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Sarah Elbeshbishi
| USA TODAY
Biden signs orders reversing ‘Trump damage’
President Joe Biden is taking his first steps to reverse the Trump administration’s health policies. Speaking to reporters at the Oval Office, Biden said he was signing two executive orders to “repair the damage Trump has done” to healthcare. (January 28)
AP
A month after a violent insurgency on the U.S. Capitol attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., Reflected on the incident and its implications in an interview Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union”. “
Pressley argued that the violent mob that trashed the Capitol resulted in ‘because as a country we have turned the page’, and failed to address the systemic issues that plague the country socially and economically, like racism and inequality.
“If we truly believe this is a counting moment in all respects, we have to act on it,” Pressley argued. “And that means Donald J. Trump must be held responsible because he is guilty of instigating this insurgency by perpetuating this big lie.”
The representative claimed that the rioters on Capitol Hill should “continue to be investigated” by the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies for their involvement in the riot, and that the Former President Donald Trump was due to be sentenced in his Senate impeachment trial for his conduct that day. , which House Democrats say sparked the riot.
Pressley said his experience of hiding in the Capitol from a largely white crowd had parallels with the violent terrorist attacks that black Americans have suffered throughout the country’s history. “As a black woman, being barricaded in my office, using office furniture and water bottles, on the floor, in the dark, that dread, those moments of dread, is familiar to me from in a deep and ancestral way, ”Pressley said.
The representative said she always felt safe working on Capitol Hill.
“Again, this is familiar in an ancestral way. So this is not going to deter or prevent me from doing my job on behalf of the American people,” she said.
Pressley pointed to a scene she witnessed during the Capitol Riots, where a black guard helped clean up the building after mobs ransacked the building.
“One of the images that haunts me is the black guard staff cleaning up the mess left by this violent white supremacist mob,” she recalls. “It’s a metaphor for America. We have cleaned up violent white supremacist mobs for generations. And it must end.”
– Matthew Brown
Transportation Secretary Buttigieg advocates for Biden’s back-up plan
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg made the case for President Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief program in an ABC News interview on “This Week” Sunday.
“With each passing day, the need for relief becomes more urgent, ensuring that we have the resources to beat this virus, but also to support American working-class families,” he said, arguing that this sentiment also had a wide appeal among Republicans outside of Washington. He added that he hoped such support “will also show up among Republican lawmakers here in Washington, but of course that is what the next few days will show.”
While Buttigieg has acknowledged that the administration may have to negotiate within the Democratic caucus over the threshold for direct stimulus checks for Americans, the bottom line is that we need to support as many Americans as possible as firmly as possible. , and as quickly as possible. Time is running out, ”he said.
“And part of what was a real struggle the last time we faced a major economic challenge in 2009, was the feeling it needed – if there had been more political will in Washington to do so. plus, the economy could have recovered faster, ”Buttigieg says.
The secretary also discussed the need to build a US infrastructure during the interview, saying that “we also have a historic moment in our hands where we realized how critical these needs are. We cannot continue to do so. kick the road. ”He highlighted the enabling environment governments currently have to finance major works such as infrastructure projects.
On whether Congress, especially Congress Republicans, would cooperate on such a package, Buttigieg said, “Congress has many constitutional obligations. These functions are all performed at the same time, but building infrastructure for the American people is certainly part of that responsibility. “
– Matthew Brown
Yellen: full employment expected by 2022 if Biden’s rescue plan is adopted
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen predicts that President Joe Biden’s proposed COVID-19 relief program will put the U.S. economy back to full employment by 2022.
“I would expect that if this package is passed we would return to full employment next year,” Yellen told CNN State of the Union on Sunday.
The prediction comes as Democrats in Congress and the White House prepare to adopt much of Biden’s proposed plan through budget reconciliation, a process that allows Democrats to bypass the Senate filibuster rule and adopt policies that only affect fiscal matters, such as taxes and spending.
Yellen, like most Democrats in Washington, is arguing for a broader stimulus package to address the myriad of economic and public health issues that she says can only be addressed through federal intervention. “Our country is suffering right now, but we know what we need to do to help”, Yellen tweeted Thursday.
