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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Maanvi Singh, Joan E Greve and Martin Belam

Biden presents Covid stimulus plan as impeachment focus shifts to Senate – as it happened

Joe Biden speaks as he lays out his plan for combating the coronavirus and jump-starting the American economy.
Joe Biden speaks as he lays out his plan for combating the coronavirus and jump-starting the American economy. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Summary

From me and Joan E Greve:

  • Joe Biden unveiled his $1.9tn coronavirus relief plan. The plan seeks to send Americans $1,400 checks in direct relief, increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, and provide schools with $130bn in aid to help them reopen, among other provisions. “During this pandemic, millions of Americans, through no fault of their own, have lost the dignity and respect that comes with a job and a paycheck,” Biden said. “There is real pain overwhelming the real economy.”
  • Weekly initial jobless claims soared to 965,000 last week, according to data released by the labor department. The number represents an increase of about 180,000 claims from a week earlier, and it is the highest weekly figure since August.
  • Rod Rosenstein, the former deputy attorney general, expressed regret about the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” immigration policy, which resulted in the separations of thousands of migrant families at the US-Mexican border. In response to a new government report about the family separations, which showed senior officials knew the policy would result in children being separated from their parents, Rosenstein said the policy “should have never been proposed or implemented”.
  • The National Park Service denied reports that the National Mall will be closed for Joe Biden’s inauguration. Multiple outlets have reported that officials intend to close the mall due to intensifying security concerns after a violent mob stormed the Capitol last week.
  • The New York attorney general announced a lawsuit against the New York City police department, in response to officers’ treatment of Black Lives Matter protesters last year. “There is no question that the NYPD engaged in a pattern of excessive, brutal, and unlawful force against peaceful protesters,” Letitia James said in a statement. “With today’s lawsuit, this longstanding pattern of brutal and illegal force ends.”
  • Several more arrests were announced in connection to the Capitol riot. The office of the US attorney for the District of Columbia said Robert Sanford, a retired firefighter from Pennsylvania, was arrested and charged yesterday for allegedly striking three Capitol police officers with a fire extinguisher during the riot.

Updated

Biden spoke for less than 30 minutes and wrapped up without taking any questions.

His plan gained approval from both Bernie Sanders and the US Chamber of Commerce, the business-oriented lobbying group:

“There will be stumbles. But I will always be honest with you about the setbacks we’re making,” Biden said of his plans to address the pandemic and economic crisis.

Looking ahead, his proposal could face resistance, especially from Republicans in the legislature who have long opposed higher stimulus payments and minimum wage hikes.

But he seems to have an ally in Bernie Sanders, who will soon be at the helm of the Senate budget committee. Sanders has indicated that he plans to prioritize pushing through a new stimulus package as soon as Biden takes office. As chair, he will have control of budget reconciliation, a process that allows Congress to expedite some legislation by circumventing filibusters.

Updated

Biden’s speech included a focus on equity.

“Let’s make sure our caregivers, mostly women, women of color, immigrants, have the same pay and dignity that they deserve,” he said.

“If we invest now – boldly, smartly, and with an unwavering focus on American workers and families – we will strengthen our economy, reduce inequity and put our nation’s long-term finances on a more sustainable course,” Biden said.

Updated

“Next week, we’ll take action to extend nationwide restrictions on evictions and foreclosures,” Biden said. “This will provide more than 25 million Americans greater stability instead of living on the edge every single month.”

Housing advocates have been pressing Biden to extend and bolster a federal ban on evictions in recent weeks and months, and they have asked him to additionally include funds for rental assistance in relief proposals. His current plan includes $30bn in rental and utility assistance for those struggling to pay bills.

Advocates are also asking Congress to cancel any rent or mortgage debt incurred during the pandemic.

Updated

This stimulus plan Biden is presenting today is part one of his two-part “rescue and recovery” plan.

Part two will come next month. Biden said he will address a joint session of Congress with a recovery plan that builds on proposals presented today.

“A crisis of deep human suffering is in plain sight. There’s no time to waste,” Biden said. “We have to act and we have to act now.”

Updated

Economic inequality in the US is growing amid the “twin crises” of Covid-19 and the pandemic’s economic fallout.

Biden said he has “a two-step plan of rescue and recovery”.

His stimulus proposal includes:

  • $160bn in funding for vaccination and testing, and other health programs.
  • $1tn in relief to families, via direct payments and unemployment insurance.
  • $440bn for aid to businesses and communities.
  • $350bn for state, local and tribal governments.

Updated

Joe Biden is presenting his coronavirus stimulus plan

Biden is speaking from Wilmington, Delaware.

“During this pandemic, millions of Americans, through no fault of their own have lost the dignity and respect that comes with a job and a paycheck,” he said, noting that many face eviction, and long lines at food banks. “There is real pain overwhelming the real economy,” Biden said.

Updated

Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, said that 1,000 national guard will be deployed to protect the state capitol in anticipation of unrest on inauguration day.

“In light of events in our nation’s capital last week, California is taking important steps to protect public safety at the state capitol and across the state,” Newsom said.

Read more about state capitol violence on 6 January, and what experts anticipate on inauguration day, from my colleague Lois Beckett:

Updated

US police three times as likely to use force against leftwing protesters, data finds

Police in the United States are three times more likely to use force against leftwing protesters than rightwing protesters, according to new data from a non-profit that monitors political violence around the world.

In the past 10 months, US law enforcement agencies have used teargas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and beatings at a much higher percentage at Black Lives Matter demonstrations than at pro-Trump or other rightwing protests.

Law enforcement officers were also more likely to use force against leftwing demonstrators, whether the protests remained peaceful or not.

The statistics, based on law enforcement responses to more than 13,000 protests across the United States since April 2020, show a clear disparity in how agencies have responded to the historic wave of Black Lives Matter protests against police violence, compared with demonstrations organized by Trump supporters.

Barack Obama highlighted an earlier version of these statistics on 8 January, arguing that they provided a “useful frame of reference” for understanding Americans’ outrage over the failure of Capitol police to stop a mob of thousands of white Trump supporters from invading and looting the Capitol on 6 January, a response that prompted renewed scrutiny of the level of violence and aggression American police forces use against Black versus white Americans.

The new statistics come from the US Crisis Monitor, a database created this spring by researchers at Princeton and the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (ACLED), a nonprofit that has previously monitored civil unrest in the Middle East, Europe and Latin America.

The researchers found that the vast majority of the thousands of protests across the United States in the past year have been peaceful, and that most protests by both the left and the right were not met with any violent response by law enforcement.

Read more:

Q playing games with my heart: are the Backstreet Boys feuding over QAnon?

The Guardian’s Matthew Cantor reports:

Fans fear that QAnon, the bonkers conspiracy theory involving Democrats drinking the blood of children, may be driving a wedge among the Backstreet Boys.

(L-R) AJ McLean, Kevin Richardson, Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, and Brian Littrell of Backstreet Boys attend the 2019 iHeartRadio Music Awards, in pre-coronavirus times.
(L-R) AJ McLean, Kevin Richardson, Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, and Brian Littrell of Backstreet Boys attend the 2019 iHeartRadio Music Awards, in pre-coronavirus times. Photograph: Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images for iHeartMedia

The concerns come after Kevin Richardson, the one with the goatee who has always looked more like a Backstreet Man, posted a Cosmopolitan article on Twitter titled I Lost a Best Friend to QAnon. He included a cryptic message saying only: “Interesting read …”

That post came a few days after his cousin and fellow Backstreet Boy Brian Littrell announced on Twitter that he’d joined Parler, a social network favored by the far right, just days after the storming of the US Capitol. Dismayed fans replied to Littrell with messages such as: “And we thought you were the nice one.”

Littrell, however, told TMZ in 2017 that he had faith in Trump’s character as well as “his balls”. Richardson did not say his post was directed at Littrell, but that’s how some fans took it, leading to speculation in the media.

Updated

Joe Biden named the new DNC leadership. In addition to naming Jaime Harrison, the Democratic Senate candidate in South Carolina who faced off with Lindsey Graham, as Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair, he announced a number of other appointments that include his former running-mate contenders Gretchen Whitmer and Tammy Duckworth.

Here’s the list:

  • Jaime Harrison, DNC Chair
  • Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Vice-Chair of Civic Engagement and Voter Protection
  • Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, Vice-Chair
  • Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Vice-Chair
  • Representative Filemon Vela Jr of Texas, Vice-Chair

Updated

Mike Pence is back on Capitol Hill, where he stopped to greet the national guard.

He earlier attended a Fema briefing on inauguration security, performing what would be considered presidential duties while an impeached Donald Trump remains sequestered away from the public eye.

