House Democrats and Republicans strike deal to investigate deadly Capitol insurrection – live

  • Members of Congress agree to establish 10-person commission
  • Pro-Trump Elise Stefanik replaces Cheney as GOP conference chair

Here’s a quick summary of what’s happened so far today:

A new New York Times story points out just how influential Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s logo, with its bold, slanted text, was to future progressive candidates who emulated her poster’s style. It’s now seen all over the country in races big and small and was even used by a communist candidate in France.

Gavan Fitzsimons, a business professor at Duke University, told the Times that copycat posters are likely trying to get potential voters to subconsciously associate the candidate with Ocasio-Cortez.

NEW: The iconography of @AOC — my dive into how Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s logo has formed a new graphical language for progressivism.

From KY to VA to NYC and even France, imitators abound.https://t.co/eakjRoSEZn pic.twitter.com/sw9Z6oM0hz

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Republicans vote to remove Liz Cheney from leadership role over Trump ‘big lie’ criticism – live

Taking over the White House briefing, Jen Psaki was asked for Joe Biden’s reaction to the ouster of Liz Cheney as House Republican conference chair for her criticism of Donald Trump and the “big lie” that there was widespread fraud in the presidential election.

The White House press secretary noted that more than 80 judges threw out lawsuits challenging the results of the election, confirming the legitimacy of Biden’s victory. She criticized Republicans for punishing Cheney and ignoring the violent fallout from Trump’s false claims, specifically citing the six deaths from the January 6 insurrection.

The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, is now holding her daily briefing with reporters, and she was joined by transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg and EPA administrator Michael Regan.

Buttigieg and Regan provided updates on fallout from the ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline over the weekend, which has caused gasoline supply issues in some east coast states.

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Liz Cheney’s ousting proves the ‘big lie’ is the Republican party’s religion

The ousting of Cheney snuffs out all doubt – Republicans don’t think they can win next year’s midterm elections without Trump

Lafayette Square, outside the White House, reopened this week to strolling couples, tourists and scampering children. After nearly a year sealed off by eight-foot metal fencing, it was one more sign of life in America getting back to normal.

Then there’s the danger. For more than three months it’s been tempting for many to assume that, with Joe Biden in the White House and Donald Trump off Twitter, democracy survived its near-death experience, recovered and checked out of hospital. But the ousting of Liz Cheney by the Republican party shows that the potential for a relapse is all too real.

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Joe Biden to set out plans to reshape America in first address to Congress – live

Joe Biden will also speak about gun violence during tonight’s speech, according to USAToday. On the presidential campaign trail, Biden pledged to reinstate the assault weapons ban and create a voluntary gun buyback program.

A White House official told the newspaper that Biden will talk about gun violence as an epidemic, which he has done in the past, and urge Congress to reinstate a ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines.

The president’s plea appears to echo a similar one made by Obama at the State of the Union in 2013, two months after Sandy Hook, in which he told Congress victims of gun violence — many of whom were seated in the room — “deserve a vote.” Biden presided over the Senate chamber when a gun safety package failed to pass two months later.

Despite the uphill battle, Democrats are heeding the president’s call. Last week Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., reintroduced a bill to remove protections for manufacturers and sellers from consumer negligence lawsuits and allow victims of gun violence to pursue legal recourse. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a key Democrat leading gun control efforts, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper last week that he’s made calls to almost half the Republican caucus “asking them to keep an open mind.”

The Guardian’s voting rights reporter, Sam Levine, has an alarming story this morning on Republican efforts to make it harder to vote in Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office:

Even as attacks on voting rights have escalated in recent years, the Republican effort since January marks a new, more dangerous phase for American democracy, experts say.

Related: The Republicans’ staggering effort to attack voting rights in Biden’s first 100 days

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Maxine Waters criticised by Republicans for Minneapolis remarks – video

The Democratic representative Maxine Waters has come under criticism from the Republican house minority leader, after she expressed support for protesters against police brutality at a rally on Saturday in Brooklyn Center, the Minneapolis suburb where Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by police last week.

Waters said she would 'continue to fight in every way that I can for justice', prompting the Republican minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, to accuse Waters of 'inciting violence in Minneapolis'

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‘Truth will prevail’: Matt Gaetz takes break from scandal to speak at Trump club

  • Congressman faces allegations over sex, drugs and nude photos
  • Women for America First also helped organise 6 January rally

The Florida congressman Matt Gaetz insisted on Friday “the truth will prevail” over allegations of sex trafficking and illegal drug use which have pitched him into the centre of a congressional scandal.

Related: Republican Matt Gaetz faces calls to resign from member of his own party

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‘A 10ft pole is not long enough’: Matt Gaetz isolated in sex-trafficking scandal

The Florida Republican congressman Matt Gaetz appears increasingly politically isolated amid a spiralling scandal over a federal sex-trafficking investigation. Even for Donald Trump, one Republican political operative said, “a 10ft pole is not long enough”.

Federal prosecutors are reportedly examining whether Gaetz and a political ally facing sex trafficking allegations may have paid underage girls or offered them gifts in exchange for sex.

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DoJ reportedly investigating whether Matt Gaetz paid women for sex

Republican congressman reportedly under investigation over alleged cash and gifts given to women contacted online

One of Donald Trump’s loudest cheerleaders in the US Congress is under federal investigation over allegations that he paid for sex with women recruited online, according to a media report.

Matt Gaetz, a Republican congressman from Florida, is one of the former president’s most ardent supporters and frequently appeared on TV to promote his lies about a stolen election.

