The House of Representatives Select Committee investigating the Capitol attack issued subpoenas on November 23 to the leaders of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers militia, directly focusing for the first time on the instigators of the violence at the January 6 Insurrection. The subpoenas demanding documents and testimony targeted both the leaders of the paramilitary groups on the day of the Capitol attack that sought to stop the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s election win, as well as the organizations behind the groups. House investigators in total issued five subpoenas to Proud Boys International LLC and its chairman, Henry “Enrqiue” Tarrio, the Oath Keepers group and its president, Stewart Rhodes, as well as Robert Patrick Lewis, the chairman of the 1st Amendment Praetorian militia.
The chair of the Select Committee, Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said in a statement that subpoenas reflected the panel’s interest in uncovering possible connections between the paramilitary groups, efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 election and the Capitol attack. “We believe the individuals and organizations we subpoenaed today have relevant information about how violence erupted at the Capitol and the preparation leading up to this violent attack,” Thompson said. Dozens of paramilitary group members have been indicted by the justice department as they pursue criminal charges against rioters involved in the insurrection, but the Select Committee had not yet publicly sought their cooperation in its investigation. The new subpoenas are aimed to uncover whether there was any coordination between the paramilitary groups and the White House, according to a source close to the investigation, and whether Donald Trump had advanced knowledge of plans about the Capitol attack.
The Select Committee said they subpoenaed the Proud Boys group since its members called for violence leading up to the January 6 Insurrection and that at least 34 individuals affiliated with the group had been indicted by the justice department for their roles in storming the Capitol. Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson suggested in the subpoena letters to Proud Boys International LLC and Tarrio that the group appeared to have advanced knowledge of the violent nature of the Capitol attack, having fundraised for “protective gear and communications” in planning for January 6. The select committee said they similarly subpoenaed the Oath Keepers for their part in leading the deadly assault on Congress, which a federal grand jury indictment in Washington DC described as a conspiracy involving at least 18 members. The members of the Oath Keepers led by Stewart Rhodes, the select committee said, planned their assault on the Capitol in advance, and traveled to Washington DC with paramilitary gear, firearms, tactical vests with plates, helmets, and radio equipment.
According to the indictment, the main unnamed conspirator, believed to be Stewart Rhodes, was in direct contact with his Oath Keepers members before, during, and shortly after the Capitol attack, the select committee added in the subpoena letters. The Justice Department has said Rhodes directed members of the Oath Keepers as they stormed the Capitol on 6 January but has not been charged with a crime and has denied any wrongdoing. He surrendered his phone to law enforcement and has sat for an interview with the FBI. House investigators also subpoenaed the leader of the 1st Amendment Praetorian, as Lewis was in constant contact with Trump operatives based at the Willard Hotel in Washington DC, which served as a “command center” for President Donald Trump to stop President-elect Joe Biden’s certification. The select committee said to Lewis that he was subpoenaed in part because he claimed the day after the Capitol attack that he “war-gamed” with constitutional scholars about how to stop Biden from being certified president on January 6. Thompson noted in the subpoena letter that members of the 1st Amendment Praetorian wore body cameras, suggesting the select committee’s interest in obtaining those recordings.
The announcement received mixed reactions from global health activists, who lauded the investment but raised concerns about the speed of its implementation and the latitude that could be given to pharmaceutical companies. For months, the US has been under pressure to play a larger role in sharing vaccines with the world, but one administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose private conversations, said some of the advocacy groups specifically lobbied an investment on the scale the US is making.
The Biden Administrations’ announcement marks the latest partnership between the federal government and pharmaceutical companies to bolster vaccine production during the pandemic. “The goal is to guarantee capacity to produce approximately 100 million mRNA vaccines a month against covid or other pandemic viruses upon demand for the United States or global use,” said David Kessler, the administration’s chief science officer who oversees vaccine distribution. “We are looking to enter into a historic partnership with one or more experienced pharmaceutical partners. This partnership will be used for COVID and any future pandemic viruses with the goal of having enough vaccines available within six to nine months of the identification of the virus.” Kessler said the funds for the effort have already been allocated as part of the American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package that President Biden signed into law in March.
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) has published a “request for information,” seeking proposals from companies that have experience using mRNA technology.BARDA, which is housed within the Department of Health and Human Services, is responsible for developing vaccines and other medical countermeasures. “It would combine the expertise of the US government in basic scientific research with the robust ability of pharmaceutical companies to manufacture mRNA vaccines,” Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus coordinator, said at the White House’s coronavirus news briefing. “We hope companies step up and act quickly to take us up on this opportunity to expand production of mRNA vaccines for the current pandemic and set us up to react quickly to any future pandemic threats.” Zients also touted the country’s effort to share vaccines globally, saying the US has already donated 250 million doses and has committed a total of $1.1 billion. He said the US has already donated more vaccines than all other countries combined.
Vaccine manufacturers said they were open to the Biden administration’s new plan but were also seeking further details. In an interview, Moderna President Stephen Hoge said that his firm was reviewing the government’s request for information. “We haven’t talked about it, but the concepts we’re definitely supportive of and would expect to participate in,” Hoge said. Amy Rose, a spokeswoman for Pfizer, said the company appreciates the administration’s focus on ensuring long-term supply, and the company would review BARDA’s “request for information.” “Pfizer is proud to be a strong and reliable partner to the U.S. government with vast capacity and capabilities that create solutions,” Rose said in a statement. “As we consider the White House’s proposal, we will come to the table with how we can best contribute to the ongoing global fight against the coronavirus.”
Despite support for President Joe Biden’s plan to expand the manufacture of coronavirus vaccines, current, and former government health officials raised questions about the administration’s newest vaccine manufacturing proposal, suggesting that the White House still needed to flesh out its plan. “How long will this take — at least nine months? Is it really necessary or will we already basically be done with the need by the time it’s online?” asked one former official who previously worked with BARDA and spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the government’s plan.
Since the US started distributing vaccines, activists have criticized the Biden administration for failing to scale up domestic vaccine manufacturing capacity to boost the global supply of vaccines. Protesters have gathered outside the homes of top officials in Washington in recent weeks, including Jeffery Zients and White House chief of staff Ron Klain, demanding the Biden administration do more to share vaccines with the world. In September, activists gathered outside Klain’s house and set up a 12-foot pile of fake bones they said symbolized American inaction in combating the global coronavirus crisis.
The US has also faced criticism for moving forward with booster shots for Americans while many countries are struggling to provide the first round of vaccines to its citizens. The Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize booster shots of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine for all adults this week after some state officials already widened eligibility in recent days. The FDA approved booster shots for some Americans in September, but the agency is likely to broaden access as evidence shows waning effectiveness of the vaccines over time.
Here are the main events that occurred in Politics this week:
1. Appeals Court Slows January 6 House Select Committee’s Effort To Access Trump White House Records
A federal appeals court on November 11 granted a short-term delay in the January 6 select committee’s access to former President Donald Trump’s White House records.
A federal appeals court on November 11 granted a short-term delay in the January 6 select committee’s access to former President Donald Trump’s White House records. A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, including President Joe Biden’s first and only appointee to that court, Ketanji Brown Jackson, will instead hear arguments in the matter on November 30. The delay is a minor setback for the House January 6 Committee, which had prevailed in US District Court against Trump’s legal effort to block access to his records altogether. The National Archives, which house Trump’s records, had been preparing to deliver the first batch of requested files to the committee.
2. Amid Rising Tensions Between Both Countries, US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping Hold First Summit Meeting
US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping did not produce any big breakthroughs in their more than three-hour virtual summit on November 15, but they managed to lower the temperature in a bilateral relationship buffeted by rising tensions over Taiwan, trade, and security in the Indo-Pacific region.
US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping did not produce any big breakthroughs in their more than three-hour virtual summit on November 15, but they managed to lower the temperature in a bilateral relationship buffeted by rising tensions over Taiwan, trade, and security in the Indo-Pacific region. The video meeting was the first opportunity for the two leaders to meet face to face since Biden took office. This helped facilitate a “different kind of conversation,” according to a senior Biden administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, who described discussions as “respectful, and straightforward and open.”
3. IAE Report: Iran Resuming Production of Advanced Nuclear-Program Parts
Iran has resumed production of equipment for advanced centrifuges at a site the United Nations’ atomic-energy agency has been unable to monitor or gain access to for months, diplomats familiar with the activities said, presenting a new challenge for the Biden administration as it prepares for nuclear talks.
Iran has resumed production of equipment for advanced centrifuges at a site the United Nations’ atomic-energy agency has been unable to monitor or gain access to for months, diplomats familiar with the activities said, presenting a new challenge for the Biden administration as it prepares for nuclear talks. The renewed work has raised concerns among Western diplomats who say it could allow Iran to start secretly diverting centrifuge parts if the Iranian government chooses to build a covert nuclear-weapons program, although they say there is no evidence at this point that it has done so.
Iran has resumed production of equipment for advanced centrifuges at a site the United Nations’ atomic-energy agency has been unable to monitor or gain access to for months, diplomats familiar with the activities said, presenting a new challenge for the Biden administration as it prepares for nuclear talks. The renewed work has raised concerns among Western diplomats who say it could allow Iran to start secretly diverting centrifuge parts if the Iranian government choses to build a covert nuclear-weapons program, although they say there is no evidence at this point that it has done so.
Iran resumed work on a limited scale in late August at an assembly plant in Karaj, a city west of Tehran, and has since accelerated its production, allowing it to manufacture an unknown number of rotors and bellows for more advanced centrifuges, diplomats said. Iran had stopped work at Karaj in June after a sabotage attack that the Iranian government blamed on Israel, which has not acknowledged responsibility. According to the diplomats, Iran has now produced significant amounts of centrifuge parts since late August, with one of the diplomats saying it has produced parts for at least 170 advanced centrifuges. Centrifuges are used to spin enriched uranium into higher levels of purity either for civilian use or, at 90% purity, for nuclear weapons.
Iran has withdrawn from most commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal since the Trump administration reimposed sanctions in November 2018. In February, Iran scaled back International Atomic Energy Agency oversight of many of its nuclear-related sites, including Karaj, but agreed to keep agency cameras and recording devices in place at Karaj and some other sites. All of the recent work at Karaj has taken place without any official IAEA monitoring, the diplomats said. Iran significantly tightened security at Karaj after the June alleged sabotage, the latest in a series of explosions at its nuclear facilities over the past two years.
Iran’s production of centrifuges is a critical issue in talks beginning on November 29 to revive the nuclear deal, which the Biden administration is hoping to restore. Former President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the agreement in May 2018. The original deal was built around the idea that Iran should be kept at least one year away from being able to produce enough nuclear fuel for one bomb. Since the US exited the deal, Iran has installed more than 1,000 more advanced centrifuges, which are able to enrich uranium more quickly. That has helped reduce Iran’s current breakout time to as little as a month.
The IAEA has echoed Western concerns that Iran’s nuclear activities are no longer being fully tracked, saying in September that Iran’s failure to restore cameras to Karaj is seriously compromising the agency’s ability to ensure continuous knowledge about the nuclear program. According to one of the diplomats familiar with Iran’s program, Iran has installed the centrifuges whose key parts were produced at Karaj at Iran’s underground, heavily fortified, Fordow site. The diplomat said there is no evidence the centrifuges parts have been diverted elsewhere but “as the number of unmonitored centrifuges increases, the likelihood for this scenario increases.” There is no evidence Iran has a covert nuclear program, the diplomats said, and Iran’s core nuclear facilities, including Fordow and Natanz, which produce enriched uranium, remain under IAEA oversight. Iran says its nuclear activities are purely peaceful.
US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping did not produce any big breakthroughs in their more than three-hour virtual summit on November 15, but they managed to lower the temperature in a bilateral relationship buffeted by rising tensions over Taiwan, trade, and security in the Indo-Pacific region. The video meeting was the first opportunity for the two leaders to meet face to face since Biden took office. This helped facilitate a “different kind of conversation,” according to a senior Biden administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, who described discussions as “respectful, and straightforward and open.”
President Joe Biden “underscored that the United States will continue to stand up for its interests and values,” and raised a number of issues of concern including human rights, trade, and freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific, according to a White House statement. The two leaders also discussed areas of mutual interest including health security and climate change; last week at the big United Nations climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, China and the US agreed to cooperate on new climate measures over the next decade, though neither offered any substantive details. “What President Xi and President Biden really reinforced to one another at multiple points last night was that this relationship needs to be guided by consistent and regular leader-to-leader interaction,” The US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said at an online event hosted by the Brookings Institution. Sullivan added that the dialogue between leaders should continue between senior officials from both countries.
At the meeting, President Joe Biden also underscored US commitment to the “One China” policy, which recognizes Beijing as representing China rather than Taipei, while reiterating US opposition to any Chinese efforts to unilaterally change the status of the self-governed island of Taiwan, which has become a flashpoint in the relationship amid China’s increasingly aggressive military posturing in the Taiwan Strait. US officials went into the call hoping to come out with some guardrails to prevent any escalation over the island, but the virtual summit did not produce any on Taiwan, the senior administration official said.
One issue that was expected to arise but that did not is the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing. The US has not yet signaled whether it will send a delegation to the games amid calls for a boycott over China’s supposed mass incarceration of Muslims in the Xinjiang region, which the Biden administration determined constitutes a genocide. President Joe Biden, who dialed into the call from the White House’s Roosevelt Room, was joined by senior foreign-policy aides including Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Xi joined the call from the cavernous East Hall in China’s Great Hall of the People alongside Foreign Minister Wang Yi and top Communist Party officials.
The virtual summit was not President Joe Biden and Xi Jinping’s first face-to-face meeting. As vice president a decade ago, Biden traveled through China with Xi at a markedly more optimistic moment in U.S.-China relations. “If we get this relationship right, engender a new model, the possibilities are limitless,” Biden said on a 2013 visit to Beijing. In his opening remarks on Monday, Xi said that he was “very happy to see my old friend.”
The meeting came as both leaders are focused on domestic challenges. Biden just signed into law a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, but he is still trying to pass a bumper social spending bill. Last week, a Chinese Communist Party plenum issued a “resolution on history,” elevating Xi’s status and paving the way for him to seek a third term in office next year. Despite Xi’s consolidated grip on power, experts say Chinese officials are looking to stabilize the international environment as they focus on domestic issues including skyrocketing energy prices and rising inflation.
A federal appeals court on November 11 granted a short-term delay in the January 6 select committee’s access to former President Donald Trump’s White House records. A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, including President Joe Biden’s first and only appointee to that court, Ketanji Brown Jackson, will instead hear arguments in the matter on November 30. The delay is a minor setback for the House January 6 Committee, which had prevailed in US District Court against Trump’s legal effort to block access to his records altogether. The National Archives, which house Trump’s records, had been preparing to deliver the first batch of requested files to the committee.
The first batch of documents that was slated for release on November 12 is relatively small, as former President Donald Trump contested just 70 pages. But subsequent tranches identified by the Archives include hundreds of pages that were slated for release on November 26. Those will now likely be delayed, as well. The records include call logs, visitor records and documents culled from the files of top Trump aides like chief of staff Mark Meadows. The committee has repeatedly emphasized the urgency of accessing Trump’s records as it explores the former president’s effort to overturn the 2020 election results, including the January 6 assault on the Capitol that disrupted the electoral vote count and sent lawmakers fleeing in fear.
Despite claims of urgency, the January 6 House Select Committee did not object to former President Donald Trump’s request for a temporary injunction while the appeals court considers the broader issues. The Justice Department also took no position on the temporary stay. The composition of the appeals court panel is likely to hearten House investigators. The order issued on November 11 indicates that, in addition to Jackson, the panel includes Judges Patricia Millett and Robert Wilkins, who were appointed by former President Barack Obama to the court. The court’s order emphasized that the move to freeze the status quo, for the time being, should not be seen as reflecting what the court will end up deciding about Trump’s attempt to block disclosure of files from his former White House. “The purpose of this administrative injunction is to protect the court’s jurisdiction to address appellant’s claims of executive privilege and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits,” the order said.
Despite the slowdown, the case is still moving at breakneck speed through typically slow-moving federal courts. Former President Donald Trump filed suit in mid-October to block the January 6 committee’s access to his records. A District Court judge, Tanya Chutkan, rejected Trump’s efforts, dismissing the notion that a former president could overrule the sitting president on matters of executive privilege. Trump quickly appealed the decision and asked the appeals court to delay the effect of Chutkan’s ruling until fuller arguments could be heard. The appeals court’s decision to set a two-week briefing schedule keeps the case moving on a fast track. Trump is due to file his written brief in the case on November 16, with a reply by the National Archives and the House on November 22. Trump will have an additional reply on November 26 before oral arguments the following week. If Trump loses in the three-judge panel, he has the option to appeal to the full appeals court or the Supreme Court.
Here are the main events that occurred in Politics this week:
1. Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill Passes House of Representatives, To Be Signed Into Law By President Biden
The House of Representatives passed a more than $1 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill late on November 5, sending it to President Joe Biden’s desk in a critical step toward enacting sprawling Democratic economic plans.
A federal appeals court temporarily blocked President Joe Biden’s Covid vaccine and testing requirements for private businesses on November 6, just a day after they had officially gone into effect.
A federal appeals court temporarily blocked President Joe Biden’s Covid vaccine and testing requirements for private businesses on November 6, just a day after they had officially gone into effect. The Republican attorneys general of Texas, South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Utah, as well as several private companies, filed petitions on November 5 challenging the mandate in the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The court on November 6 ordered the vaccine and testing requirements halted pending review “because the petitions give cause to believe there are grave statutory and constitutional issues with the Mandate.” The three judges who issued the order, Stuart Kyle Duncan, Kurt Damian Englehardt, and Edith Hollan Jones, were appointed by former Presidents Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan.
3. At COP 26 Conference, US and China Issue Joint Pledge To Slow Climate Change
The US and China jolted the United Nations climate summit here with a surprise announcement on November 10, pledging the two countries would work together to slow global warming during this decade and ensure that the Glasgow talks result in meaningful progress.
The US and China jolted the United Nations climate summit here with a surprise announcement on November 10, pledging the two countries would work together to slow global warming during this decade and ensure that the Glasgow talks result in meaningful progress. The world’s two biggest greenhouse gas emitters said they would take “enhanced climate actions” to meet the central goals of the 2015 Paris climate accord, limiting warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) beyond preindustrial levels, and if possible, not to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius. Still, the declaration was short on firm deadlines or specific commitments, and parts of it restated policies both nations had outlined in a statement in April of 2021. To try to keep those temperature limits “within reach,” Chinese and American leaders agreed to jointly “raise ambition in the 2020s”and said they would boost clean energy, combat deforestation and curb emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
4. US Economy Rebounds For The Month Of October, With ~500,000 Jobs Added & Unemployment Rate Dropping To 4.6%
The US Economy and job market snapped back in October, with nonfarm payrolls rising more than expected while the unemployment rate fell to 4.6%, the Labor Department reported on November 5.
The US Economy and job market snapped back in October, with nonfarm payrolls rising more than expected while the unemployment rate fell to 4.6%, the Labor Department reported on November 5. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 531,000 for the month, compared with the Dow Jones estimate of 450,000. The jobless rate had been expected to edge down to 4.7%. Private payrolls were even stronger, rising 604,000 as a loss of 73,000 government jobs pulled down the headline number. October’s gains represented a sharp pickup from September, which gained 312,000 jobs after the initial Bureau of Labor Statistics estimate of 194,000 saw a substantial upward revision in the report.
The US and China jolted the United Nations climate summit here with a surprise announcement on November 10, pledging the two countries would work together to slow global warming during this decade and ensure that the Glasgow talks result in meaningful progress. The world’s two biggest greenhouse gas emitters said they would take “enhanced climate actions” tomeet the central goals of the 2015 Paris climate accord, limiting warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) beyond preindustrial levels, and if possible, not to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius. Still, the declaration was short on firm deadlines or specific commitments, and parts of it restated policies both nations had outlined in a statement in April of 2021. To try to keep those temperature limits “within reach,” Chinese and American leaders agreed to jointly “raise ambition in the 2020s”and said they would boost clean energy, combat deforestation and curb emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
The US and China, plus other major emitters such as the European Union, have come under fire in recent days for not yet delivering on some of the lofty rhetoric their leaders showcased last week. But many leaders have demonstrated a willingness during COP26 to go further than they have before, as shown by a new draft of the agreement conference president Alok Sharma released barely 12 hours before the US-China declaration came out. The draft, which Sharma said he hoped would be signed by the end of the week, proposed a breakthrough not seen in three decades of U.N. climate negotiations: an explicit acknowledgment that nations must phase out coal-burning faster and stop subsidizing fossil fuels. “It’s fossil fuels that cause climate change,” said Mohamed Adow, director of the Kenya-based think tank Power Shift Africa. “Explicitly mentioning it gets on the path to addressing it.”
Many nations have come under scrutiny at the summit, but few have faced closer examination than the US and China. Speaking before US Climate Change Envoy and former Secretary of State John Kerry at an unannounced news conference, Chinese special climate envoy Xie Zhenhua said that as superpowers, the two countries have a special obligation to work together on keeping the world a peaceful and sustainable place. “We need to think big and be responsible,” Xie said, adding, “We both see that the challenge of climate change is an existential and severe one.” He acknowledged that “both sides recognize there is a gap between the current efforts and the Paris agreement goals.”
Both envoys on November 10 said the joint declaration was a product of nearly three dozen negotiating sessions over the year. While many of those meetings were virtual, US and Chinese diplomats also had face-to-face talks in China, London, and during the Glasgow summit. The declaration also marked a payoff for the men who announced it. John Kerry has spent this year pursuing extensive personal diplomacy, and he has broken with other Biden aides to advocate robust engagement with China on climate issues. Meanwhile, Xie, a veteran Chinese climate negotiator who led his delegation at previous talks in Copenhagen and Paris, came out of retirement to manage China’s climate diplomacy in the run-up to the high-profile talks in Glasgow.
The news drew various reactions, from outright praise to skepticism over whether the agreement would lead to new and concrete action. “Tackling the climate crisis requires international cooperation and solidarity, and this is an important step in the right direction,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres tweeted. “This is a challenge which transcends politics,” tweeted the EU’s top climate envoy, Frans Timmermans. “Bilateral cooperation between the two biggest global emitters should boost negotiations at #COP26.” Manish Bapna, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, agreed that having the US and China on the same page on climate change trumps having them at odds. But, he added in a statement, if the world is to meet the goals it set six years ago in Paris, “we urgently need to see commitments to cooperate translate into bolder climate targets and credible delivery.”
China and the US, which together account for about 40 percent of the world’s emissions, are central to any international accord on climate change. The two nations have joined forces before with outsize influence, most notably when President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping forged a similar partnership a year before the Paris climate accord, helping to make that landmark pact a reality.
A federal appeals court temporarily blocked President Joe Biden’s Covid vaccine and testing requirements for private businesses on November 6, just a day after they had officially gone into effect. The Republican attorneys general of Texas, South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Utah, as well as several private companies, filed petitions on November 5 challenging the mandate in the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The court on November 6 ordered the vaccine and testing requirements halted pending review “because the petitions give cause to believe there are grave statutory and constitutional issues with the Mandate.” The three judges who issued the order, Stuart Kyle Duncan, Kurt Damian Englehardt, and Edith Hollan Jones, were appointed by former Presidents Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan.
The Labor Department’s top lawyer, Seema Nanda, said the Biden Administration is “fully prepared to defend this standard in court.” The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which polices workplace safety for the Labor Department, developed the vaccine and testing requirements under emergency authority that allows the agency to shortcut the process to issue workplace safety standards, which normally take years. “The Occupational Safety and Health Act explicitly gives OSHA the authority to act quickly in an emergency where the agency finds that workers are subjected to a grave danger and a new standard is necessary to protect them,” Nanda said in a statement after the Republican attorneys general and companies filed their challenge.
Under the mandates, companies with 100 or more employees must ensure their staff has received the shots necessary for full vaccination by January 4. After that date, unvaccinated employees must submit weekly negative COVID-19 tests to enter the workplace. Unvaccinated workers must start wearing masks indoors at their workplaces starting December 5. Seema Nanda said the mandate “preempts any state or local requirements that ban or limit an employer’s authority to require vaccination, face-covering, or testing.” Texas Governor Greg Abbott banned vaccine mandates in his state through an executive order last month.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, in a statement, called the vaccine mandate “a breathtaking abuse of federal power,” arguing that it is “flatly unconstitutional.” Paxton said the mandate goes beyond the “limited power and specific responsibilities” of OSHA. In their petition to halt the mandates, several companies that operate in Texas challenged OSHA’s authority to issue emergency workplace safety standards, arguing that it is an unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority to the executive branch. OSHA’s emergency authority was established by Congress. The companies Burnett Specialists, Choice Staffing, and Staff Force also argued that the requirements put them in the position of either violating federal regulations or Texas state law. They also said the mandates would result in irreparable harm, including fines for possible non-compliance as well as the loss of employees to smaller companies who are not covered by the mandates.
The US Economy and job market snapped back in October, with nonfarm payrolls rising more than expected while the unemployment rate fell to 4.6%, the Labor Department reported on November 5. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 531,000 for the month, compared with the Dow Jones estimate of 450,000. The jobless rate had been expected to edge down to 4.7%. Private payrolls were even stronger, rising 604,000 as a loss of 73,000 government jobs pulled down the headline number. October’s gains represented a sharp pickup from September, which gained 312,000 jobs after the initial Bureau of Labor Statistics estimate of 194,000 saw a substantial upward revision in the report.
The numbers helped allay concerns that rising inflation, a severe labor shortage, and slowing economic growth would tamp down jobs creation. “This is the kind of recovery we can get when we are not sidelined by a surge in Covid cases,” said Nick Bunker, economic research director at job placement site Indeed. “If this is the sort of job growth we will see in the next several months, we are on a solid path.” Markets rallied strongly on the news, with the Dow up nearly 350 points in early trading and government bond yields mostly lower.
The critical leisure and hospitality sector led the way, adding 164,000 as Americans ventured out to eating and drinking establishments and went on vacations again as COVID numbers fell during the month. For 2021, the sector has reclaimed 2.4 million positions lost during the pandemic. Other sectors posting solid gains included professional and business services (100,000), manufacturing (60,000), and transportation and warehousing (54,000). Construction added 44,000 positions while health care was up 37,000 and retail added 35,000. Wages increased 0.4% for the month, in line with estimates, but rose 4.9% on a year-over-year basis, reflecting the inflationary pressures that have intensified through the year. The average workweek edged lower by one-tenth of an hour to 34.7 hours.
The unemployment rate drop came with the labor force participation rate holding steady at 61.6%, still 1.7 percentage points below its February 2020 level before the pandemic declaration. That represents just shy of 3 million fewer Americans considered part of the workforce and is reflective of ongoing concerns about staffing levels. “While the strength of employment was an encouraging sign that labor demand remains strong, labor supply remains very weak. The labor force rose by a muted 104,000, which is not even enough to even keep pace with population growth,” said Michael Pearce, senior US economist at Capital Economics. However, one metric that the Federal Reserve watches closely, the participation rate among so-called prime-age workers 25 to 54, ticked higher to 81.7%.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen weighed in on the report with a Twitter thread in which she said the administration’s aggressive fiscal policies that have pumped in more than $5 trillion to the economy helped stave off more dire consequences from the pandemic. “Bold fiscal policy works,” Yellen wrote. “A rebound like this was never a foregone conclusion. When our administration took office back in January, there was a real risk that our economy was going to slip into a prolonged recession. Now our recovery is outpacing other wealthy nations’.”
The report comes amid heightened concerns about the state of the labor market, particularly a chronic shortage that has left companies unable to fill positions to scale back production and cut hours of operation. Companies have been increasing wages and adding other incentives as the working share of the potential labor force operates well below its pre-pandemic level. Since adding more than a million jobs in July, the labor market had slowed sharply through the rest of the summer, with sizeable letdowns in August and September as economists greatly overestimated growth in both months. However, revisions showed that the numbers for those months were not quite as dismal. Along with the boost from September’s initial count, August’s final reading came up another 117,000 to 483,000.
The House vote followed a day of wrangling over how to enact the two planks of the party’s agenda. The push-and-pull exemplified party leaders’ months-long struggle to get progressives and centrists, who have differing visions of the government’s role in the economy, behind the same bills. Democrats entered the day planning to pass both the infrastructure legislation and the party’s larger $1.75 trillion social safety net and climate package. A demand from a handful of centrists to see a Congressional Budget Office estimate of the social spending plan’s budgetary effects delayed its approval. Progressives sought assurances the holdouts would support the bigger proposal if they voted for the infrastructure bill. After hours of talks, and a call by President joe Biden into a progressive caucus meeting urging lawmakers to back the infrastructure bill, the party’s liberal wing got assurances from centrists that they would support the larger package.
Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) said the group reached a deal to back the infrastructure plan in exchange for a commitment to take up the safety-net bill “no later than the week of November 15.” A group of five centrists separately issued a statement saying they would back the Build Back Better legislation pending a CBO score that assuages their concerns about long-term budget deficits.
In a statement after the House vote, President Joe Biden said the legislation would “create millions of jobs, turn the climate crisis into an opportunity, and put us on a path to win the economic competition for the 21st Century.” He also noted that the procedural vote on the second Democratic bill will “allow for passage of my Build Back Better Act in the House of Representatives the week of November 15th.” The bills together make up the core of President Biden’s domestic agenda. Democrats see the plans as complementary pieces designed to boost the economy, jolt the job market, provide a layer of insurance to working families and curb climate change.
President Joe Biden and Democrats have looked for a signature achievement they can point to on the 2022 midterm campaign trail as the president’s approval ratings flag. President Biden will welcome the developments, as House passage of the bill followed a strong October jobs report and approval of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine for 5-to-11-year-olds in the US. While President Biden could sign the infrastructure bill soon, the safety net and climate package will likely take weeks longer. The House will have to wait for a CBO score. The Senate may pass a different version of the plan, which would require another House vote. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has set a Thanksgiving target to pass the larger Democratic bill.
Despite much bipartisan support, many Democrats considered the infrastructure bill inadequate because it did not address issues including child care, pre-K education, Medicare expansion, and the enhanced child tax credit. Those policies, priorities for President Joe Biden and top Democrats, made it into the House version of the social safety net bill. Democratic leaders tied the proposals together in an effort to keep centrists and progressives on board with both plans. A thorny legislative process has unfolded for months as Democrats try to get disparate groups with varied visions of the federal government’s role in the economy to back both packages.
Here are the main events that occurred in Politics this week:
1. Republican Glenn Youngkin Narrowly Wins Virginia Gubernatorial Election
Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated former Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe in Virginia’s high-profile election on November 2 for governor, flipping control of a state that President Joe Biden won handily just a year ago.
Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated former Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe in Virginia‘s high-profile election on November 2 for governor, flipping control of a state that President Joe Biden won handily just a year ago. The results there and in other states holding off-year elections sent a warning shot to Democrats, suggesting that trouble may be brewing ahead of next year’s midterm elections. “This is the spirit of Virginia coming together like never before,” Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin told supporters well after midnight, joking breakfast would soon be served. “For too long, we’ve been expected to shelve our dreams, to shelve our hope, to settle for low expectations. We will not be a commonwealth of low expectations. We’ll be a commonwealth of high expectations.” Terry McAuliffe congratulated Youngkin in a statement Wednesday morning conceding defeat. “While last night we came up short, I am proud that we spent this campaign fighting for the values we so deeply believe in,” he said, thanking his family and supporters. Virginia will also get its first woman of color lieutenant governor, with the victory of Republican Winsome Sears, a former Marine born in Jamaica.
2. Democratic Candidate Eric Adams Wins New York City Mayoral Election In Landslide
Democrat Eric Adams has been elected New York City mayor, defeating Republican Curtis Sliwa on November 2 in a contest far easier than his next task: steering a damaged city through its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
Democrat Eric Adamshas been elected New York City mayor, defeating Republican Curtis Sliwa on November 2 in a contest far easier than his next task: steering a damaged city through its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Adams, a former New York City police captain and the Brooklyn borough president, will become the second African American mayor of the nation’s most populous city. David Dinkins, who served from 1990 to 1993, was the first. “Tonight, New York has chosen one of you — one of our own. I am you. I am you,” Adams told a jubilant crowd at his victory party at a hotel in his hometown borough of Brooklyn. “After years of praying and hoping and struggling and working, we are headed to City Hall.” Adams’ victory seemed all but assured after he emerged as the winner from a crowded Democratic primary this summer in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans 7 to 1.
3. Demcoratic Incumbent Phil Murphy Narrowly Wins Re-Election In New Jersey
Democratic New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy narrowly fended off an election challenge from Republican former State Senator Jack Ciattarelli, returns showed on November 3, a day after voting ended in an unexpected nail-biter for the incumbent.
Democratic New Jersey Governor Phil Murphynarrowly fended off an election challenge from Republican former State Senator Jack Ciattarelli, returns showed on November 3, a day after voting ended in an unexpected nail-biter for the incumbent. Murphy became the first Democratic governor since Brendan Byrne in 1977 to win re-election in New Jersey, even though registered Democratic voters outnumber Republicans by more than 1 million in the densely populated northeastern coastal US state. The incumbent struck a triumphant but politically inclusive tone in a brief victory speech he delivered at an Asbury Park convention hall to supporters chanting, “Four more years!””If you want to be governor of all of New Jersey, you must listen to all of New Jersey. And New Jersey, I hear you,” he told the crowd.
4. In A Bright Spot For The Democratic Party, Georgia Democratic Party Makes Gains In Municipal & Local Elections
Despite losses elsewhere in the country, the Democratic Party gained a net total of more than 40 seats in the local and municipal elections held in Georgia on November 2.
Despite losses elsewhere in the country, the Democratic Party gained a net total of more than 40 seats in the local and municipal elections held in Georgia on November 2, including mayorships in Cairo, Stone Mountain, Hampton, and McDonough and crucial city council seats in Lawrenceville, Peachtree Corners, Sandy Springs, Tucker, Stone Mountain, Dunwoody, Brookhaven, Kennesaw, and Powder Springs. While local elections are often immune to partisan trends and are of lower turnout, the results of the election in Georgia are a relatively good sign for the statewide Demcoratic Party in one of the nation’s key battleground states.
Despite losses elsewhere in the country, the Democratic Party gained a net total of more than 40 seats in the local and municipal elections held in Georgia on November 2, including mayorships in Cairo, Stone Mountain, Hampton, and McDonough and crucial city council seats in Lawrenceville, Peachtree Corners, Sandy Springs, Tucker, Stone Mountain, Dunwoody, Brookhaven, Kennesaw, and Powder Springs. While local elections are often immune to partisan trends and are of lower turnout, the results of the election in Georgia are a relatively good sign for the statewide Demcoratic Party in one of the nation’s key battleground states.
In the cities of McDonough and Warner Robins, voters elected the first African American mayors in those cities’ history, and the first women as well. McDonough City Council member Sandra Vincent told GPB News she is hoping to retain the city’s “small-town feel” while ensuring rapid growth in the surrounding area doesn’t leave residents behind. LaRhonda Patrick defeated incumbent Warner Robins mayor Randy Toms in a runoff election as well.
Congresswoman Nikema Williams, chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia, said in a statement that the results leave the party well-positioned to continue making gains in 2022. “From Middle Georgia to the coast and everywhere in between, Georgians came out in full force this election cycle to make their voices heard and demand change,” she said. “Democrats’ strong showing in this year’s municipal elections is a testament to the unprecedented grassroots enthusiasm our party has been building across the state for years — and our momentum is only growing.”
Beyond seats changing hands, runoff elections in the metro Atlanta area also signaled an end to many longtime incumbents’ terms and a new direction for Atlanta’s government. South Fulton Councilman Khalid Kamau ousted incumbent mayor Bill Edwards in the city’s mayoral race, while newcomers Jason Dozier and Antonio Lewis defeated Cleta Winslow and Joyce Shepherd, respectively, for Atlanta City Council seats. With City Councilmember Andre Dickens handily winning Atlanta’s mayoral runoff, Atlanta City Council President Felicia Moore continued the streak of council presidents failing to move up into the city’s highest office.
Throughout the municipal election season, the Democratic Party of Georgia made nearly 91,000 calls and sent nearly 185,000 texts to voters across the state to get out the vote in dozens of targeted races. Candidates in DPG-targeted races flipped 41 seats in 21 counties across Georgia, while Republican candidates picked up just 6. The counties that saw Democratic flips include Ben Hill, Berrien, Brooks, Chatham, Clarke, Cobb, Cook, DeKalb, Fulton, Grady, Gwinnett, Heard, Henry, Jackson, Jefferson, Lanier, Meriwether, Mitchell, Oconee, Troup, and Walton.
Democratic New Jersey Governor Phil Murphynarrowly fended off an election challenge from Republican former State Senator Jack Ciattarelli, returns showed on November 3, a day after voting ended in an unexpected nail-biter for the incumbent. Murphy became the first Democratic governor since Brendan Byrne in 1977 to win re-election in New Jersey, even though registered Democratic voters outnumber Republicans by more than 1 million in the densely populated northeastern coastal US state. The incumbent struck a triumphant but politically inclusive tone in a brief victory speech he delivered at an Asbury Park convention hall to supporters chanting, “Four more years!””If you want to be governor of all of New Jersey, you must listen to all of New Jersey. And New Jersey, I hear you,” he told the crowd.
Unofficial returns posted by the Associated Press and cited by the New York Times and other media outlets pronouncing the victory for Governor Phil Murphy showed him clinching 50.03% of the vote, compared with 49.22% for Jack Ciattarelli, with 90% of ballots counted. There was no immediate word from Ciattarelli conceding defeat, and his campaign spokesperson, Sami Williams, posted a tweet criticizing the media for calling the race when it did. “With the candidates separated by a fraction of a percent out of 2.4 million ballots cast, it’s irresponsible of the media to make this call when the New Jersey Secretary of State doesn’t even know how many ballots are left to be counted,” she wrote.
Governor Phil Murphy has presided over a political shift to the left in the state, including new taxes on millionaires, tougher firearms restrictions, marijuna legalization, a higher minimum wage, and paid sick leave. He has also defended his robust public health measures aimed at curtailing the coronavirus pandemic, which emerged as a key point of contention in the race. Jack Ciattarelli, who had trailed Murphy by up to 10 percentage points in some opinion polls, capitalized on widespread unpopularity with Murphy’s aggressive mask requirements for schoolchildren. The Republicans also focused much of their campaign on the state’s high taxes, while accusing Murphy, a wealthy former Goldman Sachs executive, of being out of touch with the electorate.
New Jersey has trended steadily Democratic in recent years. The party won 10 of the state’s 12 House of Representatives seats in 2020, and President Joe Biden carried the state over then-President Donald Trump last year by more than 15 percentage points. Still, Jack Ciattarelli’s unexpectedly strong performance in New Jersey, and a Republican victory in Virginia’s hard-fought gubernatorial race spelled trouble for Biden’s party heading into next year’s congressional elections. Murphy trailed overnight in the returns but squeaked into the lead as the tabulation of the vote unfolded in several heavily Democratic counties.
Democrat Eric Adamshas been elected New York City mayor, defeating Republican Curtis Sliwa on November 2 in a contest far easier than his next task: steering a damaged city through its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Adams, a former New York City police captain and the Brooklyn borough president, will become the second African American mayor of the nation’s most populous city. David Dinkins, who served from 1990 to 1993, was the first. “Tonight, New York has chosen one of you — one of our own. I am you. I am you,” Adams told a jubilant crowd at his victory party at a hotel in his hometown borough of Brooklyn. “After years of praying and hoping and struggling and working, we are headed to City Hall.” Adams’ victory seemed all but assured after he emerged as the winner from a crowded Democratic primary this summer in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans 7 to 1.
As a candidate, Mayor-elect Eric Adams referenced his working-class roots and being raised with five siblings by a single mother who cleaned houses. He described carrying a garbage bag of clothes to school out of fear his family would be evicted. He brought a photo of his late mother with him as he voted in Brooklyn. He teared up as he described his life as a classic New York story, rising from a poor upbringing to become the leader of the city. Adams will take office on January 1, 2022 in a city where more than 34,500 people have been killed by COVID-19, and where the economy is still beset by challenges related to the pandemic. The tourism industry hasn’t come back yet. Office buildings remain partly empty, with people still working from home. Schools are trying to get children back on track after a year of distance learning. After he finished speaking, Adams was joined onstage by Governor Kathy Hochul, who pledged “a whole new era of cooperation” between the state in the city, after eight years in which the former governor, Andrew Cuomo, was constantly at adds with Mayor Bill de Blasio. “We will fight for you, not fight each other anymore,” she said.
Republican Curtis Sliwa, who founded the Guardian Angels anti-crime patrol in 1979, ran a campaign punctuated by his penchant for stunts and his signature red beret. He portrayed Eric Adams as an out-of-touch elitist. Adams dismissed Sliwa as a clown and painted him as untrustworthy for having admitted he made up claims years ago about being kidnapped and of other exploits from the Guardian Angels’ patrols. Sliwa said at an election night party that he tried to call Adams to concede but couldn’t immediately reach him. “I am pledging my support to the new Mayor Eric Adams because we’re all going to have to coalesce together in harmony and solidarity if we’re going to save this city that we love,” Sliwa said.
Mayor-elect Eric Adams brings a nuanced perspective on policing and crime, drawing on his experiences as a former police captain, an officer who gained early attention for speaking critically about the department he served in, and as someone who experienced police brutality as a teen. At age 15, he said, he was beaten by police officers when he was arrested for trespassing. He rejected progressive mantras to “defund the police,” and said he was proud of his time in the department. Adams became a transit police officer in 1984. As a police officer, he cofounded an advocacy group, 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, which pushed for criminal justice reform and decried police brutality. Adams retired from the police department in 2006. He then won a seat in the state Senate, representing Brooklyn. In 2013, he was elected borough president. Though seen as the moderate candidate in the crowded Democratic primary, one who offered a business-friendly approach, Eric Adams has rejected the label and maintains he is a progressive.
