POLITICUSUSA
Senate Republicans expressed their opposition to President Joe Biden‘s $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan in an internal memo, referring to it as a “partisan slush fund” and characterizing it as unnecessary and wasteful, a sign that things are back to normal as Republicans pretend to care about government spending despite the exorbitant price tag during the Trump era when at least one chamber of Congress was always under GOP control.
President Joe Biden will order a 180-day commission that will explore the mechanics behind expanding the Supreme Court. The commission will provide a forum to debate the matter outside of Congress, whose own proceedings are likely to be significantly polarized.
Stephen Miller, a key aide to Donald Trump, was the key architect of the 4th president’s disgraceful border policies. And it doesn’t seem like he’ll be going away anytime soon.
Miller is one of the few aides that has continued to work for Trump. He also regularly appears on Fox News to blatantly lie about immigration policy. He recently referred to Biden’s actions on the border as cruel and inhumane.
When Joe Biden was running for president, he promised to use executive action to help with the gun problem in America. While he was initially focused on vaccines and the economy, he got around to the issue on Wednesday night.
The Biden administration will overhaul Title IX rules regarding sexual assault cases on college campuses, according to a letter released by the Department of Education announcing that it plans to hold a public hearing on how schools ought to handle sexual misconduct cases.
President Joe Biden will announce that every adult in the country will be eligible for a Covid-19 vaccine by April 19, two weeks ahead of the previous deadline, which was May 1, according to an administration official who spoke to CNN.
John Roberts somehow believed it was his role to usurp Congress’s authority and make this call. He decided, based on what training and sociological research we don’t know, that racism simply wasn’t a problem in America anymore.
President Joe Biden‘s administration affirmed its support for the transgender community, issuing a proclamation commemorating today, which happens to be Transgender Day of Visibility. President Biden called upon “all Americans to join in the fight for full equality for all transgender people.”
Today, we honor and celebrate the achievements and resiliency of transgender individuals and communities. Transgender Day of Visibility recognizes the generations of struggle, activism, and courage that have brought our country closer to full equality for transgender and gender non-binary people in the United States
Joe Biden has had a very successful start to his presidency. Americans are getting vaccinated at an incredible rate. A recent poll conducted by Ipsos and ABC News found that 72% of voters approve of Biden’s handling of the pandemic.
Biden has also done a good job of helping people who were struggling financially due to COVID-19. The stimulus bill he passed earlier this month was wildly popular with a large majority of Americans supporting the measure.
Republicans are desperate to take the air out of Biden’s strong start. They’ve decided the best way to do so was to focus on the border. 18 GOP senators visited the US/Mexican border last week.
Donald Trump has been sitting at home stewing about how much more popular Biden is than he was. So he spent a large part of his weekend calling in to complain about Biden.
The 45th president told Jeanine Pirro on Friday, “Well, a lot of people want me to. The Border Patrol and all of the people of ICE. They want me there, they asked me to go. And I sort of feel I owe it to them. They are great people doing an incredible job.”
A bemused Biden was asked about the comments from the former president on Monday. He certainly didn’t seem worried about them. “
We are putting in place a plan that I feel very confident about, and I don’t care what the other guy does,” he told reporters.
Biden has thrown down the gauntlet, showing he will fight against corporate autocracy and for workers’ democracy and welfare.
Former President Donald Trump appeared on Fox News’s “The Ingraham Angle” last night to criticize President Joe Biden for what he claims is his bias against Fox News after Biden did not take questions from Fox News despite taking questions from all the major networks during his first major press conference this week.
“It’s very sad to watch, actually. They’re feeding him questions, they’re easy questions. I noticed Peter Doocy didn’t get to ask a question today. And there could be no difficult questions, and they’re ready to rip the microphone away if somebody did get a little bit testy,” Trump said. “Look, the whole thing is ridiculous, you know it and so do I.”
Trump also accused the press of tossing out “softballs” and going light on their questioning.
“Well, they were strange questions and they were asked in a very interesting way. It was like softballs, like you’re throwing softballs up. And it’s just a different world, nobody’s seen anything like it,” Trump said.
There was nothing usual about the presidency of Donald Trump. The 45th president stormed into office promising to break norms, and that he did. The people around him celebrated the fact that Trump’s reign wasn’t par for the course.
The same people, though, furiously reacted to any perceived slight against Trump. Trump may have spit in the eye of tradition, but his handlers still felt he was worthy of respect.
Conservative media has whined for weeks about the fact that Joe Biden has yet to hold a press conference. He held one of Thursday and the GOP was quick to complain about all aspects of the event.
This was especially true of Kayleigh McEnany. The former Trump press secretary tweeted, “Right out of the gate, the White House press corps stands for President Biden. Would have been nice if they would have routinely shown that level of respect for President Trump. I hope this is not indicative of softball questions to come!”
Others were quick to correct the former Trump staffer. S.V. Dáte from the Huff Post responded, “Have no idea what she’s talking about. Every single press conference I attended, my colleagues and I all stood when Trump entered room or, in the Rose Garden, took the podium.”
Have no idea what she's talking about.
Every single press conference I attended, my colleagues and I all stood when Trump entered room or, in the Rose Garden, took the podium. https://t.co/UiEECFeOVW
There are a million differences between Joe Biden’s presidency and Donald Trump’s presidency. The biggest difference, though, may be the way that press conferences are held.
