Category Archives: Joe Biden

Schumer says Chinese ‘humiliated’ after three flying objects shot down

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‘Chinese were caught lying',’ says Senate majority leader as US and Canadian military scramble to recover pieces

US and Canadian military are continuing to search by sea and land amid hostile weather conditions in a scramble to recover portions of three flying objects shot down over North American airspace in the past week.

The Democratic majority leader of the US Senate, Chuck Schumer, told ABC’s This Week on Sunday that he had been briefed by the White House and that officials were now convinced that all three of the flying objects brought down by air-to-air missiles this week were balloons. He put the finger of blame firmly on China.

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Biden appeals to governors for ‘less partisanship’ to help rebuild economy

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President says at White House dinner that passage of infrastructure laws is evidence of ‘some bipartisan progress’

Joe Biden appealed to Republican and Democratic governors on Saturday to continue working across political divides to improve Americans’ lives and rebuild the economy after the hardships brought by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Speaking at a black-tie dinner at the White House, the president told 31 governors that the passage of laws on investing in infrastructure and domestic manufacture of semiconductors was evidence of “some bipartisan progress” among Republicans and Democrats. Vice-President Kamala Harris was also in attendance.

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US confirms ‘high-altitude object’ taken down over Alaska – as it happened

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John Kirby says defense department was tracking flying object, and Biden ordered military to ‘down’ it

Reports are now confirming that the FBI is searching Pence’s Indiana home for additional classified documents.

CNN reported that “a source familiar with the situation” is confirming that the search is taking place and in relation to classified documents.

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Biden says he’s Republicans’ ‘nightmare’ over social spending cuts – as it happened

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Francine Prose, the novelist and Guardian US columnist, takes a look today at Republican attacks on reading in schools, particularly in Florida under Ron DeSantis, a leading (notional) contender for the presidential nomination in 2024.

For some time now, conservative groups pressured libraries and classrooms to remove certain “controversial” books from their shelves and their syllabi. These are texts that tell uncomfortable or unpopular truths about our nation’s origins, including inequality, race, history, gender, sexuality, power and class – a range of subjects that a small but vocal group of Americans would prefer to ignore or deny.

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‘Pride is coming back’: Biden touts victories on jobs and climate in State of the Union address

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President hopes to combat widespread sense of pessimism and to tout his accomplishments from first two years in office

Joe Biden called on Republicans to help him to “finish the job” of rebuilding the economy and restoring faith in American democracy in his second State of the Union address on Tuesday night, as he made an unfettered call to action on police reform, gun control and the climate crisis.

Addressing a divided Congress for the first time, an optimistic Biden made the case that the nation was stronger and more stable than when he assumed office two years ago.

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Bullish Biden hails achievements in combative State of the Union address – as it happened

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US president believes he has an economic success story to tell although polls indicate voters are skeptical

Joe Biden has left the White House and is driving down Washington’s Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol to give the State of the Union address.

As he walked to his armored limousine known as The Beast, Biden told reporters he was “feeling good.” Asked what the state of the union was, he replied, “great shape. Getting better.”

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‘Hot air’: Marjorie Taylor Greene in State of the Union balloon stunt

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Republican extremist appears to reference Chinese surveillance dirigible by parading halls of Congress with white balloon

Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared to tee up a State of the Union stunt on Tuesday, patrolling the halls of Congress with a large white balloon in reference to Republican criticism of Joe Biden over his handling of a flight over US territory by a Chinese surveillance dirigible.

“Just an innocent white balloon everybody,” the Georgia extremist said, hours before Biden’s address to Congress, attempting to keep aloft the balloon saga which ended when it was shot down off the Carolinas on Saturday.

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Biden set to highlight economic gains in State of the Union address – live

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How Republicans are responding to the State of the Union address will offer a preview into what message the party will sell to voters in the 2024 presidential election. Republicans are already making media appearances on their chosen conservative news networks.

Elise Stefanik, House Republican Conference chair and rising GOP star from New York state whose staunch defense of Donald Trump helped her get a House seat, set up over 300 House Republican interviews with local media outlets, according to this morning’s Politico Playbook.

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McCarthy calls on Biden to accept spending cuts in debt ceiling fight

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White House has said Biden will discuss issue after ceiling is lifted, while Republicans insist on cuts first

Kevin McCarthy, the House speaker, called on Joe Biden to agree to compromises and spending cuts, as the two remain deadlocked over raising the nation’s $31.4tn debt ceiling.

McCarthy spoke on Monday before Biden gives the annual State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, aiming to get ahead of the president and reinforce his role as the leading congressional negotiator.

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Biden prepares for State of the Union as US collects Chinese balloon debris – as it happened

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Former US vice president Mike Pence was expected to visit South Carolina today, as the signals grow louder that he’ll make his own run for the White House in 2024 as a rival to the former boss he’s essentially fallen out with, Donald Trump. But that visit has been postponed.

Fresh reports say that Pence has decided to delay his trip to the crucial primary state because his oldest daughter, Charlotte Pence Bond, has gone into labor in California. The ex-veep and his wife, Karen Pence, headed for California instead and will reschedule the trip to South Carolina.

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Buttigieg backs Biden 2024 run but poll says most Americans don’t

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Poll shows 60% of Democrats want someone else as 2024 nominee and nearly 50% of Republicans want someone other than Trump

Nearly 60% of Democrats and nearly 50% of Republicans want someone other than Joe Biden or Donald Trump to be their party’s nominee for president in 2024, a new poll showed on Sunday.

