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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Daniel Strauss (now) and Martin Belam (earlier)

Fauci says 'virus will continue to mutate' as Democrats aim to fast-track Covid relief plan – as it happened

A healthcare worker administers a shot of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine at a pop-up site in New York City on 29 January 2021.
A healthcare worker administers a shot of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine at a pop-up site in New York City on 29 January 2021. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

Summary

  • Joe Biden said Democrats in Congress need to “act now” on Covid-19 relief legislation, with or without Republican support. “There is an overwhelming consensus among economists … that this is a unique moment and the cost of inaction is high,” he said.
  • Dr Anthony Fauci said that “getting people vaccinated as quickly and as efficiently as you possibly can” is the country’s best defense against new, potentially more dangerous variants emerging in the US. Officials are projecting that most Americans will be vaccinated by the late summer or early fall. Children will “hopefully” get the vaccine by the late spring or summer.
  • Democratic representative Cori Bush said she is moving her office away from that of Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene due to safety concerns after she said Greene and her staff berated her and refused to wear masks. “I’ve worked fast food, I’ve worked in childcare. I’ve worked in healthcare. I’ve never been in a work environment like this before,” Bush said, in an interview with MSNBC’s Joy Reid on Friday evening.
  • The director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr Rochelle Walinsky, officially extended an eviction moratorium. The order was first announced one day after Joe Biden took office. Dr Walinsky’s signature makes the order official, effective through 31 March. It had been set to expire 31 January.

– Maanvi Singh and Daniel Strauss

Updated

“I’ve worked fast food, I’ve worked in childcare. I’ve worked in healthcare. I’ve never been in a work environment like this before,” Bush said.

Bush, who was a Black Lives Matter organizer in and around Ferguson, Missouri, before she took office, said Greene’s staff yelled after her, “Stop inciting violence with Black Lives Matter.”

Greene, who has endorsed political violence, and posed holding an assault rifle next to photos of progressive women of color in Congress, has also complained about the metal detectors installed at the entrance to the Congress floor.

Updated

“We moved our office, Joy, not because I’m scared of her ... I moved my office because I am here to do a job for the people of St Louis,” Bush told Reid.

“What I cannot do is continue to look over my shoulder wondering if a white supremacist in Congress, by the name of Marjorie Taylor Greene – or anyone else because there are others – ... is conspiring against us,” she said.

Updated

Cori Bush said Marjorie Taylor Greene refused to wear a mask in the halls of Congress.

In an interview with MSNBC’s Joy Reid, Bush, a freshman representative of Missouri, said she moved her office away from that of Greene after a heated run-in the underground tunnel that connects congressional office buildings.

“She had the audacity to be walking through this space on her phone showing people that she was not going to adhere to the rules of the House,” Bush said.

Updated

US children will 'hopefully' get vaccines in late spring or early summer, says Fauci

From Guardian staff and agencies:

Children in the US will “hopefully” start to be vaccinated against Covid-19 by late spring or early summer, Dr Anthony Fauci said on Friday.

Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, the head of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, was speaking at a White House coronavirus briefing, an event reinstituted by the new president after falling away during the last months of the Trump administration.

“Hopefully by the time we get to the late spring and early summer we will have children being able to be vaccinated,” Fauci said.

Covid-19 vaccines are not yet approved for children. Supplies for adults and the logistics of providing shots are proving steep challenges for manufacturers, the administration and state governments. As of Thursday, only about 1.3% of Americans had received the required two doses of currently available vaccines.

But vaccination of children is a key step in the pursuit of widespread immunity to a virus that has infected nearly 26 million in the US and killed more than 433,000. For the US to reach “herd immunity”, or widespread resistance, about 70% to 85% of the population must be vaccinated. Children make up about 25% of the population.

“Children tend to not become as severely ill as adults [from Covid-19] but they can still become ill and some have tragically died,” Dr Leana Wen, a public health expert, told the Associated Press. “Children can also be vectors of transmission, and getting children vaccinated is important.”

Read more:

Black Americans receiving Covid vaccines at lower rates than whites

Hannah Recht and Lauren Weber of Kaiser Health News report:

Black Americans are receiving Covid vaccinations at dramatically lower rates than white Americans in the first weeks of the chaotic rollout, according to a new analysis.

About 3% of Americans have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine so far. But in 16 states that have released data by race, white residents are being vaccinated at significantly higher rates than Black residents, according to the analysis – in many cases two to three times higher.

In the most dramatic case, 1.2% of white Pennsylvanians had been vaccinated as of 14 January, compared with 0.3% of Black Pennsylvanians.

The vast majority of the initial round of vaccines has gone to healthcare workers and staffers on the frontlines of the pandemic – a workforce that’s typically racially diverse made up of physicians, hospital cafeteria workers, nurses and janitorial staffers.

If the rollout were reaching people of all races equally, the shares of people vaccinated whose race is known should loosely align with the demographics of healthcare workers. But in every state, Black Americans were significantly underrepresented among people vaccinated so far.

Access issues and mistrust rooted in structural racism appear to be the major factors leaving Black healthcare workers behind in the quest to vaccinate the nation. The unbalanced uptake among what might seem like a relatively easy-to-vaccinate workforce doesn’t bode well for the rest of the country’s dispersed population.

Black, Hispanic and Native Americans are dying from Covid at nearly three times the rate of white Americans, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis. And non-Hispanic Black and Asian healthcare workers are more likely to contract Covid and to die from it than white workers. (Hispanics can represent any race or combination of races.)

“My concern now is if we don’t vaccinate the population that’s highest-risk, we’re going to see even more disproportional deaths in Black and brown communities,” said Dr Fola May, a UCLA physician and health equity researcher. “It breaks my heart.”

Dr Taison Bell, a University of Virginia Health System physician who serves on its vaccination distribution committee, stressed that the hesitancy among some Blacks about getting vaccinated is not monolithic. Nurses he spoke with were concerned it could damage their fertility, while a Black co-worker asked him about the safety of the Moderna vaccine since it was the company’s first such product on the market. Some floated conspiracy theories, while other Black co-workers just wanted to talk to someone they trust like Bell, who is also Black.

But access issues persist, even in hospital systems. Bell was horrified to discover that members of environmental services – the janitorial staff – did not have access to hospital email. The vaccine registration information sent out to the hospital staff was not reaching them.

“That’s what structural racism looks like,” said Dr Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. “Those groups were seen and not heard – nobody thought about it.”

Read more:

The DC circuit court stayed a lower court order that blocked a Trump administration policy that turned back unaccompanied children at the US-Mexico border without granting them a hearing or asylum interview.

