Tag: Biden

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Politics

Biden DOJ evaluations paperwork for launch

Biden DOJ reviews documents for release

The Justice Department on Monday promised to re-examine the files relating to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks for possible disclosure after years of pressure from victims’ families to divulge information about the alleged role of Saudi government officials.

The Justice Department did not provide any information about what documents or information could be released after the review was completed.

The decision comes just days after nearly 1,800 9/11 survivors, first responders and family members of the victims told President Joe Biden to skip commemorations this year unless he released FBI documents identifying the alleged role Saudi government officials are detailed in the deadly attacks.

FDNY firefighters carry another firefighter, Al Fuentes, who was injured in the World Trade Center collapse on September 11, 2001.

Matt Moyer | Corbis News | Getty Images

It also comes a month before the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania.

Biden welcomed the Justice Department’s decision.

“As I promised during my campaign, my administration is committed to ensuring the greatest possible degree of legal transparency and adhering to the strict guidelines of the Obama-Biden administration on the use of state secrecy,” Biden said in a statement. “With that in mind, I welcome today’s Justice Department filing.”

The Justice Department’s decision follows a federal lawsuit in the southern district of New York by families of 9/11 victims against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The Justice Department found in a judicial file on Monday that the FBI recently closed an investigation into individuals who may have provided significant assistance to the September 11, 2001 kidnappers.

The FBI will review its previous decisions to withhold information and identify additional information that is appropriate for disclosure according to the filing.

“The FBI will continue to disclose such information as soon as possible,” Justice Department officials said on the file.

Organizations representing the families of 9/11 victims, including Peaceful Tomorrows and the 9/11 Families’ Association, did not immediately respond to comment.

Biden campaigned for a promise to give survivors of September 11, 2001 and family members more transparency about unpublished documents held by the government about the attacks.

Survivors, first responders and families of the victims argued on Friday that Biden did not live up to his words. They also previously alleged that up to 25,000 pages of 9/11-related documents were withheld from them.

“We cannot greet the president in good faith and with reverence for the lost, sick and injured in our sacred grounds until he fulfills his obligation,” they wrote in a statement on Friday.

Brett Eagleson, whose father was killed in the attack on the World Trade Center, told CNN on Friday that the group specifically wanted documents revealing information about the alleged role of the Saudi Arabian government.

“The government continues to stab us in the back behind a cloak of secrecy,” said Eagleson.

The 9/11 Commission’s investigation, which closed in 2004, found that charities funded by the Saudi government supported the terrorist attacks but provided no evidence of direct government funding.

The group of survivors and family members claim that recent FBI documents, such as a 2016 investigation into Saudi Arabia, reveal whether people linked to al-Qaeda, the group that carried out the terrorist attacks, were in Associate, have received support or funding from Saudi Arabia government.

Fifteen of the 19 attackers in the 9/11 attacks were Saudi nationals, and mastermind Osama bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi government denies allegations that it was involved.

Several presidential administrations withheld documents related to the attacks, citing security concerns. Most recently, in 2019, the Trump administration invoked the privilege of state secrecy to justify keeping documents secret.

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Politics

Biden warns of financial peril from Covid regardless of July job positive aspects

Biden warns of economic peril from Covid despite July job gains

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden resisted the temptation to take a victory lap Friday following the release of strong July jobs numbers, instead telling the country that rising Covid cases pose an urgent threat to the economic recovery.

“My message today is not one of celebration,” Biden said in remarks at the White House. “It is one to remind us that we have a lot of hard work left to be done, both to beat the delta variant and to continue the advance of our economic recovery.”

The highly contagious delta strain of Covid currently accounts for at least 80% of new infections nationwide.

Still, hiring rose last month at its fastest pace in nearly a year, despite fears over the delta variant and as companies struggled with a tight labor supply.

Nonfarm payrolls increased by 943,000, while the unemployment rate dropped to 5.4%, according to the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. The payroll increase was the best since August 2020.

The number of new jobs beat economists’ expectations by nearly 100,000, and the unemployment rate fell three tenths of a percent lower than experts had predicted it would.

