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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Maanvi Singh (now), Joan E Greve and Martin Belam (earlier)

Trump impeachment trial to begin week of 8 February, Schumer announces – how it happened

Chuck Schumer at the US Capitol on 21 January.
Chuck Schumer at the US Capitol on 21 January. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

Summary

From me and Joan E Greve:

  • Senate leader Chuck Schumer has announced that House managers read the articles of impeachment on Monday evening, and the trial of Donald Trump will begin the week of 8 February. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader originally wanted to delay the trial to give Trump time to prep. Joe Biden endorsed a delay so senators could focus on legislation amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
  • Biden is asking the director of national intelligence to conduct a threat assessment of violent domestic extremism. The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said Biden would also instruct the National Security Council to ramp up its capacity to address extremism and coordinate across the government to confront extremism. The news comes less than a month after a violent, pro-Trump mob attacked the Capitol.
  • There has been an outbreak of coronavirus among the National Guard troops deployed to the Capitol following the deadly attack on 6 January. Between 100 and 200 of the more than 25,000 troops have tested positive, Reuters reports, citing an unnamed official.
  • The Senate confirmed Lloyd Austin as defense secretary, in a vote of 93 to 2. Austin, a retired Army general, will be the first African-American to lead the Defense Department.
  • Joe Biden signed executive orders aimed at boosting the US economy amid the coronavirus pandemic. The executive orders are expected to expand the food stamps program and provide more protections for workers who feel their jobs jeopardize their health. He also instructed the Treasury Department to make it easier for people to access their stimulus payments.

Updated

Trump is the only president in history to be impeached twice. Conviction in the Senate, which would require a two-thirds majority vote, could prevent him from ever again holding public office.

While McConnell and others have expressed an openness to the charges facing Trump in his second impeachment trial, expectations are low that Democrats will find the votes they need to convict him.

Fifty Democrats and 17 Republicans will have to vote in favor of convicting and that’s not likely to happen, with many Republican senators indicating that they oppose the idea.

Yesterday, McConnell said he wanted Trump to have at least a week to prepare for the trial after the impeachment articles were presented to the Senate. But, in rejecting McConnell’s offer to delay transferring the articles from the House, Democrats did more than press the case against Trump. They also staked out a tough stance in an internal Senate power struggle, as the newly installed Joe Biden administration prepares to ask Republicans for support on initiatives including pandemic policy, economic relief and immigration reform.

McConnell and Republicans lost control of the Senate with a double loss in runoff elections in Georgia earlier this month. But McConnell has been fighting for advantage, refusing to approve a basic power-sharing agreement in a body now split 50-50, unless Schumer promised to retain a Senate filibuster rule that enables the minority party to block legislation with only 41 votes.

Schumer rejected that pitch by McConnell on Friday, too, demanding that Republicans approve the organizing agreement, which would for example grant the parties an equal number of members on each committee, with no strings attached.

“Leader McConnell’s proposal is unacceptable – and it won’t be accepted,” Schumer said.

The pair of forceful moves by the Democratic leadership signaled an intention to deliver on a mandate they feel they won last November and displayed an unaccustomed assertiveness after four years of Trump and McConnell.

But the power plays also called more deeply into question whether Biden would benefit from any measure of Republican support as he attempts to answer multiple national crises.

Read more:

The schedule for the impeachment trial is as follows:

  • 25 January: House impeachment managers will read the article of impeachment to the Senate.
  • 26 January: Senators will be sworn in for the trial.
  • 8 February: Trump’s response to the article is due.
  • 9 February: Trump’s pre-trial brief is due, and after that’s in, the trial can begin.

Updated

Chances that the Senate will convict Donald Trump are very low.

Fifty Democrats and 17 Republicans will have to vote in favor of convicting – and that’s not likely to happen with many Republican senators indicating that they oppose the idea.

CNN reports:

In interviews with more than a dozen GOP senators, the consensus was clear: Most Republicans are likely to acquit Trump, and only a handful are truly at risk of flipping to convict the former President – unless more evidence emerges or the political dynamics within their party dramatically change. Yet Republicans are also signaling that as more time has passed since the riot, some of the emotions of the day have cooled and they’re ready to move on.

Updated

Joe Biden today endorsed delaying the impeachment trial, saying, “the more time we have to get up and running” to address the pandemic, economic crisis and other issues, the better.

Schumer said he and McConnell will iron out details about the timing and duration of the trial. “But make no mistake, a trial will be held in the United States Senate, and there will be a vote on whether to convict the president,” he said.

Schumer says impeachment trial will start second week of February

Senate leader Chuck Schumer has announced that House managers read the articles of impeachment on Monday evening, and the trial of Donald Trump will begin the week of 8 February.

Yesterday, Republican leader Mitch McConnell said he wanted Trump to have at least a week to prepare for the trial after the impeachment articles were presented to the Senate.

Shortly after his confirmation, defense secretary Lloyd Austin made his first official phone call to the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg.

Austin said they discussed ongoing alliances – sending a strong message that he’s interested in rebuilding partnerships after Donald Trump.

One of the executive orders Joe Biden signed today instructs the treasury department to make it easier for people to access their stimulus checks, including developing online systems to help them access their payments.

In a statement, the treasury said it will “establish online tools” to help people claim payments, work to reach households that have not cashed their payments, and look into which groups have been worst affected

The latest round of $600 stimulus money came to many as pre-paid debit cards, causing confusion and concern that it was a scam. Delivery delays, bank changes and address changes are among an array of issues plaguing the distribution. An estimated 8 million have also yet to receive the first round of stimulus checks authorized by the Cares Act.

Updated

Revealed: Club for Growth is main donor to gun-toting Republican congressman

The Club for Growth, an anti-tax group funded by billionaires, has been the primary financial backer of Andy Harris, the Republican lawmaker who sought to bring a gun to the floor of the House of Representatives.

Harris, a medical doctor who represents the eastern shore of Maryland, has received about $345,000 from individuals associated with the Club for Growth since the rightwing campaigners helped to get him elected in 2010, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The latest revelation about the Club for Growth’s support for Harris comes after the Guardian revealed last week that the group, which is headed by the former Republican congressman David McIntosh, was a major financial support of 42 of the Republicans who sought to invalidate Joseph Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

It has also supported another lawmaker, Lauren Boebert, who has argued for the need for firearms to be carried inside the US Capitol. Members may only carry firearms in their own offices.

CNN reported on Friday that the US Capitol police were investigating an incident that occurred on Thursday, when Harris was stopped from bringing a concealed weapon on to the floor of the House. The Republican, who is an anaesthesiologist, had set off the newly installed metal detectors outside the chamber, prompting him to ask another lawmaker, Republican John Katko, to hold the weapon for him.

Katko refused, according to a press pool, and Harris then left and returned later, without setting off the metal detector.

Bryan Shuy, Harris’s chief of staff, said in a statement released to the Guardian: “Because his and his family’s lives have been threatened by someone who has been released awaiting trial, for security reasons, the congressman never confirms whether he nor anyone else he’s with are carrying a firearm for self-defense.”

Shuy added: “As a matter of public record, he has a Maryland handgun permit. And the congressman always complies with the House metal detectors and wanding. The congressman has never carried a firearm on the House floor.”

The Club for Growth did not respond to a request for comment.

Read more:

Hello there, it’s Maanvi Singh – I’ll be bringing you live updates through the next few hours.

First up, here’s the US embassy in London’s response to tabloid controversy over Biden’s Oval Office makeover – which included the removal of a Winston Churchill bust.

It’s “just a bust”, the US embassy declared, in a video pointing to examples of the“special relationship” between the US and the UK. The video, which has attracted a good bit of online engagement and media coverage, you could say, isn’t a total bust. (Sorry.)

Updated

Outbreak of coronavirus among national guard securing Capitol – reports

Between 100 and 200 national guard deployed to Washington DC to provide security for Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration have tested positive for the coronavirus, a US official said on Friday.

Members of the national guard marching at the East Front of the US Capitol in Washington DC today.
Members of the national guard marching at the East Front of the US Capitol in Washington DC today. Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA

The official, speaking to the Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity, said the number could rise but was still a small percentage of the more than 25,000 troops that were in city over the past few days.

Politico reported this story a little earlier.

The national guard has struggled to implement a plan to test troops flowing into and out of Washington DC, for Covid-19, with some guard members being forced to find their own tests and others pressured to leave their quarantine early to report to duty.

Already, hundreds of guard members who poured into Washington after the 6 January assault on the US Capitol have tested positive for Covid-19 or are quarantining in nearby hotels, three guard sources said.

Guard leadership has declined to release an official number of positive cases, but troops and lawmakers alike worry that the deployment is becoming a super-spreader event.

