Biden administration
Subterms
More stories
- in US Politics
Biden announces plan to get booster shots to 100m Americans amid Omicron arrival in US
Biden announces plan to get booster shots to 100m Americans amid Omicron arrival in USPresident lays out pandemic battle plan for the winter months, including expanded pharmacy availability for vaccines Joe Biden announced new actions to combat the coronavirus in the US, including a nationwide campaign encouraging vaccine boosters, an expansion of at-home tests and tighter restrictions on international travel.Buffeted by the emergence of the Omicron variant and a political backlash from Republicans, the US president visited the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, on Thursday and laid out a pandemic battle plan for the winter months.“My plan pulls no punches,” Biden said “It is a plan that should unite us.”US expected to require stricter testing protocols for international travelersRead moreBiden announced steps to ensure that the nearly 100 million eligible Americans who have not yet received their booster shot do so as soon as possible, the White House said. There is new urgency to the effort after the first US case of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 was identified in California on Wednesday and a second one in Minnesota on Thursday.The president pledged to expand pharmacy availability during December while pharmacy partners send millions of texts, calls and emails to eligible customers with information on how to schedule an appointment or walk in for a booster shot.There will also be a public education campaign to encourage adults to get boosters, with a particular focus on the elderly. It will feature paid advertising across multiple channels, engagement with community organisations and media campaigns.The fight against the coronavirus in the US has politically divided the country with Republicans often seeking to undermine efforts to mandate public health policies around masks and vaccines.Biden directly took on the politicization of health policy, calling it a “sad commentary” on the state of politics in the US. He said his new measures should appeal to all Americans. “This is a moment we can put the divisiveness behind us, I hope,” he said.But, in addressing the threat from the Omicron variant, Biden threw a veiled punch at the often chaotic record of his predecessor, Donald Trump, whose efforts to combat the coronavirus were often marked by inconsistencies, quack cures and conspiracy theories. “We are going to fight this variant with science and speed, not chaos and confusion,” he said.Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to Biden on Covid-19, told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that boosting was “very important”, particularly when considering the rise in antibodies following a third dose.He added: “Even though we don’t have a lot of data on it, there’s every reason to believe that kind of increase that you get with the boost would be helpful at least in preventing severe disease of a variant like Omicron.”The emergence of Omicron has demonstrated the tenacity of the virus, which continues to drag down Biden’s political fortunes. Voters are divided on his handling of the pandemic, with 47% approving and 49% disapproving, according to a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll.But the White House defended his record, for example by pointing out that when he came into office more than half of schools were closed, where today 99% are fully open and in person. On Thursday, the president will unveil actions to get more children aged five and older vaccinated.These include the launch of hundreds of family vaccination clinics across the country, offering a “one-stop shop” of first shots for parents, teenagers and children, and boosters for those eligible. There will be “family vaccination days” with hundreds of community health centres across the country hosting family vaccination clinics throughout December.Biden also set out a plan to ensure that Americans have access to free at-home testing. More than 150 million people with private insurance will be able to get at-home tests reimbursed; for those not covered, at-home tests will be distributed through health centres and rural clinics.With the threat posed by the Omicron variant still uncertain, early next week the US will tighten pre-departure testing protocols by requiring all inbound international travellers to test within one day of departure, regardless of nationality or vaccination status.In a briefing call with reporters, a senior administration official said: “We have really strengthened our international travel system pretty dramatically over the last month or so.“We believe that tightening that testing requirement for pre-departure will help catch more potential cases of people who may be positive when they fly into the country and so now is the right time to do it, and we can implement it very quickly.”On domestic flights, the official added, “the masking requirement is in place already and in fact we will be extending that requirement from January all the way until mid-March”.The pandemic has killed almost 780,000 people in the US. Nearly 60% of Americans are fully vaccinated. This week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued updated guidance recommending that every adult get a booster.TopicsUS newsJoe BidenBiden administrationCoronavirusVaccines and immunisationUS politicsnewsReuse this content More
- in US Politics
Biden administration reinstates Trump-era ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy
Biden administration reinstates Trump-era ‘Remain in Mexico’ policyBiden called the policy inhumane after Trump administration used it to return over 60,000 asylum seekers across the border Asylum seekers looking to enter the US from its southern border will again be sent to Mexico while their claims are assessed, with the Biden administration announcing the reinstatement of the controversial “Remain in Mexico” policy on Thursday.Remain in Mexico policy needlessly exposed migrants to harm, report saysRead moreThe US and Mexican governments haver agreed to a resumption of the program, put in place by Donald Trump in 2019, following its previous suspension by Joe Biden after he became president. It will initially begin in San Diego and in the Texas cities of Laredo, Brownsville and El Paso next week.Biden had called the arrangement inhumane after it was used by Trump’s administration to return more than 60,000 asylum seekers across the border to Mexico, where they were often preyed upon by criminal gangs. Many people were left waiting for months in limbo in Mexico as their fate was determined.In October, Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, said that the program “had endemic flaws, imposed unjustifiable human costs, pulled resources and personnel away from other priority efforts, and did not address the root causes of irregular migration”.However, Republican officials in Missouri and Texas sued Biden’s administration in federal court to prevent the scrapping of the return to Mexico policy, claiming that it would place an undue burden on them from incoming migrants.The supreme court ultimately concurred with the states, placing an injunction on the federal government in August which forced it to resume the program. Since then, federal officials have been negotiating with their Mexican counterparts on how the scheme will resume.Under the reinstated deal, single adult asylum seekers will be the primary focus of the removals, with those transferred offered Covid-19 vaccinations. Mexico will accept asylum seekers from Spanish-speaking countries, the Washington Post reported.The US will aim to complete migrants’ claims within 180 days, amid fears they will be left to languish in Mexico. The US Department of Justice is assigning 22 immigration judges to work specifically on these cases.Supporters of the system have claimed it will help reduce the flow of migrants into the US but advocates have argued that there is little evidence that this will happen and point to the often dire humanitarian situation the program has exacerbated on the border.People expelled by the US often end up in sprawling tent camps or sub-standard housing in places such as Tijuana and Reynosa that often lack basic foods and amenities for asylum seekers.According to Human Rights First, a US human rights group, there have been more than 1,500 cases of reported kidnappings and attacks against migrants subjected to the system, known as Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), and thousands more under another Trump policy known as Title 42 that uses public health concerns to eject asylum seekers.“President Biden and his administration must stop implementing Trump policies that endanger the lives and safety of people seeking refuge in the United States,” said Eleanor Acer, senior director for refugee protection at Human Rights First.Trump’s ‘shameful’ migrant stance condemns thousands to violent limbo in MexicoRead more“Remain in Mexico and other policies that flout asylum laws and treaties are inhumane and unjust. Every day they are in place, they deliver people seeking protection to places where they are targets of brutal attacks and kidnappings perpetrated by deadly cartels and corrupt Mexican officers.”The Biden administration has also been sharply criticized by refugee advocates for the growing number of immigrants being held at private facilities. Biden had promised to end the private, for-profit jails but has exempted the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agency from this effort and the number of immigrants in detention has nearly doubled to 29,000 since he took office.“Frankly, it’s infuriating,” Setareh Ghandehari, advocacy director for Detention Watch Network, told the Washington Post. “It’s incredibly disappointing. We really expected more.”TopicsUS immigrationUS-Mexico borderBiden administrationTrump administrationUS politicsnewsReuse this content More
- in US Politics
Symone Sanders, Kamala Harris’s chief spokesperson, to leave office – report
Symone Sanders, Kamala Harris’s chief spokesperson, to leave office – reportDeparture is second high-profile exit in two weeks after resignation of vice-president’s communications director Symone Sanders, chief spokesperson and a senior adviser to Kamala Harris, is to leave the White House at the end of the year, Politico has reported, renewing speculation of chaos and dysfunction within the vice-president’s office.The departure of Sanders is the second high-profile exit from Harris’s staff within two weeks, following the resignation of communications director Ashley Etienne.It also comes amid reported friction with Joe Biden’s team over the role of his vice-president, and stories that Harris feels “sidelined” in the job as the president prepares to launch his campaign for a second term.Sanders, in a farewell note to staff reported by Politico, gave no reason for her exit, and did not say where she intends to go next.Some political observers, however, noted that the news of her leaving came the same day as Stacey Abrams, another highly visible Democrat on the national stage, launched her campaign for Georgia governor.Sanders, 31, joined Harris’s office after spending the 2020 presidential campaign as a senior adviser to Biden. The former political commentator has been one of the best-known faces in the administration, and a vocal defender of Harris in recent weeks and months as the vice-president faced criticism, particularly after a rocky trip to Guatemala in the summer.Harris, plagued by the same sinking approval ratings that have plagued Biden, has struggled with messaging, and drawn flak from prominent figures on both wings of the Democratic party, including the moderate West Virginia senator Joe Manchin and the progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.This contributed to mounting frustration among Harris’s team, and from the vice-president herself, who has reportedly told aides that she feels badly positioned to take over from Biden, even as the 79-year-old president mulls whether to run again in 2024.Conversely, according to CNN, Biden’s staff is watching closely for any signs of disloyalty within the Harris camp, despite outward messages of support.Such stories of tension between the two prompted the White House press secretary Jen Psaki to issue a rare defense of the vice-president last month, calling Harris, the first woman and person of color to reach the office, “a bold leader”, and suggesting at least some criticism of her was rooted in sexism.In a statement to the Washington Post, a spokesperson for Harris paid tribute to Sanders.