As has frequently been the case in recent weeks, Trump had no public engagements had his public schedule blithely stated that the president “will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings”.

Updated

At least 10 Republicans in the Senate would need to vote in favor of Biden’s coronavirus relief measure in order for it to pass.

The likelihood of Republicans agreeing to some of the proposals - like the $15 minimum wage – seem slim. Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked a minimum wage increase in 2019, and Republicans filibustered a minimum wage increase effort in 2014.

The proposal seeks to set up community and mobile vaccination centers across the US.

“The Biden Administration will take action to ensure all people in the United States — regardless of their immigration status — can access the vaccine free-of-charge and without cost-sharing,” the transition team said in a statement.

The administration is also looking to expand the federal government’s contribution to cover states’ Medicaid vaccination efforts and ensure that everyone enrolled in the public health insurance program can access vaccines.

Updated

More details on the plan:

  • Overall, Biden is asking Congress to approve $160bn in funding for vaccination and testing, and other health programs.
  • He’s looking to send a total of $1tn in relief to families, via direct payments and unemployment insurance
  • The plan sets aside $440bn for aid to and businesses and communities.
  • And it would send out $350bn for state, local and tribal governments.

Updated

Biden reveals $1.9tn coronavirus relief plan

The plan seeks to send Americans $1,400 checks in direct relief, increase the federal minimum wage to $15 from $7.25 an hour, and provide schools with $130bn in aid to help them reopen.

The president-elect will be speaking from Wilmington about his vaccination plan later today.

Updated

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:

  • Weekly initial jobless claims soared to 965,000 last week, according to data released by the labor department. The number represents an increase of about 180,000 claims from a week earlier, and it is the highest weekly figure since August.
  • Rod Rosenstein, the former deputy attorney general, expressed regret about the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, which resulted in the separations of thousands of migrant families at the US-Mexican border. In response to a new government report about the family separations, which showed senior officials knew the policy would result in children being separated from their parents, Rosenstein said the policy “should have never been proposed or implemented”.
  • The National Park Service denied reports that the National Mall will be closed for Joe Biden’s inauguration. Multiple outlets have reported that officials intend to close the mall due to intensifying security concerns after a violent mob stormed the Capitol last week.
  • The New York attorney general announced a lawsuit against the New York City police department, in response to officers’ treatment of Black Lives Matter protesters last year. “There is no question that the NYPD engaged in a pattern of excessive, brutal, and unlawful force against peaceful protesters,” Letitia James said in a statement. “With today’s lawsuit, this longstanding pattern of brutal and illegal force ends.”
  • Several more arrests were announced in connection to the Capitol riot. The office of the US attorney for the District of Columbia said Robert Sanford, a retired firefighter from Pennsylvania, was arrested and charged yesterday for allegedly striking three Capitol police officers with a fire extinguisher during the riot.

Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Updated

Murkowski says House acted 'appropriately' in impeaching Trump

Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican of Alaska, said she believed the House acted “appropriately” in impeaching Donald Trump yesterday.

In a new statement, Murkowski, who did not vote to convict Trump last year, contrasted this impeachment with the president’s first impeachment.

She noted that this was the most bipartisan presidential impeachment in history, after ten Republicans voted to impeach Trump for a second time.

“For months, the President has perpetrated false rhetoric that the election was stolen and rigged, even after dozens of courts ruled against these claims,” Murkowski said.

“When he was not able to persuade the courts or elected officials, he launched a pressure campaign against his own Vice President, urging him to take actions that he had no authority to do. On the day of the riots, President Trump’s words incited violence, which led to the injury and deaths of Americans.”

Murkowski did not indicate how she would vote in a Senate trial, but she said, “Such unlawful actions cannot go without consequence and the House has responded swiftly, and I believe, appropriately, with impeachment.

“Our nation’s founders gave the Senate the sole power to try all impeachments, and exercising that power is a weighty and important responsibility. When the Article of Impeachment comes to the Senate, I will follow the oath I made when sworn as a U.S. Senator. I will listen carefully and consider the arguments of both sides, and will then announce how I will vote.”

Several Senate Republicans have now expressed openness to voting to convict Trump. Seventeen Republicans would have to vote to convict in order to block Trump from running for president again.

Updated

A retired firefighter from Pennsylvania has been charged for allegedly striking three Capitol police officers with a fire extinguisher during last week’s riot.

The office of the US attorney for the District of Columbia said Robert Sanford, 55, was arrested yesterday and charged with “knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, disorderly or disruptive conduct on Capitol grounds, civil disorder, and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers while engaged in the performance of official duties.”

The office said in a statement: “It is alleged that during the events at the US Capitol, Sanford struck three U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) officers with a fire extinguisher. A video, recorded by an individual who was present in the crowd, captures when a man throws what appears to be a fire extinguisher at a group of USCP officers protecting the lower west terrace of the Capitol.

“The fire extinguisher struck one officer, who was wearing a helmet, in the head; then, the fire extinguisher ricochets striking a second officer, who was not wearing a helmet, in the head; and ricochets a third time and strikes a third officer, wearing a helmet, in the head. After throwing the fire extinguisher at USCP, Sanford leaves the area in the opposite direction. Federal authorities were able to identify Sanford, after receiving a tip on January 12.”

According to an AP count, more than 100 people have now been arrested in connection to the violent riot at the Capitol last week.

Updated

Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock are expected to be certified as the winners of the Georgia Senate elections on Tuesday, a senior official in the Georgia secretary of state’s office said.

“For those asking, as of 3:45pm 124 of 159 counties have certified their results of the Jan 5 runoff,” Gabriel Sterling said in a tweet. “That leaves 35 to certify by Close of Business tomorrow. Monday is the MLK holiday. Our office will review the final certifications on Tuesday. Hoping there are no issues[.]”

Democrats will officially take control of the Senate on Wednesday, when Kamala Harris is sworn in as vice-president.

After Ossoff and Warnock’s victories in the Georgia races last week, the Senate is evenly split, 50-50, between Democrats and Republicans. Harris will provide a tie-breaking 51st vote for Democrats once she is sworn in.

The prospect of Donald Trump facing a bitter impeachment trial in the US Senate threatens to cast a shadow over the earliest days of Joe Biden’s presidency.

There is no schedule yet for when the House may present the article of impeachment – essentially the charge against Trump – to the Senate for trial.

The Senate resumes full session on the eve of the inauguration events on 20 January to install Biden as the 46th US president and Kamala Harris as his vice-president.

A swift impeachment trial would entangle Biden’s urgent efforts to have his cabinet choices confirmed by the Senate and fire up his agenda to tackle the raging coronavirus pandemic as well as the related economic crisis and vaccination chaos.

There is no real prospect of Trump being ousted before Biden takes office next Wednesday, after the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, rejected Democratic calls for a quick trial in the Republican-led chamber, saying there was no way to finish it before Trump leaves office.

Biden, meanwhile, has urged Senate leaders to avoid an all-consuming trial during his first days in the White House so that they can focus on the crises facing his incoming administration.

“I hope that the Senate leadership will find a way to deal with their constitutional responsibilities on impeachment while also working on the other urgent business of this nation,” Biden said in a statement on Wednesday night.

The man who was photographed carrying a Confederate flag in the Capitol during last week’s riot has been arrested, according to multiple reports.

The AP reports:

Prosecutors say a Delaware man photographed carrying a Confederate battle flag during a deadly riot in the U.S. Capitol has been arrested after authorities used the image to help identify him.

Federal prosecutors say Kevin Seefried, who was seen carrying the flag, was arrested in Delaware along with his son Hunter Seefried. Prosecutors say both entered the Senate building through a broken window.

They were charged with unlawfully entering a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds and degradation of government property.

Court documents say the men were identified after the FBI was told by a coworker of Hunter Seefried’s that he had bragged about being in the Capitol with his father.

Many Americans reacted with horror to the picture of a Confederate flag in the Capitol, with a number of people noting the flag never made it into the building during the US Civil War.

According to an AP count, more than 100 people have now been arrested in connection to the violence at the Capitol.

Donald Trump is taking departure photos with White House staffers today, according to the Washington Post.

The president’s senior trade adviser, Peter Navarro, was also seen removing a photo of Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping from the White House yesterday.

The events are two more signs that the president and his team are slowly coming to terms with the fact that Trump will really be leaving the White House in just six days.

Updated

Richard Luscombe reports for the Guardian from Miami:

Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort is facing court fines for a maskless New Year’s Eve party held at the Florida club in contravention of Covid-19 regulations.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Thursday that county officials issued “a stern warning” to the Palm Beach resort over the party and potential superspreader event, which Trump himself skipped out on when he cut short his winter holiday and returned to the White House to concentrate on efforts to overturn his election defeat.

