Tag: Biden

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Politics

Biden Staff Delays Naming Some Interim Officers Till Trump Is Out

Biden Team Delays Naming Some Interim Officials Until Trump Is Out

Although the Biden team did not publicly disclose the names of some officials, the identities appear to be known within the agencies. A person briefed on the process said the Biden team had selected Lora Shiao to serve as director of national intelligence until the Senate upheld the election of Mr Biden, Avril D. Haines. She has been the agency’s Chief Operating Officer since September. Similarly, one person briefed on the decision said that Monty Wilkinson, a low profile hiring manager at the Justice Department, would step up as acting attorney general.

In some cases it was not easy to find an interim officer. At the Department of Defense, the Biden team struggled to appoint a Trump agent, David L. Norquist, to the department, if only for a few days until Mr Biden’s candidate, Lloyd J. Austin III, is confirmed. By law, a Senate-approved member of the department, in this case Mr. Norquist, automatically takes over the duties of secretary when the secretary is absent. Mr. Biden ultimately chose to stick with the tradition, and Mr. Norquist will do so until Mr. Austin is sworn in.

The Biden transition team has reason not to trust Trump loyalists in at least one instance. In the past few months, transition officials have clashed with senior Pentagon officials. First, the Pentagon blocked the transition team’s access to some intelligence agencies. Then the Pentagon announced in briefings in mid-December a “mutually agreed vacation break”, only to tell Biden transition numbers that there was no such agreement. The Pentagon hired a Trump loyalist, Kashyap Patel, to oversee the transition, which frustrated some members of the president-elect’s transition team.

In a sign of persistent tension, the Biden transition team refused to vacate office space at the Pentagon after the inauguration, Christopher C. Miller, the acting Secretary of Defense. An official on the Biden transition team cited Mr Miller’s status and the coronavirus pandemic for the decision previously reported by Bloomberg.

At the Justice Department, the Biden team was looking for an interim attorney general who, at any point during the Trump administration, was not involved in the myriad political scandals that have defined the agency.

In the election of Mr. Wilkinson, who oversaw the Department of Justice’s human resources, security planning and library and is unknown even to most Washington insiders, the Biden transition team hoped for a stable and drama-free hand to lead the department through to the judge Merrick B. Garland, Mr. Biden’s candidate for attorney general, could be confirmed in the coming weeks, according to a person briefed on the decision.

For the most part, the publicly appointed interim agency directors across government are impartial career officials.

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Politics

No Biden point out, glosses over Covid deaths, Capitol riot

No Biden mention, glosses over Covid deaths, Capitol riot

U.S. President Donald Trump watches as he speaks to the media before boarding Air Force One to leave Washington and cross the U.S.-Mexico border wall in Texas at Andrews Joint Base, Maryland, Jan. 12 To visit in 2021.

Carlos Barria | Reuters

President Donald Trump made a taped farewell speech touting his economic and foreign policy record while glossing over the Capitol uprising that spilled over the last few weeks of his presidency.

He also failed to name his successor Joe Biden. Biden will be inaugurated as the nation’s 46th president on Wednesday.

Trump’s nearly 20-minute speech, taped Monday, described his departure from the White House as the natural conclusion to a job well done, rather than as a result of his loss of the election to Biden.

“We did what we came here for – and much more,” said Trump in the address.

“This week we are inaugurating a new administration and praying for their success in ensuring America’s security and prosperity. We wish them all the best and we want them to be lucky – a very important word,” said Trump.

Trump previously confirmed that a new administration will take command on Wednesday, but he has not officially conceded Biden. In contrast to the farewell speeches of previous presidents, Trump’s address does not specifically mention his successor.

The president’s speech also referred to the January 6 invasion of the Capitol by a swarm of his supporters – an event that killed five people and spurred the House to indict him a second time.

“All Americans were appalled by the attack on our Capitol. Political violence is an attack on everything we as Americans value. It can never be tolerated,” Trump said in the speech.

He has declined any responsibility for the invasion. But earlier on Tuesday Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Said the mob was “provoked” by the President and other powerful people.

Trump is facing impeachment proceedings in the Senate.

In the video, Trump praised his administration’s efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic, saying the US “has outperformed other countries economically because of our incredible economy and the economy we have built. It would not have been without the foundations and foundations worked like that. ” “”

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the US exceeded 400,000 deaths in Covid on Tuesday. About a quarter of these deaths were reported in the past five weeks alone.

