order to recognize the promises President Trump kept to the people of Ohio and Trumbull County, I fully support renaming our state park Donald J. Trump State Park.”

“I was proud to support Rep. Loychik in 2020, honored to have his endorsement for U.S. Senate, and thrilled to support him in these efforts,” Timken continued. “Ohioans know that the policies of President Trump put Ohioans first and this is a great way to recognize that fact.”

That push underscores the influence Trump still has among Republicans across the country, especially in a state like Ohio, that’s trended to the right in the last few election cycles.

Romney wants US to do 'an economic and diplomatic boycott' of Beijing Olympics

Senator Mitt Romney of Utah wants the United States to do “an economic and diplomatic boycott” of the Beijing Olympics.

He’s penned an op-ed on this:

As the Beijing Olympic Games approach, it is increasingly clear that China, under the control of the Chinese Communist Party does not deserve an Olympic showcase. Because it is too late to move the Winter Games scheduled for Beijing next February, some have proposed, understandably, that the United States boycott the Games.

China deserves our condemnation. The Chinese Communist Party has reneged on its agreement to allow Hong Kong self rule; it has brutally suppressed peaceful demonstrators and incarcerated respected journalists. It is exacting genocide against Uighurs and other ethnic minorities; Uighur women are forcefully sterilized or impregnated by Han Chinese men. Adults, ripped from their families, are sentenced into forced labor and concentration camps. Among ethnic Chinese, access to uncensored broadcast news and social media is prohibited. Citizens are surveyed, spied upon and penalized for attending religious services or expressing dissent.

Prohibiting our athletes from competing in China is the easy, but wrong, answer. Our athletes have trained their entire lives for this competition and have primed their abilities to peak in 2022. When I helped organize the Salt Lake City Games in 2002, I gained an understanding of the enormous sacrifice made by our Olympic hopefuls and their families. It would be unfair to ask a few hundred young American athletes to shoulder the burden of our disapproval.

It could also be counterproductive. The Olympic Games aren’t just a showcase for the host nation, but a platform for values both American and universal. If our athletes skip the Games, millions of young Americans at home might skip watching it. And the Olympic Games are one of the most enduring demonstrations of the great qualities of the human spirit on the world stage: We witness determination, sacrifice, patriotism, endurance, sportsmanship. We would also lose the global symbolism of our young American heroes standing atop the medals podium, hand to their hearts, as “The Star-Spangled Banner” plays on Chinese soil.

The full op-ed here. Romney, remember, won praise years and years ago for turning around the 2002 Winter Olympics. During his 2012 presidential bid his secret service codename was Javelin, a clear allusion to his Olympic ties.

Updated

There have been multiple articles noting that Joe Biden’s tenure in office has been more progressive than one might think for a figure who for years prided himself as a moderate Democrat and continues to argue bipartisanship is an attainable goal. But the imprint of progressive champions on this administration is apparent.

The Los Angeles Times’ Evan Halper takes a look at the impact Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, now chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, is having:

The longtime outsider, irritant of the Democratic and Republican establishments and cantankerous gadfly is proving shrewd at playing the inside game from his powerful new perch atop the Senate Budget Committee. His fingerprints are all over the historic $1.9-trillion relief package President Biden signed into law last week.

The democratic socialist who once encapsulated his time in Congress by writing a book titled “Outsider in the House” has now become the consummate insider in the Senate. The Bernie who honeymooned in the Soviet Union, who declared the Democratic Party hopeless, who sparked a revolt against an Obama administration tax deal during an 8 ½-hour filibuster, has transitioned into the Bernie orchestrating trillion-dollar deals.

“All of the committees played their role,” Sanders said in an interview just after the landmark relief bill won final congressional approval. “But all that stuff had to go through the Budget Committee. We had to put it together.”

“The result is we have a piece of legislation that will be more helpful to working families than any bill passed in Congress in decades,” he said.