“There was a breakdown in enforcement of the mask orders that led to almost the entire room of guests being without masks during the later evening activities,” the Palm Beach county administrators Todd Bonlarron and Patrick Rutter wrote to Mar-a-Lago managing director Bernd Lembcke.

An accompanying letter from the county’s department of planning, zoning and building warns that fines of up to $15,000 per violation can be imposed for failure to adhere to facial covering and social distancing requirements.

Under an emergency county order, businesses are required to ensure visitors wear masks unless they are eating or drinking.

Guests paid $1,000 per head to attend the glitzy party, usually the highlight of the Mar-a-Lago social calendar but widely considered this year to be a flop. After the president and first lady Melania Trump decided that morning not to attend, attendees were treated to Rudy Giuliani and 1990s rapper Vanilla Ice as the headline acts.

Managers at Mar-a-Lago did not respond to a request for comment.

Updated

National Park Service denies reports about National Mall closure

The National Park Service has denied reports that the National Mall will be closed on inauguration day due to security concerns.

“News reports that @NationalMallNPS will be closed to public for the Inauguration are not correct,” the agency’s press account said on Twitter.

“We continue to work with @SecretService @BidenInaugural and @MayorBowser. We will announce plans once a decision is made.”

Multiple reports published this morning indicated that the mall would be closed to the public next Wednesday, amid intensifying concerns of violence at the inauguration, after a violent mob stormed the US Capitol last week.

Speaking to reporters last week, Joe Biden said he was “not afraid” to take the oath of office outdoors, despite the violence at the Capitol.

Victoria Bekiempis reports for the Guardian:

The New York City police department is sending 200 officers to Washington DC to assist with security on Inauguration Day following the 6 January Capitol attack, said John J Miller, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner of intelligence & counterterrorism.

“We’ve never done that before,” Miller remarked on a call with reporters Thursday, saying the department was doing so “based on the events” of last week.

At one point during the call, Miller remarked: “We’ve never had Americans fighting Americans on the streets of the nation’s Capitol ... since the civil war.”

Miller said that he had been in contact with law enforcement partners in Washington prior to the insurrection, which was carried out by Trump supporters in an attempt to block the electoral vote certification of Joe Biden’s victory. Miller said the NYPD had sent “raw” intelligence to the Capitol in two or three separate reports.

He was also asked about whether there was any new information about the department’s investigation of an allegation that an NYPD member might have participated in the riot. “I can’t give you an update. That investigation is still ongoing, and it’s still in the hands of the internal affairs bureau,” he said. If other names surfaced, the NYPD would work “hand-in-glove” with the FBI to investigate them.

Miller recognized that there have been public calls by extremists to march on state capitols. He said that police resources around New York’s city hall will be ramped up from 17 January until 20 January “out of an abundance of caution”.

“At this time, there are no specific threats to NYC as an outgrowth to the events of January 6th,” Miller also said

Updated

Blocked from Twitter, Donald Trump has resorted to issuing official White House statements that read a lot like the tweets he can no longer send.

“United States military troops in Afghanistan are at a 19-year low. Likewise, Iraq and Syria are also at the lowest point in many years. I will always be committed to stopping the endless wars,” Trump said in the statement.

The defense department has ordered a drawdown of US troops in Afghanistan, but thousands of service members remain there, despite Trump’s consistent criticisms of the country’s “endless wars” during both his 2016 campaign and his presidency.

It should also be noted that as Trump brags about lower troop levels overseas, the nation’s capital is expecting up to 20,000 National Guard troops next week due to security concerns ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration.

As the House debated the president’s impeachment yesterday, Trump sent a similar White House statement, urging “no violence” over the next week. Of course, that message came a week after the president incited a violent mob to attack the US Capitol, resulting in five deaths.

Updated

Christine Priola, a former school occupational therapist from Ohio who was photographed near the vice-president’s chair in the Senate chamber during the Capitol riot, has been arrested.

WKYC, an NBC News affiliate based in Cleveland, reports:

According to documents filed in United States District Court, 49-year-old Christine Priola faces charges of knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, and unlawful activities on Capitol grounds.

Priola was arrested by FBI agents at her house on Thursday morning. She is in currently in the custody of U.S. Marshals and is scheduled to appear for a hearing in front of US Federal Magistrate William Baughman on Thursday afternoon.

According to an AP count, more than 100 people have now been arrested in connection to the violence at the Capitol last week.

Donald Trump has cloistered himself in the White House in “self-pity mode” since the House impeached him for an unprecedented second time, according to reports.

Capitol Police officers confront those who attacked the US Congress, outside the Senate Chamber.
Capitol Police officers confront those who attacked the US Congress, outside the Senate Chamber. Photograph: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

The president is cutting a sad figure, White House staffers have told news outlets.

“He’s been holed up in the residence, that’s never a good thing,” a person close to the White House told CNN.

“He’s by himself, not a lot of people to bounce ideas off of, whenever that happens he goes to his worst instincts.”

“He’s in self-pity mode,” a White House advisor also told CNN, adding that “everybody’s angry at everyone” at the White House right now.

The Washington Post further reports:

As he watched impeachment quickly gain steam, Trump was upset generally that virtually nobody is defending him — including press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, economic adviser Larry Kudlow, national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, according to a senior administration official.

“The president is pretty wound up,” said the senior administration official, who, like some others interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid. “No one is out there.”

On Tuesday, when he could have, for example, visited a vaccination center or a field hospital where front line health care workers are battling the raging pandemic, he took a trip to Texas on the US-Mexico border to look at bits of the barrier he’s had constructed at taxpayers’ expense.

Updated

Rosenstein now regrets family separations at US-Mexico border

For the first time, a senior Trump administration official who helped implement family separation has condemned the hardline immigration policy which made it possible for the government to take more than 3,000 children, including infants, from their parents at the US-Mexico border in 2018.

A group of Central American migrants climb the border fence between Mexico and the United States, near El Chaparral border crossing, in Tijuana, Baja California State, Mexico, on November 25, 2018.
A group of Central American migrants climb the border fence between Mexico and the United States, near El Chaparral border crossing, in Tijuana, Baja California State, Mexico, on November 25, 2018. Photograph: Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty Images

In response to a damning report published today by the US Justice department’s internal watchdog on the “zero tolerance” policy which made family separation possible, former deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, said the policy “should have never been proposed or implemented.”

The Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) long-awaited report said department leadership knew the zero tolerance policy would result in children being separated from their families and that the former US attorney general Jeff Sessions “demonstrated a deficient understanding of the legal requirements related to the care and custody of separated children.”

“We concluded that the Department’s single-minded focus on increasing immigration prosecutions came at the expense of careful and appropriate consideration of the impact of family unit prosecutions and child separations,” the report said.

The OIG said Justice department leadership “did not effectively coordinate” with the relevant agencies before implementing zero tolerance, despite being aware of the challenges created by increasing prosecutions of adult asylum-seekers under “zero tolerance.”

In a conference call in May 2018, Sessions told prosecutors “We need to take away children,” according to notes taken by people on the call and provided to the OIG.

Rosenstein, who publicly denounced the policy for the first time today, told the OIG he knew the zero tolerance policy would result in family separations.

In July 2020, the Guardian reported that Rosenstein had made comments in a conference call with US attorneys charged with implementing the policy that in effect meant that no child was too young to be separated from their parents.

In a statement provide to the Guardian on Thursday Rosenstein said he and his colleagues at the Justice department “faced unprecedented challenges” compared to work he had done as a US attorney under previous presidential administrations.

“Since leaving the Department, I have often asked myself what we should have done differently, and no issue has dominated my thinking more than the zero tolerance immigration policy,” Rosenstein said. “It was a failed policy that never should have been proposed or implemented. I wish we all had done better.”

We’ll have the rest of this story on the website very soon.

Updated

Today so far

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • Weekly initial jobless claims soared to 965,000 last week, according to data released by the labor department. The number represents an increase of about 180,000 claims from a week earlier, and it is the highest weekly figure since August.
  • The National Mall will be closed for Joe Biden’s inauguration, according to multiple reports. The new comes amid intensifying security concerns around the inauguration after a violent, pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol last week.
  • The New York attorney general announced a lawsuit against the New York City police department, in response to officers’ treatment of Black Lives Matter protesters last year. “There is no question that the NYPD engaged in a pattern of excessive, brutal, and unlawful force against peaceful protesters,” Letitia James said in a statement. “With today’s lawsuit, this longstanding pattern of brutal and illegal force ends.”