“We mourn every life lost and commit ourselves in your memory to eradicate this terrible pandemic once and for all,” said Trump, whose term ends on Wednesday, in his address.

Trump, who regularly accused the media of “being the people’s enemy” and advocated the promise to drain the swamp of DC, also devoted a sizable portion of the address to a warning of “political censorship and blacklisting.”

“Closing a free and open debate goes against our core values ​​and the most sustainable traditions,” said Trump, who was permanently banned from Twitter after his initial reaction to the Capitol uprising.

“Now that I am preparing to hand over power to a new government on Wednesday noon, I want you to know that the movement we have started is only just beginning,” he said.

However, it is unclear whether this movement will include Trump – at least as a candidate for elected office. Senate minority chairman Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., vowed earlier Tuesday that if Trump is convicted after his impeachment trial, he will “vote on preventing him from running again.”

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Health

Biden Covid advisor challenges Cuomo’s letter to purchase vaccine instantly

Biden Covid advisor challenges Cuomo's letter to buy vaccine directly

Dr. Coveline Gounder, a member of the Covid Advisory Board of President-elect Joe Biden, slammed the Trump administration’s piecemeal Covid response as some states in the US struggled to get the vaccine doses they needed.

“I think we have already received too many patchwork reactions in the states,” said Gounder in an interview on Monday evening for “The News with Shepard Smith”.

In a briefing on the coronavirus on Friday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the federal government was sending his state 50,000 less doses of vaccine than the week before. The state received fewer doses when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expanded immunization rights to people over 65 years of age on Jan.

On Monday, Cuomo sent a letter to Pfizer asking if New York State could buy vaccines directly from the company. Last week, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer made a similar request to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar.

Gounder told host Shepard Smith that this approach could cause more problems than it could solve.

“I think Governor Cuomo himself had already said in the spring that the ventilator situation was essentially ‘one big Ebay’ with all states bidding against each other for ventilators, and I think this is one approach to vaccine allocation In all honesty, this will lead to the same situation that he himself criticized last spring, “said Gounder.

Data from the CDC shows that the US gets an average of 900,000 vaccinations per day. During an interview with Fox News, Azar quoted the CDC number and criticized the Biden government’s goal of “100 million gun shots in the first 100 days.”

“We’ll have 250 million doses of vaccine distributed by the end of April,” said Azar. “If by then they have only had 100 million vaccinations, it will be a tragic waste of the opportunity we gave them.”

Gounder, an epidemiologist at NYU, qualified Azar’s testimony, noting that the distribution did not mean actual injections of the vaccine.

“We saw, however, that the distribution is very different from shooting in the arms, that the last mile of delivery is really the hardest part here,” explained Gounder. “Second, we have to confirm that this number of doses, the 250 million figure he cites there, will really be down.”

Cuomo beat him up in a separate letter to Azar for “confusing” the public about vaccine supplies. Azar admitted on Friday that there are currently no supplies.

Biden consultant Dr. Michael Osterholm warned that the worst of the Covid pandemic is yet to come and the data supports his dire prediction. The U.S. is rapidly approaching 400,000 deaths in the pandemic, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. That is roughly one in 822 Americans. According to the Covid Tracking Project, at least 23,000 people were in intensive care units in the United States for 19 consecutive days due to Covid. The HHS reported that nearly 80% of ICU beds nationwide are occupied.

Gounder said the US is “at our fifth peak right now” and that the next few months will be all about “shift protection” to avoid another.

“We really need to focus on things like masking and social distancing, outside instead of inside, well-ventilated spaces,” warned Gounder. “If we do these things it may be our final climax, but it really depends on each of us doing what needs to be done to get back to normal life.”

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World News

Europe Welcomes Biden, however Gained’t Look forward to Him

Europe Welcomes Biden, but Won’t Wait for Him

As a politician facing the mid-term congressional election, Biden will be like a laser focus on the pandemic, reopening the economy, unemployment, infrastructure, healthcare and an economic stimulus in his first year. Said Kupchan. “There will be a lot less time, energy and money for foreign policy.”

Sophia Besch and Luigi Scazzieri from the Center for European Reforms argue in a new paper that “many Europeans want to forget about Trump’s presidency that ever took place”. But they add: “Europe cannot look any further to the US for important questions about what its interests are and how to pursue them.”