Eric Adams faced questions as a candidate about his residence after Politico reported he was sleeping at his Borough Hall office often. He co-owns an apartment in Fort Lee, New Jersey, with his partner, Tracey Collins. He tried to dispel the questions during the campaign by giving reporters a tour of a basement apartment in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood that he said is his primary residence. Curtis Sliwa tried to spotlight the issue during the campaign by crossing a bridge to Fort Lee while holding a milk carton featuring a picture of “missing” Adams. Curtis Sliwa also become known for living with more than a dozen rescue cats in his very small apartment with his wife. He brought one of the cats with him to his Manhattan polling place but was told the animal had to stay outside. In his concession speech, Sliwa made it clear he wasn’t going to fade from the headlines. “You will have Curtis Sliwa to kick around,” he said in his speech.
Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated former Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe in Virginia‘s high-profile election on November 2 for governor, flipping control of a state that President Joe Biden won handily just a year ago. The results there and in other states holding off-year elections sent a warning shot to Democrats, suggesting that trouble may be brewing ahead of next year’s midterm elections. “This is the spirit of Virginia coming together like never before,” Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin told supporters well after midnight, joking breakfast would soon be served. “For too long, we’ve been expected to shelve our dreams, to shelve our hope, to settle for low expectations. We will not be a commonwealth of low expectations. We’ll be a commonwealth of high expectations.” Terry McAuliffe congratulated Youngkin in a statement conceding defeat. “While last night we came up short, I am proud that we spent this campaign fighting for the values we so deeply believe in,” he said, thanking his family and supporters. Virginia will also get its first woman of color lieutenant governor, with the victory of Republican Winsome Sears, a former Marine born in Jamaica.
Glenn Youngkin, a former private equity executive, and political newcomer campaigned on a promise to unite the factions of the Republican Party and drove a message focused on the economy and education. He kept just enough distance from former President Donald Trump while trying to keep his base engaged. Terry McAuliffe, meanwhile, was weighed down by his party’s post-Trump political fatigue, along with President Joe Biden’s sinking poll numbers and gridlocked agenda in Washington, but ran a campaign that included damaging gaffes and, critics say, was overly reliant on trying to tie Youngkin to Trump.
Virginia, which always elects a new governor one year after presidential races, has long been seen as a political bellwether and both parties were anxiously watching as results poured in from across the commonwealth, eager for clues about the political landscape that will inform their upcoming campaigns. The Republican victory in Virginia, powered by robust turnout in conservative rural counties, improved support in the suburbs, and a message focused on the economy and alleged anti-white bias in school curriculum, will likely serve as a blueprint for Republicans looking to recapture the House and the Senate next year. “It’s time to hit the panic button, because the base is not motivated,” Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher said, calling the loss “catastrophic” for Democrats. In Virginia, white women swung back toward the Republican Party by 15 percentage points compared to 2020, while African American turnout was down in some key places.
Turnout will be key in next year’s election and Virginia’s results suggest the Republican base is more engaged than the Democratic one, as is often the case for the party out of power in Washington. “Youngkin’s victory in Virginia should serve as a wake-up call to Democrats everywhere that an epic wave is on the way,” said John Ashbrook, a Republican strategist who works on Senate races and is close to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. “Voters are clearly dissatisfied with the direction our country is headed and they’re prepared to exercise their right to change it.”
Virginia was one of the first former Confederate states to trend heavily towards the Republican Party beginning in the late 1940s and established a reputation as one of the best states for the Republican Party by the 1980s. Starting in the mid-2000s, however, Virginia began to trend heavily towards the Democrats due to declining Republican support in Suburban areas. For example, no Republican had won a statewide office in Virginia since 2009 and President Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump by 10 points in Virginia in the 2020 Presidential election. Moreover, Democratic Governor Ralph Northam, who is prohibited by the state Constitution from running for a second term, won by 9 percentage points in 2017. Democrats won control of the state Legislature for the first time since 1996 two years ago and pushed through an expansion of early voting rules that some analysts predicted would help the party turn out its base.
Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin made education the centerpiece of his campaign, capitalizing on parental frustration with school closures and a gaffe by Terry McCauliffe in the final debate when he said, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” The race was stoked by conservative alarmism about critical race theory, an until-recently obscure academic discipline mostly taught in universities. Republicans say the issue could be central in future campaigns across the country. Former President Donald Trump has loomed large over the Virginia race, with McAuliffe looking to tie his opponent to the divisive former president, who lost the state by 10 percentage points in 2020. The NBC News exit poll found that 54 percent of voters said they have an unfavorable opinion of Trump, compared to 41 percent who had a positive view of him. While McAuliffe voters were almost unanimously negative on the former president, only about three-quarters (73 percent) of Youngkin voters had a favorable opinion of Trump and 19 percent had a negative view of him.
“Being anti-Trump is not going to be enough. Democrats have to show what they’re for,” former Virginia Congressman Tom Perriello said, adding that the party can’t just ignore hot-button issues like the critical race theory debate. “If anyone on the Democratic side thought these culture wars were going to go away without Trump, that needs to be re-evaluated.” Meanwhile, about half of voters said that President Joe Biden was not a factor in their vote for governor, according to the NBC News exit poll, but only 43 percent approved of the way he is doing his job, while a slight majority (56 percent) disapproved. Twenty-eight percent said one reason for their vote for governor was to express opposition to Biden, while 20 percent said it was to express support for the President.
Here are the main events that occurred in Politics this week
1. President Joe Biden Announces Sweeping Coronavirus Vaccine Mandate Covering Nearly 100 Million Americans
In his most forceful pandemic actions and words, President Joe Biden, on September 9 ordered sweeping new federal vaccine requirements for as many as 100 million American private-sector employees as well as health care workers and federal contractors in an all-out effort to curb the surging COVID-19 delta variant
In his most forceful pandemic actions and words, President Joe Biden, on September 9 ordered sweeping new federal vaccine requirements for as many as 100 million American private-sector employees as well as health care workers and federal contractors in an all-out effort to curb the surging COVID-19 delta variant. Speaking at the White House, President Biden sharply criticized the tens of millions of Americans who are not yet vaccinated, despite months of availability and incentives. “We’ve been patient. But our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us,” he said, all but biting off his words. The unvaccinated minority “can cause a lot of damage, and they are.”
2. In Major Victory For Democratic Party, California Governor Gavin Newsom Survives Recall Election
A Republican-led bid to recall Governor Gavin Newsom of California ended in defeat, as Democrats in the nation’s most populous state closed ranks against a small grass-roots movement that accelerated with the spread of COVID-19
A Republican-led bid to recall Governor Gavin Newsom of California ended in defeat, as Democrats in the nation’s most populous state closed ranks against a small grass-roots movement that accelerated with the spread of COVID-19. Voters affirmed their support for Governor Newsom, whose lead grew insurmountable as the count continued in Los Angeles County and other large Democratic strongholds after the polls had closed. Larry Elder, a conservative talk radio host, and Donald Trump accolade led 46 challengers hoping to become the next governor. The vote spoke to the power liberal voters wield in California, as no Republican has held statewide office in California since Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger left office in 2010. Additionally, the vote also reflected the state’s recent progress against the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed more than 67,000 lives in California. California has one of the nation’s highest vaccination rates and one of its lowest rates of new virus cases, which Governor Newsom tirelessly argued to voters were the results of his vaccine and mask requirements.
3. Pennsylvania Republican Lawmakers Approve Wide-Ranging Subpoenas For Personal Information Of 2020 Voters
Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania on September 15 approved subpoenas for a wide range of data and personal information on voters, advancing a probe of the 2020 election in a key battleground state former president Donald Trump has repeatedly targeted with baseless claims of fraud
Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania on September 15 approved subpoenas for a wide range of data and personal information on voters, advancing a probe of the 2020 election in a key battleground state former president Donald Trump has repeatedly targeted with baseless claims of fraud. The move drew a sharp rebuke from Democrats who described the effort as insecure and unwarranted and said they would consider mounting a court fight. Among other requests, Republicans are seeking the names, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers, last four digits of Social Security numbers, addresses, and methods of voting for millions of people who cast ballots in the May primary and the November general election.
4. Report: US Top General Secretly Called China Over Fears Donald Trump Could Spark War During His Final Days In Office
The top US general secretly called his Chinese counterpart twice over concerns then-President Donald Trump could spark a war with China as his potential election loss loomed and in its aftermath, the Washington Post reported on September 14.
The top US general secretly called his Chinese counterpart twice over concerns then-President Donald Trump could spark a war with China as his potential election loss loomed and in its aftermath, the Washington Post reported on September 14. US General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called General Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army on October 30, 2020, four days before the election, and again on January 8, two days after Trump supporters led a deadly riot at the US Capitol, the newspaper reported. In the calls, Milley sought to assure Li the US was stable and not going to attack and, if there were to be an attack, he would alert his counterpart ahead of time, the report said. The report was based on “Peril,” a new book by journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, which they said relied on interviews with 200 sources and is due to be released next week. Former President Donald Trump, in a statement, cast doubt in the story, calling it “fabricated.” He said if the story was true Milley should be tried for treason. “For the record, I never even thought of attacking China,” Trump said.
The top US general secretly called his Chinese counterpart twice over concerns then-President Donald Trump could spark a war with Chinaas his potential election loss loomed and in its aftermath, the Washington Post reported on September 14. US General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called General Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army on October 30, 2020, four days before the election, and again on January 8, two days after Trump supporters led a deadly riot at the US Capitol, the newspaper reported. In the calls, Milley sought to assure Li the US was stable and not going to attack and, if there were to be an attack, he would alert his counterpart ahead of time, the report said. The report was based on “Peril,” a new book by journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, which they said relied on interviews with 200 sources and is due to be released next week. Former President Donald Trump, in a statement, cast doubt in the story, calling it “fabricated.” He said if the story was true Milley should be tried for treason. “For the record, I never even thought of attacking China,” Trump said.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio called on President Joe Biden to immediately fire General Mark Milley in response to the revelations. “I do not need to tell of you the dangers posed by senior military officers leaking classified information on U.S. military operations, but I will underscore that such subversion undermines the President’s ability to negotiate and leverage one of this nation’s instruments of national power in his interactions with foreign nations,” Rubio said in a letter to President Biden. Asked about the Washington Post report, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment and referred questions to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Defense Department.
President Donald Trump named Mark Milley to the top military post in 2018 but began criticizing him, as well as other appointees and former staffers, after losing the presidential election to Joe Biden in November 2020. The Washington Post reported that Milley was motivated to contact China the second time in part due to a January 8 call with US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who had asked the general what safeguards were in place to prevent an “unstable president” from launching a nuclear strike. “He’s crazy. You know he’s crazy,” Pelosi told Milley, the newspaper reported, citing a transcript of the call. According to the cited call transcript, the general replied, “I agree with you on everything.”
Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania on September 15 approved subpoenas for a wide range of data and personal information on voters, advancing a probe of the 2020 election in a key battleground state former president Donald Trump has repeatedly targeted with baseless claims of fraud. The move drew a sharp rebuke from Democrats who described the effort as insecure and unwarranted and said they would consider mounting a court fight. Among other requests, Republicans are seeking the names, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers, last four digits of Social Security numbers, addresses, and methods of voting for millions of people who cast ballots in the May primary and the November general election.
Pennsylvania’s Democratic Governor Tom Wolf called the September 15 vote “merely another step to undermine democracy, confidence in our elections and to capitulate to Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.” Wolf added in a statement, “Election security is not a game and should not be treated with such carelessness. Senate Republicans should be ashamed of their latest attempt to destabilize our election system through a sham investigation that will unnecessarily cost taxpayers millions of dollars.” But Senator Cris Dush, the Republican chairman of the committee that approved the subpoena, argued during the hearing that the information is needed because “there have been questions regarding the validity of people who have voted — whether or not they exist.” “Again, we are not responding to proven allegations. We are investigating the allegations to determine whether or not they are factual,” he said, adding that the vetting process for outside vendors will be “rigorous.”
Judges, including on the Pennsylvania and US Supreme Courts, have denied bids by Trump and his allies to overturn President Biden’s win in the state or invalidate millions of ballots. Yet in Pennsylvania and other battleground states, Republican legislators have bowed to pressure from Trump and his base to investigate the results, despite a consensus among judges, election officials, and experts that there was no widespread fraud in the election. Several prominent Republican governors have continued to spread 2020 election falsehoods, echoing former President Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated fraud claims. In Wisconsin, protesters gathered at the state Capitol last week to call for a ballot review like the one conducted in Arizona and push for an examination of voting machines. As of late last month, multiple reviews were ongoing in the state — including one by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau and one led by former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, whose approach recently raised fresh concerns with some election clerks.
In Pennsylvania’s state Senate, the Intergovernmental Operations Committee voted 7 to 4 to subpoena Wolf’s administration after a testy debate. In addition to voters’ records, the subpoenas for the Pennsylvania Department of State also request all guidance issued to counties, as well as communications between the Department of State and county election officials, for the period covering the two votes. The party-line vote advanced the Republican probe, which state Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman has promised will be a “full forensic investigation” of the 2020 election. After the vote, Corman sought to allay fears that Pennsylvania voter information could be vulnerable if obtained by the committee.“Every necessary step will be taken to ensure this information is secure, including making any vendor personnel sign non-disclosure agreements to make sure the data are protected under penalty of law,” he said in a statement.
Republicans also emphasized that the subpoena would not seek information about voters’ party affiliation. But Senator Cris Dush declined to answer further questions from Democrats, including about the outside vendors he is considering to handle the data. “What you’re now describing sounds very much to me like a partisan investigation,” said state Senator Steven Santarsiero, noting that the subpoenas could cover information for “nearly 7 million Pennsylvanians.” The hearing was stopped multiple times because of tensions between members. Senator Vincent J. Hughes called Republicans’ justifications for the subpoenas “absurd.” “And the majority knows it,” he said. “However, the majority also knows it needs to create a legislative purpose to justify their fishing expedition.” Dush, though, has said the goal is not to revisit Trump’s loss. “That horse is out of the barn, as far as this investigation is concerned,” he said last week. But he and other Republicans used the hearing to insist that their constituents are still asking questions about election conduct and said those questions must be addressed.
In an interview, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D) called the hearing “a dud.” “They introduced exactly zero evidence in their attempt to satisfy the people of Pennsylvania whom they’ve been lying to for the last 10 months,” he said. Shapiro said his office would carefully review any election-related subpoenas issued by the legislature, particularly any that sought tabulating machines or ballots. “I would expect a subpoena like that to face litigation,” he said. Pennsylvania Senate Republican Leader Jake Corman has been trying to assure Trump supporters that he has buy-in from the former president for his approach to investigating the election. But in a stark reminder that Trump’s most loyal supporters demand total capitulation, he has still faced deep suspicion, particularly over a decision to appoint Dush to lead the investigation rather than Senator Doug Mastriano (R), a close Trump ally who had been threatening to issue subpoenas to several counties.
In a Twitter Post, One America News host Christina Bobb, who has emerged as a national advocate for ballot reviews and who The Washington Post has previously reported speaks frequently to Trump, criticized the subpoenas as not going far enough. “PA Voters want a real audit. What does the PA senate subpoena? Emails. Not the ballots, not the machines, not the poll books. While emails may be helpful, they are not enough. The PA Senate must do better,” she wrote. Khalif Ali, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, a good-government advocacy group that works on issues related to voter access, called the subpoenas a “frightening violation of voters’ privacy and an egregious abuse of power.”
A Republican-led bid to recall Governor Gavin Newsom of California ended in defeat, as Democrats in the nation’s most populous state closed ranks against a small grass-roots movement that accelerated with the spread of Covid-19. Voters affirmed their support for Governor Newsom, whose lead grew insurmountable as the count continued in Los Angeles County and other large Democratic strongholds after the polls had closed. Larry Elder, a conservative talk radio host, and Donald Trump accolade led 46 challengers hoping to become the next governor. The vote spoke to the power liberal voters wield in California, as no Republican has held statewide office in California since Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger left office in 2010. Additionally, the vote also reflected the state’s recent progress against the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed more than 67,000 lives in California. California has one of the nation’s highest vaccination rates and one of its lowest rates of new virus cases, which Governor Newsom tirelessly argued to voters were the results of his vaccine and mask requirements.
The Associated Press called the race for Governor Gavin Newsom, who had won in a 62 percent landslide in 2018, less than an hour after the polls closed on Tuesday. About 66 percent of the eight million ballots counted by 10 p.m. Pacific time said the governor should stay in office. “It appears that we are enjoying an overwhelmingly ‘no’ vote tonight here in the state of California, but ‘no’ is not the only thing that was expressed tonight,” Governor Newsom told reporters. “We said yes to science. We said yes to vaccines. We said yes to ending this pandemic. We said yes to people’s right to vote without fear of fake fraud and voter suppression. We said yes to women’s fundamental constitutional right to decide for herself what she does with her body, her fate, her future. We said yes to diversity. In Orange County, Larry Elder spoke to a packed ballroom of supporters and conceded the race. “Let’s be gracious in defeat,” Elder said, adding, “We may have lost the battle, but we are going to win the war.”
Considered a bellwether for the 2022 midterm elections, the recall outcome came as a relief to Democrats nationally. Though polls showed that the recall was consistently opposed by some 60 percent of Californians, surveys over the summer suggested that likely voters were unenthusiastic about Gavin Newsom. As the election deadline approached, however, his base mobilized. President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota traveled to California to campaign for Governor Newsom, while Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and former President Barack Obama appeared in his commercials. Some $70 million in contributions to his campaign poured in from Democratic donors, tribal and business groups, and organized labor. The governor charged that far-right extremists and supporters of former President Donald Trump were attempting a hostile takeover in a state where they could never hope to attain majority support in a regular election. He also contrasted California’s low rates of coronavirus infection with the large numbers of deaths and hospitalizations in Republican-run states like Florida and Texas. Electoral math did the rest: Democrats outnumber Republicans two to one in California, and pandemic voting rules encouraged high turnout, allowing ballots to be mailed to each of the state’s 22 million registered, active voters with prepaid postage. More than 40 percent of those Californians voted early.
Initiated by a retired Republican sheriff’s sergeant in Northern California, Orrin Heatlie, the recall was one of six conservative-led petitions that began circulating within months of Gavin Newsom’s inauguration. Recall attempts are common in California, where direct democracy has long been part of the political culture. For example, Governors Culbert Olson, Pat Brown, and Ronald Reagan were subject to failed recall attempts in 1939, 1960, and 1967 respectively. But only one other attempt against a governor has qualified for the ballot, in 2003, when Californians recalled Governor Gray Davis on the heels of the 9/11 attacks, the dot-com bust and rolling electricity blackouts. They elected Arnold Schwarzenegger to replace Davis as governor, substituting a centrist Republican for a centrist Democrat. Initially, Heatlie’s petition had difficulty gaining traction. But it gathered steam as the pandemic swept California and Governor Newsom struggled to contain it. Californians who at first were supportive of the governor’s health orders wearied of shutdowns in businesses and classrooms, and public dissatisfaction boiled over in November when Newsom was spotted mask-free at the French Laundry, an exclusive wine country restaurant, after urging the public to avoid gatherings.
As the outcome in the recall election became apparent, Darry Sragow, a Democratic strategist and publisher of California Target Book, a nonpartisan political almanac, said the governor held off “a Republican mugging” and “could come out of this stronger than ever, depending on his margin.” Recall backers also claimed a measure of victory “We were David against Goliath, we were the Alamo,” said Mike Netter, one of a handful of Tea Party Republican activists whose anger at Governor Gavin Newsom’s opposition to the death penalty, his embrace of undocumented workers and his deep establishment roots helped inspire the attempted ouster.
Other Republicans, however, called the recall a grave political miscalculation. About one-quarter of the state’s registered voters are Republicans, and their numbers have been dwindling since the 1990s, a trend that recall proponents believed might be reversed if they could somehow flip the nation’s biggest state. The recall’s defeat, in a special election that cost the state an estimated $276 million, instead marked “another nail in the coffin,” said Mike Madrid, a California Republican strategist who has been deeply critical of the party under Donald Trump, charging in particular that the Republican. has driven away Latino voters. Madrid said the recall signified that, even in California, Trump’s party had become part of “an increasingly radical, exercised and shrinking Republican base, lashing out in different ways in different parts of the country.” He took note of the voter fraud accusations that some in his party began to make well before the polls closed, echoing Trump, who claimed without evidence that Democrats had “rigged” the recall election. Despite the yawning gap in support, for example, Mr. Elder demanded this week, before the voting was finished, that a special legislative session be called “to investigate and ameliorate the twisted results.” He said there had been “instances of undocumented ballots” but provided no examples.
The election results capped a nearly yearlong push by Governor Gavin Newsom to persuade voters to see beyond that darkness. Since early this year, when it became clear that the recall would have the money and time to qualify for the ballot, Governor Newsom has campaigned relentlessly. Taking advantage of a huge state surplus, a result of higher-than-expected gains in income and stock prices for affluent Californians, the governor moved aggressively to demonstrate that the state could both protect its economy and curb the virus. In recent months, he has rolled out vaccinations, cleaned up trash in neighborhoods neglected by pandemic-worn Californians, thrown motel rooms open to homeless Californians, announced stimulus checks and rent assistance for poor and middle-class Californians, and stood repeatedly in front of a gold lamé curtain to host one of the nation’s largest vaccine lotteries. As in 2003, when he ran against a popular progressive for mayor of San Francisco, Newsom framed the race not as a referendum on him but as a choice between himself and a potentially catastrophic alternative, in this case, Larry Elder, whose name recognition quickly vaulted him to the top of the list of challengers. Noting that Elder had built a career bashing liberal causes, the governor painted him as a Trump clone who would foist far-right policies on a state that has been a bastion of liberal thinking. “Vote no and go,” the governor told voters, suggesting that they stick to voting against recalling him and not even dignify the second question on the ballot, which asked who should replace Newsom if the recall succeeds.
In his most forceful pandemic actions and words, President Joe Biden, on September 9 ordered sweeping new federal vaccine requirements for as many as 100 million American private-sector employees as well as health care workers and federal contractors in an all-out effort to curb the surging COVID-19 delta variant. Speaking at the White House, President Biden sharply criticized the tens of millions of Americans who are not yet vaccinated, despite months of availability and incentives. “We’ve been patient. But our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us,” he said, all but biting off his words. The unvaccinated minority “can cause a lot of damage, and they are.”
Overall, the immediate reaction to the Biden Administrations’ vaccine mandate proposal was mixed. Both Republican political leaders and private sector unions said that President Joe Biden was going too far in trying to muscle private companies and workers, a certain sign of legal challenges to come. Republican Governor Henry McMaster of South Carolina said in a statement that “Biden and the radical Democrats (have) thumbed their noses at the Constitution,” while American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley insisted that “changes like this should be negotiated with our bargaining units where appropriate.” On the other hand, there were strong words of praise for Biden’s efforts to get the nation vaccinated from the American Medical Association, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the Business Roundtable, though no direct mention of his mandate for private companies.
The expansive rules mandate that all employers with more than 100 workers require them to be vaccinated or test for the virus weekly, affecting about 80 million Americans. And the roughly 17 million workers at health facilities that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid also will have to be fully vaccinated. President Joe Biden is also requiring vaccination for employees of the executive branch and contractors who do business with the federal government, with no option to test out. That covers several million more workers. President Biden announced the new requirements in an address from the White House as part of a new “action plan” to address the latest rise in coronavirus cases and the stagnating pace of COVID-19 shots.
Just two months ago, President Joe Biden prematurely declared the nation’s “independence” from the virus. Now, despite more than 208 million Americans having at least one dose of the vaccines, the US is seeing about 300% more new COVID-19 infections a day, about two-and-a-half times more hospitalizations, and nearly twice the number of deaths compared to the same time last year. Some 80 million people remain unvaccinated. “We are in the tough stretch and it could last for a while,” President Biden said. After months of using promotions to drive the vaccination rate, Biden is taking a much firmer hand, as he blames people who have not yet received shots for the sharp rise in cases killing more than 1,000 people per day and imperiling a fragile economic rebound.
In addition to the vaccination requirements, Preisdent Biden moved to double federal fines for airline passengers who refuse to wear masks on flights or to maintain face-covering requirements on federal property in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. He announced that the government will work to increase the supply of virus tests, and that the White House has secured concessions from retailers including Walmart, Amazon, and Kroger to sell at-home testing kits at cost beginning this week. The administration is also sending additional federal support to assist schools in safely operating, including additional funding for testing. And Biden called for large entertainment venues and arenas to require vaccinations or proof of a negative test for entry. The requirement for large companies to mandate vaccinations or weekly testing for employees will be enacted through a forthcoming rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that carries penalties of $14,000 per violation, an administration official said. Biden’s order for executive branch workers and contractors includes exceptions for workers seeking religious or medical exemptions from vaccination, according to press secretary Jen Psaki. Federal workers who do not comply will be referred to their agencies’ human resources departments for counseling and discipline, including potential termination.
An AP-NORC poll conducted in August found 55% of Americans in favor of requiring government workers to be fully vaccinated, compared with 21% opposed. Similar majorities also backed vaccine mandates for health care workers, teachers working at K-12 schools, and workers who interact with the public, as at restaurants and stores. President Joe Biden has encouraged COVID-19 vaccine requirements in settings like schools, workplaces, and university campuses. On September 9, the Los Angeles Board of Education voted to require all students 12 and older to be fully vaccinated in the nation’s second-largest school district. Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, said in late July it was requiring all workers at its headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, as well as its managers who travel within the US, to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by October 4. But the company had stopped short of requiring shots for its frontline workers. CVS Health said in late August it would require certain employees who interact with patients to be fully vaccinated by the end of October. That includes nurses, care managers, and pharmacists.
In the government, several federal agencies have previously announced vaccine requirements for much of their staff, particularly those in healthcare roles like the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Department of Defense moved last month to require all service members to get vaccinated. Combined, the White House estimates those requirements cover 2.5 million Americans. September 9ths order is expected to affect nearly 2 million more federal workers and potentially millions of contractors. President Joe Biden’s measures should help, but what is really needed is a change in mindset for many people, said Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, vice dean at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. “There is an aspect to this now that has to do with our country being so divided,” said Sharfstein. “This has become so politicized that people can’t see the value of a vaccination that can save their lives. Our own divisions are preventing us from ending a pandemic.”
More than 177 million Americans are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, but confirmed cases have shot up in recent weeks to an average of about 140,000 per day with on average about 1,000 deaths, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most of the spread, and the vast majority of severe illness and death, occurs among those not yet fully vaccinated. So-called breakthrough infections in vaccinated people occur at a rate of about 1 in 5,000, but tend to be far less dangerous and have only resulted in around 500 deaths.
Here are the main events that occurred in Politics this week:
1. In A Rare Bipartisan Vote, US Senate Passes $1.2 Trillion Infrastructure Bill
The Senate gave overwhelming bipartisan approval on August 11 to a $1 trillion infrastructure bill to rebuild the nation’s deteriorating roads and bridges and fund new climate resilience and broadband initiatives, delivering a key component of President Joe Biden’s agenda
The Senate gave overwhelming bipartisan approval on August 11 to a $1 trillion infrastructure bill to rebuild the nation’s deteriorating roads and bridges and fund new climate resilience and broadband initiatives, delivering a key component of President Joe Biden’s agenda. The vote, 69 to 30, was uncommonly bipartisan. The yes votes included Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, and 18 others from his party who shrugged off increasingly shrill efforts by former President Donald Trump to derail it. “This historic investment in infrastructure is what I believe you, the American people, want, what you’ve been asking for for a long, long time,” President Biden said from the White House as he thanked Republicans for showing “a lot of courage.” Senator McConnell, who publicly declared that his priority was stopping the Biden agenda, said in a statement that “I was proud to support today’s historic bipartisan infrastructure deal and prove that both sides of the political aisle can still come together around common-sense solutions.” The measure faces a potentially rocky and time-consuming path in the House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a majority of the nearly 100-member Progressive Caucus have said they will not vote on it unless and until the Senate passes a separate, even more ambitious $3.5 trillion social policy bill this fall. That could put the infrastructure bill on hold for weeks, if not months.
Ebrahim Raisi was sworn in as the new President of Iran on August 5 during an inauguration ceremony in the country’s parliament. The 60-year-old cleric is Iran’s eighth president since the 1979 revolution.
Ebrahim Raisi was sworn in as the new President of Iran on August 5 during an inauguration ceremony in the country’s parliament. The 60-year-old cleric is Iran’s eighth president since the 1979 revolution. The inauguration came two days after Raisi received the endorsement of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who previously served as the Iranian President from 1981-1989. Raisi’s victory in June’s presidential election was seen as notably lacking by observers, as a record number of reformist candidates were barred from standing by the Guardian Council.
In his inaugural address, Ebrahim Raisi appealed to conservative values and laid out his foreign policy beliefs during his inaugural address. “I will dedicate myself to the service of the people, the honor of the country, the propagation of religion and morality, and the support of truth and justice,” Raisi said during the ceremony. Raisi also promised to stand up against regional and western adversaries. “Wherever there is oppression and crime in the world, in the heart of Europe, in the US, Africa, Syria, Yemen, Palestine,” Raisi said. “The message of this election was resistance against arrogant powers.” At the same time, Iran’s new President promised to improve relations with other countries in the Middle East. “I extend the hand of friendship and brotherhood to all countries in the region, especially our neighbors,” Raisi said, while adding that there is “no obstacle” to improving strained ties with Saudi Arabia.
3. US Economy Adds 900,000 Jobs, Unemployment Falls To 5.4% During The Month of July
Job growth in the US rose in July at its fastest pace in nearly a year despite fears over the Coronavirus Delta variant and a tightening labor supply, the Labor Department reported on August 6.
Job growth in the US rose in July at its fastest pace in nearly a year despite fears over the Coronavirus Delta variant and a tightening labor supply, the Labor Department reported on August 6. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 943,000 for the month while the unemployment rate dropped to 5.4%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The payroll increase was the best since August 2020. Most economists expected 845,000 new jobs and a headline unemployment rate of 5.7% for July, thus the overall jobs gains exceeded their expectations. However, estimates were diverse amid conflicting headwinds and tailwinds and an uncertain path ahead for the economy. Additionally, average hourly earnings also increased more than expected, rising 0.4% for the month and are up 4% from the same period a year ago, at a time when concerns are increasing about persistent inflationary pressures. “The data for recent months suggest that the rising demand for labor associated with the recovery from the pandemic may have put upward pressure on wages,” the BLS said in the report, though it cautioned that the Coronavirus impact is still skewing data and wage gains are uneven across industries.
The Senate gave overwhelming bipartisan approval on August 11 to a $1 trillion infrastructure bill to rebuild the nation’s deteriorating roads and bridges and fund new climate resilience and broadband initiatives, delivering a key component of President Joe Biden’s agenda. The vote, 69 to 30, was uncommonly bipartisan. The yes votes included Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, and 18 others from his party who shrugged off increasingly shrill efforts by former President Donald Trump to derail it. “This historic investment in infrastructure is what I believe you, the American people, want, what you’ve been asking for for a long, long time,” President Biden said from the White House as he thanked Republicans for showing “a lot of courage.” Senator McConnell, who publicly declared that his priority was stopping the Biden agenda, said in a statement that “I was proud to support today’s historic bipartisan infrastructure deal and prove that both sides of the political aisle can still come together around common-sense solutions.” The measure faces a potentially rocky and time-consuming path in the House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a majority of the nearly 100-member Progressive Caucus have said they will not vote on it unless and until the Senate passes a separate, even more ambitious $3.5 trillion social policy bill this fall. That could put the infrastructure bill on hold for weeks, if not months.
The recently passed infrastructure bill is one of the largest passed by the Senate in recent years. It would be the largest infusion of federal investment into infrastructure projects in more than a decade, touching nearly every facet of the American economy and fortifying the nation’s response to the warming of the planet. Funding for the modernization of the nation’s power grid would reach record levels, as would projects to manage climate risks. Hundreds of billions of dollars would go to repairing and replacing aging public works projects. With $550 billion in new federal spending, the measure would provide $65 billion to expand high-speed internet access; $110 billion for roads, bridges, and other projects; $25 billion for airports; and the most funding for Amtrak since the passenger rail service was founded in 1971. It would also renew and revamp existing infrastructure and transportation programs set to expire at the end of September.
Its success, painstakingly negotiated largely by a group of Republican and Democratic Senators in consultation with White House officials, is a vindication of President Joe Biden’s belief that a bipartisan compromise was possible on a priority that has long been shared by both parties, even at a moment of deep political division. “This is what it looks like when elected leaders take a step toward healing our country’s divisions rather than feeding those very divisions,” Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), a key negotiator, said before the bill’s passage. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH), said that “everyone involved in this effort can be proud of what this body is achieving today — the Senate is doing its job.”
With a bipartisan victory pocketed, Democrats turned immediately to a more partisan venture, a second social policy package that would fulfill the remainder of their spending priorities. The Senate’s $3.5 trillion social policy budget, which is expected to pass along party lines later in the week, will allow Senate committees to draft legislation packed with policies to address climate change, health, education, and paid family and medical leave, and pass it over the threat of a filibuster. It will also include tax increases and is expected to generate unanimous Republican opposition. “Despite this long road we’ve taken, we have finally, finally reached the finish line,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). But, directing his comments to colleagues eager to take up unaddressed priorities, he added, “We are moving on to a second track, which will make a generational transformation.”
The Senate vote capped a grueling, months-long negotiation between the Biden administration and Senators in both parties over the scope and size of an infrastructure bill. After an abbreviated effort to work with Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), on a plan that could win backing from Republican leaders, President Joe Biden turned his focus to a group of 10 moderate Republicans and Democrats who had helped strike the compromise that paved the way for a postelection pandemic relief package in December. The Senators and top White House officials spent weeks debating how to structure and finance the legislation over late-night meals, virtual meetings, and phone calls. Even after the group triumphantly announced an outline in June, it took a month to translate that framework into legislation. Along the way, the effort appeared on the brink of collapse, after it failed a test vote in the Senate and former President Donald Trump sniped at it from the sidelines, trying to persuade Republicans that they would pay a steep political price for supporting it.
“When we have more people on both sides of the aisle who want to do things in a partisan way, as opposed to figuring out how we can work together, I don’t think that’s in the best interests of the country,” Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), one of the key negotiators, said in an interview. “It was really important for the continued relationships within the Senate that are so important to getting things dome. Negotiators were particularly bedeviled by the question of how to pay for their plan. Republicans declared that they would not support any legislation that raised taxes and rejected a proposal to beef up IRS enforcement against tax cheats, and Democrats ruled out raising user fees for drivers.
Democrats and President Joe Biden, who had initially proposed a $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, made significant concessions. The package includes far less funding than they had wanted for lead pipe replacement, transit, and clean energy projects, among others. To finance what remained, analysts said the government would most likely have to borrow heavily. On August 5, the Congressional Budget Office said the legislation would add $256 billion to the deficit over 10 years, contradicting the claims of its authors that their bill would be fully paid for. That is nearly half of the new spending in the legislation, which includes a patchwork of measures purported to raise revenue to pay for it, including repurposing unspent pandemic relief funds, more tightly regulating cryptocurrency and delaying carrying out a Trump-era rule that would change the way drug companies can offer discounts to health plans for Medicare patients.
The infrastructure bill also carries major policy changes. It amounts to a tacit, bipartisan acknowledgment that the country is ill-prepared for a worsening climate. Billions of dollars would be invested in projects to protect homes from weather calamities, move vulnerable communities out of harm’s way and support new approaches to countering climate change. It also includes $73 billion to update the nation’s electricity grid so it can carry more renewable energy, $7.5 billion to construct electric vehicle charging stations, $17.5 billion for clean buses and ferries, and $15 billion for removing lead pipes. The agreement targets critical resources toward underserved communities, although not as much as President Joe Biden had requested. It would direct $1 billion over five years, slightly more than half of it in new federal funding, to a program to help reconnect communities divided by highway construction, as well as millions of dollars to help improve access to running water in tribal and Alaska Native communities.
The infrastructure bill also includes money to restore lakes across the country, $66 billion in new funding for Amtrak, and more funding for programs intended to provide safe commutes for pedestrians. It also creates a $350 million pilot program for projects that reduce collisions between vehicles and wildlife. The bill dedicates an increasing amount each year for grants to clean up drinking water by removing lead-contaminated pipes and making other infrastructure upgrades. The legislation reserves at least $25 million per year for “small and disadvantaged communities.” In the days before the measure passed, senators engaged in a last-ditch attempt to allow some exemptions to strict tax regulations on cryptocurrency brokers that had been included in the original bill, after pushback from senators in both parties. But without agreement on other amendments, negotiators ultimately failed to secure unanimous consent to make those changes.
Despite the fact that the infrastructure bill passed the Senate by a decent margin, legislation faces a tricky path in the House, where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly said she will not take it up until the Senate clears the reconciliation bill. The House has also passed its own infrastructure bill, which includes more money for climate change mitigation and nearly $5.7 billion to pay for 1,473 home district projects, or earmarks, that the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee vetted. A handful of moderate Democrats have urged House Speaker Pelosi to avoid delaying a stand-alone vote on the bipartisan agreement. But leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, in a letter to Pelosi, warned that a majority of its 96 members confirmed they would withhold their support for the legislation until the second, far more expansive package cleared the reconciliation process in the Senate.
Job growth in the US rose in July at its fastest pace in nearly a year despite fears over the Coronavirus Delta variant and a tightening labor supply, the Labor Department reported on August 6. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 943,000 for the month while the Unemployment rate dropped to 5.4%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The payroll increase was the best since August 2020. Most economists expected 845,000 new jobs and a headline unemployment rate of 5.7% for July, thus the overall jobs gains exceeded their expectations. However, estimates were diverse amid conflicting headwinds and tailwinds and an uncertain path ahead for the economy. Additionally, average hourly earnings also increased more than expected, rising 0.4% for the month and are up 4% from the same period a year ago, at a time when concerns are increasing about persistent inflationary pressures. “The data for recent months suggest that the rising demand for labor associated with the recovery from the pandemic may have put upward pressure on wages,” the BLS said in the report, though it cautioned that the Coronavirus impact is still skewing data and wage gains are uneven across industries.
The drop in the US unemployment rate looked even stronger considering that the labor force participation rate ticked up to 61.7%, tied for the highest level since the pandemic hit in March 2020. A separate calculation that includes discouraged workers and those holding jobs part-time for economic reasons fell even further, to 9.2% from 9.8% in June. As has been the case for the past several months, leisure and hospitality led job creation, adding 380,000 positions, of which 253,000 came in bars and restaurants. The sector took the hardest hit during the pandemic but showed consistent gains during the economic reopening.
The July jobs numbers come amid a surge of new Coronavirus cases in the US and around the world, with the most severe illnesses happening in states with larger unvaccinated populations such as Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, Texas, and Missouri. The increase has raised fears that it could slow economic activity in a recovery that began in April 2020 and has shown resilience despite the periodic flareups of Covid cases. At the same time, the US is fighting a continuing battle with a scarcity of labor. Job placement site Indeed estimated there were 9.8 million job openings as of July 16, far more than the 8.7 million considered unemployed. In a survey of 5,000 job seekers, however, the amount of those citing health concerns as a reason for not looking for a job declined, with a growing number citing a lack of need due to a financial cushion as the top response.
Since the Coronavirus pandemic began in March of 2020, the US unemployment rate has remained elevated, peaking at 14.8% in April of 2020. Though the unemployment rate has tumbled roughly 9% since the pandemic began, it remains well above the 3.5% prior to the crisis. Federal Reserve policymakers have vowed to keep ultra-easy monetary policy in place until they see stronger signs of full employment, though that may risk higher inflation in the long term. Overall, the improving economic picture in the US shows that the economic policies implemented by the Biden Administration are working as intended and will allow the US to emerge from the Coronavirus pandemic in a relatively strong position.
Ebrahim Raisi was sworn in as the new President of Iran on August 5 during an inauguration ceremony in the country’s parliament. The 60-year-old cleric is Iran’s eighth president since the 1979 revolution. The inauguration came two days after Raisi received the endorsement of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who previously served as the Iranian President from 1981-1989. Raisi’s victory in June’s presidential election was seen as notably lacking by observers, as a record number of reformist candidates were barred from standing by the Guardian Council.
In his inaugural address, Ebrahim Raisi appealed to conservative values and laid out his foreign policy beliefs during his inaugural address. “I will dedicate myself to the service of the people, the honor of the country, the propagation of religion and morality, and the support of truth and justice,” Raisi said during the ceremony. Raisi also promised to stand up against regional and western adversaries. “Wherever there is oppression and crime in the world, in the heart of Europe, in the US, Africa, Syria, Yemen, Palestine,” Raisi said. “The message of this election was resistance against arrogant powers.” At the same time, Iran’s new President promised to improve relations with other countries in the Middle East. “I extend the hand of friendship and brotherhood to all countries in the region, especially our neighbors,” Raisi said, while adding that there is “no obstacle” to improving strained ties with Saudi Arabia.
Despite the fact that he has a reputation as a hardliner within the context of Iranian politics, Ebrahim Raisi has promised to make progress in the lifting of US sanctions that have restricted Iran’s dealings with the outside world, especially regarding the vital sale of oil. He said during the inauguration that the sanctions against Iran must be abolished and that he would welcome any diplomatic measures that would make that happen. “The sanctions must be lifted,” Raisi said in the address. “We will support any diplomatic plan that supports this goal.” Even though Raisi has attempted to strike a conciliatory tone with the US regarding the Iranian nuclear program and US sanctions against Iran, Raisi is currently subject to his own personal sanctions by the US, who accuse him of having carried out human rights abuses during his time serving as a judge.
Iran has been negotiating with six major world powers over a possible return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the 2015 nuclear treaty that would see the end of many international sanctions in return for an agreement to limit the Iranian nuclear program. Former US President Donald Trump pulled out of the deal in 2018 and escalated hostilities with Iran during his last three years in office. President Joe Biden has expressed willingness to return to the deal, but talks have so far stalled due to the continued Coronavirus pandemic and continued distrust between both Iran and the US. US State Department spokesperson Ned Price on August 5 called for Iran to return to nuclear negotiations “soon,” while adding that this “process cannot go on indefinitely.” “We hope that Iran seizes the opportunity now to advance diplomatic solutions,” Price said in a press conference.
On domestic policy, Ebrahim Raisi is generally considered to be a conservative populist and has expressed support for policies such as Import Substitution Industrialization as a way to develop the Iranian economy as well as more conservative social policies. As a result of his social policy positions, dissidents fear that Raisi’s ascension signifies the return of harsher repression in comparison to the moderate administration under former President Hassan Rouhani. With Raisi now officially sworn in, Iran’s conservative hardliners control all three branches of government, the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary for the first time since 2013.]