In touting the strength and resilience of the economic recovery, Biden did something Friday that he rarely does: pointed to Wall Street analysts to validate his argument.

“What we’re doing is working,” he said. “Don’t take my word for it. The forecasters on Wall Street project that over the next 10 years, our economy will expand by trillions of dollars and will create 2 million good paying jobs.”

Trouble ahead

But July’s strong topline numbers do not accurately reflect a troubling new development in recent weeks: the rise in Covid infections and hospitalizations attributed to the delta variant.

That’s because the actual numbers for BLS monthly jobs reports are calculated during just the second week of the month, based on that week’s data.

In the three weeks since the July jobs figures were calculated, hospital emergency rooms and intensive care units have begun filling up again in parts of the country.

This has prompted some large employers and schools to freeze plans to fully reopen offices and campuses in the coming weeks.

The White House is deeply concerned that rising Covid caseloads could stall the economic recovery, imperiling Biden’s domestic agenda and Democrats’ electoral chances in the midterm elections.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki answers questions during the daily briefing on August 06, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Win McNamee | Getty Images

Sticks and carrots

And after months of relying on incentives, celebrity endorsements and local outreach to persuade Americans to get vaccinated, the Biden administration took a tougher line this past week, adding sticks to the proverbial carrot-stick equation.

Federal employees who cannot prove they’ve been vaccinated will be placed under a host of unpleasant restrictions at work, like being physically separated from their vaccinated colleagues.

The Pentagon also announced plans to include the Covid vaccine among the mandatory vaccines administered to U.S. service members.

Biden didn’t touch on these measures in his speech Friday, choosing instead to describe various measures the administration is enacting to protect the economic recovery.

He repeatedly referred to Covid as a “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” a phrase that some critics say fails to capture the universal impact of rising caseloads and things like reinstated mask mandates.

As the White House often notes, more than 90% of Covid hospitalizations are people who have not been vaccinated against the virus. And while vaccinated people can contract and transmit Covid, they typically exhibit mild symptoms akin to a flu or a sinus infection.

The White House view

Both publicly and privately, White House aides say that the stubbornly high rate of unvaccinated Americans — 30% of eligible recipients — is creating a situation where one virus, the coronavirus, is essentially creating two different, parallel public health challenges.

On one track are the 166 million fully or partially vaccinated people, whose individual Covid infections the government has not officially tracked since March.

For them, the virus looks more like a seasonal flu from past years than it does like the debilitating, weekslong pulmonary crisis that millions of Americans experienced in 2020, before the vaccine became available.

But for the unvaccinated, many of whom are concentrated in the Southeastern United States, the delta variant virus is just as deadly, and far more contagious, than the original virus was in the early months of last year.

Biden, however, believes there is reason for optimism. “I’m pleased to report in the past week we have seen first-time vaccinations in America go up by 4 million shots,” he said Friday. “That’s more than we have seen in a long time.”

— CNBC’s Jeff Cox contributed to this report.

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World News

9/11 households, survivors ask Biden to not attend memorial occasions over Saudi docs

9/11 families, survivors ask Biden not to attend memorial events over Saudi docs

Nearly 1,800 9/11 survivors, victims’ family members and first responders are telling President Joe Biden that he should skip memorial events this year unless he declassifies U.S. documents detailing Saudi Arabia’s role in the deadly attacks. 

Next month will mark 20 years since the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans at the World Trade Center in New York, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania.

The group argued that Biden has failed to fulfill his campaign promise to release as much information as possible on the attacks and has ignored their numerous letters and requests that called on him to do so. 

“Twenty years later, there is simply no reason — unmerited claims of ‘national security’ or otherwise — to keep this information secret,” the group said in their statement. 

“But if President Biden reneges on his commitment and sides with the Saudi government, we would be compelled to publicly stand in objection to any participation by his administration in any memorial ceremony of 9/11,” the group said.

A White House spokesperson said in a statement that its Office of Public Engagement and National Security Council staff have met with 9/11 victims’ family members to discuss their requests for documents and “hear their thoughts on policy priorities,” NBC News reported Friday.

