Summary
- Joe Biden formally announced a series of executive orders aimed at ending gun violence in America. The president has called on the justice department to crack down on “ghost guns,” unregistered firearms assembled from kits, and gun accessories that can functionally transform pistols into rifles. Biden said in the Rose Garden today, “Gun violence in this country is an epidemic, and it’s an international embarrassment.”
- George Floyd died from a “low level of oxygen” caused by “shallow breathing,” an expert testified at Derek Chauvin’s murder trial. The expert’s analysis could undermine arguments from Chauvin’s defense team that Floyd died because of drug use and preexisting health conditions.
- Joe Manchin said there was “no circumstance” where he would support ending the filibuster. In a Washington Post op-ed published last night, the Democratic senator wrote, “The time has come to end these political games, and to usher a new era of bipartisanship where we find common ground on the major policy debates facing our nation.” Manchin’s stance could hinder much of Biden’s legislative agenda, given the filibuster allows the Republican minority to block bills unless they have the support of 60 senators.
- An associate of Matt Gaetz may cooperate with federal prosecutors, a potentially ominous sign for the Republican congressman as he faces allegations of sex-trafficking. According to the Washington Post, prosecutors have indicated the case against Joel Greenberg, the former tax collector for Seminole County, may end in a plea deal. That could mean Greenberg has agreed to cooperate with federal officials in exchange for a lesser sentence.
- Dr Anthony Fauci acknowledged shortages of personal protective equipment likely contributed to coronavirus deaths among health workers in the US. “During the critical times when there were shortages was when people had to use whatever was available to them,” the president’s chief medical adviser said in an interview with the Guardian. “I’m sure that increased the risk of getting infected among healthcare providers.” According to the Guardian and Kaiser Health News’ Lost on the Frontline database, more than 3,600 US health workers have died of coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.
- One person has died, and four are in critical condition after a shooting in Bryan, Texas. The shooting occurred at around 3.50pm, according to local police – who say they are pursuing a suspect.
- California leaders have announced a $536m plan to address the growing threat of wildfires across the state, as a drought threatens to bring on yet another destructive, deadly fire season. The state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, along with the state’s senate and assembly leaders announced the new plan at a news conference Thursday near Shaver Lake – a small town at the foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains that was devastated by the Creek fire last fall.
– Joan E Greve and Maanvi Singh
Can an assault weapons ban reduce killings if firearms last 100 years?
Six days before a man shot and killed 10 people, he legally purchased the military-style firearm he used for the crime. The incident – one of three recent mass shootings – yet again renewed a public debate about banning assault weapons in the US and seems like a potential example of a shooting in which an assault weapon ban might have been effective in reducing the death toll of the attack. But would it?
When firearms are recovered by law enforcement because of their use or suspected use in a crime, the weapons are recorded in a database along with the date of their first retail sale. The amount of time between those two events is known as the “time to crime” and is published by the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). While the suspect involved in the Boulder shooting waited just six days, the national average time to crime is 8.3 years, according to 2019 statistics from the ATF.
This dataset is much broader, since it includes a wide variety of crimes and suspected crimes, but the number still poses a significant problem for policymakers that are attempting to prevent future mass shootings. Even if a nationwide ban on sales were effectively implemented tomorrow, there would still be somewhere between 15m and 20m assault rifles in circulation out of the estimated 393m guns held in the US.
Averages can be misleading, though: the range here is pretty vast – guns can be recovered days or decades after purchase. But it is relevant to note that in only 7% of cases were the guns recovered less than three months since the purchase date. State differences are also huge. In Arizona, 12% of recovered firearms were purchased less than three months ago, while in Connecticut and Arkansas, it’s just 4%.
The fact that those weapons could continue to be used for years to come isn’t just a hypothetical given the lifespan of assault weapons. Firearms remain operational for a century or more, further complicating any path to reform in a country with the highest gun ownership rate per capita in the world.
Read more:
The shooting occurred not long after Joe Biden announced new executive actions to address gun violence.
Hours before the shooting, Abbott, a Republican, came out vehemently against the president’s gun control policies. “Biden is threatening our 2nd Amendment rights. He just announced a new liberal power grab to take away our guns. We will NOT allow this in TX,” he tweeted. “It’s time to get legislation making TX a 2nd Amendment Sanctuary State passed and to my desk for signing.’
Texas has seen 14 mass shootings so far this year.
One person has died and four in critical condition after Texas shooting
One person has died, and four are in critical condition after a shooting in Bryan, Texas.
The shooting occurred at around 3.50pm, according to local police – who say they are pursuing a suspect.
“The state will assist in any way needed to help prosecute the suspect,” said the Texas governor, Greg Abbott. “Cecilia [Abbott’s wife] and I are praying for the victims and their families and for the law enforcement officer injured while apprehending the suspect.”
Updated
New EPA chief Michael Regan relishes ‘clean slate’ after chaos of Trump era
Michael Regan has perhaps the most fiendishly challenging job within Joe Biden’s administration. As the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Regan not only has to grapple with the unfolding cataclysm of the climate crisis, he must do so at the helm of a traumatized, shrunken institution still reeling from the chaos of the Donald Trump era.