Sliding back into the Senate after a second wildly popular — but ultimately unsuccessful — presidential run is tricky business, especially for a cranky maverick like the Vermonter, who was never fond of back-slapping, backroom plotting or wearing a suit.

But the 79-year-old who lost to President Biden in the 2020 primary is following a path carved out by earlier political celebrities such as Republican John McCain and Democrat Edward M. Kennedy, who bounced from defeat in their insurgent White House bids to final acts as legislative maestros.

The budget committee also became the scene of a major flashpoint for the Biden administration -the ultimately unsuccessful nomination of Neera Tanden to run Biden’s Office of Management and Budget. Tanden had skirmished with supporters and aides of Sanders before and during those hearings Sanders alluded to that. In another world where Sanders wasn’t budget committee chair maybe Tanden’s chances of being confirmed would have been better.

Greetings, Daniel Strauss here taking over for the very capable Mr Belam.

In Missouri the former governor, Republican Eric Greitens, is mulling a bid for outgoing Senator Roy Blunt’s seat. Greitens, you may recall, is the former governor who stepped down amid a sexual assault scandal.

Politico’s Alex Isenstadt explains the handwringing going on among Republicans over Greitens’ potential bid:

Greitens — who resigned in mid-2018, less than two years into his term, following allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman who was not his wife — has been calling around to fellow Republicans to inform them of his deliberations, and many have come away convinced he’s running.

The maneuvering, which follows Republican Sen. Roy Blunt’s surprise retirement announcement last week, is giving Republicans nightmarish flashbacks to 2012, when they nominated a problematic Missouri Senate candidate, Todd Akin, who went on to lose the election.

The concerns have grown so serious that former President Donald Trump and those in his orbit have heard from Republicans inside and outside Missouri, who warn that Greitens would be the one GOP candidate who could lose to a Democrat, according to a person familiar with the conversations.

Republican leaders say they aren’t ruling out taking aggressive steps to stop Greitens from winning the nomination, including waging a slashing advertising campaign against him. Party officials — ranging from members of the Missouri congressional delegation to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s political operation — have been united in their worry about the former governor and spent the week having conversations about the situation, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The field is still forming for both the Republican and Democratic primaries. Some well known Missouri figures, like former secretary of state Jason Kander, have decided not to jump into the Senate race.

Updated

Secretary of state Antony Blinken has just posted about his arrival in Japan. It is the overseas visit by Biden administration officials, and he is travelling with Defense secretary Lloyd J. Austin III.

The partisan showdown over redistricting has hardly begun, but already both sides agree on one thing: It largely comes down to the South.

Nichola Riccardi writes for Associated Press that the states from North Carolina to Texas are set to be premier battlegrounds for the once-a-decade fight over redrawing political boundaries. That’s thanks to a population boom, mostly one-party rule and a new legal landscape that removes federal oversight and delays civil rights challenges. Experts note the new maps in the South alone could knock Democrats out of power in the US House next year.

“The South is really going to stand out,” said Ryan Weichelt, a geography professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire who tracks redistricting.
Of the 10 new congressional seats expected this year, six are likely to be in Southern states, with one new one expected in North Carolina, two in Florida and three in Texas.

Republicans control the legislatures in those states, leaving them with near total say over what those new districts will look like, a sharp contrast to other parts of the country where state governments are either divided or where nonpartisan commissions are tasked with redrawing congressional and state legislative lines.

This will be the first time in more than 50 years that the Justice Department will not automatically review new legislative maps in nine mostly Southern states to ensure they do not discriminate.

“It is a very different landscape from the one that it’s been for 50-plus years,” said Deuel Ross, senior counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Republicans are under added pressure to bolster their political standing in the region as its population has grown, largely due to an influx of Democratic-leaning newcomers. That’s weakened the party’s grip, highlighted most dramatically in Georgia, where Democrats just won a presidential race and two Senate races. Currently, a gain of five seats would hand control of the House to the Republicans.