This is especially true for defense, which is where most European leaders agree that more needs to be spent.

The German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer claims that the Europeans cannot replace America as a security service provider, as can the Central and Eastern European heads of state and government. Others, however, notably French President Emmanuel Macron and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell Fontelles, argue that Europeans cannot be sure of America’s reliability.

Mr Biden’s victory should not distract or discourage Europeans from an aim of more independent defense and more strategic autonomy, they say, even in the context of NATO.

There are certain issues such as terrorism, instability in North Africa and migration that Europeans feel they need to be able to act more effectively on themselves.

“Where we Europeans have to pay attention to our expectations of the Americans is in our neighborhood,” said Nathalie Tocci, director of the Italian Institute for International Affairs. On issues such as Belarus, Ukraine and the Balkans, “coordination with the US is important, but we cannot expect the US to step up its engagement,” she said.

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Politics

Biden nationwide safety advisor requires Russia to launch Navalny

Biden national security advisor calls for Russia to release Navalny

A file photo dated September 29, 2019 shows Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny during a rally in support of political prisoners on Prospekt Sakharova Street in Moscow, Russia. Alexei Navalny is passed out in hospital after allegedly being poisoned, according to his press secretary.

Sefa Karacan | Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

WASHINGTON – President-elect Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan called for the immediate release of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was arrested at a Moscow airport on Sunday after his arrival.

The previous Sunday, Navalny flew from Berlin to Russia, where he had recovered for almost six months since being poisoned last summer. He was arrested at passport control.

Last week, Russian authorities issued an arrest warrant for Navalny alleging that he had violated the three and a half year suspended sentence he received in 2014 for embezzlement.

“Mr. Navalny should be released immediately and the perpetrators of the outrageous attack on his life must be brought to justice,” Sullivan wrote on Twitter.

The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Sullivan’s call for Navalny to be released comes days before President-elect Joe Biden takes office. Biden’s new government is expected to increase pressure on Russia.

After the poisoning of Navalny last year, Biden vowed “to work with our allies and partners to hold the Putin regime accountable for its crimes,” and accused President Donald Trump of not being tough enough.

A non-partisan group of US senators had urged the Trump administration to impose sanctions on Russia in response to the poisoning of Navalny. Trump, who is leaving office on Wednesday, did not do so.

The United Kingdom and the European Union, close allies of the United States, swiftly imposed targeted sanctions on six Russians and a government research center in October.

On the return flight to Moscow, Navalny told reporters that he was feeling great and that the trip home was “the best moment in five months.”

“I feel great. I’m finally going back to my hometown,” he said, according to a Reuters report.

Last year, Navalny was medically evacuated to Germany from a Russian hospital after falling ill after reports that something had been added to his tea. Russian doctors treating Navalny denied that the Kremlin critic had been poisoned, blaming his comatose condition for low blood sugar levels.

In September, the German government announced that the 44-year-old Russian dissident had been poisoned by a chemical agent on nerves and described the toxicological report as “clear evidence”. The nerve agent was in the Novichok family, which was developed by the Soviet Union.

Following the test results, the White House said it was “deeply concerned” by the matter and called the poisoning “utterly reprehensible.”

“The United States is deeply concerned about the results released today,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot said in a written statement at the time. “The poisoning of Alexei Navalny is completely reprehensible. Russia has used the chemical nerve agent novichok in the past,” he said, referring to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England in 2018.

The Kremlin has repeatedly denied a role in the poisoning of Navalny and Skripal.

Navalny’s arrest Sunday faces another strain on relations between European leaders and Russian President Vladimir Putin and comes while the Kremlin works to secure a gas pipeline project, Nord Stream 2, to Germany.

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Politics

N.S.A. Installs Trump Loyalist as Prime Lawyer Days Earlier than Biden Takes Workplace

N.S.A. Installs Trump Loyalist as Top Lawyer Days Before Biden Takes Office

At the Pentagon, Mr. Miller was upset that agency leadership had slowed Mr. Ellis’ installment payments for months despite having gone through the standard hiring process and been selected for the position, a senior US official said. So, Mr. Miller ordered the agency to swear in Mr. Ellis, a move the Washington Post reported on Saturday.