“I was deeply concerned as I watched the previous administration,” Regan told the Guardian. “We all witnessed a mass exodus of scientists and qualified people the agency needs. I was really concerned coming into the job as to how morale would be and how much of a setback it would be to tackle the challenges before us.”
Trump vowed to reduce the EPA to “little bits”, and although his plans to wildly slash the agency’s budget were largely rejected by Congress, the environmental regulator is now left with its fewest employees since the mid-1980s, during which time the US population has grown by nearly a third.
Scientists were routinely sidelined, with an average of three a week fleeing the agency during Trump’s term. “It was a sort of painful hell,” said one career official, who weighed up leaving but decided to stay.
There were plenty of sources for angst.
Trump’s EPA laid siege to dozens of environmental regulations – from limits on pollution from cars and trucks to rules designed to stop coal plants dumping toxins into rivers to a ban on a pesticide linked with brain damage in children – often contrary to scientific advice and sometimes shortly after meetings with industry lobbyists. Mentions of climate change were not only scrubbed from the EPA website, the Trump administration mulled holding a televised debate as to whether it existed at all.
Scientific panels were purged of various experts and replaced with industry representatives who appeared to hold sway. Andrew Wheeler, Regan’s predecessor, is a former coal lobbyist who said acting on climate change was merely “virtue signaling to foreign capitals”. Scott Pruitt, Trump’s first EPA chief, was embroiled in an extravaganza of scandals, including living in an apartment paid for by a lobbyist, using his position to get his wife a job at Chick-fil-A, spending agency funds on foreign trips and even deploying staff to obtain a cut-price mattress from Trump’s Washington hotel.
“It was incredibly frustrating,” is how Regan sums up watching the agency unravel. “I was incredibly frustrated.”
Regan, the first black man to lead the EPA in its half-century of existence, previously worked at the agency during Bill Clinton and George W Bush’s administrations. “I worked here for a decade and I knew the staff were not being utilized properly,” he said. “I know the people, I know the quality of work they can do.”
Read more:
California leaders unveil $536m plan to address growing fire threat
California leaders have announced a $536m plan to address the growing threat of wildfires across the state, as a drought threatens to bring on yet another destructive, deadly fire season.
The state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, along with the state’s senate and assembly leaders announced the new plan at a news conference Thursday near Shaver Lake – a small town at the foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains that was devastated by the Creek fire last fall.
Global heating is triggering hotter, drier conditions in California – and propelling bigger, more destructive blazes. “If you don’t believe in climate change; if you don’t believe in science, then believe in your own damn eyes,” the governor said.
The new plan will include more than $350m in funds to improve forest management efforts and thin out fire-fueling vegetation. Another $25m will fund grants to help homeowners make their properties more fire-resistant.
Newsom also referenced the importance of embracing prescribed burning techniques, which were practiced by California tribes for centuries before European settlers banned and eschewed the practice. Fire is a natural and necessary part of the state’s natural landscape – but for years, rather than embracing beneficial fires, California suppressed it. A build-up of overgrowth and vegetation has held fueled extreme mega-blazes. The Karuk Tribe, wildfire researchers, and environmental groups have been pushing the governor and state leaders to fund and elevate historic forest management practices.
“I can’t make up for 50 years,” Newsom said, but committed to changing course going forward.
Last year, the state saw one of the worst fire seasons on record; four of the five largest fires in state history scorched the state, even as it was reeling from the coronavirus pandemic. Some 4m acres burned, 31 people were killed and more than 10,000 buildings were destroyed or damaged.
Updated
White House expresses concern over Northern Ireland violence
Lisa O’Carroll, Rory Carroll and Rajeev Syal report:
The White House has expressed concern over a week of riots in Northern Ireland, with Joe Biden joining Boris Johnson and the Irish prime minister in calling for calm after what police described as the worst violence in Belfast for years.
It came as police used water cannon against nationalist youths in west Belfast, as unrest stirred again on the streets on Thursday evening.
In a statement, the US president’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, said: “We are concerned by the violence in Northern Ireland” and that Biden remained “steadfast” in his support for a “secure and prosperous Northern Ireland in which all communities have a voice and enjoy the gains of the hard-won peace”.
She spoke as the Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, called on political leaders across the spectrum to tone down their language to ease tensions.
Biden, who has Irish roots, has repeatedly expressed support for the peace process and last year waded into a row over UK plans to override parts of the Brexit deal, warning Boris Johnson that any trade deal was “contingent upon respect for the [peace] agreement and preventing the return of a hard border”.
Police said as many as 600 people had been involved in disturbances in Belfast on Wednesday, when a bus was petrol-bombed, rubber bullets were fired and missiles were hurled over a “peace wall”.
Read more:
Amazon challenges hundreds of ballots in Alabama workers’ union drive
Amazon has challenged hundreds of ballots in a vote to form a union at one of its warehouses in Alabama in a unionization drive seen as one of the most important labor fights in recent American history.
Some 3,215 votes were cast in the election out of more than 5,800 eligible employees. The election will determine if workers in Bessemer will form the first labor union at an Amazon warehouse in the US.
According to the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, hundreds of ballots were challenged, mostly by Amazon. In the early vote the number of votes against forming a union moved into a lead of 439 versus 200 for shortly before 5pm EST. on Thursday. But many observers expect the huge amount of challenged ballots to lead to a delay in any formal announcement of a result.
