US president Joe Biden said he was not sure if his administration could push voting rights legislation through Congress, but he would continue fighting to change the law. ‘I don't know if we can get it done,' he said to reporters. ‘But I know one thing, as long as I have a breath in me … I am going to be fighting to change the way these legislatures are moving.' Earlier, Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema reaffirmed she would not support any change to the filibuster rules, effectively killing her party’s hope of passing the most sweeping voting rights protections in a generation.
Continue reading...Category Archives: Joe Biden
Biden to address US Covid response as Omicron causes record hospitalizations – live
- President to announce purchase of 500m more at-home Covid tests
- Biden will send military teams to US states struggling with Covid spike
- Trump loyalists form alliance to take over election process in key states
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Joe Biden confirmed that his administration will order another 500 million at-home coronavirus tests to address the surge in cases caused by the Omicron variant.
That brings the total number of tests ordered by the administration to 1 billion, but the first batch of 500 million tests has not yet been distributed to Americans.
Continue reading...Manchin and Sinema condemned for opposing filibuster reform urged by Biden – live
- Senate majority leader calls out Democratic colleagues by name
- Biden to attend Senate Democrats’ meeting on voting rights
- Democracy on the line: Biden under pressure to act on voting rights
Joe Biden will travel to Capitol Hill tomorrow to join Senate Democrats’ meeting about the path forward for passing voting rights bills.
“President Biden is expected to attend tomorrow’s Senate Dem Caucus lunch to discuss the push to pass voting rights and potential changes to Senate rules,” a senior Democratic aide said.
Biden urges Senate to eliminate filibuster in voting rights pitch: ‘I’m tired of being quiet’ – as it happened
- ‘The Senate must act on voting rights,’ says Harris
- Schumer: Senate will act on voting rights ‘as soon as tomorrow’
- Why are US voting rights under threat and how is the filibuster related?
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The Republican who memorably resisted Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn his election defeat in Georgia has said he will run for re-election on a platform of “integrity and truth”, against an opponent who as a churchman “should know better” than to advance the former president’s lies.
Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, became a household name after he turned down Trump’s demand that he “find 11,780 votes” in order to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the southern state. It was the first victory by a Democrat in a presidential race in Georgia since 1992.
Continue reading...Democrats look to renew push for voting rights protections bill – live
- Biden and Harris to go to Georgia to renew ‘urgent’ voting rights push
- Georgia DA moves toward decision in case over Trump election case
- Congressman Jim Jordan refuses to cooperate with House committee
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Joe Biden spoke today to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, as the country continues to suffer through a bloody civil war that has attracted international condemnation for alleged war crimes.
“President Biden commended Prime Minister Abiy on the recent release of several political prisoners, and the two leaders discussed ways to accelerate dialogue toward a negotiated ceasefire, the urgency of improving humanitarian access across Ethiopia, and the need to address the human rights concerns of all affected Ethiopians, including concerns about detentions of Ethiopians under the state of emergency,” the White House said in a readout of the call.
Continue reading...‘It’s a huge political albatross’: Guantánamo Bay, 20 years on
The US-run enclave has proved hard to dismantle over two decades, a legal anomaly and lead weight wrapped around America’s global reputation
On 4 January 2002, Brig Gen Michael Lehnert received an urgent deployment order. He would take a small force of marines and sailors and build a prison camp in the US-run military enclave on Cuba’s south coast, Guantánamo Bay.
Lehnert had 96 hours to deploy and build the first 100 cells, in time for the first plane-load of captives arriving from the battlefield in Afghanistan on 11 January. The job was done on time: a grid of chain-link cages surrounded by barbed wire and six plywood guard towers manned by snipers. There were five windowless huts for interrogations. It was named Camp X-Ray.
Continue reading...Strategy shift: Biden confronts Trump head on after year of silent treatment
President strikes different tone in tacit admission that ignoring the most powerful force in the Republican party is risky
In the first moments of his presidency, Joe Biden called on Americans to set aside their deep divisions inflamed by a predecessor he intentionally ignored. He emphasized national unity and appealed to Americans to come together to “end this uncivil war”.
