House passes budget resolution, paving way for Covid relief – US politics live

The House has just passed the Senate-approved budget resolution, paving the way for the chamber to take up Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief proposal in the coming weeks.

The House voted 219-209 along mostly partly lines to approve the resolution as amended by the Senate. Jared Golden was the only Democrat to vote against the measure.

The rule for S.Con.Res. 5 – Setting forth the congressional budget for the US Gov't for FY 2021 & setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for FY 2022-2030 was adopted by a vote of 219-209.

S.Con.Res. 5 is hereby passed.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, fresh from being stripped of her committee assignments, seemed unrepentant on Friday morning, as she used a press conference to sum up the intertwining of the Republican party and Donald Trump.

“The party is his – it doesn’t belong to anyone else,” Greene told reporters in Washington this morning.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on Trump and the GOP Party:

"The party is his. It doesn’t belong to anybody else." pic.twitter.com/XOL8VzRicW

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House votes to remove Republican extremist Marjorie Taylor Greene from committee roles

Vote largely along party lines serves as rebuke of congresswoman’s incendiary and racist statements

The US House of Representatives has voted to strip the extremist Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia from the committees she was assigned to, in a stark rebuke of her incendiary and racist statements.

Related: Republicans take no action against Cheney or extremist Greene after vote

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Donald Trump will refuse to testify at Senate impeachment trial, lawyers say

Democrats had challenged Trump to explain in next week’s proceedings why he disputed factual allegations

Donald Trump’s legal team has said the former president will not voluntarily testify under oath at his impeachment trial in the Senate next week, where he faces the charge from House Democrats that he incited the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January.

The lead House impeachment manager, Jamie Raskin, a Democrat, wrote to Trump asking him to testify under oath before or during the trial, challenging the former president to explain why he and his lawyers have disputed key factual allegations at the center of their charge that he incited a violent mob to storm the Capitol.

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Explainer: what is the filibuster and why do some Democrats want to get rid of it?

Abolishing the filibuster could allow Senate Democrats to pass Joe Biden’s agenda, but there are risks

While the US Senate has temporarily averted a showdown over its so-called filibuster rule, the issue appears likely to resurface, as the wafer-thin Democratic majority endeavors to pass Joe Biden’s legislative agenda into law – and Republicans try to stop them. Here’s what you need to know:

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US House members ask for more security amid fears they’re targets

Letter sent to Nancy Pelosi and Kevin McCarthy asks if Congress members can use personal allowances for additional security

Pervasive fear among some members of Congress that they will be the targets of further politically motivated violence following the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol has led more than 30 of them write a letter to House leaders.

The group sent the letter to the House of Representatives speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and the Republican minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, asking for more support over security concerns.

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Biden turns attention to climate crisis with new executive orders today – live updates

President, who has already cancelled Keystone XL pipeline, will address nation on the environment

While we’re waiting for a Covid-19 briefing, it’s worth remembering just how many people have gone through a year of pandemic without health insurance: likely at least 28.9 million.

The number of people who lacked health insurance rose through the Trump presidency, and grew by experts millions were added to the ranks of uninsured as the pandemic drove unprecedented job losses. A plurality of Americans rely on private health insurance through an employer.

WASHINGTON (AP) Fulfilling a campaign promise, President Joe Biden plans to reopen the HealthCare.gov insurance markets for a special sign-up opportunity geared to people needing coverage in the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden is expected to sign an executive order Thursday, said two people familiar with the plan, whose details were still being finalized. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the pending order ahead of a formal announcement.

Hello – this is Jessica Glenza taking over from Martin Belam. Among the most high profile events happening in Washington DC today is the first Covid-19 briefing, which the Biden administration promised will be a regular feature of his administration.

At 11am ET, we’re expecting Biden’s first Covid-19 briefing. Here’s a closer look at what is expected:

(AP) - For nearly a year it was the Trump show. Now President Joe Biden is calling up the nation’s top scientists and public health experts to regularly brief the American public about the pandemic that has claimed more than 425,000 US lives.