The request to stay the order had been filed during the Trump administration. “While US border officials can now, in theory, resume expelling unaccompanied children, it’s unclear if the Biden admin will do so,” writes CBS’s Camilo Montoya-Galvez. “Thousands of children were expelled before a judge ordered the practice to stop.”

The House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, will meet with the congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, per multiple reports.

The GOP has largely avoided addressing Greene’s behavior. Earlier Friday, Cori Bush, a freshman Democrat of Missouri, said a maskless Greene and her staff berated her in the hallway. Greene’s racist, antisemitic comments and her dissemination of conspiracy theories have been drawing increased scrutiny.

McCarthy assigned Greene to the education and labor committee, despite her false assertions about school shootings and her harassment of Parkland survivor David Hogg.

Updated

Will Novavax and Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccines work against variants?

Archie Bland and Nicola Davis report:

What are the two vaccines to have yielded new results?

Novavax, made by a US company but trialled in the UK, published its results on Thursday night and, within hours, Johnson & Johnson unveiled the final data from trials across the world of the single-dose vaccine made by its Belgian subsidiary Janssen.

What is the efficacy of the Novavax vaccine?

In an interim analysis of a phase 3 clinical trial conducted in the UK, the vaccine has shown 89% efficacy, with 27% of participants in the trial – almost 4,000 people – older than 65. That trial suggested 95.6% efficacy against the original coronavirus and 85.6% efficacy against the more recent UK variant.

A less precise stage 2 trial conducted in South Africa with 4,400 volunteers, in which 90% of cases were caused by the new variant, showed 60% efficacy in preventing mild, moderate and severe coronavirus among those without HIV. Novavax said it would immediately begin to develop a new vaccine aimed specifically at the South African variant. Prof Paul Heath, the principal investigator of the UK arm of the Novavax vaccine trials, said he believed a 60% efficacy in that setting was high enough to consider using the jab, while other work continued.

Heath said the Novavax vaccine had not been tested against the Brazil variant, but said the technology behind the vaccine was very adaptable.

What is the efficacy of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine?

The overall efficacy is 66%, but 72% in the US. That disguises some very important and exciting results. First, the vaccine had 85% efficacy against severe disease anywhere in the world – which includes South Africa where almost all participants had the variant form of the virus. That is hugely reassuring for the vaccine effort. Second, nobody in the trials who was given the vaccine was admitted to hospital or died – so 100% efficacy against the worst outcomes.

About a third of the trial participants were over 60, and the results showed they were just as well protected as the younger groups, which is important because older people are most at risk. There were also no differences between people from different ethnic groups.

How does the science behind Novavax compare with the most prominent existing vaccines?

The Novavax vaccine is different from the Oxford/AstraZeneca and the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines. It contains spike proteins, produced by moth cells infected with a genetically modified virus, together with a substance called an adjuvant, which boosts the immune response. GlaxoSmithKline and its French partner, Sanofi, also produced a Covid vaccine based on spike proteins and an adjuvant, but trials showed it failed to produce a strong immune response in older people. Heath said it was unclear why the GSK/Sanofi was less successful than Novavax, but suggested one possibility was that the vaccines used different adjuvants.

How does the science behind Johnson & Johnson’s jab compare with the most prominent existing vaccines?

This vaccine is made with a similar technology to the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine. It is a protein from the spike of the coronavirus, delivered to train the immune system to respond via a common cold virus. In this case, that delivery adenovirus is from humans, not chimps as with the Oxford version.

Read more:

Today so far

That’s it for me. To recap:

  • Kamala Harris is doing local media interviews in West Virginia and Arizona to lobby Senators Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia on a COVID relief bill.
  • Jen Psaki sidestepped questions about President Biden’s recent calls with Vladimir Putin.
  • Health officials warned of mutated strains of the coronavirus pandemic popping up around the world.
  • Congresswoman Cori Bush of Missouri is feuding with congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene as Greene also faces more scrutiny about past conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic comments she pushed. More Democrats want to see her expelled from Congress.

Updated

The director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr Rochelle Walinsky, officially extended an eviction moratorium today, putting in place another public health protection the Biden administration hopes will help slow the spread of the pandemic.

The order was first announced one day after Joe Biden took office. Dr Walinsky’s signature makes the order official, effective through 31 March. It had been set to expire 31 January.

In addition, the Biden administration has called on other agencies which hold federally backed loans to extend foreclosure moratoriums, and continue accepting mortgage forbearance applications.

Despite the order, some local news outlets have reported some evictions are continuing, as landlords use lease expirations or property damage to evict tenants through local courts. And other localities cities will likely face “an avalanche” of eviction cases once the moratorium ends, local leaders said.

Updated

Jewish groups are condemning congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.

The Republican Jewish Coalition released the following statement:

Washington, DC (January 29, 2021) – The Republican Jewish Coalition has always spoken out strongly against antisemitic comments from individuals on both sides of the political aisle, and we do not hesitate to do so again in the case of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

The RJC does not usually get involved in primary races between Republicans, but in 2020 we did so twice. First, we took the unprecedented step of supporting the challenger to a Republican incumbent when we supported Randy Feenstra over Rep. Steve King in Iowa. We were pleased that Feenstra won that race and removed King from the US Congress.

The second time, we supported Greene’s primary opponent, John Cowan, in Georgia. We did so because we found Greene’s past behavior deeply offensive. She repeatedly used offensive language in long online video diatribes, promoted bizarre political conspiracy theories, and refused to admit a mistake after posing for photos with a long-time white supremacist leader. It is unfortunate that she prevailed in her election despite this terrible record.

The RJC has never supported or endorsed Marjorie Taylor Greene. We are offended and appalled by her comments and her actions. We opposed her as a candidate and we continue to oppose her now. She is far outside the mainstream of the Republican Party, and the RJC is working closely with the House Republican leadership regarding next steps in this matter.

The key line there is the last one. Not only is the RJC condemning her, the group is taking additional steps against her going forward.

Meanwhile, the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations also released a statement:

Arthur Stark, Chairman, William Daroff, CEO, and Malcolm Hoenlein, Vice Chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, issued the following statement:

“Congressional leaders must hold their members accountable for their words and deeds.

It is unacceptable for Members of Congress to spread baseless hate against the Jewish people.