In his campaign promise, Biden pledged to direct his Department of Justice to examine cases where the disclosure of FBI information related to the 9/11 attacks is recommended. He said that releasing such information would be “narrowly tailored” to protect against the risk of harm to national security. 

“I intend to be a President for all Americans, and will hear all of their voices,” Biden said. “The 9/11 Families are right to seek full truth and accountability.”

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The group said they had “great hopes” that Biden would diverge from previous administrations and said they were disappointed that he did not live up to his words after his inauguration.

They said that since the 9/11 Commission investigation concluded, in 2004, there has been investigative evidence found “implicating Saudi government officials” in supporting the attacks. 

The 9/11 Commission found it likely that Saudi government-funded charities supported the attacks but did not find any evidence of direct funding from the government, according to NBC News. 

The group particularly called for the release of FBI documents from a 2016 investigation of Saudi Arabia. They said they believe the documents would reveal whether any individuals associated with al Qaeda, the group that carried out the terrorist attacks, received assistance or financing from the Saudi Arabian government. 

Fifteen of the 19 attackers in the 9/11 attacks were Saudi citizens, and mastermind Osama Bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia, but the country’s government has denied allegations that it was involved.

Multiple presidential administrations have cited “security concerns” in their reasoning for withholding documents related to the terrorist attacks, the group’s statement said. 

Most recently, the Trump administration invoked the state secrets privilege in 2019 to justify keeping documents classified, according to NBC News.

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Politics

Biden might quickly begin reshaping the Fed, and progressives desire a say

Biden may soon start reshaping the Fed, and progressives want a say

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testifies during the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing examining the CARES bill’s quarterly report to Congress on September 24, 2020 in Washington, DC.

Drew Angerer | AFP | Getty Images

We will soon find out what the leadership of the Federal Reserve under President Joe Biden will be.

The president will decide this fall whether to stay with Chairman Jerome Powell, whose term ends in February, or to place one of his distinguished colleagues at the helm of one of the most powerful economic institutions in the world.

Wall Street urges Biden to reappoint Powell for a second term. But the progressives are demanding a new face at the top of the central bank.

The job of chairman of the Fed is not the only role to be won. The term of office of Vice President Randal Quarles, the central bank’s regulatory contact, expires in October. And it all means Fed Governor Lael Brainard could stand up for a promotion.

Political advisors speaking to CNBC about Fed sales said the Biden administration is considering sending its nominations as a bundle to the Senate Banking Committee in September. They stressed that the search is ongoing and the timeline may shift depending on whether Biden decides to re-name Powell.

A strong indication of Wall Street’s fear of a possible replacement by Powell came last month from Mike Feroli, US chief economist at JPMorgan.

“Fed Chairman Powell’s response to the COVID-19 financial crisis and recession has been aggressive, creative and determined.

But Feroli said: “He is now in danger of losing his job.”

Placing the parts

That’s because progressive Democrats want Brainard to replace Powell.

Its proponents say it would urge the Fed to put more emphasis on banking regulation, income inequality and climate change.

Some Democrats, like Biden Treasury candidate Graham Steele, have said it would be a “huge missed opportunity” not to replace Powell with a woman or a minority member to run an institution long used by white men was dominated.

Feroli said Powell delighted the progressives by doubling the Fed’s commitment to maximum employment in all segments of the population, but that the group is still frustrated with the former investment banker’s reluctance to address issues like the economic impact of climate change.

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The White House declined to comment on the story and has not publicly stated whether the government is looking for a new chairman. Perhaps the closest thing the Biden administration got to public comment was Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s comments to CNBC last month.

Yellen, who made history as the first woman to head the Fed, said the central bank “did a good job” under Powell’s tenure.

When asked if she would support Powell for a second term, Yellen said she would keep that opinion a secret for the time being. She is likely to play an oversized role in advising the president, with Powell and Brainard serving as Fed governors while Yellen was chairman of the central bank.

The Treasury Department declined to comment on the story.

Yellen’s praise for the Powell Fed may have invalidated some progressive Democrats who hope Biden will take the opportunity to install a member of his own party.

“There are two dimensions. And one is how much [Powell] has helped the Fed as a whole deregulate further than Congress might have told them to, “said Mike Konczal, director of macroeconomic analysis at the left-wing Roosevelt Institute.