In a statement, the Pentagon defended Mr. Ellis’ hiring, saying he had been duly selected by the Department of Defense General Counsel. “To be clear, the interest of Congress or the media in any particular recruitment measure is not a justification under the merit system policies and procedures to delay the placement of a selected qualified individual in a position,” the statement said.

Mr. Ellis is seen as a shrewd lawyer. But the urge to get him into a permanent government job puzzled some. According to former officials, he will likely enter the General Counsel’s office under high suspicion and have an uphill battle to win General Nakasone’s trust.

Mr. Ellis will serve on the Senior Executive Service, a public service job that offers strong protection against layoffs. However, officers can easily be transferred to the Department of Defense so that he can get a legal position elsewhere in the sprawling department – for example, overseeing environmental compliance on a remote military base.

While on the Intelligence Committee, Mr. Ellis was a trusted advisor to Rep Devin Nunes, Republican of California. Mr. Ellis served in various roles in the Trump administration, including serving as an attorney for the National Security Council and then as White House executive director for intelligence.

At the White House, Mr. Ellis overturned a career official’s decision to put Mr. Bolton’s book open for publication despite having no formal training in the classification of national security information. The Justice Department, under pressure from President Trump, sued Mr Bolton to recover his profits from the book.

A judge overseeing the case issued a ruling Thursday making it very likely that Mr. Bolton’s attorney Charles J. Cooper could question White House officials like Mr. Ellis about whether the classification decisions were made in bad faith were. Should Mr. Ellis serve as General Counsel at least temporarily, he may be able to withhold this testimony.

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Politics

Biden plans blitz of govt motion in first 10 days

Biden plans blitz of executive action in first 10 days

President-elect Joe Biden plans to take immediate executive action after his inaugural address this week to turn the page on the Trump era, Chief of Staff Ron Klain said Sunday after setting out Biden’s plan for his first few days in the office.

Biden plans a 10-day blitz of executive action on what his administration has dubbed the country’s “four crises” problems – Covid-19, economic downturn, racial injustice and climate change.

“He will return to the White House after this speech in the Capitol and take immediate action to move this country forward,” Klain told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday.

Biden will officially take office on Wednesday at 12:00 PM ET. Klain said Biden’s inaugural address was “a message to move this country forward, a message of unity, a message to get things done”.

Klain outlined Biden’s plans for his first few days in a memorandum to White House staff sent to NBC News on Saturday entitled “A Review of the First Ten Days.”

“We are facing four overlapping and worsening crises: the COVID-19 crisis, the resulting economic crisis, the climate crisis and a racist stock crisis,” Klain wrote in the memo.

“In his first ten days in office, President-elect Biden will act decisively to address these four crises, prevent other urgent and irreversible harm, and restore America’s place in the world,” added Klain.

The executive actions take a variety of forms, including executive orders, presidential memoranda, and instructions to cabinet agencies.

The first steps Biden will take on Wednesday include re-entering the Paris Climate Agreement and lifting President Donald Trump’s travel ban, which applies to several Muslim-majority countries. Biden will also require masks for federal estates and interstate travel, and will take steps to expand eviction and foreclosure restrictions.

On Thursday, Biden will sign executive measures related to reopening schools and businesses, and on Friday he will “instruct his cabinet agencies to take immediate action to provide economic aid to working families who are bearing the brunt of this crisis,” it said in the memo.

The following week, according to the memo, Biden will “take significant early action to promote justice and support communities of color and other underserved communities.”

Biden will also take action this week to address climate change, expand access to health care, and “restore the dignity of our immigration system and border policies.”

The memorandum contains few details and states that Biden splits up executive action to highlight the activity.

It is also noted that the objectives behind executive action, while “bold”, are backed by “sound” legal theory and are “a restoration of an adequate constitutional role for the President”.

Klain wrote in the memo that legislation will be required for the administration’s more ambitious agenda items, including immigration reform and the increase in the federal minimum wage.

Biden on Thursday unveiled his $ 1.9 billion Covid-19 relief agenda, which calls for action to combat the public health crisis and new cash injections to stimulate the economy. The plan would also raise the federal minimum wage to $ 15 an hour.

Democrats control the House of Representatives and will soon take control of the Senate after two Republicans were defeated in Georgia’s Senate runoff earlier this month. But Klain said Sunday that, given the small Democratic majority, the Biden team would push for GOP support for its plans.

