Category Archives: Democrats

Biden’s $2tn infrastructure plan ‘needs to be changed’, says key Democrat Manchin – live

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That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Lois Beckett, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

The Guardian’s Abené Clayton reports:

The bankruptcy trial for the National Rife Association (NRA) kicked off this morning, and for the first time embattled CEO Wayne LaPierre and other NRA executives will be testifying about the organization’s finances in open court.

Good morning. Today is the first day of the @NRA’s trial in bankruptcy court. For those of you who can’t wait, here are some disturbing excerpts from Wayne LaPierre’s deposition (filed over the weekend). #nrabankruptcytrial

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Republicans claim Biden $2tn infrastructure plan a partisan tax hike

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  • President proposes environmental measures and tax rises
  • Mississippi governor cites Green New Deal, a GOP bogey

Republicans opposed to Joe Biden’s proposed $2tn infrastructure bill claimed on Sunday that it was effectively a partisan tax hike that allocated too much money to electric vehicles and other environmental initiatives.

Related: Florida faces 'imminent' pollution catastrophe from phosphate mine pond

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Beautiful Things review: Hunter Biden as prodigal son and the Trumpists’ target

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The president’s son recounts his struggles and his father’s love with honesty – yet still seems blind to glaring political realities

Robert Hunter Biden is not a rock star. Instead, the sole surviving son of Joe Biden – senator, vice-president, president – is a lawyer by training and a princeling by happenstance. Regardless, life on the edge comes with consequences.

Related: Lucky review: how Biden beat Trump – and doubters like Obama and Hillary

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US Capitol lockdown: suspect and one officer dead after vehicle rams barrier – live

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Robert Contee of the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department has just said at the briefing outside the US Capitol that the attack by a man driving a car at Capitol Police officers “does not appear to be terrorism related”.

Acting chief of the Capitol Police, Yogananda Pittman, just described the now-deceased suspect in the attack as having got out of the vehicle after ramming her officers and crashing into a barrier and then he “ran aggressively” at them, brandishing a knife.

Robert J Contee III, the acting chief of the Metropolitan Police Department of DC, said the attack “does not appear to be terrorism related”.

The MPD acting chief also said the suspect does not seem to have been previously known to law enforcement.

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Biden unveils ‘once-in-a generation’ $2tn infrastructure investment plan

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American Jobs Plan would rebuild roads, highways and bridges; confront the climate crisis and curb wealth inequality

Joe Biden on Wednesday unveiled what he called a “once-in-a-generation” investment in American infrastructure, promising a nation still struggling to overcome the coronavirus pandemic that his $2tn plan would create the “strongest, most resilient, innovative economy in the world”.

Speaking at a carpenters’ training center outside of Pittsburgh, where he launched his campaign two years ago, Biden returned as president to elaborate on his campaign pledge to “rebuild the backbone of America”.

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Biden pushes plan to rebuild US infrastructure as Covid cases rise – live

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The Republican governor of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson, announced today that he is lifting the statewide mask mandate.

Hutchinson said recent data on coronavirus case numbers in the state had led him to conclude that the mandate was no longer necessary.

President Biden yesterday: Masks, please.

Gov. Asa Hutchison (R-AR) today: pic.twitter.com/m20KMNVedE

Related: 'I'm scared': top US official shares sense of 'doom' as Covid cases rise

During her press briefing this afternoon, Jen Psaki also criticized the World Health Organization’s report on the origins of coronavirus.

The White House press secretary said China had “not been transparent” about the early days of its coronavirus outbreak.

WATCH: @PressSec says the @WHO COVID-19 origins report "doesn't lead us to a closer understanding or greater knowledge than six months ago about the origins", adding that China has "not been transparent, they have not provided underlying data" on the virus. pic.twitter.com/6KRK7112zn

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Hunter Biden calls Trump ‘vile’ in new book and denies Ukraine allegations

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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

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‘A similar challenge’: how Joe Biden echoes Kennedys on US foreign policy

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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

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‘Blindsided’: Biden faces tough test in reversing Trump’s cruel border legacy

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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'

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The woman seeking to unseat Republican extremist Marjorie Taylor Greene

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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.

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Biden’s make or break moment: president aims to build on success of relief bill

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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.

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New York senators urge Cuomo to resign after governor refuses to quit

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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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Former Pentagon chief blames Trump’s speech for inciting Capitol attack – live

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

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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

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Cuomo suffers major blow as top New York Democrats say governor must go

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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

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Biden hails Senate passage of ‘desperately needed’ $1.9tn coronavirus relief bill – video

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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

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Biden hails ‘giant step’ as Senate passes $1.9tn coronavirus relief bill

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  • Republican opposition holds through marathon ‘vote-a-rama’
  • Speaker Pelosi has said measure should be law by 14 March

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?

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

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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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Andrew Cuomo apologises over harassment allegations but refuses to resign – video

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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.

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Scramble on to replace Neera Tanden after nomination met perfect storm

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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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