The House of Representatives voted on May 19 to approve legislation to establish an independent commission to investigate the violent insurrection on January 6 at the US Capitol, with 35 Republicans breaking with their party to support the bill. The final vote was 252-175. The Republican defections showcased a significant break with Republican leadership in the chamber and former President Donald Trump, who urged members to vote against the legislation. The bill now moves to the Senate where it faces an uncertain fate as Republican resistance is growing.
The May 19 vote, which came as some Republicans have tried to downplay the violence that occurred on January 6 and align themselves with Trump’s version of reality, was still opposed by most rank-and-file Republicans, after House Republican leaders mobilized against the agreement that had been struck by fellow Republican Congressman John Katko of New York. The margins are an important indicator because just how many House Republicans are willing to buck their party leadership may offer an early signal for how many Republican senators could back the bill. Supporters of the plan will need at least 10 Republicans in the Senate to join all 50 Democrats in the chamber to overcome a 60-vote filibuster and pass the bill. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he is opposed to the bill but wouldn’t tell reporters if he would actively whip his fellow Republicans against it. Moderate Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine said changes would have to be made to the bill before she could support it.
As the path forward on the January 6 commission bill is growing increasingly rocky in the Senate, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told CNN “of course” he would pursue a select committee to investigate what happened on January 6 if the bill to create an independent commission fails in the Senate. “We are going to pursue this one way or the other,” Hoyer said. “Any attempt to obfuscate, to hide and dissemble will not succeed.” Ahead of the vote, Minority Whip Steve Scalise’s office sent a letter to members informing them that the leadership was now advocating Republicans vote against the legislation, a reversal from Republican leadership’s previous position to not lobby their members on the measure.
The vote marks an end to a four-month-long stalemate over negotiations, as Republicans and Democrats struggled to agree on the focus and scope of a commission. While Democrats had wanted the commission to focus exclusively on the events leading to January 6, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and others had suggested that the panel also investigate Black Lives Matter protests of last summer, Antifa, and the death of Capitol Police Officer William “Billy” Evans, who was killed outside the Capitol in April. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tapped Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, to work with John Katko, who was one of 10 Republicans to vote to impeach then-President Donald Trump, to put together this deal. When Thompson and Katko announced last week that they had reached a deal, McCarthy told reporters he had not read through the proposal or signed off on it, foreshadowing that Republicans were not in lockstep on their position on the legislation.
Congressman Bennie Thompson tried to discredit the narrative McCarthy has been peddling, that he was not included in negotiations in the lead up to the deal’s announcement ahead of the vote. “It’s quite unfortunate that the Minority Leader has, at the last moment, raised issues that, basically, we had gone past, and there was no issue, despite all his talk now. But I guess that’s politics,” Thompson told reporters. After the vote, Thompson expressed optimism that the bill could pass the Senate if the chamber’s Republicans are allowed to vote freely. “Well, I am optimistic that it will pass,” Thompson told CNN’s Erin Burnett on “OutFront.” “People said we would not get more than 20 votes in the House from Republicans. We got 35. I am optimistic on the Senate side. If senators are allowed and not arm twisted to go the other way, we’ll get it.”
The bill lawmakers voted on would create a 10-person commission, with each party getting an equal number of appointments and subpoena power, a key provision that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy had said he wanted early on in negotiations. The legislation tasks the panel with examining “the facts and circumstances of the January 6th attack on the Capitol as well as the influencing factors that may have provoked the attack on our democracy.” In a statement announcing his opposition to the deal, McCarthy accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of failing to negotiate in good faith, argued that a commission would get in the way of investigations already underway and said any commission needed to look at episodes of political violence beyond January 6. “Given the political misdirections that have marred this process, given the now duplicative and potentially counterproductive nature of this effort, and given the Speaker’s shortsighted scope that does not examine interrelated forms of political violence in America, I cannot support this legislation,” McCarthy said. Pelosi responded to McCarthy’s opposition to the deal in a statement by saying, “Democrats made repeated efforts to seek a bipartisan compromise. But Leader McCarthy won’t take yes for an answer.”
All 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump earlier this year voted in support of the commission. Even though House Republican leadership encouraged members to vote against the bill, some Republican lawmakers came out strongly in support of the legislation or at least hinted ahead of the vote they were leaning toward getting on board. Over the weekend, Republican Congressmembers Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Fred Upton of Michigan joined Katko in coming out in strong support of the bipartisan deal. Congressman Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, another of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, outlined why he is supporting the bill. “I think it’s necessary just given what actually happened on that day and all the buildup. I think it’s important that you know when the country and the Capitol is attacked that way that we take a full accounting and figure out how to prevent it going forward,” Gonzalez said.
Here are the main events that occurred in Politics this week:
1. CDC Ends Mask Mandate For Individuals Fully Vaccinated Against Coronavirus
People fully vaccinated against Coronavirus do not need to wear masks or practice social distancing indoors or outdoors, except under certain circumstances, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)announced on May 13.
People fully vaccinated against Coronavirusdo not need to wear masks or practice social distancing indoors or outdoors, except under certain circumstances, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)announced on May 13. “If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the head of the CDC said during a White House Coronavirus briefing. “We have all longed for this moment when we can get back to some sense of normalcy.”
2. Iranian Presidential Elections Heats Up As Two Main Contenders Register
Two of the main contenders to become the next Iranian President, Iranian judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi and former parliament speaker Ali Larijani, registered on May 15 to run in next month’s election.
Two of the main contenders to become the next Iranian President, Iranian judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi and former parliament speaker Ali Larijani, registered on May 15 to run in next month’s election. The June 18 election to succeed President Hassan Rouhani is seen as a test of the legitimacy of the country’s rulers who are hoping for a high turnout. Term limits bar Rouhani from running again. But voter interest may be hit by rising discontent over an economy that has been crippled by US sanctions reimposed after the Trump Administration exited a nuclear deal between Iran and major powers three years ago.
3. House of Representatives Passed Bill Establishing Independent Commission To Investigate January 6 Insurrection
The House of Representatives voted on May 19 to approve legislation to establish an independent commission to investigate the violent insurrection on January 6 at the US Capitol, with 35 Republicans breaking with their party to support the bill.
The House of Representatives voted on May 19 to approve legislation to establish an independent commission to investigate the violent insurrection on January 6 at the US Capitol, with 35 Republicans breaking with their party to support the bill. The final vote was 252-175. The Republican defections showcased a significant break with Republican leadership in the chamber and former President Donald Trump, who urged members to vote against the legislation. The bill now moves to the Senate where it faces an uncertain fate as Republican resistance is growing.
Two of the main contenders to become the next Iranian President, Iranian judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi and former parliament speaker Ali Larijani, registered on May 15 to run in next month’s election. The June 18 election to succeed President Hassan Rouhani is seen as a test of the legitimacy of the country’s rulers who are hoping for a high turnout. Term limits bar Rouhani from running again. But voter interest may be hit by rising discontent over an economy that has been impacted by US sanctions reimposed after the Trump Administration exited a nuclear deal between Iran and major powers three years ago.
“I have come as an independent to the stage to make changes in the executive management of the country and to fight poverty, corruption, humiliation and discrimination,” Ebrahim Raisi was quoted as saying in a statement by local media before registering. “I have come to form a strong people’s government for a strong Iran” with the help of “the brave youth,” Raisi said, apparently alluding to recent comments by Khamenei who said he expected a “capable and energetic government” to come to power. Raisi previously lost to current Iranian President Hassan Rouhani by a 16% margin in 2017. Reformists and rights activists say they are alarmed by Raisi’s background as a hardline judge, especially during the 1980s when he was one of four judges who imposed death penalties on thousands of political prisoners. Raisi said his government “will not lose one moment to lift the oppressive sanctions”.
In addition to Ebrahim Raisi and Ali Larijani, Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri, a moderate ally of Rouhani, also registered to run. Jahangiri hopes to gain the support of moderate and reformist supporters within Iran, as well as Iranian expatriates who are eligible to vote in Iranian Presidential elections Registration of candidates ended on May 16, after which entrants will be screened for their political and Islamic qualifications by the 12-member Guardian Council vetting body, which has in the past disqualified many moderates and reformers.
People fully vaccinated against Coronavirusdo not need to wear masks or practice social distancing indoors or outdoors, except under certain circumstances, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)announced on May 13. “If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the head of the CDC said during a White House Coronavirus briefing. “We have all longed for this moment when we can get back to some sense of normalcy.”
Calling it an “exciting and powerful moment,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the science supports the updated CDC guidance that “anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities – large or small -without wearing a mask or physical distancing.” She cited three studies one from Israel and two from the US that show vaccines work. The Israeli study, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, showed the vaccine was 97% effective against symptomatic Coronavirusand 86% effective against asymptomatic infection in over 5,000 health care workers. There have been reports of “breakthrough” infections among vaccinated people in the US, a small number among more than 117 million people in the US who are now fully vaccinated. Walensky noted that “the resulting infection is more likely to have a lower viral load, may be shorter in duration, and likely less risk of transmission to others.”
Dr. Rochelle Walensky’s announcement has a few caveats. She warned that people who are immune-compromised should speak with their doctors before giving up their masks. The requirement to wear masks during travel, on buses, trains, planes and public transportation, still stands, Walensky said. Guidance for travel will be updated as science emerges. She also said that “the past year has shown us that this virus can be unpredictable, so if things get worse, there is always a chance we may need to make a change to these recommendations.” People who develop Covid-19 symptoms, even those who are vaccinated, should put their mask back on and get tested, Walensky said. The science is clear, for unvaccinated people, Walensky said: “You remain at risk of mild or severe illness, of death, or spreading the disease to others. You should still mask and you should get vaccinated right away.” But once someone is fully vaccinated — two weeks after the final dose — “you can shed your mask,” she said.
Despite the CDC announcment, some people may choose to continue wearing masks even if they are fully vaccinated. “People have to make their own personal choice,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during the White House Coronavirus briefing. “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with an individual who has a certain level of risk aversion, as we know the risk is extremely low of getting infected whether you’re indoors or outdoors. But there are those people who don’t want to take that bit of a risk and there’s nothing wrong with that and they shouldn’t be criticized.”
New Jersey Health officials say the state is still “struggling” to manage the pandemic since the latest data shows New Jersey remains wedged inside a Coronavirus hot zone, and it is currently ranked first in the US in Coronavirus deaths per capita over the past week, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli told the state Assembly Budget Committee on April 22 that the trend could continue to slow the pace of reopenings or capacity expansions while the state continues to address problems at long-term care facilities and nursing homes. The state says it has conducted 1,000 infection control inspections and 520 regular surveys as well as investigated 758 complaints at long-term care facilities. Out of that, 613 deficiencies have been cited and $2.2 million in penalties have been imposed against 79 facilities since the pandemic began, Persichilli said. Still, around 8,000 of the state’s 22,000 deaths have been at long-term care facilities and one in 500 New Jerseyans have died from the disease, she said.”Unfortunately, the one thing we’re struggling with is that our death rate from COVID has not decreased,” Persichilli said. “This is not a position to be proud of.”
Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli told the committee on April 22 that New Jersey has the second-highest death rate in the nation, behind only Michigan. But on April 23, the state jumped to the top position. According to the CDC, New Jersey is reporting a Coronavirus fatality rate of 2.9 per 100,000 population over the past seven days. By comparison, Michigan is 2.6, Georgia and Montana are 2.4 and Pennsylvania and West Virginia are 2.3 per 100,000 people. New Jersey still ranks high in cases, too, ranking second in the nation per capita. The state is reporting a Coronavirus infection rate of 269.7 cases per 100,000 population over the past seven days. By comparison, Michigan is 483, Pennsylvania is 248.5, Minnesota is 238.4 and Maine is 230 per 100,000 population.
Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli took heat from some lawmakers during the hearing who could not understand why the state could not do more to prevent deaths at long-term care facilities. “Somebody has to be responsible for those losses of lives,” said Assemblyman Harold J. “Hal” Wirths (R-Sussex County). Assemblyman Wirths’ district includes Andover Subacute & Rehab Center II, which made headlines a year ago after stacking more than a dozen bodies in a temporary facility. It was referred to as a “makeshift morgue” by officials. Persichilli said the “virus is at fault,” but she also said that multigenerational housing and New Jersey’s status as having the densest population in the county are also to blame. Given those close quarters, the virus was able to spread too easily and health officials were initially told that the disease was “symptomatic spread,” she said. “I stand by what we did,” she said. “There were people walking around and into our long-term care facilities without a symptom and spreading the disease.” She also said 35 percent of the deaths involved communities of color and three times as many Hispanic men between the ages of 35 and 60 are dying compared to whites. That last statistic compelled the state to up its vaccinations in Hispanic communities, she said. Nineteen percent of the population last week who were vaccinated were Hispanic people.
Assemblyman Harold J. “Hal” Withs said he was also disappointed that Governor Phil Murphy is taking incremental steps in reopening while Connecticut, which is similar in size and population density, is not. He said the high death is “what’s baffled me a bit because we have had the strictest lockdowns and I don’t see what’s working.” Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said reopening decisions are based on health department data, saying the Murphy administration looks at community spread, hospital capacity and the death rate per 100,000 people. If the state did not take the lockdown steps it needed to take, she said, as many as 1 out of every 250 New Jersey residents could have died.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has echoed Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli’s statements, saying he believes the spread of the Coronavirus variants has kept the state’s cases high, even though New Jersey just had a four-day streak of fewer than 3,000 new cases for the first time in five months. Governor Murphy said that there are around 2,000 variant cases. The data comes two weeks after the results of a new analysis by UC Berkeley placed New Jersey’s and America’s coronavirus response among the worst. The state’s vaccination program, on the other hand, has made progress. Murphy has announced that vaccines will be available to everyone 16 years old and over beginning on April 19.
President Joe Biden unveiled a more than $2 trillion infrastructure package on March 31 as his administration shifts its focus to bolstering the post-pandemic economy. The plan President Biden outlined includes roughly $2 trillion in spending over eight years and would raise the corporate tax rate to 28% to fund it. Speaking at a union hall in Pittsburgh, the President called it a vision to create “the strongest, most resilient, innovative economy in the world” — and millions of “good-paying jobs” along the way. The White House said the tax hike, combined with measures designed to stop offshoring of profits, would fund the infrastructure plan within 15 years.
The announcement kicks off President Joe Biden’s second major initiative after the passage of a $1.9 trillion Coronavirus relief plan earlier this month. In the new move, the administration aims to approve a first proposal designed to create jobs, revamp US infrastructure, and fight climate change before it turns toward a second plan to improve education and expand paid leave and health-care coverage. President Biden said he will unveil the second part of his recovery package “in a few weeks.” “These are investments we have to make,” Biden said of revamping US infrastructure. “We can afford to make them. To put it another way, we can’t afford not to.”
While Democrats narrowly control both chambers of Congress (with ultra-conservative Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia being the deciding vote), the party faces challenges in passing the infrastructure plan. The Republican Party broadly supports efforts to rebuild roads, bridges, and airports and expand broadband access, but Republicans oppose tax hikes as part of the process. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, said that he is “not likely” to support the proposal because of the tax increases. McConnell’s Democratic counterpart, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, touted the bill as a means to create jobs while promoting clean energy and transportation. In a statement issued on March 31, he said, “I look forward to working with President Biden to pass a big, bold plan that will drive America forward for decades to come.”
President Joe Biden responded to criticism of proposed tax hikes, saying he would not increase the burden on anyone making less than $400,000 per year. He said he did not aim to punish the wealthy. “This is not to target those who’ve made it. Not to seek retribution,” President Biden said. “This is about opening opportunities for everybody else.” Among the administration’s goals, it aims to revamp 20,000 miles of roads and highways and repair 10,000 bridges. The proposal calls to build a national network of 500,000 electric vehicle chargers by 2030 and replace 50,000 diesel public transit vehicles. The administration hopes to build or rehabilitate 500,000 homes for low- and middle-income Americans and replace all lead pipes in drinking-water systems. The plan also aims to deliver universal, affordable broadband service.
President Joe Biden plans to fund the spending by raising the corporate tax rate to 28%. Republicans slashed the tax to 21% from 35% as part of their 2017 tax law. President Biden also wants to boost the global minimum tax for multinational corporations and ensure they pay at least 21% in taxes in any country. The White House aims to discourage firms from listing tax havens as their address and writing off expenses related to offshoring, among other reforms. Biden hopes the package will create manufacturing jobs and rescue failing American infrastructure as the country tries to emerge from the shadow of the Coronavirus pandemic. He and congressional Democrats also plan to combat climate change and start a transition to cleaner energy sources.
President Joe Biden has said he hopes to win Republican support for an infrastructure bill. If Democrats cannot get 10 Republican senators on board, they will have to pass the bill through budget reconciliation, which would not require any Republicans to back the plan in a chamber split 50-50 by party. Biden said he would hear out GOP ideas on infrastructure. “We’ll have a good-faith negotiation with any Republican who wants to help get this done,” Biden said on March 31. “But we have to get it done.”
Here are the main events that occurred in Politics this week:
1.Former President Donald Trump To Decide On 2024 Presidential Run After Midterm Elections
Former President Donald Trump said on March 16 he would decide whether to make another run for the Presidency after congressional elections in November 2022.
Former President Donald Trump said on March 16 he would decide whether to make another run for the Presidency after congressional elections in November 2022. Trump has said he is committed to helping fellow Republicans try to win back control of the House of Representatives and the Senate in the 2022 elections, which will be an early referendum on Democratic President Joe Biden’s leadership.“I think we have a very, very good chance of taking back the House,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News. “You have a good chance to take back the Senate and frankly, we’ll make our decision after that.” Trump told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo that his supporters appeared ready to back him again if he ran. “Based on every poll, they want me to run again, but we’re going to take a look and we’ll see,” Trump said.
2. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy Announces School Reopening Plan
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy urged more New Jersey schools to return to in-person learning on March 17, just days after rallying parents placed blame for lingering closures squarely at the Governor’s feet.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy urged more New Jersey schools to return to in-person learning on March 17, just days after rallying parents placed blame for lingering closures squarely at the Governor’s feet. “Now is the time for all of our schools to meaningfully move forward with a return to in-person instruction, whether it be full-time or with a hybrid schedule,” Governor Murphy said during his regular coronavirus briefing in Trenton. The Governor pointed to billions in federal funding headed to schools from the American Rescue Plan and said his administration is doing everything in its power “to get as many kids back safely and responsibly into a classroom.”
3. Biden Administration Crafting Plan To Reset US Ties With Palestine
According to an internal draft memo, the Biden administration is crafting a plan aimed at resetting US ties with Palestine that all but collapsed under former President Donald Trump.
According to an internal draft memo, the Biden administration is crafting a plan aimed at resetting US ties with Palestine that all but collapsed under former President Donald Trump. Two people familiar with the State Department document, which was first reported by the United Arab Emirates-based newspaper The National, said it was still in an early “working stage” but could eventually form the basis for rolling back parts of Trump’s approach that Palestinians denounced as heavily biased in favor of Israel.
Since President Joe Biden took office on January 20, his aides have said they intend to repair relations with the Palestinians. The administration has pledged to resume hundreds of millions of dollars in economic and humanitarian assistance and work toward reopening the Palestinians’ diplomatic mission in Washington. President Biden’s aides have also made clear they want to re-establish the goal of a negotiated two-state solution as a priority in US policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But they have moved cautiously with Israel’s March 23 elections looming, followed by Palestinian elections scheduled in coming months.
According to an internal draft memo, the Biden administration is crafting a plan aimed at resetting US ties with Palestine that all but collapsed under former President Donald Trump. Two people familiar with the State Department document, which was first reported by the United Arab Emirates-based newspaper The National, said it was still in an early “working stage” but could eventually form the basis for rolling back parts of Trump’s approach that Palestinians denounced as heavily biased in favor of Israel.
Since President Joe Biden took office on January 20, his aides have said they intend to repair relations with the Palestinians. The administration has pledged to resume hundreds of millions of dollars in economic and humanitarian assistance and work toward reopening the Palestinians’ diplomatic mission in Washington. President Biden’s aides have also made clear they want to re-establish the goal of a negotiated two-state solution as a priority in US policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But they have moved cautiously with Israel’s March 23 elections looming, followed by Palestinian elections scheduled in coming months.
A portion of the draft memo quoted by The National said the US vision is “to advance freedom, security, and prosperity for both Israelis and Palestinians in the immediate term.” The document was cited as saying $15 million in Coronavirus aid to the Palestinians could be announced by the end of March. It is also reported to take a tougher stance on Israeli settlement activities and mentions efforts “to obtain a Palestinian commitment to end payments to individuals imprisoned (by Israel) for acts of terrorism.”
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy urged more New Jersey schools to return to in-person learning on March 17, just days after rallying parents placed blame for lingering closures squarely at the Governor’s feet. “Now is the time for all of our schools to meaningfully move forward with a return to in-person instruction, whether it be full-time or with a hybrid schedule,” Governor Murphy said during his regular coronavirus briefing in Trenton. The Governor pointed to billions in federal funding headed to schools from the American Rescue Plan and said his administration is doing everything in its power “to get as many kids back safely and responsibly into a classroom.”
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy’s comments come as the number of students with the opportunity to attend classes in person continues to grow. Governor Murphy reported 142 school districts, serving 107,498 kids, are now providing in-person instruction. Another 534 districts, representing 843,394 students, are operating under hybrid schedules. However, 317,044 students across 98 districts remain in all-remote instruction a full year after most schools initially closed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Parent frustration in many of those communities has long since boiled over, leading to parent rallies, legal battles, and even a police investigation into the suggestion of “physical violence” against those keeping schools closed.
On March 13, about 100 parents from across the state gathered in Montclair to demand action, not just from local school leaders but Governor Phil Murphy himself. “Aside from our (superintendents) and our board of ed, the person that I blame ultimately for this is Governor Murphy,” said rally organizer Danielle Wildstein, a parent in the Scotch Plains-Fanwood School District. She added: “It has come down to (Murphy), who gave the responsibility to the superintendents back in August, gave them a very gray blueprint and then stepped aside… It’s really about him stepping up now.”
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy initially announced last June that all schools would be required to offer in-person instruction this academic year. However, he amended that mandate in August, citing increasing health concerns and logistical challenges brought forward by schools. Murphy said districts could begin the year with all-remote instruction as long as they provided the state Department of Education with documented challenges, such as poor ventilation or a lack of protective equipment, and were working toward set reopening dates. Those dates, however, have been routinely pushed back, including at least one district that said in January it does not plan to open at all this school year. “We know there are students across our state who have fallen behind due to the burden and stress of remote learning, and it is time to stem this tide before more students fall away,” Murphy said on March 17.
According to the state’s dashboard, New Jersey has reported 188 in-school Coronavirus outbreaks, which have resulted in 890 cases among students, teachers, and school staff this academic year. The outbreak numbers only include cases in which contact tracers concluded people likely gave each other the virus on school grounds. The numbers do not include those who caught the virus during school sports practices, games, or extracurricular activities inside or outside school.
Former President Donald Trump said on March 16 he would decide whether to make another run for the Presidency after congressional elections in November 2022. Trump has said he is committed to helping fellow Republicans try to win back control of the House of Representatives and the Senate in the 2022 elections, which will be an early referendum on Democratic President Joe Biden’s leadership.“I think we have a very, very good chance of taking back the House,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News. “You have a good chance to take back the Senate and frankly, we’ll make our decision after that.” Trump told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo that his supporters appeared ready to back him again if he ran. “Based on every poll, they want me to run again, but we’re going to take a look and we’ll see,” Trump said.
In addition to his discussions about the 2024 Election, former President Donald Trump also recommended that everyone take the Coronavirus vaccine, reaffirming his remarks at last month’s Conservative Political Action Conference. Polls show large numbers of Republicans and Trump supporters resistant to getting the vaccination. “It’s a great vaccine. It’s a safe vaccine. And it’s something that works,” said Trump, who quietly got vaccinated himself in January. “I would recommend it and I would recommend it to a lot of people that don’t want to get it, and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly.” The White House has said it would welcome Trump’s support in encouraging his supporters to be vaccinated, although President Joe Biden expressed doubt about how much it would help.
Former President Donald Trump has largely stayed out of the political spotlight since leaving office in January, other than his speech at the conservative conference in Florida. In his absence, a battle has erupted in the Republican Party between establishment figures such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell who are eager to move on, and conservative Trump allies who believe the party’s future depends on the energy of the pro-Trump base. In his final weeks in office, Trump promoted false claims that he lost his re-election bid due to rampant electoral fraud, stood accused of inciting a mob of supporters to rampage through the US Capitol, and became the first president ever to be impeached twice. Trump has said he will campaign in the 2022 elections for candidates who back him and his policies, and against those Republicans he views as disloyal. He also is making plans to set up a super PAC political organization to support candidates he endorses.
Here are the main events that occurred in Politics over the past two weeks:
1. Congress Gives Final Approval Of Coronavirus Relief Bill
The US House of Representatives gave final approval on March 10 to one of the most significant economic stimulus measures in American history, a sweeping $1.9 trillion Coronavirus relief bill that gives President Joe Biden his first significant victory in office.
The US House of Representatives gave final approval on March 10 to one of the most significant economic stimulus measures in American history, a sweeping $1.9 trillion Coronavirus relief bill that gives President Joe Biden his first significant victory in office. The measure provides $400 billion for $1,400 direct payments to most Americans, $350 billion in aid to state and local governments, an expansion of the child tax credit, and increased funding for vaccine distribution. Forecasters expect it to supercharge the US economic recovery. “Help is here,” President Biden wrote in a tweet after the vote. The White House said he plans to sign the bill on March 12.
2. Amid Surge In Border Crossings, Biden Administration Reinstitutes Program To Help Migrant Minors Reunite With Families
President Joe Biden moved to help children fleeing violence in Central America on March 10 even as he grappled with a surge of migrants at the US southern border that is taxing resources and exposing him to bipartisan criticism.
President Joe Biden moved to help children fleeing violence in Central America on March 10 even as he grappled with a surge of migrants at the US southern border that is taxing resources and exposing him to bipartisan criticism. White House border coordinator Roberta Jacobson told reporters the Biden administration is restarting the Central American Minors (CAM) program for children, which between 2014 and 2017 allowed children fleeing violence in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to apply in their home countries to settle in the US. Then-President Donald Trump ended the program in 2017. It had allowed children under 21 years old with parents lawfully living in the US to apply for a refugee resettlement interview as a way to avoid making the dangerous journey by themselves to the US.
3. US Economy Adds 379,000 Jobs In February, Unemployment Drops To 6.2%
The US Economy added 379,000 jobs in February, roundly beating economists’ estimates of 210,000, and indicating that one year into the Coronavirus pandemic, the labor market is finally showing signs of recovery.
The US Economyadded 379,000 jobs in February, roundly beating economists’ estimates of 210,000, and indicating that one year into the Coronavirus pandemic, the labor market is finally showing signs of recovery. In the first full monthly employment report under President Joe Biden, the unemployment rate fell to 6.2 percent, from 6.3 percent in January, according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. “The ship is pointed in the right direction, and the additional stimulus coming from Congress should be the wind in the sails to get the economy back on track,” said Charlie Ripley, Senior Investment Strategist for Allianz Investment Management. The latest jobs report comes after a month of stumbles in the Coronavirus vaccine deployment and frigid weather that plunged Texas and large parts of the South into a deep freeze that froze oil rigs, ruptured household plumbing, and cost lives. The January jobs report, which showed just 49,000 jobs were added, was revised upwards on Friday to 166,000. Although the economy has been adding jobs, those gains mask the extent to which the labor market is still being held back, and the number of people who have been sidelined for a diverse array of reasons, from child care obligations to health concerns to a lack of job opportunities in fields still devastated by the pandemic.
4. Former President Donald Trump Teases 2024 Presidential Run In CPAC Speech
In a February 28 speech to close out the Conservative Political Action Conference, former President Donald Trump teased his political future and repeated the lie that he won the 2020 election.
In a February 28 speech to close out the Conservative Political Action Conference, former President Donald Trumpteased his political future and repeated the lie that he won the 2020 election.“I stand before you today to declare that the incredible journey we began together four years ago is far from over,” the former president said in his first speech since leaving the White House. “We are gathered this afternoon to talk about the future — the future of our movement, the future of our party, and the future of our beloved country.” The former president began his roughly 90-minute address by asking the crowd: “Do you miss me?” before reviving false claims that he had beaten President Joe Biden in November, lies that inspired the deadlypro-Trump riot at the Capitol on January 6. “Actually, as you know they just lost the White House,” Trump said of Democrats. “Who knows, I may even decide to beat them for a third time,” he added, stopping precise of declaring his 2024 plans.
President Joe Biden moved to help children fleeing violence in Central America on March 10 even as he grappled with a surge of migrants at the US southern border that is taxing resources and exposing him to bipartisan criticism. White House border coordinator Roberta Jacobson told reporters the Biden administration is restarting the Central American Minors (CAM) program for children, which between 2014 and 2017 allowed children fleeing violence in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to apply in their home countries to settle in the US. Then-President Donald Trump ended the program in 2017. It had allowed children under 21 years old with parents lawfully living in the US to apply for a refugee resettlement interview as a way to avoid making the dangerous journey by themselves to the US.
The move was the latest step taken by President Joe Biden as he tries to create a more humane situation along the border with Mexico. Mixed messaging by the Biden Administration, however, is leading to criticism from Republicans that he is encouraging migrants to make the dangerous journey to try to reach sanctuary in the US. “The Biden border crisis is real and is only going to get worse,” Congressman Kevin Brady of Texas said at a news conference held by House Republicans on March 10. At the same time, Democrats complain that President Biden is not moving fast enough to release children from Border Patrol custody.
US officials are urging people not to try to cross the border, warning they will be sent back. President Joe Biden has not reversed a Trump-era public health rule that allows border agents to expel most border crossers quickly but is not applying the policy to unaccompanied minors. “The border is not open,” said Roberta Jacobson, switching to Spanish on several occasions during a White House briefing to stress the point. The phrase was repeated in a call with reporters on March 10 by Troy Miller, the senior official performing duties as the commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection. Miller said agents on the U.S.-Mexico border encountered 100,441 migrants attempting to enter the country illegally in February, confirming the highest monthly total since a major border surge in mid-2019. Miller said more than 19,000 of those encounters were families, close to 9,500 were unaccompanied minors, and the remainder adults. Border officials said they also count repeat crossers in their numbers.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said members of President Joe Biden’s immigration team briefed him on a border visit they had and that they discussed how to speed up the processing of migrant children. A State Department representative said in a statement that the administration is set to resume processing CAM applications, starting with children whose cases were suspended under Trump and then opening up to new applicants. The department plans to reach out to parents starting as soon as March 15, the representative said. To date, the program has reunified almost 5,000 children with their parents.
The US House of Representatives gave final approval on March 10 to one of the most significant economic stimulus measures in American history, a sweeping $1.9 trillion Coronavirus relief bill that gives President Joe Biden his first significant victory in office. The measure provides $400 billion for $1,400 direct payments to most Americans, $350 billion in aid to state and local governments, an expansion of the child tax credit, and increased funding for vaccine distribution. Forecasters expect it to supercharge the US economic recovery. “Help is here,” President Biden wrote in a tweet after the vote. The White House said he plans to sign the bill on March 12.
— President Biden Archived (@POTUS46Archive) March 10, 2021
Approval by a 220-211 vote in the Democratic-controlled chamber came with zero Republican support after weeks of partisan debate and wrangling in Congress. Democrats described the legislation as a critical response to a pandemic that has killed more than 500,000 people and thrown millions out of work. “This is a historic day. It is the beginning of the end of the great COVID depression,” Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) said. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement that passage of the legislation was a pivotal day for the US economy and would speed its recovery. But Republicans said the measure was too costly and was packed with wasteful progressive priorities. They said the worst phase of the largest public health crisis in a century has largely passed and the economy is headed toward a rebound.“It’s the wrong plan at the wrong time for so many wrong reasons,” Republican Representative Jason Smith said.
Despite unanimous Republican opposition to the measure, Democrats predicted that Republicans would tout the benefits of the bill to constituents, despite their lock-step opposition in the House and Senate. Indeed, Republican Senator Roger Wicker wrote on Twitter: “This funding will ensure small businesses can survive the pandemic by helping to adapt their operations and keep their employees on the payroll.” Democrats were eager to get the final bill to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature before current enhanced federal unemployment benefits expire.
Although many Republicans supported Coronavirus relief under former President Donald Trump’s administration, no Republican lawmakers voted for the bill in the House or Senate. But the bill is popular with the public. A Reuters/Ipsos national opinion poll, conducted March 8-9, showed that 70% of Americans support the plan, including majorities of Democrats and Republicans. Among Republicans, five out of ten say they support the plan, while nine out of ten Democrats supported it. The legislation could have high stakes for both parties. If it succeeds in giving the economy a major boost, the plan could improve Democrats’ political fortunes as they attempt to hold their slim majorities in Congress in the 2022 midterm elections. Only one House Democrat, Jared Golden of Maine, voted against the package, saying its high borrowing costs endangered the recovery.
The Coronavirus relief bill passed by the Senate in a marathon weekend session removed a $15-per-hour federal minimum wage increase by 2025; tightened the eligibility for $1,400 direct payments, capping them at those earning below $80,000, cut the unemployment insurance payment to $300 per week from the House’s $400 and targeted some of the state and local government aid to smaller communities. States that voted for Donald Trump in the November election are due to get a larger amount of education and child-care aid per resident than those that backed Joe Biden, according to estimates from two congressional committees. Residents of Republican-leaning states, which tend to have lower household incomes, also are likely to get larger stimulus checks and tax breaks as well, according to an independent research group. The massive spending push is seen as a major driver, coupled with a quickening pace of Coronavirus vaccinations and a slowing infection rate, in a brightening outlook for the economy. Morgan Stanley this week pegged 2021 economic output growth at 8.1%. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development predicted US growth would top 6% this year, up from an estimate of around 3% three months ago.
With the Coronavirus relief bill now completed, attention turns to President Joe Biden’s next round of major legislation, including massive infrastructure investments, immigration reforms, and climate change initiatives. While conservatives bridled at the $1.9 trillion cost of the Coronavirus relief bill, it could be possible to get Republican buy-in on immigration and climate change legislation in the Senate, said Paul Sracic, a political science professor at Youngstown State University. But getting enough Republican support for Democratic initiatives to propel them to passage will be a challenge and “anything that gets 60 votes in the Senate is likely to be a problem with progressive Democrats in the House,” Sracic added.
The US Economyadded 379,000 jobs in February, roundly beating economists’ estimates of 210,000, and indicating that one year into the Coronavirus pandemic, the labor market is finally showing signs of recovery. In the first full monthly employment report under President Joe Biden, the unemployment rate fell to 6.2 percent, from 6.3 percent in January, according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. “The ship is pointed in the right direction, and the additional stimulus coming from Congress should be the wind in the sails to get the economy back on track,” said Charlie Ripley, Senior Investment Strategist for Allianz Investment Management. The latest jobs report comes after a month of stumbles in the Coronavirus vaccine deployment and frigid weather that plunged Texas and large parts of the South into a deep freeze that froze oil rigs, ruptured household plumbing, and cost lives. The January jobs report, which showed just 49,000 jobs were added, was revised upwards on Friday to 166,000. Although the economy has been adding jobs, those gains mask the extent to which the labor market is still being held back, and the number of people who have been sidelined for a diverse array of reasons, from child care obligations to health concerns to a lack of job opportunities in fields still devastated by the pandemic.
Although monthly job gains have surged and ebbed wildly over the past year, an overarching pattern of slowing employment gains worries labor market observers. “The unemployment rate itself is a bad descriptor of the current labor market conditions,” said Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation. Dan North, chief economist, North America at Euler Hermes, said that although nearly 60 percent of the jobs lost since the onset of the pandemic have been recovered, the labor force participation rate shows another story. “When you go and look at the participation rate, we’ve recovered about 41 percent of what was lost — so it is slower,” he said. The discrepancy arises because of how the government tallies who has a job, and who is actively looking for a job. People are not captured by the official unemployment rate if they have dropped out of the labor force. “There’s a lower participation rate because people have left. That’s the disconnect,” North said. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said last month that the nation’s real unemployment rate is closer to 10 percent, and the flagging labor force participation rate, which was 63.4 percent in February 2020, when unemployment was at just 3.5 percent, reflects that.
While college-educated people lost proportionately fewer jobs over the course of the pandemic and have regained more of them, people who graduated high school but never obtained a college degree have not been so lucky. “Lower-paid workers, lower-educated workers … they’ve been left behind. They’ve got skills that haven’t been developed, and we’re all less wealthy because of that,” said Bob Phillips, co-founder of Spectrum Management Group. Women, and particularly young women, have lost ground, an observation noted by the Fed’s Powell as well as other officials as a stumbling block that could impede a broader economic rebound. “Women are staying at home because of the school situation, so that is a really significant change that Covid has brought about and will probably stick with us for a while, I think — schools are only slowly opening up,” North said.
In a February 28 speech to close out the Conservative Political Action Conference, former President Donald Trumpteased his political future and repeated the lie that he won the 2020 election.“I stand before you today to declare that the incredible journey we began together four years ago is far from over,” the former president said in his first speech since leaving the White House. “We are gathered this afternoon to talk about the future — the future of our movement, the future of our party, and the future of our beloved country.” The former president began his roughly 90-minute address by asking the crowd: “Do you miss me?” before reviving false claims that he had beaten President Joe Biden in November, lies that inspired the deadlypro-Trump riot at the Capitol on January 6. “Actually, as you know they just lost the White House,” Trump said of Democrats. “Who knows, I may even decide to beat them for a third time,” he added, stopping precise of declaring his 2024 plans.
Former President Donald Trump later launched into multiple tirades about mail-in voting, voter ID laws and the Supreme Court ruling rejecting his election challenges. “This election was rigged,” Trump said, prompting the crowd to chant, “You won! you won!” “They didn’t have the guts or the courage to make the right decision,” he added of the high court. Prior to Trump’s address, he won CPAC’s presidential straw poll with the support of 55 percent of the more than 1,000 conference attendees asked about who they support for the GOP’s 2024 bid. That he won with just over half of the vote, though, is notable given the event was jokingly referred to as “TPAC” and supporters were spotted bowing in front of a gold-hued statue in his likeness. While 95 percent said they wanted the Republican Party to advance Trump’s agenda, just 68 percent said they wanted to see Trump himself run again.
Former President Donald Trump said that he is “not starting a new party,” but put fellow Republicans who have crossed him on notice, name-dropping each of the 17 Republicans who voted to impeach or convict him for his role in the January attack. “Get rid of them all,” he said of those members, including Congresswoman Liz Cheney Wyoming and Senator Mitt Romney of Utah. Trump later took aim at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, who criticized Trump over his actions around the riot. “The Republican Party is united,” he said. “The only division is between a handful of Washington, D.C., establishment political hacks and everybody else all over the country.”
President Joe Biden was also in the former president’s rhetorical crosshairs, with Donald Trump criticizing his successor on immigration, China, and school reopenings. The White House director of rapid response, Michael Gwin, said in a statement: “The only thing that seems to be able to unite the Republican Party is their opposition to giving Americans $1,400 checks, to getting schools the money they need to reopen safely, to keeping cops, firefighters, and teachers on the job, and to speeding up vaccinations.” “While the GOP casts about for a path forward,” Gwin said, “President Biden is going to remain laser-focused on crushing the virus, re-opening schools, and getting Americans back to work.”
Here are the main events that occurred in Politics this week:
1. Supreme Court Sets Stage For Release Of Trump Tax Returns
Former President Donald Trump suffered a major setback on February 22 in his long quest to conceal details of his finances as the US Supreme Court paved the way for a New York City prosecutor to obtain the former president’s tax returns and other records as part of an accelerating criminal investigation.
Former President Donald Trump suffered a major setback on February 22 in his long quest to conceal details of his finances as the US Supreme Court paved the way for a New York City prosecutor to obtain the former president’s tax returns and other records as part of an accelerating criminal investigation. The justices without comment rebuffed Trump’s request to put on hold an October 7 lower court ruling directing Trump’s longtime accounting firm, Mazars USA, to comply with a subpoena to turn over the materials to a grand jury convened by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, a Democrat. “The work continues,” Vance said in a statement issued after the court’s action. Trump issued a statement describing Vance’s investigation as part of “the greatest political witch hunt in the history of our country,” accusing New York Democrats of expending their energy on taking down a political opponent instead of tackling violent crimes. “That’s fascism, not justice – and that is exactly what they are trying to do with respect to me, except that the people of our Country won’t stand for it,” Trump added.
2. Supreme Court denies election appeal from Pennsylvania Republicans
The US Supreme Court on February 22 brought a formal end to eight lingering disputes pursued by former President Donald Trump and his allies related to the Presidential election including a Republican challenge to the extension of Pennsylvania’s deadline to receive mail-in ballots
The US Supreme Court on February 22 brought a formal end to eight lingering disputes pursued by former President Donald Trump and his allies related to the Presidential election including a Republican challenge to the extension of Pennsylvania’s deadline to receive mail-in ballots. The justices turned away appeals by the Republican Party of Pennsylvania and Republican members of the state legislature of a ruling by Pennsylvania’s top court ordering officials to count mail-in ballots that were postmarked by Election Day and received up to three days later. Three of the nine-member court’s six conservative justices, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch, dissented from the decision not to hear the Pennsylvania case.
3. New Jersey Ratifies Legislation Legalizing Marijuana
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed legislation on February 22 making New Jersey the latest state to legalize marijuana for recreational use, but it is expected to take up to a year before dispensaries will begin selling cannabis to the public
4. President Joe Biden Draws A Sharp Contrast With Trump Era In Presidential Debut On World Stage
US President Joe Biden, on February 19, drew a sharp contrast with the foreign policy of his much-derided predecessor, Donald Trump, and urged democracies to work together to challenge abuses by autocratic states such as China and Russia.
US President Joe Biden, on February 19, drew a sharp contrast with the foreign policy of his much-derided predecessor, Donald Trump, and urged democracies to work together to challenge abuses by autocratic states such as China and Russia. In his first big appearance as President on the global stage, an online “virtual visit” to Europe, President Biden sought to re-establish the US as a multilateral team player after four years of divisive “America First” policies under Trump. Speaking to the Munich Security Conference, the Democratic president distanced himself from the more transactional foreign policy of Republican Trump, who angered allies by breaking off global accords and threatening to end defense assistance unless they toed his line. “I know the past few years have strained and tested our transatlantic relationship, but the US is determined – determined – to re-engage with Europe, to consult with you, to earn back our position of trusted leadership,” he said.