Citing analysis from the Congressional Budget Office, a non-partisan government think tank, Yellen told CNN that “if we don’t provide additional support, the unemployment rate will remain high for years to come.”
Most economists expect that, if current trends continue, the US economy will return to full employment in 2024 or 2025. Yellen’s economic outlook is more optimistic based on the prediction than the relief program. de Biden will support affected sectors of the economy and speed up vaccine deployment, allowing the country to reopen.
Yellen, the first female chair of the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department, is a highly respected economist among liberals and conservatives on the ground. Recently, Yellen joined Biden and Democratic senators to discuss the best economic policies to deal with the current economic crisis. She also attended a meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris to discuss helping black businesses with black chambers of commerce.
– Matthew Brown
Arizona Senate threatens contempt of Maricopa County officials over election audit
PHOENIX – A feud between the Arizona Senate and the Maricopa County Oversight Board over lawmakers’ insistence that the county conduct another tally of the 2020 general election results has escalated in recent weeks .
Now the State Senate could go even further.
The Republican-controlled Arizona Senate threatened to hold supervisors, nearly all Republicans, in contempt for failing to respond to subpoenas asking for copies of all county ballots and access at the voting machines. The Senate wants to do its own audit.
Some senators have even threatened to arrest supervisors over it, and the body could vote on the contempt resolution as early as Monday.
If lawmakers accept this, it could be a first in Arizona history. No lawmaker interviewed could recall that the Senate had passed such a resolution.
State law requires counties to perform two types of post-election audits: a manual ballot count and a voting machine logic and accuracy test.
For the manual count, the county looked at ballots from 2% of polling centers, as well as 5,000 advance ballots, and found that the county’s voting machines counted the ballots with 100% accuracy. The political parties appointed representatives to select the polling centers to be verified and they helped with the manual count.
The logic and precision test also revealed that the machines were running without errors.
The Senate wants a more complete manual count of ballots. And they want to do it themselves – or choose who will.
In December, Senate Republicans issued two subpoenas to supervisors that demanded images of every ballot in the mail, access to voting machines and software, and voter information, such as addresses of voters. voters, dates of birth and party affiliation.
Instead of responding to subpoenas, supervisors filed a lawsuit Dec. 18 in Maricopa County Superior Court, asking a judge to decide whether they should provide the information.
The county argued, in part, that the subpoenas violated Arizona laws regarding secrecy of the ballot and access to ballots.
– Jen Fifield and Andrew Oxford, Republic of Arizona
Representative Liz Cheney censored by Wyoming GOP
The Wyoming Republican Party voted Saturday to censor Representative Liz Cheney for her vote last month to impeach then-President Donald Trump.
The vote to censor Cheney – first reported by the Casper Star-Tribune – comes days after House Republicans voted against an effort to remove Cheney from his leadership post following his impeachment vote.
In a statement Saturday in response to his censorship, Cheney said his vote to impeach Trump “was compelled by my oath to the Constitution.”
“I will always fight for Wyoming values and stand up for our Western way of life,” she continued. “We have great challenges ahead of us as we move forward and fight the disastrous policies of the Biden administration.”
Cheney is one of several Congressional Republicans who have been censored by their state GOP committee. Senator Ben Sasse, R-Neb., Was censored Thursday by the Nebraska Republican Party State Central Committee because of his harsh criticism of Trump.
The state GOP called on Cheney to resign “immediately” in his motion of no confidence. They also said they intended to “withhold any future political funding” and asked him to repay his donations for the 2020 campaign.
The Arizona Republican Party censored Gov. Doug Ducey, former Sen. Jeff Flake and Cindy McCain in January.
Ducey was censored because he imposed emergency COVID rules that the party said restricted personal freedoms and forced people to comply with unconstitutional orders.
The GOP censored Flake for saying he condemned the Republican Party and “rejects populism”.
McCain, who along with Flake endorsed Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the 2020 election, has been accused of supporting “globalist policies and candidates.”
– Sarah Elbeshbishi
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