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

With six days left until Joe Biden takes the oath of office, signs for the inauguration are starting to go up across the street from the White House.

A New York Times photographer shared photos of bunting that reads “2021 Biden Harris Inauguration” near the White House.

Reports indicate the National Mall will be closed for the inauguration, meaning the public will only be able to see Biden’s swearing-in on television.

The decision was made due to heightened security concerns following the violent riot at the Capitol last week.

Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang formally announced his run as New York City mayor Thursday morning, promising to rebuild a city that has been devastated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The formal announcement came after Yang released his first campaign video, directed by film director and producer Darren Aronofsky, Wednesday night. The video showed Yang, sporting a mask that read “Forward New York”, going around the city talking to and elbow-bumping residents.

“The fears for our future that caused me to run for president have accelerated since this pandemic started,” Yang told a small crowd of supporters in Manhattan Thursday morning. “We need to make New York City the Covid comeback city, but also the anti-poverty city.”

Yang is entering a crowded field of about a dozen mayoral candidates that includes current and former city officials, a member of Barack Obama’s White House cabinet and an ex-Wall Street executive. The bulk of the action around the race will be around the Democratic primary, which is set to take place on 22, June before the general election in November.

Lady Gaga said she was “deeply honored” to be singing the national anthem at Joe Biden’s inauguration next week.

Biden’s inaugural committee announced earlier today that Lady Gaga would be singing the national anthem, and Jennifer Lopez will be doing a musical performance for the ceremony.

The inauguration is now just six days away.

New York attorney general sues NYPD over treatment of BLM protesters

Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, announced she is filing a lawsuit against the New York City Police Department over its treatment of protesters during last year’s demonstrations in response to the police killing of George Floyd.

James said the NYPD violated protesters’ rights as part of a “longstanding pattern of brutal and illegal force” by the department’s officers.

“There is no question that the NYPD engaged in a pattern of excessive, brutal, and unlawful force against peaceful protesters,” James said in a statement.

“Over the past few months, the NYPD has repeatedly and blatantly violated the rights of New Yorkers, inflicting significant physical and psychological harm and leading to great distrust in law enforcement. With today’s lawsuit, this longstanding pattern of brutal and illegal force ends. No one is above the law — not even the individuals charged with enforcing it.”

In the statement, James’ office outlined several specific offenses allegedly committed by the NYPD, saying officers “effectuated mass arrests without probable cause; unjustifiably deployed pepper spray, batons, and other force against protesters; and targeted and retaliated against First Amendment activity so frequently and pervasively as to constitute customs or usages of the NYPD.”

The lawsuit comes after Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, asked the office of the attorney general to conduct an investigation into police misconduct amid the protests. In response, James said her office has received more than 1,300 complaints and pieces of evidence since late May.

Doug Ducey, the Republican governor of Arizona, said he would attend Joe Biden’s inauguration next week.

“In America, we believe in the peaceful transition of power. It doesn’t matter who you supported in the election — once the election is over, we put country before party. Never has it been more important than right now to observe these traditions for the whole world to see,” Ducey said in a statement.

“I was honored to represent Arizona at the inauguration of President Trump in 2017, and I am honored to represent our state at the 59th Inaugural Ceremonies next week.”

Ducey added, “President-elect Biden is assuming office at a critical time in our nation’s history, and I wish him well. I will not agree with him on everything and I certainly will not hesitate to share my views on the public policy issues that matter to Arizonans, but I believe President-elect Biden is a good man and wants to serve his country. I look forward to working with his administration and advocating for the people of Arizona.”

Ducey has been an ally of Donald Trump, but the two have been at odds since last month, when the Republican governor certified Biden’s Arizona victory and defended the integrity of his state’s election system. Trump has claimed, with zero evidence, that Biden narrowly won Arizona because of fraud.

Joe Biden plans to name Jaime Harrison, the former South Carolina Senate candidate, as his pick to lead the Democratic National Committee, according to a new report.

The New York Times reports:

A former chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, Mr. Harrison became a national political star last year as he shattered fund-raising records in his race against Senator Lindsey Graham, who was up for re-election. While Mr. Harrison lost in November, drawing 44 percent of the vote to Mr. Graham’s 55 percent, he developed a broad bench of support across the party.

He is also well-known to staff and members of the D.N.C., a result of his work heading the South Carolina state party and a failed bid to become chairman of the committee in 2017. (Tom Perez, the outgoing D.N.C. chair, won that race.) Mr. Harrison has been championed by Representative Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, an influential Biden ally who helped the president-elect win the primary race in Mr. Clyburn’s home state. Mr. Perez opted against running for a second term.

Incoming presidents traditionally take control of the party committees, installing their own chair and staffers. Former President Barack Obama chose to try establish his own political operation outside of the committee, a decision that many D.N.C. members say damaged state parties and led to years of dysfunction at the national level.

Far more of a party institutionalist, Mr. Biden has promised to rebuild state parties and deepen investments in the committee.

The DNC is expected to pick its new chair at its virtual winter meeting next week, a day after Biden’s inauguration. Perez has already said he does not intend to serve another term.

Updated

Pro-impeachment Republican: 'Our expectation is that somebody may try to kill us'

Peter Meijer, a Republican congressman who voted in favor of impeaching Donald Trump, said some of his colleagues are hiring armed escorts and acquiring body armor out of fear for their safety.

“When it comes to my family’s safety, that’s something that we’ve been planning for, preparing for, taking appropriate measures,” Meijer, a Republican of Michigan, told MSNBC.

“I have colleagues who are now traveling with armed escorts, out of the fear for their safety. Many of us are altering our routines, working to get body armor.”

Meijer noted that body armor is a reimbursable expense for members of Congress. He added, “It’s sad that we have to get to that point, but our expectation is that somebody may try to kill us.”

Meijer was one of ten House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for incitement of insurrection yesterday, after the president incited a violent mob to attack the Capitol, resulting in five deaths.

Members of the mob echoed Trump’s baseless claims that Joe Biden won the presidential election because of widespread fraud.

“This wasn’t a landslide re-election for Donald Trump. This wasn’t a stolen election,” Meijer said. “None of those claims played out in court, and it’s time we settle that once and for all.”

Julia Letlow, the widow of congressman-elect Luke Letlow, is running for his House seat, after her husband died of coronavirus.

“Everything in my life and in my marriage has prepared me for this moment,” she said in a statement, per the Monroe News-Star. “My motivation is the passion Luke and I both shared: to better this region that we called home and to leave it a better place for our children and future generations.

“I am running to continue the mission Luke started — to stand up for our Christian values, to fight for our rural agricultural communities and to deliver real results to move our state forward.’’

A special election will take place on March 20 to determine who will fill the seat of Luke Letlow, who died just days before he was set to be sworn in.

Julia Letlow has already attracted the support of Steve Scalise, the House minority whip and a prominent Republican figure in Louisiana politics.

Andrew Yang formally launches New York mayoral bid

Andrew Yang, the former Democratic presidential candidate, formally launched his campaign for mayor of New York this morning.

Speaking at an event in Morningside Park, Yang told a socially distanced crowd, “I am so thrilled to announce to you all that I am running for mayor of New York City.”

Yang, who based his presidential campaign on a promise to establish a universal basic income program, made a similar pledge to New Yorkers.

“We will launch the largest basic income program in the history of the country, right here in New York,” Yang said.

Yang dropped out of the presidential primary last year after a disappointing performance in New Hampshire, but the tech entrepreneur’s ability to attract donations and support in a crowded field impressed many of his more established political opponents.

National Mall to close for inauguration due to security concerns - report

The entire National Mall will be closed for Joe Biden’s inauguration due to security concerns after the Capitol riot, according to a new report.

The Washington Post reports:

The extraordinary closure is the latest in a series of security measures to harden the city against the type of violence that rocked the Capitol on Jan. 6. Local and federal officials had already established a downtown security zone and called up more than 20,000 National Guard troops to protect the presidential swearing in on Jan. 20.

The move is significant because the Mall has been the traditional site where much of the general public has gathered to view the inauguration at the Capitol in person and on large jumbotrons.

‘That means no one will be able to get into the Mall,” one of the officials [familiar with the matter] said. ‘I would think about it as if you are going to watch, you are not going to be able to see anything. You would maybe be able to see the top of the Capitol.’

Biden told reporters last week that he was not afraid to take the oath of office outside, but the violence at the Capitol last week has intensified concerns about another incident occurring during the inauguration.

Fourth House member tests positive for coronavirus after Capitol riot

A fourth House member has tested positive for coronavirus after sheltering in place with colleagues during the Capitol Riot.