“Ideally, these guys should all be in hotels. When they’re taking rest time, they should be taking it outside the campus with an ability to be separated and socially distanced,” Senator Chris Murphy (Democrat of Connecticut) said.

“Ultimately we’ve got to make sure that they’re not taking their extended rest time on campus, that they’re in hotel rooms.”

The problem was compounded on Thursday night, when thousands of troops who had been standing duty in the US Capitol were told to vacate congressional buildings and take their rest breaks outside and in nearby parking garages. Politico obtained photos of guard members packed together and sleeping on the ground in the garages. One unit was forced to rest in a garage with only one bathroom available for 5,000 troops.

Updated

A slim majority of Americans say the former president, Donald Trump, should be convicted by the Senate in his impeachment trial of inciting an insurrection and then be barred from holding public office, a new opinion poll shows.

This person made their leanings very clear as they held a ‘You’re Fired’ sign with Donald Trump’s face on it, echoing his famous reality TV phrase, while describing his loss of the presidency. The man was at an Inauguration Day event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday.
This person made their leanings very clear as they held a ‘You’re Fired’ sign with Donald Trump’s face on it, echoing his famous reality TV phrase, while describing his loss of the presidency. The man was at an Inauguration Day event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday. Photograph: Jelani Splawn/REX/Shutterstock

Unsurprisingly, the new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows a sharp partisan divide over the issue.

The House of Representatives plans to deliver the article of impeachment - effectively the charge against Trump - to the Senate on Monday, which triggers the trial in the Senate although currently there is no agreed date for when that will begin or how long it will last.

Senate Democrats are keen to begin the trial asap, even as soon as Tuesday, confident they can work on Joe Biden’s agenda and cabinet confirmations in conjunction with a trial (which is surely a tall order). Senate Republicans, led by now-minority leader Mitch McConnell, are pushing to delay until perhaps mid-February. New York Democratic Senator and now-majority leader Chuck Schumer has slapped that idea down.

They’re expected to thrash out some sort of an agreement by/on Monday.

But here’s a reminder of what the president, Biden, said in response to a question shouted to him at the end of his executive order signing ceremony earlier, tweeted by the Guardian’s senior political reporter Lauren Gambino:

Meanwhile, that new national public opinion poll, conducted on Wednesday and Thursday, found that 51% of Americans think Trump should be found guilty for inciting the deadly storming of the US Capitol on January 6, Reuters reports.

Another 37% said Trump should not be convicted and the remaining 12% said they were unsure.

When asked about the former Republican president’s political future, 55% said Trump should not be allowed to hold elected office again, while 34% said he should be allowed to do so and 11% said they were unsure.

If the Senate votes to convict Trump, it would need to hold a second vote to bar him from holding office again.

The responses were almost entirely divided along party lines. While nine out of 10 Democrats say Trump should be convicted and barred from holding office again, less than two in 10 Republicans agreed, the poll showed.

The poll also found that 55% percent of Americans approved of the new president, Joe Biden, who was inaugurated on Wednesday.

In comparison, 43% approved of Trump during his first week of office in 2017, and Trump’s level of approval never rose above 50% in weekly polls conducted throughout his four-year term.

Today so far

That’s it from me today. My Guardian colleagues will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • Joe Biden signed two executive orders aimed at providing economic relief to American families amid the coronavirus pandemic. The two orders will expand the food stamps program and provide unemployment benefits to workers who leave their jobs due to health concerns. “We cannot, will not let people go hungry,” the president said. “We cannot watch people lose their jobs. We have to act.”
  • House speaker Nancy Pelosi said she will send the article of impeachment to the Senate on Monday. After the article is received, the Senate will hold a trial and then vote on whether or not Donald Trump should be convicted for incitement of insurrection.
  • The Senate confirmed Lloyd Austin as defense secretary, in a vote of 93 to 2. Austin, a retired Army general, will be the first African-American to lead the defense department.
  • Biden is asking the director of national intelligence to conduct a threat assessment of violent domestic extremism. The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said Biden would also instruct the National Security Council to ramp up its capacity to address extremism and coordinate across the government to confront extremism. The news comes less than a month after a violent, pro-Trump mob attacked the Capitol.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

The odds of Donald Trump being convicted by the Senate are extremely small, as a number of Republican senators indicate opposition to the idea.

CNN reports:

After Democratic leaders announced they would kick off the process to begin the impeachment trial on Monday, Republicans grew sharply critical about the proceedings -- and made clear that they saw virtually no chance that at least 17 Republicans would join with 50 Democrats to convict Trump and also bar him from ever running from office again.

In interviews with more than a dozen GOP senators, the consensus was clear: Most Republicans are likely to acquit Trump, and only a handful are truly at risk of flipping to convict the former President -- unless more evidence emerges or the political dynamics within their party dramatically change. Yet Republicans are also signaling that as more time has passed since the riot, some of the emotions of the day have cooled and they’re ready to move on.

‘The chances of getting a conviction are virtually nil,’ said Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican.

Nancy Pelosi said today that she would transmit the article of impeachment to the Senate on Monday, so the trial will begin next week unless majority leader Chuck Schumer and minority leader Mitch McConnell can reach an agreement to delay arguments.

The House passed the article last week, with every Democrat and 10 Republicans voting in favor of it, making it the most bipartisan presidential impeachment in history.

There are no more Senate votes expected today, after the chamber confirmed Lloyd Austin as defense secretary this morning.

Senators had said they thought the chamber would confirm Janet Yellen as treasury secretary this afternoon, but that vote appears to have been pushed to next week.

Anthony Blinken, Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the state department, will also have to wait until next week to be confirmed.

So far, only two of Biden’s cabinet nominees -- Austin and Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence -- have been confirmed by the Senate.

Nancy Pelosi has sent a “Dear colleague” letter to House Democrats, outlining the chamber’s agenda as the speaker prepares to transmit the article of impeachment on Monday.

“Monday, January 25, will be a momentous and solemn day, as the House sadly transmits the Article of Impeachment for Donald Trump to the Senate,” Pelosi said. “Our Constitution and country are well-served by our outstanding impeachment managers.”

Pelosi emphasized that the House would continue to work on coronavirus relief as the Senate looks toward beginning the impeachment trial.

“As we work to defend our Constitution and our Democracy, the Democratic House remains hard at work to save the lives and livelihoods of the American people from the pandemic and economic crises,” Pelosi said.

“We applaud the actions taken by President Biden, starting on Day One of his Administration, and are working to turn his national strategy for COVID response and preparedness into legislation that will pass both chambers and be signed into law.”

Pelosi added that she expected to soon have updates on the review of Capitol security in response to the violent attack on the building earlier this month.

“Relatedly, when we return to session, we will pass a rule change mandating fines for Members who refuse to follow new screening protocols for the House Chamber,” Pelosi said.

A number of House Republicans have been seen ignoring the metal detectors set up outside the chamber after the Capitol attack, and one member – Andy Harris – set off the detectors yesterday because he almost walked on to the floor while carrying a concealed gun.

Updated

Biden signs two executive orders to provide economic relief

Joe Biden has now signed his two executive orders to aid American families who are financially suffering as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

One executive order will expand the food stamps program, and the other will allow workers who fear their jobs jeopardize their health to qualify for unemployment insurance if they quit.

After signing the orders, the president took one question from a reporter, who asked whether Biden supported Mitch McConnell’s proposal to delay the impeachment trial until February.

Biden said he wasn’t aware of all the details of McConnell’s proposal, but he told reporters: “The more time we have to get up and running to meet these crises, the better.”

The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, announced earlier today that she would transmit the article of impeachment to the Senate on Monday.

Updated

Joe Biden said he hoped his administration would exceed his original goal of distributing 100m coronavirus vaccine doses over his first 100 days in office.

“We’re going to, God willing, not only do 100m, we’re going do more than that,” the president said.

After Biden announced the 100m doses goal, there were reports that some of his health advisers were skeptical it could be achieved.

But in the week before Biden took office, the US was distributing an average of about 900,000 doses a day, sparking questions about whether the new administration should aim higher.

Updated

Biden says government has a 'moral obligation' to provide economic relief

Joe Biden emphasized the urgent need to pass another coronavirus relief bill, describing it as an “economic imperative”.

“We cannot, will not let people go hungry,” the president said. “We cannot watch people lose their jobs. We have to act.”

Biden is expected to soon sign executive orders that will expand the food stamps program and provide more workplace protections for Americans worried about risking their health for a paycheck.

The president has also proposed a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, but it’s unclear whether the proposal can pass the Senate, which is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans.

“It’s not just to meet the moral obligation,” Biden said of the need for coronavirus relief. “This is an economic imperative.”