“The second question is whether the Fed could be more creative in using its powers,” he continued. “Can the Fed act much more aggressively against climate change? Could it have acted much more aggressively in consolidating state and local government balance sheets during the crisis.”

“These are two separate questions,” said Konczal. “And progressives believe Powell failed at both of them.”

Despite progressive concerns, Powell has a long list of allies on both sides of the political gang and is still seen on Wall Street as likely to maintain his chairmanship. His commitment to protecting the Fed from political influence and his record during the 2020 recession earned him praise from Republicans and Democrats alike.

Former President Donald Trump, who promoted Powell to Fed chief, repeatedly attacked the Fed chief over what Trump believed was high interest rates. But most Republicans in Congress, including North Carolina MP Patrick McHenry, have signaled their continued support for 68-year-old Powell.

“You deserve and deserve another term as chairman of the Federal Reserve,” said McHenry, senior Republican on the House of Representatives financial services committee, in July. “You have shown that you are a steady hand during this pandemic and the ongoing recovery, and you have defended the independence of the Fed.”

Brainard and Quarles

Progressives disagree on their preferred candidate, but many argue that Brainard is a sweet spot between Powell’s persistently low interest rates and tighter banking regulation.

Brainard has been a key Powell lieutenant throughout the Covid crisis and has for years supported the Fed’s growing emphasis on maximum employment through easy money policies. However, it has regularly objected to his decisions to relax certain banking regulations that were imposed after the 2008 financial crisis.

Lael Brainard, Governor of the US Federal Reserve, listens during an event sponsored by the Economic Club of New York in New York, the United States, on Tuesday, September 5, 2017.

Mark Kauzlarich | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Powell isn’t the only Fed member criticized for simplifying banking regulation, and his fate depends on Biden filling another key position.

Quarles’ term expires in October, offering progressives another great opportunity to put more sophisticated banking supervision in place.

Given his track record at the Fed and pressure from progressives to better regulate banks, Biden will almost certainly seek to replace Quarles as vice chairman of oversight.

Quarles, a former mutual fund manager and former Republican Treasury Department official, has angered Democrats for his industry-friendly and risky approach since joining the Fed in 2017.

Under his leadership, the Fed rolled back liquidity and capital requirements for large U.S. banks in 2019, beyond what many Democrats in Congress intended when the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act was partially withdrawn.

Randal Quarles

Jb Reed | Bloomberg | Getty Images

“Your term as Chair is up in five months and our financial system will be safer when you are gone,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Told Quarles during a hearing in May. “I urge President Biden to fill your role with someone who will actually protect our financial system.”

It’s less clear who Biden is considering for Quarles’ job, but Brainard could be a candidate if the President wants to keep Powell with him. Economist Lisa Cook, a favorite of Senate Banking Committee chair Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, is also being considered for a role at the central bank.

A Federal Reserve board spokesman did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

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Politics

Biden blocks elimination of Hong Kong residents, cites China repression

Biden blocks removal of Hong Kong residents, cites China repression

United States President Joe Biden delivers a speech in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC on July 29, 2021.

Anna Money Maker | Getty Images

President Joe Biden signed an order on Wednesday blocking the forced deportation of many Hong Kong residents from the United States for 18 months and giving them a “temporary safe haven” from ongoing Chinese repression in the region, the White House said.

The order allows Hong Kong residents whose U.S. visas have expired and who are otherwise legally removable to remain in the United States.

Biden on Wednesday also directed the Department of Homeland Security to legally work in the United States for Hong Kong residents subject to the order.

“With politically motivated arrests and trials, media silence, and the shrinking space for elections and democratic opposition, we will continue to take steps to support the people of Hong Kong,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a written statement.

The order imposing memorandum signed by Biden also states that China has undermined “the enjoyment of rights and freedoms” in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, including those protected by the so-called Basic Law and the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

Since June 2020, when China unilaterally imposed its national security law on Hong Kong, police in the semi-autonomous region have detained at least 100 opposition politicians, activists and protesters on charges under the law, the memo said.