New Jersey Governor Murphy signed into law bills that allow possession of up to six ounces of marijuana by people age 21 or older. Distribution and growing cannabis without a license remains illegal. The legislation, passed earlier on Monday by the Assembly and Senate, also eased penalties for minors’ possession of marijuana. New Jersey now joins more than a dozen other states, including other East Coast states of Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts, in legalizing cannabis for recreational use. Dozens of states permit marijuana to be used by patients suffering a variety of medical conditions.
The move is expected to boost New Jersey’s pandemic-stricken economy by launching a for-profit cannabis industry that should generate millions of tax dollars for the state. Recreational sales at state-licensed dispensaries, however, may be as much as a year away. “We can get down to the business of establishing a responsible, sustainable, profitable and diverse adult-use and expanded medical cannabis market in New Jersey,” Edmund DeVeaux, head of the New Jersey CannaBusiness Association, said in a statement. “We can stop the senseless arrests for possession and use of a product that should have never been criminalized in the first place, and the voters approved over three months ago,” he said.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and legislators in the State Senate for months stood at an impasse over underage penalties. While the legalization bill made youth possession of marijuana purchased on the legal market a petty disorderly person’s offense, the decriminalization bill provided no penalties for possession of marijuana purchased on the black market. The cleanup measure subjects all underage users to a graduated system of written warnings that would see users’ parents notified on a second offense and see them referred to community-based treatment or counseling groups on the third violation. Underage alcohol offenses would be subject to those same penalties. “Although this process has taken longer than anticipated, I believe it is ending in the right place and will ultimately serve as a national model,” the governor said.
The standstill threatened political fallout over one of the governor’s chief 2017 campaign promises just as he moved into his re-election campaign. It is still likely to play a part in this year’s gubernatorial race, despite legalization winning overwhelming support at the polls last November. “Raising children these days is hard enough without politicians making it even harder,” Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli said on Twitter. “Today’s decision by Trenton Democrats to prohibit police officers from even asking questions to a car full of underage kids who appear to be smoking weed is outrageous.”
Raising children these days is hard enough without politicians making it even harder. Today's decision by Trenton Democrats to prohibit police officers from even asking questions to a car full of underage kids who appear to be smoking weed is outrageous. https://t.co/PvNCYyftwW
The cleanup bill, which cleared the Senate in a 22-9 vote with some opposition from democratic lawmakers, including Legislative Black Caucus Chairman Ron Rice (D-Newark) who voted against the bill because it did not eliminate qualified immunity related to marijuana offenses, lowers the bar to criminally charge police who illegally search minors for marijuana by removing a requirement that the search is predicated on an individual’s protected class, like race, religion or age, among others. The measure also bars local governments from enacting their own civil penalties for marijuana offenses and requires the state Attorney General to review police body camera footage from marijuana incidents, including underage users.
The standstill upended other legislative business as the Assembly was forced to cancel a February 8 quorum and a February 17 voting session that would have made the legalization and decriminalization bills law without Governor Phil Murphy’s signature. Those postponements prevented lawmakers in the lower chamber from introducing new legislation and effectively canceled a slew of committee meetings on unrelated legislation over the past two weeks. Marijuana arrests continued in the interim, despite guidance from Attorney General Gurbir Grewal that directed prosecutors to halt all cases solely involving marijuana charges, but those will stop now that marijuana use is decriminalized.
The US Supreme Court on February 22 brought a formal end to eight lingering disputes pursued by former President Donald Trump and his allies related to the Presidential election including a Republican challenge to the extension of Pennsylvania’s deadline to receive mail-in ballots. The justices turned away appeals by the Republican Party of Pennsylvania and Republican members of the state legislature of a ruling by Pennsylvania’s top court ordering officials to count mail-in ballots that were postmarked by Election Day and received up to three days later. Three of the nine-member court’s six conservative justices, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch, dissented from the decision not to hear the Pennsylvania case.
Former President Donald Trump made false claims that the Presidential election was stolen from him through widespread voting fraud and irregularities. From the day after the Presidential election until the middle of December, Trump’s legal team filed some 40 election-related lawsuits challenging the results in seven states (Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico). The Supreme Court ruled these disputes as invalid on December 11 in 1 7-2 decision, with even Trump’s own Supreme Court appointees ruling against him.
The case brought by Pennsylvania Republicans concerned 9,428 ballots out of 6.9 million cast in the state. The Supreme Court previously rejected a Republican request to block the lower court ruling allowing the ballots to be counted. In his dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas said the Supreme Court should resolve whether non-legislators, including elections officials and courts, have any power to set election rules. Thomas said it was fortunate that the state high court’s ruling did not involve enough ballots to affect the election’s outcome.
Former President Donald Trump suffered a major setback on February 22 in his long quest to conceal details of his finances as the US Supreme Court paved the way for a New York City prosecutor to obtain the former president’s tax returns and other records as part of an accelerating criminal investigation. The justices without comment rebuffed Trump’s request to put on hold an October 7 lower court ruling directing Trump’s longtime accounting firm, Mazars USA, to comply with a subpoena to turn over the materials to a grand jury convened by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, a Democrat. “The work continues,” Vance said in a statement issued after the court’s action. Trump issued a statement describing Vance’s investigation as part of “the greatest political witch hunt in the history of our country,” accusing New York Democrats of expending their energy on taking down a political opponent instead of tackling violent crimes. “That’s fascism, not justice – and that is exactly what they are trying to do with respect to me, except that the people of our Country won’t stand for it,” Trump added.
The Supreme Court’s action does not require former President Donald Trump to do anything. The records involved in the dispute were requested from a third-party, Mazars, not Trump himself. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance previously told Trump’s lawyers his office would be free to immediately enforce the subpoena if the justices rejected Trump’s request. A Mazars spokesman said the company “remains committed to fulfilling all of our professional and legal obligations.” Unlike all other recent U.S. presidents, Trump refused to make his tax returns public. The data could provide details on his wealth and the activities of his family real-estate company, the Trump Organization. The Supreme Court’s action, which followed Vance’s hiring this month of a prominent lawyer with deep experience in white-collar and organized-crime cases, could boost the district attorney’s investigation into the Trump Organization following a flurry of recent subpoenas.
The Supreme Court, whose 6-3 conservative majority includes three Trump appointees, had already ruled once in the subpoena dispute, last July rejecting former President Donald Trump’s broad argument that he was immune from criminal probes as a sitting president. Trump, who left office on January 20 after losing the Presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden, continues to face an array of legal issues concerning personal and business conduct. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance subpoenaed Mazars in 2019 seeking Trump’s corporate and personal tax returns from 2011 to 2018. Trump’s lawyers sued to block the subpoena, arguing that a sitting president has absolute immunity from state criminal investigations. The Supreme Court in July rejected those arguments but said Trump could raise other subpoena objections. Trump’s lawyers then told lower courts the subpoena was overly broad and amounted to political harassment.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance’s investigation initially focused on hush money paid by former President Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen before the 2016 election to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. The two women said they had sexual encounters with Trump, which he denied. In recent court filings, Vance suggested the probe is now broader and could focus on potential bank, tax and insurance fraud, as well as falsification of business records. “The Supreme Court has now proclaimed that no one is above the law. Trump will, for the first time, have to take responsibility for his own dirty deeds,” Cohen said in a statement.
US President Joe Biden, on February 19, drew a sharp contrast with the foreign policy of his much-derided predecessor, Donald Trump, and urged democracies to work together to challenge abuses by autocratic states such as China and Russia. In his first big appearance as President on the global stage, an online “virtual visit” to Europe, President Biden sought to re-establish the US as a multilateral team player after four years of divisive “America First” policies under Trump. Speaking to the Munich Security Conference, the Democratic president distanced himself from the more transactional foreign policy of Republican Trump, who angered allies by breaking off global accords and threatening to end defense assistance unless they toed his line. “I know the past few years have strained and tested our transatlantic relationship, but the US is determined – determined – to re-engage with Europe, to consult with you, to earn back our position of trusted leadership,” he said.
Several years ago as a private citizen at the Munich Security Conference, now-President Joe Biden reassured participants rattled by the Trump presidency, telling them: “We will be back.” On February 19, he told the virtual online audience: “America is back.” President Biden’s focus on collaboration echoed his message during a private videoconference with the leaders of the Group of Seven advanced economies, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan, a senior administration official said. Biden plans to join G7 members for an in-person summit hosted by the UK in June. His spokeswoman said he would not ask Russia to join the group, as had been proposed by Trump.
US partnerships had survived because they were “rooted in the richness of our shared democratic values,” President Joe Biden said. “They’re not transactional. They’re not extractive. They’re built on a vision of the future where every voice matters.” He said US allies must stand firm against the challenges posed by China, Iran, and Russia. “The Kremlin attacks our democracies and weaponizes corruption to try to undermine our system of governance,” he said. “(Russian President Vladimir) Putin seeks to weaken the European project and our NATO alliance. He wants to undermine our transatlantic unity and our resolve,” Biden said.
President Joe Biden also stressed what he called America’s “unshakeable” commitment to the 30-member NATO alliance, another switch from Trump, who called NATO outdated and even suggested at one point that the US could withdraw from the alliance. President Biden also arrived bearing gifts, a $4 billion pledge of support for global Coronavirus vaccination efforts, the re-entry of the United States into the Paris climate accord, and the prospect of a nearly $2 trillion spending measure that could bolster both the US and global economies. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson joined other leaders in cheering Biden’s remarks. “America is unreservedly back as the leader of the free world and that is a fantastic thing,” he told the conference.
President Joe Biden said the world was at an inflection point, but he was convinced that democracies, not autocracies, offered the best path forward for the world. He said major market economies and democracies needed to work together to tackle challenges posed by great-power competitors like Russia and China, and global issues ranging from nuclear proliferation to climate change and cybersecurity. He took particular aim at China, the world’s second-largest economy, and its failure to abide by international standards, arguing that democracies must shape the rules to govern the advance of new technologies such as artificial intelligence. “We have to push back against the Chinese government’s economic abuses and coercion that undercut the foundations of the international economic system,” he said. Chinese companies, he said, should be held to the same standards that applied to US and European companies. “We must stand up for the democratic values that make it possible for us to accomplish any of this, pushing back against those who would monopolize and normalize repression,” he said.
The results are in! Local politics affects us all. For greater transparency in county politics, we will analyze New Jersey’s County System and score the functional groups of each county. Below, let’s review Monmouth County as of 2021:
Monmouth County is the second-largest county in the state of New Jersey, with a population of ~600,000.
Leadership
Counties in New Jersey are governed by a so-called Board of Chosen Freeholders, who are either elected at-large for three-year terms of office on a staggered basis or by concurrent elections. The Board of Chosen Freeholders either has 3,5,7, or 9 members depending n the county. Each January, the freeholders select one of their members to serve as the board director for the year to preside over the board’s meetings and activities. County Freeholders have both administrative and policy-making powers. The freeholders oversee the five mandatory functions of the county government delegated to it by the state. Each freeholder is assigned responsibility for one of the five functional areas: Administration and Special Services; Public Works and Engineering; Human Services, Health, and Transportation; Finance and Administration of Justice, overseeing more than 70 county departments in total.
Monmouth County has a five-member Board of Chosen Freeholders in which its members are subjected to three-year terms, and are elected on a staggered basis.
In Monmouth County, Administrator Teri O’Connor serves as the county’s chief executive officer and is responsible for carrying out the policies and directives established by the Board of Chosen Freeholders and managing the daily operations of the county’s more than 3,000 employees. This position is appointed by the Freeholder Director.
According to Article VII Section II of the New Jersey State Constitution, each county in New Jersey is required to have three elected administrative officials known as “constitutional officers.” These officers are the County Clerk and County Surrogate (both elected for five-year terms of office) and the County Sheriff (elected for a three-year term).
Christopher Gramiccioni of Wall Township is the county’s prosecutor, having been formally nominated to the position by Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie in May 2016. Gramiccioni had been serving on an acting basis for almost four years since being appointed to the post in July 2012 by Attorney General of New Jersey Jeffrey S. Chiesa.
Monmouth County constitutes Vicinage 9 of the New Jersey Superior Court and is seated at the Monmouth County Courthouse in Freehold Borough, with additional facilities in Freehold and Ocean Township; the Assignment Judge for Vicinage 9 is Lisa P. Thornton.
The 4th and 6th Congressional Districts cover the county. For the 116th United States Congress, New Jersey’s Fourth Congressional District is represented by Chris Smith (R, Hamilton Township). For the 116th United States Congress, New Jersey’s Sixth Congressional District is represented by Frank Pallone (D, Long Branch).
Partisanship
Political Preferences & Election Results
Monmouth County generally leans Republican in federal, state, and local races, though registered Democrats very narrowly outnumber registered Republicans. Al Gore in 2000 and Bill Clinton in 1996 are the only two Democratic presidential candidates to have won it since 1964, when Lyndon B. Johnson won a national landslide and carried every county in New Jersey. All five county Freeholders, all three constitutional officers, and the majority of state legislators are Republicans.
As of October 1, 2020, there were a total of 482,595 registered voters in Monmouth County, of whom 139,874 (28.9%) were registered as Democrats, 137,292 (28.4%) were registered as Republicans, and 199,621 (41.3%) were registered as Unaffiliated. There were 5,808 (1.2%) voters registered to other parties. Among the county’s 2010 Census population, 89% of residents of age 18 and over were registered to vote.
The control of the Board of Chosen Freeholders has changed hands multiple times but has been controlled by the Republican Party by a unanimous margin since 2010.
Here are the Presidential, Gubernatorial, and Senate election results for Monmouth County Since 2000:
2000 U.S. Presidential Election: Al Gore (50%-46%)
2000 U.S. Senatorial Election: Bob Franks (50%-48%)
2001 N.J. Gubernatorial Election: Jim McGreevey (50%-49%)
2002 U.S. Senatorial Election: Doug Forrester (50%-47%)
2004 U.S. Presidential Election: George W. Bush (54%-44%)
Adequate funding (~$98,000,000 as per most recent data), but mostly focused on salaries on personel as opposed to police officer training.
SCHOOL SYSTEM – above average (4)
Well-funded relative to county population, sufficient focus on higher education, vocational schools, and cooperative educational resources. Some issues with
INFRASTRUCTURE & PUBLIC WORKS – below average (2)
Road neglect and minimal traffic management
“Beach Town” Reliance on Seasonal funding from beach tourism
TAX SYSTEM – below average (2)
High (vs state average?) %
Distributed in favor of School System & Law Enforcement, less priority on Infrastructure
COURT SYSTEM – average / above-average (3.5)
Experienced Judges & Attorneys
Efficient Administrative Staff / Paralegals
Family law and municipal cases are handled less effectively
Here are the main events that occurred in Politics this week:
1.Former President Donald Trump Acquitted In Second Impeachment Trial
On February 13, the US Senate voted to acquit former President Donald Trump on a charge of incitement of insurrection despite significant Republican support for conviction, bringing an end to the fourth impeachment trial in US history and the second for Trump.
On February 13, the US Senate voted to acquit former President Donald Trump on a charge of incitement of insurrection despite significant Republican support for conviction, bringing an end to the fourth impeachment trial in US history and the second for Trump. As opposed to the lack of Republican support in Trump’s first impeachment trial, seven Republicans voted to convict Trump for allegedly inciting the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, when a mob of pro-Trump supporters tried to disrupt the electoral vote count formalizing Joe Biden’s election win before a joint session of Congress. That is by far the most bipartisan support for conviction in impeachment history. The final vote was 57 to 43, 10 short of the 67 votes needed to secure a conviction. Republican Senators Richard Burr of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania all voted guilty. The vote means the Senate cannot bar Trump from holding future federal offices.
2. Iranian Government Demands ‘Action’ From Biden Administration To Revive Nuclear Deal
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei demanded “action, not words” from the US if it wants to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and several other world powers, challenging President Joe Biden to take the first step toward a thaw.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei demanded “action, not words” from the US if it wants to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and several other world powers, challenging President Joe Biden to take the first step toward a thaw. Iran has set a deadline of next week for President Biden to begin reversing sanctions imposed by his predecessor Donald Trump, or it will take its biggest step yet to breach the deal, banning short-notice inspections by the UN nuclear watchdog. “We have heard many nice words and promises which in practice have been broken and opposite actions have been taken,” Khamenei said in a televised speech. “Words and promises are no good. This time (we want) only action from the other side, and we will also act.”
3. President Joe Biden Begins Process To Close Down Guantanamo Bay Military Prison
President Joe Biden’s aides have launched a formal review of the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, reviving the Obama-era goal of closing the controversial facility with the aim of doing so before he leaves office, the White House said on February 12.
President Joe Biden’s aides have launched a formal review of the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, reviving the Obama-era goal of closing the controversial facility with the aim of doing so before he leaves office, the White House said on February 12. Aides involved in internal discussions are considering an executive action to be signed by President Biden in coming weeks or months, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters, signaling a new effort to remove what human rights advocates have called a stain on America’s global image. Asked whether President Biden would shut the high-security prison located at the Guantanamo Naval Station by the time his presidency ends, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters: “That certainly is our goal and our intention.” But such an initiative is unlikely to bring down the curtain anytime soon on the offshore facility, due largely to the steep political and legal obstacles that also frustrated efforts by his ex-boss, former President Barack Obama, to close it.
4. With Trump’s impeachment trial over, President Joe Biden Discusses His Ambitious Agenda In CNN Town Hall Address
President Joe Biden expressed optimism on February 16 that most US schools would be open by late spring and vowed to continue accelerating the country’s Coronavirus vaccination program, as he sought to elevate his agenda now the drama of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial is over.
President Joe Biden expressed optimism on February 16 that most US schools would be open by late spring and vowed to continue accelerating the country’s Coronavirus vaccination program, as he sought to elevate his agenda now the drama of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial is over. In a wide-ranging televised town hall that touched on the pandemic, economic relief, China-US relations, and race and policing, Biden also aimed to build public support for his $1.9 trillion Coronavirus relief plan, which is awaiting congressional action. “Now’s the time to go big,” he said during a CNN prime-time broadcast, as he fielded questions from voters at the landmark Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. “If we pass this bill alone, we’ll create 7 million jobs this year.”
5. Biden Administration Begins Exploring The Concept Of Slavery Reparations
President Joe Biden supports a study on whether descendants of enslaved people in the United States should receive Reparations, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on February 17, as the issue was being debated on Capitol Hill. Psaki told reporters that Biden “continues to demonstrate his commitment to take comprehensive action to address the systemic racism that persists today.”
Reparations have been used in other circumstances to offset large moral and economic debt, paid to Japanese Americans interned during World War Two, to families of Holocaust survivors, and to Blacks in post-apartheid South Africa. But the US has never made much headway in discussions of whether or how to compensate African Americans for more than 200 years of slavery and help make up for racial inequality. HR-40, a bill to fund the study of “slavery and discrimination in the colonies and the United States from 1619 to the present and recommend appropriate remedies” has been floated in Congress for more than 30 years, but never taken up for a full vote. Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee reintroduced it in January. Fellow Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen, who chairs the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, told a hearing on February 17 it was fitting to consider HR-40 at a time when the country is reckoning with police violence against African Americans and a pandemic that has disproportionately affected African Americans.
Reparations have been used in other circumstances to offset large moral and economic debt, paid to Japanese Americans interned during World War Two, to families of Holocaust survivors, and to Blacks in post-apartheid South Africa. But the US has never made much headway in discussions of whether or how to compensate African Americans for more than 200 years of slavery and help make up for racial inequality. HR-40, a bill to fund the study of “slavery and discrimination in the colonies and the United States from 1619 to the present and recommend appropriate remedies” has been floated in Congress for more than 30 years, but never taken up for a full vote. Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee reintroduced it in January. Fellow Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen, who chairs the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, told a hearing on February 17 it was fitting to consider HR-40 at a time when the country is reckoning with police violence against African Americans and a pandemic that has disproportionately affected African Americans.
President Biden told the Washington Post last year that “we must acknowledge that there can be no realization of the American dream without grappling with the original sin of slavery, and the centuries-long campaign of violence, fear, and trauma wrought upon Black people in this country.” But like nearly all of the Democratic presidential candidates at the time, he did not embrace the idea of specific payments to enslaved people’s descendants, instead promising “major actions to address systemic racism” and further study. A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted last June following the death in police custody in Minneapolis of George Floyd, an African-American man, found clear divisions along partisan and racial lines, with only one in 10 white respondents supporting the idea and half of African American respondents endorsing it.
Calls have been growing from some politicians, academics, and economists for such payments to be made to an estimated 40 million African Americans. Any federal reparations program could cost trillions of dollars, they estimate. Supporters say such payments would act as an acknowledgment of the value of the forced, unpaid labor that supported the economy of Southern US states until the Civil War ended slavery in 1865, the broken promise of land grants after the Civil War, and the burden of the century and a half of legal and de facto segregation that followed.
President Joe Biden expressed optimism on February 16 that most US schools would be open by late spring and vowed to continue accelerating the country’s Coronavirus vaccination program, as he sought to elevate his agenda now the drama of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial is over. In a wide-ranging televised town hall that touched on the pandemic, economic relief, China-US relations, and race and policing, Biden also aimed to build public support for his $1.9 trillion Coronavirus relief plan, which is awaiting congressional action. “Now’s the time to go big,” he said during a CNN prime-time broadcast, as he fielded questions from voters at the landmark Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. “If we pass this bill alone, we’ll create 7 million jobs this year.”
After a parent and a teacher asked how President Joe Biden planned to ensure that schools could open safely amid the pandemic, the Democratic president said he anticipated that “most” elementary and middle schools would have in-person classes five days a week by the end of his first 100 days in office. He also said he believes teachers should be moved closer to the front of the line for inoculation. “I think that we should be vaccinating teachers – we should move them up in the hierarchy,” Biden said, although he noted that states, not the federal government, have the authority to decide how to prioritize vaccinations. Biden said he expected everyone who wanted a vaccine would be able to get one by July when his administration will have secured enough shots to inoculate all Americans. But he also warned that the recovery from the pandemic that has killed more than 485,000 people in the United States would still take many months and urged people to wear masks, maintain social distance, and wash hands for the foreseeable future.
The February 16 visit, as well as a trip scheduled for February 18 that will take President Joe Biden to a Michigan vaccine manufacturing site, offered the President an opportunity to tout the importance of a new relief bill even as Republicans remain largely opposed to its massive price tag. President Biden wants Congress to pass the legislation in the coming weeks in order to get $1,400 stimulus checks out to Americans and bolster unemployment payments. Some aspects of the bill, including Biden’s push to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025, may have a difficult time gaining enough support to pass. After a small business owner raised concerns at the town hall address, Biden suggested he might be willing to consider a more gradual phase-in.
On February 13, the US Senate voted to acquit former President Donald Trump on a charge of incitement of insurrection despite significant Republican support for conviction, bringing an end to the fourth impeachment trial in US history and the second for Trump. As opposed to the lack of Republican support in Trump’s first impeachment trial, seven Republicans voted to convict Trump for allegedly inciting the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, when a mob of pro-Trump supporters tried to disrupt the electoral vote count formalizing Joe Biden’s election win before a joint session of Congress. That is by far the most bipartisan support for conviction in impeachment history. The final vote was 57 to 43, 10 short of the 67 votes needed to secure a conviction. Republican Senators Richard Burr of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania all voted guilty. The vote means the Senate cannot bar Trump from holding future federal offices.
Moments after the vote concluded, former President Donald Trump issued a statement praising his legal team and thanking the senators and other members of Congress “who stood proudly for the Constitution we all revere and for the sacred legal principles at the heart of our country.” “This has been yet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our Country. No president has ever gone through anything like it,” Trump said. Despite the acquittal, President Joe Biden said in a statement that the “substance of the charge” against Trump is “not in dispute.” “Even those opposed to the conviction, like Senate Minority Leader McConnell, believe Donald Trump was guilty of a ‘disgraceful dereliction of duty’ and ‘practically and morally responsible for provoking’ the violence unleashed on the Capitol,” Biden’s statement read in part. President Biden added that “this sad chapter in our history has reminded us that democracy is fragile. That it must always be defended. That we must be ever vigilant. That violence and extremism has no place in America. And that each of us has a duty and responsibility as Americans, and especially as leaders, to defend the truth and to defeat the lies.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), called the impeachment vote “the largest and most bipartisan vote in any impeachment trial in history,” but noted it was not enough to secure a conviction. The trial “was about choosing country over Donald Trump, and 43 Republican members chose Trump. They chose Trump. It should be a weight on their conscience today, and it shall be a weight on their conscience in the future,” he said in a speech on the Senate floor. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi mocked the Republicans who voted to acquit, most of whom cited his status as a “former” president as the reason for their vote. She called them “a cowardly group of Republicans” who “were afraid to defend their job, respect the institution in which they serve.”
With control of the Senate split 50-50, the House managers always had an uphill battle when it came to convincing enough Republicans to cross party lines and convict a former president who is still very popular with a large part of the Republican base. In his closing argument, House manager Joe Neguse (D-CO) argued that “The stakes could not be higher. Because the cold, hard truth is that what happened on January 6 can happen again. I fear, like many of you do, that the violence we saw on that terrible day may be just the beginning.” Lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin (D-MD) urged the Senators to think of the future. “Senators, this trial, in the final analysis, is not about Donald Trump. The country and the world know who Donald Trump is. This trial is about who we are, who we are,” Raskin said. Former President Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael van der Veen, meanwhile, insisted his client did nothing wrong and maintained he was the victim of vengeful Democrats and biased news media. He called the impeachment proceedings a “charade from beginning to end.” While he often seemed angry during his presentation, van der Veen was delighted by the acquittal. Reporters saw him fist bump a fellow member of Trump’s legal team afterward and exclaim, “We’re going to Disney World!”
The impeachment managers’ task became more difficult when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced in an email to his colleagues that he would vote to acquit since former President Donald Trump was already out of office.”While a close call, I am persuaded that impeachments are a tool primarily of removal and we therefore lack jurisdiction,” the influential Kentucky Republican wrote in the email, which was obtained by NBC News. McConnell, who rebuffed Democratic efforts to start the trial while Trump was still in office, had condemned Trump’s conduct after the riot and said he’d keep an open mind about voting to convict, something he’d ruled out entirely during Trump’s first impeachment trial last year. After voting to acquit, McConnell blasted Trump for his “disgraceful dereliction of duty” and squarely laid the blame for the riot at Trump’s door in what amounted to an endorsement of many of the arguments laid out by House impeachment managers. “There’s no question — none — that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day,” McConnell said in a speech on the Senate floor. McConnell had suggested in the email earlier in the day that Trump could still face other penalties.
Two of the Republican Senators who voted to convict, Richard Burr and Pat Toomey, are not running for re-election and are set to retire in 2022. Mitt Romney, the lone Republican Senator to cross party lines and vote to convict Trump in his first impeachment trial, is not up for re-election until 2024, while Senators Ben Sasse, Bill Cassidy, and Susan Collins were all re-elected to six-year terms in November. Senator Lisa Murkowski, who Trump had already vowed to campaign against, is up for re-election in 2022 and is expected to face a tough race against former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Pat Toomey, whose state of Pennsylvania was at the center of several of Trump’s false election conspiracy claims, said, “As a result of President Trump’s actions, for the first time in American history, the transfer of presidential power was not peaceful.” “Unfortunately, his behavior after the election betrayed the confidence millions of us placed in him. His betrayal of the Constitution and his oath of office required conviction,” Toomey said. Senator Cassidy gave a simple explanation for his vote in a 10-second video statement he posted on Twitter. “Our Constitution and our country is more important than any one person. I voted to convict President Trump because he is guilty,” he said.
Opening arguments in the trial began on February 10, with House managers blaming the riot on former President Donald Trump’s months-long campaign to cast doubt on the 2020 election, and his repeated assertions that the only way he would lose was if the election was “stolen.” They focused on his fiery speech on the morning of the January 6 riot, where he urged his supporters to “fight like hell,” and his refusal to take action after they did. Trump declined a request from managers to testify at the trial, and refused to even submit a statement for it, facts Congressman Jamie Raskin urged Senators to keep in mind. “I ask any of you, if you were charged with inciting violent insurrection against our country, and you’re falsely accused, would you come and testify? I know I would,” Raskin said.
President Joe Biden’s aides have launched a formal review of the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, reviving the Obama-era goal of closing the controversial facility with the aim of doing so before he leaves office, the White House said on February 12. Aides involved in internal discussions are considering an executive action to be signed by President Biden in coming weeks or months, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters, signaling a new effort to remove what human rights advocates have called a stain on America’s global image. Asked whether President Biden would shut the high-security prison located at the Guantanamo Naval Station by the time his presidency ends, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters: “That certainly is our goal and our intention.” But such an initiative is unlikely to bring down the curtain anytime soon on the offshore facility, due largely to the steep political and legal obstacles that also frustrated efforts by his ex-boss, former President Barack Obama, to close it.
Set up to house foreign suspects following the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, the prison came to symbolize the excesses of the US “war on terror” because of harsh interrogation methods that critics say amounted to torture. “We are undertaking an NSC process to assess the current state of play that the Biden administration has inherited from the previous administration, in line with our broader goal of closing Guantanamo,” National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne told Reuters, which was the first to report that the review was underway. “The NSC will work closely with the Departments of Defense, State, and Justice to make progress toward closing the GTMO facility, and also in close consultation with Congress,” she added.
The immediate impact of a new approach could be to reinstate, in some form, former President Barack Obama’s Guantanamo closure policy, which was reversed by former President Donald Trump as soon as he took office in 2017. Trump kept the prison open during his four years in the White House. Now, 40 prisoners remain, most held for nearly two decades without being charged or tried. President Joe Biden’s campaign said during the 2020 race that he continued to support closing the detention center but did not say how he would do it. It is also unclear how specific Biden’s coming executive action might be about his plans for the prison, which holds suspects in the 9/11 attacks among its detainee population. “This is an encouraging and much welcome development,” said Scott Roehm, Washington director of advocacy group The Center for Victims of Torture. “The process needs to move quickly.”
Opened under former President George W. Bush in 2002, Guantanamo Bay’s population grew to a peak of about 800 inmates in 2006 before it started to shrink. Former President Barack Obama whittled down the number further, but his effort to close the prison was mainly stymied by Republican opposition in Congress. The federal government is still barred by law from transferring any inmates to prisons on the US mainland. Even with his own Democratic party now controlling Congress, their majorities are so slim that President Joe Biden would face a tough challenge securing legislative changes because some vulnerable Democratic Senators might also oppose them.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei demanded “action, not words” from the US if it wants to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and several other world powers, challenging President Joe Biden to take the first step toward a thaw. Iran has set a deadline of next week for President Biden to begin reversing sanctions imposed by his predecessor Donald Trump, or it will take its biggest step yet to breach the deal, banning short-notice inspections by the UN nuclear watchdog. “We have heard many nice words and promises which in practice have been broken and opposite actions have been taken,” Khamenei said in a televised speech. “Words and promises are no good. This time (we want) only action from the other side, and we will also act.”
President Joe Biden aims to restore the pact under which Iran agreed to curbs on its disputed uranium enrichment program in return for the lifting of sanctions, a major achievement of the Obama administration that former President Donald Trump scrapped in 2018, calling the deal one-sided in Iran’s favor and reimposing a wide range of sanctions. Iran and the US are at odds over who should make the first step to revive the accord. Iran says the US must first lift Trump’s sanctions while the US says that Iran must first return to compliance with the deal, which it began violating after Trump launched his “maximum pressure” campaign. Highlighting the urgency of a diplomatic solution to the standoff, German Chancellor Angela Merkel had a rare phone call with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in which she urged Tehran to take steps ensuring its return to full compliance. “It is now time for positive signals that create trust and increase the chances of a diplomatic solution,” Merkel told Rouhani.
Iran has accelerated its breaches of the deal’s restrictions in recent months, culminating in an announcement that it will end snap inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency on February 23. Such inspections, which can range anywhere beyond Iran’s declared nuclear sites, are mandated under the IAEA’s “Additional Protocol” that Iran agreed to honor under the deal. It signed up to the Protocol in 2003 but has not ratified it. US State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a press briefing that the US was aware of Iran’s plan to cease snap inspections. “As we and partners have underscored, Iran should reverse these steps and refrain from taking others that would impact the IAEA assurances,” Price said, adding: “The path for diplomacy remains open.”
An IAEA report on February 10 said Iran had informed the IAEA of plans to install more of its advanced IR-2m centrifuges at its main underground enrichment plant at Natanz, in a further move apparently meant to pile pressure on Washington. The IAEA reported on February 1 that Iran had brought a second cascade, or cluster, of IR-2m machines online at Natanz, and was installing two more. The 2015 deal says Iran can only enrich with far less efficient, first-generation IR-1 centrifuges. Iran recently began enriching uranium to 20% fissile purity at another site, Fordow, well above its previous level of 4.5% and the deal’s 3.67% limit, though still well before the 90% that is weapons-grade. Iran had enriched to 20% before the deal. Refining uranium to high levels of fissile purity is a potential pathway to nuclear bombs, though Iran has long said its enrichment program is for peaceful energy purposes only. European parties to the deal, which have called on Tehran not to halt snap inspections, will discuss the issue with the United States on February 11, the French Foreign Ministry said.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani played down the importance of the snap inspections, saying that ending them would not be a “significant step”, as Iran would still comply with obligations under a so-called Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA. “We will end the implementation of the Additional Protocol on February 23 and what will be implemented will be based on the safeguards,” Rouhani said at a televised cabinet meeting. “The Additional Protocol is a step beyond safeguards.” Iran’s envoy to the IAEA said on February 10 that the agency’s director-general, Rafael Grossi, would visit Iran on February 13 to discuss the country’s plan to scale back cooperation with inspectors next week.
Here are the main events that occurred in Politics this week:
1. Democrats Being Formulating Coronavirus Relief Package
Democrats in Congress on February 2 took the first steps toward advancing President Joe Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion Coronavirus aid plan without Republican support.
Democrats in Congress on February 2 took the first steps toward advancing President Joe Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion Coronavirus aid plan without Republican support. The Senate voted along party lines, with Democrats edging out Republicans 50-49, to open debate on a fiscal 2021 budget resolution with coronavirus aid spending instructions. Using this strategy unlocks a legislative tool needed for Democrats to enact Biden’s package in the face of Republican opposition. Republicans used the ploy when they controlled Congress in 2017 to pass then-President Donald Trump’s tax cut bill without Democratic support. Republicans have pushed back on the plan’s price tag, which follows $4 trillion in Coronavirus aid last year. Later on February 2, the House followed the Senate to begin debate on the budget resolution, voting 216-210, with no Republicans joining in support. The debates are expected to last through the week. Once the budget resolution is passed, Democrats will still have to write a separate, detailed Coronavirus relief bill, meaning it could be early to mid-March before final votes are cast on a bill for President Biden to sign into law.
2. President Joe Biden Begins Rollback Of Hardline Trump-Era Immigration Policies
US President Joe Biden on February 2 ordered a review of asylum processing at the US-Mexico border and the immigration system as he seeks to undo some of former President Donald Trump’s hardline policies
US President Joe Biden on February 2 ordered a review of asylum processing at the US-Mexico border and the immigration system as he seeks to undo some of former President Donald Trump’s hardline policies. President Biden also created a task force to reunite migrant families who were separated at the border by Trump’s 2018 “zero tolerance” strategy. “We are going to work to undo the moral and national shame of the previous administration that literally, not figuratively, ripped children from the arms of their families,” Biden said, as he signed the three immigration-related executive orders at the White House. The executive orders called for a dizzying array of reviews and reports that could trigger policy changes in the weeks and months ahead, but provide limited immediate relief to immigrants barred by Trump-era rules.
3. CDC Implements Sweeping Order Mandating Masks On Public Transportation AS Coronavirus Cases Surge
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a sweeping order late on January 28 requiring the use of face masks on nearly all forms of public transportation as of February 1 as the country continues to report thousands of daily Coronavirus deaths
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a sweeping order late on January 28 requiring the use of face masks on nearly all forms of public transportation as of February 1 as the country continues to report thousands of daily Coronavirus deaths. The order, which takes effect at 11:59 p.m. EST on February 1, requires face masks to be worn by all travelers on airplanes, ships, trains, subways, buses, taxis, and ride-shares and at transportation hubs like airports, bus or ferry terminals, train and subway stations and seaports. President Joe Biden on January 21 ordered government agencies to “immediately take action” to require masks in airports and on commercial aircraft, trains and public maritime vessels, including ferries, intercity bus services and all public transportation. Under former President Donald Trump, a CDC push to mandate masks in transit was blocked, and the agency instead only issued strong recommendations for mask use. President Trump also rejected efforts by Congress to mandate mask use. “Requiring masks on our transportation systems will protect Americans and provide confidence that we can once again travel safely even during this pandemic,” said the 11-page order signed by Marty Cetron, director for CDC’s Division of Global Migration and Quarantine.
4. Dozens of Former Bush Administration Officials Leave Republican Party, Calling It A “Trump Cult
Dozens of Republicans who served in former President George W. Bush’s administration are leaving the party, dismayed by a failure of many elected Republicans to disown former President Donald Trump after his false claims of election fraud sparked a deadly storming of the US Capitol last month
“The Republican Party as I knew it no longer exists. I’d call it the cult of Trump,” said Jimmy Gurulé, who was Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence in the Bush administration. Kristopher Purcell, who worked in the Bush White House’s communications office for six years, said roughly 60 to 70 former Bush officials have decided to leave the party or are cutting ties with it, from conversations he has been having. “The number is growing every day,” Purcell said.
More than half of the Republicans in Congress, eight senators and 139 House representatives, voted to block certification of the election just hours after the Capitol siege. Most Republican Senators have also indicated they would not support the impeachment of former President Donald Trump, making it almost certain that the former president will not be convicted in his Senate trial. Trump was impeached on January 13 by the Democratic-led House of Representatives on charges of “incitement of insurrection,” the only president to be impeached twice. The unwillingness by party leaders to disavow Trump was the final straw for some former Republican officials. “If it continues to be the party of Trump, many of us are not going back,” Rosario Marin, a former Treasurer of the US under Bush, told Reuters. “Unless the Senate convicts him, and rids themselves of the Trump cancer, many of us will not be going back to vote for Republican leaders.”
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a sweeping order late on January 28 requiring the use of face masks on nearly all forms of public transportation as of February 1 as the country continues to report thousands of daily Coronavirus deaths. The order, which takes effect at 11:59 p.m. EST on February 1, requires face masks to be worn by all travelers on airplanes, ships, trains, subways, buses, taxis, and ride-shares and at transportation hubs like airports, bus or ferry terminals, train and subway stations and seaports. President Joe Biden on January 21 ordered government agencies to “immediately take action” to require masks in airports and on commercial aircraft, trains and public maritime vessels, including ferries, intercity bus services and all public transportation. Under former President Donald Trump, a CDC push to mandate masks in transit was blocked, and the agency instead only issued strong recommendations for mask use. President Trump also rejected efforts by Congress to mandate mask use. “Requiring masks on our transportation systems will protect Americans and provide confidence that we can once again travel safely even during this pandemic,” said the 11-page order signed by Marty Cetron, director for CDC’s Division of Global Migration and Quarantine.
While airlines and most transit modes already require masks, the CDC order will make not wearing a mask a violation of federal law that could make it easier for flight attendants and others to enforce. A US airline group told President Joe Biden this month that carriers had had to bar “thousands of passengers” from future flights for failing to comply with airline mask policies. The CDC said people violating the order could potentially face criminal penalties but suggested civil penalties would be more likely if needed. The order will be enforced by the Transportation Security Administration and federal, state and local agencies.
The order says passengers must wear a mask in transit except for brief periods, such as to eat, drink or take medication. Masks may be either manufactured or homemade. The only exceptions are for travelers younger than two and for those with certain medical conditions. People in private cars and solo commercial truck drivers do not have to wear masks. US airlines raised concerns this week about passenger requests to opt-out of mask-wearing on health grounds. The CDC order says airlines and other transit modes may require medical documentation and consultation by a medical specialist and require a negative Coronavirus test from a passenger to board a plane or a different mode of transportation. The CDC said this week it was “actively looking” at requiring negative Coronavirus tests for domestic air travel after mandating it for nearly all international travel effective January 26. The CDC order says airlines and other operators must “at the earliest safe opportunity, disembark any person who refuses to comply.”
US President Joe Biden on February 2 ordered a review of asylum processing at the US-Mexico border and the immigration system as he seeks to undo some of former President Donald Trump’s hardline policies. President Biden also created a task force to reunite migrant families who were separated at the border by Trump’s 2018 “zero tolerance” strategy. “We are going to work to undo the moral and national shame of the previous administration that literally, not figuratively, ripped children from the arms of their families,” Biden said, as he signed the three immigration-related executive orders at the White House. The executive orders called for a dizzying array of reviews and reports that could trigger policy changes in the weeks and months ahead, but provide limited immediate relief to immigrants barred by Trump-era rules.
Immigration advocates have urged the new Democratic administration to quickly undo Trump’s policies but President Joe Biden’s aides say they need time to unravel the many layers of immigration restrictions and to put in place more migrant-friendly systems. “It’s not going to happen overnight,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on February 2. The cautious strategy reflects the tightrope President Biden is walking to reverse hardline Trump policies while simultaneously trying to prevent a surge in illegal immigration. Biden opponents could also derail or slow down his agenda with lawsuits if his administration moves too quickly and fails to follow proper procedures.
In a sign of the wary approach, President Joe Biden’s executive orders on February 2 did not repeal an order known as “Title 42,” which was issued under President Donald Trump to stop the spread of the Coronavirus and allows US authorities to expel almost all people caught crossing the border illegally. He did, however, mandate a review of the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), a Trump program that ordered 65,000 asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their US Court hearings. The Biden administration has stopped adding people to the program but has not yet outlined how it will process the claims of those already in it. Chad Wolf, former acting Department of Homeland Security secretary under Trump, said in an interview that halting the MPP program was a mistake because it had been an effective deterrent to illegal immigration. “If you do have a surge (of migrants), you’re taking one of your tools off the table,” he said in reference to the program.