“There remain hundreds of challenged ballots mostly by the employer that will need to be addressed after the public count. As the ballot envelopes are opened and the ballots are counted there’s a possibility that more issues could impact the final results,” the RWDSU said.
The unionization drive has sparked huge political interest and a roster of leftwing politicians – and even some Republicans – have spoken out in support of it or visited the state. The US labor movement sees it as a bellwether case for hopes of expanding its power, especially in areas of the economy – such as online retail – that are increasingly dominant.
Ballots in the vote can be challenged based on several factors, such as the eligibility of the voter in regards to job classification or dates of employment. The NLRB will probably hold a later hearing on the validity of the challenged ballots, after unchallenged ballots are tallied, if the number of challenged ballots could affect the outcome of the election.
Read more:
Today so far
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Joe Biden formally announced a series of executive orders aimed at ending gun violence in America. The president has called on the justice department to crack down on “ghost guns,” unregistered firearms assembled from kits, and gun accessories that can functionally transform pistols into rifles. Biden said in the Rose Garden today, “Gun violence in this country is an epidemic, and it’s an international embarrassment.”
- George Floyd died from a “low level of oxygen” caused by “shallow breathing,” an expert testified at Derek Chauvin’s murder trial. The expert’s analysis could undermine arguments from Chauvin’s defense team that Floyd died because of drug use and preexisting health conditions.
- Joe Manchin said there was “no circumstance” where he would support ending the filibuster. In a Washington Post op-ed published last night, the Democratic senator wrote, “The time has come to end these political games, and to usher a new era of bipartisanship where we find common ground on the major policy debates facing our nation.” Manchin’s stance could hinder much of Biden’s legislative agenda, given the filibuster allows the Republican minority to block bills unless they have the support of 60 senators.
- An associate of Matt Gaetz may cooperate with federal prosecutors, a potentially ominous sign for the Republican congressman as he faces allegations of sex-trafficking. According to the Washington Post, prosecutors have indicated the case against Joel Greenberg, the former tax collector for Seminole County, may end in a plea deal. That could mean Greenberg has agreed to cooperate with federal officials in exchange for a lesser sentence.
- Dr Anthony Fauci acknowledged shortages of personal protective equipment likely contributed to coronavirus deaths among health workers in the US. “During the critical times when there were shortages was when people had to use whatever was available to them,” the president’s chief medical adviser said in an interview with the Guardian. “I’m sure that increased the risk of getting infected among healthcare providers.” According to the Guardian and Kaiser Health News’ Lost on the Frontline database, more than 3,600 US health workers have died of coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.
Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Amudalat Ajasa reports for the Guardian from Minneapolis:
Behind the Hennepin county courthouse in downtown Minneapolis, which is heavily fortified for the murder trial of Derek Chauvin, a small but determined core of seven protesters gathers every day.
Sometimes there are many more protesters, sometimes not so many. But always this group, there hoping to witness justice for George Floyd, who died under the knee of Chauvin in south Minneapolis last May.
Outside, the core group hold signs, amplify chants with a bullhorn and circle the courthouse with the aim of encouraging peaceful protest.
“I get up at 5am and I’m usually out here a little after 7am every day,” John Stewart Jr, 57, said, as his Black Lives Matter flag fluttered in the wind.
Stewart, an ordained pastor in the city, and the “core of seven” generally stay put in their chosen spot behind the courthouse for the entire length of an average work day: 9-5, or longer.
Donald Trump has endorsed two sitting Republican senators, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Rand Paul of Kentucky, in new statements today.
“Rand Paul has done a fantastic job for our Country, and for the incredible people of Kentucky,” the former president said in a statement released by his political action committee, the Save America Pac. “He has my Complete and Total Endorsement for another term in the U.S. Senate. The Commonwealth of Kentucky has a true champion in Rand Paul.”
Trump praised Johnson as “brave” and “bold” and offered him his “complete and total endorsement” -- even though the Wisconsin senator has not yet announced whether he will run again.
Johnson and Paul are both up for reelection next year, when Republicans hope to flip the Senate after Democrats took control with two wins in Georgia earlier this year.
Joe Biden, under pressure to act after a slew of mass shootings, has announced his first steps to curb the “epidemic” and “international embarrassment” of gun violence in America.
The president has prioritised the coronavirus pandemic and economic recovery during the first two and half months of his presidency. But a series of recent shooting tragedies in Georgia, Colorado and California led to renewed calls for urgent action on guns.
About 316 people are shot every day in America and 106 of them die, he noted, “hitting Black and brown communities the hardest”. Gun violence is estimated to cost the nation $280bn a year, according to the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund. “This is an epidemic, for God’s sake, and it has to stop,” an emotional Biden said.
The White House event included parents family members who have lost loved ones to the scourge. “They know what it’s like to bury a piece of their soul deep in the earth,” remarked Biden, who has endured his own measure of loss. “They understand that.”
Seeking to break a Washington paralysis that confounded former president Barack Obama, even after horrific mass shootings, Biden said he was announcing immediate concrete actions that he can take now without Congress. Republicans have long resisted fundamental reform, citing the second amendment to the constitution that protects the right to bear arms.