We are outraged by the statements, past and present, of Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. She routinely traffics in unfounded conspiracy theories that are often antisemitic in nature. As an avid supporter of QAnon, Representative Greene espouses antisemitic canards, such as placing blame on ‘the Rothschilds’ for recent wildfires in California and declaring that ‘Zionist supremacists’ are behind supposed nefarious plots.

There must be a swift and commensurate response from Congressional leadership making clear that this conduct cannot and will not be allowed to debase our politics.”

Both statements come after past false comments the Georgia congresswoman made resurfaced. Greene had spread a ludicrous theory about space lasers, PG&E, the Rothschild family and then-Gov. Jerry Brown of California.

Trump tax firm reportedly ordered to turn over documents

Donald Trump’s tax problems didn’t end with him leaving office. Per ABC, the firm that handles the former president’s taxes is being ordered to hand over documents.

Updated

The back and forth continues. Congresswoman Cori Bush’s office just passed along a statement of her account of her last incident with Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene that’s pushed Bush to move offices.

On his way to Walter Reed National Military Center just a little while ago Joe Biden briefly took questions from the press. He was asked about passing a Covid relief bill through reconciliation, a legislative tool for budgetary matters.

Biden didn’t directly answer the question but his comment was still revealing: “I support passing Covid relief with Republicans if we can get it but Covid relief has to pass. There are no ifs, ands or buts.”

This suggests that even as Biden stressed the importance of bipartisanship and reaches out to moderate Republican lawmakers concerning a bill, his tolerance for opposition has its limits.

Updated

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is denying congresswoman Cori Bush’s account of the incident that pushed her to move offices. Greene is tweeting that Bush, not Greene, was the one who accosted her. Greene is pointing to the tape I liked to below as the incident under discussion.

But it’s unclear if that is the same incident Bush was referring to. That video was from two weeks ago. It’s not clear if there was another incident.

Greene’s office released a statement denying Bush’s claim.

“Unfortunately for Rep. Bush, her statement is simply false and proven by the video,” the Greene statement says.

“Rep. Cori Bush is the leader of the St. Louis Black Lives Matter terrorist mob who trespassed into a gated neighborhood to threaten the lives of the McCloskey’s,” Greene said. “She is lying to you. She berated me. Maybe Rep. Bush didn’t realize I was live on video, but I have the receipts.”

In a Washington Post profile of Ronna McDaniel, the very pro-Trump Republican National Committee chairwoman, there’s an important paragraph about her private interactions with Donald Trump:

In private, she was speaking frequently with Trump and once told him that many of his “Stop the Steal” claims were “crazy,” according to a person familiar with the call. She also challenged the president to wear masks.

At times, she thought about not running for reelection as party chair this year, and aides say it is unlikely she will seek reelection when her current two-year term ends in 2023.

That suggests that even among Trump’s longstanding allies who he hopes will help him retain control of the GOP in the days ahead, there are still some private doubts about some of his claims.

The folks at Punchbowl News have more info about the incident between Bush and Greene I’ve been blogging about. Jake Sherman reports that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi intervened in the matter and helped facilitate Bush’s move.

Here’s the excerpt from Punchbowl’s midday edition:

Pelosi intervenes in MTG spat

Speaker Nancy Pelosi directly intervened to move a congresswoman’s office after she got into an altercation with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

Pelosi ordered the office move after being made aware of an episode between Greene and Rep. Cori Bush, a newly elected Democrat from Missouri. Needless to say, Pelosi does not get involved in office moves all too often.

Bush tweeted about the episode Friday morning:

A maskless Marjorie Taylor Greene & her staff berated me in a hallway. She targeted me & others on social media. I’m moving my office away from hers for my team’s safety. I’ve called for the expulsion of members who incited the insurrection from Day 1. Bring H.Res 25 to a vote.

Democrats have suggested Greene be expelled from the House. She has become known for her past support for QAnon and other off-the-wall conspiracy theories. Greene’s staff told us they had one interaction with Busch, and it was documented in this video.

It’s very rare for Pelosi or any caucus leader to intervene like this.

Updated

It’s unusual for members of Congress to push hard to expel a freshman lawmaker but that’s exactly what’s happening now with Greene.

Not only have Democrats argued that the Georgia congresswoman should be forced out of Congress, they have also called for Greene to be removed from her committee assignments, especially the House Committee on Education and Labor.

Congresswoman Cori Bush says congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene berated her

Congresswoman Cori Bush of Missouri, a freshman lawmaker, says congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and her staff berated her in the hallway at the Capitol.

Bush’s tweet and run in with Greene is the latest in a long list of contentious confrontation members of Congress have had with Greene, a freshman who has a long history of engaging in conspiracy theories, associating with the QAnon movement, and advocating for violence against Democrats. A number of Democrats have said Greene should be expelled from Congress.

Updated

Breaking news from The Washington Post about the pipe bombs planted near the Capitol before the riots there:

The two pipe bombs that were discovered on Jan. 6 near the U.S. Capitol shortly before a mob stormed the building are believed to have been planted the night before, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation and video footage obtained by The Washington Post.

The explosive devices, which were placed blocks from one another at the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national committees, have been largely overshadowed by the violent insurrection at the Capitol. But finding the person suspected of planting both bombs remains a priority for federal authorities, who last week boosted the reward for tips leading to the person’s arrest from $50,000 to $75,000.

The FBI said its agents are “using every tool in our toolbox” and have interviewed more than 1,000 residents and business owners in the neighborhood where the devices were found. On Friday morning, the FBI released additional information that confirmed The Post’s reporting about the timing of the placement of the bombs and raised the reward offered to $100,000.

President Joe Biden and treasury secretary Janet Yellen just delivered remarks.

Biden, as staff were trying to close out the appearance, stressed the importance of Congress passing a Covid relief package.

“The investments now will help the economy grow,” Biden said.

Fauci: 'The virus will continue to mutate'

Even more Fauci with a chilling warning: “The virus will continue to mutate and will mutate for its own selective advantage.”

White House senior advisor for COVID response Andy Slavitt, in closing out, is saying “let’s not be such polite hosts to this virus” going on to urge the country to do everything possible to fight it.

Updated

More Fauci here with an obvious but still key point. Fauci stressed that even as new mutations emerge, the best way to end the pandemic is to vaccinate everyone.

Walensky turned the mic over to Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Fauci is now offering some positive news about the new Johnson & Johnson one-dose vaccine.

And I’m back.

The White House Covid Response Team is currently holding a briefing on the latest statistics on the pandemic.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky is warning that the Covid variant first detected in Britain has been identified in North Carolina and elsewhere around the world.