The tone of President Joe Biden’s orders differed dramatically from former President Donald Trump’s incendiary immigration rhetoric depicting asylum seekers as a security threat or an economic drain on the US. “Securing our borders does not require us to ignore the humanity of those who seek to cross them,” reads the order dealing with asylum. But opposition from Republicans continues and lawsuits by conservative groups could potentially slow down Biden’s agenda. A federal judge last week temporarily blocked one of his first immigration moves, a 100-day pause on many deportations, after the Republican-led state of Texas sought an injunction.
Former President Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016 while making border security a major theme of his campaign. If President Joe Biden fails to prevent surges in illegal immigration at the US-Mexico border, he could give ammunition to Republicans in the 2022 congressional elections, said Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst with the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute. “This is the thing that rallied Donald Trump supporters,” she said. President Biden, on the other hand, pledged in his 2020 election campaign to move quickly to reunite parents and children separated at the southern border and the task force set up is aimed at fulfilling that promise. However, it will face a daunting challenge in trying to track down the parents of more than 600 children who remain separated, according to a January court filing in a related case. The children are living with relatives or in foster care, an attorney representing plaintiffs in the litigation told Reuters. The task force will be led by Alejandro Mayorkas, one of the senior officials said on February 1. The US Senate on February 1 confirmed Mayorkas as the new head of the Department of Homeland Security, the first Latino and immigrant to hold that position.
President Joe Biden’s executive orders also called for a review of former President Donald Trump’s so-called “public charge” rule, which makes it harder for poorer immigrants to obtain permanent residency in the US. The review is expected to start the process to rescind it, according to two people familiar with the plan. President Biden’s asylum-focused order called on US agencies to address drivers of migration in Central America, expand legal pathways to the US and consider ending Trump-era asylum pacts with Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. After the order, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a written statement the US intended to suspend and terminate the agreements, which sought to allow asylum seekers from other countries to be sent to those nations.
Democrats in Congress on February 2 took the first steps toward advancing President Joe Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion Coronavirus aid plan without Republican support. The Senate voted along party lines, with Democrats edging out Republicans 50-49, to open debate on a fiscal 2021 budget resolution with coronavirus aid spending instructions. Using this strategy unlocks a legislative tool needed for Democrats to enact Biden’s package in the face of Republican opposition. Republicans used the ploy when they controlled Congress in 2017 to pass then-President Donald Trump’s tax cut bill without Democratic support. Republicans have pushed back on the plan’s price tag, which follows $4 trillion in Coronavirus aid last year. Later on February 2, the House followed the Senate to begin debate on the budget resolution, voting 216-210, with no Republicans joining in support. The debates are expected to last through the week. Once the budget resolution is passed, Democrats will still have to write a separate, detailed Coronavirus relief bill, meaning it could be early to mid-March before final votes are cast on a bill for President Biden to sign into law.
President Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats seek a new round of direct payments to individual Americans to help stimulate an economy ravaged by shutdowns to curb the spread of the Coronavirus and want to provide more money for programs ranging from vaccines to additional unemployment benefits. If such legislation is pursued without Republican backing, Democrats will have to be careful to craft a relief bill in such a way as to not alienate their more moderate members. At an online luncheon meeting on February 2, President Biden told Democratic senators he was willing to modify his proposal but that a Republican counter-proposal was inadequate, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters. Jared Bernstein, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said on February 2 that the Republican proposal fell far short in a number of areas, including funding to reopen schools. Republicans called for spending $20 billion on schools, compared with Biden’s proposal for $170 billion. “We think that’s what it’s going to take to reach people,” Bernstein told CNN. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer warned, in remarks to reporters, that if a package the size Republicans seek is enacted, “We’d be mired in the COVID crisis for years.”
The 100-member Senate requires a 60-vote threshold to pass most legislation. Approval of the budget resolution would activate a legislative tool called reconciliation, allowing for Senate passage of the final relief bill with 51 votes that would include 48 Democrats, two independents who align with them, and Vice President Kamala Harris. Republican Senator Patrick Toomey was absent for February 2nd’s vote. His office said he was delayed by bad weather. Toomey’s absence meant that Vice President Harris was not needed to cast her first tie-breaking vote on February 2. If the budget resolution measure passes both chambers it would mark the first time congressional Democrats had used the maneuver to flex their legislative muscle since winning razor-thin control of the Senate in two runoff elections last month in Georgia.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer insisted there was still time to craft a Coronavirus aid effort with Republican support. But Republicans view the reconciliation strategy as a partisan gambit that undermines President Joe Biden’s repeated calls for unity. “We passed five bipartisan COVID packages,” said Senator Todd Young (R-IN). “It’s not a good signal that he (Schumer) is adopting a take-it-or-leave-it approach right after his president delivers an inaugural address based on unity.” While expressing an openness to work with Republicans, the White House said President Biden firmly supports the Democratic approach.
Happy 2021! Here are the main events that occurred in Politics this week:
1. 117th Congress Sworn In
The 117th US Congress was sworn in this week, with Nancy Pelosi being re-elected House Speaker with perhaps the slimmest House Majority in over a century.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was reelected to lead the chamber as the 117th Congress convened on January 4, with the California Democrat set to shepherd her party through a new Congress with the slimmest majority of any political party since 1917. Members cast their votes for speaker ahead of their swearing in Sunday evening, with Pelosi earning support from 216 Democrats and clearing the threshold of 214 to secure the House’s top position. The proceedings at the Capitol were marked by the Coronavirus pandemic, which led to a changing of procedures to ensure the new Congress could gather safely. Two Democrats, Jared Golden of Maine and Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania, cast votes for Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York, respectively. Three Democratic House members voted “present.” Notably, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, and other members of “The Squad” backed Pelosi in her bid for the speakership. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy won 209 votes from Republicans.
2. In A Surprising Upset, Democrats Score Double-Barreled Win In Georgia Senate Runoff Elections
Democrats won both Georgia Senate seats, and with them, the US Senate majority, as final votes were counted on January 6, serving President Donald Trump a stunning defeat in his turbulent final days in office while dramatically improving the fate of President-elect Joe Biden’s progressive agenda.
3. Pro-Donald Trump Rioters Storm Capitol In Attempted Coup
Pro-Donald Trump rioters overwhelmed the Capitol Police and stormed Congress on January 6, interrupting the certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College win and throwing the US Capitol into a spiral of chaos and violence
Pro-Donald Trump rioters overwhelmed the Capitol Police and stormed Congress on January 6, interrupting the certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College win and throwing the US Capitol into a spiral of chaos and violence. Shortly after 2:30 p.m., lawmakers, staff, and reporters were forced to shelter in place, and several House office buildings were evacuated due to potential bomb threats. Vice President Mike Pence was pulled from the Senate chamber. But the situation quickly spun out of control. Protesters breached the Capitol, entering the Senate chamber and streaming through Statuary Hall. They broke windows, and one man sat in the very seat Pence had been sitting in just a few minutes before, while another was in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. Lawmakers, reporters, and staffers sheltered throughout the building as pro-Trump rioters banged on doors and shouted. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) were quickly whisked away to undisclosed locations as the violent protesters broke through the Capitol, busting through secure doors, shattering windows and even scaling scaffolding outside of Senate leadership offices. One person was injured when they fell more than 30 feet from the scaffolding. By mid-afternoon, the National Guard was called up to help suppress the unrest, nearly two hours after the first reports of a breach.
Pro-Donald Trump rioters overwhelmed the Capitol Police and stormed Congress on January 6, interrupting the certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College win and throwing the US Capitol into a spiral of chaos and violence. Shortly after 2:30 p.m., lawmakers, staff, and reporters were forced to shelter in place, and several House office buildings were evacuated due to potential bomb threats. Vice President Mike Pence was pulled from the Senate chamber. But the situation quickly spun out of control. Protesters breached the Capitol, entering the Senate chamber and streaming through Statuary Hall. They broke windows, and one man sat in the very seat Pence had been sitting in just a few minutes before, while another was in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. Lawmakers, reporters, and staffers sheltered throughout the building as pro-Trump rioters banged on doors and shouted. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) were quickly whisked away to undisclosed locations as the violent protesters broke through the Capitol, busting through secure doors, shattering windows and even scaling scaffolding outside of Senate leadership offices. One person was injured when they fell more than 30 feet from the scaffolding. By mid-afternoon, the National Guard was called up to help suppress the unrest, nearly two hours after the first reports of a breach.
What unfolded at the Capitol was the culmination of months of President Donald Trump’s tweets and statements pushing his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election based on baseless claims of fraud. Lawmakers, helpless amid the chaos, tweeted urgently at the president to call off his supporters and described, in real-time, the violence and destruction they were witnesses to. Some immediately called President Trump’s conduct impeachable, while others, Republicans and Democrats alike, described it as a “coup” attempt and an insurrection. Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE), a Trump critic, described the violence as “the inevitable and ugly outcome of the President’s addiction to constantly stoking division.” Utah Senator and 2012 Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who also frequently calls out Trump, directly blamed the President, saying, “What happened here today was an insurrection, incited by the United States President.” “There’s no question the president formed the mob, the president incited the mob, the president addressed the mob. He lit the flame,” said Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-WY).
Shortly after both chambers were evacuated, President Donald Trump tweeted: “I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful.” But he did not tell the demonstrators to leave the Capitol. He followed that with a recorded message, saying, “You have to go home now. We have to have peace, we have to have law and order,” President Trump said while still falsely insisting the election was “stolen from us.” President-elect Joe Biden also called on the rioters to stop, saying “This is not dissent. It’s disorder. It’s chaos. It borders on sedition. And it must end now.” The security was in starkcontrastto Trump’s impeachment trial or even Black Lives Matter protests last year, when police presence was more pronounced and restrictive. Before rioters were cleared from the complex, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Schumer called forthem to exit the Capitol. “We are calling on President Trump to demand that all protestors leave the U.S. Capitol and Capitol Grounds immediately,” Schumer and Pelosi said.
At 5:30 p.m., three hours after rioters breached the Capitol, the sergeant at arms informed members that the building was finally again secure. Minutes before a 6 p.m. curfew began, an announcement was made warning that anyone who did not leave would be arrested. Shortly before 6 p.m., Senators reconvened behind closed doors to process President-elect Joe Biden’s win and House leaders also vowed to continue their work. Inside the House chamber, the atmosphere was frantic. Capitol Police were warning people they may need to go behind their seats. The House floor quickly turned into chaos. Some top lawmakers, including Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Whip Jim Clyburn, were pulled from the chamber. Minutes later, police rushed members from the floor to be evacuated. Police and floor staff handed out protective hoods as police warned that tear gas had been dispersed outside the chamber. The House evacuation effort was interrupted, however, and roughly two dozen members and reporters huddled in upper gallery, crouching behind seats, as multiple armed officers barricaded the main chamber door. Loud banging noises could be heard, as members exchanged prayers and made calls to loved ones. As the last group of members and staff was escorted from the chamber, multiple protesters appeared to be restrained by police on the House floor.
Lawmakers and staff had already been on high alert as crowds of Trump allies descended upon the Capitol and local DC officials braced for violence. Then around 1 p.m., offices in both the Cannon and Madison buildings were urgently instructed to leave and move to another building. In some hallways, Capitol Police officers ran door-to-door, instructing staff to leave, according to several of those evacuated. The lockdowns and evacuation orders fueled further anxiety inside the Capitol, as staff were told to stay away from windows and doors. Staff in some office buildings were also instructed to take “escape hoods,” reserved for some kind of chemical attack in the building, and head to the tunnels in Longworth. “All of the members of Congress are just texting each other and trying to make sure that everyone is safe,” said Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin on MSNBC as the chaos was unfolding. “I understand as you just reported that in the chamber they’re now trying to don some gas masks. I dug one out of my storage. We’re sheltering in place. I’m glad to see that the president is now putting out a message that this has gone way too far.”
This week’s elections were expected to mark the formal finale to the tempestuous 2020 election season, although the Democrats’ resounding success was overshadowed by chaos and violence in Washington, where angry Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s victory. January 6’s unprecedented siege drew fierce criticism of President Donald Trump’s leadership from within his own party, and combined with the Republican defeat in Georgia, marked one of the darkest days of his divisive Presidency. Still, the Democrats’ twin victories in Georgia represented a striking shift in the state’s politics as the swelling number of diverse, college-educated voters flex their power in the heart of the Deep South. They also cemented the transformation of Georgia, once a solidly Republican state, into one of the nation’s premier battlegrounds for the foreseeable future.
In an emotional address on January 6, Senator-elect Raphael Warnock vowed to work for all Georgians whether they voted for him or not, citing his personal experience with the American dream. His mother, he said, used to pick “somebody else’s cotton” as a teenager. “The other day, because this is America, the 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody else’s cotton picked her youngest son to be a United States senator,” he said. “Tonight, we proved with hope, hard work and the people by our side, anything is possible.” Kelly Loeffler, who remains a senator until the election results are finalized, returned to Washington to join a small group of senators planning to challenge Congress’ vote to certify Joe Biden’s victory. She did not get a chance to vocalize her objection before the violent protesters stormed the Capitol. Georgia’s other runoff election pitted Senator David Perdue, a 71-year-old former business executive who held his Senate seat until his term expired Sunday, against Jon Ossoff, a former congressional aide and journalist. “This campaign has been about health and jobs and justice for the people of this state, for all the people of this state,” Ossoff said in a speech broadcast on social media. “Whether you were for me, or against me, I’ll be for you in the U.S. Senate. I will serve all the people of the state.”
President Donald Trump’s false claims of voter fraud cast a dark shadow over the runoff elections, which were held only because no candidate hit the 50% threshold in the general election. He raised the prospect of voter fraud as votes were being cast and likened the Republicans who run Georgia’s election system to “chickens with their heads cut off” during a rally in Washington. Gabriel Sterling, a top official with the Georgia secretary of state’s office and a Republican, said there was “no evidence of any irregularities.” “The biggest thing we’ve seen is from the president’s fertile mind of finding fraud where none exists,” he said.
Both contests tested whether the political coalition that fueled Biden’s November victory was an anti-Trump anomaly or part of a new electoral landscape. To win in the Georgia runoff elections, and in the future, Democrats needed strong African American support. AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 3,700 voters in the Georgia runoffs, found that Black voters made up roughly 30% of the electorate, and almost all of them, 94%, backed Ossoff and Warnock. The Democrats also relied on the backing of younger voters, people earning less than $50,000 annually and newcomers to the state. The Republican coalition backing Loeffler and Perdue was the mirror opposite: white, older, wealthier and longtime Georgia residents. The coalition closely resembles the one that narrowly handed Georgia’s Electoral College votes to Biden in November, making him the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state in almost three decades. President Donald Trump’s claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election, while meritless, resonated with Republican voters in Georgia. About 7 in 10 agreed with his false assertion that Biden was not the legitimately elected president, AP VoteCast found.
Publicly and privately, some Republicans acknowledged that President Donald Trump’s monthslong push to undermine the integrity of the nation’s electoral system may have contributed to the Republican Party’s losses in Georgia. “It turns out that telling the voters that the election was rigged is not a great way to turn out your voters,” said Utah Senator and 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney, a frequent Trump critic. Even with Trump’s claims, voters in both parties were drawn to the polls because of the high stakes. AP VoteCast found that 6 in 10 Georgia voters say Senate party control was the most important factor in their vote. Turnout exceeded both sides’ expectations. Ultimately, more people cast ballots in the runoffs than voted in Georgia’s 2016 presidential election.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was reelected to lead the chamber as the 117th Congress convened on January 4, with the California Democrat set to shepherd her party through a new Congress with the slimmest majority of any political party since 1917. Members cast their votes for speaker ahead of their swearing in Sunday evening, with Pelosi earning support from 216 Democrats and clearing the threshold of 214 to secure the House’s top position. The proceedings at the Capitol were marked by the Coronavirus pandemic, which led to a changing of procedures to ensure the new Congress could gather safely. Two Democrats, Jared Golden of Maine and Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania, cast votes for Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York, respectively. Three Democratic House members voted “present.” Notably, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, and other members of “The Squad” backed Pelosi in her bid for the speakership. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy won 209 votes from Republicans.
In remarks following her election to a fourth term as speaker, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the chamber’s “most urgent priority” will be defeating the Coronavirus pandemic and said Congress “must do more to recognize” the workers on the frontlines of the crisis. “They make our lives possible at the state and local level, and will facilitate the distribution of the vaccine. We owe them more,” she said. “Many of our essential workers are from communities of color and low-wealth communities which have been devastatingly and disproportionately affected by the coronavirus. They have been there for us, and we must be there for them.” Pelosi said the new Congress must “pursue justice” as it addresses the disparities the pandemic has exposed, and challenged House members to live up to the pledge to provide justice for all. “In all that we do, let us be for the people – recognizing the beautiful diversity of America, so that no one is left out or left behind,” she said. “We do so, guided by the vision of our founders, the sacrifice of our military and their families and the aspirations that we all have for the children.”
The new session comes days before lawmakers will meet to count the votes of the Electoral College and finalize the presidential election results. Nearly a dozen Repubican senators said that they plan to object to the results on January 6, citing false claims of widespread voter fraud pushed by President Donald Trump and his allies. Ahead of Sunday’s proceedings, the House sergeant-at-arms and the Capitol attending physician sent guidelines to new and returning House members, according to Roll Call. The traditional quorum call, swearing-in of new members and speaker election is being done in seven groups, significantly lengthening the day’s events.
The House convened at noon, with the election of a new speaker as the first order of business. Jeffries, a Democrat from New York, nominated Pelosi for speaker, calling her a “resilient leader.” Members were sworn in following the election. “Nancy Pelosi believes that our sacred mission is to continue America’s long, necessary and majestic march toward a more perfect union,” Jeffries said in a speech on the House floor before the vote kicked off. Texas Congressman Chip Roy, a Republican, objected to seating the 67 representatives from Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada. In a statement, Roy said he did so because a number of his colleagues, including fellow members of the House Freedom Caucus, plan to challenge the Electoral College votes from those states over “their deeply held belief that those states conducted elections plagued by statewide, systemic fraud and abuse.” Roy has previously made it clear he oppose this move. “After all, those representatives were elected through the very same systems — with the same ballot procedures, with the same signature validations, with the same broadly applied decisions of executive Judicial branch officials — as were the electors chosen for the President of the United States under the laws of those states, which have become the subject of national controversy,” said Roy, whose objection was voted down 371-2.
In a striking symbol of how the Coronavirus complicated proceedings, a special section of the House chamber was enclosed in plexiglass so three lawmakers who are in “quarantine status” would be able to vote. Dr. Brian Monahan, Congress’ attending physician, said the “highest possible safeguards have been implemented including separate, enhanced ventilation in this space and separate holding facilities for any Members utilizing” the separate space. Members using the space were required to have tested negative for the virus. The special accommodations were also a reflection of the razor-thin margin in the vote for speaker. Democrats will start the 117th Congress with 222 members, just four over the 218 threshold needed for a majority, with one race in New York still undecided. Proxy voting, which allowed for members to cast votes while not physically present at the Capitol, lapsed with the end of the last Congress. The new House will have to vote on whether to extend proxy voting. This means that anyone who is absent on Sunday will not be able to cast a vote in the speaker election.
In the Senate, which also convened at noon for the start of the 117th Congress, Vice President Mike Pence administered the oath of office to pairs of new and reelected members, offering elbow bumps to each. “To say the 117th Congress convenes at a challenging time would indeed be an understatement,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said after members were sworn in. “From political division to a deadly pandemic to adversaries around the world, the hurdles before us are many and they are serious. But there is also plenty of reason for hope. An optimistic, can-do spirit has been one of our country’s most distinctive calling cards since our very earliest days, and with safe and effective vaccines rolling out across our nation every day, I’d say 2021 looks bright already.”
Nancy Pelosihas been reelected speaker of the House by her caucus for Congress’s next session, marking her fourth term with the gavel. The caucus vote was conducted virtually, but a voice vote approved Pelosi. Pelosi did not face any challenge for her post, but she will also need to secure a simple majority, 218 Democratic votes, by the full House of Representatives in January to be sworn in again as House Speaker. She indicated after the vote that the upcoming term could be her last. In 2019, several Democrats voted for someone other than her on the floor, but with a slimmer margin in the majority after the 2020 election, she cannot afford to lose more than a handful of votes. In remarks to her colleagues after the vote on November 18, Pelosi made a pitch for unity. “As we go forward with liberty and justice for all, we must do so listening to the American people, listening to each other with respect, acting to unify, Joe Biden is a unifier, so that will make it easier for us, remembering the guidance of our Founders: E pluribus unum, from many, one,” she said.
House Democrats are holding leadership elections as they grapple with unexpected losses and the prospects for a Congress that remains divided. The Republican party appears heavily favored to maintain control of the Senate. Additionally, House Republicans picked up at least eight seats, and several races are too close to call. Other top Democratic leaders, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, also ran unopposed and were approved by the caucus to serve in those roles next year. House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries of New York did not face any competition for his post as the fifth-ranking leader and was reelected as well. For the fourth-ranking position, assistant speaker, Massachusetts Congresswoman Katherine Clark defeated Congressman David Cicilline of Rhode Island. Congresswoman Cheri Bustos (D-IL), who ran the House Democrats’ campaign arm, said she would not run for another term. Congressmen Tony Cardenas of California and Sean Patrick Maloney of New York are vying for the position, which will be decided later this month.
Before the election, top leaders and political analysts had forecast that Democrats would expand their majority, potentially picking up as many as 15 seats. But the party’s disappointing results sparked a blame game that has increased tensions about policy priorities going forward. Moderates who were ousted or won very narrowly say progressives who pressed to “defund the police” or advocated for sweeping policies like the Green New Deal gave Republican opponents an opening by taking the party off-message when voters were concerned about the economy or the coronavirus. Progressives, on the other hand, have argued their message drove turnout among young voters and people of color. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has downplayed the Republican gains, pointing out that Democrats flipped 40 seats in the 2018 midterms, a figure that meant they had more incumbents to protect this year. She also said Democrats deserve credit for boosting turnout in crucial swing states, helping the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris ticket ultimately win in those places. The speaker circulated a letter on November 16 urging unity among Democrats, saying that “President-elect Biden’s message and mandate as a unifier have given the American people hope.”
When Nancy Pelosi was reelected in 2018, she agreed to limit herself to two terms as speaker, but the caucus never formally adopted rules to lock in the term limit for the speaker or other top leadership positions. After winning support from her colleagues, Pelosi suggested on November 18 that she would stick by that pledge. She noted that the caucus did not choose to enact term limits for leaders or committee chairs but told reporters, “Whether it passes or not, I will abide by those limits that are there.” She has moved to expand the slots on the leadership ladder to respond to sentiment inside the caucus that she held on too tightly to power and had not given more opportunities for newer members to gain valuable experience.
Nancy Pelosi will need to manage various ideological factions inside her caucus, which already have different priorities for next year, with a Democrat in the White House. Progressive hopes for broad climate change legislation and significant expansion for health care coverage will face challenges. The California Democrat has negotiated those differences before and brushed off questions last week from a reporter who pressed whether she would need to modify her legislative approach. “Not at all,” Pelosi insisted. She added that “our leverage and our power is greatly enhanced by having a Democratic president in the White House, especially Joe Biden.”
Elections to the US Senate will be held November 3, 2020, with 33 of the 100 seats in the Senate being contested in regular elections and two seats being contested in special elections. The winners will serve six-year terms from January 3, 2021, to January 3, 2027. Counting the special elections, Republicans have 21 seats up for re-election, whereas Democrats have 12 seats up for re-election. There are also two spatial elections: Republicans can afford to have a net loss of three or four seats to still remain in the majority, whereas the Democrats need to have a net gain of 4-5 seats to gain a majority in the Senate depending on which party wins the Presidency. Three of the Republican seats are open as a result of retirements in Wyoming, Tennessee, and Kansas, whereas one Democratic seat is open due to the retirement of Democratic Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico. The current polling shows many competitive races that can go either way. As such, current control of the Senate remains a tossup, with a slight edge to the Republicans.
Here is a complete list of the Senate seats up in 2020 and an analysis of the likely results of each race:
Alabama:
One-term Democrat Doug Jones is running for election to a full term and faces an uphill battle against Trump-aligned Republican Tommy Tuberville
Incumbent Democrat Doug Jones was elected in a special election in 2017, narrowly defeating Republican nominee Roy Moore, who was weakened due to allegations of sexual misconduct against minors as well as numerous controversial statements on policy issues. Jones is running for his first full term as a Senator. Former Auburn University football head coach Tommy Tuberville defeated former senator and attorney general Jeff Sessions in a July 14 runoff to secure the Republican nomination. Sessions occupied the seat until early 2017 when he resigned to become attorney general in the Trump administration.
Despite the fact that Doug Jones is the first Alabama Democrat elected to a statewide office since 2006, most polling tends to paint a dim picture of his re-election bid. Alabama is one of the most conservative states in the entire country and Jones’s 2017 win was mostly attributed to the fact that Roy Moore was a weak candidate. As such, it has been long expected that the seat will flip back to the Republicans as Jones faces much stronger opposition from Tommy Tuberville. Despite some competitive polling, Tuberville has led Jones by an average of 12% in nearly all polls. As such, Alabama is a likely pickup for the Republicans.
Alaska
One term Republican Dan Sullivan is running for re-election and faces a potentially competitive race against Independent Democrat Al Gross
Republican Dan Sullivan was elected in 2014, defeating incumbent Democrat Mark Begich. He is running for a second term. Potential Democratic candidates included Begich, who was the Democratic nominee for governor of Alaska in 2018, and Anchorage mayor Ethan Berkowitz, who was the Democratic nominee for governor of Alaska in 2010. One Democrat, Edgar Blatchford, filed to run by the June 1 filing deadline. On July 2, 2019, Al Gross an orthopedic surgeon and fisherman, declared his candidacy as an Independent. In a joint primary for the Alaska Democratic Party, Alaska Libertarian Party and Alaskan Independence Party, he won the nomination as an independent supported by the Democratic Party.
Overall, the Alaska Senate race is considered one of the more competitive Senate races this election cycle. Dan Sullivan thus far has only led by about 3-5% against Al Gross, though there still remains a high number of undecided votes. The election was impacted by the revelation of recordings related to the controversial Pebble Mine project, which could adversely impact the ecosystem of Bristol Bay. Though Dan Sullivan has publicly opposed the mining project, corporate executives of the Pebble Limited Partnership indicated that he would quietly support the project after the election, if he is re-elected, in secret recordings that were made public. Moreover, Al Gross’ status as a doctor may resonate with Alaskans who are impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic. As such, the Alaska Senate race is considered a lean Republican race, with the potential for Al Gross to win in an upset.
Arizona:
Appointed Republican Martha McSally is widely expected to lose her race to earn a full Senate term.
Republican senator John McCain (who is largely considered one of the greatest Senators in US history) was elected to a sixth term in 2016 but died in office in August 2018 from a brain tumor. Republican governor Doug Ducey appointed former senator Jon Kyl to fill the seat temporarily. After Kyl stepped down at the end of the year, Ducey appointed outgoing Congresswoman Martha McSally to replace him. McSally is running in the 2020 special election to fill the remaining two years of the term. Retired astronaut Mark Kelly won the Democratic nomination.
Once a solidly Republican state from the early 1950s until the 2000s, Arizona has trended heavily towards the Democrats in recent years. Incumbent Republican Martha McSally was appointed to the late John McCain’s seat two months after losing the 2018 Arizona U.S. Senate election to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema. Her Democratic opponent, astronaut Mark Kelly (who is married to former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords), has raised significantly more money and generally leads her by 5-15 points in the polling. McSally is also suffering from low approval ratings due to her strong allegiance to Trump, who is unpopular in Arizona despite winning the state by 3.5% in 2016. A s such, the Arizona Senate race is expected to be won by Mark Kelly by ~5%.
Arkansas
First term Neo-conservative aligned Republican Tom Cotton is expected to face an easy re-election considering that the Demcoratic party did not even field a candidate.
Neo-conservative-aligned Republican Tom Cotton was first elected in 2014 after serving two years in the House of Representatives, defeating incumbent Democratic senator Mark Pryor by a 17% margin. Cotton is seeking a second term. Joshua Mahony, a nonprofit executive and 2018 Democratic nominee for Congress in Arkansas’s 3rd congressional district, filed to run for the Democratic nomination, but dropped out just after the filing deadline. No other Democrats filed within the filing deadline. Progressive activist Dan Whitfield ran as an independent but suspended his campaign on October 1, 2020, after failing to qualify for the ballot. Christian missionary Ricky Dale Harrington Jr. is running as the Libertarian nominee and is thus Tom Cotton’s only opponent due to the lack of any other major candidates in the race.
Overall, the Arkansas Senate race is generally viewed as safe for Tom Cotton, who is likely to win by anywhere by a 11-55% margin. A stronger Democratic candidate such as former Arkansas governor Mike Beebe or former congressman Mike Ross might have made this race competitive, though Arkansas has trended heavily Republican over the past 10 years due to the Democratic party’s leftward drift on social issues, as well as the increasingly populist message of the Republican party. What is interesting about this election is that despite being the Libertarian candidate, Harrington will likely win the few remaining Democratic counties in Arkansas, which will make for an interesting election results map.
Colorado
First term Republican Cory Garder faces a formidable opponent in former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper and is expected to lose his re-election bid by a comfortable margin.
Republican Cory Gardner was elected in 2014 after serving four years in the House of Representatives, narrowly defeating one-term Democrat Mark Udall. Gardner is seeking a second term.
Former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper is the Democratic nominee and generally leads Gardner by 10-20 points in the polls, with many pundits already considering him a favorite to win. Gardner is Colorado’s only Republican statewide officeholder, and the once competitive state has trended increasingly Democratic since Gardner’s narrow win in 2014. Gardner also has low approval ratings due to his strong allegiance to President Donald Trump, who lost Colorado in 2016 to Hillary Clinton by 4.9%. Hickenlooper has raised significantly more money than Gardner, as well. As such, the Colorado Senate election is widely considered to be a comfortable pick up for the Democratic party.
Delaware:
Democrat Chris Coons is expected to win a third Senate term against QAnon supported Republican Lauren Witzke.
Democrat Chris Coons was reelected in 2014; he first took office after winning a 2010 special election, which occurred after longtime Senator Joe Biden resigned to become Vice President. He faced a primary challenge from technology executive Jessica Scarane. Conservative activist and QAnon supporter Lauren Witzke is the Republican nominee, having defeated attorney Jim DeMartino in the Republican Senate primary on September 15, 2020. Witzke’s campaign has mostly focused on her support for labor unions and opposition to gun control.
Overall, the Delaware Senate race is considered to be a safe hold for the Democratic party. No Republican has won a statewide office in Delaware since 2008, and the state is largely considered to be safe for the Democratic party in terms of the Presidential race due to the presence of native son Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee. As such, Chris Coons is expected to win re-election with at least 35% of the vote.
Georgia (Regular Election)
First term Republican David Perdue is facing a tough re-election bid against Democrat Jon Ossoff.
Republican David Perdue was elected in 2014. He is seeking a second term. Former Columbus mayor Teresa Tomlinson and 2018 lieutenant governor nominee Sarah Riggs Amico lost the Democratic nomination to former congressional candidateJon Ossoff, a documentary film producer and investigative journalist. (Other potential Democratic candidates who did not run included former state senator Jason Carter and state representative Scott Holcomb) Ossoff will face Perdue in November.
Overall, the Georgia Regular Election is largely considered to be one of the more competitive Senate elections and a potential pick up opportunity for the Democratic party. Georgia is largely considered a pivotal swing state (that Joe Biden has a decent chance in carrying) and Jon Ossoff has thus far run a positive, issue-oriented campaign. The trends in favor of the Democratic party, couple with Ossoff’s strong campaign, have resulted in David Perdue losing by an average of 3% in recent polling, thus pointing to a victory by Ossoff. Assuming that neither candidate reaches 50%, Georgia law requires a run-off election. The Georgia run-off elections generally favor the Republican party (as was evident in 2008 and 2014), so if the election goes to a run-off, then Perdue is likely to be favored
Georgia (Special Election):
Democrat Raphael Warnock is running a strong campaign for the Georgia special election and stands a chance at winning assuming that the race does not go to a run-off.
Three-term Senator Johnny Isakson announced that he would resign from the Senate at the end of 2019, citing health concerns. A “jungle primary” will be held November 3, 2020; a candidate earning a majority of votes cast will win, but if no candidate wins a majority, a runoff election between the top two finishers will be held January 5, 2021. The winner of the special election will serve until the expiration of Isakson’s term on January 3, 2023. Georgia governor Brian Kemp appointed Republican Kelly Loeffler to replace Isakson until an election could be held; Loeffler took office on January 6, 2020, and will compete in the November 2020 election. Other Republicans running for the seat include Wayne Johnson, former chief operating officer of the Office of Federal Student Aid, and four-term Congressman (and staunch Trump ally)Doug Collins
Unlike the regular election, the special election is being conducted as a jungle primary: all candidates are listed on the same ballot regardless of party affiliation, and if no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, the top two will advance to a runoff on January 5, 2021. Doug Collins remains close to Kelly Loeffler in the polls due to allegations of insider trading against Loeffler. Democrats running for the seat include Raphael Warnock, Matt Lieberman, Ed Tarver, and Richard Dien Winfield. Prominent national Democrats and the Democratic National Senatorial Committee have endorsed Warnock.
Much like Jon Ossoff, Raphael Warnock has run a very strong campaign and has opened up a substantial polling lead over both Kelly Loeffler and Doug Collins. Despite his polling lead, Warnock has not yet hit the 50% mark required to avoid a run-off election. As such, while Warnock is likely to lead in the initial election, the Georgia Special election is likely to be headed to a run-off, in which either Kelly Loeffler or Doug Collins would be slightly favored to narrowly win.
Idaho:
Republican Jim Risch should likely experience a relatively easy re-election bid in one of the most Republican states in the country.
Two-term Republican Jim Risch was easily reelected in 2014. On August 13, 2019, he announced that he would seek a third term. Former gubernatorial nominee and former Coeur d’Alene Tribal Councilwoman Paulette Jordan won the Democratic nomination in a primary against retired policeman Jim Vandermaas.
Overall, Idaho is a safe hold for the Republican party. Idaho is one of the most Republican states in the entire country and no Democrat has been in office as a Senator from Idaho since Frank Church (one of the greatest Senators in modern history) lost re-election in 1980. Additionally, Jim Risch is a relatively non-controversial incumbant, with his only notable positions being his strong support for Saudi Arabia and Israel. As such, Risch will likely win re-election by a least a 25% margin.
Iowa:
Republican Joni Ernst is experiencing a difficult re-election fight due to her strong support for President Donald Trump, advocacy for trade policies that adversely impact Iowa’s farmers.
Republican Joni Ernst was elected in 2014 after serving four years in the Iowa Senate. She is seeking a second term. Theresa Greenfield won the Democratic nomination, defeating former vice-admiral Michael T. Franken, attorney Kimberly Graham, and businessman Eddie Mauro in the primary.
Joni Ernst’s popularity has dropped in the polls, allegedly due to support for President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs that have impacted Iowa farmers. But Democrats have had a hard time winning statewide in Iowa in recent years, narrowly losing the governor’s election in 2018. Trump won the state by 9 points in 2016 after Barack Obama carried it in both 2008 and 2012. Democrats do hold three of Iowa’s four congressional seats, picking up two of them in 2018. Ernst and Greenfield, a first-time candidate, are polling neck-and-neck in the general election, but Greenfield lacks name recognition, despite raising more money than Ernst. As such, Joni Ernst is likely to narrowly win re-election, although an upset victory by Theresa Greenfield is possible
Kansas:
Republican Roger Marshall is expected to win his first Senate term by a relatively close margin.
Four-term Republican Pat Roberts is retiring and will not run for reelection. Former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, state Turnpike Authority chairman (and former Kansas City Chief defensive end) Dave Lindstrom, Congressman Roger Marshall, plumber/businessman Bob Hamilton, Kansas Board of Education member Steve Roberts, state senate president Susan Wagle, and Republican socialist Brian Matlock all announced their candidacies. Wagle later withdrew. Congressman Marshall won the primary election on August 4, having defeated Kobach by a 14% margin.
Among Democrats, former Republican turned Democratic state senator Barbara Bollier ran and faced Robert Tillman, nominee for Kansas’s 4th congressional district in 2012 and candidate in 2016 and 2017. Former US attorney Barry Grissom, mayor of Manhattan Usha Reddi, and former congresswoman Nancy Boyda announced runs but withdrew before the primary. Former governor Kathleen Sebelius declined to run.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to win his re-election bid by a landslide margin.
Incumbent Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, who has been Senate Majority Leader since 2015 and senator from Kentucky since 1984, is running for reelection to a seventh term. He faces the Democratic nominee, US Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath, and Libertarian Brad Barron.
Overall, Mitch McConnell is heavily favored to win re-election by perhaps his largest margin of victory of his Senate career. Amy McGrath has thus far run a very weak Senate campaign that has pulled resources away from other more competitive Senate races. Additionally, Donald Trump’s strong popularity in Kentucky is expected to help Mitch McConnell immensely in his re-election bid. As such, the Kentucky Senate election represents a lost opportunity for the Democratic party. Assuming that a stronger candidate such as former Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear, former Kentucky House of Representatives minority leader Rocky Adkins, or Kentucky House of Representatives member Charles Booker received the Senate nomination, this seat would have been a potential pick-up opportunity for the Democrats.
Louisiana:
First term Republican Bill Cassidy is expected to easily win re-election in heavily Republican Louisiana.
Republican Bill Cassidy was elected in 2014 after serving six years in the United States House of Representatives, defeating three-term Democrat Mary Landrieu. He is running for reelection. Multiple Democratic candidates are running, but the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has endorsed Shreveport mayor Adrian Perkins. Similarly to the Georgia Special election, a Louisiana primary (a form of jungle primary) will be held November 3; if no candidate wins a majority of the vote in the primary, a runoff election will be held.
Thus far, Bill Cassidy seems to be heavily favored to win re-election. Over the past 10 years, Louisiana has trended heavily towards the Republican party and is expected to be won by Donald Trump by ~25%. These factors tend to point to a strong victory by Bill Cassidy in the run-off election.
Maine:
Despite facing a strong challenge from Maine’s state House Speaker Sara Gideon, four term Republican incumbent Susan Collins is expected to narrowly win re-election
Four-term Republican Susan Collins was reelected by a wide margin in 2014. She is seeking a fifth term in office Democrats running included state House speaker Sara Gideon, attorney Bre Kidman, and activist and 2018 gubernatorial candidate Betsy Sweet. Gideon won the nomination.
Susan Collins is a formidable incumbent who defeated her last serious challenger, in the democratic wave year of 2008, by a resounding 20 point margin. However, Collins has taken some tough votes recently, and there is some indication that things are genuinely competitive this time. However, Collins is an entrenched incumbent and should be able to win, albeit by a very narrow margin.
Massachusetts:
Democrat Ed Markey is expected to win re-election easily in one of the most solidly Democratic states in the entire country.
Democrat Ed Markey was reelected in 2014, after first winning a 2013 special election to replace longtime incumbent John Kerry, who resigned to become Secretary of State. He is running for a second term. Joe Kennedy III, four-term Congressman for Massachusetts’s Fourth District and grandson of former senator and US attorney general Robert Kennedy, unsuccessfully challenged Markey for the Democratic nomination. Noted conspiracy theorist Shiva Ayyadurai, an independent candidate for Senate in 2018, unsuccessfully ran against attorney Kevin O’Connor for the Republican nomination. On August 24, 2020, perennial candidate Vermin Supreme launched a write-in campaign for the Libertarian nomination but received too few votes to qualify for the general election ballot.
Ed Markey is expected to win re-election by a landslide margin this year. Since the late 1920s, Massachusetts has been a heavily Democratic state and has not elected a Republican to a full Senate term since Edward Brooke in 1972. Additionally, Massachusetts is expected to be one of Joe Biden’s best states in the Presidential election. As such, Ed Markey is heavily favored to win a second full Senate term without too much difficulty.
Michigan:
Republican John James is expected to narrowly defeat Democrat Gary Peters in the Michigan Senate election.
Democrat Gary Peters was elected in 2014 after serving six years in the House of Representatives. He is seeking a second term. 2018 Senate nominee John James won the Republican nomination. He faced token opposition for the Republican nomination from perennial candidate Bob Carr.
Overall, Michigan represents a pick-up opportunity for the Republican party. Despite his strong support for Donald Trump, John James has run a very strong campaign and has promoted a positive, inclusive message. In contrast, Gary Peters has thus far run a lackluster campaign and is expected to run significantly behind Joe Biden. As such, John James is likely to narrowly win the Michigan Senate election.
Minnesota:
Democrat Tina Smith is generally viewed as the favorite to win re-election, though an upset victory by Republican Jason Lewis remains a possibility.
Incumbent Democrat Tina Smith was appointed to the Senate to replace Al Franken in 2018 after serving as lieutenant governor and won a special election later in 2018 to serve the remainder of Franken’s term. On August 11, she won the Democratic nomination to serve a full term. Former Congressman Jason Lewis is the Republican nominee, having defeated minor candidates Cynthia Gail, John Berman, Bob Carney, and James Reibestein in the primary election.
Overall, the Minnesota Senate election can be described as a race leaning towards the Democrats. While Jason Lewis polled somewhat strongly early on in the race, Tina smith has narrowed the gap and is leading as of right now by a 7-13% margin. As such, the Minnesota Senate race is expected to remain in Democratic hands, although an upset by Jason Lewis cannot be entirely ruled out.
Mississippi:
Controversial Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith is expected to win re-election by at least a 20% margin over Democrat Mike Espy
After seven-term Republican senator Thad Cochran resigned in April 2018, Republican Governor Phil Bryant appointed state agriculture commissioner Cindy Hyde-Smith to succeed him until a special election could be held later in the year. Hyde-Smith won the November 2018 special election to fill the remainder of Cochran’s term, which ends in January 2021. Hyde-Smith is running for a full term. She was unopposed in the Republican primary. Former Clinton Agriculture Secretary and 2018 Senate candidate Mike Espy won the Democratic primary with 93.1% of the vote. Libertarian candidate Jimmy Edwards also made the general election ballot.