A key member of Biden’s cabinet, however, insisted Biden’s record in office was more important than any “generational argument” for change.

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Trump campaign promised to ‘fan the flame’ of 2020 election lie, audio reveals – as it happened

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Senior state officials have commented on the postponement of Blinken’s trip to China after a Chinese spy balloon was discovered over the US yesterday, noting that conditions were no longer right for Blinken’s travel.

From Reuters’ reporter Hümeyra Pamuk:

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Why prosecutors might get Trump – and not Biden – for classified documents

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Trump’s situation is more perilous because of his reluctance to cooperate and his suspected obstruction of justice

Donald Trump’s retention of classified-marked documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort is distinguished in the eyes of the justice department from that of Joe Biden or Mike Pence as a result of one particularly crucial difference: suspected obstruction of justice.

Legal experts believe the situation for the former US president is more perilous than others swept up in the scandal because of his reluctance to cooperate at key moments in the investigation and his unwillingness to proactively search his properties for marked documents after becoming aware that he possessed such papers.

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Republicans remove Ilhan Omar from House foreign affairs committee – as it happened

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The House voted along party lines as it ousted Democratic representative Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee while Democrats defended her.

The vote was divided 218 to 211, CBS reports. One GOP member voted “present.”

“This debate today, it’s about who gets to be an American? What opinions do we get to have, do we have to have to be counted as American?… That is what this debate is about, Madam Speaker. There is this idea that you are suspect if you are an immigrant. Or if you are from a certain part of the world, of a certain skin tone or a Muslim.

Well, I am Muslim. I am an immigrant, and interestingly, from Africa. Is anyone surprised that I’m being targeted? Is anyone surprised that I am somehow deemed unworthy to speak about American foreign policy?” she said.

“A blatant double standard is being applied here. Something just doesn’t add up. And what is the difference between Rep. Omar and these members? Could it be the way that she looks? Could it be her religious practices?” he said.

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FBI searches Biden’s Delaware beach home in documents investigation – live updates

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President’s personal attorney reveals justice department ‘planned search’ of home in Rehoboth

Meanwhile in the Senate, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are frustrated that they have not been briefed on the national security implications of all the classified documents that have turned up in Joe Biden, Donald Trump and Mike Pence’s hands.

The sentiment expressed by Democrat Jon Tester today, according to NBC News, is a common one:

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FBI searches Biden’s Delaware beach home in classified papers investigation

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Planned search followed 13-hour review of president’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, in January

Joe Biden’s personal lawyer said on Wednesday the FBI was conducting a planned search of the president’s home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, as part of its investigation potential mishandling of classified information.

“Today, with the president’s full support and cooperation, the Department of Justice is conducting a planned search of his home in Rehoboth, Delaware,” the lawyer, Bob Bauer, said in a statement.

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Trump says in video ‘anyone in my position not taking the fifth would be an absolute fool’ – live

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FBI agents conducted a voluntary search of an office formerly used by Joe Biden in Washington DC after classified materials were discovered there, CBS News reports.

The search of the Penn Biden Center was carried out with Biden’s agreement in November of last year, after the secret documents dating from Biden’s time as vice president under Barack Obama were first discovered. The search was not publicly announced, and CBS News cited two sources familiar with the investigation in reporting it.

Santos hired Charles Lovett as his chief of staff. Lovett served as Santos’s campaign manager and worked for six months as a field organizer for the Ohio Republican Party, according to LegiStorm. He also served as political director for Ohio Republican Josh Mandel’s unsuccessful primary bid for Senate. He has not worked on the Hill previously. Viswanag Burra, Santos’s operations director, spent less than a year as special operations director for Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and recently worked as executive secretary for the New York Young Republican Club.

His communications director, Naysa Woomer, appears to have the most Hill experience. She worked for three Republican members between 2014 and 2018 before moving to Massachusetts to be the communications director for the state Republican Party and then as a communications specialist for the state Department of Revenue.

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Sixth Memphis police officer removed from duty after Tyre Nichols death

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Two EMTs and a firefighter also fired as lawmakers call for meeting with president and investigation into Nichols’ death continues

A sixth officer involved in the death of Tyre Nichols has been removed from duty, police said, as an influential group of Black elected officials has called for a meeting with Joe Biden to discuss police reform.

Officer Preston Hemphill, who is white, was relieved of duty and put on what is known as administrative leave, Memphis police major Karen Rudolph said on Monday, according to multiple reports.

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Biden will announce end of national and public health Covid emergencies in May

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The move to end the declarations comes as House Republicans are set to pass a resolution to demand their immediate scrapping

Joe Biden informed Congress on Monday that he will end the twin national emergencies for addressing Covid-19 on 11 May, as most of the world has returned closer to normalcy nearly three years after they were first declared.

The move to end the national emergency and public health emergency declarations would formally restructure the federal coronavirus response to treat the virus as an endemic threat to public health that can be managed through agencies’ normal authorities.

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Biden and Pence documents reveal US crisis of ‘overclassification’, expert says

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System whereby government classifies 50m documents a year threatens national security and democracy, says Jameel Jaffer

Donald Trump was caught with classified documents and Democrats were outraged. Joe Biden was caught with classified documents and Republicans were outraged. Mike Pence was caught with classified documents and it became clear that there might be a bigger problem here.

America has a crisis of “overclassification”, critics say. Since the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, Washington has been overzealous in defining government secrets. Politicians and officials can too easily fall foul of this secrecy-industrial complex but the biggest losers are the American people denied democratic accountability.

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