Adriano Espaillat, a Democrat of New York, said he is following his doctor’s guidance and quarantining at home after receiving a positive test result. Espaillat spoke in favor of Donald Trump’s impeachment on the House floor yesterday.

In a tweet thread, Espaillat noted that he received his second dose of the coronavirus vaccine last week, but the benefits of the vaccine take time to go into effect.

“I have continued to be tested regularly, wear my mask and follow the recommended guidelines,” Espaillat said. “I will continue my duties representing New York’s 13th congressional district remotely until I have received clearance from my doctor.”

Three of Espaillat’s Democratic colleagues -- Bonnie Watson Coleman, Pramila Jayapal and Brad Schneider -- have also tested positive for coronavirus since the riot.

Democrats have blamed their Republican colleagues, some of whom refused to wear masks during the lockdown, for contributing to the spread of the virus.

On Tuesday, House Democratic leadership introduced a proposal to fine members who do not wear masks on Capitol grounds.

Dr Harold Bornstein, the president’s former personal physician, died on Friday at 73.

During the 2016 campaign, Bornstein famously said that Donald Trump, one of his longtime patients, would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency,”

The New York Times has the story:

His death was announced on Thursday in a paid notice in The New York Times. It did not give a cause or say where he died.

Loquacious, hirsute and eccentric, Dr. Bornstein, a gastroenterologist, was Mr. Trump’s personal physician from 1980 to 2017. He had inherited Mr. Trump as a patient from his father, Dr. Jacob Bornstein, with whom he shared a medical practice on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, at Park Avenue and 78th Street.

When Mr. Trump was elected president in 2016, Dr. Bornstein had hoped to be named White House physician and suggested as much to a longtime Trump assistant. But he was expelled from the Trump orbit after he disclosed to The New York Times that the president was taking medication to make his hair grow.

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 this evening on his “vaccination and economic rescue legislative package to fund vaccinations and provide immediate, direct relief to working families and communities”.

The president-elect has promised that passing a comprehensive coronavirus relief package will be his first order of business after taking the oath of office.

That task will be significantly easier with Democrats in control of the Senate, but there are still some disagreements within the party over the details of a relief package.

For example, Biden has pledged another round of direct cash payments to all Americans, but Joe Manchin, the centrist senator of West Virginia, has said he would like more targeted relief rather than checks for everyone.

Biden will likely address those differences in opinion in his speech today, so stay tuned.

If you fancy something to get your ears around, in this podcast today, Jonathan Freedland talks to Noah Feldman, who testified for the Democrats in the president’s first impeachment hearing. They discuss the various consequences for Trump after the House of Representatives voted to impeach him for the second time.

Weekly initial US jobless claims soar to 965,000 in latest figures

The latest weekly initial jobless claims soared to 965,000 last week, according to the weekly data from the Department of Labor. Last week’s figure was 795,000. The most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics showed there had been a monthly decline of 140,000 jobs in December.

The US still needs to recover 10 million jobs to return to pre-pandemic levels. The overall unemployment rate is at 6.7 percent and some 19 million Americans are still relying on claiming some sort of unemployment benefit.

President-elect Joe Biden will be announcing his plans for a Covid economic recovery program in Wilmington, Delaware at 7:15pm.

It is happening again…

As my colleague Julian Borger put it earlier: “The last days of Pompeo have been played out in a blizzard of self-congratulatory tweets, at the rate of two dozen a day, as he seeks to write his own first draft of history. The former Kansas congressman, with evident ambitions for a presidential run in 2024, has accented his claims of success by frequent derogatory references to the previous administration, portrayed as hapless appeasers. Some of the tweets have been factually incorrect.”

Theodore R Johnson, senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, writes for us today:

Last week, Raphael Warnock made history by winning a special senatorial election in Georgia, becoming the first Black Democrat from the south ever elected to the United States Senate. Warnock, the senior pastor of the same church Martin Luther King Jr once led, pulled off the upset thanks to high turnout among Black voters across the state, in metro and rural areas alike. While his victory may have the feel of an overnight success story to much of the nation, it is the product of voter engagement that’s occurred over the last decade.

The signs that Warnock could pull off an unexpected victory were all there. In 2018, Stacey Abrams came within 1.4 percentage points of becoming Georgia’s first Black governor and the first Black woman to be governor in the nation’s history. Then, last November, Joe Biden carried the state, becoming only the second Democrat to win it in more than three decades. And it happened by the slimmest of margins: Biden bested Donald Trump by just 11,000 votes when more than 5m were cast. After these two statewide contests, Democratic strategists were optimistic that strong turnout among Black Georgians would allow them to win both Senate seats up for grabs. Warnock’s victory is a culmination of that trend and sustained voter engagement work by figures such as Stacey Abrams and years of Democratic organizers.

As has been well-established, Black Americans are the most reliable Democratic voters in the country – for the last five decades, Democratic presidential and congressional candidates win about 90% of Black voters on average. This basically held true in Georgia in 2020, where Biden beat Trump among Black voters 88–11. Strategists understand that increasing Black voter turnout creates lopsided advantages for Democratic candidates for elected office. So in Georgia, where the number of Black Americans has steadily increased in recent years and presently makes up about a third of the state’s residents, Democrats recognized that a window of opportunity to win statewide contests would open.

Stacey Abrams’ gubernatorial campaign leveraged the work of grassroots voter mobilization and civic engagement efforts and directed resources to expand outreach, especially in communities of color. And though she lost that election in an outcome clouded by voter suppression, the playbook for how to increase turnout by educating Georgians about the voting process and getting disengaged citizens to show up on election day was well-established. And it worked.

Read more here: Theodore R Johnson – The Democrats owe their new control of the Senate to Black voters in Georgia

ProPublica have a disturbing read this morning about deep-seated racism in the Capitol police force, whose role in last weeks unrest in Washington DC has increased scrutiny. Joshua Kaplan and Joaquin Sapien report:

When Kim Dine took over as the new chief of the US Capitol Police in 2012, he knew he had a serious problem. Since 2001, hundreds of Black officers had sued the department for racial discrimination. They alleged that white officers called Black colleagues slurs like the N-word and that one officer found a hangman’s noose on his locker. White officers were called “huk lovers” or “FOGs” — short for “friends of gangsters” — if they were friendly with their Black colleagues. Black officers faced “unprovoked traffic stops” from fellow Capitol Police officers. One Black officer claimed he heard a colleague say, “Obama monkey, go back to Africa.”

In case after case, agency lawyers denied wrongdoing. But in an interview, Dine said it was clear he had to address the department’s charged racial climate. He said he promoted a Black officer to assistant chief, a first for the agency, and tried to increase diversity by changing the force’s hiring practices. He also said he hired a Black woman to lead a diversity office and created a new disciplinary body within the department, promoting a Black woman to lead it.

“There is a problem with racism in this country, in pretty much every establishment that exists,” said Dine, who left the agency in 2016. “You can always do more in retrospect.”

Read more here: ProPublica – “No One Took Us Seriously”: Black Cops Warned About Racist Capitol Police Officers for Years

Here’s what is in the diary for today. The president has got no official public engagements listed, although, as they have done virtually every single day in January, the White House has asserted that, and I quote, Donald Trump “will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings.”

Vice president Mike Pence takes part in a briefing on inauguration security at Fema headquarters at 4pm.

President-elect Joe Biden will speak about his “vaccination and economic rescue legislative package to fund vaccinations and provide immediate, direct relief to working families and communities” in Wilmington, Delaware, at 19:15 ET, which is just gone midnight if, like me, you are in the UK.

Future first lady Jill Biden hosts a virtual special announcement and listening session with military family organisations at 1pm.

And perhaps attracting more attention than usual, given the events of the last couple of months and the pressure put on Georgia’s election machinary by the president, Gov. Brian Kemp delivers his state of the state address in Atlanta, Georgia, at 11am.

Also at 11am, New York State attorney general Letitia James is trailing that she willl make “a major civil rights announcement”.

Updated

Trump 'refusing to pay' Rudy Giuliani's legal fees after falling out

Donald Trump has fallen out with his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and is refusing to pay the former New York mayor’s legal bills, it was reported, with the president feeling abandoned and frustrated during his last days in office.

Giuliani played a key role in Trump’s failed attempts to overturn the results of November’s presidential election through the courts. The lawyer mounted numerous spurious legal challenges, travelling to swing states won by Joe Biden, and spread false claims the vote was rigged.

According to the Washington Post, relations between Trump and Giuliani have dramatically cooled. Trump has instructed his aides not to pay Giuliani’s outstanding fees. The president is reportedly offended by Giuliani’s demand for $20,000 a day – a figure the lawyer denies, but which is apparently in writing. White House officials have even been told not to put through any of Giuliani’s calls.