Despite her strong support for Donald Trump and white supremacist views, Cindy Hyde-Smith is expected to easily win re-election. Mississippi has been a solidly Republican state since the 1980s and has not elected a Democrat to any Senate seat since 1982. While Mike Espy is expected to do better than previous Democratic Senate nominees in Mississippi, Donald Trump’s coattails are expected to enable Cindy Hyde-Smith to win re-election by a 15-20% margin.
Montana:
First term Republican Steve Daines is locked in a competitive race with Montana governor Steve Bullock.
Republican Steve Daines was elected in 2014 after serving two years in the House of Representatives He is seeking a second term. Daines was opposed (prior to his nomination) in the Republican primary by hardware store manager Daniel Larson and former Democratic speaker of the Montana House of Representatives John Driscoll, who changed parties in 2020. Incumbent governor Steve Bullock won the Democratic nomination, defeating nuclear engineer and Navy veteran John Mues. Libertarian and Green party candidates were set to appear on the general election ballot, but the Libertarians refused to nominate a replacement after their nominee withdrew and the Greens’ nominee was disqualified.
Once seen as likely to remain in Republican hands, Daines’s seat is now competitive due to Bullock’s last-minute entry. Daines leads Bullock by single digits in the most recent polling, while Bullock raised more money than Daines. But Montana is expected to be safely Republican in the presidential election, meaning that Bullock is relying on Montana’s history of ticket-splitting, as he did in 2016 when he was re-elected to a second gubernatorial term by 4 points despite Trump winning the state by 20 points. Montana also reelected Jon Tester, a Democrat, to the Senate in 2018, by 4 points. As such, the Montana Senate race is largely viewed as a toss-up race with a slight edge to Steve Bullock.
Nebraska:
Trump critic Ben Sasses is expected to win re-election over his Democratic challenger Chris Janicek, who has been weakened by sexual assault allegations.
Anti-Trump Republican Ben Sasse was elected to the Senate in 2014 after serving as the president of Midland University. He is seeking a second term. Sasse defeated businessman and former Lancaster County Republican Party chair Matt Innis in the Republican primary with 75.2% of the vote. Businessman and 2018 Senate candidate Chris Janicek won the Democratic primary with 30.7% of the vote, defeating six other candidates. Libertarian candidate Gene Siadek will also appear on the general election ballot.
After the primary election, the Nebraska Democratic party withdrew its support from Janicek when allegations that he sexually harassed a campaign staffer emerged. Janicek refused to leave the race despite the state party endorsing his former primary opponent, which led former Democratic Congressman Brad Ashford to announce a write-in campaign on August 23, 2020. After Janicek vowed to remain in the race anyway, Ashford then withdrew on August 27, citing a lack of the time and resources necessary to run a Senate campaign. The state Democratic Party subsequently threw its support behind long-time Nebraska activist Preston Love, Jr., who declared a write-in candidacy for the seat. Due to his relatively moderate positions, as well as the poor candidate quality of Chris Janicek, Ben Ssse is expected to easily win re-election by at least a 30% margin.
New Hampshire:
Despite New Hampshire being a toss-up state at the Presidential level, two term Democrat Jeanne Shaheen is expected to easily win re-election over her Republican rival.
Two-term Democrat Jeanne Shaheen was narrowly reelected in 2014. She is seeking a third term. Former brigadier general Donald C. Bolduc, perennial candidate Andy Martin, and attorney Corky Messner ran for the Republican nomination. Messner won the nomination on September 8. Libertarian Justin O’Donnell will appear on the general election ballot.
While New Hampshire is a toss-up state in the Presidential election and has a reputation as one of the more conservative states in New England, Jeanne Shaheen is heavily favored against Corky Messner. The main reason why Shaheen is heavily favored is due to the weak campaign Messner has thus far run. Assuming that a stronger Republican candidate such as New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, New Hampshire State Representative Al Baldasaro, former Senator Kelly Ayotte, or former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown (who now resides in New Hampshire) opted to run, this Senate race would have been far more competitive. Based on these factors, Jeanne Shaheen is expected to win re-election by at least a 25% margin.
New Jersey:
Democrat Cory Booker is running for a second full term and is expected to be re-elected by a strong margin.
Democrat Cory Booker was reelected in 2014; he first took office by winning a 2013 special election after serving as Newark Mayor since 2006. Booker sought the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2020 and polled strongly at first. Although the state allows him to simultaneously run for both president and the Senate, Booker suspended his presidential campaign on January 13, 2020, and confirmed his intention to seek a second Senate term Republican candidates included engineer Hirsh Singh, 2018 Independent Senate candidate Tricia Flanagan, 2018 independent Senate candidate Natalie Lynn Rivera, and Eugene Anagnos. The party ultimately nominated pharmacist, Georgetown University law professor, and attorney Rik Mehta. Green Party candidate Madelyn Hoffman and two independent candidates will also appear on the general election ballot.
Overall, Cory Booker is heavily favored to win re-election. While New Jersey experienced close Senate races in 1988, 1994, 2000, 2006, and 2018, no Republican has served as a Senator from the state since appointed Senator Nicholas Brady left office in December of 1982. Additionally, Rik Mehta has thus far run a lackluster campaign. Assuming that the New Jersey Republican party instead nominated 2018 Senate candidate Bob Hugin, state assembly member Jack Ciattarelli, Congressman Chris Smith, or state senator Thomas Kean Jr., this race would have been slightly more competitive. Based on these factors, Cory Booker is expected to cruise to re-election
New Mexico:
In the race to succeed retiring Democrat Tom Udall, Congressman Ben Ray Luján is the clear favorite to win.
Two-term Democrat Tom Udall is the only incumbent Democratic Senator retiring in 2020. Congressman Ben Ray Luján was unopposed for the Democratic nomination. Among Republicans, former Interior Department official Gavin Clarkson and executive director for the New Mexico Alliance for Life Elisa Martinez ran. They lost in the primary to former KRQE chief meteorologist Mark Ronchetti. Libertarian Bob Walsh will appear on the general election ballot.
As of right now, Ben Ray Luján is heavily favored in the Senate election. New Mexico is a heavily Democratic state, having last voting in a Republican Senator in 2002. Additionally, New Mexico is expected to go to Joe Biden by at least 15% These factors, combined with Mark Ronchetti’s poor quality campaign, will result in Ben Ray Luján winning the election by at least 10%.
North Carolina:
Despite allegations of sexual misconduct, Democrat Cal Cunningham is the slight favorite in the North Carolina Senate election.
Republican Thom Tillis was elected in 2014 after serving eight years in the North Carolina House of Representatives, narrowly defeating one-term Democrat Kay Hagan. He faced a primary challenge from three different candidates. State senator Erica D. Smith, Mecklenburg County Commissioner Trevor Fuller, and former state senator Cal Cunningham ran for the Democratic nomination. On March 3, 2020, Tillis and Cunningham won their parties’ primaries. The Libertarian Party and the Constitution Party have candidates on the general election ballot.
Thom Tillis has grown unpopular among both centrist and conservative Republicans due to his inconsistent support of Trump. He also suffers from low name recognition, and North Carolina is trending towards the Democratic party. The Tillis campaign experienced a slight resurgence in early October, when several sexual misconduct allegations were levied against Cal Cunningham. Despite these allegations, the Cunningham campaign actually gained a few percentage points in the polls. As such Thom Tillis is not currently favored to win re-election and is expected to underperform Donald Trump in North Carolina by 1%.
Oklahoma:
In one of the most conservative states in the entire country, Republican Jim Inhofe is the clear favorite to win re-election.
Four-term Republican Jim Inhofe was easily reelected in 2014. He is seeking a fifth term. J.J. Stitt, a farmer and gun shop owner, Neil Mavis, a former Libertarian Party candidate, and John Tompkins unsuccessfully challenged Inhofe for the Republican nomination. Democrats in the race included attorney Abby Broyles, perennial candidate Sheila Bilyeu, 2018 5th congressional district candidate Elysabeth Britt, and R.O. Joe Cassity Jr. Broyles won the nomination. Libertarian candidate Robert Murphy and two Independents will also appear on the general election ballot.
Oklahoma is one of the most solidly Republican states and is expected to give Donald Trump over 70% of the vote in favor of his re-election. Additionally, no Democrat has won a Senate race there since David Boren’s landslide re-election in 1990. Based on these factors, James Inhofe is expected to win re-election easily, perhaps by a 30% margin.
Oregon:
Democrat Jeff Merkely is expected to win re-election by a wide margin over his QAnon-backed Republican opponent.
Two-term Democrat Jeff Merkley was reelected by a comfortable margin in 2014. Merkley, who was considered a possible 2020 presidential candidate, is instead seeking a third Senate term and was unopposed in the Democratic primary. 2014 US Senate and 2018 US House candidate Jo Rae Perkins is the Republican nominee, defeating three other candidates with 49.29% of the vote. She is a supporter of QAnon. Ibrahim Taher will also be on the general election ballot, representing the Pacific Green Party and the Oregon Progressive Party. Gary Dye will represent the Libertarian Party.
Overall Jeff Merkely is expected to easily win re-election. Oregon is a heavily Democrattic state and has not elected a Republican to the Senate since 2002. Additionally, Jo Rae Perkin’s strong support for QAnon is expected to be a major campaign issue. As such, Jeff Merkely is expected to win re-election by at least a 20% margin.
Rhode Island:
Even though Rhode Island has slightly trended Republican in recent years, Democrat Jack Reed should expect an easy re-election against weak opponents.
Four-term Democrat Jack Reed was easily reelected in 2014. He is seeking a fifth term and was unopposed in the Democratic primary. Investment consultant Allen Waters was unopposed for the Republican nomination. One independent candidate filed for the election.
Trump aligned Republican Lindsey Graham is expereincing a stronger than expected re-election challenge in Democrat Jamie Harrison
Three-term Republican Lindsey Graham was reelected in 2014 and is seeking a fourth term. He defeated three opponents in the June 9 Republican primary. After his primary opponents dropped out, former South Carolina Democratic Party chairman Jaime Harrison was unopposed for the Democratic nomination. Bill Bledsoe won the Constitution Party nomination. On October 1, 2020, Bledsoe dropped out of the race and endorsed Graham, but he will remain on the ballot as required by state law.
Despite the significant Republican lean of the state as a whole, polls indicate that the Senate election is competitive, with summer polling ranging from a tie to a modest advantage for Graham. Graham’s popularity has declined as a result of his close embrace of Trump, reversing his outspoken criticism of Trump in the 2016 campaign. As such, the South Carolina Senate race is one of the more competitive races this cycle and will likely be won by Graham by a margin of less than 5%.
South Daokta:
One term Republican Mike Rounds is the clear favorite to win re-election in South Dakota.
Republican Mike Rounds was elected in 2014 after serving two terms as governor of South Dakota. He faced a primary challenge from state representative Scyller Borglum. Former South Dakota state representative Dan Ahlers was unopposed in the Democratic primary.
Mike Rounds is expected to win an easy re-election. South Dakota is a heavily Republican state, with the last Democratic Senate victory occurring in 2008. Additionally, Donald Trump handily won South Dakota in 2016 and is expected to win the state by a 20% margin this year. As such, Mike Rounds will win a strong re-election victory against Dan Ahlers.
Tennessee:
Republican Bill Haggerty is the clear favorite to win the Tennessee Senate election this year.
Three-term Republican Lamar Alexander was reelected in 2014. He announced in December 2018 that he would not seek a fourth term. Assisted by an endorsement from Trump, former ambassador to Japan Bill Hagerty won the Republican nomination. Orthopedic surgeon Manny Sethi also ran for the nomination, as did 13 other Republicans. James Mackler, an Iraq War veteran, and Nashville attorney, ran for the Democratic nomination with support from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee but was upset in the primary by environmental activist Marquita Bradshaw of Memphis.
Overall, the Tennessee Senate election is expected to be an easy victory for Bill Haggerty. Tennessee as a whole has trended heavily Republican over the past 10 years and is expected to give Donald Trump one of his largest victories out of any state. Additionally, Republican dominance at all levels of government in the state has decimated the Democratic bench. As such, Bill Haggerty is expected to win with at least 30% of the vote.
Texas:
Even though Texas will likely vote Democratic at the Presidential level, three term Republican John Cornyn is the clear favorite due to ticket splitting in the Dallas, Houston, and Fort Worth suburbs.
Three-term Republican John Cornyn was reelected in 2014 by a wide margin and is seeking a fourth term. He defeated four other candidates in the Republican primary with 76.04% of the vote. Democrats MJ Hegar, an Air Force combat veteran who was the 2018 Democratic nominee for Texas’s 31st congressional district, and state senator Royce West were the top two vote-getters in a field of 13 candidates in the Democratic primary and advanced to a primary runoff election on July 14 to decide the nomination. Hegar prevailed.
While Joe Biden has a strong chance to become the first Democrat since Jimmy Carter in 1976 to win Texas at the Presidential level, John Cornyn is heavily favored to win re-election. MJ Hegar has been heavily outspent and only started to outraise John Cornyn in recent weeks. Additionally, there is reported to be a good deal of ticket-splitting in the Dallas, Houston, and Fort Worth suburbs that should help John Cornyn. Based on these factors, John Cornyn is likely to win re-election with at least 5% even if Joe Biden carries Texas at the Presidential level.
Virginia:
Two term Democrat Mark Warner is the clear favorite to win re-election in Virginia.
Two-term Democrat Mark Warner was reelected by a very narrow margin in 2014 after winning easily in 2008. He is seeking a third term and was unopposed in the Democratic primary. Republicans nominated professor and Army veteran Daniel Gade. The primary also included teacher Alissa Baldwin and Army veteran and intelligence officer Thomas Speciale.
The Virginia Senate race is expected to be easily won by Mark Warner. While Daniel Gade has run a relatively decent campaign, Virginia has trended heavily towards the Democratic party since 2006. Additionally, Donald Trump is deeply unpopular in the state and is expected to lose by at least 10%. As such, Mark Warner is expected to win re-election, though Daniel Gade may overperform Donald Trump slightly.
West Virginia:
Republican Shelly Moore Capito is the clear favorite to win re-election in one of the most Republican states in the US.
Republican Shelley Moore Capito was easily elected after serving 14 years in the House of Representatives. She was unsuccessfully challenged in the Republican primary by farmer Larry Butcher and Allen Whitt, president of the West Virginia Family Policy Council. Environmental activist Paula Jean Swearengin, a candidate for US Senate in 2018, won the Democratic primary, beating former mayor of South Charleston Richie Robb and former state senator Richard Ojeda, a nominee for the House of Representatives in West Virginia’s 3rd congressional district in and briefly a 2020 presidential candidate. Libertarian candidate David Moran will also appear on the general election ballot.
Overall, the West Virginia Senate race is expected to be a safe hold for Shelly Moore Capito. West Virginia is arguably one of the most Republican states in the entire country and voted for Donald Trump by a 42% margin in 2016. Additionally, the Democratic party has a weak bench at best in the state. Due to these factors, Shelly Moore Capito should expect an easy re-election.
Wyoming:
Former Congresswoman Cynthia Lummis should expect an easy election victory in heavily Republican Wyoming
Four-term Republican Mike Enzi was reelected in 2014, and announced in May 2019 that he will retire. Announced Republican candidates included former Congresswoman and eventual nominee Cynthia Lummis and eight others. Merav Ben-David, the Chair of the Department of Zoology and Physiology at the University of Wyoming went on to defeat community activist Yana Ludwig, think-tank executive Nathan Wendt, community activist James DeBrine and perennial candidates Rex Wilde and Kenneth R. Casner for the Democratic nomination.
Overall, the Wyoming Senate race is expected to be a safe victory for Cynthia Lummis. Like West Virginia, Wyoming voted for Donald Trump by over 40% in 2016 and no Democrat was elected in a Senate race in Wyoming since Gale McGee in 1970. As such, Wyoming is widely expected to be a safe Republican hold.
Here are the main events that occurred in Politics this week:
1. 2020 Election: Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of Democrats Regarding Vote-By-Mail Challenges In North Carolina, Pennsylvania
The US Supreme Court on October 28 dealt setbacks to Republicans by allowing extended deadlines for receiving mail-in ballots in next Tuesday’s election in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, states pivotal to President Donald Trump’s re-election chances
The US Supreme Court on October 28 dealt setbacks to Republicans by allowing extended deadlines for receiving mail-in ballots in next Tuesday’s election in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, states pivotal to President Donald Trump’s re-election chances. With their new colleague, Amy Coney Barrett immediately recusing herself, the justices’ action means a September 17 ruling by Pennsylvania’s top court allowing mail-in ballots that are postmarked by Election Day and received up to three days later to be counted will remain in place for now. The Supreme Court already had rejected a prior Republican request to block the lower court ruling on October 19. This time, the justices opted not to fast-track their consideration of an appeal of the state court ruling by the Republican Party of Pennsylvania to hear and decide the case before the election. The conservative-majority court on October 28 also rejected a request by Trump’s campaign to block North Carolina’s extension of the deadline for receiving mail-in ballots, in another key battleground legal loss for Republicans.
2. 2020 Election: Backers of QAnon On Path To Congress
More than two dozen candidates for Congress in the November 3rd elections have endorsed or given credence to QAnon or promoted QAnon content online, the non-profit watchdog group Media Matters says. Two are independents; the rest are Republicans.
More than two dozen candidates for Congress in the November 3rd elections have endorsed or given credence to QAnon or promoted QAnon content online, the non-profit watchdog group Media Matters says. Two are independents; the rest are Republicans. At least one of them is expected to be elected to the House of Representatives next week, and a second has a good chance. The FBI has listed QAnon as a domestic terrorism threat. The unfounded conspiracy theory, which began in 2017 with anonymous web postings from “Q,” posits that President Donald Trump is secretly fighting a global cabal of child-sex predators that includes prominent Democrats, Hollywood elites, and “deep state” allies. Messages pushed online by its adherents aim to vilify and criminalize political rivals with unfounded allegations. The ADL civil rights group called it “an amalgam of both novel and well-established theories, with marked undertones of antisemitism and xenophobia.”
3. Trump Administration Sets Record Low Limit For New US Refugees
The Trump Administration has slashed the number of refugees it will allow to resettle in the US in the coming year, capping the number at 15,000, a record low in the country’s refugee program’s history
4. 2020 Election: Promising Early Vote Numbers Boost Joe Biden’s Chances In Texas
Less than a week before Election Day, Joe Biden is tantalizingly close to a prize that has eluded generations of Democratic presidential candidates: Texas. Public opinion polls show Biden and Republican President Donald Trump tied in the state.
Less than a week before Election Day, Joe Biden is tantalizingly close to a prize that has eluded generations of Democratic presidential candidates: Texas. Public opinion polls show Biden and Republican President Donald Trump tied in the state. They also suggest the former vice president is leading among those helping to set its staggering early vote totals. As of October 27, nearly 8 million Texans had cast ballots, approaching 90% of the entire 2016 vote, a higher percentage than any state in the country, according to the US Elections Project at the University of Florida. Trump appears to have the edge with voters planning to cast ballots on November 3, according to polls, which also show him improving his standing among Hispanics in Texas, a huge constituency, mirroring modest gains he has made with that demographic nationally since 2016. Texans do not register by party, which makes it difficult to say with certainty who is leading in early voting. A Biden win in Texas, which has not voted for a Democratic nominee for president since Jimmy Carter narrowly won the state in 1976, would end any chance of Trump’s re-election. Since 1976, the only elections years when the Democrats came close in Texas were 1992 and 1996.
Less than a week before Election Day, Joe Biden is tantalizingly close to a prize that has eluded generations of Democratic presidential candidates: Texas. Public opinion polls show Biden and Republican President Donald Trump tied in the state. They also suggest the former vice president is leading among those helping to set its staggering early vote totals. As of October 27, nearly 8 million Texans had cast ballots, approaching 90% of the entire 2016 vote, a higher percentage than any state in the country, according to the US Elections Project at the University of Florida. Trump appears to have the edge with voters planning to cast ballots on November 3, according to polls, which also show him improving his standing among Hispanics in Texas, a huge constituency, mirroring modest gains he has made with that demographic nationally since 2016. Texans do not register by party, which makes it difficult to say with certainty who is leading in early voting. A Biden win in Texas, which has not voted for a Democratic nominee for president since Jimmy Carter narrowly won the state in 1976, would end any chance of Trump’s re-election. Since 1976, the only elections years when the Democrats came close in Texas were 1992 and 1996.
The Democrat’s campaign has been cautious not to lose its focus on the battleground states, however. Four years ago, Hillary Clinton was criticized for miscalculating by spending time in Republican states late in the campaign only to lose seemingly solid Democratic states to Donald Trump. “We’ve been really focused on our top six states,” said Jenn Ridder, the Biden campaign’s national states director, referring to Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Florida, and North Carolina. “But in these last 10 days, if we can do a little bit to put (other states) over the edge, we’re going to take that opportunity.” Joe Biden’s running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, will visit Texas on October 30, and billionaire Michael Bloomberg plans to spend $15 million in Texas and Ohio in a last-minute bid to flip both Republican-leaning states. The campaign’s reluctance to go all-in has frustrated some Texas Democrats, including Julian Castro and Beto O’Rourke, who both ran for their party’s 2020 presidential nomination. “They’ve invested close to zero dollars in the state of Texas, and they’re doing this well,” O’Rourke told reporters last week. “Imagine if they invested some real dollars.”
Texas added a week of early voting to ease crowds on Election Day in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic. Harris County, which includes Houston and has become a Democratic stronghold in recent years, has already seen more than 1.1 million votes. But early voting is surging in all corners of the state, including Republican areas like Denton County, near Dallas, as well as Democratic centers like San Antonio’s Bexar County. Both counties have already surpassed their total votes cast in 2016. Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University, conducted a poll from October 13-20 with the University of Houston that showed Joe Biden leading among those who had already voted by a 59% to 39% margin. But Trump led by a similar amount among those who planned to vote on November 3. “Democrats are clearly dominating the early turnout,” Jones said. “The pivotal issue for Republicans is whether they can get their voters to turn out on Election Day.”
Besides the early vote, there are signs that Texas’ shift toward the Democratic Party is not a mirage. Donald Trump and Joe Biden have been close in the state polls all year, and Democratic and Republican candidates are fiercely contesting dozens of congressional and state legislative races. As in other parts of the country, President Donald Trump has seen his poll numbers erode in Texas’ rapidly diversifying suburbs. That could have calamitous effects on down-ballot Republicans. According to James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas, Biden has made gains among independent voters, who make up roughly 10% of the state’s electorate. An October poll conducted by Henson’s organization found Biden outperforming Trump among independents, 45% to 37%. In 2016, Clinton lost the same group by nearly 30 percentage points. Democrats also point to more than 3 million newly registered voters in the state, many of whom moved to Texas from predominantly Democratic states.
Rebecca Acuna, Joe Biden’s Texas campaign director, noted that the early voters include close to a million people who have never voted in a presidential election, many younger and more diverse voters who likely lean Democratic. “We have every reason to believe that Texas is a tossup,” Acuna said. Citing its own internal analysis, the Trump campaign asserted the president is ahead by hundreds of thousands of votes among early ballots. Trump won Texas by a nine-point margin in 2016. In recent days, Trump has tried to hurt Biden with the state’s dominant oil and gas industry by playing up comments he made at last week’s debate about the need to transition eventually from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. “Texas voters recognize Biden’s radical anti-energy agenda will destroy the state’s economy,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Samantha Cotten said.
In his statement, President Donald Trump said any new refugees this year should be placed by the US State Department in parts of the country open to hosting them. “Newly admitted refugees should be placed, to the maximum extent possible, in States and localities that have clearly expressed their willingness to receive refugees” and “resettled in communities that are eager and equipped to support their successful integration into American society and the labor force,” Trump said. Critics say that President Trump has abandoned a longstanding US role as a safe haven for persecuted people and that cutting refugee admissions undermines other foreign policy goals. Trump’s Democratic rival and former Vice President Joe Biden has pledged to raise refugee admissions to 125,000 a year if he defeats Trump, although advocates have said the program could take years to recover.
Tens of thousands of refugees have applications in the pipeline for the US, even as increased vetting by the Trump administration and the novel coronavirus have slowed arrivals for the 2020 fiscal year, which had an 18,000 quota. President Donald Trump’s 2021 plan allocates 5,000 slots for refugees facing religious persecution, 4,000 for refugees from Iraq who helped the US, and 1,000 for refugees from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, leaving 5,000 for others. It bans refugees from Somalia, Syria, and Yemen except in “special humanitarian concerns,” citing the risk of terrorism.
The US Supreme Court on October 28 dealt setbacks to Republicans by allowing extended deadlines for receiving mail-in ballots in next Tuesday’s election in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, states pivotal to President Donald Trump’s re-election chances. With their new colleague, Amy Coney Barrett immediately recusing herself, the justices’ action means a September 17 ruling by Pennsylvania’s top court allowing mail-in ballots that are postmarked by Election Day and received up to three days later to be counted will remain in place for now. The Supreme Court already had rejected a prior Republican request to block the lower court ruling on October 19. This time, the justices opted not to fast-track their consideration of an appeal of the state court ruling by the Republican Party of Pennsylvania to hear and decide the case before the election. The conservative-majority court on October 28 also rejected a request by Trump’s campaign to block North Carolina’s extension of the deadline for receiving mail-in ballots, in another key battleground legal loss for Republicans.
Associate Justice Samuel Alito, joined by fellow conservatives Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, said in a written opinion that there is a “strong likelihood” that the Pennsylvania court’s decision violates the US Constitution, and it should be reviewed before the election. But I reluctantly conclude that there is not enough time at this late date to decide the question before the election,” Alito wrote. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, in a statement urged voters to drop off mail ballots at drop boxes or county election offices in an effort to “stave off further anticipated legal challenges.” The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party and various Democratic officials and candidates who had asked for the court to protect voting rights during the Coronavirus pandemic. Democrats in the case also raised concerns about whether the US Postal Service, led by Louis Dejoy, an ally of President Donald Trump, would be able to handle the surge of ballots promptly.
On October 26, the conservative justices were in the majority when the Supreme Court on a 5-3 vote declined to extend mail-in voting deadlines sought by Democrats in Wisconsin. Despite their ruling on the Wisconsin mail-in balloting procedures, the conservative justices indicated they did not see the Pennsylvania matter as closed. They said the case could still be reviewed and decided relatively quickly. Pennsylvania officials have said that ballots arriving after Election Day will be kept separate from the other ballots “so that if the State Supreme Court’s decision is ultimately overturned, a targeted remedy will be available,” Associate Justice Samuel Alito wrote.
President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans in many states have opposed measures to facilitate voting during the Coronavirus pandemic. The public health crisis has prompted an increase in mail-in ballot requests as voters seek to avoid crowds at polling places. In their earlier decision, the justices, shorthanded after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, were divided 4-4, leaving in place the state court ruling. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the three liberal justices in denying the request.
More than two dozen candidates for Congress in the November 3rd elections have endorsed or given credence to QAnon or promoted QAnon content online, the non-profit watchdog group Media Matters says. Two are independents; the rest are Republicans. At least one of them is expected to be elected to the House of Representatives next week, and a second has a good chance. The FBI has listed QAnon as a domestic terrorism threat. The unfounded conspiracy theory, which began in 2017 with anonymous web postings from “Q,” posits that President Donald Trump is secretly fighting a global cabal of child-sex predators that includes prominent Democrats, Hollywood elites, and “deep state” allies. Messages pushed online by its adherents aim to vilify and criminalize political rivals with unfounded allegations. The ADL civil rights group called it “an amalgam of both novel and well-established theories, with marked undertones of antisemitism and xenophobia.”
After amplifying conspiracy theorists, social media platforms lately have been trying to crack down on QAnon’s sprawl. But a recent poll by Morning Consult said 38% of Republicans believe that at least parts of the QAnon conspiracy are true. A supporter of an early form of the conspiracy, predating President Donald Trump’s election, in 2016 opened fire at a Washington pizzeria that early proponents of the conspiracy claimed was the site of a child sex trafficking ring. President Trump has refused to renounce QAnon and even praised it as patriotic. He has frequently retweeted QAnon-linked content.
Despite the growing support for the anon conspiracy theory amongst Republicans, some Republicans have publicly denounced the conspiracy theory. “We simply cannot continue to be a party that accepts conspiracy theories and lives in crazy echo chambers,” said Brendan Buck, who worked for two former House Republican speakers, Paul Ryan and John Boehner. “There is no place for QAnon in the Republican party,” House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy told Fox News in August, becoming the highest-ranking Republican to condemn QAnon publicly.
Here are the main events that occurred in Politics this week:
1. 2020 Elections: Republicans On Offense In Senate Elections
Republicans are running short of time, money, and options to stop Democrats from winning a majority of seats in the US Senate in an election that is now only two weeks away.
Republicans are running short of time, money, and options to stop Democrats from winning a majority of seats in the US Senate in an election that is now only two weeks away. President Donald Trump’s slide in opinion polls weighs on Senate Republicans in 10 competitive races, while Democrats are playing defense over two seats, increasing the odds of Trump’s Republicans losing their 53-47 majority. That gives Democrats a good chance of adding a Senate majority to their control of the House of Representatives, which could either stymie President Trump in a second term or usher in a new era of Democratic dominance in Washington if Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden wins the White House. “The Republican Party probably has to start thinking about what it can salvage between now and Nov. 3,” said Republican strategist Rory Cooper, a one-time aide to former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. While demographic changes were long expected to work against Republican incumbents, including North Carolina’s Thom Tillis, Arizona’s Martha McSally, and Colorado’s Cory Gardner, powerful Republican senators, including South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham and Iowa’s Joni Ernst, are also facing strong challengers.
2. 2020 Election: Early Voting, Absentee Votes, Exceed 2016 Total In Majority Of States
Early Voting counts show a record level of civic participation before Election Day. The tens of millions of ballots already cast show highly enthusiastic voters are making sure their votes are counted amid a pandemic.
Early Voting counts show a record level of civic participation before Election Day. The tens of millions of ballots already cast show highly enthusiastic voters are making sure their votes are counted amid a pandemic. Democrats hope this energy leads to a decisive victory in the Presidential election. Registered Democrats are outvoting Republicans by a large margin in states that provide partisan breakdowns of early ballots. Republicans, however, are more likely to tell pollsters they intend to vote in person, and the Republican party is counting on an overwhelming share of the Election Day vote going to President Donald Trump. Voting before Election Day has been expanded this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, an option that more than 60 percent of registered voters want, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll in September.
3. Coronavirus Relief Negotiations Stall As Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Comes Out Against Proposed Relief Bill
Congressional negotiations on a substantial Coronavirus relief bill took a modest step forward on October 20, though time is running out and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, President Donald Trump’s most powerful Senate ally, is pressing the White House against going forward.
Congressional negotiations on a substantial Coronavirus relief bill took a modest step forward on October 20, though time is running out and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, President Donald Trump’s most powerful Senate ally, is pressing the White House against going forward. Senator McConnell on October 20 told fellow Republicans that he has warned the Trump administration not to divide Republicans by sealing a lopsided $2 trillion relief deal with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi before the election — even as he publicly said he would slate any such agreement for a vote. Pelosi’s office said talks with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on October 19 and 20 were productive. However, other veteran lawmakers said there is still too much work to do and not enough time to do it to enact a relief bill by Election Day.
4. In Victory For Voting Rights Advocates, US Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of Pennsylvania’s Mail-In Ballot Counting Procedures
The Supreme Court turned down an appeal from Pennsylvania’s Republican leaders on October 19 and left in place a ruling that says late-arriving mail ballots will be counted as long as they were mailed by election day.
The Supreme Court turned down an appeal from Pennsylvania’s Republican leaders on October 19 and left in place a ruling that says late-arriving mail ballots will be counted as long as they were mailed by election day. The justices were split 4-4, with four conservatives on one side, and Chief Justice John Roberts joining liberals on the other. Both of President Donald Trump’s appointees, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, sided with the Pennsylvania Republican party and felt that it was justified for the Supreme Court to hear their argument. The decision has the effect of upholding a state supreme court ruling that allowed for counting mail ballots that arrive up to three days after November 3 as long as they are postmarked or mailed by election day. Pennsylvania is a battleground state, crucial to both President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. Election officials anticipate the outcome there may turn on the nearly 3 million ballots that are likely to be sent by mail. The October 19 decision is a victory for Democrats and voting rights advocates. They feared postal delays could result in mail ballots arriving after election day. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh said they would have granted the appeals filed by Republican leaders in the state legislature and the Pennsylvania Republican Party, which said mail ballots should not be counted unless they arrived by election day. It takes a majority to issue such an order, and with the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last month, the court now has just eight justices.
Early Voting counts show a record level of civic participation before Election Day. The tens of millions of ballots already cast show highly enthusiastic voters are making sure their votes are counted amid a pandemic. Democrats hope this energy leads to a decisive victory in the Presidential election. Registered Democrats are outvoting Republicans by a large margin in states that provide partisan breakdowns of early ballots. Republicans, however, are more likely to tell pollsters they intend to vote in person, and the Republican party is counting on an overwhelming share of the Election Day vote going to President Donald Trump. Voting before Election Day has been expanded this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, an option that more than 60 percent of registered voters want, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll in September.
More voters than ever before can vote by mail this election. While the concept of voting by mail can be traced back to the Civil War and some Western states have long conducted their elections by mail, others, such as New Hampshire, allow all voters to cast ballots by mail for the first time. Several key states, such as Wisconsin, Arizona, and Iowa, greatly expanded mail-in voting, bringing to 12 the number of states that now mail absentee applications to everyone registered. By the end of September, requests for absentee ballots had already surpassed 2016 levels in nearly every state. In 10 states, all voters are being sent a mail-in ballot automatically. Voters are also taking advantage of in-person early voting, with a record-breaking number showing up on the first day of early voting in some states. This is Virginia’s first election with early voting, a change made after Democrats assumed control of the state House and Senate last fall. A handful of states expanded early voting in response to the pandemic, including Texas, where Republican Governor Greg Abbott extended it by a week. The critical question for Democrats is whether these 2020 early ballots are additional voters or just people who would have voted on Election Day anyway.
For states where early ballots can be matched against a voter file, roughly 1 in 5 votes have come from someone who did not cast a ballot four years ago in the same state. These new voters, who may have moved to a new state, turned 18, or just sat out the last presidential election, will probably play a pivotal role in choosing the next president. Even with so many ballots already cast, it is not definitive that unprecedented early voting will translate into voter turnout to exceed the historically high number of votes cast in 2016: 139 million. It is possible that when the dust settles after November 3, the number of Americans who voted will be similar to numbers in previous presidential elections, though they used different methods. One thing is clear through: Despite weeks of campaigning and news still to come, the election is well underway. A large share of Americans have not just made up their minds; they have sealed in their vote.
Congressional negotiations on a substantial Coronavirus relief bill took a modest step forward on October 20, though time is running out and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, President Donald Trump’s most powerful Senate ally, is pressing the White House against going forward. Senator McConnell on October 20 told fellow Republicans that he has warned the Trump administration not to divide Republicans by sealing a lopsided $2 trillion relief deal with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi before the election — even as he publicly said he would slate any such agreement for a vote. Pelosi’s office said talks with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on October 19 and 20 were productive. However, other veteran lawmakers said there is still too much work to do and not enough time to do it to enact a relief bill by Election Day.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made his remarks during a private lunch with fellow Republicans, three people familiar with them said, requesting anonymity because the session was private. The Kentucky Republican appears worried that an agreement between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin would drive a wedge between Republicans, forcing them to choose whether to support a Pelosi-blessed deal with President Donald Trump that would violate conservative positions they’ve stuck with for months. Many Republicans say they cannot vote for another Pelosi-brokered agreement. McConnell said if such a bill passed the Democratic-controlled House with Trump’s blessing, “we would put it on the floor of the Senate.” Those public remarks came after the private session with fellow Republicans.
Despite his previous dismissal of further Coronavirus relief efforts, President Donald Trump is hoping for an agreement before the election, eager to announce another round of $1,200 direct payments going out under his name, but it is increasingly evident that time has pretty much run out. If he wins, President Trump is promising relief, but if he loses, as polls indicate, it is unclear that his enthusiasm for delivering Coronavirus aid will be as strong. Recent history suggests that any post-election lame-duck session in the event of a Trump loss would not produce much. “It’s not a question of ‘íf.’ It’s a question of ‘when.’” said Senate Majority Whip John Thune of South Dakota. “We have to do more. We know that.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that she and Secretary of Treasury Steve Mnuchin remained at odds over refundable tax credits for the working poor and families with children, the size of a Democratic-sought aid package for state and local governments, and a liability shield for businesses and other organizations against lawsuits over their Coroanvirus preparations. Pelosi’s spokesman, Drew Hammill, wrote on Twitter that she and Mnuchin then spoke for 45 minutes and found “more clarity and common ground” and that “both sides are serious about finding a compromise.” The Pelosi-Mnuchin talks also involve pandemic jobless aid, the second round of $1,200 direct payments, and money for schools, testing, and vaccines.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had said October 20 was a deadline day, but clarified in an interview with Bloomberg News that the aim is to spur the two sides to exchange their best proposals on a host of unresolved issues, not to close out all of their disagreements or have final legislative language at hand. “Let’s see where we are,” Pelosi said. “We all want to get an agreement.” Time is running out, and Pelosi has instructed her committee chairs to try to iron out details, but the Senate Republican negotiators do not appear as eager as she is. “It’s getting to be toward the last minute and the clock keeps ticking away,” Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby (R-AL), said. “I’m not optimistic about doing anything.” Aides familiar with the talks say the price tag for a potential Pelosi-Mnuchin deal is inching close to $2 trillion. Senate Republicans are recoiling at both the size of the measure and Pelosi’s demands, even as President Donald Trump is beating the drums for an agreement.“I want to do it even bigger than the Democrats. Not every Republican agrees,” President Donald Trump said in a Fox News interview. “But they will.”
The Supreme Court turned down an appeal from Pennsylvania’s Republican leaders on October 19 and left in place a ruling that says late-arriving mail ballots will be counted as long as they were mailed by election day. The justices were split 4-4, with four conservatives on one side, and Chief Justice John Roberts joining liberals on the other. Both of President Donald Trump’s appointees, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, sided with the Pennsylvania Republican party and felt that it was justified for the Supreme Court to hear their argument. The decision has the effect of upholding a state supreme court ruling that allowed for counting mail ballots that arrive up to three days after November 3 as long as they are postmarked or mailed by election day. Pennsylvania is a battleground state, crucial to both President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. Election officials anticipate the outcome there may turn on the nearly 3 million ballots that are likely to be sent by mail. The October 19 decision is a victory for Democrats and voting rights advocates. They feared postal delays could result in mail ballots arriving after election day. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh said they would have granted the appeals filed by Republican leaders in the state legislature and the Pennsylvania Republican Party, which said mail ballots should not be counted unless they arrived by election day. It takes a majority to issue such an order, and with the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last month, the court now has just eight justices.
Last year, the Pennsylvania legislature agreed to allow all of its registered voters to cast a ballot by mail but also said these ballots must arrive by election day if they are to be counted. But the county election boards struggled in June when the pandemic prompted more than 1 million in Pennsylvania to switch to a mail-in ballot. With the November election looming, the state supreme court agreed in September to rule on several disputes that arose from competing lawsuits. By a 4-3 vote, the state justices agreed to “adopt” the recommendation of Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar and extend the deadline for three days to allow for counting mail ballots that were posted by election day but arrived by November 6. The state judges cited a warning from a US Postal Service lawyer who said there was a “significant risk” that ballots mailed at the end of October would not arrive in a county office by November 3. They also noted that late-arriving ballots from overseas military personnel are counted so long as they are postmarked by election day.
The state ruling was not a total victory for voting rights advocates, however. The state high court upheld a strict rule against counting a mail ballot that does not arrive inside a secured safety envelope. Republican leaders of the state legislature and the Republican Party of Pennsylvania filed separate emergency appeals with the Supreme Court, urging the justices to overrule the state high court on the issue of the late-arriving mail ballots. They said the extended deadline would invite fraud. “This is an open invitation to voters to cast their ballots after election day, thereby injecting chaos and the potential for gamesmanship into what was an orderly and secure schedule of a clear, bright-line deadline,” they wrote in Scarnati vs. Pennsylvania Democratic Party. The two sides presented sharply different views of the law. Pennsylvania’s attorney general argued the state supreme court had ruled on a matter of state election law, which he said should be off-limits to the US justices in Washington. The state Republican leaders insisted that the national election day is set in federal law, and the Constitution gives the state legislature, not its courts, the authority to set the rules for a presidential election.
Overall, the Supreme Court ruling on Pennsylvania’s ballot-counting procedures represents an ominous sign regarding post-election legal challenges by President Donald Trump’s campaign. While Chief Justice John Roberts, regarded as a moderate conservative, sided with the court’s three more liberal members, both of President Trump’s appointees, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, argued that it was justified to strike down Pennsylvania’s mail-in ballot procedures. This seems to show that they will be likely to side with Trump in any election disputes. Coupled with Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s expected support for post-election challenges, it is likely that the Supreme Court may hand Donald Trump a second term even in the case of an overwhelming victory by Joe Biden.
Republicans are running short of time, money, and options to stop Democrats from winning a majority of seats in the US Senate in an election that is now only two weeks away. President Donald Trump’s slide in opinion polls weighs on Senate Republicans in 10 competitive races, while Democrats are playing defense over two seats, increasing the odds of Trump’s Republicans losing their 53-47 majority. That gives Democrats a good chance of adding a Senate majority to their control of the House of Representatives, which could either stymie President Trump in a second term or usher in a new era of Democratic dominance in Washington if Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden wins the White House. “The Republican Party probably has to start thinking about what it can salvage between now and Nov. 3,” said Republican strategist Rory Cooper, a one-time aide to former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. While demographic changes were long expected to work against Republican incumbents, including North Carolina’s Thom Tillis, Arizona’s Martha McSally, and Colorado’s Cory Gardner, powerful Republican senators, including South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham and Iowa’s Joni Ernst, are also facing strong challengers.
Americans have been voting early at an unprecedented pace as they look for ways to avoid exposure to the Coronavirus pandemic that has killed nearly 220,000 people in the United States. Twenty-eight million people have cast early ballots. Democrats have also reported a surge in late campaign donations, outraising Republicans in 12 competitive races by nearly $190 million – $315 million v. $128 million, during the third quarter, according to Federal Election Commission documents. But Democrats had a smaller advantage in cash on hand, reporting about $106 million v. $83 million for Republicans. Republicans are seeing “obvious signals that there’s no path forward,” as one Republican aide put it, unless their incumbents can find ways to distance themselves from Trump and his handling of the pandemic without alienating his supporters.