Biden holds event to sign economic executive orders

Joe Biden has arrived in the White House’s State Dining Room for his event on addressing the financial fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

The president noted that another 900,000 Americans filed initial claims for unemployment benefits last week, joining millions of others who are out of work as the economy suffers.

Biden is expected to soon sign executive orders aimed at aiding American families who are financially suffering because of the pandemic.

The first lady stopped at the Capitol to meet some of the national guard troops who were deployed to provide security for Joe Biden’s inauguration.

Dr Jill Biden presented the group with a basket of cookies and thanked the troops for protecting her family this week.

The first lady noted the Bidens are a “national guard family”, invoking the memory of their late son Beau, who served in the military and died of brain cancer in 2015.

“The national guard will always hold a special place in the hearts of all the Bidens,” the first lady said.

Updated

Texas today moved to stop Joe Biden from allowing a 100-day moratorium on deportations, bringing one of the first lawsuits against his new administration.

In rushing to court not even a week after Biden was sworn in, America’s biggest red state signaled that it was ready to resume the role of chief antagonist to a Democratic president’s immigration agenda, after four years of cheering on Donald Trump’s hardline policies along the US-Mexico border.

The federal lawsuit seeks a halt to the deportation moratorium “for certain noncitizens” that was to begin today.

Biden has already signed a raft of executive orders, including one revoking Trump’s mandate that made anyone in the US unlawfully a priority for deportation.

Texas claims the moratorium violates an agreement, signed in the waning weeks of Trump’s presidency, that required the federal government to run changes to immigration enforcement past the state first, The Associated Press reports.

Legal scholars, however, have questioned whether the agreement could allow states to stop Biden administration policies.

BuzzFeed News first reported the Trump administration signing similar agreements with Republican leaders in several states.

“Failure to properly enforce the law will directly and immediately endanger our citizens and law enforcement personnel,” Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately react on the lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed before U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton, a Trump appointee, in the Southern District of Texas.

Since taking office Wednesday, Biden has made quick work of showing far-reaching intentions on immigration that would unwind many of Trump’s crackdowns. His first steps included stopping construction of a border wall with Mexico and lifting a travel ban on people from several predominantly Muslim countries.

Biden also says he will push to give legal status and a path to citizenship to anyone in the United States before Jan. 1, an estimated 11 million people.
Texas shares more than 1,200 miles of border with Mexico, which the state’s Republican leaders say makes them particularly invested in the nation’s immigration policies.
In bringing one of the first lawsuits against the Biden administration, Paxton is eager to be seen as a champion for Republicans not just as Democrats reclaim power in Washington, but as his own career is under dark clouds.
The FBI is investigating Paxton, who was a loyal Trump ally, over accusations by top former aides that he abused his office at the service of a donor.

Separately, Paxton has pleased not guilty in state court to felony charges of defrauding investor in a case that has dragged on for five years.

Updated

In a decisive change in tone from the previous first lady to the current one, Jill Biden has been visiting a community health center in Washington, DC, this afternoon.

According to pool reports, the health center, in north-west Washington, specializes in LGBTQ and HIV health care as well as healthcare and support services for those with cancer.

Whitman-Walker Health provides primary medical care, HIV testing and care, dental, mental health care, addictions treatment, legal services, cancer screenings and support services, and many other services annually to 15,000 patients, the pool report continues.

The non-profit health center was founded in 1973 as a gay men’s venereal disease treatment facility and was reportedly one of the earliest responding institutions to the HIV/Aids crisis when it hit the capital.

Updated

Today so far

The White House briefing has just concluded. Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • House speaker Nancy Pelosi said she will send the article of impeachment to the Senate on Monday. After the article is received, the Senate will hold a trial and then vote on whether or not Donald Trump should be convicted for incitement of insurrection.
  • The Senate confirmed Lloyd Austin as defense secretary, in a vote of 93 to 2. Austin, a retired Army general, will be the first African-American to lead the defense department.
  • Joe Biden will soon sign executive orders aimed at boosting the US economy amid the coronavirus pandemic. The executive orders are expected to expand the food stamps program and provide more protections for workers who feel their jobs jeopardize their health.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Jen Psaki would not say whether Dr Deborah Birx, the former White House coronavirus task force coordinator, was still on the pandemic response team.

“I will have to circle back on that one,” Psaki told the reporter who asked about Birx. “That’s an excellent question. I don’t have any information in front of me.”

Dr Anthony Fauci, the president’s chief medical adviser, said yesterday that he was not aware of Birx having any role in the Biden administration.

Jen Psaki was asked about Joe Biden’s position on the Senate filibuster, as some Democrats call for scrapping the legislative mechanism.

“His position has not changed,” the White House press secretary said.

The president, who spent 36 years in the Senate, has previously voiced opposition to eliminating the filibuster, and minority leader Mitch McConnell is pressing majority leader Chuck Schumer to commit to preserving it.

If the filibuster were eliminated, it would be much easier for Senate Democrats to advance Biden’s agenda with almost no Republican support.

Jen Psaki was asked, for the second time this week, whether Joe Biden intended to move forward with Donald Trump’s plans to redesign the exterior of Air Force One.

Air Force One arriving at Palm Beach, Florida, with Donald Trump on board for the last time as president.
Air Force One arriving at Palm Beach, Florida, with Donald Trump on board for the last time as president. Photograph: Larry Marano/REX/Shutterstock

Psaki replied, “I can confirm for you here the president has not spent a moment thinking about the color scheme of Air Force One.”

Trump announced in 2018 that he was planning a $3.9 billion overhaul of the presidential aircraft.

Updated

Jen Psaki deflected a question about whether Joe Biden believes the Senate should convict Donald Trump for incitement of insurrection.

The White House press secretary said Biden believed senators should be the ones who decide “how they will hold the former president accountable”.

But Psaki emphasized that the Senate must be able to simultaneously conduct an impeachment trial and advance a coronavirus relief bill because relief for American families is urgent and cannot be delayed.

Biden requests threat assessment of domestic violent extremism

Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, announced Joe Biden is taking steps to address domestic violent extremism after the attack on the Capitol earlier this month.

Razor wire still tops a seven foot fence that remains in place around the US Capitol building today.
Razor wire still tops a seven foot fence that remains in place around the US Capitol building today. Photograph: Samuel Corum/EPA

According to Psaki, Biden is asking the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to complete a threat assessment of domestic extremism. He has also instructed the National Security Council to ramp up its capacity to address extremism, and he is coordinating across the government to confront extremism.

The announcement comes about two and a half weeks after a violent pro-Trump mob attacked the Capitol, resulting in five deaths.

Psaki said Biden called the head of the National Guard last night to thank him for overseeing the deployment of thousands of troops to Washington to provide security during the inauguration.

Updated

Jen Psaki reiterated that Joe Biden will speak to the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, today, and she announced the US president will also speak to the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, today.

The calls to the the presidents of the United States’ neighboring nations are Biden’s first official conversations with foreign leaders since taking office.

• This post was amended on 23 January 2021 to remove an incorrect reference to Justin Trudeau being Canada’s president.

Updated

Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, has now taken over the briefing, and she opened by addressing the Senate confirmation of Lloyd Austin as defense secretary.

Psaki praised the confirmation of Austin, who is the first African American defense secretary in US history.

Psaki said Austin would be sworn in today, but he will be “more ceremoniously” sworn in by vice-president Kamala Harris on Monday.

Austin arrived at the Pentagon for the first time as defense secretary earlier this afternoon.

Updated

Brian Deese was asked about the 8 million Americans who have not yet received their stimulus payments.

The National Economic Council director said most of those Americans are “non-filers,” meaning they don’t file taxes, and the government is working to locate them and get them their checks.

The executive orders that Joe Biden will sign today are expected to include a directive to expedite that process.

Brian Deese, the director of the National Economic Council, warned that the country would be in a “much worse place” financially if the government did not take “decisive action” to buoy the US economy.

“The risk of under-shooting far outweighs the risk of doing too much,” Deese said.

The senior official said Joe Biden has made clear to his advisers that they must “make the case for the rescue and engage with” members of both parties to sell their relief proposals.

A number of Republican lawmakers have already expressed deep skepticism about passing another massive relief package.

NEC director says the economy is 'at a very precarious moment'

Brian Deese, the director of the National Economic Council, kicked off the White House briefing by outlining the executive orders that Joe Biden will sign this afternoon.

“Our economy is at a very precarious moment,” Deese told reporters. “It’s a moment that requires decisive action to beat this pandemic and support the economic recovery that Americans need.”

Deese said the orders would provide emergency relief for families affected by the pandemic and heighten workplace protections for Americans.

Specifically, one of the orders will expand the food stamps program, and the other will ensure that workers who refuse employment that jeopardizes their health will still qualify for unemployment benefits.