In addition, police arrested more than 10,000 people in connection with protests against the government.

China’s action came in response to the anti-government protests that began in Hong Kong in 2019.

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“There are compelling foreign policy reasons to postpone the forced exit of Hong Kong residents currently in the United States,” the memo said.

“The United States is committed to a foreign policy that combines our democratic values ​​with our foreign policy goals that focus on defending democracy and promoting human rights around the world,” the memo reads.

“Providing a safe haven for Hong Kong residents who have been deprived of their guaranteed freedoms in Hong Kong promotes US interests in the region.”

Biden’s order applies to Hong Kong residents currently in the United States, with certain exceptions.

These exceptions include those who cannot be admitted or deported to the United States under immigration law, those convicted of one or more offenses in the United States, and those whose presence is not in the interests of the United States

Senator Ben Sasse, the Republican from Nebraska who tabled a bill last year that automatically grants asylum to Hong Kong residents in the US, said Biden’s order was “a solid step, but we need to go further.”

“We must offer full asylum to Hong Kong people who are fleeing the brutal repression of Chairman Xi,” said Sasse, referring to the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jingping.

“America must stand firmly behind the victims of communism and show the world that we will always stand up for freedom around the world.”

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World News

Biden administration has plans to require most international guests to be vaccinated.

Biden administration has plans to require most foreign visitors to be vaccinated.

The Biden administration is developing plans to require all foreign travelers to the United States to be vaccinated against Covid-19, with limited exceptions, according to an administration official with knowledge of the developing policy.

The plan, first reported by Reuters, will be part of a new system to be put in place after the current restrictions on travel into the country are lifted, but officials have yet to determine when that might be done.

President Biden has been under pressure for months to ease restrictions on people wishing to travel to the United States, particularly as other countries, including England, Scotland and Canada, relax their own measures.

But White House officials have said in recent days that there is no plan to lift current restrictions anytime soon, in light of the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.

“Given where we are today,” Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, told reporters last week, “with the Delta variant, we will maintain existing travel restrictions at this point.”

That stance was reiterated on Wednesday evening by White House officials who said that there was no timetable yet for requiring foreign travelers to be inoculated.

“The interagency working groups are working to develop a plan for a consistent and safe international travel policy, in order to have a new system ready for when we can reopen travel,” the administration official, who was not authorized to publicly detail the plan, wrote in an email. “This includes a phased approach that over time will mean, with limited exceptions, that foreign nationals traveling to the United States (from all countries) need to be fully vaccinated.”

Travelers from Iran, China, Brazil, the United Kingdom, South Africa, India, the Republic of Ireland and Europe’s Schengen area — spanning 29 countries, city-states and micro-states — are currently barred from entering the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control, unless they are a U.S. citizen or they spend 14 days before arrival in a country that is not on that list.

The United States began restricting travel by foreigners in January 2020, when former President Donald Trump cut off some travel from China in the hope of preventing the spread of the virus. That effort largely failed.

But health officials pressed the Trump administration to expand travel bans to much of Europe during the first surge of the pandemic in the spring of 2020, and more countries have been added to the ban as the original virus and several variants have spread rapidly from country to country.

This week, the Biden administration said that it would keep in place Title 42, a public health rule that allows the government to turn back people attempting to enter the United States from its southern border.

The decision, confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday, amounted to a shift by the administration, which had been working on plans to begin lifting the rule this summer, more than a year after it was imposed by the Trump administration.

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Health

Biden unveils subsequent steps in White Home Covid vaccination push

Biden unveils next steps in White House Covid vaccination push

[The stream is slated to start at 4 p.m. ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.]

President Joe Biden will comment on his administration’s recent efforts to promote coronavirus vaccination.

The new steps come as officials warn of an expected spike in Covid cases, led by the highly transmissible Delta variant that is spreading in the US and around the world.

Several outlets reported that Biden’s speech is expected to announce federal employees will need to get vaccinated or undergo strict safety protocols, including regular tests.