Beginning Wednesday, administration experts will host briefings three times a week on the state of the outbreak, efforts to control it and the race to deliver vaccines and therapeutics to end it.

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US senators sworn in as jurors for Trump’s second impeachment trial – live

There’s been a steady stream of activity on Capitol Hill today, paricularly leading up to the swearing-in of the senators for Trump’s impeachment trial.

At a weekly press conference, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said the chamber is prepared to work simultaneously to hold an impeachment trial, approve Biden’s cabinet nominees, and pass additional coronavirus relief.

.@SenSchumer says “a vote on a budget resolution could come as soon as next week.” This would give Dems option to use reconciliation for Covid relief package

McConnell doesn’t say if Trump’s actions were impeachable, saying only that he’ll “listen to the arguments” in the trial.

He says he hasn’t spoken to Trump since the day after he declared Biden had “obviously” won the election (that was 12/15).

Tim Ryan tells reporters on Zoom presser that the order among Capitol Police on Jan. 6 was to not use lethal force unless lives were threatened, as was standard for USCP (he'd asked about it during this morning's closed-door briefing)

Vice president Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, received her second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland.

Twenty-eight days after receiving her first shot, Harris removed her jacked, rolled up her sleeve and extended her left arm for the jab.

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Trump impeachment trial set to begin the week of 8 February, Schumer says

The House will transmit the article against the former president on Monday, giving his legal team time to prepare their case

Opening arguments in the Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump are set to begin the week of 8 February, with the former president facing charges of inciting an insurrection at the US Capitol.

The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, announced the schedule late Friday after reaching an agreement with Republicans.

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‘To heal, we must remember’: Biden holds memorial for 400,000 US Covid victims – live

The justice department has said it will not pursue insider trading charges against Republican senator Richard Burr.

The New York Times reports:

The Justice Department informed Senator Richard M. Burr, Republican of North Carolina, on Tuesday that it would not pursue insider trading charges against him, according to his lawyer and another person briefed on the decision, quietly ending a monthslong investigation into his dumping of hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock in the turbulent early days of the coronavirus pandemic.

The decision by the department and the Securities and Exchange Commission effectively cleared a cloud of legal jeopardy that has loomed over Mr. Burr since the sales were first disclosed in March. At the crux of the case was whether Mr. Burr, then the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had acted based on nonpublic information about the contagion that he received at senators-only briefings.

California’s attorney general Xavier Becerra launched 9 lawsuits against the Trump administration.

The lawsuits include challenges of:

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Joe Biden will launch presidency with appeal for unity – but whose unity?

Analysis: The convergent crises call for a united response, the president-elect argues, but Republicans say that means forgetting Trump’s alleged role in insurrection

When Joe Biden takes the oath of office on Wednesday, the new president will appeal for national unity from the steps of the US Capitol, where two weeks ago a mob, incited by Donald Trump, stormed the building in a violent attempt to prevent this very moment.

Though their efforts failed, the bloody insurrection exposed the fragility of America’s commitment to a peaceful transfer of power, underscored by Trump’s absence at his successor’s inauguration ceremony.

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Biden inauguration: Trump expected to issue flurry of pardons before leaving office – live

Nearly a month after the presidential election, former attorney general Bill Barr told Donald Trump that his repeated claims of a stolen election were “bullshit,” according to a new report in Axios.

Per Axios, the exchange unfolded in the Oval Office, where Trump summoned Barr for a meeting after seeing a story by the Associated Press in which his attorney general told the agency there was evidence of widespread voter fraud in the presidential election.

Steve Dillingham, the director of the US census, is resigning effective on Wednesday, according to Talking Points Memo’s Tierney Sneed. That’s ahead of the end of Dillingham’s term and comes as he faces calls to resign.

Per Sneed:

Census Director Steve Dillingham will be stepping down on Jan. 20, cutting short by nearly a year the five-year director term, which was scheduled to expire on Dec 31.

Dillingham announced his resignation plans in an internal Census Bureau email obtained by TPM.