The apparent breach with Giuliani – one of Trump’s most loyal and sycophantic supporters – has contributed to the president’s sense of isolation and betrayal, aides have suggested.

Trump is reportedly unhappy that members of his inner circle have failed to defend him following last week’s deadly attack on the US Capitol by a mob of his supporters. Many have been silent following Wednesday’s vote in the House of Representatives to impeach Trump for a second time.

Rudy Giuliani, pictured in happier times, defending Donald Trump in the parking lot of Four Seasons Total Landscaping.
Rudy Giuliani, pictured in happier times, defending Donald Trump in the parking lot of Four Seasons Total Landscaping. Photograph: Bryan R Smith/AFP/Getty Images

Those who have reportedly failed to step up include Trump’s press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, his son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, and his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, responsible for indulging Trump’s belief that the election was rigged.

“The president is pretty wound up,” one senior administration official told the Post. “No one is out there.”

Trump’s refusal to pay Giuliani’s bills is another blow to the former federal prosecutor. Giuliani is already under fire for his own alleged role in inciting Trump supporters to storm the Capitol building.

Read more of Luke Hardin’s report here: Trump ‘refusing to pay’ Rudy Giuliani’s legal fees after falling out

Biden-Harris Inauguration Committee announces line-up for next week's event

Also with an entertainment element to it, this morning the Biden-Harris Inauguration Committee have announced the line-up for the event. In a statement they say the following participants will join the 59th Inaugural Swearing-In Ceremony:

  • Invocation – Father Leo J. O’Donovan
  • Pledge of Allegiance – Andrea Hall
  • National Anthem – Lady Gaga
  • Poetry Reading – Amanda Gorman
  • Musical Performance – Jennifer Lopez
  • Benediction – Reverend Dr. Silvester Beaman

The statement also promises that:

Over the course of five days of programming, “America United” activities will honor inaugural traditions while safely allowing more Americans than ever before to participate from their own homes. These activities include, “United We Serve,” a National Day of Service on January 18, Martin Luther King Jr. Day; a nationwide Covid-19 Memorial to Lives Lost on January 19; and the official Inaugural Ceremonies, a wreath laying on Arlington National Cemetery, and a “Parade Across America,” and a “Celebrating America” primetime program on January 20. The PIC will also install an extensive public art display — a “Field of Flags,” which will cover the National Mall up to 13th Street — to represent the American people who are unable to travel to Washington, DC.

One somewhat lighter-hearted bit of fall-out from last week’s events – Macaulay Culkin has joined calls to get Donald Trump’s cameo removed from Home Alone 2.

Culkin replied to a tweet that asked “petition to digitally replace trump in ‘home alone 2’ with 40-year-old macaulay culkin” with the single word: “Sold.” Culkin then followed up by responding “Bravo” to another tweet that contained a comic edit of Trump replaced by empty space.

Trump appears briefly in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York when Culkin, as its hero Kevin, asks him for directions to the lobby of the Plaza hotel, which Trump owned at the time. In an interview with Insider in December 2020, the film’s director Chris Columbus said that Trump “did bully his way into the movie” by insisting he get a role in the film in return for allowing shooting to take place in the hotel.

The finale of Mike Pompeo’s reign at the state department has been as controversial and clamorous as the rest of his 32-month tenure, but it is unclear what traces will remain after he has gone.

The last days of Pompeo have been played out in a blizzard of self-congratulatory tweets, at the rate of two dozen a day, as he seeks to write his own first draft of history.

The former Kansas congressman, with evident ambitions for a presidential run in 2024, has accented his claims of success by frequent derogatory references to the previous administration, portrayed as hapless appeasers.

Some of the tweets have been factually incorrect, for example blaming Barack Obama for an arms control treaty that was signed by Ronald Reagan.

Other claims are contradictory, like his insistence the US has restored deterrence against Iran, alongside his allegation that Tehran is a greater threat than ever. On Tuesday, he called Iran “the new Afghanistan”, alleging – without evidence – that it has become al-Qaida’s hub of operations.

While Iran’s economy has been successfully pummelled by sanctions, as Pompeo points out, its stockpile of low-enriched uranium is now more than 12 times greater than it was when Pompeo took up the job of US secretary of state in 2018.

“If the real economic duress US sanctions put on Tehran has increased or least failed to stop the very activities that policy was meant to reverse, it’s a matter of having made an impact without delivering a favourable outcome,” Naysan Rafati, senior Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group, said.

Similarly, Pompeo argues that Donald Trump’s summits with Kim Jong-un led to a lull in nuclear warhead and long-range missile testing. But he does not mention that Kim has declared an end to that moratorium, and is now set to have a substantially bigger arsenal than when he began meeting Trump.

The portrait Pompeo has painted of Trump’s America has been in dramatic contrast to recent events. Two days after Congress came under an unprecedented violent attack by a mob egged on by Trump, Pompeo blithely tweeted: “Being the greatest country on earth is not just about our incredible economy & our strong military; it’s about the values we project out into the world.”

Read more of Julian Borger’s analysis here: The last days of Pompeo: secretary of state lashes out as reign comes to an end

A quick snap from Reuters here that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Thursday it feared that the US designation of Houthi fighters in Yemen as a terrorist group would lead to a “chilling effect” on delivering vital aid to starving and sick civilians.

ICRC director of operations Dominik Stillhart said the agency urged states imposing such measures to consider “humanitarian carve-outs” to mitigate any negative impact on populations and on impartial aid.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo announced the move, which will include sanctions against the movement and three of its leaders, on Sunday. It will come into effect on 19 January, the Trump administration’s last full day in office

Nigerian-American political strategist and organizer Akin Olla writes for us this morning on how the US Capitol riot risks supercharging a new age of political repression:

Republicans have long called for the increased repression of activists, but the chorus has reached a crescendo in the age of Black Lives Matter and climate protests. In the last five years, 116 bills to increase penalties for protests including highway shutdowns and occupations have been introduced in state legislatures. Twenty-three of those bills became law in 15 states.

Following the killing of George Floyd and the subsequent uprisings, we’ve seen another flow of proposals. For example, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida would like to make merely participating in a protest that leads to property damage or road blockage a felony, while granting protections to people who hit those same protesters with their cars. Following the storming of the Capitol, DeSantis, a Trump ally, has expanded these proposals with more provisions and harsher consequences. The only thing preventing the passage of many of these laws thus far has been opposition from Democrats.

But now the Democrats have caught the tune and returned to their post-9/11 calls for heightening the “war on terror”. Joe Biden has already made it clear that he intends to answer these calls. He has named the rioters “domestic terrorists” and “insurrectionists”, both terms used to designate those whose civil liberties the state is openly allowed to violate. He has declared he will make it a priority to pass a new law against domestic terrorism and has named the possibility of creating a new White House post to combat ideologically inspired violent extremists.

These moves are not to be taken as empty threats by Biden. All the pieces are in place for him to attempt to unite the parties by being a “law and order” president and effectively crush any social movement that opposes the status quo.

Read more here: Akin Olla – The US Capitol riot risks supercharging a new age of political repression

White House liaison sought derogatory info on E Jean Carroll from DoJ official

The White House liaison to the Department of Justice (DoJ), Heidi Stirrup, sought out derogatory information late last year from a senior justice department official regarding a woman who alleges she was raped by Donald Trump, according to the person from whom Stirrup directly sought the information.

The revelation raises the prospect that allies of the US president were directly pressing the justice department to try to dig up potentially damaging information on a woman who had accused Trump of sexually attacking her.

E Jean Carroll, a journalist and advice columnist, sued Trump in November 2019, alleging he had defamed her when he denied her account of having been raped by him. Carroll alleges Trump sexually assaulted her in a dressing room in Bergdorf Goodman, a high-end Manhattan department store, in either late 1995 or early 1996.

Trump at the time responded to her allegations by claiming Carroll was “totally lying” and attempted to ridicule her by saying “she’s not my type”. Those and similar comments led Carroll to sue him.

Stirrup apparently believed the justice department had information that might aid the president’s legal defense in the suit. The attorney who Stirrup sought information from regarding Carroll said that Stirrup approached them not long after a judge had ruled the justice department could not take over Trump’s defense.

Stirrup asked if the department had uncovered any derogatory information about Carroll that they might share with her or the president’s private counsel. Stirrup also suggested that she could serve as a conduit between the department and individuals close to the president or his private legal team.

Stirrup also asked the official whether the justice department had any information that Carroll or anyone on her legal team had links with the Democratic party or partisan activists, who might have put her up to falsely accusing the president.

