Biden news: White House admits struggle to vaccinate Republicans as Trump accused of new vulgarity

Republican men are least likely to seek out a Covid-19 vaccine, according to a recent PBS/NPR/Marist poll, showing roughly 49 per cent of respondents who identified as GOP-leaning men were hesitant to get a shot.

Asked how the White House intends to address vaccine skepticism as it hits 2.2 million doses a day as part of an aggressive vaccination campaign in coming weeks, press secretary Jen Psaki said “they do need to wear a Joe Biden sticker.”

“We recognize as a Democratic administration with a Democratic president that we may not be the most effective messenger to reach hard-core supporters of the former president,” she told reporters on Friday.

But she stressed that famous faces are not necessarily effective messengers, as the administration boosts accessibility through community-level vaccination campaigns as part of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.

“This is not a partisan issue,” she said.

New reports claim that Donald Trump hit on the family members of his accountant Allen Weisselberg, who Manhattan prosecutors are trying to flip in their investigation of the ex-president.

According to The New Yorker, Mr Weisselberg’s daughter Jennifer Weisselberg said the ex-president showed off photos of himself with naked women on a yacht to attendees at a family shivah.

"After that, he starts hitting on me," she reportedly said.

She said her father has a “love affair” with Trump.

"His whole worth is, 'Does Donald like me today?'" she said. "It's his whole life, his core being. He's obsessed. He has more feelings and adoration for Donald than for his wife."

They are joined by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.

Donald Trump reportedly shared nude photos and hit on his accountant’s family members while they sat shiva for the man’s mother.

The incident was documented in a piece recently published by The New Yorker.

According to the magazine, the sordid shiva story was revealed during the course of the Manhattan District Attorney’s efforts to flip Mr Trump’s accountant, Allen Weisselberg, for use in their investigation of the Trump Organization.

Mr Weisselberg’s former daughter-in-law was debriefed by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, and spoke with The New Yorker about Mr Weisselberg.

Graig Graziosi has more on this story.

During an address from the White House Rose Garden, President Joe Biden criticised the conservative fiscal legacies of his predecessors and “trickle-down” policies that have enshrined economic inequality in the US for decades.

The president – joined by White House officials and Democratic congressional leadership on Friday to celebrate the passage of a massive $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package – said the legislation “changes the paradigm” for American economic policy.

“For the first time in a long time, this bill puts working people in this nation first,” he said. “We’ve seen time and time again that trickle down does not work ... All it’s done is make those at the top richer in the past, and everyone else falling behind. This time, it’s time that we build an economy that grows from the bottom up and the middle out.”

Alex Woodward covered Biden’s victory lap today.

The Minneapolis City Council unanimously approved a $27 million settlement with the family of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man killed by Minneapolis police last May. $500,000 of the settlement will go to funding community programs near the intersection where he died.

Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney representing Mr Floyd’s family, said the settlement marked a turning point.

“George Floyd’s horrific death, witnessed by millions of people around the world, unleashed a deep longing and undeniable demand for justice and change,” Mr Crump said in a statement. “That the largest pre-trial settlement in a wrongful death case ever would be for the life of a Black man sends a powerful message that Black lives do matter and police brutality against people of colour must end.”

Josh Marcus reports.

Younger female patients admitted to hospital with Covid-19 are five times more likely than their male counterparts to still be suffering with symptoms seven months after their onset, early research suggests.

Preliminary results from an ongoing study in the UK also found that this cohort, women and girls aged 50 and under, were also five times more likely than men to report a new disability in the months that followed their release from hospital.

The findings have been published by the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies and come from the observational ISARIC study, which examines and investigates thousands of British patients admitted to hospital with Covid-19 throughout the pandemic.

Of the 325 patients who participated in the analysis, 77 per cent reported that they were suffering from fatigue an average of seven months after being infected, while 54 per cent still had shortness of breath.

Samuel Lovett reports.

More than 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in the US, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nearly 3 million doses were administered on 12 March, one year and a day since the World Health Organisation’s declaration of a pandemic, as the US averages 2.2 million daily doses under the Joe Biden administration’s expanding inoculation efforts.

Alex Woodward reports.

At least another 100 people will be charged for their part in the Capitol riot, according to new legal filings.

More than 300 people already face prosecution for the violence that unfolded in Washington DC on 6 January, in which five people died.

Federal prosecutors say they now have more than 15,000 hours of surveillance and body camera video turned over by 14 law enforcement agencies.

They also revealed that they have carried out 900 search warrants in all 50 states, have examined 1,600 electronic devices, and are reviewing more than 210,000 tips and 80,000 witness interviews.

Graeme Massie reports.

“This is a dangerous drug that will impact our kids... If you legalise marijuana, you’re gonna kill your kids. That’s what the data shows from around the country.”

Nebraska’s Pete Ricketts spoke out against the legalization of medical marijuana in his state as Nebraska lawmakers consider approving it. The bill under consideration restricts the use of medical marijuana in the state to oils, pills or tinctures and bans marijuana smoking, even in the patient’s own home.

Graeme Massie reports.