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Tense calm in Washington as small pro-Trump groups gather at state capitols across US – live

The FBI announced that authorities had arrested the guitarist of heavy metal band Iced Earth in connection to the Capitol riot.

Jon Schaffer was allegedly among those who sprayed Capitol police with bear spray.

Jon Schaffer, Columbus, IN, has been arrested in connection to Jan 6 incident at the U.S. Capitol. Schaffer faces 6 charges including engaging in an act of physical violence in a Capitol building. Schaffer was allegedly among rioters who sprayed Capitol police with "bear spray."

Jason Kenney, the premier of Alberta, Canada, has responded to the report that President-elect Joe Biden will cancel the Keystone XL pipeline permit via executive action on his first day in office.

“The Keystone XL pipeline represents tens of thousands of good paying jobs that the American economy needs right now,” he writes.

I am deeply concerned by reports that the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden may repeal the Presidential permit for the Keystone XL border crossing next week.

My full statement: pic.twitter.com/vZjun1IdMH

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Biden will appeal for unity as US braces for violence by Trump supporters

Joe Biden will deliver a message of national unity when he assumes the presidency on Wednesday, seeking to begin healing a country fractured by the acrimony of Donald Trump’s administration and ongoing threats of violence by his supporters.

Related: America is broken – can Biden and Harris put it back together?

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America is broken – can Biden and Harris put it back together?

The US is riven with stark inequalities, rising white supremacist terror and large numbers who believe the election was stolen. The new administration faces a truly daunting challenge

In another age, Joe Biden’s promise to heal the nation might have been regarded as the kind of blandishment expected from any new leader taking power after the divisive cut and thrust of an American election.

Related: Biden must find words for a wounded nation in inauguration like no other

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We’re on the verge of breakdown: a data scientist’s take on Trump and Biden

Peter Turchin, an entomologist-turned-historian, offers insight into the battle between elites

Peter Turchin is not the first entomologist to cross over to human behaviour: during a lecture in 1975, famed biologist E O Wilson had a pitcher of water tipped on him for extrapolating the study of ant social structures to our own.

It’s a reaction that Turchin, an expert-on-pine-beetles-turned-data-scientist and modeller, has yet to experience. But his studies at the University of Connecticut into how human societies evolve have lately gained wider currency; in particular, an analysis that interprets worsening social unrest in the 2020s as an intra-elite battle for wealth and status.

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Washington and state capitols brace for violence from armed Trump supporters

Washington DC and capitols across the US are bracing for violence this weekend after law enforcement officials warned that armed pro-Trump insurrectionists are planning to swarm the cities in the days before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration

Related: Donald Trump will fly to Florida hours before Biden inauguration, reports say

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Moment Donald Trump becomes first US president to be impeached twice – video

The US House of Representatives voted by a margin of 232 to 197 to impeach Donald Trump on the charge of incitement of insurrection, making him the first president in history to have been impeached twice. Ten House Republicans voted in favour of the motion

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Nancy Pelosi: Trump is a clear and present danger to the nation – video

The Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives has opened the debate on the article of impeachment against Donald Trump, arguing the president must be removed from office. Describing the storming of the Capitol as a 'day of fire', Nancy Pelosi said Trump had incited insurrection

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Kamala Harris and why politicians can’t resist Vogue (though it always ends in tears)

The latest row over a high-fashion magazine cover, involving the US vice-president-elect, illustrates the chaos than can ensue when alpha worlds collide

When Theresa May appeared in US Vogue in 2017, even her deliberately anodyne choice of a posh-end-of-the-high-street dress by British label LK Bennett did not prevent this newspaper calling the Annie Leibovitz shoot a “defining moment” which, “like Margaret Thatcher in the tank turret looking like a cross between Boudicca and Lawrence of Arabia … might easily become a signifier of all that is flawed in her prime ministerial style”. Michelle Obama’s bare upper arms appeared no fewer than three times on the cover of Vogue during her White House years, causing pearl-clutching uproar at the sight of her toned triceps.

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