Posts

“The overarching objective here is for the president to lay out the next steps to build on the steps we’ve taken since he took office,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Thursday. She noted that millions of Americans remain unvaccinated, even though they are eligible for the free shots. “We want to reduce that number, decrease hospitalizations and deaths and allow our children to go to school safely, and of course keep our economy strong,” Psaki said....

The amendment bans federal funding for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the woman’s life. Most Democrats, particularly progressives, are opposed to the amendment, though Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) has said the spending bill will fail without it. While the fight over the social spending bill (currently a $3.5 trillion package) has mainly focused on the price tag, the amendment has emerged as another flashpoint that has exposed divisions within the party....

Trump lost the popular vote but took the Electoral College majority last time out, though his path to 270 this year looks narrow according to state polling. Wins in major states such as Florida and upsets in areas like Michigan boosted his tally, with Biden having to focus on such spots this time out should he want to secure an Electoral College win and the position of commander-in-chief. Below, Newsweek looks at states Clinton lost last time out that might be in Biden’s grasp....

Biden spoke at Long Beach during Newsom’s final campaign event before the recall election on Tuesday, when the Democratic governor hopes to remain in office and see off a challenge from his main Republican rival, Larry Elder. The president compared Elder, a conservative radio host, to Trump and argued that California should not elect a candidate who he said: “Will block progress on COVID-19.” “All of you know that last year I got to run against the real Donald Trump,” Biden said....

A group of Republican senators is pushing to cut the size of the next round of COVID-19 relief checks and significantly limit who’s eligible to receive the payments, as the Biden administration continues to indicate that it would be open to further restricting who’s eligible for survival checks. Last month, President Joe Biden promised that $2,000 checks would “go out the door immediately” if Democrats managed to win the two Georgia senate runoff races and claim control of the Senate....

“It is noteworthy that the percentage of women who register to vote and cast a ballot is consistently higher than the percentage of the men who do so—end of quote, repeat the line. Women are not without electoral and, or, political—let me be precise: not and, or—or political power,” Biden said during his address. The teleprompter had instructed him to repeat the line “Women are not without electoral or political power,” a sentence that he first said moments earlier....

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama had gone back and forth over who to choose as his running mate. The final three picks included Biden, Indiana Senator Evan Bayh and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine. Obama’s top two strategists, David Plouffe and David Axelrod, traveled to meet all three candidates during the campaign. The two were worried about Biden’s inability to stop talking, which often results in verbal gaffes. But they were ultimately impressed by Biden’s insight into Senator John McCain, who was the Republican nominee, and his bond with his family....

While the phrase “new world order” is generally used to denote a significant geopolitical change, it can also designate a conspiracy theory that stipulates a secretive globalist authority is seeking to control the world under a totalitarian regime and strip sovereign countries and its citizens of their freedom. Several conservatives and conspiracy theorists, including followers of the radical QAnon movement, quickly jumped on Biden using the words while speaking at Business Roundtable’s CEO Quarterly Meeting in Washington D....

The findings of the survey by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Research shows that Biden is enjoying support across party lines over his tackling of the pandemic, with 70 percent of Americans backing his response, including 44 percent of Republicans. Biden has pledged to make tackling the pandemic a focus of his presidency by urging social distancing, mask guidelines and a commitment to speeding up vaccine distribution. He is also hoping to get Congress to approve his $1....

Biden expressed support for student debt forgiveness on the campaign trail in 2020 and after becoming president-elect, but his administration has yet to act despite being urged to do so by some Democrats. Polling suggests that younger Americans are more in favor of debt cancelation—and Biden won voters aged between 18 and 49 by wide margins in the 2020 election. Millennials (aged 25 to 40) and Generation Z (which includes children as well as adults aged 18 to 24)—many of whom have student loan debt—are rapidly becoming the largest voting bloc when taken together....