“Nothing I’m about to recommend in any way impinges on the second amendment,” Biden insisted. “They’re phony arguments, suggesting that these are second amendment rights at stake, what we’re talking about. But no amendment to the constitution is absolute. You can’t shout ‘Fire!’ in a crowded movie theatre and call it freedom of speech.”
Congresswoman Lucy McBath reflected on the loss of her son Jordan, who died in a 2012 shooting, as she celebrated Joe Biden’s new actions to address gun violence.
McBath, who was at the Rose Garden for Biden’s formal announcement of the executive orders earlier today, said on Twitter, “To my Jordan, This day. At the White House. In the Rose Garden. The President announced actions that will help keep families safe. Actions that will protect children across America. Children like you. My dear Jordan, this day is your day.”
To my Jordan,
— Rep. Lucy McBath (@RepLucyMcBath) April 8, 2021
This day.
At the White House. In the Rose Garden.
The President announced actions that will help keep families safe. Actions that will protect children across America.
Children like you.
My dear Jordan, this day is your day. pic.twitter.com/6tmYmsciX8
In 2012, Jordan Davis was shot and killed by a man who confronted the 17-year-old about his music being too loud. The shooter tried to use Florida’s controversial Stand Your Ground law to defend his actions, but he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
After Davis’ death, McBath became a prominent advocate for gun control laws, eventually running for Congress in 2018 and flipping a Republican seat in Georgia.
Fauci thanks US health workers for sacrifices but admits PPE shortages drove up death toll
Dr Anthony Fauci thanked America’s healthcare workers who “every single day put themselves at risk” during the pandemic, even as he acknowledged that PPE shortages had contributed to the deaths of more than 3,600 of them.
“We rightfully refer to these people without hyperbole – that they are true heroes and heroines,” he said in an exclusive interview with the Guardian. The deaths of so many health workers from Covid-19 are “a reflection of what healthcare workers have done historically, but putting themselves in harm’s way, by living up to the oath they take when they become physicians and nurses,” said Fauci.
The Guardian and Kaiser Health News have tracked healthcare workers deaths throughout the pandemic in the Lost on the Frontline database. More than 3,600 health worker deaths have been tallied in the database, which is considered the most authoritative accounting in the country.
Personal protective equipment – including gloves, gowns and critical masks – have been in short supply since the pandemic began and heightened the toll. The US is the world’s largest importer of PPE, which made it especially vulnerable to the demand shock and export restrictions that hit the global market last spring.
“During the critical times when there were shortages was when people had to use whatever was available to them,” said Fauci. “I’m sure that increased the risk of getting infected among healthcare providers.”
Gaetz associate may cooperate with prosecutors - report
An associate of Matt Gaetz is expected to strike a plea deal with federal prosecutors, which could be an ominous sign for the Republican congressman as he faces allegations of sex-trafficking.
The Washington Post has the details:
Joel Greenberg, the former tax collector for Seminole County, Fla., had first been charged last summer in a bare-bones indictment that prosecutors repeatedly superseded to add charges of sex trafficking of a minor, stealing from the tax office and even trying to use fraud to get covid-19 relief money while out on bond. In the course of the investigation into his conduct, people familiar with the matter have said, federal authorities came across evidence that Gaetz might have committed a crime and launched a separate investigation into him.
At a status conference in the case Thursday, federal prosecutor Roger Handberg told a judge he expected the case to end in a plea, though negotiations are ongoing. Fritz Scheller, an attorney for Greenberg, asked the judge to set a deadline of May 15 for the two sides to either reach a deal, or move toward a trial in the summer.
It was not immediately clear how far the negotiations had gotten, or to what extent a plea agreement would require Greenberg to cooperate with investigators. If prosecutors were to get Greenberg on their side as a cooperator, it is possible he could help bolster the case against Gaetz, a higher-profile target. A person who pleads guilty in a criminal case can often lessen their potential penalty by providing information that might be helpful to investigators in other matters.
Reports emerged late last month that Gaetz was under investigation for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and paying for her to travel with him.
Gaetz has denied the allegations and claimed he’s the victim of an extortion plot by a former by a former justice department official. That official has dismissed those claims as “completely false”.
Gun violence prevention advocate and former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has also tweeted out her own version of the pic where she elbow-bumps Joe Biden at the White House after the president announced executive actions.
“I’m with you, Joe. Together, we will protect our country from gun violence,” she tweeted.
I'm with you, Joe. Together, we will protect our country from gun violence. @POTUS pic.twitter.com/rLFVabhpI9
— Gabrielle Giffords (@GabbyGiffords) April 8, 2021
And Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy hobnobbed with Giffords in the Oval.
In the Oval Office today w my friend Gabby. Thanks to @POTUS for bringing us all together to take action on gun violence. pic.twitter.com/BGood4iyR6
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) April 8, 2021
The trial of the white former Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, charged with murdering George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, is underway in the Minnesota city and we’re running a dedicated live blog to bring you events from inside and outside court.
You can follow that here. Testimony has just got underway again after the lunch break. It’s day nine of witness testimony and we are still on the prosecution’s witnesses.
Relatives of George Floyd, and the family’s high-profile attorney, Ben Crump, have stated that “America is on trial” in this case, not just the ex-cop, the police department, the city or policing in America, but the whole nation and the history on which it’s built.