But Deese made clear that the orders were “not a substitute for comprehensive legislative relief”. Biden has outlined a $1.9 trillion relief package, but it’s unclear that proposal can make it through the Senate, which is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans.

White House holds briefing on Biden's economic executive orders

The White House is now holding a press briefing focused on the executive orders Joe Biden will sign today to help boost the US economy.

The briefing is led by Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, and Brian Deese, the director of the National Economic Council.

Later today, the president is expected to sign several executive orders aimed at aiding Americans families who are financially suffering because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Hundreds of National Guard troops who came to Washington after the Capitol attack have reportedly tested positive for coronavirus.

Politico reports:

The National Guard has struggled to implement a plan to test troops flowing into and out of Washington for Covid-19, with some Guard members being forced to find their own tests and others pressured to leave their quarantine early to report to duty.

Already, hundreds of Guard members who poured into Washington after the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol have tested positive for Covid-19 or are quarantining in nearby hotels, three Guard sources said. Guard leadership has declined to release an official number of positive cases, but troops and lawmakers alike worry that the deployment is becoming a superspreader event.

‘Ideally, these guys should all be in hotels. When they’re taking rest time, they should be taking it outside the campus with an ability to be separated and socially distanced,’ Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said. ‘Ultimately we’ve got to make sure that they’re not taking their extended rest time on campus, that they’re in hotel rooms.’

The problem worsened yesterday, when some National Guard troops were moved out of the Capitol and into a Senate parking lot, where they were crammed together with no social-distancing.

The move was quickly reversed amid outcry after photos surfaced of troops sleeping on concrete. In a speech this morning, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said the move had been “utterly unacceptable”.

Austin arrives at the Pentagon for the first time as defense secretary

Lloyd Austin has just arrived at the Pentagon for the first time since the Senate confirmed him as defense secretary this morning.

Austin told reporters present for his arrival, “Good to see you guys and thanks for being here. Look forward to working with you. See you around campus.”

Updated

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris also released a statement commemorating the 48th anniversary of Roe v Wade, the landmark supreme court case that ensures the right to abortion access.

“In the past four years, reproductive health, including the right to choose, has been under relentless and extreme attack. We are deeply committed to making sure everyone has access to care – including reproductive health care – regardless of income, race, zip code, health insurance status, or immigration status,” the president and vice-president said.

“The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to codifying Roe v. Wade and appointing judges that respect foundational precedents like Roe.”

Donald Trump was able to confirm hundreds of conservative federal judges over his lone term in office, and Democrats are eager to approve liberal judicial nominees now that they have control of the Senate.

“As the Biden-Harris Administration begins in this critical moment, now is the time to rededicate ourselves to ensuring that all individuals have access to the health care they need,” the statement says.

The White House has just released a statement confirming that Joe Biden signed the bill granting Lloyd Austin a waiver to become defense secretary.

“On Friday, January 22, 2021, the President signed into law: H.R. 335, which provides an exception to a restriction on appointing a Secretary of Defense who, within the past seven years, had been on active duty in a regular component of the armed forces,” the White House said.

Because Austin retired from the military less than seven years ago, the former general needed a waiver from Congress before he could be confirmed as defense secretary.

The House and the Senate approved Austin’s waiver yesterday, and the Senate confirmed Austin as defense secretary this morning, in a vote of 93 to 2.

Pelosi confirms article of impeachment will be sent on Monday

Nancy Pelosi has confirmed that she will transmit the article of impeachment against Donald Trump to the Senate on Monday.

“We are respectful of the Senate’s constitutional power over the trial and always attentive to the fairness of the process, noting that the former president will have had the same amount of time to prepare for trial as our Managers,” the Democratic speaker said in a statement.

Pelosi added, “Our Managers are ready to begin to make their case to 100 Senate jurors through the trial process.”

The House impeachment managers will be Jamie Raskin, Diana DeGette, David Cicilline, Joaquin Castro, Eric Swalwell, Ted Lieu, Stacey Plaskett, Madeleine Dean and Joe Neguse.

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell had called for delaying the impeachment trial until February to give Trump more time to prepare his defense, but it seems unlikely that Democrats will follow that timeline.

It would take two-thirds of the Senate, which is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, to convict Trump on incitement of insurrection.

If Trump is convicted, the Senate could bar him from seeking federal office again.

Updated

Lloyd Austin said in a tweet that it was “an honor and a privilege” to serve as defense secretary, adding that he was “especially proud” to be the first African American to hold the position.

Austin becomes first Black defense secretary in US history after Senate confirmation

The Senate has confirmed Lloyd Austin as the next defense secretary, making the retired general the first African American to lead the Pentagon.

The final vote was 93 to 2, with only two Republicans -- Mike Lee and Josh Hawley -- opposing Austin’s nomination.

The confirmation comes one day after the House and the Senate passed a waiver to allow Austin to be confirmed. Because Austin retired from the military less than seven years ago, he needed a waiver before the Senate could confirm him.

Austin is the second of Joe Biden’s cabinet nominees to be confirmed by the Senate. Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, was confirmed on Wednesday, and she was sworn in by Vice-President Kamala Harris yesterday.

Joe Biden may have more two more permanent cabinet secretaries by the end of the day. The Senate is voting on Lloyd Austin’s nomination as defense secretary now, and 93 senators have already voted “yes”.

The Senate finance committee also unanimously supported the nomination of Janet Yellen this morning, setting up a final confirmation vote. Republican senator John Cornyn said Yellen would likely be confirmed later today.

The Senate vote on Lloyd Austin’s nomination as defense secretary is still underway, but more than 50 “yes” votes have now been cast.

Assuming no one changes their vote, Austin will be confirmed, and he will become the first African American to lead the defense department.

Austin will be the second of Biden’s cabinet nominees to be confirmed, after Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, was confirmed on Wednesday.

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell also indicated he would support the nomination of Lloyd Austin as defense secretary.

McConnell emphasized that Austin, a retired general, must commit to overseeing the Pentagon as a civilian leader rather than as a former member of the military.

Austin’s nomination, which the Senate is currently voting on, is expected to easily pass. If confirmed, Austin will be the first African American to lead the defense department.

In his floor comments, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell also once again defended the filibuster and demanded that Democrats preserve it.

McConnell’s insistence that Democrats commit to keeping the filibuster is holding up the power-sharing agreement between the minority and majority leaders. (The agreement is necessary because the Senate is evenly split, 50-50).

Majority leader Chuck Schumer said before McConnell took the floor, “Leader McConnell’s proposal is unacceptable, and it won’t be accepted. And the Republican leader knew that when he first proposed it.”

A growing number of Democrats are calling on Schumer to scrap the filibuster, which would eliminate Republicans’ best mechanism for blocking Joe Biden’s agenda. If the filibuster is eliminated, every bill would need 51 Senate votes, rather than 60 votes, to pass.

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said he had hoped the House would transmit the article of impeachment next Thursday.

“But that’s apparently going to be next Monday,” the Republican leader said on the Senate floor.

McConnell added, “Senate Republicans strongly believe we need a full and fair process where the former president can mount a defense.”

The news that Nancy Pelosi will transmit the article of impeachment on Monday sets a deadline for when McConnell and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer must agree on rules for Donald Trump’s trial.

Unless Schumer and McConnell can reach an agreement otherwise, the impeachment trial would begin on Tuesday.

McConnell has said he wants the trial to be delayed until February to give Trump more time to prepare his defense.

House will send article of impeachment to Senate on Monday, Schumer says

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said that House speaker Nancy Pelosi would transmit the article of impeachment on Monday.

Once the article is sent, the Senate will start holding a trial to determine whether Donald Trump should be convicted of incitement of insurrection.

If Trump is convicted, he could be blocked from seeking federal office again.

“Make no mistake: a trial will be held in the United States Senate, and there will be a vote on whether to convict,” Schumer said. “It will be a full trial. It will be a fair trial.”

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has proposed delaying the trial until February to give Trump more time to prepare his defense.

Updated

The Senate is now in session and will soon vote on Lloyd Austin’s nomination to become defense secretary, which is expected to pass.

The House and the Senate both approved a waiver for Austin to be confirmed yesterday. Because Austin left the military less than seven years ago, Congress needed to pass the waiver before the retired general could be confirmed.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer kicked off the session by criticizing the moving of National Guard troops to a Senate parking lot, calling it “utterly unacceptable”.

The troops were moved back to the Capitol amid outcry over photos of service members sleeping on concrete as they protected lawmakers.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer met with National Guard troops guarding the Capitol this morning and thanked them for their service during Joe Biden’s inauguration.

Schumer also apologized after some National Guard troops were moved from a Capitol cafeteria into a Senate parking lot, sparking outrage. The move was quickly reversed after photos of the soldiers sleeping on concrete circulated online.