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Politics

Eviction Moratorium Set to Lapse as Biden Assist Effort Falters

Eviction Moratorium Set to Lapse as Biden Aid Effort Falters

The elimination of the federal ban will be offset by other pro-tenant initiatives that still exist. Many states and towns, including New York and California, have extended their own moratoriums, which should mitigate some of the effects. In some places, judges aware of the potential for a wave of mass displacement have said they will handle cases more slowly and make greater use of eviction diversion programs.

On Friday, several government agencies, including the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as well as the Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs departments, announced that they would extend their eviction moratoriums to September 30.

Nonetheless, there is potential for an onslaught of eviction requests starting next week – in addition to the 450,000+ eviction cases that have been filed in courts in major cities and states since the pandemic began in March 2020.

An estimated 11 million adult renters are considered seriously behind schedule, according to a survey by the Census Bureau, but no one knows how many tenants are at risk of eviction in the near future.

Bailey Bortolin, a tenant attorney who works for the Nevada Coalition of Legal Service Providers, said the absence of the moratorium would encourage many property owners to take their eviction backlog to court next week, which is what many renters receive eviction notice had caused them to simply vacate their apartments instead of arguing.

“I think what we will see on Monday is a drastic increase in eviction suits going out to the people and the vast majority will not go through the judicial process,” Ms. Bortolin said.

The moratorium was due to expire on June 30, but the White House and CDC, under pressure from tenant groups, extended the lockdown to July 31, hoping to use the time to accelerate the flow of rental assistance.

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Health

Biden calls on states to supply $100 money funds for vaccination

Biden calls on states to offer $100 cash payments for vaccination

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a visit to the Mack-Lehigh Valley Operations Manufacturing Facility in Macungie, Pa., July 28, 2021.

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

President Joe Biden on Thursday called on state and local officials to offer residents $ 100 in cash as an incentive to get a Covid-19 vaccine.

During a White House speech on Thursday afternoon, Biden cited an investigation by the University of California at Los Angeles in which about a third of those unvaccinated said a cash payment would make them more likely for an injection, according to details of the plan approved by the administration.

“The American Rescue Plan (ARP) has allocated resources to states, territories, and communities that can be used to provide incentives to increase vaccination rates to provide $ 100 to anyone who gets vaccinated,” the government said in an explanation before the speech.

Biden also announced that his government will require federal employees to demonstrate their vaccination status or undergo a series of strict safety protocols as well as other steps aimed at increasing vaccination rates.

The latest vaccine surge comes as coronavirus cases begin to rise again in the US, with the highly contagious Delta variant boosting infection rates. People infected with the Delta variant carry up to 1,000 times more viruses in their nasal passages than other strains, which, according to the federal health authorities, leads to a higher degree of transmission even among those who have been vaccinated.

Infectious disease experts have warned of a possible spike in infections in the fall season, when Americans go back into the house and employers start moving workers back to the office.

Health officials claim the Covid vaccines provide strong protection against the variant, especially against serious illness and death. Nevertheless, the rate of vaccination in the US has slowed in recent months.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that nearly 800,000 shots were recorded nationwide on Sunday, the highest single-day total in weeks, but still well below the peak.

The seven-day average of reported vaccinations rose 16% over the past week to 615,000 daily vaccinations on Thursday, compared to more than 3 million daily vaccinations reported in mid-April.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio recently announced that officials there will pay $ 100 to anyone who goes to a city-operated vaccination site for their first dose of a vaccine.

Biden’s comments come two days after the CDC reversed course of its previous guidelines and advised fully vaccinated Americans living in areas with high rates of Covid infection to return to wearing face masks indoors. According to a CNBC analysis, the guidelines cover about two-thirds of the US population.

While the Delta variant continues to hit unvaccinated people the hardest, some vaccinated people could carry higher amounts of the virus than previously thought and potentially transmit it to others, said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky on Tuesday. She added that the variant “behaves uniquely differently from previous virus strains”.

“This pandemic continues to pose a serious threat to the health of all Americans,” Walensky told reporters on a call.

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Politics

Biden, Republicans and the Pandemic Blame Recreation

Biden, Republicans and the Pandemic Blame Game

President Biden finds himself in a difficult position: he advocated the ideas that he had the team to deal with a pandemic and that his five-decade long career as a deal maker in Washington was just the thing to reverse political polarization of the land to overcome.