Read more of Murray Waas’ report here: Revealed – White House liaison sought derogatory info on E Jean Carroll from DoJ official

David Nather reports this morning that a new Axios-Ipsos poll states that more than half of Americans want Trump removed from office. But it doesn’t really appear to show that the country is united in this resolve:

The 56% who want him removed is up, from 51% in another Ipsos poll last week. But three in four Republicans disagree. It’s mostly Democrats and a slight majority of independents who want him gone. 94% of Democrats say Trump should be removed immediately. The poll was taken just before Trump was impeached for a second time.

Read more here: Axios – More than half of Americans want Trump removed

Stephen Collinson at CNN has offered this analysis this morning:

Trump’s disastrous final days in office have brought the Republican Party to an existential moment. How GOP senators decide to deal with the strongman who bullied and manipulated them for five years will show whether their out-of-control party can revive its conservative soul or is destined to race into a conspiratorial, anti-democratic dead end.

The reaction to Trump’s latest impeachment and acrimonious exit from office will wash across an uneasy, angry nation, traumatized by the Washington insurrection he inspired.

The tens of thousands of troops and security forces should be able to secure Biden’s inauguration, but FBI warnings of uprisings in 50 states reflect the brittle atmosphere, which the trial could make even more tense.

The coming weeks will make clear whether the fury and radicalism inspired by Trump will recede when he is in internal political exile in Florida.Or they will reveal if something more serious is brewing.

The first-ever impeachment trial of an ex-president – in itself the final, surreal shattering of norms of the Trump era – will also go a long way toward deciding how quickly America’s political institutions and the galvanizing role of truth in public life, which have both been under constant assault from the current President, can be rehabilitated.

Read more here: CNN – Trump’s historic 2nd impeachment trial hangs over Biden and Republicans

Here’s a quick reminder of some of the defences of president Donald Trump that were given by Republicans in the House yesterday.

Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio): “It’s always been about getting the president, no matter what. It’s an obsession, an obsession that has now broadened. It’s not just about impeachment anymore, it’s about canceling, as I’ve said. Canceling the president and anyone that disagrees with them.”

Rep. Tom McClintock (California): “If we impeached every politician who gave a fiery speech to a crowd of partisans, this Capitol would be deserted. That’s what the president did, that is all he did. He specifically told the crowd to protest peacefully and patriotically. And the vast majority of them did. But every movement has a lunatic fringe.”

Rep. Matt Gaetz (Florida): “I denounce political violence from all ends of the spectrum, but make no mistake, the left in America has incited far more political violence than the right. For months, our cities burned, police stations burned, our businesses were shattered, and they said nothing. Or they cheer-led for it and fund-raised for it and they allowed it to happen in the greatest country in the world. Now some have cited the metaphor that the president lit the flame. Well, they lit actual flames. Actual fires.”

The son of Captain America co-creator Jack Kirby has strongly condemned insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol last week wearing or brandishing symbols of the Marvel superhero, saying his father would have been “absolutely sickened” by the sight.

In a statement issued to CNN reporter Jake Tapper, Neal Kirby, 72, said he was “appalled and mortified” to see Trump supporters dressed in Captain America costumes or displaying his iconic star shield on 6 January. His father Jack, along with Joe Simon, created Captain America in 1941, with the comic’s first issue famously showing the superhero punching Adolf Hitler in the face.

Supporters of Trump enter the US Capitol’s Rotunda, with one brandishing a Captain America shield.
Supporters of Trump enter the US Capitol’s Rotunda, with one brandishing a Captain America shield. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

“Captain America has stood as a symbol and protector of our democracy and the rule of law for the past 79 years,” Kirby wrote. “He was created by two Jewish guys from New York who hated Nazis and hated bullies. Captain America stood up for the underdog and, as the story was written, even before he gained his strength and process from Army scientists, always stood for what was righteous, and never backed down.”

While watching footage of the storming of the Capitol on 6 January, he wrote, “I thought I noticed someone in a Trump/Captain America T-shirt! I was appalled and mortified. I believe I even caught a quick glance of someone with a Captain America shield. A quick Google search turned up Trump as Captain America on T-shirts, posters, even a flag!

“These images are disgusting and disgraceful. Captain America is the absolute antithesis of Donald Trump. Where Captain America is selfless, Trump is self-serving. Where Captain America fights for our country and democracy, Trump fights for personal power and autocracy. Where Captain America stands with the common man, Trump stands with the powerful and privileged. Where Captain America is courageous, Trump is a coward. Captain America and Trump couldn’t be more different.”

Read more of Sian Cain’s report here: Captain America creator’s son hits out at Capitol mob’s use of superhero imagery

Here’s a reminder from Reuters of what we can expect to happen next now that the House of Representatives has voted to impeach president Donald Trump for a second time.

Under the Constitution, impeachment in the House triggers a trial in the Senate. A two-thirds majority would be needed to convict and remove Trump, meaning at least 17 Republicans in the 100-member chamber would have to join the Democrats.

Even if Trump is already out of the White House, conviction in the Senate could lead to a vote banning him from running again.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has said no trial could begin until the Senate was scheduled to be back in regular session on Tuesday, which is the day before Biden’s inauguration.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, set to become majority leader this month once Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock are sworn in, said that no matter the timing, “there will be an impeachment trial in the United States Senate; there will be a vote on convicting the president for high crimes and misdemeanors; and if the president is convicted, there will be a vote on barring him from running again.”

Crucially, House leaders did not say when they would send the charge to the Senate for consideration. They may delay until after Joe Biden has got his feet under the table in the Oval office and had his cabinet confirmed.

Asked if it would be a good idea to hold a trial on Biden’s first day in office, Rep. Madeleine Dean, one of the House members who will prosecute the trial, said: “I don’t want to preview it, but certainly not. We have a president and a vice president to swear in, we have to restore the peaceful transfer of power, which Donald Trump deliberately incited violence against.”

Some Republicans argued yesterday the impeachment drive was a rush to judgment that bypassed the customary deliberative process, such as hearings, and called on Democrats to abandon the effort for the sake of national unity and healing.

Joe Biden to unveil Covid vaccination and economic recovery plan

Next Wednesday, when Joe Biden will be sworn in as president, marks the one-year anniversary of the first confirmed case of Covid-19 in the United States. The death toll currently stands at over 384,000.

Today Biden will unveil a coronavirus action plan that centers on a mass vaccination campaign and closer coordination among all levels of government.

Biden hopes his multidimensional strategy, expected to be detailed in a speech later this today, will put the country on the path to recovery by the end of his first 100 days. “It’s going to be hard,” Biden said Monday after he got his second vaccine shot. “It’s not going to be easy. But we can get it done.”

A more disciplined focus on vaccination is the new and widely anticipated game-changing element, but that’s far from the whole story. Biden is asking Americans to override their sense of pandemic fatigue and recommit to wearing masks, practicing social distancing, and avoiding indoor gatherings, particularly larger ones. That’s still, according to expert epidemiologists the surest way to halt the Covid-19 wave

Associated Press report that Biden has also talked about asking Congress to pump more money to states, to help their efforts to contain the pandemic and replenish depleted coffers that pay for basic services. And Democratic lawmakers are eager to push for $2,000 economic stimulus payments to Americans. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said the Biden Covid-19 package will be the first order of business this year.

But Biden’s biggest challenge is to “win the hearts and minds of the American people to follow his lead,” said Dr. Leana Wen, a public health expert and emergency physician.

A month after the first shots were given, the nation’s vaccination campaign is off to a slow start. Biden aims to speed that up by delivering more vaccine and working closely with states and local communities to get shots into the arms of more people. The Trump administration provided the vaccine to states and set guidelines for who should get priority for shots, but largely left it up to state and local officials to organize their vaccination campaigns.

Biden has set a goal of administering 100 million shots in his first 100 days. The pace of vaccination is approaching 1 million shots a day, but it needs to be nearly double that to reach his mark.

It’s all a stark contrast to president Donald Trump’s repeated assertions that the coronavirus would go away on its own. On 26 February 2020 Trump said “You have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.” Under his administration, more than 23 million people in the US have now been infected.

Updated

Some Democrats believe that responsibility for the assault on the Capitol last week lies not just with president Trump, but with other Republican members of Congress. The Washington Post reports this morning:

New Jersey Rep. Mikie Sherrill said in a Facebook Live broadcast that she saw Republicans “who had groups coming through the Capitol that I saw on 5 January for reconnaissance for the next day.” She said some of her GOP colleagues “abetted” Trump and “incited this violent crowd.”

“I’m going to see that they’re held accountable and, if necessary, ensure that they don’t serve in Congress,” she said.

