In a keenly awaited memoir, Joe Biden’s son Hunter attacks Donald Trump as “a vile man with a vile mission” who plumbed “unprecedented depths” in last year’s US presidential election.
Related: Want to book Donald or Melania for an event? Trump has a website for that
Continue reading...The president does not just share Irish roots with John, Robert and Ted Kennedy – he also wants to lead America in the world
It was a popular Washington sport: find the past president who best explained Donald Trump. There was a touch of Andrew Jackson’s populism, a dash of Richard Nixon’s skulduggery, a sprinkling of Ronald Reagan’s myth-making. But now all that is over, who are the closest matches to Joe Biden?
Related: Lucky review: how Biden beat Trump – and doubters like Obama and Hillary
Continue reading...As unaccompanied children reach the US, Republicans seek political gain. The White House has a fight on its hands
Lauded for his human touch, Joe Biden is facing an early political and moral test over how his government treats thousands of migrant children who make the dangerous journey to America alone.
Related: Is there a crisis at the border? Advocates in Texas say it's 'political manipulation'
Continue reading...Democrat Holly McCormack is ready to take on the Trump devotee in 2022 – but it’s no easy task in a deep-red Georgia district
“I’m taking on the queen of Qanon: Marjorie Taylor Greene,” reads one tweet from Holly McCormack. “Retweet if you think Marjorie Taylor Greene is an embarrassment to our country,” says another.
America’s midterm elections may be 20 months in the future, but a campaign is already under way to unseat the extremist Republican congresswoman and Donald Trump devotee. In a rural district of Georgia that Taylor Greene won last November with three-quarters of the vote, effectively unopposed after her Democratic opponent quit the race, no one thinks it is going to be easy.
Continue reading...Analysis: Biden is riding high in polls and his American Rescue Plan is popular with Americans – he must build momentum to avoid the fate of Obama
In the White House Rose Garden, where for four years Donald Trump raucously celebrated political wins with his allies, it was now the turn of Democrats to take a victory lap – masked and physically distanced, of course.
Kamala Harris, the vice-president, heaped praise on Joe Biden for signing a $1.9tn coronavirus relief bill, the biggest expansion of the American welfare state in decades. “Your empathy has become a trademark of your presidency and can be found on each and every page of the American Rescue Plan,” Harris said.
Continue reading...Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand release joint statement after governor addresses media
New York’s two US senators, Chuck Schumer, who is also the Senate majority leader, and Kirsten Gillibrand, joined national and state representatives late Friday afternoon in calling for Governor Andrew Cuomo’s resignation.
Cuomo had earlier again refused to resign after a group of New York’s most powerful and prominent Democrats in the House of Representatives joined calls for the governor to step down over the multiple sexual misconduct allegations against him, and scrutiny over his administration’s misreporting of Covid-19 deaths among nursing home residents.”
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It’s been a busy day in Washington ahead of Biden’s prime-time address this evening. Before we hand over the reigns to Maanvi Singh in California, here’s a look back at what happened on this unusually warm spring day in the nation’s capital.
In an astonishing piece of attempted backside-covering, former acting defense secretary under the outgoing Donald Trump, Chris Miller, tried to explain in an interview with Vice that the delay in National Guard troops deploying to the US Capitol on the afternoon of 6 January to help overwhelmed police was basically because “it’s complicated”.
Miller said: “It’s not like a video game” ie going up and down the chains of government and command to deploy troops is a complex process.
Chris Miller translator: " Hey, I had to take orders from the White House on this." https://t.co/ihRrvlvjGc
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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
Continue reading...Senate leader and assembly speaker weigh in but Cuomo says quitting over sexual harassment claims would be ‘anti-democratic’
Andrew Cuomo suffered a major blow on Sunday in his attempt to stay as governor of New York in the face of allegations of sexual harassment and workplace bullying and a scandal over nursing home deaths under Covid. The majority leader of the state senate and the speaker of the assembly, two of the most powerful Democrats in New York, said it was time for Cuomo to go.
Related: The New York attorney general holding Trump and Cuomo accountable
Continue reading...Joe Biden has hailed the passage of the American Rescue plan by an exhausted Senate. Lawmakers narrowly approved the bill on Saturday as the US president and his Democratic allies notched a victory they called crucial for hoisting the country out of the pandemic and economic doldrums
Continue reading...Joe Biden hailed “one more giant step forward on delivering on that promise that help is on the way”, after Democrats took a critical step towards a first major legislative victory since assuming control of Congress and the White House, with a party-line vote in the Senate to approve a $1.9tn coronavirus relief bill.
Related: Biden urged to 'go big' on New Deal-like economic plan – but can he bridge left-right gap?
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Andrew Cuomo made clear that he would not quit in the wake of multiple sexual misconduct allegations against him. ‘I’m not going to resign,’ the New York governor said at his press conference. ‘I’m going to do the job the people of the state elected me to do.’
The Democrat apologised for engaging in behaviour that made anyone feel uncomfortable, but insisted he had never touched anyone inappropriately. A number of lawmakers of both parties have called on the Democratic governor to resign as the state attorney general investigates the allegations against him.
‘I’m sorry for whatever pain I caused anyone. I never intended it, and I will be the better for this experience,’ Cuomo said.
Continue reading...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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Tanden’s letter to Biden requesting her withdrawal said:
Dear President Biden,
I am writing to you to withdraw my nomination for Director of the Office of Management and Budget. It has been an honor of a lifetime to be considered for this role and for the faith placed in me.
The withdrawal marks the first cabinet nominee by Biden to fail to get confirmation.
“I have accepted Neera Tanden’s request to withdraw her name from nomination for Director of the Office of Management and Budget,” Biden said in a statement. “I have the utmost respect for her record of accomplishment, her experience and her counsel, and I look forward to having her serve in a role in my Administration. She will bring valuable perspective and insight to our work.”
Continue reading...A collective of former New York state legislative employees on Monday denounced Andrew Cuomo’s apology for his past behaviour, after the governor was accused of sexually harassing multiple women, and called for his removal or resignation.
Continue reading...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
Continue reading...Water Act proposes injection of federal dollars to overhaul ageing infrastructure, create jobs and address inequalities
Democratic lawmakers and advocates are urging Joe Biden to back legislation proposing unprecedented investment in America’s ailing water infrastructure amid the country’s worst crisis in decades that has left millions of people without access to clean, safe, affordable water.
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Joe Biden is meeting with a bipartisan group of Congress members to discuss improving US supply chains to better prepare for future crises.
“The last year has shown some of the vulnerability we have with some of the supply chains, including the PPE we needed badly but had to go abroad to get,” Biden told reporters at the start of the meeting.
Biden, meeting in Oval with members of Congress about supply chain problems, including a shortage of computer chips for the autos industry, says it’s causing some production lines to slow down and “people might be laid off.” pic.twitter.com/nHNN2CofN5
Congresswoman Deb Haaland, Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the interior department, faced more pointed questions from Republicans during her second confirmation hearing today.
Republican Senator John Barrasso pressed Haaland, who would be the first Native American cabinet secretary if confirmed, on her past statements against fracking on public lands.
Continue reading...A senior adviser to Democrat Joe Biden in his campaign for president believed “Covid is the best thing that ever happened to him”, a new book reports.
Related: Ruling on Trump tax records could be costliest defeat of his losing streak
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