The 78-year-old Democrat, more comfortable preaching the politics of unity and reconciliation than backing a fire-and-brimstone approach, has not publicly—or privately, advisers say—backed impeachment or pushed for conviction in the Senate, even as a groundswell for justice has emerged in the wake of the Capitol riot. He hasn’t weighed in on whether he wants to pursue criminal investigations into Trump’s behavior—such as allegedly inciting the violent mob that stormed the Capitol and pressuring state officials to change the outcome of the election—but instead says he’ll leave that decision to the Justice Department and his Attorney General-designate Merrick Garland....

Data suggests followers and likes on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram grew significantly over the last week, ahead of Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris being sworn into office on January 20 outside the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Between January 11 and January 18, the incoming U.S. commander-in-chief’s personal Twitter account attracted more than 833,000 followers, while his Instagram page picked up over 288,000, according to statistics by analytics firm Social Blade....

The two governments are communicating again, but they appear to be talking at cross purposes, each declaring its own fundamental principles in front of an interlocutor that may as well be wholly absent from the conversation. While Xi Jinping waits expectantly for the reversal of Trump-era measures targeting China and especially the Communist Party, Biden is quietly—and sometimes imperfectly—bringing to bear America’s strengths for what he has likened to an existential battle of the systems between democracy and authoritarianism....

“This has been the most corrupt administration in modern American history,” Biden said while on the campaign trail in North Carolina on Wednesday. “The Justice Department has turned into the president’s private law firm.” The former vice president noted that the agency has sought to take over Trump’s defense in a defamation lawsuit from writer E. Jean Carroll who accused him of rape—a charge Trump has denied. Earlier this month, lawyers for the Justice Department filed court papers aiming to substitute the United States for Trump, which means that the federal government would have to pay damages if any are awarded....

“I would rather him not get engaged,” Biden told The New York Times when asked if he was disappointed Obama didn’t defend him on the issue of busing that drew attention last month. “I want to win this fair and square.” During the first round of Democratic debates inJune, Biden came under fire for his past voting record on busing and civil rights. Senator Kamala Harris slammed the former vice president for touting his ability to work with segregationist senators to oppose busing for black students....

The Biden White House plans on extending the current freeze on monthly student loan payments, previously set to end on May 1, to August 31. The pause was initially implemented in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and has been extended multiple times. This latest extension, however, was not brought about by a resurgence of COVID-19. Biden was urged to push back the end date for the pause after strong urging from House and Senate Democrats, who argued that not giving Americans more time to prepare for the return of monthly payments would result in high delinquency levels....

The bipartisan and bicameral Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act passed the House by unanimous voice vote late on Tuesday. Introduced to the lower chamber by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), it is a compromise version of the bill authored by Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) last year. The law places the burden of proof on American companies to demonstrate that imported goods were not mined, produced or manufactured wholly or in part with forced labor....

Biden is set to meet with Putin on Wednesday for talks that the White House has vaguely described as a discussion of a “full range of pressing issues as we seek to restore predictability and stability” to U.S.-Russia relations. But in 2011, a bizarre close-encounter exchange between the two included intense eye contact, a lengthy handshake and an apparent feeling of mutual understanding. In a New Yorker interview in 2014, Biden described how personality is a factor during meetings with foreign leaders....

This was heralded in a White House statement as “delivering direct relief to the American people, rescuing the American economy, and starting to beat the virus.” Benefits include a $300 weekly top-up to traditional benefits, additional weeks of benefits for the long-term unemployed and a program tailored for “gig economy” workers who traditionally miss out on regular unemployment benefits. But although publicized as a temporary measure, President Joe Biden’s administration has dropped a heavy hint it plans to extend the $300 extended unemployment payments program, which has just a fortnight left to run....

Newsom confirmed on September 2 that the president will join him in California ahead of the recall election on September 14, telling reporters at a campaign stop in San Francisco that he is “humbled” by Biden’s support. Biden has already publicly backed the Democrat governor, praising him for leading California through an “unprecedented crisis” in an August 13 statement. “He is a key partner in fighting the pandemic and delivering economic relief to working families and helping us build our economy back better than ever,” Biden added....