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Joe Biden began his first full day as president in the face of a host of major crises facing his fledgling government, starting with a wave of action to tackle his most pressing challenge: the Covid-19 pandemic that is now rage.
At a White House event Thursday afternoon, Biden unveiled a new national strategy to fight the coronavirus, which has killed more than 404,000 Americans and infected more than 24 million since it began to spread to United States a year ago, by far the highest total. in the world.
“Over the past year, we couldn’t count on the federal government to act with the urgency, focus and coordination that we needed,” Biden said, referring to Donald Trump’s administration, which ended at noon the day before.
“And we have seen the tragic costs of this failure,” he said.
Biden again prepared the country for continued hardship, saying “it will get worse before it gets better” and predicting the death toll could reach 500,000 by the end of next month.
Describing his approach, Biden told the Americans: “Help is on the way.”
Thursday’s actions included an order requiring masks to be worn on federal property, at airports and on many long-haul flights, trains, ships and buses, as well as a huge push to speed up vaccinations, which are far behind those of the government. program.
“Mask,” he said, waving a face mask. “For the first 100 days.”
Even as he crafted an aggressive approach to take control of the virus, he was greeted with more bad news on the economy as 900,000 more people applied for unemployment benefits last week and he inherited the worst. job market of all modern day presidents.
Biden and Harris started their day with their family at the White House, where they practically attended an inaugural prayer service hosted by the Washington National Cathedral, a tradition that has been reshaped by the pandemic.
The president, members of his family as well as his vice president, Kamala Harris, and her husband sat physically apart in the Blue Room of the White House to broadcast the interfaith service. Many speakers addressed prayers and blessings to the new leaders.
Reverend William Barber, a North Carolina preacher and civil rights leader who spearheads an anti-poverty campaign, delivered the homily, calling on the new administration to tackle what he called the “Five Interlocking Injustices” of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation / denial of healthcare, the war economy and the false moral narrative of religious nationalism ”.
“No, America was never all it hoped to be,” Barber said. “But here, right now, a third reconstruction is possible if we choose.
And on Thursday morning, John Kerry warned, in his first remarks as the new United States climate envoy, that the world was lagging behind the required pace of change needed to avert the catastrophic effects of the climate crisis.
Kerry, the former US Secretary of State in the Obama-Biden administration, admitted that America had been absent from the international effort to contain dangerous global warming during Donald Trump’s presidency, but added: ” Today, no country or continent is doing the job. “
FBI Director Christopher Wray will remain in the role, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday. In her first press briefing on Wednesday, Psaki speculated her job was in jeopardy when she refused to publicly state whether Biden trusted him.
“I caused an unintentional ripple yesterday, so I wanted to state very clearly that President Biden intends to keep FBI Director Wray in his role and he has confidence in the job he is doing,” he said. she said in a tweet on Thursday.
Wray took over as head of the agency in 2017 after Trump sacked his predecessor, James Comey, just four years after what is traditionally a 10-year term. Wray’s future had been in doubt for much of the past year, as Trump openly criticized the director and the agency.
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Biden’s candidate for transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg appeared at his Senate confirmation hearing as the House prepared to open Trump’s second impeachment trial.
In an opening statement, Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who ran against Biden for the Democratic nomination, said there was a “bipartisan appetite for a generational opportunity to transform and improve American infrastructure ”.
The Senate, which officially came under Democratic control on Wednesday after three new senators, including two from Georgia, were sworn in, has never held a trial for impeaching a former president.
Some Republicans have argued that it is unconstitutional to try an official who has left office, but many researchers disagree. Democrats say they are ready to move forward as negotiations continue between chambers over the scope and timing of a trial.
After impeaching Trump for an unprecedented second time last week, the House has yet to forward to the Senate the article accusing Trump of “inciting insurgency” for his role in encouraging a crowd of loyalists who attacked the United States Capitol on January 6 in an effort to stop the certification of its defeat.
In a press conference Thursday, Pelosi declined to say when the House will send the article beyond the fact that it won’t be long.
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