The South has a history of rigging the democratic process, from voting rules to district maps, to disempower Black voters. In Georgia, the state’s Republican-controlled legislature is responding to Democrats’ recent surge and former President Donald Trump’s false claim of mass voter fraud with a raft of proposals that would make it harder to vote including one to end Sunday early voting, popular among Black churchgoers.

Such restrictions wouldn’t have been possible eight years ago, when the Justice Department was required to approve any changes ahead of time in states with a history of voting rights violations. But, in 2013, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court struck down federal requirements that Georgia and eight other states “preclear” voting and redistricting changes. It ruled that the federal formula based on the states’ previous violations was outdated.

Several states including Texas and North and South Carolina quickly responded with new voter identification laws. Some civil rights advocates fear Republicans will take advantage of the lack of oversight in redistricting as well.

The trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with murder and manslaughter for his role in the deadly arrest of George Floyd, is due to continue today with the second week of jury selection.

Seven jurors have already been seated for a trial that is being closely watched as a bellwether of the way law enforcement agencies use force and violence against Black people in a country where almost no police officer has ever been found criminally responsible for killing a civilian.

Jonathan Allen at Reuters reminds us that many more potential jurors were questioned by the judge, prosecutors and Chauvin’s lead lawyer last week, and have been dismissed after it was decided they could not be impartial in the high-profile case.

Among the seated jurors are four white men, including one who is Hispanic; one white woman; a woman who is of mixed race; and a Black man who immigrated to the United States about 14 years ago. All but one are in their 20s and 30s, the court said.

Chauvin, 44, is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. He has pleaded not guilty, saying he followed his police training.

All potential jurors who have appeared so far in the Hennepin County district court in a heavily fortified tower in downtown Minneapolis say they know who Chauvin is and what the video shows him doing; most said they had formed a negative opinion of him, though some said they could remain open to the possibility his actions were not criminal.

The court is planning to have opening arguments commence on 29 March. Chauvin faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted on the most serious charge.

Jonathan Swan at Axios is more than just the face of a meme, and this morning he has some background on this week’s publicity blitz promoting the Covid rescue plan. He writes:

President Biden’s top advisers see the $1.9 trillion relief bill as the key to solidifying his political fortunes. The bill’s strong bipartisan approval ratings supply Democrats with an opportunity to bludgeon Republicans in states that will determine elections for the foreseeable future.

Team Biden has broken each day into themes emphasizing different benefits of the bill. Biden will launch what he’s branding the “Help is Here” campaign with a speech at the White House. Tuesday’s theme will be “help for small business.”

Wednesday — “help for schools” — will feature the first lady in New Hampshire and the second gentleman in New Mexico. Thursday — “help to stay in your home” — will highlight measures in the bill to cover back rent, protect people against eviction and aid people experiencing homelessness.

Friday — “help immediately with direct checks” — will have Biden and Harris in Georgia.

Read more here: Axios – Inside the Biden-Harris battleground blitz

Erum Salam has interviewed Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri for us, on her arrest at a BLM protest last year, where she says she was the only journalist of color, and the only journalist arrested:

Sahouri was one of 14 journalists in the US to face criminal charges last year – making her case exceptionally rare. The 25 year old has spent the last 10 months of her life fighting those charges, which included “failure to disperse” and “interference with official acts”. If convicted, she would have had to pay a fine and spend a month in prison.

In a courtroom last week, Sahouri breathed a sigh of relief after she was acquitted of all charges.

“I’m just feeling really powerful,” she said over Zoom, explaining how it felt to be found not guilty.

“And relieved. I had like over 200 unchecked text messages. I can’t even look at my Twitter. Every time I do, it is overwhelming. I just received a lot of support from every corner of the globe so that was just a super surreal feeling.”

Denise Bell of Amnesty International said: “Journalists must be able to report on scenes of protest without fear of retribution. The right of the media to do their work is essential to the right of freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly. Clearly, the jury saw these charges for what they are – completely ridiculous.”

On 31 May, Sahouri was arrested by a Des Moines police officer while she was peacefully working. She called the event “a very traumatizing experience”. The photographs of her in sneakers, jeans and a tank top, restrained and surrounded by police officers were shared widely across social media and news outlets around the world.