Despite the relative decline in their overall changes to old onto the Senate, it is genrally believe that the Republican party can still eke out a 51-seat majority by capturing Democratic seats in Alabama and Michigan and denying Democrats victory in North Carolina, Iowa and other states with strong Republican constituencies. “We’ve got eight to ten races that are margin-of-error races. There’s no way in the world you could suggest that those are somehow over,” said Whit Ayres, a leading Republican pollster. “They’re far from out of reach.” The memory of President Donald Trump’s surprise win four years ago after polls showed rival Hillary Clinton with a modest lead, burns brightly for Democratic candidates and voters.
In the closing weeks of the campaign, Republican incumbents have sought to concentrate on their individual races, rather than President Donald Trump. Others have turned on him. Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse, who is expected to win re-election easily, told constituents this week that President Trump “sells out allies” and “treated the presidency like a business opportunity,” the Washington Examiner reported last week, citing an audio recording of the call. Sasse’s office confirmed the comments to the Examiner. Republican Senator John Cornyn, who is vying with Democrat M.J. Hegar in Texas (and is heavily favored to win due to ticket-splitting), told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he has disagreed with Trump in private, likening his relationship with the President to “women who get married and think they’re going to change their spouse, and that doesn’t usually work out very well.” Embattled Senator Martha McSally in Arizona and Montana’s Steve Daines are working to counter Democratic attacks on their healthcare records by portraying themselves as defenders of people with pre-existing conditions.
Another aspect of the campaign working in favor of the Republicans is candidate quality in several key races. For example, a sex scandal engulfing North Carolina Democratic Senate nominee Cal Cunningham has raised Republican hopes of denying Democrats victory in a state seen as a potential tipping point. “That’s a very critical state for Democrats to be able to get to the majority. If they can’t count on that, life will be more difficult for them,” said a Republican strategist involved in several key Senate races. Polls show the North Carolina race tightening with Cunningham still in the lead over Republican Senator Tillis. The upcoming Senate vote on Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett could also galvanize conservative voters for Tillis, as well as Iowa’s Ernst and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Graham, a three-term senator and Trump ally who is running neck-and-neck with Democrat Jaime Harrison. But even as he nears Senate confirmation for Barrett, Graham last week acknowledged his party’s fading position in the polls. “Y’all have a good chance of winning the White House,” he told Democratic colleagues.
Even when all the ballots are counted, it is possible that control of the Senate will not be decided until January due to a pair of races in Georgia that could go to runoffs. In one of those Georgia races, Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler has welcomed a controversial endorsement from Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican US House candidate who has spoken in support of the “QAnon” conspiracy theory that says President Donald Trump is battling “deep-state” traitors, child sex predators and Democrats. The FBI has linked QAnon to domestic extremists. Recent polls in Georgia show Loeffler and fellow Republican Doug Collins trailing Democrat Raphael Warnock, a pastor at Martin Luther King Jr.’s Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
Here Are the main events that occurred in Politics this week
1.Amy Coney Barrett Addresses Various Constitutional Issues, Obamacare Lawsuit In Confirmation Hearings
President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, said on October 14 it was an “open question” whether President Donald Trump could pardon himself and added that the top US judicial body “can’t control” whether a president obeys its decisions.
President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, said on October 14 it was an “open question” whether President Donald Trump could pardon himself and added that the top US judicial body “can’t control” whether a president obeys its decisions. She also sought to allay Democratic fears that she would be an automatic vote to strike down the Obamacare healthcare law in a case due to be argued November 10, promising an “open mind.” Barrett wrapped up about eight hours of questioning on the third day of her four-day Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing. The committee will hear on October 15 from witnesses both for and against her confirmation, but Barrett herself will not be present.
2. Ethics Groups Calls For The Impeachment Of Attorney General William Barr
Two private groups focused on US government ethics on October 12 accused Attorney General William Barr of misusing his office to support President Donald Trump’s political goals and called on the House of Representatives to begin impeachment proceedings against him.
Two private groups focused on US government ethics on October 12 accused Attorney General William Barr of misusing his office to support President Donald Trump’s political goals and called on the House of Representatives to begin impeachment proceedings against him. The University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law and Washington-based Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said Barr could not be trusted to represent his department’s work accurately and that there were problems with the truthfulness of Barr’s public statements. Justice Department officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
3. US Imposes Sweeping New Sanctions On Iranian Financial Sector
The Trump Administration unilaterally imposed sweeping Sanctions on Iran’s financial sector in a move that critics say could have unintended consequences, including a detrimental impact on the ability of the Iranian people to access humanitarian resources.
The Trump Administration unilaterally imposed sweeping Sanctions on Iran’s financial sector in a move that critics say could have unintended consequences, including a detrimental impact on the ability of the Iranian people to access humanitarian resources. October 8th’s tranche of sanctions, coming less than a month before the US presidential election, are the latest in the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign that they say is aimed at causing the Iranian government to change its policies. In a press release, the Treasury Department said it sanctioned 16 banks “for operating in Iran’s financial sector,” one bank “for being owned or controlled by a sanctioned Iranian bank,” and another bank affiliated with the Iranian military. Under the new sanctions, “all property and interests in property of designated targets that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons must be blocked and reported to” the Office of Foreign Assets Control. “In addition, financial institutions and other persons that engage in certain transactions or activities with the sanctioned entities after a 45-day wind-down period may expose themselves to secondary sanctions or be subject to enforcement action,” the Treasury Department said.”Today’s action to identify the financial sector and sanction eighteen major Iranian banks reflects our commitment to stop illicit access to U.S. dollars,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. “Our sanctions programs will continue until Iran stops its support of terrorist activities and ends its nuclear programs.
4. In Major Victory For Pro-Choice Advocates, Supreme Court Reject South Carolina’s Bid To Cut Public Funding For Planned Parenthood
The US Supreme Court on October 13 turned away South Carolina’s bid to cut off public funding to Planned Parenthood, the latest case involving a conservative state seeking to deprive the women’s healthcare and abortion provider of government money.
The US Supreme Court on October 13 turned away South Carolina’s bid to cut off public funding to Planned Parenthood, the latest case involving a conservative state seeking to deprive the women’s healthcare and abortion provider of government money. The justices declined to hear South Carolina’s appeal of a lower court ruling that prevented the state from blocking funding under the Medicaid program to Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, the organization’s regional affiliate. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic operates clinics in Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina, where it provides physical exams, cancer, and other health screenings, as well as abortions. Each year the clinics serve hundreds of patients who receive Medicaid, a government health insurance program for low-income Americans.
President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, said on October 14 it was an “open question” whether President Donald Trump could pardon himself and added that the top US judicial body “can’t control” whether a president obeys its decisions. She also sought to allay Democratic fears that she would be an automatic vote to strike down the Obamacare healthcare law in a case due to be argued November 10, promising an “open mind.” Barrett wrapped up about eight hours of questioning on the third day of her four-day Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing. The committee will hear on October 15 from witnesses both for and against her confirmation, but Barrett herself will not be present.
President Donald Trump has said he has the “absolute power” to pardon himself, part of his executive clemency authority. Asked by Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy whether a president could pardon himself for a crime, Amy Coney Barrett said the “question has never been litigated. “While saying that “no one is above the law,” Barrett twice declined to answer directly when Leahy asked whether a president who refuses to comply with a court order is a threat to the US constitutional system of checks and balances within the three branches of government. “The Supreme Court can’t control whether or not the president obeys,” Barrett said. Supreme Court rulings, Barrett said, have the “force of law,” but the court lacks enforcement power and relies on other government branches.
Amy Coney Barrett could be on the high court for arguments in a challenge by Trump and Republican-led states to the 2010 law formally called the Affordable Care Act that has helped millions of Americans obtain medical coverage and includes protections for people with pre-existing conditions. Responding to Democratic suggestions that she would vote to strike down Obamacare in its entirety if one part is deemed unlawful, Barrett said if a statute can be saved, a judge has to do so. Barrett added that she would approach any ACA case “with an open mind.” Barrett has criticized previous Supreme Court rulings upholding Obamacare. Senator Kamala Harris, who is Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s running mate, said that the proceedings “lack legitimacy in the eyes of the people of our country” because they want the winner of the election to decide who fills the court’s vacancy. “Americans right now are suffering from a deadly pandemic and we are also suffering from a historic economic crisis,” Harris said. “The Senate should be working day and night to provide economic relief to families and not rushing a Supreme Court confirmation.”
Amy Coney Barrett would be the fifth woman ever to serve on the court. As a conservative Roman Catholic, Barrett personally opposes abortion. “This is history being made folks,” said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, chairman of the panel. “This is the first time in American history that we’ve nominated a woman who is unashamedly pro-life and embraces her faith without apology, and she’s going to the court.” Barrett would not say if the landmark 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut ruling that protects the right of married couples to use contraceptives without government restrictions was decided correctly, but said it was “very unlikely” to be imperiled. Some conservatives, including Barrett’s mentor, the late Justice Antonin Scalia, have criticized the ruling, which recognized a constitutional right to privacy and paved the way for the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide as well as decisions recognizing LGBT rights.
Democratic Senator Cory Booker raised concerns to Amy Coney Barrett about racial issues, noting that Black Americans are disproportionately affected by criminal sentencing and voting access restrictions. “In my private life, I abhor racial discrimination and obviously for both personal reasons and professional reasons, I want to ensure that there’s equal justice for all,” added Barrett, who has two adopted children from Haiti among her seven children.
Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation would give the court a 6-3 conservative majority. Republicans have a 53-47 Senate majority, making Barrett’s confirmation a virtual certainty. Republicans are preparing for a committee vote next week and a final Senate confirmation vote before the end of October. Even though Barret holds some judicial views that do not fully align with the author of this site, she is highly qualified and would make a great choice for the Supreme Court provided that she does not become a rubber stamp for President Donald Trump’s agenda and side with him in any potential election-related disputes regarding the 2020 election. Additionally, she has the potential to make history as the first female Cheif Justice of the Supreme Court if the opportunity to elevate her to that position arises in a future Republican administration.
The US Supreme Court on October 13 turned away South Carolina’s bid to cut off public funding to Planned Parenthood, the latest case involving a conservative state seeking to deprive the women’s healthcare and abortion provider of government money. The justices declined to hear South Carolina’s appeal of a lower court ruling that prevented the state from blocking funding under the Medicaid program to Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, the organization’s regional affiliate. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic operates clinics in Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina, where it provides physical exams, cancer, and other health screenings, as well as abortions. Each year the clinics serve hundreds of patients who receive Medicaid, a government health insurance program for low-income Americans.
Numerous Republican-governed states have pursued direct and indirect restrictions involving abortion. Planned Parenthood often is targeted by anti-abortion activists. Planned Parenthood is the largest single provider of abortions in the US and also receives millions of dollars in public funding for other healthcare services. Planned Parenthood and Medicaid patient Julie Edwards sued the state’s Department of Health and Human Services in 2018 after officials ended the organization’s participation in the state Medicaid program. The state took the action after Governor Henry McMaster, a Republican, issued executive orders declaring that any abortion provider would be unqualified to provide family planning services and cutting off state funding to them. The state’s action forced Planned Parenthood to turn away Medicaid patients seeking healthcare services, according to a court filing. South Carolina already did not provide Medicaid reimbursements for abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or if the mother’s life was in danger, as required by federal law.
The Richmond, Virginia-based 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the state’s decision in 2019, saying that by ending Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid agreement for reasons unrelated to professional competency, the state violated Edwards’ right under the federal Medicaid Act to receive medical assistance from any institution that is “qualified to perform the service.” In appealing to the Supreme Court, the state’s health department said Medicaid recipients do not have a right to challenge a state’s determination that a specific provider is not qualified to provide certain medical services. The Supreme Court in 2018 rejected similar appeals by Louisiana and Kansas seeking to terminate Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid funding. At that time, three conservative justices, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch, said the court should have heard the states’ appeals.
Two private groups focused on US government ethics on October 12 accused Attorney General William Barr of misusing his office to support President Donald Trump’s political goals and called on the House of Representatives to begin impeachment proceedings against him. The University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law and Washington-based Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said Barr could not be trusted to represent his department’s work accurately and that there were problems with the truthfulness of Barr’s public statements. Justice Department officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The groups in a 267-page research paper alleged that Attorney General William Barr’s “authoritarian worldview limits the degree to which … (he) regards himself as bound by the rule of law and makes him see himself as entitled to ignore the laws, ethics and historical practices” at the Justice Department. The paper highlighted several Barr actions, including what it described as his intentional mischaracterization of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election as well as Barr’s move to assign US Attorney John Durham to conduct his own investigation of the Mueller probe. While President Donald Trump has long bristled at suggesting that foreign interference helped his 2016 upset victory, multiple reviews by US intelligence agencies concluded that Russia acted to undercut his rival Hillary Clinton’s chances in that election.
The authors of the October 12 reports called on the Democratic-led House of Representatives to begin a formal impeachment inquiry, the first step toward removing Attorney General William Barr from office. Earlier this year, the Republican-controlled Senate acquitted President Donald Trump after a House impeachment proceeding accused him of misusing his office. House officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A little more than three weeks remain until the November 3 elections. President Trump is seeking a second term against Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, and is currently well behind in the polls.
The Trump Administration unilaterally imposed sweeping Sanctions on Iran’s financial sector in a move that critics say could have unintended consequences, including a detrimental impact on the ability of the Iranian people to access humanitarian resources. October 8th’s tranche of sanctions, coming less than a month before the US presidential election, are the latest in the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign that they say is aimed at causing the Iranian government to change its policies. In a press release, the Treasury Department said it sanctioned 16 banks “for operating in Iran’s financial sector,” one bank “for being owned or controlled by a sanctioned Iranian bank,” and another bank affiliated with the Iranian military. Under the new sanctions, “all property and interests in property of designated targets that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons must be blocked and reported to” the Office of Foreign Assets Control. “In addition, financial institutions and other persons that engage in certain transactions or activities with the sanctioned entities after a 45-day wind-down period may expose themselves to secondary sanctions or be subject to an enforcement action,” the Treasury Department said.”Today’s action to identify the financial sector and sanction eighteen major Iranian banks reflects our commitment to stop illicit access to U.S. dollars,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. “Our sanctions programs will continue until Iran stops its support of terrorist activities and ends its nuclear programs.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the sanctions “are directed at the regime and its corrupt officials that have used the wealth of the Iranian people to fuel a radical, revolutionary cause that has brought untold suffering across the Middle East and beyond.””The United States continues to stand with the Iranian people, the longest-suffering victims of the regime’s predations,” he said in a statement on October 8. Supporters of the move say it is consistent with the Trump administration’s campaign against the Iranian government.”Targeting Iran’s financial sector is the next logical step for an administration which has significantly driven down Iranian oil revenues and sanctioned sectors supporting Iran’s missile, nuclear, and military programs,” said Behnam Ben Taleblu of the neoconservative-aligned think tank the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).”These steps help to sever lingering Iranian touch-points to the international financial system, and thus sharpen the choice Tehran faces as it continues to prioritize regime interest over national interest,” he said.
Here are the main events that occurred in Politics this week:
1. September Jobs Report Reveals Slowing Economy Ahead of Presidential Election
Nonfarm payrolls rose by a lower than expected 661,000 in September, and the unemployment rate was 7.9%, the Labor Department said on October 2 in the final jobs report before the November election.
Nonfarm payrolls rose by a lower than expected 661,000 in September, and the unemployment rate was 7.9%, the Labor Department said on October 2 in the final jobs report before the November election. Economists surveyed had been expecting a net job gain of 800,000, and the unemployment rate to fall to 8.2% from 8.4% in August. The payrolls miss was mainly due to a drop in government hiring as at-home schooling continued, and Census jobs fell. “The issue is momentum, and I think we’re losing it,” said Drew Matus, chief market strategist for MetLife Investment Management. “When you go through a significant disruption to the labor market, it takes time to fix itself. That’s without regard to whether there’s a virus.”
2. DHS: White Supremacists ‘The Most Persistent and Lethal Threat’ Within the US
White Supremacists “remain the most persistent and lethal threat in the homeland,” the Department of Homeland Security concluded in its inaugural threat assessment released on October 6, following widespread concern that President Donald Trump did not do enough to condemn such groups at a debate last week.
White Supremacists “remain the most persistent and lethal threat in the homeland,” the Department of Homeland Security concluded in its inaugural threat assessment released on October 6, following widespread concern that President Donald Trump did not do enough to condemn such groups at a debate last week. “I am particularly concerned about white supremacist violent extremists who have been exceptionally lethal in their abhorrent, targeted attacks in recent years,” acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf wrote in a letter accompanying the report, which resembles similar annual documents the Pentagon and intelligence community produce that highlight their top priorities and concerns for protecting American interests. The report categorizes white supremacist militants as part of broader domestic violent extremists or DVEs, and says spikes in the threats they pose “probably will depend on political or social issues that often mobilize other ideological actors to violence, such as immigration, environmental, and police-related policy issues.”
3. Mike Pence, Kamala Harris, Spar Over Policy In Vice Presidential Debate
On October 7, Vice President Mike Pence and California Senator Kamala Harris met for the only Vice Presidential Debate. In contrast to last week’s debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, both Vice President Pence and Senator Harris sought to discuss actual public policy.
On October 7, Vice President Mike Pence and California Senator Kamala Harris met for the only Vice Presidential Debate. In contrast to last week’s debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, both Vice President Pence and Senator Harris sought to discuss actual public policy. Both Pence and Harris sparred over topics ranging from climate change, taxes, foreign policy, the Coronavirus pandemic, and the Supreme Court. Both candidates were on the defense at times. Pence found himself in the hot seat when he had to answer for the Trump Administration’s response to the Coronavirus pandemic, which polling shows most Americans deem lackluster at best. Pence, who leads the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force, unequivocally defended the Trump Administration’s handling of Coronavirus and argued that the deaths of more than 210,000 Americans were effectively inevitable, despite scientific studies showing otherwise.
4. 2020 Election: Joe Biden Leads President Donald Trump by 16% In Recent Polling
CNN poll released on October 6 found Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden leading President Donald Trump by 16 points, his most comprehensive lead of the election cycle. Biden leads Trump 57 to 41 percent in the survey conducted after the first presidential debate and partially after the President’s Coronavirus diagnosis.
A CNN poll released on October 6 found Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden leading President Donald Trump by 16 points, his most comprehensive lead of the election cycle. Biden leads Trump 57 to 41 percent in the survey conducted after the first presidential debate and partially after the President’s Coronavirus diagnosis. The survey also found likely voters supporting Biden by wide margins on several issues. Voters prefer the former Vice President on Supreme Court nominations, 57 to 41 percent. Biden also leads on health care, 59 to 39 percent, and on the Coronavirus pandemic, 59 to 38 percent. Biden’s lead is 62 to 36 percent on racial inequality, and he leads on crime and public safety at 55 to 43 percent. The two are statistically tied on the economy, with 50 percent preferring Biden versus 48 percent preferring Trump.
On October 7, Vice President Mike Pence and California Senator Kamala Harris met for the only Vice Presidential Debate. In contrast to last week’s debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, both Vice President Pence and Senator Harris sought to discuss actual public policy. Both Pence and Harris sparred over topics ranging from climate change, taxes, foreign policy, the Coronavirus pandemic, and the Supreme Court. Both candidates were on the defense at times. Pence found himself in the hot seat when he had to answer for the Trump Administration’s response to the Coronavirus pandemic, which polling shows most Americans deem lackluster at best. Pence, who leads the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force, unequivocally defended the Trump Administration’s handling of Coronavirus and argued that the deaths of more than 210,000 Americans were effectively inevitable, despite scientific studies showing otherwise.
The debate began with moderator Susan Page laying out rules and saying that each candidate would have two minutes to talk uninterrupted, unlike the first presidential debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. “Americans also deserve a discussion that is civil,” she said. Senator Kamala Harris opened by laying out the case against the Trump Administration’s handling of the Coronavirus pandemic. “The American people have witnessed the greatest failure of any presidential administration in our history,” Harris said. She did not outline a specific response that she and Biden would take if they were to take office January but repeatedly hammered Trump for downplaying the virus and telling Americans it was less dangerous than it is while millions of people lost jobs and lives. “They knew and they covered it up,” she added. Pence hit back by defending the Administration’s response and said he constantly thinks about the victims of the virus, but that the White House wanted to respect the “freedom” of the American people. “You respect the American people when you tell them the truth,” Harris replied.
Senator Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence clashed over the issues of police violence and the country’s reckoning on racial justice this year. When asked whether justice was done in the case of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black EMT who was killed by Louisville police officers earlier this year, Vice President Pence said his heart breaks for her family but “I trust our justice system.” He added that he and President Donald Trump have fought for criminal justice reform. Senator Harris hit back by emphasizing her record as a prosecutor. She then criticized Trump for his treatment of racial issues over the years, including at last week’s presidential debate when Trump did not condemn the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group, and instead told them to “stand back and stand by,” a message that was taken by the group as encouragement.“Last week the President of the United States took a debate stage in front of 70 million Americans and refused to condemn white supremacists,” Harris said. She added that this was not the first time Trump has emboldened those who hold racist views. “This is a part of a pattern of Donald Trump’s,” she said, calling out Trump’s reference to Mexicans as “rapists,” his proposed “Muslim ban,” and of his comments after the white supremacist riots in Charlottesville, where Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides.”
Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris’s discussion about climate change typified the campaign trail debate on global warming. Even before being asked, Vice President Pence sought to tie Joe Biden to the Green New Deal, a congressional resolution introduced in 2019 that calls for bold public spending to address climate change and other social ills, and claimed that Biden would ban fracking. Fracking and the Green New Deal have become hot-button issues in the election, particularly in the swing state of Pennsylvania, where fracking is a significant source of employment. Senator Harris adamantly denied the claim that the Biden administration would ban fracking while sidestepping any in-depth discussion of the Green New Deal. On the science of climate change, Pence adhered to the talking points, acknowledging that “the climate is changing.” Meanwhile, Harris emphasized both the destruction wrought by climate change and the potential for new jobs.
When the subject of the upcoming Supreme Court confirmation hearings inevitably came up, Senator Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence were both asked how they would want their respective states to respond if the new court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision protecting a woman’s right to have an abortion. Although Vice President Pence asserted he was “pro-life” and felt no need to apologize for it, and Harris stressed her belief in a woman’s right to choose whether to have an abortion, it was clear that both candidates wanted to avoid the topic. Pence repeatedly stressed Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s credentials and argued that Democrats would criticize her Catholic faith and pack the court, expanding it beyond nine justices, if they won the election.
Kamala Harris responded by noting that both she and Joe Biden are people of faith and that if elected, Biden would be the second practicing Catholic to hold that office. But Harris also spent the majority of her time reiterating the main line of attack Senate Democrats have been employing against Barrett: that, as a justice, she would help to overturn the Affordable Care Act. When Mike Pence repeated his allegation that Democrats would pack the court if they win, Harris brushed off the attack and pointed to the Trump Administration’s outsized list of federal judge appointees, but ultimately declined to directly answer the question. Biden has previously said he opposes court packing, but progressives ratcheted up their calls to do so in the wake of Barrett’s nomination, and it is increasingly seen as a fault line between progressive and centrist Democrats.
While foreign policy was barely discussed in the presidential debate, Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris engaged in a substantive exchange about the standing of the US in the world. Senator Harris said in a Biden Administration, foreign policy would be based on longstanding relationships. “You’ve got to keep your word to your friends, you’ve got to be loyal to your friends,” Harris said. “You’ve got to know who your adversaries are, keep them in check.” Harris said President Donald Trump has “betrayed” American allies, noting his close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and rough treatment of allies in NATO, and the fact that he withdrew the US from the Iran nuclear deal. She decried Trump’s “unilateral approach to foreign policy” and his “isolationism.” She also noted the reporting in The Atlantic that Trump had called members of the U.S. military “suckers” and “losers.”
Vice President Mike Pence countered that President Donald Trump has “stood strong with our allies,” but, he acknowledged, “we’ve been demanding.” He said NATO members are paying more in defense spending, and cited achievements including moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, launched a raid that resulted in the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi the leader of the Islamic State, and authorized the killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani Pence also denied the reporting about Trump’s comments about the military, saying Trump “respects” and “reveres” those who serve in the US military.
Overall, the Vice Presidential debate was far more civil when compared to the Presidential debate. Neither Senator Kamala Harris nor Vice President Mike Pence interrupted each other and instead focused on substantive policy as opposed to personal insults. The case can be made that Vice President Pence narrowly won the debate overall. Whereas Senator Harris was well-prepared in her arguments and directly hit the Trump administration over many policy issues, Pence was strong in his rebuttals and was able to frame his responses in an effective way despite their dubious factual backing. Despite Vice President Pence’s victory in the Vice Presidential debate, it is likely that the debate will do little to change the final results of the Presidential election.
A CNN poll released on October 6 found Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden leading President Donald Trump by 16 points, his most comprehensive lead of the election cycle. Biden leads Trump 57 to 41 percent in the survey conducted after the first presidential debate and partially after the President’s Coronavirus diagnosis. The survey also found likely voters supporting Biden by wide margins on several issues. Voters prefer the former Vice President on Supreme Court nominations, 57 to 41 percent. Biden also leads on health care, 59 to 39 percent, and on the Coronavirus pandemic, 59 to 38 percent. Biden’s lead is 62 to 36 percent on racial inequality, and he leads on crime and public safety at 55 to 43 percent. The two are statistically tied on the economy, with 50 percent preferring Biden versus 48 percent preferring Trump.
The survey also finds Joe Biden leading on whom respondents consider honest and trustworthy, 58 to 33 percent. He also leads on the question of which candidate “cares about people like you,” 58 to 38 percent, and on who has a clear plan to solve the country’s problems, 55 to 39 percent. While most surveys show Biden leading Trump among women, the CNN poll shows him beating President Donald Trump among women by a 2 to 1 margin, at 66 to 32 percent. This is an increase from a September poll that put his lead at 20 percentage points. The former vice president’s lead among people of color has also widened, from 28 points in September to 42 points in October. Fifty-seven percent of respondents who watched last week’s debate said Biden did the better job, compared to 26 percent who chose Trump and 14 percent who said neither.
Overall, this most recent polling should be a major sign of concern for the Trump campaign. Since assuming office in 2017, President Donald Trump has done little to expand his shrinking base of support. His mishandling of the Coronavirus pandemic, racial unrest, and the economy has only served to reduce his public support to record-low levels. Assuming that these polling trends continue, it is likely that Joe Biden will win the 2020 Presidential election with a historic margin of victory.
White Supremacists“remain the most persistent and lethal threat in the homeland,” the Department of Homeland Security concluded in its inaugural threat assessment released on October 6, following widespread concern that President Donald Trump did not do enough to condemn such groups at a debate last week. “I am particularly concerned about white supremacist violent extremists who have been exceptionally lethal in their abhorrent, targeted attacks in recent years,” acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf wrote in a letter accompanying the report, which resembles similar annual documents the Pentagon and intelligence community produce that highlight their top priorities and concerns for protecting American interests. The report categorizes white supremacist militants as part of broader domestic violent extremists or DVEs, and says spikes in the threats they pose “probably will depend on political or social issues that often mobilize other ideological actors to violence, such as immigration, environmental, and police-related policy issues.”
The conclusion comes a week after the first presidential debate on September 29, in which President Donald Trump declined multiple times to condemn white supremacy. The debate moderator asked President Trump if he would condemn white supremacists and militia groups and tell them they need to “stand down.” After pivoting to talk about left-wing groups, the President said, “Give me a name. Who would you like me to condemn?” “Proud Boys,” Biden interjected. “Proud Boys: Stand back and stand by,” Trump said. The White House initially stood by his debate response before Trump, facing continued outrage and slumping poll numbers, said days later that he does indeed condemn white supremacy. “Let me be clear again: I condemn the KKK. I condemn all white supremacists. I condemn the Proud Boys. I don’t know much about the Proud Boys, almost nothing, but I condemn that,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity on October 1.
President Donald Trump said at the debate and stressed that he believes the most significant domestic threat comes from far-left groups, including the loosely organized ideology known as Antifa, a conclusion not supported by other agencies that assess domestic risks, including the FBI. The DHS report on October 6 identifies anti-government or anti-authority violent extremism as “another motivating force behind domestic terrorism that also poses a threat to the homeland.” “These violent extremists, sometimes influenced by anarchist ideology, have been associated with multiple plots and attacks, which included a significant uptick in violence against law enforcement and government symbols in 2020. This ideology is also exploited by hostile nation-states, which seek to promote it through disinformation campaigns and sow additional chaos and discord across American society,” the report states.
The report also assessed the widespread threats to US elections from foreign actors and emphasized that Russia is not the only source of attacks against American democracy. “While Russia has been a persistent threat by attempting to harm our democratic and election systems, it is clear China and Iran also pose threats in this space,” according to the report. In a series of tweets accompanying the report’s release, DHS Chad Wolf wrote that China represents “the most long term strategic threat to Americans, the homeland, and our way of life.” The assessment mirrors that of Trump’s other close security advisers who have downplayed the dangers Russia poses and asserted that China, which the administration blames for the spread of the coronavirus, represents the principal threat to the US.
The report claims China and Russia are leading international efforts to politicize the US response to the Coronavirus pandemic, saying, “Russian online influence actors have claimed that President Donald Trump is incapable of managing the Coronavirus pandemic and sought to exacerbate public concerns by amplifying content critical of the US response to the public health crisis and the economic downturn. “In contrast, the actors highlighted China’s and Russia’s alleged success against the COVID-19 outbreak and praised President Putin’s COVID-19 plan and Russia’s ample supply of tests.” That conclusion comes as President Donald Trump faces fresh accusations of downplaying the threat posed by the coronavirus. After leaving Walter Reed National Military Medical Center late on October 5, after being treated for his own Coronavirus diagnosis, President Trump said in a collection of statements, “don’t be afraid of it” and “don’t let it dominate your lives.”
Nonfarm payrolls rose by a lower than expected 661,000 in September, and the unemployment rate was 7.9%, the Labor Department said on October 2 in the final jobs report before the November election. Economists surveyed had been expecting a net job gain of 800,000, and the unemployment rate to fall to 8.2% from 8.4% in August. The payrolls miss was mainly due to a drop in government hiring as at-home schooling continued, and Census jobs fell. “The issue is momentum, and I think we’re losing it,” said Drew Matus, chief market strategist for MetLife Investment Management. “When you go through a significant disruption to the labor market, it takes time to fix itself. That’s without regard to whether there’s a virus.”
The decline in the unemployment rate came with a 0.3 percentage point drop in the labor force participation rate to 61.4%, representing a decline of nearly 700,000. However, a separate, more encompassing measure that counts discouraged workers and those working part-time for economic reasons also saw a notable decline, falling from 14.2% to 12.8%. The unemployment decline for African Americans was even sharper than the headline rate, falling from 13% to 12.1%. The Asian rate declined from 10.7% to 8.9%. Leisure and hospitality led job gains with 318,000 while retail added 142,000 and health care and social assistance increased by 108,000. As expected, government jobs were the biggest drag on the month, losing 216,000 due to a drop in local and state government education as many schools maintained at-home instruction due to the virus. A reduction in Census workers also pulled 34,000 from the total. In other sectors, health care and social assistance gained 108,000, professional and business services contributed 89,000 and the transportation and warehousing sector was up 74,000. Manufacturing grew by 66,000, financial activities added 37,000, and the other services category rose by 36,000. Markets reacted little to the report, with stocks still heading for a lower open following news that President Donald Trump said he and first lady Melania Trump tested positive for Coronavirus.
Despite the deceleration in job creation, there were some positive signs as the economy continues its pandemic-era recovery. Those reporting being on temporary layoff fell by 1.5 million to 4.6 million. Workers holding part-time jobs for economic reasons fell by 1.3 million to 6.3 million, and the totals for longer-term layoffs also decreased considerably. The temporary layoff total peaked at 18.1 million as payrolls fell by 22 million in March and April. However, permanent job losses increased by 345,000 to 3.8 million, in total a 2.5 million increase since February, the month before the World Health Organization declared the Coronavirus pandemic. “Permanent jobs losses rose by more than 300,000. That’s not a good thing. The labor force participation rate declined, which pulled the overall unemployment rate down. That’s not a good sign, either,” said Kathy Jones, head of fixed income at Charles Schwab. “We’re looking at state and local government layoffs, we’re looking at a higher level of permanent job losses and more people leaving the workforce. None of that is good for the long run.”
Here are the main events that occurred in Politics this week:
1.President Donald Trump Nominates Amy Coney Barret To The Supreme Court
President Donald Trump announced September 26 that he will nominate federal appeals court Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, a choice that would lock a conservative majority on the high court and that could help turn out Republican voters in the election less than six weeks away.
President Donald Trump announced September 26 that he will nominate federal appeals court Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, a choice that would lock a conservative majority on the high court and that could help turn out Republican voters in the election less than six weeks away. Judge Barrett would fill the vacancy left by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, preserving the court’s gender balance of three women and six men while potentially tipping its ideological balance for decades. President Trump introduced Barrett in a Rose Garden ceremony attended by conservative activists, a reminder that shifting the Supreme Court to the ideological right has been a decades-long focus for Republicans.
2. President Donald Trump Announces Economic Empowerment Plan For African Americans
President Donald Trump unveiled a plan to win over the African American vote on September 25, less than two months before Election Day, primarily expanding upon the existing economic-related initiatives the President established in his first term.
President Donald Trump unveiled a plan to win over the African American vote on September 25, less than two months before Election Day, primarily expanding upon the existing economic-related initiatives the President established in his first term. The proposals include prosecuting the Ku Klux Klan and Antifa as terrorist organizations, making Juneteenth a federal holiday, and bolstering Black economic prosperity. During an Atlanta event announcing what was deemed the Black Economic Empowerment “Platinum Plan,” Trump sought to draw contrasts between his plan for the African American community and Joe Biden’s proposals, arguing that the former vice president “inflicted” damage on the Black community over the last 47 years he’s spent working in Washington. Trump garnered just 8% of the African American electorate in 2016, and an average of recent 2020 polls shows Biden leading Trump with African American voters by an 83% to 8%, or 75-point, margin. “They only care about power for themselves, whatever that means. My opponent is offering Black Americans nothing but the same old, tired, empty slogans,” President Donald Trump argued.
3. 2020 Election: US Intelligence Reports Warn Of Extremist Threat Around Election
US security officials warn that violent domestic extremists pose a threat to the presidential election next month, amid what one official called a “witch’s brew” of rising political tensions, civil unrest, and foreign disinformation campaigns.
US security officials warn that violent domestic extremists pose a threat to the presidential election next month, amid what one official called a “witch’s brew” of rising political tensions, civil unrest, and foreign disinformation campaigns. A joint FBI and US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memo issued on September 29 says that domestic extremists’ threats to election-related targets will likely increase in the run-up to the Presidential election. Those warnings so far have primarily remained internal. But New Jersey’s homeland security office took the unusual step of publicly highlighting the threat in a little-noticed report on its website last week. “You have this witch’s brew that hasn’t happened in America’s history. And if it has, it’s been decades if not centuries,” said Jared Maples, director of the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, which published the threat assessment.
4. 2020 Election: President Donald Trump Gives Unhinged Performance At First Presidential Debate
President Donald Trump decided on September 29 to bring his chaotic and confrontational style directly to the debate stage at his first face-off with Democrat Joe Biden, seemingly unconcerned that his approach has alienated many independent and moderate voters. Despite his confidence in this approach, President Trump’s performance is likely to be remembered as one of the worst debate performances of any politician in recent memory.
President Donald Trump decided on September 29 to bring his chaotic and confrontational style directly to the debate stage at his first face-off with Democrat Joe Biden, seemingly unconcerned that his approach has alienated many independent and moderate voters. Despite his confidence in this approach, President Trump’s performance is likely to be remembered as one of the worst debate performances of any politician in recent memory. Trump’s frequent interruptions and personal barbs during the roughly 90-minute showdown were the personifications of his re-election strategy, which has mainly focused on exciting a core group of die-hard supporters who revel in his willingness to insult and shock while giving no ground. And he at times flustered Biden, who Trump has for months attempted to paint as senile, with unrelenting attacks on his family and policies. But Biden never looked out-of-touch, and he did match Trump attack for attack, calling the President a “clown,” a “racist” and “the worst president America’s ever had.”
President Donald Trump decided on September 29 to bring his chaotic and confrontational style directly to the Presidential Debate stage at his first face-off with Democrat Joe Biden, seemingly unconcerned that his approach has alienated many independent and moderate voters. Despite his confidence in this approach, President Trump’s performance is likely to be remembered as one of the worst debate performances of any politician in recent memory. Trump’s frequent interruptions and personal barbs during the roughly 90-minute showdown were the personifications of his re-election strategy, which has mainly focused on exciting a core group of die-hard supporters who revel in his willingness to insult and shock while giving no ground. And he at times flustered Biden, who Trump has for months attempted to paint as senile, with unrelenting attacks on his family and policies. But Biden never looked out-of-touch, and he did match Trump attack for attack, calling the President a “clown,” a “racist” and “the worst president America’s ever had.”
Even some of his supporters though President Donald Trump took it too far. “It was too hot,” former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, President Trump’s debate coach, said after the debate on ABC News. “Listen, you come in, decide you want to be aggressive and that was the right thing to be aggressive, but that was too hot. And I think that what happens is, with all that heat, as you said before, you lose the light.” The display was unnerving for viewers at home, with the sitting President goading and talking over his rival, matched with a two-term former Vice President reduced to name-calling. Moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News struggled to maintain order, reminding Trump frequently that his own campaign had agreed to the debate’s rules. CNN anchor Dana Bash, flabbergasted, called the event a “s–tshow” on live television after it was over. In a CBS News poll of debate watchers, 69% described themselves as “annoyed” while another 19% said they were “pessimistic.”
The intent of President Donald Trump’s strategy was apparent in Joe Biden’s performance: the former Vice President offered some of his best answers of the night on issues like voting rights and the President’s tax returns when given stretches of uninterrupted time. He gave an emotional tribute to his son, Beau, an Iraq war veteran who died of brain cancer. At other times Biden adopted a look of weary resignation as he struggled to wrangle a President who revels in confrontational insults and made-for-TV verbal sparring. Biden seemed to struggle under some of President Trump’s barrages, particularly involving his family, simply repeating that the president’s statements were untrue. “Will you shut up, man?” Biden said to Trump at one point. But the frenetic pace and sloppy arguments meant the former vice president at no point committed a debate-night gaffe likely to jeopardize his steady lead in the race. And for Trump, his behavior seemed only to solidify, or even worsen, existing perceptions, while doing little to change the underlying dynamics.
President Donald Trump’s worst moment in the debate was his hesitation to condemn White supremacist organizations under pressure from both Wallace and Biden. When Wallace asked a second time what he would say to the Proud Boys, a violent White nationalist group, President Trump said they should “stand back and stand by.” But, Trump added, “This is not a right wing problem, this is a left wing problem.”Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only African American Republican in the Senate, said it is his view that Trump “misspoke” by not condemning White supremacists but that he needs to make it clear. “I think he should correct it,” Scott told reporters . “If he doesn’t correct it I guess he didn’t misspeak.”
President Donald Trump consistently gets low ratings for his combative style. A New York Times/Siena College poll released on September 28 showed that 34% approve of his efforts to unify America, even less than the 41% who approve of his handling the coronavirus. And while 35% of Americans say the country’s political divisions will get worse if Joe Biden is elected, half of all Americans believe a second Trump term would further fracture the nation. That image is a particular problem with women and independents, two-thirds of whom say he is doing a poor job bringing the country together.
A focus group of undecided voters conducted by Republican pollster Frank Luntz after the debate saw voters acknowledge that President Donald Trump dominated the debate, but reject his tactics. The majority described Trump negatively, with one Pennsylvania woman saying she was now voting for Biden because the President acted like a “crackhead.” Whitney Mitchell Brennan, a Democratic strategist tracking suburban women in the election, said that Trump’s demeanor throughout the debate cost him. She was texting with female friends from across the political spectrum during the debate, and they all were upset by what they saw as disrespectful behavior toward Biden and Wallace. “I think he turned off suburban swing women with this, and they’re the very voters he needs to win over right now,” she said.
President Donald Trump’s allies defended his approach, saying he had succeeded in raising questions about Joe Biden’s son Hunter work overseas and appearing to be the more agile debater. And, they argued, Chris Wallace’s criticism of Trump fed the notion, particularly acute among the President’s core supporters, that the media was working against him. “I think people want to see people who are fighters,” Donald Trump Jr. said of his father’s performance.
US security officials warn that violent domestic extremists pose a threat to the presidential election next month, amid what one official called a “witch’s brew” of rising political tensions, civil unrest, and foreign disinformation campaigns. A joint FBI and US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memo issued on September 29 says that domestic extremists’ threats to election-related targets will likely increase in the run-up to the Presidential election. Those warnings so far have primarily remained internal. But New Jersey’s homeland security office took the unusual step of publicly highlighting the threat in a little-noticed report on its website last week. “You have this witch’s brew that hasn’t happened in America’s history. And if it has, it’s been decades if not centuries,” said Jared Maples, director of the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, which published the threat assessment.
In recent months, nation-wide protests over racial justice and police brutality have been mostly peaceful. Still, some have led to violent confrontations, including between extremist factions from left and right. The US also continues to grapple with the Coronavirus pandemic, high unemployment, and a contentious Presidential election in a polarized political climate. Last week, President Donald Trump refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the election to Democratic rival Joe Biden. Trump has sought to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election because he was concerned about mail-in voting, which Democrats have encouraged during the coronavirus pandemic. Documented mail-ballot fraud cases are sporadic and election experts say it would be nearly impossible for foreign actors to disrupt an election by mailing out fake ballots.