“Earlier this week Minnesota identified the first case of the P1 variant,” Walensky added, referring to the coronavirus variant first found in Brazil.

Here are more stats.

Updated

Another reporter tries to get a comment about GameStop, which I don’t remotely understand so please read the story below, not least because I do know what tulip mania was because I did history at college so that bodes well.

Nonetheless, no, Psaki ain’t going there.

Will Biden appear in the briefing room any time soon, as Trump was so often wont to do to general hilarity and hoo-hah? Sidestepped.

Is Biden OK with Bernie Sanders leading the Senate committee that might push through a $15 national minimum wage which conservatives won’t in all likelihood back in regular procedure? The White House is not focused on parliamentary process, Psaki says – it just wants to get Covid relief done. Eg: if it works, it works.

Does Biden think it’s realistic to go above $2tn as progressives want? Psaki refers to … parliamentary process, “members and their whip counts”. So it goes.

Psaki is next asked about Vice-President Kamala Harris going to local media in West Virginia and Arizona, states with centrist Democratic senators who need to be kept onside as the relief bill heads to Congress. Harris will do a number of regional calls and interviews, Psaki says. Sure – but those states are represented by Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, so… sure. Yeah.

Psaki also gets a laugh by answering a reporter who apologises for “nerding out” by saying “policy is back”. And to finish she embarrasses her deputy press secretaries by introducing them

Back to Daniel Strauss.

Updated

Currently watching Jen Psaki paging through her binder looking for an answer on whether the White House supports using active duty troops for vaccine centers when they are set up, as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or Fema, would like. She can’t find it – so will check and get back. Weird I know, but I thought that was quite fun. Maybe because, a bit like Mitt Romney but not really, I like binders.

Psaki is also asked about double-masking, as Biden has been seen on occasion to do. No specific CDC guidance, Psaki says, but Dr Anthony Fauci has said it makes sense. And, as we know, there’s a Covid briefing coming up. Psaki also answers about vaccine purchase decisions. Quite a dense word salad there.

No comment on reports that Biden has told family members to be careful about being seen to attempt to monetise their relationship to him. Oddly enough. Psaki “reiterates the policy proactively”: trying to benefit from the president and his images is not good. For anyone.

Covid variants will be discussed at the Covid briefing too, Psaki says.

And Psaki is asked about Marjorie Taylor Greene again, having said recently she doesn’t want to discuss the QAnon-supporting Georgia Republican in the White House briefing room. Should Greene be on the House education committee? Psaki… does not want to discuss the QAnon-supporting Georgia Republican in the White House briefing room.

Updated

Psaki says we’d all like the fence around the White House to come down, including her family, but… we have nothing more to add on that today. The fence went up last year, around national protests for racial equality which at one point sent Trump down into a different sort of bunker than those in which he spent much of his presidency.

Psaki is also asked about Covid positives among national guard members who came to the capital after the US Capitol attack. Not much to add from the White House – but it seems national guard forces will stay around through Trump’s second impeachment trial, forthcoming in the Senate even though 45 Senate Republicans think it shouldn’t even take place.

Will Biden remove Trump appointee Michael Ellis as general counsel of the National Security Agency? Nothing new.

Psaki sidesteps questions about Biden’s recent call with Vladimir Putin, then gracefully swerves a question about reports of New York’s under-reporting of nursing home Covid deaths.

The pause on Biden’s immigration orders, Psaki says, is because “early plans sometimes do change”, and “we’d hoped Alejandro Mayorkas would have been confirmed” by the Senate. Psaki says the White House expects that to happen on Monday evening – despite Republican attempts to delay it.

On Iran and its nuclear ambitions, more straight-batting, obviously. Would Biden consider meeting his Iranian counterpart or having a conversation? “We’re getting a little bid ahead of where we are in the process,” Psaki says.

Then back to Russia, yes, Biden called on Putin to release Alexei Navalny. No word on what Putin said back.

Psaki then refers questions about the GameStop affair to the SEC. Of course she does.

We’re on to Capitol security after the 6 January attack and the presence in the congressional Republican party of conspiracy theory spouting extremists and some members who want to bring guns into the House chamber. Psaki says Biden is in “close touch” with Psaki about the safety of members but doesn’t have anything else to add.

Psaki answers questions about Afghanistan troop levels (no news) and what the Covid guidelines mean (no news, they mean what they mean – wear a mask, socially distance, etc, but “we do want to provide more clear guidance” than the Trump administration did.) Biden also wants schools open and staying open, Psaki says, but will … follow the advice of the experts. Who will brief after she does.

Has Biden spoken to former president Trump and what did Trump’s letter to Biden say? No. And no “update on the letter”, other than it was “gracious and generous”.

To resort to a cricketing analogy, unhelpfully I know but humour me, under Biden White House press briefings seem once again all about straight-bat forward defensives or leaves outside off stump, where Trump briefings were all about wild offensive slogs or self-owning reverse sweeps which only resulted in plum LBWs but the batsman refusing to walk.

And so forth.

Biden is not travelling much, Psaki says, to keep the public safe – his own vaccination notwithstanding. The White House is “looking for creative ways” to speak directly to the American people.

Updated

As soon as I posted that last block, of course, Jen Psaki appeared. Some announcements first:

  • Biden is encouraged by news of the Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine but encourages all Americans to follow current social distancing and mitigation guidelines. A briefing will follow from the Covid team, she says.
  • The White House is still preparing and pursuing its push to pass new Covid relief in Congress by briefing groups around the states, and says the American people want Republicans in Congress to work with Biden.
  • Biden is meeting treasury secretary Janet Yellen today for a briefing on “the cost of inaction”. Fairly pointed point, there.
  • The White House wants to preview the next week’s schedule, so Psaki delivers brief highlights of that schedule so far.

Trump was cultivated as a Russian asset over 40 years – source

While we wait for White House press secretary Jen Psaki, some rather startling further reading from David Smith, our Washington bureau chief…

Donald Trump was cultivated as a Russian asset over 40 years and proved so willing to parrot anti-western propaganda that there were celebrations in Moscow, a former KGB spy has told the Guardian.

Yuri Shvets, posted to Washington by the Soviet Union in the 1980s, compares the former president to “the Cambridge five”, the British spy ring that passed secrets to Moscow during the second world war and early cold war.

Now 67, Shvets is a key source for American Kompromat, a new book by journalist Craig Unger, whose previous works include House of Trump, House of Putin. The book also explores the former president’s relationship with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Updated

Brief change of staffing on the blog as I sit in for Daniel Strauss – an experience possibly a bit like those centrist dad dreams I still have in which I play bass for U2 or jump at number four in the lineout for England against New Zealand. Or possibly not.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki is due behind the podium – almost as big a stage as Roundhay Park or Twickenham. I’ll watch and blog.