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Black farmers speak out against the ‘festering wound’ of racism in agriculture

House agriculture committee hearing comes on the heels of $5bn being allocated to farmers of color earlier this month

For the first time in US history, members of the House agriculture committee heard from Black farmers on the impact of systemic discrimination by the department of agriculture (USDA).

Thursday’s hearing came on the heels of $5bn being allocated to socially disadvantaged farmers of color earlier this month as part of the coronavirus relief and economic stimulus package. The funding – $4bn for debt forgiveness, $1bn for other forms of support – is meant to account for generations of mistreatment of farmers of color by the USDA.

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‘Help is on the way’: Democrats cheer as US House passes $1.9tn Covid relief plan – video

The House of Representatives gave final approval on Wednesday to one of the largest economic stimulus measures in US history, a sweeping $1.9tn Covid-19 relief bill that gives Joe Biden his first major victory in office. The measure provides $400bn for $1,400 direct payments to most Americans, $350bn in aid to state and local governments, an expansion of the child tax credit, and increased funding for vaccine distribution. 'This is the most consequential legislation that many of us will ever be a party to,' the House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said at a ceremony to sign the bill before it goes to the White House

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US House passes $1.9tn Covid relief plan in major legislative victory for Biden

Final tally was 220 to 211, with one Democrat and all Republicans voting against the measure

A deeply divided Congress passed a landmark $1.9tn coronavirus relief bill on Wednesday, delivering the first major legislative victory of Joe Biden’s presidency and a sweeping promise to raise millions of Americans out of poverty.

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House will vote Wednesday morning on $1.9tn Covid relief bill – as it happened

By Jessica Goodheart for Capital and Main:

Sara Fearrington, a North Carolina waitress, joined the Fight for $15 campaign two years ago. A server at a Durham Waffle House, her take-home pay fluctuates between $350 and $450 a week, leaving her struggling to pay bills every month. She voted for Joe Biden, who had pledged to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. It was the first time Fearrington, who is 44, had ever voted in a presidential election.

Related: Senate minimum wage battle could play out in midterm elections

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Sanders’ minimum-wage effort looks doomed as Covid relief votes go through night

Biden’s $1.9tn relief package struggles through Senate but majority leaders vows passage ‘however long it takes’

A fiery speech and last-ditch effort by Bernie Sanders to secure a place for a federal minimum wage hike in the $1.9tn coronavirus relief package appeared as good as doomed on Friday, following a day that saw the flagship legislation hit grinding delays in the Senate.

Senate leaders and moderate Democratic senator Joe Manchin struck a deal late on Friday over emergency jobless benefits, breaking a nine-hour logjam.

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Scramble on to replace Neera Tanden after nomination met perfect storm

Joe Biden’s nominee for budget director faced Republican opposition over old tweets but had also clashed with progressives

Neera Tanden’s decision to withdraw from consideration to serve as Joe Biden’s budget director marks the first major loss for the still young Biden administration, and sets off a scramble between various political factions to push through a new nominee.

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House approves $1.9tn Covid aid bill despite minimum wage setback

Relief bill represents Biden first big legislative win but wage hike proposal to be removed from Senate version

The US House of Representatives has passed Joe Biden’s $1.9tn coronavirus aid bill in his first major legislative victory.

Related: Criticism builds over Biden's failure to lift Trump sanctions on ICC prosecutors

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Democrats defend decision not to call witnesses as tactic under scrutiny

‘We needed more senators with spines,’ said Stacey Plaskett after vote to convict fell short of two-thirds majority needed

Democrats defended their prosecution of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial on Sunday and hinted at the possibility of criminal charges, after failing to convince enough senators the former president was guilty of inciting the deadly Capitol attack.

Related: Boris Johnson calls Trump impeachment over Capitol attack 'kerfuffle'

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Five Republicans join vote for witnesses in Trump Senate trial – video

Five Senate Republicans voted with the Democrats on Saturday, that the Senate should call witnesses in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump.

Before the 55-45 vote, Trump’s impeachment lawyer Michael van der Veen warned senators that if Democrats wished to call a witness, he would ask for at least 100 witnesses and insist they give depositions in person in his office in Philadelphia – a threat that prompted laughter from the chamber.

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Trump trial shown disturbing footage of lawmakers ‘hunted’ by Capitol mob

Democrats revealed disturbing new recordings of the mob attack on the US Capitol last month as they presented their case on Wednesday in the historic second impeachment trial of Donald Trump.

House impeachment managers constructed a timeline which they said showed that the former president was “singularly responsible” for the deadly assault, which brought a violent mob within footsteps of the nation’s political leaders.

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‘Trump’s guilt is obvious’, impeachment managers say in new legal brief – live

The election arm of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), has brought out its final report on the US presidential election, concluding that it was well organised under the circumstances and there was no significant fraud.

The report also found that Donald Trump’s rhetoric and refusal to accept defeat undermined public faith in democratic institutions, and warned the US has long-term problems with providing equal voting rights for all.

Related: 'Jim Crow relic': Senate filibuster stands in way of Democratic voting rights push

Here’s where the day stands so far:

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Democrats to open Trump impeachment trial by recounting Capitol attack

Impeachment managers will present scene in harrowing detail using video and audio recordings

House impeachment managers will open their prosecution of Donald Trump for “incitement of insurrection” by recounting the deadly assault on the US Capitol in harrowing and cinematic detail, rekindling for senators the chaos and trauma they experienced on 6 January.

Related: Donald Trump impeachment trial: what you need to know

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