Biden news: President accuses Texas of ‘Neanderthal thinking’ as Trump said to fire Pence in a 2024 run
United States will now have enough doses for every adult to receive Covid vaccines by end of May
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Your support makes all the difference.Joe Biden said ending mask mandates is a “big mistake” after Texas and Mississippi governors moved to reopen their states after a year of pandemic lockdowns.
“The last thing, the last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking that in the meantime, everything’s fine, take off your mask, forget it. It still matters,” he says.
As Donald Trump considers beating Democrats “for a third time”, his allies reportedly want someone other than Mike Pence on the ticket. Quoting two people familiar with discussions, Bloomberg says Trump has privately considered black or female alternatives as he takes stock of who supported him to the very end.
Andrew Cuomo, meanwhile, appeared to get emotional as he apologized during his first press conference since more women began accusing the New York governor of inappropriate behaviour.
The Democrat refused to resign, however, after issuing denials that he touched anyone inappropriately and asked the public to wait for the facts to emerge from the state attorney general’s investigation into the allegations.
Over on Capitol Hill, the Senate is expected to take up Mr Biden's $1.9tn coronavirus relief package, with Democrats aiming to have the president sign it into law before some benefits expire on March 14.
But congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called compromising on the $1,400 checks to narrow the eligibility an "own goal".
Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s US Politics liveblog, where we’ll be bringing you the latest coverage from the White House and beyond.
Donald Trump’s biographer has compared the former president to notorious American gangster Al Capone, as prosecutors were closing in on the Trump Organisation’s longtime chief financial officer for details about the former president’s financial dealings.
In an interview with MSNBC News on Tuesday, biographer Timothy L O’Brien, author of Trumpnation: The Art of Being the Donald, made the comments amid discussions that New York state prosecutors are sharpening their focus on the company’s longtime chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg.
"Al Capone ultimately went down because they got his accountant... and the accountant is the one who showed federal investigators how Capone’s organisations were cooking his books,” Mr O’Brien said.
Mayank Aggarwal reports:
Trump biographer compares him to Al Capone as prosecutors hone in on his finance chief
‘Al Capone ultimately went down because they got his accountant’ says author of TrumpNation
President Joe Biden has moved forward his aim for enough Covid vaccine doses for every American adult across the US by two months, having said that the administration will aim to have enough shots for everyone who wants one by the end of May.
Mr Biden announced at a press briefing on Tuesday: “We’re now on track to have enough vaccine supply for every adult in America by the end of May.”
Last month, the president vowed at a CNN town hall event in Wisconsin that the administration would have “over 600 million doses, enough to vaccinate every single American” by the end of July.
However, on Tuesday, Mr Biden said the government was revising that aim, suggesting that actions taken under his administration had sped up the timeline.
“About three weeks ago, we were able to say that we’d have enough vaccine supply for adults by the end of July,” Mr Biden said. “We rectified that.”
The president has frequently criticised his predecessor, Donald Trump, for a slow start to the vaccination rollout, accusing the former president of failing to ink contracts with Covid vaccine suppliers for enough doses.
Griffin Connolly reports:
Biden says US will have enough vaccines for every adult by end of May
President announces the cooperation of healthcare competitors to produce new vaccine en masse
US Catholic group tells followers to avoid Johnson & Johnson vaccine
An American Catholic church body has urged its followers to avoid the coronavirus vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson and advised Catholics to choose between the alternatives offered by Pfizer and Moderna if avaliable.
On Tuesday, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) alleged that the one-dose vaccine was “developed, tested and produced using abortion-derived cell lines” saying it raised questions about “moral permissibility.”
The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cleared the Covid jab for use on Saturday. It is anticipated the shot may be a major step forward in the fight against the disease as it only requires a single dose.
Johnson & Johnson issued a statement on Tuesday stressing that there is no fetal tissue in its vaccine.
Namita Singh reports:
US Catholic group tells followers to avoid Johnson & Johnson vaccine
A directive from the Catholic church body says the J&J vaccine was produced with abortion-derived cell lines
Biden ‘grateful’ Democrats reintroduced firearm background check bill
President Joe Biden thanked House and Senate Democrats on Twitter for moving to introduce legislation to strengthen the country’s background check system for the sale or transfer of all firearms.
On Tuesday, Democrats reintroduced legislation to expand background checks on all commercial gun sales in the first significant move on gun control since the party won majorities in both chambers of Congress.
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut’s bill, called the Background Check Expansion Act, would extend a background check requirement to unlicensed and private firearm sellers before selling a firearm.
Under current law, unlicensed and private sellers are not required to undergo background checks before transferring firearms.