The White House is holding a press briefing at 10 am ET today and there are sure to be questions over the Biden administration’s position and prospects on its $1.9tn Covid relief bill package.

The key fact to remember is that the White House hasn’t shut the door to paring back the bill’s price tag in order to rally support from moderate Democrats and Republicans –and the president has signaled eagerness to make this bill bipartisan.

The Wall Street Journal reports still that there are some sticking points that the White House doesn’t want to move on:

Many Republicans and some Democrats have questioned the price tag of the plan, with some lawmakers suggesting there would be bipartisan support for a smaller package focused on vaccine distribution, potentially a third round of direct checks and some other measures. That would leave the more contentious items, such as aid for state and local governments, for a separate bill.

But the White House shot down that prospect Thursday.

“We’re not looking to split the package,” said press secretary Jen Psaki in her daily briefing. She said Mr. Biden was open to ideas on further targeting aid, but the administration is “not going to do this in a piecemeal way or break apart a big package meant to address the crisis we’re facing.”

Updated

Donald Trump wants the knives out for House Republican conference chairwoman Liz Cheney, the highest ranking member in her chamber that voted to impeach him. The former president’s political action committee has been circulating polling data suggesting Cheney is vulnerable when she’s on the ballot again in 2022. Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida, a staunch Trump ally, traveled to Cheney’s homestate of Wyoming yesterday to hold a rally against her.

CNN’s Michael Warren has more:

(CNN) Former President Donald Trump is focusing his political energy on targeting Rep. Liz Cheney, the third-ranking House Republican, who voted for Trump’s impeachment earlier this month.

According to one source, Trump has repeatedly questioned his Republican allies about efforts to remove Cheney from her leadership position and run a primary candidate against her. He has also been showing those allies a poll commissioned by his Save America PAC that purports to show that Cheney’s impeachment vote has damaged her standing in Wyoming, even urging them to talk about the poll on television.

Trump’s push comes as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is working to shore up his relationship with the ex-president,including meeting with Trump at his Palm Beach resort Mar-a-Lago on Thursday. McCarthy and Trump discussed the midterm elections in 2022, according to a readout provided by Save America.

The statement claimed Trump “has agreed to work with Leader McCarthy” on retaking the majority in the House for the GOP.McCarthy confirmed Thursday that Trump “committed to helping elected Republicans in the House and Senate in 2022.”

But it’s clear Trump does not want Cheney to be a part of that House majority. Cheney, the chair of the House Republican Conference, was one of 10 Republicans to vote for Trump’s impeachment on January 13. Trump’s allies within the GOP conference are helping to punish Cheney.

Some in the pro-Trump Freedom Caucus are circulating a petition designed to oust Cheney from her leadership position. One Freedom Caucus member, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, was in Wyoming Thursday to rally against Cheney. Gaetz told the hundreds of rallygoers that he had spoken to Trump “yesterday,” and he publicly shared some of Trump’s material.

Daniel Strauss here taking over for Martin Belam.

The folks at Punchbowl News got a telling tip about vice-president Kamala Harris:

A source called us late yesterday with an eyebrow-raising tip: VP Kamala Harris had popped up on local television in West Virginia. West Virginia? Huh?

West Virginia, yes. The Mountaineer State, the home of one Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a key vote for any Covid-relief package that may come up for consideration at some point in the coming weeks.

But Harris didn’t only appear on WSAZ in Charleston, W. Va. Harris spoke to the Charleston Gazette editorial board too.

Harris also popped up virtually in Arizona -- the home state of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D), another swing vote on Covid relief. Harris spoke with ABC 15 in Phoenix and the Arizona Republic editorial board. Harris had plans to speak to media outlets in Ohio, as well, although those were on pause as of this morning because of a scheduling change.

The White House purposely scheduled these interviews to try to win Sinema and Manchin’s support for President Joe Biden’s Covid relief package.

Here’s what Harris told the Arizona Republic: “If we don’t pass this bill, I’m going to be very candid with you: We know more people are going to die in our country. More people will lose their jobs and our children are going to miss more school. We’ve got to be here collectively to say that that is not an option in America. We’ve got to get relief to people as quickly as possible, and this bill will do that. As it relates to Congress, we have the plan and now we need the members of Congress to act.”

It’s not necessarily scandalous or adversarial for the White House to take their arguments to local media in order to push the president’s priorities. Manchin and Sinema are, of course, members of the president’s own party, so it’s a bit of a hard-nosed tactic, whether it is intended as such or not, since the negotiations are just getting underway. It also is a good indication of how the administration will deploy Harris, and how it will sell the president’s priorities.

Manchin and Sinema also came out strongly against getting rid of the legislative filibuster, a move that angered progressives. To have the White House on local media pressing two Democrats is notable just 10 days into the administration’s term. It surprised some on Capitol Hill, that’s for sure.

WSAZ Charleston … Charleston Gazette … ABC 15 Phoenix … AZ Republic

This is important from two ends. One it’s a sign that the White House wants to push two of the most moderate senators in the caucus on a Covid relief bill.

And it also fleshes out a bit what role Harris will play in the Biden administration. Biden has said he wants Harris to be the last person in the room on any big decision he’s made. Separately, as my colleague Lauren and I have reported, folks close to Harris also bristle at the idea that she would have some kind of specific portfolio (which Biden did have when he was vice president). It seems part of Harris portfolio is the local face of the Biden administration’s priorities.

Updated

This morning both Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump Jr have been tweeting about the overreach of big tech restricting free speech, which has become a common Republican refrain. Akin Olla, the Nigerian-American political strategist and organize who hosts the This is The Revolution Podcast writes for us of the opposite side of the coin, arguing Facebook is banning leftwing users like me - and it’s going largely unnoticed:

In response to the fascist riot at the US Capitol, Facebook engaged in a flurry of dangerous and misguided corporate authoritarianism. I, along with a number of other leftwing organizers, was deemed a threat to the inauguration of Joe Biden and placed on a restricted list that limited my ability to communicate with others. My account could no longer create Facebook groups or events, two tools that I’ve used over the last decade to coordinate protests and build entire organizations. I was also banned from commenting in Facebook groups, liking Facebook pages, and messaging Facebook pages. The restriction was to be removed the Saturday after the inauguration, but it only fully ceased apparently after public backlash. This is part of a long history of Facebook treating leftwing activists as if they were far-right extremists, and a pattern of silencing those who speak out against racism and fascism.