“Symone has served honorably for three years. The president and vice-president are grateful for Symone’s service and advocacy for this administration. She is a valued member of the White House and a team player – she will be missed,” it said.Sanders previously served as press secretary to the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders during his 2016 campaign for the Democratic party’s presidential nomination that year, which was ultimately won by Hillary Clinton.She became a regular political commentator and analyst on CNN and elsewhere before joining Biden’s team as an adviser and strategist for his 2020 defeat of Donald Trump. After becoming Harris’s chief spokesperson, she traveled often with the vice-president and was quick to highlight her work despite evidence of escalating dysfunction among her staff.TopicsKamala HarrisBiden administrationUS politicsnewsReuse this content More
- in US Politics
Republicans threaten government shutdown to undermine vaccine mandates
Republicans threaten government shutdown to undermine vaccine mandatesRightwingers in House urge Senate colleagues to stand in the way of funding bill unless it meets demands Republicans are preparing to shut down the American government on Friday, in the latest attempt by the party to thwart White House efforts to increase vaccine take-up, by undermining vaccine mandates across the country.Clamor is growing among some conservatives for Republican senators to oppose a stopgap funding bill, which would fund the government for the next few weeks, unless Democrats agree to not direct money towards enforcing a vaccine mandate for larger companies in the US.If the disgruntled Republicans, who reportedly include Senator Mike Lee, from Utah, are successful, the government would effectively run out of money on Friday and could be forced to furlough workers and shut down some federal services.The need for vaccine mandates, which have been introduced by Joe Biden, has taken on additional importance as the US braces for the impact of the Omicron coronavirus variant.The plot by the right comes after some Republican states have already sought to diminish mandates, by expanding unemployment benefits for employees who have been fired or quit over the requirement to get the vaccine.On Wednesday, the House Freedom Caucus, a group of rightwing Republicans in the House of Representatives, urged their Senate colleagues to block the funding bill, also known as a continuing resolution, “unless it prohibits funding – in all respects – for the vaccine mandates and enforcement thereof”.In a letter to Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, the Freedom Caucus said the Democratic-dominated House was set to vote in favor of the stopgap funding bill on Wednesday. The bill will then go to the Senate, where Democrats need Republican votes to pass the bill by Friday night.The House Freedom Caucus said that deadline gave their Senate colleagues “important leverage” to prevent funding for mandates.Biden introduced vaccine mandates, which require employees to be vaccinated or submit to weekly testing, for federal workers and contractors in July. In September, Biden ordered healthcare workers to be vaccinated and companies with 100 workers or more to require Covid-19 vaccines or testing, which the government said would cover more than 100 million employees. Those measures have been put on hold by court rulings, after Republican state attorneys general, conservative groups and trade organizations have sued to stop the regulations.Republicans boost benefits for workers who quit over vaccine mandatesRead moreThe appeal by House Republicans came after Politico reported that some Republicans in the Senate were open to blocking the stopgap funding bill.“I’m sure we would all like to simplify the process for resolving the [continuing resolution], but I can’t facilitate that without addressing the vaccine mandates,” Lee told Politico.“Given that federal courts across the country have raised serious issues with these mandates, it’s not unreasonable for my Democratic colleagues to delay enforcement of the mandates for at least the length of the continuing resolution.”The Washington Post reported that Lee had planned to at least “block swift debate” on a funding bill.The growing threat of a funding scrap comes after McConnell said on Tuesday there would be no shutdown. While that came before Wednesday’s push from his colleagues, some Republicans had been clear for weeks that they would use the funding bill to oppose vaccine mandates.Republican senators threatened a shutdown at the beginning of November, when Roger Marshall, a senator from Kansas, led a group of 11 Republicans who sent a letter to Chuck Schumer, the Senate leader, threatening to stymie funding.In that letter, signed by 10 Republican senators including Lee and Ted Cruz, Marshall complained that Joe Biden’s plan to require larger businesses to mandate vaccines or weekly testing for workers was “nothing short of immoral”.“We will oppose all efforts to implement and enforce it with every tool at our disposal, including our votes on spending measures considered by the Senate,” Marshall wrote.“To be sure, we agree that countless Americans have benefited from the protection offered by the Covid-19 vaccines. Nevertheless, the decision whether to be vaccinated against Covid-19 is a highly personal one that should never be forced upon individuals by the federal government.”Marshall, a former member of the House who was sworn into the US Senate on 3 January 2021, has promoted a conspiracy theory about federal reports of coronavirus deaths on his Facebook account. Facebook said Marshall’s post violated policies against “spreading harmful misinformation”. Marshall said he was a victim of “corporate censorship”.Iowa, Tennessee, Florida, and Kansas, which all have Republican legislatures, have changed their rules in recent weeks to expand unemployment benefits for people who have been fired or quit after failing to comply with vaccine mandates. On Wednesday, the Guardian reported that Missouri was contemplating similar laws, with more states likely to follow.TopicsRepublicansUS politicsBiden administrationJoe BidenUS SenateUS CongressHouse of RepresentativesnewsReuse this content More