“What happened was an outrage and it will never happen again,” Schumer told the troops.

Trump's falsehoods about coronavirus 'very likely' cost lives, Fauci says

Dr Anthony Fauci said this morning that Donald Trump’s falsehoods about coronavirus “very likely” cost American lives last year.

“Particularly when you’re in the situation of almost being in a crisis with the number of cases and hospitalizations and deaths that we have -- when you start talking about things that make no sense medically and no sense scientifically, that clearly is not helpful,” the infectious disease expert told CNN.

Asked by CNN anchor Berman if Trump’s lack of candor cost lives, Fauci replied, “You know, it very likely did.”

The US coronavirus death toll surpassed 400,000 earlier this week, and Joe Biden said yesterday that the number would likely pass 500,000 next month

During his final year in office, Trump consistently made false claims about coronavirus, telling Americans that the virus would simply disappear, an assertion that was contradicted by every major public health expert.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, Fauci said it was “liberating” to be able to “let the science speak” now that Trump is out of office.

This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.

Here’s what the blog is keeping an eye on today: Joe Biden will deliver remarks about aiding the struggling US economy amid the coronavirus pandemic at 2:45 pm ET.

The president is expected to sign executive orders aimed at expanding the food stamp program and expediting the delivery of stimulus checks to Americans.

Biden has proposed a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, but it’s unclear whether it can get through the evenly split Senate, especially with Republicans generally voicing opposition to another massive relief bill.

Those remarks are still coming up, so stay tuned.

Updated

I mentioned earlier that the Anywhere but Washington video features an interview with Rep. Ilhan Omar. Here’s some more on that interview from Oliver Laughland:

Representative Ilhan Omar began to fear for her life as soon as the evacuation began. She takes long pauses as she recalls the details.

“It was a very traumatizing experience, and all of us will be traumatized by it for a really long time,” she says. “The face of the Capitol will forever be changed. They didn’t succeed in stopping the functions of democracy, but I do believe they succeeded in ending the openness of our democracy.”

The 38-year-old who was first elected in 2018, was placed in the same room as the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and the Republican Senate leader, Mitch McConnell, along with other senior figures from both parties.

“Leaders from both sides seemed to be terrorised by what was taking place,” she says. “I don’t think any of them ever expected to be witnessing an insurrection against our government. And I think that watching the response from the president was completely unsettling for them as well … I think the fear of what we were dealing with grew and you could see that in the faces of all of them.”

“There’s a set of expectations in functioning as a part of a long-existing democracy, and to have allowed a president to degrade our traditions and norms, make a mockery of our laws, our constitution and oaths of office. And then to still deal with people who are ‘two-siding’ every conversation, who don’t have an ability to understand the gravity of what we are dealing with … is pretty exhausting.”

Read more of Oliver Laughland’s interview here: ‘I didn’t know if I would make it out that day’ – Ilhan Omar on the terror of the Capitol attack

NFL to give 7,500 vaccinated healthcare workers free tickets to Super Bowl LV

Despite the pandemic, the NFL is still planning for Super Bowl LV on Sunday 7 February, to be hosted at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

This morning the NFL have announced that 7,500 vaccinated healthcare workers will be invited to the game as guests to thank them for their service during the pandemic.

In a statement NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said:

These dedicated health care workers continue to put their own lives at risk to serve others, and we owe them our ongoing gratitude. We hope in a small way that this initiative will inspire our country and recognize these true American heroes. This is also an opportunity to promote the importance of vaccination and appropriate health practices, including wearing masks in public settings.

The NFL say that the workers, who will need to have received two doses of the vaccine, will be selected from hospitals and the healthcare systems in the Tampa and central Florida area. There are set to be 14,500 additional fans in attendance at the showpiece event.

We have this op-ed from David Sirota this morning – To achieve a real legacy, Biden will have to be more radical and ready to fight:

The fervor of the pro-Trump forces whipped up by the outgoing president could prove problematic for incoming President Joe Biden as he seeks to unite a divided nation.

“We would not have Trump as president if the Democrats had remained the party of the working class,” University of California-Irvine professor Bernard Grofman recently told the New York Times. “[Obama] responded to the housing crisis with bailouts of the lenders and interlinked financial institutions, not of the folks losing their homes. And the stagnation of wages and income for the middle and bottom of the income distribution continued under Obama.”

A decade later, it’s unclear what Biden gleaned from his experience with Obama.

At some moments, he appears to finally be leaning away from his decades-long record as a budget-cutting fiscal hawk, instead campaigning to expand Social Security, then embracing the idea of $2,000 stimulus checks and most recently declaring that “we should be investing in deficit spending in order to generate economic growth”.

And yet at other moments he has done the opposite. He initially urged Democratic lawmakers to accept a stimulus plan with no stimulus checks. And tellingly, eight days after a violent rightwing uprising at the US Capitol had eviscerated the Republican party, he resuscitated and rewarded the party by signaling that – even though he needs no Republican votes – he would rather cut a deal with them on his first stimulus legislation than use ruthless legislative tactics to pass a more robust bill with only Democratic support.

Read more here: David Sirota – To achieve a real legacy, Biden will have to be more radical and ready to fight

Stephen Collinson at CNN offers his analysis of what Joe Biden is hoping to achieve with the launch of his Covid strategy. First off, Collinson points out that this isn’t some radical option:

What is so striking is that Biden’s approach, while welcome, is in many cases implementing measures that a comprehensive pandemic response from the previous administration would have taken at the start.

It is rooted in a bet that throwing federal government expertise, money and scale at a crisis can turn the situation around and finally provide the leadership and coordination that has been lacking in the year since coronavirus struck.

However, he warns that there are some obstacles in the way that are deep-rooted in the way the US has handled the pandemic to date – and the question of fatigue setting in among the public:

It is one thing to come up with a strategy. It’s another thing for Biden and his incoming team to quickly turn around often sluggish federal government machinery. The White House will need states, some of which have failed badly in all aspects of the pandemic, to respond to the new federal effort. And while Biden can change policy with his pen, he needs massive, swift investment from a tightly balanced Congress to make his plan work.

Then there are the medical factors beyond his control. While hospitalizations are declining, many experts fear that it could be a temporary relief and new, more transmissible versions of the virus will quash hopes of a significant easing of the situation.

And even in countries where the pandemic has been better handled, there have been a string of busted timelines over when normal life might resume.

So there is a question of how much more patience the American people have. While the Biden administration is just getting started, the country has been locked in the purgatory of lockdowns, working and schooling from home, amid separation from family members for 10 months.

Read more here: CNN – The huge stakes of Biden’s new Covid-19 plan

Speaking of DC, today we’ve published the latest in our Anywhere but Washington video series, which sees Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone travel to *checks notes* Washington DC. Huh?

OK, there’s a very good reason why Anywhere but Washington is actually coming from Washington for once – it was the week of Joe Biden’s inauguration and the pair arrived to find a downtown area under what is essentially military occupation and a city coming to terms with the trauma of Donald Trump’s final days in office.

They speak to lifelong residents in the outer suburbs as well the US congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who tells of her harrowing experience of the 6 January riot. Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton meanwhile rails against criticisms of the Republican administration’s handling of the domestic terrorism threat. You can watch it here:

Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has also tweeted this morning about bringing the national guard troops under his command back from DC.

Some Governors are making a bold public show of this decision, after pictures emerged of troops being forced to sleep in a parking lot which have sparked outrage. Former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany earlier tweeted “THIS IS SICK” about the situation, before deleting the tweet.

The National Guard Bureau has said of the nearly 26,000 troops deployed for the Biden inauguration, 10,600 had remained on duty, with many already having headed home. The bureau said the guard was helping states with coordination and logistics.

Of the situation with the troops, Senator Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran, tweeted last night: “Just made a number of calls and have been informed Capitol police have apologized to the guardsmen and they will be allowed back into the complex tonight. I’ll keep checking to make sure they are.”

After midnight, Duckworth tweeted an update: “Troops are now all out of the garage. Now I can go to bed.” Politico reported they had been allowed back into the Capitol.

Joe Biden’s new administration is faced with a monumental task in curbing the deadliest wave of the Covid-19 pandemic so far in a race against time before a new, more contagious coronavirus variant threatens already strained US health resources.

The Biden administration has mere weeks to speed vaccine deployment, and convince more Americans to wear masks, wash hands and social distance. And it must be done amid a rocky transition, critical supply shortfalls, widespread new infections, shaky public trust and a vaccine rollout that “has been a dismal failure so far”.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has now issued stark warnings about a more infectious new variant of Covid-19, called B117.

Various scenarios could play out. In one model, Covid-19 infections decline in March, only to crest again in late April and early May driven by B117 infections. This model assumed there was no widespread community vaccination. In another model, B117 still overtakes current strains, but it declines alongside current dominant strains. The decline would take place in an environment of overall reduced transmission, because people maintain social distance and vaccines are distributed to about 1 million a day.