Facebook’s latest sweep went relatively unnoticed by most media outlets and was simply framed as a restriction of events in and around Washington DC leading up to the inauguration. Gizmodo was one of the first publications to pick up the story but the majority of its article barely mentions the fact that leftwing users in the United States were targeted and effectively silenced. Most of the relevant content of the article was pulled directly from a blog post from Facebook itself. Gizmodo, like most other outlets that reported on the decision, seemed to imply that these bans were a net positive and, if anything, a little later than it would have preferred.

The lack of in-depth reporting on what was a massive new development in Facebook’s struggle to monitor itself is unfortunate. This sweep wasn’t as simple as restricting events around a certain location, which should be a troubling development on its own. Facebook targeted users across the US, and while Facebook has publicly claimed it sought out users with past violations, many of the leftwing users targeted had no such violations, according to Facebook itself. Attempts to seek clarity or appeal the decisions have been shut down by Facebook, and the scope of the restrictions have not been made public.

Read more here: Akin Olla – Facebook is banning leftwing users like me - and it’s going largely unnoticed

What next for the Biden administration? Well, according to reports from NBC News this morning, we will begin to see a slowdown from the initial flurry of executive orders that have characterised his early days in power.

Biden is planning to wind down his initial burst of executive actions by the middle of next week and shift his focus to getting key parts of his legislative agenda passed, with the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package as the top priority, according to three administration officials.

Biden has been quietly reaching out to Republicans about the relief bill, which he wants to pass with bipartisan support, and may soon begin holding in-person meetings at the White House, according to one official.

Officials say their concern is that a full-throated backing of impeachment would poison Biden’s hopes of bipartisanship by making it harder for some Republicans to vote in favor of anything he proposes.

Biden is also keeping his cards close when it comes to discussing his outreach to Republicans. Officials have said Biden is holding calls with Republicans, but he doesn’t want the White House to disclose them out of concern that it may be counterproductive to getting coronavirus legislation passed. The president is assessing where various Republicans stand on the relief bill and a possible subsequent bill, an official said. Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Rob Portman of Ohio have said they spoke with Biden this week.

Some administration officials privately acknowledge that it’s increasingly likely that Democrats in Congress will have to use the budget reconciliation process in order to pass the relief bill. Publicly, the White House is laying the groundwork for eventually backing the process, which would allow Democrats to move forward without Republicans, by attempting to rebrand the relief bill as a nonpartisan issue.

Read more here: NBC News – Biden poised to wind down executive actions next week to focus on Covid relief

Associated Press report that the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s police chief has banned officers from using “Thin Blue Line” imagery while on duty.

The move by Chief Kristen Roman follows criticism on social media of a “Thin Blue Line” flag displayed at the police department’s office. The flag, which resembles a US flag but has a blue stripe, is considered a sign of police solidarity, but has also been criticized as a symbol of white supremacy.

Roman said the flag has been “co-opted” by extremists with “hateful ideologies” and that her department needs to distance itself from the imagery to build trust with the community, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.

“We must consider the cost of clinging to a symbol that is undeniably and inextricably linked to actions and beliefs antithetical to UWPD’s values,” she said in an email.

Roman said the ban on public displays of “Thin Blue Line” imagery includes flags, pins, bracelets, notebooks, coffee mugs and other items. Tattoos are to made an exception.

A Donald Trump supporter waves a thin blue line flag outside of the US Supreme Court in October 2020.
A Donald Trump supporter waves a thin blue line flag outside of the US Supreme Court in October 2020. Photograph: Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images

“Thin Blue Line” flags have been customised into flags supporting Donald Trump by his supporters. They were also prominent among those displayed by rioters who stormed the US Capitol on 6 January in an attempt to overturn the election defeat of former President Donald Trump. The five killed during the day of insurrection included Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick.

The Democrats and the Republicans are as one. If you’d lived through last year’s horrifying fire season, you’d vote Green, too. If we don’t do something about this right now, we’re all doomed. I’m not buying the “Uncle Joe” routine – it’s just more of the same. I have very few hopes for this administration. The corporate sponsors made it very clear. People want commonsense gun reform; a Green New Deal; an end to corporate tax loopholes; and Medicare for All, but they’re not gonna get any of it.

That’s the voice of John, a 47 year old commercial property developer in San Francisco, who voted for Howie Hawkins and the Green party in November, and who is one of the people who got in touch with the Guardian’s community team to tell us what they hope, fear and expect from the next four years.

You can read more here: ‘The future is bright’: Guardian US readers on their hopes for Biden’s presidency

Josh Wingrove and Riley Griffin report for Bloomberg this morning that the Biden team have been deriding the vaccination plan that the Trump administration left behind for them, while borrowing its playbook. They say:

Biden has said vaccine distribution was in “worse shape than we anticipated.” White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said a Trump administration plan “did not really exist.” Adviser Cedric Richmond said they “didn’t leave a plan.” Xavier Becerra, Biden’s choice for health secretary, said it was like taking over a plane in a nosedive.

But while Biden’s approach to the virus – frank warnings about the pandemic, mask mandates on federal property – is a reversal from Trump’s policies, his administration’s distribution of vaccines so far looks little different from that of its predecessor. Before Biden was sworn in, vaccines already were being delivered at a pace to meet his goal of 100 million doses in his first 100 days as president.

Biden’s ability to sharply change direction is inherently limited. The sheer magnitude of the distribution efforts would make any major changes costly and risk backsliding, even if temporarily. Some aspects of the program don’t offer much wiggle room to begin with, while the trickiest parts are yet to come – and entirely on Biden’s shoulders.

Any efforts by Biden to shape the program also were undercut by Trump, who delayed the transition as he disputed the results of the election and refused to concede. Trump’s team said more than 300 transition briefings were held with health officials, though Biden officials have said the information exchange was limited until just days before the inauguration.

Read more here: Bloomberg – Biden Covid team derides Trump plan while borrowing its playbook

CDC director Walensky says officials have 'scaled up' surveillance of new coronavirus variants in US

The new director of the Centers for Disease Control says officials have “scaled up” their surveillance of new coronavirus variants in the United States.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told ABC’s Good Morning America that previously “there has not been a public health infrastructure” to track such variants. Also, there weren’t resources to do “mass sequencing” of the virus across the country. She noted the coronavirus aid plan pushed by the Biden administration includes funds to improve such tracing.

