Biden news - live: GOP senator claims ‘fake’ Trump supporters caused riot as distracted Ted Cruz taps on phone

According to Joe Biden’s public daily schedule, the US president and first lady Jill Biden will today visit Texas to meet volunteers responding to the state’s deep freeze and to deliver a speech at a vaccination centre.

It also shows that the White House’s Covid-19 response team will hold a press briefing at 11am.

The Kremlin said on Friday it was closely monitoring the situation in Syria following US air strikes there and that it was in constant contact with the Syrian authorities.

President Joe Biden on Thursday directed US military air strikes in eastern Syria against facilities belonging to what the Pentagon said were Iran-backed militia, in a calibrated response to rocket attacks against US targets in Iraq.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call that he could not say whether the US had notified Russia of its plans in advance, adding that operational contacts were made through the military.

Militia groups want to “blow up the Capitol and kill as many members as possible” in connection with Joe Biden’s upcoming State of the Union address, the US Capitol police chief has said.

Yogananda Pittman argued an increased law enforcement presence at the Capitol should be maintained ahead of Mr Biden’s first address to Congress.

She told members of the House Appropriations subcommittee on Thursday that her agency is aware of far-right militia groups that participated in the Capitol insurrection on 6 January that have “stated their desires that they want to blow up the Capitol and kill as many members as possible with a direct nexus to the State of the Union, which we know that date has not been identified”.

The walls are closing in on Donald Trump. Not the big, beautiful walls on the southern border, but potential felony charges in New York, Atlanta and Washington, DC.

Trump’s own impeachment lawyer posed the odd defense that the time to “go and arrest him” would be “after he’s out of office” during the Senate trial in which he was ultimately acquitted. Mitch McConnell, in his head-snapping mea culpa, also invoked criminal remedies at the time: “We have a criminal justice system in this country,” he said, adding, “and former presidents are not immune from being accountable.”

So where does that leave us?

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A golden statue of Donald Trump spotted at CPAC overnight is attracting scorn from critics, who see it as summing up the GOP’s inability to move past the disgraced former US president.

“This is what the Republican Party has reduced itself to. Worshippers of the golden Trump,” tweeted Joyce Alene, a law professor at the University of Alabama.

Economist David Rothschild compared the statue to the biblical adoration of the golden calf.

Elizabeth Neumann, a Republican former senior government official, has said Mitch McConnell’s backing for Donald Trump were he to again become the GOP’s presidential nominee is “irresponsible”.

“I don’t even know what to say anymore. Poor Mitch, I don’t even know how to rationalise that, it’s irresponsible,” Ms Neumann told CNN, before praising those Republican lawmakers who continue to oppose the former president.

She added Mr McConnell’s willingness to essentially forget Mr Trump’s role in the Capitol insurrection “just keeps feeding the large percentage of Republicans who believe the election was stolen”.

Elon Musk is reportedly under investigation by US regulators over his frequent Twitter posts relating to the fringe cryptocurrency dogecoin.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has previously monitored the online activity of the SpaceX and Tesla boss over concerns that his tweets could impact share prices and other markets.

Rumours of the latest investigation were first reported by financial newswire service First Squawk, who cited sources familiar with the matter.

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Tom Bonier, a veteran Democratic political strategist, has warned there could be a “second Trump presidency” if the party fails to tackle Republican attempts to pass voter suppression laws in key battleground states ahead of the next election.

It comes after Mitch McConnell on Thursday said he would support Donald Trump were he to be again nominated as the GOP’s 2024 candidate.

In Georgia, which was won narrowly by Joe Biden in November, Republicans are already attempting to drastically restrict mail ballots, a move that would disproportionately hit typical Democratic voters. It is just the highest profile of dozens of attempts nationwide to restrict voting access.

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) opens on Thursday 25 February in Orlando, Florida, with ousted president Donald Trump its headline speaker in his first public engagement since leaving the White House for Mar-a-Lago a month ago.

A four-day gathering of right-wing activists from across the United States, CPAC was founded in 1974 by the American Conservative Union and Young Americans for Freedom and its inaugural address was given by Ronald Reagan, then California governor and a presidential candidate two years later, who used the platform to lay out his vision for the country.

It has since become an all-important date in the conservative calender, an opportunity for American right-wingers to come together to compare notes on an array of issues concerning their value system, from the Second Amendment right to bear arms to abortion.

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Joe Biden is still “committed” to raising the US minimum wage to $15 after a key Senate referee ruled the provision could not be included in the Covid-19 relief bill, a top White House economic adviser said on Friday.

White House National Economic Council Director Brian Deese, in an interview on MSNBC, said the administration was disappointed by the Senate parliamentarian’s Thursday ruling and would consult with congressional leaders about the path forward.