Trump had 4 press secretaries and each one was controversial in their own way. One thing was for sure, though, Americans saw much less of them than their predecessors.
Biden’s initial press secretary, Jen Psak, operates in a much different way. Psaki holds a presser on nearly every single weekday. And one constant during her pressers is Fox News’ Peter Doocy embarrassing himself with an attempt at a gotcha question.
Much to the delight of Doocy and Fox, Joe Biden held his first press conference with reporters present on Thursday. Doocy was raring to go, but the President didn’t call on him. Doocy whined about the situation later in the day.
The Fox reporter told Bret Baier:
“I mentioned last night, I had a binder full of questions. We had a lot and most of the stuff we did not get to,” Doocy went on. “Nobody asked him about this big plan that he has got, this big idea to completely transform the economy to make it all green. That is something we were hoping to get on the board with and there were not a lot of questions about Covid, particularly the investigation into the origins of it.”
On Monday, the United States suffered yet another mass shooting. The gunman in the Boulder, Colorado incident was armed with a Ruger AR-556.
As is the norm when a mass shooting occurs, Democrats called for common sense gun reform. Like the stimulus bill, gun control is not only popular with Democratic voters. Polls regularly show support for expanded gun control in the 80’s or 90’s.
Still, Republican Senators were prepared to fight against any legislation that would prevent people from buying weapons of war. Leading this charge is Lindsey Graham. The South Carolina lawmaker is daring Joe Biden to bring a assault weapon bill to the senate floor.
Graham told the Washington Examiner, “I
f there were a vote tomorrow to ban ‘assault weapons’ — I’ll make a prediction — a majority of the Senate would reject that vote.
Joe Biden made a number of promises while campaigning for President. He told Americans that he would oversee 100 vaccinations in his first 100 days as President. He did it in only 58 days.
Biden also promised a stimulus plan that would not only get direct payments out to Americans but also fund small businesses and state projects. That bill was passed through congress in early March.
Another promise made by Biden was that the people in his administration would better represent the makeup of the country. He’s made good on that promise as well. Today, Dr. Rachel Levine became the first transgender nominee to be approved by the Senate.
Levine was confirmed to become the Assistant Secretary of Health at the Dept. of Health and Human Services. She was voted through by a margin of 52-48. Only two Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, voted to confirm.
Raffi Freedman-Gurspan was the first transgender person to serve in the White House working under Barack Obama. She said of the moment, “I firmly believe that turning points, such as today’s Senate confirmation vote for Dr. Levine’s appointment, are powerful indications that this nation is truly heading down the pathway to lasting transgender equality.”
Senate confirms Dr. Rachel Levine for Assistant Secretary of Health, 52-48.
She is the first trans person to ever be confirmed by the Senate. pic.twitter.com/fkmdbUbdYi
— The Recount (@therecount) March 24, 2021
Meng’s insistence that “We will not let you take our voice” encapsulates the impetus behind the multiple but absolutely connected struggles for democracy and against repression.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador thanked President Joe Biden after his administration announced they would send more than 2.5 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine to ease a vaccine shortage in the country.
“We thank President Biden for sending us these vaccines,” Lopez Obrador said, noting that the vaccines should arrive by next week. He added that in return, Mexico
Rush Limbaugh was the voice of Conservative radio for decades. He passed away, however, at the same time that Donald Trump was leaving office.
Limbaugh has been replaced on the air by Dan Bongino, a former police officer who frequently appears on Fox News. The shoes he is filling are quite large. Limbaugh has a massive and passionate audience.
And Bongino isn’t enjoying his time filling the role while Joe Biden is in office. Biden has begun his term with legislative success and a high approval rating. Worse, says Bongino, is that fact that Biden is too boring.
The new radio host made the comments during an interview with Business Insider. “
Biden, not only do I think is a terrible president in these last few months, it’s just terrible for talk radio,” he said. “I think Biden is a disaster for the country and his ideas are an atrocity. But he’s boring. He’s just boring. It’s going to be a challenge. It is. It’s going to be a challenge.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said “it takes one to know one” in response to a television interview President Joe Biden gave yesterday calling him a “killer.”
“I remember in my childhood, when we argued in the courtyard we used to say: it takes one to know one. And that’s not a coincidence, not just a children’s saying or joke,” Putin said. “We always see our own traits in other people and think they are like how we really are. And as a result we assess (a person’s) activities and give assessments.”
President Joe Biden said Russian leader Vladimir Putin will “pay a price” for interfering in United States elections after years of concerns from the intelligence community that Russian operatives meddled in the 2016 and 2020 elections to sow discord and spread disinformation.
“We had a long talk, he and I,” Biden said during an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopolous in an interview that aired today. “I know him relatively well. And the conversation started off, I said, ‘I know you, and you know me. If I establish this occurred, then be prepared.’”
Biden did not elaborate when asked what consequences Putin might face, only saying, “you’ll see shortly.” Biden also told Stephanopolous that he thinks Putin is a “killer” and confirmed that he once told Putin that he didn’t think he had a “soul.”
“I did say that to him, yes,” Biden said. “And his response was, ‘We understand one another.’ I wasn’t being a wise guy. I was alone with him in his office. That’s how it came about.”
EXCLUSIVE: Pres. Biden told @GStephanopoulos that he agreed Russian President Vladimir Putin is a "killer" and will "pay a price" for interfering in U.S. elections. https://t.co/rIe2ms8sSv pic.twitter.com/VtAGCvF9hp