However, Walensky says it was “concerning” the two South Carolina individuals who were diagnosed with the more virulent strain first identified in South Africa didn’t know each other or travel there, so the “presumption” is there’s “community spread of this strain.”

US records at least 4,000 deaths from Covid in a single day for sixth time

There were 168,620 new cases of coronavirus recorded in the US yesterday according to Johns Hopkins University figures. The total caseload for the pandemic now stands at 25.7m.

The daily deaths figure has been revised up to 4,000 from the 3,872 number I quoted in the intro to the live blog. It is the sixth time that at least 4,000 deaths have been recorded in a single day.

Hospitalization figures are, however, down. They dropped to 104,303, their lowest level since 7 December.

White House senior advisor for Covid response Andy Slavitt spoke to CNN yesterday, expressing concern over mutation in the virus, as South Carolina confirmed two cases of a variant first identified in South Africa:

“Nothing about this news says we can’t defeat this thing,” the White House Senior Advisor for Covid Response Andy Slavitt told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “It just means we need more tools, and we need to be more united in doing it.”

Though evidence currently does not show the variant causes more severe illness, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, experts are eager to get ahead of them.

“We’re going to have to stay one step ahead of these mutations,” said Slavitt. “We’re going to need processes to keep developing tests, therapies and vaccines to make sure that as and if the virus mutates a little bit, like the flu does, we’re able to stay ahead of it.”

Experts say they believe current vaccines will still be effective against the variants, but officials are still working to close the gap between the available doses and the number administered to Americans.

“We’re changing the laws to allow more people to vaccinate. We’re sending shipments directly to pharmacies,” Slavitt said. “We are invoking the Defense Production Act and have done so to get more syringes and more other gear available to people. We’re working with states hand in glove every day to find more vaccines. There’s not an idea that we won’t consider.”

11 US soldiers injured after 'ingesting unknown substance' during field training exercise in Texas

A quick snap here from the Associated Press about an incident at Fort Bliss in Texas where it appears that eleven US soldiers have been injured after ingesting an unknown substance during a field training exercise.

Two of the soldiers were in critical condition, the 1st Armored Division said in a statement. All 11 were placed under the observation of medical professionals. The incident is under investigation, the army statement said. No further details were released.

If you’ve been following the GameSpot stock story over the last few days, you may be interested to note that Reuters report that online brokerage Robinhood said today it was not allowing purchases of parts of shares in GameStop and other stocks, a practice that has encouraged smaller investors by reducing the size of the amount they have to bet.

You can keep up to date with the latest on our business live blog, which is being helmed by Kalyeena Makortoff…

Amanda Holpuch reports for us today on a new exhibition which combines interviews with ex-detainees on their trauma during Covid-19, and imagery of the growth of private-run detention in the US:

“We’ve commodified human displacement,” said artist David Taylor, who has used drones to take aerial photography and video of 28 privately run Ice detention centers near the US southern border, in California, Arizona and Texas.

While accounts of abuse and exploitation from inside facilities appear in the news media, the detention centers are usually in isolated, underpopulated areas with access to photographers or film crews tightly controlled.

This new image collection, taken from near the perimeters of the facilities, gives a rare look at just how many of these centers occupy the landscape. “What I want to show through the accumulation of imagery is that this is literally an industry,” Taylor said, “that it’s expansive, that it occupies a significant amount of territory in our national landscape – and I’m only showing a fraction of it.

“That, to me, is an important realization. The scale is shocking; how it is changing the United States,” said Taylor, a professor of art at the University of Arizona.

The imagery will ultimately be shown in an exhibition incorporating the stories of some of the people captured inside this system. These audio recordings come from a collaboration with Taylor and a group which provides free legal service to detained migrants in Arizona, the Florence Project, and writer Francisco Cantú.

When the project is eventually presented in a gallery, it will also include data on the costs, profits and revenue of corporations involved. Late in the the Obama era, the Department of Justice (DoJ) discontinued all use of private prison corporations to house detainees, but the DoJ during the Trump administration reversed this policy.

Between 2015 and 2018, as the administration began to ramp up its crackdown on immigrants, the targeted average daily population of detained immigrants grew 50%. Corporations won contracts from Ice worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Taylor said the project was fraught because he was taking artistic photos and video of sites where traumas have occurred, but hopes the final work will help people understand how those inside are being used to support an industry. The detainees’ vulnerability during the Covid-19 pandemic added to an urgency to spotlight the facilities, he said.

Read more here: ‘This is literally an industry’: drone images give rare look at for-profit Ice detention centers

The prospect that former president Donald Trump was ready to strike up on his own and split off from the Republican party appears to be receding, at least according to this report from Newsweek’s Jacob Jarvis. He writes:

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Trump met in Florida yesterday, and it was discussed that Trump would back Republican candidates for 2022.

“President Trump committed to helping elect Republicans in the House and Senate in 2022,” McCarthy said in a statement.

A statement from Trump’s Save America PAC also spoke of Trump committing to assist Republicans running for the House—adding “the work has already started.”

This came following speculation Trump could split off from the GOP, with reports he could consider starting a new party of his own.

Jason Miller, an adviser to the president, said previously the potential for any such move was dependent on the actions of Republican senators.

“The President has made clear his goal is to win back the House and Senate for Republicans in 2022,” Miller tweeted previously.

“There’s nothing that’s actively being planned regarding an effort outside of that, but it’s completely up to Republican Senators if this is something that becomes more serious.”

Read more here: Newsweek – Republican party looked set to divorce Donald Trump over Capitol riot. Now, it’s renewing vows

Josh Hawley: 'No regrets' over vote not to confirm election results

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley has told CNN he does not having any regrets over voting not to certify all of November’s election results, but also claimed that he was not attempting to overturn the election result – a statement that appears to contradict his earlier position. Manu Raju, CNN’s Chief Congressional correspondent, writes:

In the aftermath of pro-Trump rioters storming the Capitol seeking to stop the January 6 certification of Biden’s win, the first-term Missouri Republican senator has faced a barrage of criticism over his decision to contest the results of Pennsylvania. But Hawley has said he has “no” regrets, telling CNN: “I was very clear from the beginning that I was never attempting to overturn the election.”

Yet before 6 January 6, Hawley didn’t rule out the possibility that Congress could throw out the electoral results and keep Trump in office.

On January 4, Hawley was asked by Fox News: “Are you trying to say that as of 20th January 20th that President Trump will be president?” He responded to anchor Bret Baier: “Well, Bret that depends on what happens on Wednesday. I mean this is why we have the debate. This is why we have the votes.”