This endpoint can be reached, CDC modelers said, but only if people curb the spread of Covid-19 and vaccine uptake is high. Biden has repeatedly pledged to vaccinate 100 million Americans in 100 days, which would roughly match modeling by the CDC.

“We need to ask average Americans to do their part,” said Jeff Zients, the White House Covid-19 response director. “Defeating the virus requires a coordinated nationwide effort.”

Read more of Jessica Glenza’s report here: Biden team in race against time as new strain threatens to intensify Covid wave

A key conservative doctors’ group pushing misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines faces growing fire from medical experts about its woeful scientific grounding, while its leader, Dr Simone Gold, was charged early this week for taking part in the 6 January attack on the Capitol.

Gold, who founded America’s Frontline Doctors last spring with help from the Tea Party Patriots organization, was arrested on Monday in Beverly Hills, where she lives, and faces charges of entering a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct.

Prior to her arrest, a headshot of Gold holding a bullhorn that she used to give a talk inside the Capitol appeared on an FBI flyer headlined “Seeking Information” about suspects in the Capitol attack. Gold first acknowledged her presence at the Capitol and voiced “regret” to the Washington Post, after a video surfaced of her walking inside the Capitol.

Last May, Gold’s group gained fast attention as several allied rightwing organizations, including Tea Party Patriots and the FreedomWorks Foundation, began a well-funded publicity drive attacking state lockdowns and downplaying the risks of the pandemic.

Gold and her fledgling group attacked policies advocated by top scientists like Dr Anthony Fauci and other national experts on the pandemic, and they promoted misinformation at rallies in Los Angeles and Washington and on rightwing media outlets owned by Salem Radio and Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network.

Gold’s mission has included touting the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, a phoney Covid- 19 cure that Donald Trump endorsed which carries serious health risks, and suggesting that the lockdown’s mental health effects were more harmful than the Covid-19 virus.

Last July, Gold delivered her message at a well-publicized rally her group hosted in front of the supreme court, which drew about 10 doctors, including two ophthalmologists. Gold, who had been working at two hospitals before the rally, was fired afterwards and quickly tapped the conservative attorney and Trump ally Lin Wood to represent her.

Read more of Peter Stone’s report here: ‘Wilful ignorance’: doctor who joined Capitol attack condemned for Covid falsehoods

Our First Dog on the Moon cartoon today tackles the vexed issue of what now for adherents of QAnon?

Whither now the blighted souls of the QAnonistas?
Whither now the blighted souls of the QAnonistas? Illustration: First Dog on the Moon/The Guardian

Read it in full here: First Dog on the Moon – Reality has rudely come crashing down on many adherents of QAnon

New Hampshire Gov. Sununu recalling National Guard from DC over 'substandard conditions;

Some fall-out from those overnight images of the national guard being forced to sleep in a parking lot last night – New Hampshire’s Gov. Chris Sununu has just tweeted that he is recalling the state’s troops from DC.

Referring to the conditions that the troops endured last night, he says: “They did an outstanding job serving our nation’s capital in a time of strife and should be graciously praised, not subject to substandard conditions.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader threatens 'revenge' on Donald Trump in Twitter image

Overnight the Twitter account of Iran’s supreme leader has carried the image of a golfer resembling former President Donald Trump apparently being targeted by a drone, vowing revenge over the killing of a top Iranian general.

Reuters note that the post carried the text of remarks Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made in December, in which he said “Revenge is certain”, renewing a vow of vengeance ahead of the first anniversary of the killing of military commander General Qassem Soleimani in Iraq by the Trump administration.

“Those who ordered the murder of General Soleimani as well as those who carried this out should be punished. This revenge will certainly happen at the right time,” Khamenei tweeted on December 16, without naming Trump

Earlier this month, Twitter removed a tweet by Khamenei in which he said US and British-made vaccines were unreliable and may be intended to “contaminate other nations”. The platform said the tweet violated its rules against misinformation.

As of this moment the graphic illustrating a drone strike on Trump remains available on the service.

Yesterday Iranian journalist Iranian journalist had called for Twitter to ban Iran’s supreme leader in a Washington Post op-ed, writing:

Many Iranian human rights activists have often wondered why Twitter and other social media organizations take so little action against the Islamic republic’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other government officials. Meanwhile, Khamenei has banned 83 million Iranians from Twitter, although he and his allies make full use of social platforms to spread their lies — without even a hint of warning labels. The social media playing field remains starkly tilted in favor of the dictatorship.

Twitter’s failure to act is also likely to anger Republicans who are already enraged that the social media platform banned Donald Trump for inciting violence.

US to move ahead with trial of Bali bombing suspects held in Guantánamo

The Pentagon has announced plans to move ahead with a military trial for three men held at Guantánamo Bay who are suspected of involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings.

After an unexplained delay, a senior military legal official on Thursday approved non-capital charges that include conspiracy, murder and terrorism for the three men, who have been in US custody for 17 years for their alleged roles in the deadly bombing of Bali nightclubs in 2002 and a year later of the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta.

The bombings on the island of Bali killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, including 88 Australians and three New Zealanders. Military prosecutors filed charges against Encep Nurjaman, an Indonesian known as Hambali, and the other two men in June 2017.

Hambali is alleged to have been the leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, a south-east Asian affiliate of al-Qaida. The Pentagon said in a brief statement on the case that he is accused with Mohammed Nazir bin Lep and Mohammed Farik bin Amin, who are from Malaysia, of planning and aiding the attacks.

All three were captured in Thailand in 2003 and held in CIA custody before they were taken to Guantánamo three years later.

The timing of the charges, which had been submitted under Donald Trump but not finalised, caught lawyers for the men by surprise and would seem to be in conflict with president Joe Biden’s intention to close the detention centre.

Read more here: Bali bombings – US to move ahead with trial of suspects held in Guantánamo

The changes in the Oval office as Joe Biden takes over the presidency are maybe cosmetic, but they are laden with symbolism. The presence – or lack of it – of a bust of Winston Churchill can make political headlines in the UK. And there are some practical differences – apparently the little red button which Donald Trump used to summon Diet Coke has gone. My colleague Luke Harding breaks down some of the changes here: Joe Biden’s Oval Office – what changes has the new president made?

Senate Finance Committee to vote on Janet Yellen nomination for Treasury secretary today

The Senate Finance Committee will vote early today Janet Yellen’s nomination for Treasury secretary, which David Lawder and Andrea Shalal at Reuters describe as an early litmus test of bipartisan support for Joe Biden’s ambitious plans for coronavirus relief, infrastructure investment and taxes.

Yellen, who would be the first woman to head Treasury after breaking that same barrier as Federal Reserve chair from 2014 to 2018, is highly regarded by both her fellow Democrats and by Republicans. The vote two days after Biden became president is quick by recent standards.

Biden has proposed a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan and has pledged to invest $2 trillion in infrastructure, green energy projects, education and research to boost American competitiveness.

Friday’s vote on Yellen’s nomination may reveal the level of Republican opposition to the Democratic president’s plans, for which he is seeking bipartisan support.

Already some Republicans are expressing concerns over its price tag and increased debt in a predictable u-turn to fiscal conservatism after having no problem running up deficits with the 2017 tax cuts. Indeed, Republican Senator Pat Toomey said at Yellen’s hearing: “We’re looking at another spending blowout”, having previously acquiesced to the nearly $5 trillion in coronavirus spending last year under former president Trump.

The committee vote is scheduled for 10:00 ET/15:00 GMT, which is early enough that it could pave the way for a full Senate confirmation vote later in the day on Friday. Yellen faces both an evenly split committee and an evenly divided full Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote if needed.

With Yellen still awaiting confirmation, the Biden administration on Wednesday named Andy Baukol, a longtime career international finance official, as acting Treasury secretary. A confirmation hearing for Deputy Treasury Secretary nominee Wally Adeyemo has not yet been scheduled.

It’s hardly the most important metric in the world but presumably it will irk former president Donald Trump that roughly 40 million people watched live coverage of Democrat Joe Biden’s inauguration as US president on the six major domestic TV networks – a 4% increase on the 38.3m that tuned in for Trump’s swearing-in four years ago.

The figure covers the 30-minute span starting at 11:45 on Wednesday, when Biden took the oath of office and delivered his inaugural address. It includes the audience on broadcasters ABC, CBS and NBC and cable channels Fox News, CNN and MSNBC.

Reuters note that the swearing-in of Democrat Barack Obama in 2009 as the first Black US president drew 51.2 million viewers. TV viewing figures do not capture people who tuned in via digital platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or this live blog, that streamed the event live.