We expect the trial to last approximately another couple of weeks before the jury retires to deliver a verdict the city, the Black Lives Matter movement and millions around the world are awaiting, very much on edge.
This morning’s testimony from Chicago-based breathing expert Martin Tobin was devastatingly bad for the defense.
He said: A healthy person subjected to what Mr Floyd was subjected to would have died.”
Prosecutors are trying to dispel any notion that Floyd was physically okay when he was telling officers he couldn’t breathe. Tobin explains that a person can continue to speak right until the point when oxygen levels drop to a point of no return.
“It’s a very dangerous thing to think that because you’re able to speak, you’re doing ok,” he says.
Chauvin is charged with second degree murder, third degree murder and second degree manslaughter. He denies all the charges. The case continues.
Updated
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has issued a statement on Joe Biden’s gun violence prevention executive orders.
Pelosi said:
“Every day, the gun violence epidemic reaches into countless communities, forcing families across America to endure unfathomable pain and anguish. More than 41,000 Americans died from gun violence last year, the highest year by far on record, with the most vulnerable – women, children, communities of color – cruelly and disproportionately affected.
“The gun violence crisis demands immediate, effective and strong action – which is why, as House Speaker, I strongly support the gun violence prevention actions taken today by President Biden. These steps will save lives: stopping the spread of so-called ‘ghost guns,’ helping ensure that dangerous people cannot access firearms and leading an evidence-based, whole-of-government initiative to reduce community violence.
“As we take these steps, the House is proud of our passage on March 10 of H.R. 8 and H.R. 1446, bipartisan and commonsense background checks legislation supported by over 90 percent of the American people, including gun owners. Working with the Biden Administration and the survivors and families of victims who have turned the agony into action, we must ensure that these bills are passed by the Senate and signed into law, so that we can advance safety, security and justice in America.”
Updated
Today so far
The White House press briefing has now concluded. Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Joe Biden formally announced a series of executive orders aimed at ending gun violence in America. The president has called on the justice department to crack down on “ghost guns,” unregistered firearms assembled from kits, and gun accessories that can functionally transform pistols into rifles. Biden said in the Rose Garden today, “Gun violence in this country is an epidemic, and it’s an international embarrassment.”
- George Floyd died from a “low level of oxygen” caused by “shallow breathing,” an expert testified at Derek Chauvin’s murder trial. The expert’s analysis could undermine arguments from Chauvin’s defense team that Floyd died because of drug use and preexisting health conditions.
- Joe Manchin said there was “no circumstance” where he would support ending the filibuster. In a Washington Post op-ed published last night, the Democratic senator wrote, “The time has come to end these political games, and to usher a new era of bipartisanship where we find common ground on the major policy debates facing our nation.” Manchin’s stance could hinder much of Biden’s legislative agenda, given the filibuster allows the Republican minority to block bills unless they have the support of 60 senators.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said Joe Biden is “clear eyed” about the challenges of advancing gun control legislation in Congress, where Democrats hold narrow majorities in both chambers.
The president has called on the Senate to pass the two background checks bills already approved by the House, but that seems unlikely with the filibuster in place.
Unless Senate Democrats eliminate the filibuster, they will need to convince 10 of their Republican colleagues to support gun control legislation to get it approved.
The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, is now holding her daily briefing with reporters.
Jennifer Granholm, the secretary of energy, joined the briefing to advocate for Joe Biden’s $2tn infrastructure plan. Granholm is one of five members of Biden’s “jobs cabinet,” which is taking the lead on advancing the proposal.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm says Infrastructure Week will no longer be “a joke” in Washington D.C. pic.twitter.com/tnnQx3vie9
— The Recount (@therecount) April 8, 2021
The energy secretary said infrastructure week is “not a joke anymore,” an apparent reference to the Trump administration’s repeated and unrealized promises to pass an infrastructure bill.
Asked whether Biden’s commitment to expanding renewable energy sources would cost American jobs, Granholm promised the president’s plan will “create good-paying jobs all across the country” to ensure no American is left behind.
Senator Pat Toomey, a Republican of Pennsylvania, said he is “reviewing” Joe Biden’s executive orders aimed at ending gun violence in America.
In a new statement, Toomey emphasizing the importance of passing legislation to address gun regulations, saying there is “an opportunity to strengthen our background check system”.
My staff and I are reviewing the executive actions announced by President Biden today. Lasting progress though is made through the legislative process. I appreciate President Biden’s expressed willingness to work with both Republicans and Democrats to achieve this goal.
— Senator Pat Toomey (@SenToomey) April 8, 2021
“My staff and I are reviewing the executive actions announced by President Biden today. Lasting progress though is made through the legislative process,” Toomey said in his statement.
“I appreciate President Biden’s expressed willingness to work with both Republicans and Democrats to achieve this goal. If done in a manner that respects the rights of law-abiding citizens, I believe there is an opportunity to strengthen our background check system so that we are better able to keep guns away from those who have no legal right to them.”
After the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, Toomey worked with Democratic Senator Joe Manchin to develop a plan to expand background checks, but the proposal narrowly failed to overcome a Senate filibuster.