Hawley repeatedly declined to say Congress wouldn’t be able to change the results of Biden’s win.

On Thursday, CNN pressed Hawley on the discrepancy between his claim that he never attempted to overturn the election and his 4 January comments that Trump could still be President depending “on what happens” on 6 January and his refusal then to rule out Congress could change the outcome. Hawley contended he’s been consistent on the point that 6 January was the final day of the electoral process, arguing his sole intention behind objecting was aimed at sparking debate over Pennsylvania’s voting system.

Read more here: CNN – Hawley now says objection to Biden’s win wasn’t intended to keep Trump in office despite past comments

In the latest episode of our Politics Weekly Extra podcast, Jonathan Freedland speaks to the Pulitzer prize-winning author and journalist Laurie Garrett about what Joe Biden needs to do to get a grip on the Covid crisis in the US. You can listen to it here…

Black Americans receiving Covid vaccines at lower rates than whites

Hannah Recht and Lauren Weber of Kaiser Health News report with us this morning:

Black Americans are receiving Covid vaccinations at dramatically lower rates than white Americans in the first weeks of the chaotic rollout, according to a new analysis.

About 3% of Americans have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine so far. But in 16 states that have released data by race, white residents are being vaccinated at significantly higher rates than Black residents, according to the analysis – in many cases two to three times higher.

In the most dramatic case, 1.2% of white Pennsylvanians had been vaccinated as of 14 January, compared with 0.3% of Black Pennsylvanians.

The vast majority of the initial round of vaccines has gone to healthcare workers and staffers on the frontlines of the pandemic – a workforce that’s typically racially diverse made up of physicians, hospital cafeteria workers, nurses and janitorial staffers.

If the rollout were reaching people of all races equally, the shares of people vaccinated whose race is known should loosely align with the demographics of healthcare workers. But in every state, Black Americans were significantly underrepresented among people vaccinated so far.

Access issues and mistrust rooted in structural racism appear to be the major factors leaving Black healthcare workers behind in the quest to vaccinate the nation. The unbalanced uptake among what might seem like a relatively easy-to-vaccinate workforce doesn’t bode well for the rest of the country’s dispersed population.

Black, Hispanic and Native Americans are dying from Covid at nearly three times the rate of white Americans, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis. And non-Hispanic Black and Asian healthcare workers are more likely to contract Covid and to die from it than white workers. (Hispanics can represent any race or combination of races.)

“My concern now is if we don’t vaccinate the population that’s highest-risk, we’re going to see even more disproportional deaths in Black and brown communities,” said Dr Fola May, a UCLA physician and health equity researcher. “It breaks my heart.”

Read more here: Black Americans receiving Covid vaccines at lower rates than whites

Biden expected to appoint nuclear deal architect Robert Malley as US Iran envoy

The Biden administration is expected name Robert Malley, a former top adviser in the Obama administration, as special envoy for Iran, according to multiple sources who have spoken to Reuters.

Malley was a key member of former Barack Obama’s team that negotiated the nuclear accord with Iran and world powers, an agreement that Donald Trump abandoned in 2018 in the face of strong opposition from Washington’s European allies.

“Secretary (of State) Blinken is building a dedicated team, drawing from clear-eyed experts with a diversity of views. Leading that team as our Special Envoy for Iran will be Rob Malley, who brings to the position a track record of success negotiating constraints on Iran’s nuclear program,” a State Department official said.

“The secretary is confident he and his team will be able to do that once again,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Malley’s appointment would task him with one of the new administration’s most daunting and politically divisive foreign policy challenges.

When Malley’s name first surfaced in news reports as a leading candidate for the post, he drew criticism from some Republican lawmakers and pro-Israel groups that expressed concern that he would be soft on Iran and tough on Israel. But a number of foreign policy veterans rushed to his defence, praising him as a respected, even-handed diplomat.

Read more here: Biden expected to appoint nuclear deal architect as US Iran envoy

Joe Biden doesn’t just face opposition to his Covid economic relief plan from Republicans. As the New York Times notes in its report, some of the opposition is coming from inside the house. Jim Tankersley and Emily Cochrane write:

There are early signs that Biden will need to at least partially trim his ambitions in order to secure even the full support of his party in the Senate — which he almost certainly needs to pass any bill.

Some moderate Democrats have joined many Republicans in pushing the administration to narrow the scope of recipients for the direct checks to more directly target low- and middle-income Americans. Such a move would shave hundreds of billions of dollars off the proposal’s overall price tag. Officials privately concede that they would consider reducing the income threshold at which the size of the checks would begin phasing out for individuals and families.

Biden did not announce thresholds for the checks in his proposal, but in December congressional Democrats proposed $2,000 individual checks that would slowly begin phasing out for those earning more than $75,000 a year — and allow some families earning as much as $430,000 a year to receive smaller payments.

Read more here: New York Times – Democrats prepare to move on economic aid, with or without Republicans

The last few months of the Trump administration were marked by an impasse between Democrats and Republicans in Congress over what should go into an economic relief bill for a country stricken with the coronavirus. The Biden administration is starting off the same way.

But with Democrats in control of the White House, House and the Senate poised at 50-50, the struggle to get bipartisan agreement may no longer prove to be an obstacle. NBC News reports:

White House economic adviser Brian Deese and Covid-19 coordinator Jeff Zientz held a call Thursday with Senate Democrats as they grapple with whether to cut a slimmed-down deal or use a process known as reconciliation to bypass the Senate’s 60-vote rule to avoid a filibuster.

“The sentiment is this: We would like Republicans to work with us to be part of the solution to deliver emergency help, but we can’t wait, it’s urgent, and we need to double-track this process,” Democrat Sen. Chris Van Hollen from Maryland, who was on the call, told reporters. “So we will continue to reach out to Republicans, but I’m a big supporter of having an insurance policy in place through reconciliation.”

The pivot to reconciliation comes after Republicans roundly rejected Biden’s plan, balking at the price tag. It puts Democrats in a predicament: Accept a smaller bill at the cost of political blowback for failing to do enough, or kick off the Biden presidency by passing a sweeping bill on a partisan basis.

If Democrats don’t go the bipartisan route, “that’s going to send a signal to America, and to Republicans throughout Congress, that this president’s message of unity was rhetoric as opposed to substance,” Sen. Todd Young, an Indian Republican, told reporters.

Read more here: NBC News – Democrats prepare to go it alone on Covid relief if Republicans don’t cooperate

Welcome to live coverage of US politics for Friday. Here’s a catch-up on where we are, and what we can expect today…

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