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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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Business

Joe Biden’s Peloton could possibly be a White Home safety threat, report says

Joe Biden's Peloton could be a White House security risk, report says

Jen Van Santvoord rides her Peloton exercise bike at her home in San Anselmo, California on April 7, 2020.

Ezra Shaw | Getty Images

When Joe Biden moves into the White House, he may have to leave part of his exercise routine behind.

The elected president’s peloton could be viewed as a security threat by intelligence agencies, according to a report by Popular Mechanics. The popular stationary bike is connected to the internet and has a camera and microphone that can pose a risk of hacking.

To get the all-clear for the exercise machines, Biden’s peloton may need to rip out some of its key features – the microphone, camera, and network devices that connect it to bike classes and make it look more interactive, Max Kilger, director of The University of Texas in the data analysis program of San Antonio announced to Popular Mechanics.

However, there may be a precedent to modify the bike or get a custom one. In a review posted in The Verge three years ago, author Lauren Goode said a person “close to the company” told former first lady Michelle Obama that they had a peloton with no camera and microphone. At the time, Peloton and Obama’s press office declined to comment.

Biden’s press team and peloton have been contacted to see if the president-elect’s bike may also receive a workaround.

Peloton, once the subject of ridicule, has become a success story of the Covid pandemic. Demand is growing as Americans seek safer alternatives to the gym and invest in exercise equipment for their homes. Share prices have increased more than fivefold over the past year, giving Peloton a market value of more than $ 46.2 billion.

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Politics

False Experiences of a New ‘U.S. Variant’ Got here from White Home Process Pressure

False Reports of a New ‘U.S. Variant’ Came from White House Task Force

Reports of a highly contagious new variant in the United States released on Friday by several news outlets are based on speculative statements by Dr. Deborah Birx and are inaccurate according to several government officials.

The flawed report arose recently at a meeting at which Dr. Birx, a member of the White House’s coronavirus task force, presented diagrams of the escalating cases in the country. She suggested to other members of the task force that a new, more transferable variant originating in the US could explain the surge, as did another variant in the UK.

Their hypothesis made it a weekly report sent to the state governors. “This fall / winter rise was almost twice as fast as the spring and summer rise. This acceleration suggests that there may be a US variant that has evolved here, on top of the UK variant that is already spreading in our communities and potentially 50% more transferable, ”the report said. “Aggressive attenuation must be used to match a more aggressive virus.”

CDC officials in dismay tried to remove the speculative statements, but were unsuccessful, according to three people familiar with the events.

CDC officials disagreed with their assessment and asked to have them removed, but they were told no, according to a frustrated CDC official who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

Dr. Birx could not be reached immediately for comment.

News of a possible new variant appeared on CNBC Friday afternoon and quickly spread to other branches. In response to media inquiries about the variant, the CDC issued a formal statement refuting the theory.

“Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are monitoring all emerging variants of the coronavirus, including the 5,700 samples collected in November and December,” said Jason McDonald, an agency spokesman. “So far, neither CDC researchers nor analysts have seen any particular variant emerge in the US,” he said.

Variants in circulation in the US include B.1.1.7, which was first identified in the UK and is now driving a surge and overwhelming hospitals. The variant has been discovered in a handful of states, but the CDC estimates it currently accounts for less than 0.5 percent of cases in the country.

Another variant that circulates in small amounts in the US, known as B 1.346, contains a deletion that can make vaccines less effective. “But I didn’t see anything about increased transmission,” said Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona who discovered this variant.

This variant has been in the US for three months and also accounts for less than 0.5 percent of cases. Therefore, it is unlikely to be more contagious than other variants, according to a CDC scientist who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the matter.

All viruses evolve and the coronavirus is no different. “Because of the scientific understanding of viruses, it is very likely that many variants will develop simultaneously around the world,” said McDonald of the CDC. “However, it may take weeks or months to determine if there is a single variant of the virus that is causing Covid-19 to fuel the surge in the US, much like the UK.”

Carl Zimmer reported from New Haven and Noah Weiland from Washington DC

Categories
Politics

Trump, Melania will return to White Home, skip Mar-a-Lago New Yr’s bash

Trump, Melania will return to White House, skip Mar-a-Lago New Year's bash

US President Donald Trump is pictured in his armored vehicle as he leaves his Mar-a-Lago resort in West Palm Beach, Florida, USA on December 31, 2020.

Tom Brenner | Reuters

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will be returning to the White House on Thursday to shorten their long Palm Beach vacation break and skip a New Year’s Eve blowout at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

The planning notice came days before Congress was due to finalize President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, a virtually inevitable outcome that several Republicans object to delaying.

The President and First Lady are due to leave Florida for Washington at 11 a.m. ET, the White House said on Wednesday evening.

The departure was unexpected: news outlets reported that guests attending Mar-a-Lago’s annual New Year’s Eve gala had been told that Trump would be at the event. CNN reported Tuesday, citing a member of the resort, that at least 500 reservations had been confirmed to the party.

A receptionist in Mar-a-Lago declined to comment on the party. The White House declined to comment.

Since arriving in Palm Beach on Dec. 23, Trump has made comments mostly focused on the elections. He refuses to admit Biden despite repeated failures in court to reverse or invalidate the Democratic vote of the electoral college.

US President Donald Trump boardes Air Force One with First Lady Melania Trump at Palm Beach International Airport in Florida, USA, on December 31, 2020.