She and other Democrats sent a letter Wednesday asking congressional security officials to investigate what they called “suspicious behavior and access given to visitors” the day before the attack. The letter said that Democratic lawmakers and staffers “witnessed an extremely high number of outside groups” visiting the Capitol, which was unusual because the building has restricted public access since March, when pandemic protocols were enacted. Since then, tourists can enter the Capitol only when brought in by a member of Congress

Among the visitors, according to the Democrats’ letter, were some who “appeared to be associated with the rally.” Sherrill and the other Democrats asked that any logbooks, videos and facial recognition software be examined to identify visitors and determine if they could be matched with those who stormed the Capitol.

Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said in an interview that “I do know that, yes, there were members that gave tours to individuals who participated in the riot.” She said an investigation is needed, adding, “What I don’t know is whether they were aware of what their plans were for the next day.”

Read more here: Washington Post – Democrats demand investigation of whether Republicans in Congress aided Capitol rioters

US police three times as likely to use force against leftwing protesters

The shooting of Jacob Blake was just one of the incidents that put American law enforcement under the spotlight in 2020. Lois Beckett reports for us on data that shows that police are three times as likely to use force against leftwing protesters than against other protests:

In the past 10 months, US law enforcement agencies have used teargas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and beatings at a much higher percentage at Black Lives Matter demonstrations than at pro-Trump or other rightwing protests.

Law enforcement officers were also more likely to use force against leftwing demonstrators, whether the protests remained peaceful or not.

The statistics, based on law enforcement responses to more than 13,000 protests across the United States since April 2020, show a clear disparity in how agencies have responded to the historic wave of Black Lives Matter protests against police violence, compared with demonstrations organized by Trump supporters.

Barack Obama highlighted an earlier version of these statistics on 8 January, arguing that they provided a “useful frame of reference” for understanding Americans’ outrage over the failure of Capitol police to stop a mob of thousands of white Trump supporters from invading and looting the Capitol on 6 January, a response that prompted renewed scrutiny of the level of violence and aggression American police forces use against Black versus white Americans.

The new statistics come from the US Crisis Monitor, a database created this spring by researchers at Princeton and the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (ACLED), a nonprofit that has previously monitored civil unrest in the Middle East, Europe, and Latin America.

The researchers found that the vast majority of the thousands of protests across the United States in the past year have been peaceful, and that most protests by both the left and the right were not met with any violent response by law enforcement.

Police used teargas, rubber bullets, beatings with batons, and other force against demonstrators at 511 leftwing protests and 33 rightwing protests since April, according to updated data made public this week.

Read more of Lois Beckett’s report here: US police three times as likely to use force against leftwing protesters, data finds

I kind of went limp. And all I remember at that point was kind of leaning back, looking at my boys. I said, ‘Daddy love you, no matter what.’ I thought it was going to be the last — I thought it was going to be the last thing I say to them. Thank God it wasn’t.

Those are words of Jacob Blake, who was shot seven times by Kenosha police officer Rusten Sheskey, who faces no action over the incident. Blake has been interviewed for ABC’s Good Morning America, which will air today.

Yesterday, Blake’s uncle wrote for us about justice in the US.

Ten Republicans may have voted to impeach Donald Trump yesterday, but there’s definitely some House representatives with a very different idea of what should happen next. Last night newly-elected QAnon-adjacent Marjorie Taylor Greene announced plans to impeach Joe Biden. She told Newsmax’s Greg Kelly in an interview that:

I would like to announce on behalf of the American people, we have to make sure our leaders are held accountable, we cannot have a President of the United States who is willing to abuse the power of the office of the presidency and be easily bought off by foreign governments, foreign Chinese energy companies, Ukrainian energy companies, so on 21 January, I will be filing articles of impeachment on Joe Biden.

She has posted about her plans to impeach the president-elect on social media.

Greene appeared in Congress yesterday, making a speech broadcast on national television, while wearing a mask that said “censored”.

Deirdre Walsh at NPR has identified what she sees as four ways that Trump’s impeachment will change Washington. She cites:

1. Trump makes history that no president wants — the first to be impeached twice. He also is the president who has had the most members of his own party vote for impeachment.

2. The cracks of Republican party are out in the open, growing larger in real time. There are no signs the president’s base is abandoning him, but the split among congressional Republicans about the future of the party is accelerating.

3. President-elect Biden’s agenda gets complicated. Even before Wednesday’s vote Biden’s allies openly worried about what starting the impeachment train moving would mean for the incoming president’s ability to secure Senate confirmation for his cabinet nominees and press for top priorities like coronavirus relief. Now that reality is setting in and the trial will commence likely shortly after Biden takes office.

4. The US Capitol has been forever changed by 6 January. The images of magnetometers stationed around the House chamber, National Guard troops napping on marble floors coddling their weapons, and remnants of broken windows make it apparent that things have dramatically changed in the building. The symbol for democracy used to be a frequent tourist attraction pre-pandemic for school groups learning about the country’s founders and history. Now, it has a new image of what can happen when political rhetoric ignites supporters to turn on their opponents.

Read more here: NPR – 4 ways president Trump’s 2nd impeachment will change Washington

The National Guard has started to move into Washington en masse in an attempt to prevent violence in the run up to the inauguration of Joe Biden next week.

As Congress acted to impeach Donald Trump on Wednesday and the president urged his supporters to shun violence, the National Guard started to deploy 20,000 troops in the US capital.

At Trump’s inauguration in 2016, the figure was about 8,000.

National Guard troops deployed in Washington.
National Guard troops deployed in Washington. Photograph: Carlos Vilas/EPA

The National Guard are on a 24-hour watch in the US Capitol after last week’s violence, with off-duty members catching naps in hallways and below the bust of General George Washington.

Riot shields and gas masks were piled in the hallways, with large numbers of Guard members in fatigues and carrying rifles stationed around the exterior of the building.

Troops have been present at the seat of Congress since at least Friday but more were due to arrive before inauguration day, according to the city’s acting police chief Robert Contee.

Members of the National Guard rest in the Capitol Visitors Center on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Members of the National Guard rest in the Capitol Visitors Center on Capitol Hill in Washington. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

The preparations continued as Trump said in in a White House statement: “In light of reports of more demonstrations, I urge that there must be no violence, no lawbreaking and no vandalism of any kind. That is not what I stand for, and it is not what America stands for.”

New fencing and other security measures have also gone up around the building, a global symbol of democracy. A seven-foot (two-metre) high fence has been erected around the Capitol, with metal barriers and National Guard troops protecting the congressional office buildings that surround it.

Read more here: Washington DC braces as thousands of National Guard move in for inauguration day

The House of Representatives voted 232 to 197 to impeach president Donald Trump for a second time, formally charging him with inciting an insurrection. It was the most bipartisan impeachment vote in US history.

After an emotional day-long debate in the chamber, 10 Republicans joined Democrats to try and hold Trump to account before he leaves office next week. Here’s our video wrap…

Welcome to our live coverage of US politics for Thursday, where we expect to see further fall-out from yesterdays vote in the House to impeach the president. Again.

  • Donald Trump became the first US president to be impeached twice. The House voted to impeach Trump on incitement of insurrection, after the president incited a violent mob to storm the Capitol last week, resulting in five deaths.
  • Ten House Republicans voted in favor of impeachment. Their votes made this the most bipartisan presidential impeachment in US history, though 197 Republicans voted against taking action.
  • Nancy Pelosi delivered an impassioned speech calling on members to support impeachment. “He must go,” the Democratic speaker said of the president. “He is a clear and present danger to the nation we all love.”
  • Republican Kevin McCarthy said Trump “bears responsibility” for the Capitol attack but did not deserve to be impeached. Senate leader Mitch McConnell has said the impeachment trial will happen after Biden has taken office on 20 January.
  • In an uncharacteristically low-key video last night, Donald Trump condemned violence without mentioning his indictment for inciting the attack at the Capitol
  • The US recorded 232,943 new coronavirus cases and 3,848 further deaths yesterday, according to the figures from Johns Hopkins university. There were 130,383 people in hospital with Covid yesterday, stretching US healthcare resources.
  • President-elect Joe Biden has said “We’re in the teeth of this crisis” and will today lay out his administration’s vaccination and economic rescue package plans.
  • Biden said the senate must balance the impeachment trial with coronavirus response. “I hope that the Senate leadership will find a way to deal with their constitutional responsibilities on impeachment while also working on the other urgent business of this nation,” he said.
  • The Senate select committee on intelligence will hold an open nomination hearing at noon on Friday for Avril Haines, his nominee to be the director of national intelligence

Updated

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