Democrats have 222 seats in the House of Representatives compared to the GOP’s 212, and the parties will split the Senate equally between 50 and 50, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris able to break votes that break the votes.

“We’re going to try to work hard with people in both parties,” Klain said on CNN.

“The American people voted in November and they voted overwhelmingly for Joe Biden, no question about it, but they elected an evenly divided Senate, they elected a tightly divided Congress, we have to find ways that Democrats and Republicans do Get things done. ” ,” he added.

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World News

Migrant Caravan, Now in Guatemala, May Pose Early Check for Biden

Migrant Caravan, Now in Guatemala, Could Pose Early Test for Biden

Thousands of migrants from Honduras have entered Guatemala and are planning to travel further north to the United States. This could represent an early test of the immigration policy of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., who has pledged to ease the Trump administration’s asylum restrictions.

After a few hundred people were able to pass the border police on Friday, thousands more followed to Guatemala on Saturday. Officials said between 7,000 and 9,000 people have entered the country, many bypassing coronavirus controls.

The government of Guatemala said it “regrets this violation of national sovereignty and calls on the Central American governments to take action to avoid putting their residents and the communities they roam through in the face of the pandemic.”

Migrants are expected to continue to encounter obstacles on their way. The Guatemalan authorities set up checkpoints, blocked parts of the caravan not far from their entry into Guatemala and were able to take some of the migrants back home by bus, The Associated Press reported.

Mexican authorities have dispatched additional troops and immigration officers along the country’s southern border in anticipation of the caravan.

“In our national territory we must ensure orderly, safe and regular migration, respecting human rights and humanitarian policy,” said Francisco Garduño Yáñez, head of the National Immigration Institute in Mexico, in a statement on Friday.

Members of the group told reporters they were forced to escape the crime, poverty and homelessness exacerbated by the pandemic and two hurricanes late last year.

“We have nothing to feed our children and thousands of us have slept on the street,” Maria Jesus Paz, mother of four, told Reuters. She said her family lost their homes in the storms and forced her to flee.

“That’s why we’re making this decision, knowing that the trip could cost us our lives,” she added.

The successive hurricanes that struck Central America in November “devastated livelihoods in a region already facing economic downturn and where the incomes of thousands of families had already plummeted as a result of the pandemic,” according to the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Saturday.

The Trump administration has made a number of agreements with Mexico and Central American countries to prevent migrants from reaching the United States. Mark Morgan, the acting commissioner for customs and border protection, said Saturday that Guatemala is continuing to enforce this agreement.

“Guatemala continues to support the regional alliance committed to safe, orderly and legal migration and the protection of public health during the global pandemic,” Morgan said on Twitter. Guatemala’s immigration service “is already returning caravan members to Honduras after illegally entering Guatemala.”

During the presidential campaign, Mr Biden said he would act quickly to lift the Trump administration’s stricter asylum restrictions, which disqualified people not seeking refuge on their way to the United States and forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico.

On his first day in office, Mr. Biden plans to ask Congress for a major overhaul of immigration laws. This proposal, which will be released Wednesday, includes a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants now living in the United States, assistance to damaged Central American economies, and plans to help people escape violence.

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Politics

Trump to depart White Home hours earlier than Biden inauguration for Mar-a-Lago

Trump to depart White House hours before Biden inauguration for Mar-a-Lago

US President Donald Trump greets as he boards Air Force One at Valley International Airport in Harlingen, Texas on January 12, 2021, after visiting the US-Mexico border wall.

Carlos Barria | Reuters

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump is expected to leave the White House for West Palm Beach, Florida hours before his successor, President-elect Joe Biden, takes office, two people familiar with the arrangements told NBC News.

People said Trump could make final remarks as commander in chief during a farewell ceremony at Joint Base Andrews, where Air Force One and its twin bait are being held. From Andrews, Trump flies Air Force One for the last time to Mar-a-Lago, his private resort.

The White House declined to comment.

Last week, Trump announced that he would not be attending the inauguration, which Biden says is “one of the few things he and I have ever agreed on.”

Trump isn’t the first outgoing president to skip his successor’s inauguration. The others, according to the White House Historic Association, were Presidents John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Johnson. Like Trump, Johnson was also charged.

