On a day of history in Washington, Joe Biden was sworn in as president of the United States, and Kamala Harris became the first female, first Black and first Asian American vice-president. At 78, Biden is the oldest president to take the oath of office
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‘We will be back in some form’: Trump vows return in final speech – video
Donald Trump said it had been his ‘greatest honour and privilege’ to have served as US president in a speech to supporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. ‘Goodbye, we love you, we’ll be back in some form,’ Trump said, before boarding Air Force One to the sound of the Village People’s 'YMCA'. Trump is the first president in more than 150 years not to attend the inauguration ceremony of his successor.
- Donald Trump leaves White House for the last time as president
- Trump leaves White House a final time as president as Biden set to be sworn in
Donald Trump departs White House for final time as president – video
Donald Trump has left the White House for the last time as president, saying it had been ‘the honour of a lifetime’ to serve. He boarded Marine One with the first lady and was flown to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland for a ‘sending off’ ceremony. Trump will not be attending Joe Biden’s inauguration
Continue reading...‘It gives us hope’: migrants stranded in Mexico buoyed by prospect of Biden reform
The president-elect has promised to do away with ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy, raising hopes that asylum seekers claims will be treated seriously
Selma López, 31, has spent nearly a year holed up in a two-room house not far from Mexico’s border with the US, along with her 11-year-old son Darikson and another woman who also made the long journey from Honduras in search of a new life.
Related: Remain in Mexico policy needlessly exposed migrants to harm, report says
Continue reading...Biden prepares ambitious agenda even as he cleans up Trump’s mess | Analysis
The new administration faces no shortage of obstacles to progress – but Biden is setting his sights high nonetheless
The last time a Democratic president took control of the White House, the wreckage he inherited was so great, there was little else his incoming team could prioritize.
Twelve years ago, Barack Obama’s blunt-spoken chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, liked to describe the Republican legacy – a financial crisis, deep recession and two wars – as a giant shit sandwich wrapped in a red ribbon.
Continue reading...‘To heal, we must remember’: Biden holds memorial for 400,000 US Covid victims – live
- Event at the Lincoln Memorial offers ‘national moment of unity’
- White House releases Trump farewell address
- Pence will attend inauguration but not Trump event
- Dozen national guard troops pulled from inauguration after vetting
- McConnell blames Trump for provoking Capitol attack
- US coronavirus deaths pass 400,000 amid grim winter forecast
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:
Continue reading...‘The mob was fed lies’: McConnell blames Trump for Capitol attack – video
Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, acknowledged the violent mob that attacked the Capitol earlier this month was 'provoked' by Donald Trump, going on to say that the inauguration of Joe Biden would be 'safe and successful'.
Speaking on the Senate floor, McConnell said: 'The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people'
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Melania Trump says ‘past four years have been unforgettable’ in recorded farewell speech – video
The US first lady thanked Americans on Monday for the 'greatest honour of my life' in a recorded video she posted on Twitter.
Melania Trump said: 'The past four years have been unforgettable, as Donald and I conclude our time in the White House. I think of all of the people I have taken home in my heart and their incredible stories of love, patriotism and determination'
Continue reading...Lights go out on Trump’s reality TV presidency but dark legacy remains
For four years the outrages piled up so high they were hard to keep track of but the coronavirus pandemic proved to be one crisis he couldn’t bluster away
In a cold, sombre, damp Washington four years ago this Wednesday, Donald Trump took the oath of office as the 45th president of the United States and delivered an inaugural address now remembered for two words: American carnage.
Continue reading...‘The Capitol riot was our Chernobyl’: James Comey on Trump, the ‘pee tape’ and Clinton’s emails
The former FBI director was sickened and angered by the attack incited by the president. But has he come to terms with his part in getting him elected?
As an investigator turned author, James Comey has developed a forensic eye for detail. The colour of the curtains in the Oval Office. The length of Donald Trump’s tie. Something about the US president that the camera often misses.
“Donald Trump conveys a menace, a meanness in private that is not evident in most public views of him,” says Comey, a former director of the FBI, from his home in McLean, Virginia, a suburb of Washington DC.
Continue reading...US Capitol on security lockdown ahead of Biden inauguration – video
The tightest security measures in recent memory are in place in Washington, two days ahead of the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the US.
25,000 National Guard soldiers from across the east coast are stationed in the city. The streets around the Capitol remain eerily empty as all but the most determined protesters have stayed away after the pro-Trump riot at the Capitol on 6 January.
The FBI has vetted all troops who are guarding the event because of fears of an insider attack at the inauguration.
Continue reading...Trump to hold early morning sendoff ceremony on Biden inauguration day
Outgoing president has issued invites for event taking place in Maryland at 8am on Wednesday
Donald Trump is planning an early morning sendoff event for himself at a military airfield in Maryland on Wednesday several hours before his successor, Joe Biden, is inaugurated as the 46th US president at the Capitol in Washington DC.
For his last presidential ceremony, Trump reportedly wants an ostentatious military parade and an official armed forces farewell as the commander-in-chief, as well as a large crowd of supporters, selected backers and current and former officials in his administration and their guests at a huge red-carpet affair.
Continue reading...FBI vets thousands of troops amid fears of insider attack on Biden inauguration
- Extra checks to prevent repeat of 6 January attack on Capitol
- National guard plays down fears of extremism within ranks
- US politics – live coverage
Thousands of military personnel guarding Joe Biden’s inauguration as US president on Wednesday are being vetted by the FBI amid fears of an insider attack.
Related: Texas woman who attacked Capitol says she was following Trump's orders
Continue reading...How the Republican voter fraud lie paved the way for Trump to undermine Biden’s presidency
Trump has accelerated a deliberate strategy by Republicans to weaken faith in elections by making it harder to vote
When an American president is inaugurated, it’s supposed to mark the height of American democracy and power. The elaborate ceremony is designed to convey the peaceful transfer of power and that no matter how bitter the election, the nation is moving on.
Related: Trump official admits family separation policy 'should never have been implemented'
Continue reading...Tense calm in Washington as small pro-Trump groups gather at state capitols across US – live
- NSA ‘moving forward’ to install GOP operative as its top lawyer
- Biden orders will reverse Trump on climate, Iran, Covid
- President exits having cleaved Republican party in two
- Robert Reich: Biden cannot govern from the center
- America is broken: can Biden and Harris put it back together?
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
Biden will appeal for unity as US braces for violence by Trump supporters
- America on edge as troops guard state capitols
- Biden orders will reverse Trump on climate, Iran, Covid
- US politics – live coverage
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?
Continue reading...‘I never imagined this’: Washington prepares for an inauguration under siege
Presence of military garrison in city on a scale not seen since the civil war a reminder that endemic racism remains a greater menace to national security than any external threat
In easier times, the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal church would be crowded, especially on the Sunday morning before a presidential inauguration a few blocks away.
Related: Biden will appeal for unity as US braces for violence by Trump supporters
Continue reading...Unscrupulous and aggressive, Pompeo plans to be the next Trump – but smarter
The secretary of state has laid political booby traps for Biden in a diplomatic onslaught – with the aim of winning the White House
While all eyes are on Donald Trump and his Capitol Hill mob, a would-be heir and successor is running riot all by himself, storming citadels, wagging the flag and breaking china. No, it’s not Donald Jr, or Ivanka, or Ted Cruz, and certainly not poor, conflicted Mike Pence.
Mike Pompeo may not strike many people as presidential material. But Trump lowered the bar. Make no mistake. America’s snarly, bully-boy secretary of state is focusing not on Joe Biden’s inauguration this week but on how to beat him or any other Democrat in 2024.
Continue reading...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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