Time magazine had a bit of a deeper dive into the figures, which go some way to highlight the partisanship in broadcast audiences:

The 6.53 million people who watched Biden take the oath of office and deliver his inaugural address on MSNBC was a whopping 338% bigger than its audience for Trump’s swearing in four years ago.

On the flip side, Fox News Channel’s audience of 2.74 million for Biden represented a nearly 77% drop from its viewership for Trump in 2017.

Russia says it welcomes Biden offer to extend nuclear treaty but needs to see 'details'

A quick foreign policy snap from Reuters here – the Kremlin said this morning it welcomed the stated intention of president Joe Biden to extend the New Start arms control treaty with Russia, but said that Moscow wanted to see concrete proposals from Washington.

The White House said yesterday that Biden would seek a five-year extension of the arms control treaty that is due to expire in early February, in one of the first major foreign policy decisions of the new administration.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was important to see the detail of the US proposal. The Trump administration had sought to attach conditions to any renewal, something Moscow rejected.

Amanda Gorman's inauguration poem launches author to top of book charts

Amanda Gorman, the 22-year-old poet who stole the show with her poem The Hill We Climb at the presidential inauguration on Wednesday, has landed yet another book deal, with her forthcoming debuts shooting straight to the top of the charts.

Hours after she stepped off the dais, publisher Penguin Children’s announced that it would be releasing Gorman’s poem as a hardcover book in spring, with plans to print 150,000 copies in the first run, unprecedented even for a whole poetry collection, “due to overwhelming demand”.

Days before Gorman’s reading, it was also announced that her debut collection, also titled The Hill We Climb, will be published on 21 September in the US. The national youth poet laureate’s first picture book, Change Sings, written as a children’s anthem, is due to come out the same day.

Both books shot to the top of Amazon’s charts within minutes of Gorman taking to the stage, with the poet sharing her reactions to her newfound fame on social media. “I’m dying!” she shouted in one Instagram story, as she watched a newsreader on television read a glowing tweet addressed to her from Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of the musical Hamilton, which inspired part of her poem. In another video, she was filmed staring at Amazon on a laptop, where The Hill We Climb and Change Sings reached No 1 and No 2 respectively on the overall book charts.

“Y’all my Instagram literally is broken, this is not a game, this is not a joke. I just looked up and had one million followers,” she said. “I can’t even post anything … there is so much love and support coming via the app, so thank you so much. This is wild.”

Joe Biden has opened his presidency with a flurry of executive orders aimed at targeting the economic and pandemic crises the Democrat has inherited from the previous Trump administration. However, for CNN, Zachary Wolf argues that executive orders aren’t a solution – they’re a symptom:

This yo-yo style of government is not how things are supposed to work in the US. Big policy changes are supposed to move through Congress and then to the president’s desk, molded by the compromises necessary to get everyone to agree. Instead, with Congress absolutely stuck on key issues for the past 15 years – give or take – presidents have settled into a pattern of making executive policy on their own, which has resulted in them doing and then undoing each other on key issues. (That is, unless the courts step in first.)

Presidents have power. The actions Biden signed on Thursday were meant to focus the federal government’s efforts on Covid, create a national effort to get kids back in schools, encourage mask usage, mobilize FEMA and the national guard to help get vaccines into communities, harness local pharmacies and reinsert the US in the worldwide Covid effort.

But other actions he signed, including the major ones on Wednesday – re-joining the global climate change effort and protecting undocumented children raised in the US – are the duct-tape version of governing. Biden essentially undid what Trump had done to undo what Obama had done.

Read more here: CNN – Executive orders aren’t a solution. They’re a symptom

Biden executive orders to target federal minimum wage and food insecurity

Joe Biden on Friday will sign a pair of executive orders aimed at providing immediate relief to American families grappling with the economic toll of the Covid-19 pandemic and expanding safety protections for federal workers.

The first action targets food insecurity, by expanding nutritional programs for low-income families and children. The order would also attempt to clarify a rule to ensure that jobless Americans would still qualify for unemployment insurance if they declined work that would jeopardize their health.

The second order is aimed at expanding protections for federal workers by restoring collective bargaining rights and promoting a $15 federal minimum wage. To do so, Biden will direct agencies to conduct a review of federal workers earning less than $15 an hour and develop recommendations for raising their wages.

“The American people can’t afford to wait,” Brian Deese, Biden’s top economic adviser, said on a call with reporters. “So many are hanging by a thread, they need help and we are committed to doing everything we can to provide that help as quickly as possible.”

The latest executive actions come one day after a labor department report showed that unemployment claims remained at historically high levels, with 900,000 Americans filing for unemployment benefits last week. The figures reflected the magnitude of the economic challenges Biden inherited, amid a resurgence of the coronavirus this winter.

Read more of Lauren Gambino’s report here: Biden executive orders target federal minimum wage and food insecurity

We know that Republicans in Congress had been complaining about having to go through metal detectors on their way to work, Matt Fuller at the Huffington Post reports on at least one reason why:

Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, who has repeatedly flouted the magnetometers that were installed near the House chamber after the 6 January attack on the US Capitol, set off the metal detectors while trying to enter. When an officer with a metal detector wand scanned him, a firearm was detected on Harris’s side, concealed by his suit coat. Police refused to let Harris in, and the officer signaled a security agent that Harris had a gun on him by motioning toward his own firearm.

HuffPost witnessed the interaction and later confirmed with a Capitol official that Harris was carrying a gun. HuffPost watched Harris try to get another member to take the gun from him so he could go vote. The member, Rep. John Katko, told Harris he didn’t have “a license” and refused to hold the weapon for him.

HuffPost also heard Harris complain to some fellow members that he had asked his staff to remind him about the screenings and they hadn’t.

Read more here: Huffington Post – Republican Rep. Andy Harris tries to bring gun into House chamber

Overnight the Republican leader of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, angrily tweeted about soldiers protecting the US Capitol being forced to sleep out in an unheated parking lot.

As you can imagine, on social media there was a lot of pushback, reminding the Representative from California of the Republican party’s role in them being in the Capitol in the first place.

The outrage though has had its intended effect. The New York Times reports that:

Early Friday morning, the DC Guard said that the soldiers had been moved back to the Capitol from the parking garage. Capt. Edwin Nieves Jr, the spokesman for the DC branch of the National Guard said that they would take future breaks “near Emancipation Hall,” a part of the Capitol complex.

Captain Nieves said that the Guard troops had been temporarily moved out of the Capitol on Thursday afternoon at request of the Capitol Police because of “increased foot traffic” as Congress came back into session. He did not specify how many soldiers had been moved.

Two Guard soldiers, who spoke to the New York Times on the condition of anonymity said that they had been relocated without explanation and that they were without electrical power, heat or adequate restroom facilities. One soldier estimated that there were 1,000 troops sharing one portable restroom outside the garage.

“Zero guidance on mission, length of mission, nothing,” the soldier said.

With millions of Americans waiting for their chance to get the coronavirus vaccine, Associated Press report that a lucky few are getting bumped to the front of the line as clinics scramble to get rid of extra, perishable doses at the end of the day. It is often a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

Sometimes people who just happen to be near a clinic at closing time are offered leftover shots that would otherwise be thrown away. Sometimes health workers go out looking for recipients. Some places keep waiting lists and draw names at random.

“One of the nurses said I should go buy a lottery ticket right now,” said Jesse Robinson, outside a Nashville, Tennessee, clinic this week where the 22-year-old was picked from a 15,000-name list for a shot. “I’m not going to question it too much. Just glad it was me.”

Jesse Robinson has received his first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Jesse Robinson has received his first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. Photograph: Mark Humphrey/AP

David MacMillan was grabbing ingredients for a coconut chickpea dish at a Giant grocery store in Washington when a woman in a lab coat from the in-store pharmacy came up to him and his friend.

“I got two doses of the Moderna vaccine. The pharmacy is closing in 10 minutes. Do you want them?” MacMillan, 31, recalled the woman saying. “I thought, ‘Let’s go for it.”’

After MacMillan posted a video of his experience on TikTok, the supermarket chain was inundated for days with calls and people hanging around, hoping to score a shot. It has become one of the most unusual quirks in the often uneven, monthlong rollout of the Covid-19 vaccines.

David MacMillan was grabbing ingredients at a grocery store when a woman offered him the vaccine.
David MacMillan was grabbing ingredients at a grocery store when a woman offered him the vaccine. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP

Once a vial is thawed from the deep freeze and, even more so, once its seal is punctured and the first dose is drawn, those administering the vaccine are in a race to use it up before it spoils – even if it means giving shots to those who don’t fit into the priority list.

While it may be unsettling to see a 20-something getting a shot while an 90-year-old woman in a nursing home is still waiting, public health experts say getting a dose into someone’s arm, anyone’s arm, is better than throwing it away.