Trump’s refusal to accept the election results culminated on Jan. 6 when swarms of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol and derailed the Congressional process to count the votes and confirm Biden’s win in the November 3 contest.

The House of Representatives indicted Trump on Wednesday for inciting a rebellion in a non-partisan vote in which 10 Republicans took part. It is unclear when the Senate trial will take place.

Trump is the only president in US history to have been charged twice.

He was first charged in December 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in connection with his efforts to press the Ukrainian government to investigate the Biden family. Trump was later acquitted by the Senate.

Biden’s victory was projected by all major news agencies in mid-November and confirmed by votes by the electoral college in mid-December. The Republican president has falsely insisted that he won a “landslide” and that his presidency was stolen.

President Donald Trump listens to Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto speaking on the phone as he announces that the United States has reached an agreement with Mexico on a new trade deal in the Oval Office of the White House on Monday, August 27, 2018 hit.

The Washington Post | The Washington Post | Getty Images

Vice President Mike Pence and Second Lady Karen Pence are expected to attend Biden’s inauguration.

The Obamas, Clintons, and former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush will attend the inauguration.

Former President Jimmy Carter will not be in attendance due to Covid and health conditions, according to a spokesman. Carter, the oldest living president at 96, and former first lady Rosalyn Carter attended the inaugurations of Obama and Trump.

Trump’s decision not to attend Biden’s inauguration came a day after he finally conceded the presidential election. Without naming Biden, he admitted in a nearly three-minute video that “a new government will be inaugurated on January 20th.”

“My focus is now on ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transfer of power,” said the president in his first video statement after the uprising.

“Now the minds have to be cooled and calm restored. We have to continue with the business with America,” said Trump of the deadly uprising in the US Capitol.

Five people died in the violence, including a Capitol policeman.

The National Guard has moved 20,000 soldiers to DC to secure the US Capitol and the inauguration of Biden after last week’s violence.

The troop footprint in the country’s capital is more than the number of US soldiers in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan combined.

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Entertainment

The Arts Are in Disaster. Right here’s How Biden Can Assist.

The Arts Are in Crisis. Here’s How Biden Can Help.

American art institutions shouldn’t give up their independence for crumbs. Especially with the pandemic easing, the more pressing task is to promote richer cultural offerings at the local level. A nimbler and more practical solution to this is a White House office for cultureSimilar to the National Economic Council or the Domestic Policy Council, which could research and coordinate art policy throughout the federal government.

An arts center in the President’s Executive Office – run by a “Dr. Fauci of Culture “- could be sharper and faster than a complete department. This team could help the Treasury Department develop cultural tax policies, advise the education department on music lessons, and liaise with Congress on arts incentives. It is important to ensure that economic funds for states and municipalities whose budgets have been burdened by tax deficits caused by stoppages support and ultimately strengthen the local arts organizations. (“Almost no one has been more injured by Covid than our artists,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said this week as he announced a public-private partnership supporting state arts organizations.)

The new administration should too re-establish the President’s Committee on Arts and Humanities, whose members resigned en masse in 2017 following Mr Trump’s reaction to the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Artists who stepped down included director George C. Wolfe, writer Jhumpa Lahiri, actor Kal Penn, and architect Thom Mayne.) To use a metaphor that I detest but that politicians seem to like, this committee should Be the hiss of steak that is the bureau of culture. Any transformation this big requires a sales pitch. Well-known actors, writers, and musicians should be the pitchmen who connect Broadway and Hollywood to the city library and school theater.

During last year’s election campaign, Mr. Biden had one sentence that he called almost musically on a regular basis: The election, he always said, was a “fight for the soul of America”. As a piece of political rhetoric, it could just have been a platitude. However, how can I deny that the Capitol’s near-sacking – in a week when the daily Covid-19 death toll hit an unbearable 4,000 Americans for the first time – suggests the United States has seen these last few years some kind of soul death? And if you were treating a patient whose soul was curdled, what kind of medicine could you prescribe?

I have always been careful with arguments about the “necessity” of art. But a mentally ill nation is unlikely to recover if it loses fundamental parts of its humanity. Without actors and dancers and musicians and artists, a society will indeed have lost something necessary – for these citizens, these workers, they are the technicians of a social catharsis that cannot come soon enough. A respiratory virus and riot have left the country breathless in their own way. Artists can teach us to exhale if they’re still with us for years to come.