Recounting the incident, she said: “I look back and I see an officer coming out of nowhere. Like charging at me. I thought at that moment: ‘Put up your hands. Stop. Don’t run from police, Comply.’ I immediately put up my hands and said multiple times that I was press. The officer instead grabbed me, pepper-sprayed me directly at close range to my face and said ‘That’s not what I asked.’”

Read more of Erum Salam’s interview here: Andrea Sahouri on her BLM protest arrest: ‘I was the only journalist of color and the only journalist arrested’

One area where it appears that vaccines are getting less traction is in prison. Nicole Lewis of The Marshall Project and Michael R. Sisak of the Associated Press report today on the difficulties of getting staff in America’s jails to take the Covid shots.

They report that in Massachusetts, more than half the people employed by the Department of Correction declined to be immunized. A statewide survey in California showed that half of all correction employees will wait to be vaccinated. In Rhode Island, prison staff have refused the vaccine at higher rates than the incarcerated, according to medical director Dr. Justin Berk. And in Iowa, early polling among employees showed a little more than half the staff said they’d get vaccinated.

Some correctional officers are refusing the vaccine because they fear both short- and long-term side effects of the immunizations. Others have embraced conspiracy theories about the vaccine.

Public health experts continue to worry about the prospect of controlling the pandemic both inside and outside. Infection rates in prisons are more than three times as high as in the general public. Prison staff helped accelerate outbreaks by refusing to wear masks, downplaying people’s symptoms, and haphazardly enforcing social distancing and hygiene protocols in confined, poorly ventilated spaces ripe for viral spread.

“People who work in prisons are an essential part of the equation that will lead to reduced disease and less chance of renewed explosive Covid-19 outbreaks in the future,” said Brie Williams, a correctional health expert at the University of California, San Francisco, or UCSF.

At FCI Miami, officers are constantly shuttling sick and elderly prisoners to the hospital. Kareen Troitino, the local corrections officer union president, said that as a result, a skeleton crew of staff is left to operate the prison. Unvaccinated staff only compound the problem as they run the risk of getting sick when outbreaks crop up in the prisons.

“A lot of employees get scared when they find out, ‘Oh, we had an outbreak in a unit, 150 inmates have Covid,”’ Troitino said. “Everybody calls in sick.”

Part of the resistance to the vaccine is widespread misinformation among correctional staff, said Brian Dawe, a former correctional officer and national director of One Voice United, a policy and advocacy group for officers. A majority of people in law enforcement lean right, Dawe said. “They get a lot of their information from the right-wing media outlets,” he said. “A lot of them believe you don’t have to wear masks. That it’s like the flu.” National polls have shown that Republicans without college degrees are the most resistant to the vaccine.

Guards’ refusal to be vaccinated has been a blessing for some incarcerated people. The vaccines have a short shelf life after being thawed out, so officials have offered the leftover vaccines to prisoners instead of letting them go to waste. Julia Ann Poff is incarcerated at FMC Carswell, a federal prison in Texas, received her first shot in mid-December, after several officers declined.
“I consider myself very blessed to have received it,” she wrote, using the prison’s email system. “I have lupus and a recent diagnosis of heart disease, so there was no way I could afford to let myself get (sick).”

Melissa Bailey and Shoshana Dubnow report today that Covid cases have fallen over 80% among US nursing home staff and residents:

Joan Phillips, a certified nursing assistant in a Florida nursing home, loved her job but dreaded the danger of going to work in the pandemic. When vaccines became available in December, she jumped at the chance to get one.

Months later, it appears that danger has faded. After the rollout of Covid vaccines, the number of new Covid cases among nursing home staff fell 83% – from 28,802 for the week ending 20 December to 4,764 for the week ending 14 February, data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services shows.

New Covid-19 infections among nursing home residents fell even more steeply, by 89%, in that period, compared with 58% in the general public, CMS and Johns Hopkins University data show.