The filibuster will almost certainly be a significant hurdle to passing gun control legislation again, and Manchin said yesterday there was “no circumstance” where he would support ending the filibuster. Without Manchin’s vote, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer will not be able to scrap the filibuster.
At the end of his Rose Garden event, Joe Biden ran into the small audience to share an elbow bump with Gabby Giffords.
Biden runs out for an elbow bump with @GabbyGiffords at the end of the gun control remarks event: pic.twitter.com/YGO1hCe5a8
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) April 8, 2021
Giffords, a former congresswoman who was shot when a gunman attacked an Arizona supermarket in 2011, has become a prominent gun control advocate since leaving the House.
Giffords also delivered a moving speech at Biden’s nominating convention last August.
Attorney general Merrick Garland expressed appreciation to Joe Biden for nominating David Chipman to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Chipman previously served as an ATF agent and currently works as a senior adviser to the gun control group Giffords.
Garland noted Chipman’s experience as a former ATF agent will prove “invaluable” if he is confirmed to lead the agency.
Speaking to an audience that included survivors of mass shootings, the attorney general expressed commitment to “stopping the plague of gun violence and saving the lives of those we love”.
Biden then wrapped up the event by telling the audience, “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Let’s get to work.”
Speaking after Joe Biden at the Rose Garden event, attorney general Merrick Garland described gun violence in America as an “enduring tragedy”.
Garland noted gun deaths are happening in the US at a “staggering pace”.
The attorney general announced the justice department will conduct an updated study on criminal gun trafficking in order to tackle gun violence in a “data-driven” way.
Garland added his department will close a loophole that has allowed “ghost guns” to proliferate and publish model red-flag legislation for states.
The attorney general also requested “resources and ideas” from communities on how to address gun violence.
Garland said, “Gun violence is not a problem that law enforcement alone can solve.”
Joe Biden emphasized the need to address gun violence, noting this problem costs the US about $280 billion a year.
That figure comes from a report released by the gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety last month.
The costs of gun violence include trauma counseling, hospital bills and physical therapy, the president said.
Joe Biden called on the Senate to pass the two gun background checks bills passed by the House last month.
While emphasizing the importance of congressional action on gun violence, the president made clear he would do everything in his power to address this “epidemic”.
“Enough prayers. Time for some action,” Biden said.
The president also reiterated his call to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in this country, although those proposals will be even harder to pass in the evenly divided Senate.
Joe Biden said his first executive order on gun control will be aimed at reigning in “ghost guns,” which are unregistered firearms that can be assembled from parts.
“I want to see these kits treated as firearms under the Gun Control Act,” the president said.
Biden has also asked the justice department to crack down on stabilizing braces, gun accessories that can functionally transform pistols into rifles.
The president went on to demand that states pass “red flag” laws, which allow people to petition courts to take firearms away from family members who may pose a risk to others or themselves.
Arguing for the need to implement a national red flag law, Biden noted about 53 women a month are shot and killed by an intimate partner. Such a national law could help prevent those deaths.
Updated
Biden condemns gun violence as 'an epidemic' and 'an international embarrassment'
Joe Biden is now outlining the steps he will take to end gun violence in America, describing such violence as a “public health crisis”.
The president dismissed the “phony arguments” that his action “impinges on the Second Amendment,” as many Republicans have insisted.
“No amendment to the Constitution is absolute,” Biden said.
The president went on to say, “Gun violence in this country is an epidemic, and it’s an international embarrassment.”
Biden noted he received the news yesterday of the South Carolina shooting, in which five people were killed. The victims included a prominent doctor and his two grandchildren.
“So many of the people sitting here today know that well unfortunately,” Biden told his Rose Garden audience. “They know what it’s like when seconds change your life forever.”
Survivors of mass shootings and family members who lost loved ones to gun violence are among those in the audience today.
President Joe Biden is now holding his Rose Garden event to formally announce the actions he is taking to address gun violence in America.
Biden was introduced by Vice-President Kamala Harris, who talked about her own experiences witnessing the trauma and tragedy of gun violence.
“Time and again, as progress has stalled, we’ve all asked: what are we waiting for?” Harris said.
“People on both sides of the aisle want action,” she added. “So all that is left is the will and the courage to act. And President Joe Biden has the will and the courage to act.”
South Carolina lawmakers offered their condolences to the Rock Hill community and the families of the five people killed in yesterday’s shooting.
From Republican Senator Tim Scott:
Very sad news coming from York County overnight. My deepest sympathies and prayers are with Dr. Lesslie's family and the Rock Hill community.
— Tim Scott (@SenatorTimScott) April 8, 2021
As the Biden administration announced a series of actions to address gun violence yesterday, another mass shooting unfolded in South Carolina.
A gunman, identified as former NFL pro Phillip Adams, killed five people, including a prominent doctor and two children.
The AP has more details on the shooting:
[A source briefed on the investigation] said Adams’ parents live near the doctor’s home in Rock Hill, and that he had been treated by the doctor. The source said Phillips killed himself after midnight with a .45 caliber weapon.
The York county sheriff’s office had said the suspect was found in a nearby home. Details on the suspect’s apprehension weren’t immediately released.
The York County coroner’s office said Dr Robert Lesslie, 70, and his wife, Barbara Lesslie, 69, were pronounced dead at the scene along with grandchildren Adah Lesslie, nine, and Noah Lesslie, five.