A recent internal FBI bulletin warned that domestic extremists with varying ideologies would likely pose an increasing threat to government and election-related targets in the run-up to the election. An FBI spokeswoman said the agency “routinely shares information with our law enforcement partners in order to assist in protecting the communities they serve,” but declined to comment on the specific document. A DHS memo dated to August 17 said ideologically driven extremists and other actors “could quickly mobilize” to engage in violence related to the election. The document, first reported by Yahoo News, was confirmed to Reuters by a person familiar with it. The memo said that lone offender white supremacists and other lone offenders with “personalized ideologies” pose the greatest threat of deadly violence. A DHS spokesperson directed Reuters to early September remarks by acting Secretary Chad Wolf, in which he said that the department “has taken unprecedented actions to address all forms of violent extremism, to specifically include threats posed by lone offenders and small cells of individuals.”
President Donald Trump and his top officials have not publicly highlighted any threat by violent extremist groups to the election. Trump administration officials have pointed the finger at left-wing anarchists and anti-fascists during protests against police brutality and racism over the summer, but federal court records provide little evidence showing those arrested for violent acts had affiliations to far-left groups. Last week, the top two DHS officials acknowledged in congressional hearings, however, that white supremacists have posed the most lethal domestic threat to the United States in recent years. During congressional hearings earlier this month, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that his agency was conducting investigations into violent domestic extremists, including white supremacists and anti-fascist groups. He said the largest “chunk” of investigations were into white supremacist groups.
According to data compiled by the Anti-Defamation League, white supremacist, anti-Semitic, anti-government, and related ideologies were tied to 77 percent of 454 alleged domestic extremist murders in the past decade, a New York City-based anti-hate advocacy organization, and presented at one of the congressional hearings last week. National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot told Reuters that President Donald Trump’s highest priority is “protecting the US from all threats, both foreign and domestic” when asked if the president had publicly addressed the election threat. Jared Maples, the New Jersey homeland security director, said his agency did not issue a pre-election threat assessment in 2016, but that it was necessary this time around. “We want our allies and folks across the state to recognize that we need to be thinking about this,” he said.
The New Jersey report outlines three possible scenarios for the November election: a quick election outcome, a protracted process where determining a winner takes months, and a legal battle that eventually goes to the Supreme Court. Each of the scenarios could lead to extremist violence, with the possibility of deadly confrontations between protesters and targeted violence toward police officers, the assessment concludes. The agency’s report says the extremists will likely be “anarchist, anti-government, and racially motivated,” but does not say which groups pose a greater threat. The domestic extremist threat has always been present, but is getting more attention this year, according to Mike Sena, president of the National Fusion Center Association, which represents state-run “fusion centers” staffed by federal, state and local public safety personnel who monitor threats and facilitate information sharing. “We have always had threats during the national election cycles from violent extremists, including terrorist organizations,” he said. “With current events, it is more in the spotlight than ever.”
President Donald Trumpunveiled a plan to win over the African American vote on September 25, less than two months before Election Day, primarily expanding upon the existing economic-related initiatives the President established in his first term. The proposals include prosecuting the Ku Klux Klan and Antifa as terrorist organizations, making Juneteenth a federal holiday, and bolstering Black economic prosperity. During an Atlanta event announcing what was deemed the Black Economic Empowerment “Platinum Plan,” Trump sought to draw contrasts between his plan for the African American community and Joe Biden’s proposals, arguing that the former vice president “inflicted” damage on the Black community over the last 47 years he’s spent working in Washington. Trump garnered just 8% of the African American electorate in 2016, and an average of recent 2020 polls shows Biden leading Trump with African American voters by an 83% to 8%, or 75-point, margin. “They only care about power for themselves, whatever that means. My opponent is offering Black Americans nothing but the same old, tired, empty slogans,” President Donald Trump argued.
Like many other Republican politicians since the 1960s, President Donald Trump has presented different racial messages when playing to diverse audiences. He defended Confederate symbols. He has called the Black Lives Matter movement a “symbol of hate,” days after retweeting and then deleting a video that included a Florida supporter shouting “White power.” The White House has maintained that Trump did not hear the supporter say the phrase. But on September 25, the President spoke about the pillars of the plan in broad terms, saying, that among other proposals, he would be building up “peaceful” urban neighborhoods with the “highest standards” of policing, bringing fairness to the justice system, expanding school choice, increasing African American home ownership and creating a “national clemency project to right wrongful prosecutions and to pardon individuals who have reformed their (lives).”
The proposal borrows efforts from proposals by other Republicans, such as South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, who played a vital role in the establishment of opportunity zones and remains the sole African American Republican in the Senate. For example, President Donald Trump’s plan proposes making lynching a national hate crime. In 2019, Scott co-sponsored legislation to make lynching a hate crime alongside none other than California Democratic Senator Kamala Harris, who is now the Democratic Vice Presidential nominee. The legislation passed in the Senate but was never passed by the House. As demonstrations rocked the country this summer protesting against police brutality and racism following the death of George Floyd, President Trump sought to console African Americans who have died as a result of police violence. However, he has consistently delivered a law and order message, calling demonstrators “thugs” and “anarchists” and rebuking what he said was protesters’ “mob rule.” A Monmouth University poll released earlier this month found that 82% of Black respondents said Trump’s handling of the protests made the current situation worse.
President Donald Trump’s proposed “Platinum Plan” also proposes recognizing Juneteenth, the widely observed holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, as a federal holiday. The Trump campaign scheduled a rally on Juneteenth in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the site of a 1921 massacre of hundreds of African Americans during racial unrest in the historic section of the city known as “Black Wall Street.” President Trump said before the rally that it was not scheduled on Juneteenth “on purpose,” but after the event, which his campaign rescheduled in order to avoid further criticism, he sought credit for popularizing the holiday. Trump told The Wall Street Journal that “nobody had ever heard of” the holiday before he brought it up. “I did something good: I made Juneteenth very famous,” Trump said. In June, several senators, including Tim Scott and other Republicans, co-sponsored legislation to make Juneteenth a national holiday.
Overall, President Donald Trump’s recently-proposed “platinum plan” represents significant outreach on the part of a Republican Presidential candidate to make inroads with African American voters. Despite his recent outreach to African American voters, President Trump faces an uphill battle at gaining African American support. For example, a January 2020 Washington Post poll found that than 8 in 10 African Americans believe Trump is racist and has contributed to making racism a bigger problem in the US. A majority of the poll’s respondents, 58%, said Trump’s actions as president are “very” bad for African Americans in the nation. Trump has roundly denied accusations of racism. As President, he has faced blistering criticism over his public and private statements, like in 2017, when he blamed “both sides” after violence sparked by a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Trump also privately referred to some African nations as “s***hole countries” and criticized the protests led overwhelmingly by black NFL players. Last year, the US House of Representatives voted to censure the President’s comments when he told four congresswomen of color to “go back” to where they came from.
President Donald Trump announced September 26 that he will nominate federal appeals court Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, a choice that would lock a conservative majority on the high court and that could help turn out Republican voters in the election less than six weeks away. Judge Barrett would fill the vacancy left by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, preserving the court’s gender balance of three women and six men while potentially tipping its ideological balance for decades. President Trump introduced Barrett in a Rose Garden ceremony attended by conservative activists, a reminder that shifting the Supreme Court to the ideological right has been a decades-long focus for Republicans.
“Amy Coney Barrett will decide cases based on the text of the Constitution as written,” President Donald Trump said, as the nominee stood beside him. “As Amy has said, being a judge takes courage. You are not there to decide cases as you may prefer. You are there to do your duty and to follow the law, wherever it may take you.” President Trump and Judge Barrett praised Ginsburg as a trailblazer, and Barrett said she would do the job of a justice “mindful of who came before me.” Their views and backgrounds could not be more different, however, as the deeply conservative Barrett made clear with a tribute to the late Antonin Scalia, the conservative jurist for whom she was a law clerk and who she said was her legal role model. “I have no illusions that the road ahead of me will be easy, either for the short term or the long haul. I never imagined that I would find myself in this position, but now that I am, I assure you that I will meet the challenge with both humility and courage,” Barrett said, adding that she looked forward to meeting with senators.
Judge Amy Coney Barrett is expected to be confirmed swiftly by the Republican-majority Senate and could be seated before the Presidential election, the resolution of which President Donald Trump has predicted could end up before the Supreme Court. Democrats, with little chance of derailing the nomination, say they are being steamrolled. Some in the party are refusing to meet with Barrett, while liberal activists are pushing Democratic lawmakers for more drastic moves such as boycotting the confirmation hearings. Senate Republicans were preparing to accelerate the confirmation process as soon as the announcement was made, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) planning to meet with Barrett on September 29, according to an aide. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) confirmed in an interview with Fox News that the hearings for Barrett will begin October 12 with opening statements, with questions set to take place on October 13 and 14. There will be testimony from outside witnesses at some point, he said, and the committee process will begin October 15, meaning a panel vote on Barrett’s nomination could come as early as October 22 under Judiciary rules. “I expect they’re going to throw the kitchen sink at us,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-WY), said in an interview. But he said he was confident Barrett would be confirmed before the election “if everything moves along smoothly.”
The prospect of conservative judges and a shift on the high court helped President Donald Trump, with few ideological lodestars, win over skeptical Republicans in 2016, and he has been unapologetic about using this surprise vacancy to further his chances for reelection. “Fill that seat” has been a featured chant at President Donald Trump’s political rallies over the past week, and his campaign is raising money with messages to supporters that tout the president’s Supreme Court pick. Republicans also started selling a T-shirt Saturday that appropriated Ginsburg’s pop-culture-inspired nickname, “Notorious RBG.” The shirts say “Notorious ACB.”
During the White House announcement, the election was not mentioned, nor was abortion, the issue on which many senators of both parties are likely to base their vote on Amy Coney Barrett. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden issued a statement on the nomination that focused on the Coronavirus and the Affordable Care Act’s future, which is back before the high court in the term that begins October 5. “She has a written track record of disagreeing with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision upholding the Affordable Care Act” in 2012, Biden said, noting that Barrett had also criticized Chief Justice John Roberts for his deciding vote in that case.
The 16 days from Amy Barrett’s nomination to the start of her confirmation hearings would be the shortest in recent memory. Since 1990, it has taken an average of 50 days from a Supreme Court pick’s nomination to the start of his or her confirmation hearings, significantly shortcutting the time available for Senators to examine Barrett’s record, read through her writings, and to prepare questions for the hearings. Republican leaders are aiming for a final confirmation vote just days before Election Day, a goal they say is feasible in part because Barrett’s record and background were already scrutinized during her bitter 2017 confirmation to the federal bench. Democrats cited Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s 2016 refusal to hold hearings for President Barack Obama’s last Supreme Court nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, on the theory that voters in that year’s presidential election should have their say first. Senator McConnell has since reversed his opinion to say that Trump’s confirmation pick should go forward before the election.
Amy Coney Barrett is already well known to Republican senators, many of whom had hoped Trump would pick her for the next vacancy. When President Donald Trump said he would consider only women to fill Ginsburg’s seat, Barrett became the automatic favorite. President Trump said he considered five women, but Barrett is the only one he is known to have interviewed in person. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made known to Trump his preference for Barrett, since his ranks were the most familiar with her. Although her writings on precedent and personal antiabortion views could be a significant obstacle for Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who support access to abortion, both have said they do not support holding a confirmation vote before the election anyway. That cleared the way for Trump and McConnell to push through the most conservative candidate possible. As he departed the White House for a Saturday night rally in Pennsylvania, Trump told reporters he did not discuss abortion with Barrett during their interview. “I never discussed that with Amy” and the court itself is “going to have to make that decision,” he said. At the rally, he said that “most important of all she will defend your God-given rights and freedoms.” People behind Trump wore MAGA hats and MAGA masks and held signs saying “Fill That Seat” and “Peaceful Protester.”
Throughout human history, philosophers have attempted to determine the best way to promote intellectual freedom and allow individuals to break free from intellectual oppression and increase their enlightenment levels. In their analysis of these questions, philosophers have developed numerous different theories that have been applied over time. The merits of various philosophical views are debated intensely among scholars, with some ideas accepted, and others ultimately becoming discredited as society changes, and new facts about life are discovered. An example of a philosopher who explored these ideas was Plato, a Greek philosopher who is largely considered one of the founding figures in Western philosophical thought. Plato first explored how philosophy promotes freedom and intellectual curiosity in The Allegory of the Cave, a section in his philosophical treatise The Republic. The Allegory of the Cave illustrates the human situation as a parable about ignorance and learning.
Plato begins his discussion in The Allegory of the Cave by describing the condition of human ignorance as akin to prisoners living in a cave deep underground with the inability to move freely within the cave. The cave is also mentioned as devoid of all forms of visible light. The only form of visible light in the cave is a fire that reflects the shadows from objects and individuals passing by onto the cave walls. Additionally, the echo inherent to the cave results in the sounds of individuals or objects either passing the cave or inside the cave to be reflected. This would result in the prisoners to talk to the shadows even though the shadows are not real. As such, the prisoners’ reality is only the reflection of the shadows and the echoes of their voices and other sounds.
Plato next discusses what might happen when the former prisoner decides to leave the cave for the first time. The fact that the individual has to climb from the bottom part of the cave to higher ground is akin to the fact that the pursuit of knowledge often places an individual at a higher level of consciousness and increases their level of clarity regarding society and the world in general. Once outside of the cave, the former prisoner is also described to have their eyes blinded by the light from the sun. The fact that the sunlight burns the eyes of the former prisoner may also be an illusion to the fact that newfound knowledge at times can be overwhelming for an individual and result in their initial rejection of new knowledge. Once they are at the outside world and accustomed to numerous facets of life, the former prisoner will begin to realize that the reality they experienced in the cave is false.
Plato is correct in saying that educated people are treated as outcasts by other individuals who lack education or the initiative to pursue higher knowledge and wisdom levels. Societal institutions such as the educational system and the media at their core do not value critical thinking and critical analysis. Instead, it emphasizes presenting facts in such a manner that prevents individuals from questioning the nature of reality and the way life works. In turn, these societal institutions reinforce oppression and allow the status quo to continue without a critical examination of its very nature. Through the exposure to new ideas and concepts, a person accustomed to the structure created through societal institutions will soon realize that there is more to life than what they previously understood. By taking their newfound perspectives on life and applying to their thought processes, an individual, in effect, is challenging the status quo and many of the perceptions that numerous individuals hold. As such, they will be considered by society as outcasts and non-conformists due to their questioning the information they have been taught from an early age.
In conclusion, the importance of philosophy is discussed by Plato in The Allegory of the Cave. By explaining the pursuit of knowledge through the perspective of an individual escaping from imprisonment in a dark cave and journeying to the outside world, Plato is promoting the belief that intellectual curiosity and critical thinking is akin to liberating oneself from the chains of societal oppression and earning a newfound level of freedom. Additionally, by stating that the former prisoner will be looked at in a negative light by the remaining prisoners assuming that he travels back to the cave, Plato is pointing to the fact that society itself does not value intellectual curiosity and tends to view individuals who value the traits of knowledge and wisdom as non-conformists who will question the most basic elements of societal fabric.
Here are the main events that occurred in Politics this week:
1. Justice Department Threatens To Cut Funding To Cities Allowing “Anarchy”
The US Justice Department on September 21 threatened to revoke federal funding for New York City, Seattle, and Portland, saying the three cities were allowing anarchy and violence on their streets
The US Justice Department on September 21 threatened to revoke federal funding for New York City, Seattle, and Portland, saying the three cities were allowing anarchy and violence on their streets. “We cannot allow federal tax dollars to be wasted when the safety of the citizenry hangs in the balance,” Attorney General William Barr said in a statement. In a joint statement, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, and Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan accused the Trump administration of playing politics and said withholding federal funds would be illegal. “This is thoroughly political and unconstitutional. The president is playing cheap political games with congressionally directed funds. Our cities are bringing communities together; our cities are pushing forward after fighting back a pandemic and facing the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, all despite recklessness and partisanship from the White House,” they said.
2. Joe Biden Condemns President Trump’s, Senate Republicans, Push To Quickly Confirm Supreme Court Justice Before Presidential Election
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden urged Senate Republicans on September 21 not to vote on any candidate nominated to the US Supreme Court as the November election nears, calling President Donald Trump’s plan an “exercise of raw political power.”
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden urged Senate Republicans on September 21 not to vote on any candidate nominated to the US Supreme Court as the November election nears, calling President Donald Trump’s plan an “exercise of raw political power.” Biden said that if he wins the Presidential election, he should have the chance to nominate the next Supreme Court justice. The former Vice President rejected the idea of releasing the names of potential nominees, saying that doing so, as President Trump did, could improperly influence those candidates’ decisions in their current court roles as well as subject them to “unrelenting political attacks.” He reiterated his pledge to nominate an African-American woman to the court, which would be a historic first if he has the opportunity.
3. President Donald Trump Refuses To Commit To Peaceful Transfer Of Power If He Loses Presidential Election
President Donald Trump declined on September 23 to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the Presidential election to Democratic rival Joe Biden and said he expected the election battle to end up before the Supreme Court.
President Donald Trump declined on September 23 to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the Presidential election to Democratic rival Joe Biden and said he expected the election battle to end up before the Supreme Court. “We’re going to have to see what happens,” President Trump told reporters at the White House when asked whether he would commit to transferring power. Trump, who substantially trails Biden in national opinion polls, has repeatedly cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election, asserting without evidence that mail-in voting would lead to fraud and a “rigged” outcome. “The ballots are a disaster,” Trump said. Democrats have encouraged voting by mail as a way to cast ballots safely during the coronavirus pandemic. Millions of Americans, including much of the military, have cast absentee ballots by mail for years without problems. In 2016, Trump also raised questions about whether he would accept the results of the election. He went on to win the presidency.
President Donald Trump declined on September 23 to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the Presidential election to Democratic rival Joe Biden and said he expected the election battle to end up before the Supreme Court. “We’re going to have to see what happens,” President Trump told reporters at the White House when asked whether he would commit to transferring power. Trump, who substantially trails Biden in national opinion polls, has repeatedly cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election, asserting without evidence that mail-in voting would lead to fraud and a “rigged” outcome. “The ballots are a disaster,” Trump said. Democrats have encouraged voting by mail as a way to cast ballots safely during the coronavirus pandemic. Millions of Americans, including much of the military, have cast absentee ballots by mail for years without problems. In 2016, Trump also raised questions about whether he would accept the results of the election. He went on to win the presidency.
Overall, the reaction to President Donald Trump’s comments was met with scorn by members of both political parties. Joe Biden, while speaking to reporters in Delaware, said Trump’s comments on the transition of power were “irrational.” His campaign said it was prepared for any “shenanigans” from Trump, and reiterated comments from July that “the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House.” Mitt Romney, a rare Trump critic among Republican senators, said on Twitter that “Fundamental to democracy is the peaceful transition of power; without that, there is Belarus. Any suggestion that a president might not respect this Constitutional guarantee is both unthinkable and unacceptable.” Additionally, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel and Florida Senator Marco Rubio, two of President Trump’s staunchest congressional allies, denounced the President’s statements and underscored that there will be a peaceful transfer of power assuming that President Trump loses re-election.
Fundamental to democracy is the peaceful transition of power; without that, there is Belarus. Any suggestion that a president might not respect this Constitutional guarantee is both unthinkable and unacceptable.
Despite the overwhelmingly negative reaction to President Donald Trump’s comments, they were generally brushed aside by some of President Trump’s political allies. For example, Senator Mike Braun (R-IN), a strong Trump supporter, said that the topic is “preposterous” and no one should focus on the President’s equivocation. “He stokes the fire sometimes,” Braun said. “If you took it seriously it would be alarming. And I don’t think that that’s the case.” Additionally, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), attempted to shift the argument and claimed that Joe Biden will do the same if he loses to Trump. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer chastised Senate Republicans for their response to the president, arguing “this is not a partisan issue” and that “democracy is at stake.”
President Donald Trump, who is moving quickly to nominate a successor to liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, said that he thinks the election “will end up in the Supreme Court and I think it’s very important that we have nine justices.” A Senate confirmation vote before the election would seal a 6-3 conservative majority on the court, potentially spelling trouble for Democrats should it be called on to decide any legal dispute over the results of the election. “This scam that the Democrats are pulling, it’s a scam, the scam will be before the United States Supreme Court, and I think having a 4-4 situation is not a good situation,” President Trump said. Only one US presidential election, the 2000 contest between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore, has had its outcome determined by the Supreme Court.
Overall, President Donald Trump openly floating the idea of ignoring the results of the Presidential election and instead opting to stay in power despite the results may spell the end of democratic governance in the US. For example, a hallmark of any Democratic political system is the peaceful transfer of power. Without assurances for peaceful transitions of power, a democratic system will likely become unstable and ultimately collapse into dictatorship. Additionally, there are some parallels between President Donald Trump’s actions over the course of his Presidency and the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany during the early 1930s. For example, both Trump and Hitler demonized the press, sought to create common enemies to distract their people from their power grabs and failed policies, and promoted nationalism and militarism as a way to “make their countries great again.” It is imperative for the American people to make their voices heard at the ballot box to prevent America from inadvertently sliding into fascism and autocracy, as was the case in Germany during the early 1930s.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden urged Senate Republicans on September 21 not to vote on any candidate nominated to the US Supreme Court as the November election nears, calling President Donald Trump’s plan an “exercise of raw political power.” Biden said that if he wins the Presidential election, he should have the chance to nominate the next Supreme Court justice. The former Vice President rejected the idea of releasing the names of potential nominees, saying that doing so, as President Trump did, could improperly influence those candidates’ decisions in their current court roles as well as subject them to “unrelenting political attacks.” He reiterated his pledge to nominate an African-American woman to the court, which would be a historic first, if he has the opportunity.
Earlier on September 21, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said she did not support Trump’s plan to move fast on filling the seat, becoming the second of the 53 Republicans in the 100-seat chamber to object publicly following Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death. On September 20, Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine said the presidential election winner should pick the nominee. She is locked in a tight re-election battle and is currently polling behind her Democratic challenger Sara Gideon. On the other hand, Lisa Murkowski’s Senate term does not end until 2022, though she is expected to face a tough primary election fight against 2008 Republican Vice Presidential nominee and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, another moderate Republican, said in a statement he did not object to a vote, adding: “No one should be surprised that a Republican Senate majority would vote on a Republican president’s Supreme Court nomination, even during a presidential election year.”
Democrats noted that in 2016 Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked a vote on a Democratic appointee on the grounds that the vacancy should be filled by the next president. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer did not rule out that his party might move in the future to end the filibuster, a procedural tactic under which the support of 60 members is required to move to a vote on legislation if the Republicans went ahead with the nomination. “We first have to win the majority. … But if we win the majority, everything is on the table,” he said. A majority of Americans, some 62% including many Republicans, told a Reuters/Ipsos poll that they thought the winner of the November election should get to nominate a justice to fill the vacancy. Justice Antonin Scalia, a close friend of Ginsburg’s, died in February 2016, but McConnell blocked a vote on Democratic President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death upended the November election campaign, energizing both President Donald Trump’s conservative base, eager to see the court overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide, and presenting new complications in the battle for control of the US Senate. “I will be putting forth a nominee next week. It will be a woman,” President Trump said at a campaign rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where supporters chanted: “Fill that seat.” Trump and Senate Majority Leader McConnell have time to schedule a vote. While elections are on November 3, a new Congress will not be sworn in until January 3, with the winner of the presidential contest inaugurated on January 20.
Republican Senator John Barrasso, the second-highest-ranking Senate Republican and a strong ally of President Donald Trump on nearly every policy issue brushed off Democratic complaints in a September 22 interview. “Let’s be very clear – if the shoe were on the other foot and the Democrats had the White House and the Senate, they would right now be trying to confirm another member of the Supreme Court,” Barrasso said. Democrat Hillary Clinton, whom President Trump defeated in the 2016 election, called that view “indefensible.” “What’s happening in our country is incredibly dangerous,” said Clinton, whose husband, former President Bill Clinton, nominated Ginsburg to the court in 1993. “Our institutions are being basically undermined by the lust for power.”
The US Justice Department on September 21 threatened to revoke federal funding for New York City, Seattle, and Portland, saying the three cities were allowing Anarchy and violence on their streets. “We cannot allow federal tax dollars to be wasted when the safety of the citizenry hangs in the balance,” Attorney General William Barr said in a statement. In a joint statement, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, and Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan accused the Trump administration of playing politics and said withholding federal funds would be illegal. “This is thoroughly political and unconstitutional. The president is playing cheap political games with congressionally directed funds. Our cities are bringing communities together; our cities are pushing forward after fighting back a pandemic and facing the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, all despite recklessness and partisanship from the White House,” they said.
The September 22 threat by Attorney General William Barr to revoke federal funds was the government’s latest escalation in its quest to curb the protests. It comes after President Donald Trump earlier this month issued a memo laying out criteria to consider when reviewing funding for states and cities that are “permitting anarchy, violence, and destruction in American cities.” The criteria include things such as whether a city forbids the police from intervening or if it defunds its police force. In all three cities, the Justice Department said, the leadership has rejected efforts to allow federal law enforcement officials to intervene and restore order, among other things. In a press briefing earlier on September 21, New York City Corporation Counsel Jim Johnson promised a court battle if the Trump administration proceeds to cut off the funds. “The president does not have the authority to change the will of Congress,” he said. “The designation of ‘anarchy’ doesn’t even pass the common sense test. If need be we can send, in addition to our legal filings, a dictionary. Because what we have in New York is not anarchy.”
Here are the main events that occurred in Politics this week:
1.In A Sign Of A Shifting Middle East Dynamic, Israel & Bahrain Sign Agreement Normalizing Diplomatic Ties
President Donald Trump announced on September 11 that Bahrain would establish full diplomatic relations with Israel, following the United Arab Emirates, in another sign of shifting Middle East dynamics that are bringing Arab nations closer to Israel.
President Donald Trump announced on September 11 that Bahrain would establish full diplomatic relations with Israel, following the United Arab Emirates, in another sign of shifting Middle East dynamics that are bringing Arab nations closer to Israel. President Trump announced the news on Twitter, releasing a joint statement with Bahrain and Israel and calling the move “a historic breakthrough to further peace in the Middle East.” Speaking to reporters, the President said the 9/11 attacks‘ anniversary was a fitting day for the announcement. “There’s no more powerful response to the hatred that spawned 9/11,” he said. The announcement came after a similar one last month by Israel and the United Arab Emirates that they would normalize relations on the condition that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel did not follow through with plans to annex portions of the West Bank. Trump administration officials said they hoped that agreement would encourage other Arab countries with historically hostile, though recently thawing, relations with Israel to take similar steps. The deal, which isolates the Palestinians, comes as Trump tries to position himself as a peacemaker before the elections in November.
Joint Statement of the United States, the Kingdom of Bahrain, and the State of Israel pic.twitter.com/xMquRkGtpM
2. US Median Income Hit Record Level In 2019, Census Data Shows
US median household income hit a record high in 2019, and the poverty rate fell, according to a government survey released on September 15 that offered a snapshot of the economy before millions of American jobs were destroyed by the Coronavirus pandemic
US median household income hit a record high in 2019, and the poverty rate fell, according to a government survey released on September 15 that offered a snapshot of the economy before millions of American jobs were destroyed by the Coronavirus pandemic. Census officials cautioned, however, that the Coronavirus pandemic impacted their data collection, which was conducted after lockdowns this year, and may have skewed the results. “Given data-collection challenges during the pandemic, we are concerned about bias in the 2019 estimate,” the census agency officials wrote in a blog post, explaining that lower-income and minority household response to the survey dropped.
3. US Appeals Court Rules In Favor Of President Trump’s Plan To Phase Out Immigrant Humanitarian Protections
A US appeals court on September 14 sided with President Donald Trump over his administration’s decision to end humanitarian protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants, many of whom have lived in the US for decades.
A US appeals court on September 14 sided with President Donald Trump over his administration’s decision to end humanitarian protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants, many of whom have lived in the US for decades. In a 2-1 ruling, a panel of three judges in the California-based 9thCircuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court decision that had blocked President Trump’s move to phase out so-called Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for people from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Sudan. The ruling is expected to affect the status of people from Honduras and Nepal, who filed a separate lawsuit that was suspended last year pending the outcome of the broader case. The appeals court ruling means that those immigrants will be required to find another way to remain in the US legally or depart after a wind-down period at least until early 2021. Judge Consuelo Callahan, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, wrote in a 54-page opinion that the Trump administration decisions to phase out the protections were not reviewable and, therefore, should not have been blocked. Judge Callahan also rejected a claim by plaintiffs that President Trump’s past criticism of non-white, non-European immigrants influenced the TPS decisions. “While we do not condone the offensive and disparaging nature of the president’s remarks, we find it instructive that these statements occurred primarily in contexts removed from and unrelated to TPS policy or decisions,” she wrote.
4. In Major Victory For Coronavirus Lockdown Opponents, Federal Judge Rules Unconstitutional Lockdown Measures Put In Place In Pennsylvania
On September 14, a federal judge ruled as unconstitutional some of Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf’s orders to control the Coronavirus outbreak, including limits on crowd sizes, requirements that people stay home, and non-essential businesses close down.
US Median Household Incomehit a record high in 2019, and the poverty rate fell, according to a government survey released on September 15 that offered a snapshot of the economy before millions of American jobs were destroyed by the Coronavirus pandemic. Census officials cautioned, however, that the Coronavirus pandemic impacted their data collection, which was conducted after lockdowns this year, and may have skewed the results. “Given data-collection challenges during the pandemic, we are concerned about bias in the 2019 estimate,” the census agency officials wrote in a blog post, explaining that lower-income and minority household response to the survey dropped.
The US Census Bureau said in their report that real median household income jumped 6.8% from $64,324 in 2018 to $68,703 last year, the highest since the agency began tracking the data in 1967. It also said the nation’s poverty rate fell last year to 10.5%, a 1.3-percentage-point drop. Another measure of poverty that adjusts for government aid programs for low-income Americans showed a drop to 11.7% last year from 12.8% in 2018. Simultaneously, however, the number of people without health insurance for at least part of the year hit 29.6 million, up 1 million from the year before. The number of uninsured children also grew.
The report offered a look back at the economy’s state before the Coronavirus outbreak hit the US in February and March of this year, shuttering many businesses as the country sought to contain the pandemic. Since then, more than 6.5 million people in the US have contracted the highly contagious virus, and more than nearly 200,000 have died. Vast swaths of the economy were devastated, and 22 million Americans lost their jobs. While activity is now rebounding, economists warn the recovery may be uneven as federal stimulus money runs out with no signs of replenishment. A potential second wave of Coronavirus infections this autumn and winter as people move back indoors also looms large.
President Donald Trump, who had staked his re-election on economic gains before the outbreak, has downplayed the impact of the virus and risk of another wave, as he has urged states to fully re-open. He has also repeatedly touted gains on Wall Street (a narrow gauge of economic performance) and pledged to rebuild the economy if he wins a second term. His Democratic rival in the Presidential election, former Vice President Joe Biden, has said the gains since Coronavirus emerged have been notched and have left many segments of the working population still reeling.
A US Appeals Court on September 14 sided with President Donald Trump over his administration’s decision to end humanitarian protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants, many of whom have lived in the US for decades. In a 2-1 ruling, a panel of three judges in the California-based 9thCircuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court decision that had blocked President Trump’s move to phase out so-called Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for people from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Sudan. The ruling is expected to affect the status of people from Honduras and Nepal, who filed a separate lawsuit that was suspended last year pending the outcome of the broader case. The appeals court ruling means that those immigrants will be required to find another way to remain in the US legally or depart after a wind-down period at least until early 2021. Judge Consuelo Callahan, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, wrote in a 54-page opinion that the Trump administration decisions to phase out the protections were not reviewable and, therefore, should not have been blocked. Judge Callahan also rejected a claim by plaintiffs that President Trump’s past criticism of non-white, non-European immigrants influenced the TPS decisions. “While we do not condone the offensive and disparaging nature of the president’s remarks, we find it instructive that these statements occurred primarily in contexts removed from and unrelated to TPS policy or decisions,” she wrote.
An attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which represents plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said that they planned to seek another “en banc” review of the matter by 11 of the appeals court’s judges. The attorney, Ahilan Arulanantham, called the decision “deeply flawed” during a call with reporters, and said the case eventually could be appealed to the US Supreme Court, depending on the outcome of the request for a broader appeals court review. The termination of TPS for Haitians is also subject to separate litigation in the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. The appeals court heard arguments in that case in June but has not yet ruled.
President Donald Trump has made his tough immigration stance a hallmark of his presidency and the 2020 re-election campaign against Democratic challenger Joe Biden. TPS allows foreigners whose home countries experience a natural disaster, armed conflict, or other extraordinary events to remain in the US and apply for work permits. The status must be renewed periodically by the Secretary of Homeland Security, who can extend it for six- to 18-month intervals. The Trump administration has argued that most countries in the program have recovered from the related disasters or conflicts, while the status has been renewed for years beyond its need.
President Donald Trump announced on September 11 that Bahrain would establish full diplomatic relations with Israel, following the United Arab Emirates, in another sign of shifting Middle East dynamics that are bringing Arab nations closer to Israel. President Trump announced the news on Twitter, releasing a joint statement with Bahrain and Israel and calling the move “a historic breakthrough to further peace in the Middle East.” Speaking to reporters, the President said the 9/11 attacks‘ anniversary was a fitting day for the announcement. “There’s no more powerful response to the hatred that spawned 9/11,” he said. The announcement came after a similar one last month by Israel and the United Arab Emirates that they would normalize relations on the condition that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel did not follow through with plans to annex portions of the West Bank. Trump administration officials said they hoped that agreement would encourage other Arab countries with historically hostile, though recently thawing, relations with Israel to take similar steps. The deal, which isolates the Palestinians, comes as Trump tries to position himself as a peacemaker before the elections in November.
Joint Statement of the United States, the Kingdom of Bahrain, and the State of Israel pic.twitter.com/xMquRkGtpM
Bahrain’s move was not unexpected. The tiny Persian Gulf kingdom was widely seen as the low-hanging fruit to be picked if all went well in the aftermath of the Emiratis’ announcement, analysts said. Bahrain, strategically significant as the home port for the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, had already opened its airspace to new commercial passenger flights between Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi. It was unclear whether the US or Israel had made any concessions to Bahrain in exchange for the agreement. When asked during a briefing for reporters, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, who helped broker the deal, did not respond directly.
Israel would always welcome the addition of another Arab country to the shortlist of those with diplomatic ties, but in Israel, the announcement landed with neither the surprise nor the weight of the Emirati decision. “Any Arab country is very important, for sure,” said Amos Gilead, a retired Israeli major general who leads the Institute for Policy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. “It’s another precedent. But with all due respect, when you are small, you are small.” But Bahrain has outsize significance, said Kirsten Fontenrose, a former National Security Council senior director for Gulf affairs in the Trump White House who is now a director at the Atlantic Council. She noted that Bahrain was a close ally of Saudi Arabia, the true diplomatic prize for Israel.“Its importance is mostly because it’s an indication that the new leadership in Saudi Arabia supports normalization,” Fontenrose said. “Bahrain doesn’t make a foreign policy move without Saudi Arabia’s express permission.”
Israel and Bahrain have had unofficial ties on and off since the 1990s and enjoyed warm relations for several years. In 2019, Bahrain played host to a Trump administration conference promoting the economic aspects of its proposal to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, during which Sheikh Khalid, a member of the Bahraini royal family who is now a diplomatic adviser to the king, gave friendly interviews to visiting Israeli journalists. “Israel is part of this heritage of this whole region, historically,” he said, adding that “the Jewish people have a place amongst us.”
Here are the main events that occurred in Politics this week:
1. US Economy Adds 1.4 Million Jobs In August, Unemployment Rate Declines To Single-Digits
The US Economy added around 1.4 million jobs last month, reflecting a slow return to labor market growth, according to data released on September 4 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics
The US Economyadded around 1.4 million jobs last month, reflecting a slow return to labor market growth, according to data released on September 4 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate fell into the single digits for the first time since the Coronavirus pandemic began, dropping from 10.2 percent to 8.4 percent (still the highest rate since 2011), the monthly report showed. Before the coronavirus’ stranglehold on the economy, the rate was at 3.5 percent, the lowest since 1970. “Great Jobs Numbers!” President Donald Trump Tweeted after the numbers were released. “1.37 Million Jobs Added In August. Unemployment Rate Falls To 8.4% (Wow, much better than expected!). Broke the 10% level faster and deeper than thought possible.”
Great Jobs Numbers! 1.37 Million Jobs Added In August. Unemployment Rate Falls To 8.4% (Wow, much better than expected!). Broke the 10% level faster and deeper than thought possible.
2. 2020 Election: President Donald Trump Raises $210 Million In August, Well Short Of Joe Biden & The Democrats
President Donald Trump and the Republican Party jointly raised $210 million in August, a robust sum but one dwarfed by the record $364.5 million raised by Democrats and their nominee, Joe Biden
President Donald Trump and the Republican Party jointly raised $210 million in August, a robust sum but one dwarfed by the record $364.5 million raised by Democrats and their nominee, Joe Biden. Trump’s campaign released its figure on September 9, several days later than usual, and nearly a week after the Biden campaign unveiled its total, the highest for any one month during a presidential campaign. The President’s reelection team said it brought in more money during its party’s convention than the Democrats did in theirs, and officials insisted they “will have all the resources we need” ahead of November. “Both campaigns are raising massive amounts of money but have very different priorities about how to spend it,” said Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien. “In addition to advertising, President Trump’s campaign has invested heavily in a muscular field operation and ground game that will turn out our voters, while the Biden campaign is waging almost exclusively an air war. We like our strategy better.” The noticeable fundraising gap between the two candidates was certain to further rattle Republicans already nervous about Biden’s advantage over Trump in some battleground states that could decide the election. And whispers about a financial disadvantage led President Trump himself this week to suggest he may put some of his own fortunes into the race.
3. According To Whistleblower Complaint, US Intelligence Officials Told To Halt Russian 2020 Election Meddling Threat Assessments
Acting US Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told a former top aide to stop providing assessments of the threat of Russian interference in the 2020 Election and to play down US white supremacist activity, according to a whistleblower complaint released on September 9
Acting US Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told a former top aide to stop providing assessments of the threat of Russian interference in the 2020 Election and to play down US white supremacist activity, according to a whistleblower complaint released on September 9. Brian Murphy, a former Homeland Security deputy undersecretary for intelligence, said in the complaint that Wolf told him in mid-May to begin reporting instead on political interference threats posed by China and Iran and to highlight the involvement of left-wing groups in domestic disorder. The instruction had come to Wolf from White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien, Murphy cited Wolf as saying. The White House and Department of Homeland Security denied the claims. “Ambassador O’Brien has never sought to dictate the Intelligence Community’s focus on threats to the integrity of our elections or on any other topic; any contrary suggestion by a disgruntled former employee, who he has never met or heard of, is false and defamatory,” said White House spokeswoman Sarah Matthews. Homeland Security spokesman Alexei Woltornist added: “We flatly deny that there is any truth to the merits of Mr. Murphy’s claim.”
4. 2020 Election: Joe Biden Leads Donald Trump By 12% In Latest Polling
Democrat Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump by 12 percentage points nationally among likely US voters, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll that also showed the number of persuadable voters had shrunk compared with four years ago
Democrat Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump by 12 percentage points nationally among likely US voters, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll that also showed the number of persuadable voters had shrunk compared with four years ago. The most recent polling poll, released on September 8, found that 52% of likely voters planned to support Biden, while 40% would back Trump. Three percent said they would vote for another candidate, and just 5% said they remained undecided with less than two months to go until the Presidential Election. The survey showed the number of voters who had not yet backed a major-party candidate to be less than half of what it was in 2016, and that Biden currently had the advantage in securing the national popular vote. Even if the remaining undecided voters threw their support behind Trump, the poll showed, he would still lose the popular vote to Biden.
Acting US Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told a former top aide to stop providing assessments of the threat of Russian interference in the 2020 Election and to play down US white supremacist activity, according to a whistleblower complaint released on September 9. Brian Murphy, a former Homeland Security deputy undersecretary for intelligence, said in the complaint that Wolf told him in mid-May to begin reporting instead on political interference threats posed by China and Iran and to highlight the involvement of left-wing groups in domestic disorder. The instruction had come to Wolf from White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien, Murphy cited Wolf as saying. The White House and Department of Homeland Security denied the claims. “Ambassador O’Brien has never sought to dictate the Intelligence Community’s focus on threats to the integrity of our elections or on any other topic; any contrary suggestion by a disgruntled former employee, who he has never met or heard of, is false and defamatory,” said White House spokeswoman Sarah Matthews. Homeland Security spokesman Alexei Woltornist added: “We flatly deny that there is any truth to the merits of Mr. Murphy’s claim.”
US intelligence assessments that a Russian influence operation aimed at swaying the 2016 election in then-Republican nominee Donald Trump’s favor has overshadowed much of his presidency with a series of investigations being dismissed by Trump as a hoax. President Trump has expressed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose government denied election meddling. US officials say Russia, China, and Iran have been working to influence the 2020 election between Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden. Brian Murphy’s complaint said he declined to comply with Chad Wolf’s order because doing so “would put the country in substantial and specific danger.” On a second occasion in July, Murphy said Wolf told him an intelligence notification on Russian disinformation efforts should be “held” because “it made the president look bad.” Murphy said that he “objected, stating that it was improper to hold a vetted intelligence product for reasons for political embarrassment. In response, Wolf took steps to exclude Murphy from relevant future meetings on the subject,” according to the complaint.
Brian Murphy filed the complaint on September 8 with the DHS Office of Inspector General. It was released on September by the intelligence committee of the Democratic-controlled US House of Representatives. The complaint outlined other allegations of misconduct by Trump administration officials. Murphy said he was instructed by senior DHS officials to ensure that intelligence assessments he produced for former Homeland Security Secretary Kirsten Nielsen supported administration claims that large numbers of suspected terrorists were entering the country from Mexico. Murphy said he declined to censor or manipulate the intelligence, believing this would be “improper administration of an intelligence program,” and that he warned one of the officials that doing so would constitute a felony. Officials said they would hold back one homeland threat assessment, according to Murphy, following expressions of “concerns” by Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli, a top DHS official, about how it would “reflect upon President Trump.” Brian Murphy further said that two sections of the threat assessment particularly concerned the officials: one on white supremacist extremists and the other on Russian influence. Cuccinelli, Murphy said, told him to modify the section on white supremacists “in a manner that made the threat appear less severe, as well as include information on the prominence of violent ‘left-wing’ groups.” Murphy said he refused to make the requested changes, and advised Cuccinelli that doing so would amount to censorship of intelligence information.