These numbers suggest that “the vaccine appears to be having a dramatic effect on reducing cases, which is extremely encouraging,” said Beth Martino, spokesperson for the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living, an industry group.

“It’s a big relief for me,” said Phillips, who works at the North Beach Rehabilitation Center outside Miami. Now, she said, she’s urging hesitant co-workers and anyone else who can to “go out and take the vaccination”.

After a brutal year in which the pandemic killed half a million Americans, despite unprecedented measures to curb its spread – including mask-wearing, physical distancing, school closures and economic shutdowns – the vaccines are giving hope that an end is in sight.

National figures on healthcare worker infections in other settings are hard to come by. Research in other countries suggests that vaccines have led to big drops in infection. A study of publicly funded hospitals in England indicated that a first dose was 72% effective at preventing Covid-19 among workers after 21 days and 86% effective seven days after the second shot.

Lost on the Frontline, a year-long data and reporting project by KHN and the Guardian, is investigating over 3,500 Covid deaths of US healthcare workers. The monthly number has been declining since December, but deaths often lag weeks or months behind infections.

Read more here: Covid cases fall over 80% among US nursing home staff and residents

Overnight Secretary of state Antony Blinken and Defense secretary Lloyd J Austin III have penned a joint op-ed for the Washington Post talking about their visit to the Indo-Pacific region. It includes some thinly-veiled criticism of Trump-era diplomacy. They write:

The United States is now making a big push to revitalize our ties with friends and partners — both in one-to-one relationships and in multilateral institutions — and to recommit to our shared goals, values and responsibilities.

Our alliances are what our military calls “force multipliers.” We’re able to achieve far more with them than we could without them. No country on Earth has a network of alliances and partnerships like ours. It would be a huge strategic error to neglect these relationships. And it’s a wise use of our time and resources to adapt and renew them, to ensure they’re as strong and effective as they can be.

It’s not only our one-to-one ties that are valuable. We’re also focused on revitalizing the relationships between and among our allies. As the president has said, the world is at an inflection point. A fundamental debate is underway about the future — and whether democracy or autocracy offers the best path forward. It’s up to us and other democracies to come together and show the world that we can deliver — for our people and for each other.

Trump had strained relations with South Korea by asking for a greatly increased financial contribution to support the continued presence of US military in the region.

You can read more here: Washington Post – Antony J. Blinken and Lloyd J. Austin III – America’s partnerships are ‘force multipliers’ in the world

It’s worth noting that the “Help is Here” tour is taking Kamala Harris on her first domestic trip as vice president today. She’ll be accompanied by her husband, who plans to break off for separate events in Las Vegas on Monday and New Mexico on Wednesday.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) listens during an event in the Rose Garden of the White House.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) listens during an event in the Rose Garden of the White House. Photograph: Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images

Darlene Superville at the Associated Press notes that since taking office, in her official duties,Harris has presided over swearing-in ceremonies for members of Biden’s Cabinet. She has stood with the president at his speeches, delivered remarks of her own, spoken by telephone with assorted world leaders and made appearances in the Washington area, including at funeral services for Washington power broker Vernon Jordan.

It isn’t just Covid precautions that have limited her movements, but politics. Harris has also cast three tie-breaking votes in the 50-50 Senate in her role as president of the Senate.

Trevor Hunnicutt for Reuters notes this about the locations chosen for the Democrat publicity blitz on the Covid aid package this week: Nevada, Pennsylvania and Georgia are all states where Biden narrowly defeated Trump back in November. They will also all feature competitive Senate races in 2022.

Losing just one seat in that evenly divided chamber would all but doom Biden’s legislative agenda, handing Senate control to Republicans for the rest of the president’s four-year term.

There’s money going into the publicity drive too, Hunnicutt reports. At least two outside political spending groups that backed Biden’s presidential bid, Priorities USA and Unite the Country, said they would put millions into advertisements supporting the stimulus measures. Priorities USA said its ads would partly be targeted at voters who flipped from supporting Trump in 2016 to Biden in 2020, in “2022 battleground states”.