A fifth victim, James Lewis, 38, from Gaston, was found dead outside. Authorities said he had been working at the home when he was shot.
Chauvin trial: Floyd died from 'low level of oxygen', expert says
Prosecutors in Derek Chauvin’s murder trial have called Dr Martin Tobin, an expert in critical care and pulmonology, to give his opinion on George Floyd’s cause of death.
Tobin told the jury, “Mr Floyd died from a low-level of oxygen and this caused damage to his brain … and it also caused a [pulseless electrical activity] arrhythmia that caused his heart to stop.”
“The cause of the low-level of oxygen was shallow breathing, small breaths … shallow breaths that weren’t able to carry the air through his lungs down to the essential areas [in] his lungs,” Tobin said in response to further questions, noting shortly thereafter: “There are a number of forces that led to the size of his breath became so small.”
When asked what those forces are, Tobin’s answer pointed directly at the officers’ physical restraint of Floyd.
“He’s turned prone on the street, that he has the handcuffs in place combined with the street, and then that he has a knee on his neck, and that he has a knee on his back,” Tobin said.
Follow the latest updates from the trial on the Guardian’s live blog:
Updated
Joe Biden’s gun policy event today will also be attended by survivors of mass shootings and family members who lost loved ones to gun violence.
Fred Guttenberg, a gun control advocate whose daughter Jaime died in the 2018 Parkland shooting, will be among those in attendance.
Today is a big day. Today is the day when gun safety begins. I am at the @WhiteHouse to hear @POTUS make history. Jaime, we are going to do this. #NowIsTheTime pic.twitter.com/XjRHAamWk7
— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) April 8, 2021
“Today is a big day,” Guttenberg said on Twitter. “Today is the day when gun safety begins. I am at the @WhiteHouse to hear @POTUS make history. Jaime, we are going to do this.”
The tweet included a selfie of Guttenberg outside the White House gates, wearing an orange mask. The color orange is associated with the gun violence prevention movement.
Gabby Giffords to attend Biden's gun policy event
Gabby Giffords, the former congresswoman who was shot in a 2011 mass shooting and has since become a prominent gun control advocate, will attend Joe Biden’s event at the White House today.
The president is expected to formally announce a series of actions his administration is taking to address gun violence. Vice-President Kamala Harris and attorney general Merrick Garland are also scheduled to deliver remarks.
Here are some of the other attendees of the Rose Garden event, according to the White House:
- Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat of Connecticut.
- Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat of Connecticut.
- Congressman David Cicilline, a Democrat of Rhode Island.
- Congressman Lou Correa, a Democrat of California.
- Congresswoman Lucy McBath, a Democrat of Georgia.
- Congressman Joe Neguse, a Democrat of Colorado.
- Congressman Mike Thompson, a Democrat of California.
Calls are mounting for the Biden administration to set up a national tracking system of Covid-19 deaths among frontline healthcare workers to honor the thousands of nurses, doctors and support staff who have died and ensure that future generations are not forced to make the same ultimate – and in many cases needless – sacrifice.
Health policy experts and union leaders are pressing the White House to move quickly to fill the gaping hole left by the Trump administration through its failure to create an accurate count of Covid deaths among frontline staff. The absence of reliable federal data exacerbated critical problems such as shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) that left many workers exposed, with fatal results.
In the absence of federal action, Lost on the Frontline, a joint project between the Guardian and Kaiser Health News (KHN), has compiled the most comprehensive account of healthcare worker deaths in the nation. It has recorded 3,607 lost lives in the first year of the pandemic, with nurses, healthcare support staff and doctors, as well as workers under 60 and people of color affected in tragically high numbers.
Zenei Triunfo-Cortez, a president of National Nurses United, the largest body of registered nurses in the US, said it was unconscionable how many healthcare workers have died from Covid. The KHN/Guardian interactive found that almost third of those who died were nurses – the largest single occupation followed by support staff (20%) and physicians (17%).
Triunfo-Cortez said the death toll was an unacceptable tragedy aggravated by the lack of federal data which made identifying problem areas more difficult. “We as nurses do not deserve this – we signed up to take care of patients, we did not sign up to die,” she said.
Number of unaccompanied children arriving at southern border hits record high
The number of unaccompanied migrant children arriving at the US-Mexican border hit a record high last month, the US Customs and Border Protection agency said today.
According to CBP’s newly released figures, 18,890 unaccompanied children arrived at the southern border in March, representing a 100% increase from February.
That number is well above the previous records of 11,475 in May 2019 and 10,620 in June 2014.
“CBP has experienced an increase in encounters and arrests. This is not new. Encounters have continued to increase since April 2020, and our past experiences have helped us be better prepared for the challenges we face this year,” Troy Miller, the acting CBP commissioner, said in a statement.
“We are committed to balancing the need to maintain border security, care for those in our custody, and keep the American people and our workforce safe.”
The news comes as Joe Biden has faced criticism from Republicans over his handling of the border, even as the president and his top aides have repeatedly stressed now is not the time to come to the US.
That criticism intensified late last month, after a Democratic congressman released photos showing an overcrowded immigration facility in Texas. The facility, which was meant to hold 250 people, was instead being occupied by more than 400 boys.