Nearly a year later, as a divided nation reflects on the first anniversary of the 6 January assault on the US Capitol, the uncivil war he sought to extinguish rages on, stronger than ever. In a searing speech on Thursday, Biden struck a different tone.
Continue reading...Biden addresses pandemic: ‘We’re going to be able to control this’ – live
- Federal Covid vaccination requirement challenged in supreme court
- True number of US Covid deaths probably undercounted, experts say
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There’s been a lot of back-and-forth about the efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccine – which, reminder, while everybody here is highly educated in law, nobody is an epidemiologist – and Justice Elena Kagan went hard at Ohio solicitor general Ben Flowers.
“You said we understand that 18- to 29-year-olds, even though they’re not going to die or end up with very serious injuries, they can spread. You don’t doubt that, that they can spread to other people who are more vulnerable?” Kagan asked Flowers.
Continue reading...Biden condemns Trump’s ‘web of lies’ a year on from deadly Capitol assault
- President blames predecessor for role in violence of 6 January
- ‘The lies that drove the anger and madness have not abated’
- Biden denounces Trump in anniversary speech – follow live
Joe Biden on Thursday forcefully denounced Donald Trump for spreading a “web of lies” about the legitimacy of the 2020 election in a desperate attempt to cling to power, accusing the former president and his allies of holding a “dagger at the throat of American democracy”.
The US president condemned his predecessor’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election as a “failed” pursuit, but one that continues to imperil American democracy one year after the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol, when a violent mob of Trump loyalists breached the Capitol in an effort to stop the certification of Biden’s presidential election victory.
Continue reading...No time for platitudes as Biden gives sharpest denunciation of Trump yet
Analysis: This was the moment the president realized the clear and present danger posed to US democracy by an ex-leader gone rogue
Here, at last, was the Joe Biden that anyone on vigil for America’s teetering democracy had been waiting for.
In historic National Statuary Hall at the US Capitol, a year to the day after it was overrun by an authoritarian mob, the US president gave his clearest dissection of “the big lie” and his clearest denunciation of his predecessor, Donald Trump.
Continue reading...Joe Biden blames Donald Trump’s ‘web of lies’ for US Capitol attack – video
The US president spoke directly against Trump, saying the former president had created and spread a 'web of lie's that resulted in the deadly
insurrection.
On the one-year anniversary of the 6 January Capitol attack, the US president said his predecessor had refused to accept the result of an election, like no former president had ever done
Continue reading...Trump cancels news conference for Capitol attack anniversary – US politics live
- Press conference at Mar-a-Lago canceled to Republicans’ relief
- Merrick Garland to speak on DoJ investigation into insurrection
- Trump’s ‘cult-like control’ of party grows stronger, a year on
While the Republicans of Congress may be a little wishy-washy when it comes to the 6 January attack on the US Capitol - and exactly who bears responsibility for it - the White House said Americans should be prepared for Joe Biden to speak tomorrow about “the singular responsibility of President Trump for the chaos and carnage that we saw”.
“President Biden has spoken repeatedly about how the former president has abused his office, undermined the constitution and ignored his oath to the American people in order to amass more power for himself and his allies,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at today’s press briefing.
Biden to speak ‘truth’ on Capitol attack anniversary as Trump cancels his event
President will honor police in his remarks while Republicans voiced concerns about Trump overshadowing the somber day
Joe Biden will mark the first anniversary of the deadly assault at the US Capitol this Thursday by honoring the bravery of law enforcement on the scene, and outlining the unfinished work the nation needs to do to strengthen its democracy, the White House said in its first preview of the president’s remarks.
“On Thursday, the president is going to speak to the truth of what happened, not the lies that some have spread since, and the peril it has posed to the rule of law and our system of democratic governance,” the White House spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters on Tuesday afternoon.