Democrats regard the bill as good policy and politics. Opinion polls show majorities supporting efforts to shore up the coronavirus vaccination campaign, prepare schools to reopen and ease poverty after a year-long pandemic that has killed over 526,000 Americans and put millions out of work.

Republicans, who had broadly supported coronavirus relief early in the crisis when Republican Donald Trump was president, have dismissed the latest measure as an overpriced collection of pet projects unrelated to the pandemic. They had months in the final stretch of Trump’s presidency to pass their own stimulus plans, but failed to reach an agreement with House Democrats on the measures.

Democrats begin publicity tour to convince US on Covid rescue plan

President Joe Biden, vice president Kamala Harris and their spouses are opening an ambitious, cross-country tour this week to highlight what they claim are the benefits of his $1.9 trillion plan to defeat the coronavirus and boost the economy.

The road show – dubbed the “Help is Here” tour by the White House – begins today with Harris heading to a Covid-19 vaccination site and a culinary academy in Las Vegas, and first lady Dr Jill Biden touring a New Jersey elementary school.

Later today the president will have more to say about the plan, when he gives an address at 1.45pm EDT (1745 GMT). Darlene Superville reports for the Associated Press that he plans to visit a small business in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday. He and Harris are slated to appear together in Atlanta on Friday.

Harris will meet with small-business owners in Denver on Tuesday. Wednesday sees Dr Jill Biden in Concord, New Hampshire, and Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

In addition to the president, vice president and their spouses, Cabinet secretaries will also be out on the tour. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is set today to tour a UPS distribution center in Landover, Maryland, that also delivers vaccines in the Washington area.

Hundreds of mayors and governors – including some Republicans – are being lined up to give interviews to discuss what the plan means for their communities.

The stops at vaccination sites, businesses, schools and more are meant to educate the public about different aspects of the giant American Rescue Plan and how it will help people get to the other side of the pandemic.

Biden has said President Barack Obama’s administration, in which Biden was vice president, failed to adequately educate the public about the benefits of its economic recovery plan. He said he wants to do a better sales job this time around on the details of his first big legislative victory.

The bill cleared Congress without any backing from Republicans, despite polling that found broad public support for the plan.

Welcome to our live coverage of US politics for Monday. Here’s a catch-up on where we are right now, and what is in the diary for today:

  • Democrats begin a publicity drive for the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan passed by Congress last week. Vice president Kamala Harris will be visiting a vaccination site at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. Dr Jill Biden will touring a New Jersey elementary school.
  • New York’s coronavirus vaccination tsar Larry Schwartz has been dragged into the Andrew Cuomo scandal after it emerged he reportedly pivoted in at least one telephone conversation with a county executive from a discussion of vaccination policy directly to an appeal for support for Cuomo, who is accused of sexual harrasment and a cover-up over nursing home deaths.
  • Stacey Abrams has described Republican efforts to restrict voting rights in Georgia as “racist” and “a redux of Jim Crow in a suit and tie”.
  • Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin faced charges of racism and calls for his resignation after he said he did not feel threatened by the pro-Donald Trump mob that raided the Capitol, but would have been concerned if the invaders were “antifa” or Black Lives Matter activists. It should be noted that Johnson has previously in public supported conspiracy theories that the mob at the Capitol actually was “antifa” in disguise.
  • There’s begun to be a constant murmuring from Republicans – and some corners of the media – that Joe Biden is yet to do an open press conference during his presidency. He’s not doing one today – though he will be in front of the cameras at 1.45pm EDT (1745 GMT) with remarks on delivering the American Rescue Plan.
  • Jen Psaki is doing her regular press briefing, that’s at 12.30pm. Before that, at 11am, there’s a Covid response briefing.
  • And don’t forget, if you are one of our readers in the UK or Europe and beyond, the US switched to Daylight Saving Time yesterday, so there’s now four hours difference between Washington DC and GMT, not the five we’ve been used to over recent months.
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