“I helped pass the Brady background check bill as a Senator — and I’m committed to continuing that work and passing common-sense gun safety reforms as president,” Mr Biden tweeted late on Tuesday.
Biden's Cabinet half-empty after slow start in confirmations
President Joe Biden continues to face ongoing challenges in the formation of his Cabinet over a month into office as it takes shape at the slowest pace of any in modern history.
Just over a dozen nominees for top posts have been confirmed since the president took office on 20 January, with the White House withdrawing Neera Tanden’s nomination on Tuesday.
Ms Tanden, who had been nominated as the director of the Office of Management and Budget, had received opposition from Democrats and Republicans over past comments she made on her Twitter account.
Among Biden’s 23 nominees with Cabinet rank, just 13 have been confirmed by the Senate, or a little over half. Among the 15 core nominees to lead federal agencies, 10 have been confirmed, or about two-thirds.
According to the Center for Presidential Transition, about a month into their first terms, the previous four presidents had 84 per cent of their core Cabinet picks confirmed.
The slow pace in confirmations comes in part due to the delay in the transition process by former president Donald Trump and his second week-long impeachment trial.
The Biden administration has prioritized confirming those nominees who are key to national security, the economy, and public health decisions.
However, the delay in confirmations means some departments are left without their top decision-makers as they attempt to put in place policies to address the overlapping crises brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
Reporting by the Associated Press
‘Reckless and dangerous’: Texas governor abandons Covid safeguards sparking backlash
Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s decision to drop Covid-19 restrictions in the state has been met with fierce backlash from health experts high profile figures who have described the decision as “mass murder” and a “reckless mistake”.
Mr Abbott announced on Tuesday that he would allow all businesses to reopen at 100 per cent capacity and lift a statewide mask mandate, reversing restrictions put in place to stem the spread of coronavirus.
The bold announcement came despite the state having the third-highest number of Covid-19 deaths in the US and less than 7 per cent of people fully vaccinated.
Texas representative Joaquin Castro called the governor’s decision “reckless and dangerous” and a desperate attempt to distract Texans from their failure of handling the devastating winter storm and subsequent power outages.
Chip Franklin, American talk show host, comedian and musician, suggested that the Texas governor should be tried for “premeditated mass murder” in light of the decision.
Shweta Sharma reports on the reaction to the controversial move:
‘Reckless and dangerous’: Texas governor’s decision to abandon Covid safeguards sparks angry backlash
The residents of the largest US state will not follow the mask mandate from 10 March
Over 100 million vaccines delivered across country, CDC says
Over 100 million vaccine doses have been delivered across the US, with 78 million shots having been administered in total, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
According to data from the CDC, the country has delivered more than 102,000,000 jabs to 50 states since the rollout began in December, with over 51 million people having received one shot of the vaccine.
Trump took $10bn from hospital funds to pay for Warp Speed instead of asking Congress for cash
The Trump Administration removed $10bn from a pot of money aimed to help hospitals and other healthcare providers endure the pandemic and put the money towards the Operation Warp Speed effort instead.
The Department of Health and Human Services apparently made a move that allowed them to spend taxpayer funds without notifying Congress, and recieved permission from the top lawyer at the health department to go ahead with the plan, STAT reported.
The $10bn was set aside by Congress to help care providers pay for staffing, protective gear, care for the uninsured and distributing the vaccine.
Operation Warp Speed was an initiative created by the Trump administration to facilitate and accelerate the development, manufacturing, and distribution of the vaccine to the public.
Gustaf Kilander has the story:
Trump took $10bn from hospital funds to pay for Warp Speed
$10bn was set aside by Congress to help care providers pay for staffing, protective gear, care for uninsured individuals, and vaccine distribution
New book claims Obama saw Biden’s White House run as ‘ageing politician having his last hurrah’
A new book has claimed that Joe Biden did not have the support of former president Barack Obama and won the November elections because coronavirus presented a distraction to his “bland message and blank agenda.”
The new book, titled: Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely Won the Presidency, argues that Mr Biden was able to hide his weaknesses due to the coronavirus pandemic, which exposed mismanagement of the Trump administration.
The authors, senior political analyst for NBC News, Jonathan Allen, and senior correspondent with The Hill, Amie Parnes, explore Mr Biden’s path to the White House.
The authors go so far as to claim that Mr Obama refused to support his former vice-president initially and feared his November run-up could become a “tragicomic caricature of an ageing politician having his last hurrah.’’
Stuti Mishra reports:
New book claims Obama saw Biden’s White House run as ‘aging politician having his last hurrah’
A Biden aide puts the campaign strategy as: ‘You put your dumb uncle in the basement’
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