Continue reading...Coronavirus: ‘No excuse’ for being unvaccinated, Biden says – video
Joe Biden has urged people to get vaccinated, saying that vaccines, booster shots and therapeutic drugs have mitigated the danger for the overwhelming majority of Americans who are fully vaccinated
The US president was speaking ahead of a meeting with his Covid-19 response team at the White House about the impact of the Omicron variant
Continue reading...US Congress reports unprecedented surge in Covid-19 cases – as it happened
- Uptick comes amid a rise in new cases across the country
- Democrats bid to change Senate rules if GOP thwart voting rights reform
- Democrats set to bring voting rights protections bill to Senate
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More than 140 mayors have asked the US Senate to act to pass two pieces of sweeping voting rights legislation. Both bills have been stalled for months because no Republicans support them.
Senate Democrats are expected to make a new push in the coming days to do away with the filibuster, a senate rule that requires a 60-vote supermajority to advance legislation. Republicans used the rule to block the voting rights bills several times last year.
One bill, the Freedom to Vote Act, would set sweeping national guarantees for voting access, including 15 days of early voting, as well as guaranteed automatic and same-day voter registration. The second measure, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, would restore a critical provision of the Voting Rights Act that gives the federal government more oversight over US elections.
Russia ‘very likely’ to invade Ukraine without ‘enormous sanctions’ – Schiff
- House intelligence chair: invasion might draw Nato closer
- Sanctions must be ‘at level Russia has never seen’ to deter Putin
Russia is “very likely” to invade Ukraine and might only be deterred by “enormous sanctions”, the chair of the US House intelligence committee said on Sunday.
Adam Schiff also said an invasion could backfire on Moscow, by drawing more countries into the Nato military alliance.
Continue reading...Biden to speak with Putin amid Russia’s increased presence near Ukraine
Two leaders will discuss a range of topics, including ‘upcoming diplomatic engagements in Russia’
Joe Biden will speak on Thursday with Vladimir Putin regarding the Russian president increased security demands in eastern Europe.
The two leaders will discuss a range of topics, including “upcoming diplomatic engagements in Russia”, said US national security council spokesperson Emily Horne in a statement announcing the call.
Continue reading...Fauci says Omicron surge will continue and Americans must not be complacent
- Biden medical adviser: US has to ‘do better’ on access to testing
- Fauci welcomes Donald Trump’s support for Covid vaccines
- Guilt and frustration of breakthrough Covid
Cases of Covid-19 will continue to surge worldwide due to the Omicron variant, the US chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, said on Sunday, warning Americans not to get complacent amid reports that the variant is less harmful than others.
“If you have many, many, many more people with a less level of severity,” Fauci told ABC’s This Week, “that might kind of neutralise the positive effect of having less severity.
Continue reading...‘Let’s go Brandon’ Santa Tracker caller insists he meant no disrespect to Biden
Jared Schmeck, 35, tells Oregonian he has ‘nothing against’ president to whom he repeated ‘Fuck Joe Biden’ rightwing meme
The caller who ended a conversation with Joe Biden with the rightwing meme “Let’s go Brandon” – which means “fuck Joe Biden” – has insisted he was joking and meant no disrespect to the president.
“At the end of the day I have nothing against Mr Biden,” Jared Schmeck, 35, told the Oregonian newspaper. “But I am frustrated because I think he can be doing a better job. I mean no disrespect to him.”
Continue reading...Caller tells Joe Biden ‘Let’s go Brandon’ during White House Christmas event
The saying has became an internet sensation as a coded vulgarity among Trump supporters
A vulgar anti-Biden slogan made for an awkward moment on Friday during Joe Biden’s phone calls with children tracking Santa’s flight when a father said, “Let’s Go Brandon.”
The refrain, a sanitized version of “Fuck Joe Biden,” has been an internet sensation since a television journalist told race car driver Brandon Brown that a Nascar crowd shouting the vulgarity was actually saying, “Let’s go Brandon.”
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