Waste is common in global inoculation campaigns, with millions of doses of flu shots trashed each year. By one World Health Organization estimate, more than half of all vaccines are thrown away because they were mishandled, unclaimed or expired. The coronavirus rollout appears to have bucked the trend.

Though federal data is not available, health authorities in various jurisdictions contacted by The Associated Press reported very little waste beyond a few notable cases of doses that were accidentally or deliberately spoiled.

In Chicago’s Cook County, Illinois, the health department reported just three of 87,750 doses were wasted, each accidentally spilled by staff. In Ohio, officials said 165 of 459,000 doses distributed as of last week were damaged or lost in transit, thrown away because of vaccine no-shows, or otherwise wasted. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Houston and other cities and states all have similarly reported tiny fractions of waste.

“As far as I’m concerned, vaccinate anyone but the dog,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious-disease expert at Vanderbilt University.

CDC figures report that 'at least' 17.5m vaccine shots have been administered in US

Yesterday the US recorded 188,952 new coronavirus cases, taking the total pandemic caseload up to 24,611,203. The Johns Hopkins university figures showed there were 3,955 further deaths, meaning the total death toll is now at 410,024.

The Covid Tracking Project showed hospitalizations in the US with Covid at 119,927 people. It’s the ninth day in a row that the figure has fallen slightly.

Notwithstanding the supply problems, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that at least 37,960,000 vaccine doses have been distributed and at least 17,546,374 shots have been administered.

Public health experts yesterday blamed sudden Covid-19 vaccine shortages around the US in part on the Trump administration’s push last week to get states to vastly expand their vaccination drives to reach the nation’s estimated 54 million people age 65 and over.

The Associated Press report that push and change in emphasis from the White House has not been accompanied by enough doses to meet demand, according to state and local officials, leading to frustration and confusion and limiting states’ ability to attack the outbreak that has killed over 400,000 Americans.

Over the past few days, authorities in California, Ohio, West Virginia, Florida and Hawaii warned that their supplies were running out. New York City began canceling or postponing shots or stopped making new appointments because of the shortages, which new president Joe Biden has vowed to turn around. Florida’s top health official said the state would deal with the scarcity by restricting vaccines to state residents.

The vaccine rollout so far has been “a major disappointment,” said Dr. Eric Topol, head of the Scripps Research Translational Institute. Problems started with the Trump administration’s “fatal mistake” of not ordering enough vaccine, which was then snapped up by other countries, Topol said. Then, opening the line to senior citizens set people up for disappointment because there wasn’t enough vaccine, he said. The Trump administration also left crucial planning to the states and didn’t provide the necessary funding.

“It doesn’t happen by fairy dust,” Topol said. “You need to put funds into that.”

Last week, before Biden took over as president, the US Health and Human Services Department suggested that the frustration was the result of unrealistic expectations among the states as to how much vaccine was on the way.

But some public health experts said that the states have not been getting reliable information on vaccine deliveries and that the amounts they have been sent have been unpredictable. That, in turn, has made it difficult for them to plan how to inoculate people.

“It’s a bit of having to build it as we go,” said Dr. George Rutherford, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco. “It’s a front-end supply issue, and unless we know how much vaccine is flowing down the pipe, it’s hard to get these things sized right, staffed, get people there, get them vaccinated and get them gone.”

State health secretaries have asked the Biden administration for earlier and more reliable predictions on vaccine deliveries, said Washington state Health Secretary Dr. Umair Shah.

Dr. Marcus Plescia of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials was also among those who said opening vaccinations to senior citizens was done too soon, before supply could catch up.

“We needed steady federal leadership on this early in the launch,” Plescia said. “That did not happen, and now that we are not prioritizing groups, there is going to be some lag for supply to catch up with demand.”

Lawyers call for Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani to lose law licence

One lawyer you might have expected to see plying his trade for the president at the impeachment trial is Rudy Giuliani, who has stood by the president through thick and thin.

However, there are reports the two have fallen out over unpaid legal bills, and in any case Giuliani has recused himself from the impeachment process because he appeared at the same event where former president Donald Trump is accused of whipping up the mod that ransacked the US Capitol. Giuliani famously suggested in his speech that day that “trial by combat” should be used to settle the election, which he later claimed was a reference to Game of Thrones.

Giuliani also has something else to deal with – calls for New York’s judiciary to suspend his law licence.

Lawyers Defending American Democracy is also calling for investigation of Giuliani, who served as a federal prosecutor and a New York City mayor before Trump hired him as personal attorney.

“This complaint is about law, not politics,” said their letter to the attorney grievance committee for the New York supreme court. It was signed by more than 40 lawyers.

The grievance committee, part of New York state’s judiciary, has the power to censure and suspend lawyers and revoke their law licences.

Giuliani led the legal team that tried to overturn Trump’s election defeat but failed to produce any evidence of widespread fraud. The team lost dozens of court cases in battleground states and at the supreme court.

Read more here: Rudy Giuliani – lawyers call for Trump’s personal attorney to lose law licence

Trump hires South Carolina-based lawyer Butch Bowers to represent him at impeachment trial

One of the reasons Mitch McConnell has given for trying to delay the trial of former president Donald Trump is to give him more time to prepare. Reuters this morning are reporting that Trump has at least taken the step of beginning to put together his legal defense team.

Trump has hired South Carolina-based lawyer Butch Bowers to represent him at the Senate trial. While relatively unknown on the national stage, Bowers has represented former Republican governors in South Carolina and served in the US Justice Department under Republican former President George W. Bush.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Trump ally, recommended him, the source said.

In 2012, Bowers represented then-Governor Nikki Haley in an ethics hearing over allegations that she engaged in illegal lobbying while she was a state representative. Haley was cleared of wrongdoing.

In 2009, Bowers represented then-Governor Mark Sanford in an ethics hearing over his use of a state aircraft for a secret five-day trip to Argentina to see a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair. Sanford agreed to pay $74,000 to settle charges that his personal travel and campaign spending violated state ethics laws, but he continued to deny wrongdoing.

Bowers, also known as Karl Smith Bowers Jr., is a graduate of Tulane University’s law school, has his own law firm and is associated with the Miller Law Group.

“I’ve always found him to be competent and ethical,” said South Carolina lawyer Jay Bender, a Democrat who has known Bowers professionally for over 20 years. But he said Trump would not be his first controversial representation. “I’ve found many of his clients to be objectionable,” Bender said.

Republican Senator Mike Braun, speaking to reporters on Thursday, put a mid-February date on the likely timing of the trial, in order to give Bowers time to prepare.

Yesterday Republican Mitch McConnell proposed delaying Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, and Democrat House speaker Nancy Pelosi decline to confirm when the article of impeachment will be sent from the House to the Senate. However, whenever it happens, Tom McCarthy reports that the verdict will rest in the hands of Republican Senators:

A two-thirds majority of voting senators – 67 if all 100 members vote – is still required to convict the president, and the Democratic caucus will number only 50 senators. Thus they would need 17 Republicans to join them to convict Trump.

If convicted, Trump could be banned from ever again holding public office. If not, Trump, who won the votes of 74 million Americans just two months ago, might simply run for president again in 2024.

The judgment facing Republicans is more political than constitutional, said Frank O Bowman III, author of High Crimes and Misdemeanors: A History of Impeachment for the Age of Trump and a professor at the University of Missouri school of law.

“If Republicans decide, as most of them will, maybe nearly all, to vote against this, it’s going to have nothing to do with their opinion about the behavior of Donald Trump,” he said.

“It will have everything to do with their narrow political calculation about balancing whatever allegiance they may feel to the constitution with concerns about being attacked from the Trumpist right, to, on the other side, a sense that I suspect many of them have that if they could rid themselves of this turbulent priest, and not have to suffer any major electoral consequences, they’d do it in a minute.”

The most important Republican senator of all, minority leader McConnell has indicated that he might vote to convict Trump, whom he blasted on the floor of the Senate a day before Trump left office.

“The mob was fed lies,” McConnell said. “They were provoked by the president and other powerful people. And they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government which they did not like. But we pressed on.”

McConnell’s break with Trump is breathtaking for many political observers. The last time Trump faced an impeachment trial, McConnell promised “total coordination with the White House” on Trump’s defense, said there was “no chance” Trump would be convicted, and told Fox News, “the case is so darn weak coming from the House”.

This time, McConnell has announced: “I have not made a final decision on how I will vote, and I intend to listen to the legal arguments when they are presented to the Senate.”

Read more of Tom McCarthy’s report here: Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial rests in the hands of Republican senators

Hi, and welcome to our live coverage of US politics on Friday. Here’s a quick catch-up on where we are, and what we might see today…

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