Biden’s first 100 days: What he’s gotten done
By Maegan Vazquez, Kate Sullivan, Tami Luhby and Katie Lobosco President Joe Biden has moved fast since his January 20 swearing-in, signing a $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill into law less than two months into his term and issuing more executive orders so far than his three predecessors. Those efforts have paid off, with the administration reaching the milestones of 200 million coronavirus shots delivered and vaccine eligibility opened to everyone 16 and over before Biden’s 100th day in office. Unemployment is falling, with new jobless claims hitting a pandemic low, and schools are reopening for in-person learning, returning kids
Biden and Harris respond to Tim Scott’s claim that US is not racist, stressing racism must not be ignored
By Betsy Klein President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday agreed with South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott that the United States as a nation is not racist, but added that the country has a history of racism that cannot be overlooked. Biden, pressed on if he thought America was racist, told NBC News in an interview Thursday, “No, I don’t think the American people are racist, but I think after 400 years, African Americans have been left in a position where they are so behind the eight ball, in terms of education, health, in terms of opportunity.”
Tim Scott’s Republican rebuttal comes as his role in policing bill negotiation is also in the spotlight
By Jessica Dean Sen. Tim Scott, a key player in the bipartisan congressional effort to overhaul policing, will step into the national spotlight Wednesday, handpicked by GOP leadership to give the Republican rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s first address to a joint session of Congress. The speech offers Scott a national platform and a chance to speak to many Americans for perhaps the first time at a moment in which he is playing a critical role in the effort to weave together a policing bill that can pass the narrowly divided US Senate. While Scott is keeping many of the
Harris and Pelosi make history as the first women to lead Senate and House during presidential address to Congress
By Betsy Klein Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made history during President Joe Biden’s address to a joint session of Congress just by taking their seats — marking the first time two women would be sitting behind the President. Harris entered the House chamber Wednesday night to a round of applause for Biden’s first joint-session address to Congress. Once reaching the podium, Harris and Pelosi elbow-bumped. When asked about the significance of two women sitting behind the President for the address, Harris replied, “Normal,” to reporters in the Capitol as she led the Senate delegation to
Biden promises to lift ‘left-behind and forgotten’ Americans with his ambitious economic agenda
By Maeve Reston President Joe Biden spoke directly to working- and middle-class Americans who “feel left behind and forgotten” in a rapidly changing economy in his first address to a joint session of Congress, promising that his ambitious economic and infrastructure plans amounted to a “blue-collar blueprint to build America.” Addressing many of the voters who abandoned the Democratic Party to support former President Donald Trump, Biden made the case that his economic plans are squarely aimed at improving their economic fortunes while strengthening America’s position around the globe and positioning America to compete against other world powers like China.
Biden’s pick to serve on powerful DC-based appellate says her experience as a Black jurist ‘might be valuable’ if confirmed
By Devan Cole Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s pick to fill a vacancy on a powerful DC-based appellate court, said at a Senate hearing Wednesday that her race doesn’t play a role in her work as a judge, but that her experience as an African American jurist “might be valuable” should she be confirmed to the post. “I don’t think that race plays a role in the kind of judge that I have been and would be,” Jackson told the Senate Judiciary Committee in response to a question from Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn. “I’m doing a certain
New York Post temporarily deletes, then edits false story that claimed Harris’ book was given out in migrant ‘welcome kits’
By Daniel Dale The New York Post temporarily deleted, and then edited and republished, a debunked article that falsely claimed that copies of Vice President Kamala Harris’ book were being included in “welcome kits” given to migrant children at a shelter in Long Beach, California. The reporter who wrote the article, Laura Italiano, tweeted late Tuesday afternoon that she had resigned from the newspaper. Italiano tweeted: “The Kamala Harris story — an incorrect story I was ordered to write and which I failed to push back hard enough against — was my breaking point.” The Post newsroom referred questions about
Biden seeks $80 billion to boost IRS enforcement
By John Harwood, Phil Mattingly and Kate Sullivan, President Joe Biden will seek $80 billion to fund enhanced Internal Revenue Service enforcement of high-earners to help pay for his American Families Plan, which he is set to unveil later this week, two sources briefed on the proposal told CNN. The administration believes the enhanced measures to crack down on tax evasion will increase revenue for the government by $700 billion, although some outside experts are skeptical and the Congressional Budget Office — the accepted scorekeeper — is unlikely to project that much revenue. As CNN has reported, this is a
Kamala Harris announces US will send $310 million in humanitarian aid to Central America
By Paul LeBlanc and Jason Hoffman Vice President Kamala Harris announced Monday evening that the US will send an additional $310 million to Central America “for humanitarian relief and to address food insecurity.” $255 million will go to humanitarian relief and $55 million will go toward addressing food insecurity in the region. “In light of the dire situation and acute suffering faced by millions of people in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, Vice President Harris announced an additional $310 million in U.S. government support,” a fact sheet released by the White House said. Harris was tapped by President Joe Biden
Biden’s family plan to lay out economic ambition — and underscore the long road ahead
By Phil Mattingly President Joe Biden, on the verge of the 100-day mark, will soon lay out the final piece of a sweeping, $4 trillion spending proposal — one that would invest hundreds of billions into key Democratic priorities on education, child care and paid leave — in a bid to reshape the social infrastructure of the US economy. The proposal has been the subject of intense lobbying from allies, and it has shifted several times in just the last week. Now, it’s nearly ready for its prime-time moment. Bottom line Long telegraphed, but still no less consequential,