That doesn’t happen, not even a little.

Not only are Republicans resisting Mr Biden’s push to end the pandemic, some of them are actively obstructing it. The Republican governors have slowly pushed ahead with vaccination efforts and lifted the mask requirement early. In Washington, GOP leaders like Steve Scalise, the second-tier Republican in the House of Representatives – who was vaccinated only about two weeks ago – mocked public health guidelines that even vaccinated people should wear masks indoors as “government control”.

There is little Mr. Biden can do. Nearly a year and a half of living in a pandemic has shown exactly who will and will not adhere to public health guidelines.

It was only last week in my Washington neighborhood, which has one of the highest vaccination rates in the city and who voted 92 percent for Mr. Biden, started masking themselves again in supermarkets and even outdoors in parks.

In places like Arkansas, hospitals are overloaded with Covid patients and vaccination rates remain persistently low. The anti-mask sentiment is so strong that the General Assembly of the state has passed a law banning any mandate that requires it. On Thursday, Governor Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, announced a special session of lawmakers to amend the anti-mandate bill he signed in April to allow schools to require masks for students who are too young to receive a vaccine. Good luck with that, replied his Republicans in the legislature.

That leaves the President at a loss. With the Delta variant proving to be far more contagious and dangerous than previous iterations of the virus, the people he needs most to hear his message about vaccines and masks are the rarest.

Six years of Donald J. Trump largely hiding all other voices in his party left Republicans without a credible messenger to push vaccines forward, even if they wanted to. Senator Mitch McConnell, the minority leader, may use his campaign money to advertise vaccinations in his home, Kentucky, but he is barely a popular figure within the party and is viewed by its grassroots as just another member of the Washington establishment.

There are certainly other communities of vaccine resistance out there, including the demographics of people who have been mistreated by the federal government in the past (and also a small but noisy minority of professional athletes and Olympians), but it is Republicans and Republican-led states that are considered biggest hurdle in American vaccination efforts.

Without the ability to convince the vaccination hesitation and the party he had pledged to work with, Mr Biden and the federal government were left with a step that he had been resisting for weeks: making the lives of the unvaccinated more difficult to try to force them to change their minds.

That brings us to the President’s press conference on Thursday. Mr Biden said that for the first time all federal employees would be required to provide evidence that they have been vaccinated (or wear a mask at work), undergo weekly tests, and maintain social distance.

He stopped short of a vaccine mandate, saying such a requirement was a choice for local governments, school districts and businesses. He said if things get worse and those who oppose vaccines are denied access to workplaces and public spaces, maybe things would get better.

“I suspect if we don’t make further progress, a lot of companies and lots of companies will need proof in order to attend,” said Mr Biden.

This maneuver – essentially a shift of responsibility away from the federal government – is in line with the way Mr Biden often tries to project a tone of hope while airbrushing the reality of a highly divided nation.

Updated

July 30, 2021, 7:36 p.m. ET

The disinformation market in America is bigger than ever with Mr Trump despite starting the program that resulted in the full vaccination of 164 million Americans, leading to charges of discrediting the same program during the Biden administration.

But it wasn’t Mr Trump and the Republicans running to end the pandemic last year – it was Mr Biden and the Democrats who successfully turned the election into a referendum on how to tackle a unique global public health crisis.

Now, just weeks after celebrating the great strides made against the pandemic, Mr Biden is facing a new wave. And it probably won’t be long before Republicans, who did everything in their power to resist counter-measures, blame the president for failing to get the country out of the crisis he promised to resolve .

“SO EXCITED. SO PROUD,” Marathon County board member Ka Lo wrote on Thursday in a series of cheering text messages, “IT’S SOOOOOO GOOD !!!”

It remains to be seen how much Ms. Lee’s triumph will give a boost to local efforts to gain recognition for the Hmong in Wisconsin. Both the district marathon and the city council of Wausau have rejected the resolutions “community for all”, which led to the spreading of “community for all” labels and a further attempt to pass the measure in the district executive committee.

The next vote of the executive committee of the district board is planned for August 12th.

Sometimes even presidents get a little dirt on their chins.

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