Tom Brenner | Reuters

These voters cast their votes on December 14; Biden won 306 votes to Trump’s 232.

On frequent trips to his golf club, Trump has visited Twitter to pressure Republican senators to “stand up for the presidency,” while spreading a number of baseless and debunked conspiracy theories about widespread election fraud.

On Wednesday, Republican Josh Hawley of Missouri became the first Senator to respond and said he would object when Congress counts the votes next week.

Several House Republicans have already vowed to contest the elections at this point. If a house member and a senator jointly object to a state’s electoral roll, the two houses must debate it separately and then vote on the objection.

Experts say there is no real chance of reversing the election result.

It is unclear how Trump will continue his print campaign in the days leading up to Biden’s victory being confirmed on Wednesday.

On Sunday he announced that he would travel to Georgia next Monday to campaign for Republicans Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, the day before their two runoff elections, which determine which party controls the Senate.

Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will also visit Peach State to campaign for Democratic candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock ahead of Tuesday’s election.

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World News

White Home threatens to fireplace FDA chief until Covid vaccine OKed Friday: experiences

White House threatens to fire FDA chief unless Covid vaccine OKed Friday: reports

US President Donald Trump and Stephen Hahn, Director of the Food and Drug Administration, attend the daily meeting of the coronavirus task force at the White House in Washington, DC on April 24, 2020.

Drew Angerer | Getty Images

White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has urged the head of the Food and Drug Administration to resign if the agency does not clear Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine for emergency use by the end of the day, the Washington Post reported on Friday.

The warning prompted FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn and the agency to accelerate their schedule for the release of America’s first Covid-19 vaccine from Saturday morning to late Friday, according to the Post, citing anonymous sources.

The New York Times, Axios, and Reuters also reported that Meadows urged Hahn to resign if he wasn’t quick enough to remove the vaccine.

In a statement, Hahn called the Post’s report “an untrue account”.

“This is an untrue representation of the telephone conversation with the chief of staff,” Hahn told CNBC on Friday afternoon. “The FDA has been encouraged to continue working swiftly on Pfizer-BioNTech’s EEA request. The FDA is committed to swiftly granting this approval, as we noted in our statement this morning.”

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

The reports come a day after a key FDA advisory body voted 17-4, with one abstention, to recommend the vaccine, which Pfizer partnered with BioNTech, for emergency approval. The FDA typically follows the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biological Products. After the overwhelming vote, the FDA should release the vaccine on Friday.

Hahn said earlier that day the agency was “working fast” to clear Pfizer’s emergency vaccine. “The agency has also notified the US Centers for Disease Control, Prevention and Operation Warp Speed ​​so they can implement their plans for timely vaccine distribution,” Hahn said in a joint statement with Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

Shortly after Hahn ’s remarks, President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly urged the FDA to speed up the vaccine development process, tweeted the agency,” Get the dam vaccines out NOW. “

“Stop playing and save lives !!!”

FDA approval would mark a record-breaking timeframe for a process that typically takes about a decade. The fastest vaccine development to date against mumps took more than four years and was licensed in 1967. Pfizer and BioNTech announced plans to develop a coronavirus vaccine in March and filed an emergency clearance application with the FDA in November.

An emergency permit, or EEA, is not the same as a full permit, which can typically take months. Pfizer has only submitted safety data for two months, but it typically takes the agency six months for full approval.

– CNBC’s Amanda Macias contributed to this report.

Categories
Health

White Home Coronavirus Process Pressure backs restoration of inbound journey from Brazil, UK and Europe, sources say

White House Coronavirus Task Force backs restoration of inbound travel from Brazil, UK and Europe, sources say

President Donald Trump speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on Friday, November 13, 2020.

Evan Vucci | AP

The White House Coronavirus Task Force has recommended President Donald Trump that the United States begin admitting travelers from Brazil, the United Kingdom and the 27 countries of the European Union, according to two officials involved in the discussions.

If Trump approves the proposal for a directive, it would reverse entry bans on U.S. allies that were in place at the start of the pandemic as the virus rose overseas. Travel from China and Iran, two of the earliest hotspots for the virus that restricted travel in January and February, would not be eased, according to these officials.

The task force disagreed on its recommendation, which was sent to the president before Thanksgiving. According to the sources, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention strongly disapproved of reopening travel as reckless, especially as the agency’s leadership signaled to the American public that domestic vacation travel was unsafe.

The proposed policy would not guarantee entry to the same countries for US travelers and would upset some of Trump’s advisors who argue that it violates the government’s “America First” mantra. However, significant disagreements persist between nations and blocs over what protocols are needed to keep transmission of the virus at bay, and the two officials who spoke with CNBC said there may be disagreements between the outbound and inbound administrations could give, which further complicates the negotiations.

In the U.S., the task force agreed that local authorities – such as individual airports, governors, and mayors – would be responsible for the testing and quarantine protocol international travelers would need after they land in order to avoid the creation of a surviving federal regulatory regime Pandemic.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on where the political process stands and when Trump might put it into action. The two sources involved in the discussion said that if approved, they would be announced before Trump leaves office, but the growing virus as a holiday approach would challenge any announcement until then.

Reuters initially reported on the lifting of travel restrictions. The Wall Street Journal reported in October that officials were discussing a limited opening of the travel corridor between New York and London, which should go into effect before the holidays.