Twelve months of trauma: more than 3,600 US health workers died in Covid’s first year
Jane Spencer and Christina Jewett report for the Guardian:
More than 3,600 US healthcare workers died in the first year of the pandemic according to Lost on the Frontline, a 12-month investigation by the Guardian and Kaiser Health News (KHN) to track such deaths.
Lost on the Frontline is the most complete accounting of US healthcare worker deaths. The federal government has not comprehensively tracked this data.
But calls are mounting for the Biden administration to undertake a count as the Guardian/KHN project comes to a close today. The project, which tracked who died and why, provides a window into the workings – and failings – of the US healthcare system during the pandemic.
One key finding: two thirds of deceased healthcare workers for whom we have data identified as people of color, revealing the deep inequities tied to race, ethnicity and economic status in America’s healthcare workforce. Lower-paid workers who handled everyday patient care, including nurses, support staff, and nursing home employees, were far more likely to die in the pandemic than physicians.
Former president Barack Obama has described the Senate filibuster as “a relic of the Jim Crow era,” and Joe Biden has said he agrees with that assessment.
And yet, the current president has been hesitant to directly call for the elimination of the filibuster.
“Successful electoral politics is the art of the possible,” Biden said at his first presidential press conference late last month. “Let’s figure out how we can get this done and move in the direction of significantly changing the abuse of even the filibuster rule first.”
Biden acknowledged the filibuster rule has been “abused in a gigantic way” to prevent the Senate majority from passing legislation, and he expressed openness to tinkering with the filibuster to limit its use.
However, Senator Joe Manchin has repeatedly dismissed various suggestions on how to alter the filibuster rule.
In his Washington Post op-ed, Joe Manchin also signaled he does not support repeatedly using the budget reconciliation process to circumvent the Senate filibuster.
“We should all be alarmed at how the budget reconciliation process is being used by both parties to stifle debate around the major issues facing our country today. Legislating was never supposed to be easy,” the Democratic senator wrote.
“I simply do not believe budget reconciliation should replace regular order in the Senate.”
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer used reconciliation to pass Biden’s $1.9tn coronavirus relief package without any Republican support. By using reconciliation, Schumer was able to pass the bill with a simply majority, rather than the 60 votes required when the filibuster is in play.
The Senate parliamentarian recently ruled Democrats could use reconciliation again during this fiscal year, which will almost certainly be necessary to pass Biden’s infrastructure plan.
If Manchin will not sign on for using reconciliation again, Biden’s infrastructure proposal is likely dead (for now at least). Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has already said he intends to fight the plan “every step of the way”.
Manchin says there is ‘no circumstance’ where he would vote to end filibuster
Senator Joe Manchin, whose vote will likely determine whether key parts of Joe Biden’s agenda can pass the Senate, has made clear he will not support ending the filibuster.
In a Washington Post op-ed, the Democratic senator of West Virginia argued the filibuster is a “critical tool to protecting” the voices of small and rural states like his.
“That is why I have said it before and will say it again to remove any shred of doubt: There is no circumstance in which I will vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster,” Manchin wrote.
“The time has come to end these political games, and to usher a new era of bipartisanship where we find common ground on the major policy debates facing our nation.”
With the filibuster in place, Democrats need 60 votes to pass most pieces of legislation, which is an extremely difficult task in a 50-50 Senate. Manchin’s stance could doom much of Biden’s legislative agenda.
Updated
Joe Biden is also planning to nominate David Chipman, a former federal agent and gun control advocate, to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Chipman currently serves as a senior adviser to the gun control group Giffords. The group was formed after a shooter attacked then-congresswoman Gabby Giffords and 18 others at an Arizona supermarket in 2011.
“President Biden promised to take action on gun violence in his first 100 days in office, and today he delivered,” Giffords said of the actions Biden is taking.
“These executive actions help address a crisis that devastates communities across the country on a daily basis.”
If confirmed, Chipman will be the first permanent director of ATF since 2015.
Biden to announce actions to end gun violence at Rose Garden event
Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.
Joe Biden will hold an event in the White House Rose Garden later today to formally announce the executive actions he is taking to address gun violence.
The Guardian’s Maanvi Singh reports:
The actions include a directive that the justice department, within the next month, issue proposed regulations on ‘ghost guns’ – unregistered firearms that can be assembled from parts.
Biden will also direct the justice department to clarify regulations to ensure that pistols fitted with stabilizing braces, which essentially transform them into rifles, will be regulated under the National Firearms Act. Pistols are cheaper, and easier to carry across state lines, whereas rifles are more regulated. ...
And the president will ask various agencies to direct more resources to community violence prevention measures, and call on the justice department to develop model ‘red flag’ laws – which allow family members to petition courts to take firearms away from people who are deemed a threat – for states to take up and adopt. Several states, including Colorado, already have red flag laws on the books.
The announcement comes in the wake of mass shootings in Atlanta, Georgia, and Boulder, Colorado, which collectively left 18 people dead. Since the shootings, many of Biden’s allies have called on him to issue executive orders to address gun violence.
But while Biden is now taking executive action, he has also made clear he wants Congress to act to address this problem. Given Democrats’ narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress, that will be much harder to achieve.
Biden’s event is coming up in a few hours, so stay tuned.