- in US Politics
Fauci: US could face ‘fifth wave’ of Covid as Omicron variant nears
Fauci: US could face ‘fifth wave’ of Covid as Omicron variant nears
Collins and Fauci emphasise need for vaccines and boosters
Warning that variant shows signs of heightened transmissibility
Coronavirus: live coverage
Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, said on Sunday the US has “the potential to go into a fifth wave” of coronavirus infections amid rising cases and stagnating vaccination rates. He also warned that the newly discovered Omicron variant shows signs of heightened transmissibility.Biden and Harris briefed as US braces for arrival of Omicron Covid variantRead moreAs Fauci toured the US political talkshows, countries around the world including the US scrambled to guard against Omicron, which has stoked fears of vaccine resistance.A White House official told reporters Joe Biden would meet members of his Covid-19 response team, including Fauci, regarding the Omicron variant.Speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press, Fauci discussed why Omicron has raised such alarm.“Right now we have the window into the mutations that are in this new variant,” he said, “and they are troublesome in the fact that there are about 32 or more variants in that very important spike protein of the virus, which is the business end of the virus.“In other words, the profile of the mutations strongly suggest that it’s going to have an advantage in transmissibility and that it might evade immune protection that you would get, for example, from the monoclonal antibody or from the convalescent serum after a person’s been infected and possibly even against some of the vaccine-induced antibodies.“So it’s not necessarily that that’s going to happen, but it’s a strong indication that we really need to be prepared for that.”Fauci also pointed to how Covid case numbers shifted dramatically in South Africa, where Omicron was discovered, over a short period.“You were having a low level of infection, and then all of a sudden, there was this big spike … and when the South Africans looked at it, they said, ‘Oh my goodness. This is a different virus than we’ve been dealing with.’“So it clearly is giving indication that it has the capability of transmitting rapidly. That’s the thing that’s causing us now to be concerned, but also to put the pressure on ourselves now to do something about our presentation for this.”The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said no Omicron cases have been discovered in the US.Fauci told NBC: “As we all know, when you have a virus that has already gone to multiple countries, inevitably, it will be here.”On CBS, Fauci said any fifth wave of cases “will really be dependent upon what we do in the next few weeks to a couple of months”.“We have now about 62 million people in the country who are eligible to be vaccinated,” he added, “who have not yet gotten vaccinated.“Superimpose upon that the fact that, unquestionably, the people who got vaccinated six, seven, eight, nine, 10 months ago, we’re starting to see an understandable diminution in the level of immunity. It’s called waning immunity, and it was seen more emphatically in other countries before we saw it here.”Fauci said an increase in immunization rates and booster shots might prevent another surge – but the US had to act fast.“So if we now do what I’m talking about in an intense way, we may be able to blunt that,” Fauci said. “If we don’t do it successfully, it is certainly conceivable and maybe likely that we will see another bit of a surge. How bad it gets is dependent upon us and how we mitigate.”Politically charged resistance to vaccine mandates and other public health measures would seem to make a rapid increase in US vaccination rates unlikely.While more than 70% of US adults are fully vaccinated, the most recent CDC data indicated that cases had increased 16% over the prior week’s seven-day average. By Sunday there had been 48,202,506 cases in the US with 776, 537 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.Another senior US government scientist, the National Institutes of Health director, Francis Collins, discussed the Omicron variant on Sunday.“I think the main thing that has us focused on this,” he told CNN’s State of the Union, “and it’s caused a lot of us to be sort of 24/7 on Zoom calls in the last four days, is that it has so many mutations”.Collins also said there were “good reasons to think it will probably be OK but we need to know the real answers to that and that’s going to take two or three weeks”.On Friday, Biden said the US would follow much of the rest of the world and impose restrictions on travel from South Africa and seven other countries. The restrictions, which Biden called “as a precautionary measure until we have more information”, will go into effect on Monday.Collins told CNN: “I know, America, you’re really tired of hearing these things, but the virus is not tired of us and it’s shape-shifting itself. If you imagine we’re on a racetrack here … it’s trying to catch up with us, and we have to use every kind of tool in our toolbox to keep that from getting into a situation that makes this worse.“We can do this but we have to do it all together.”Boris Johnson ‘ignored’ my plan to tackle deadly Covid variants – senior officialRead moreOn CBS, Fauci was also asked about Republican attacks on his reputation, over federal research prior to the coronavirus pandemic and about his role in the response under the Trump administration.“Anybody who’s looking at this carefully realizes that there’s a distinct anti-science flavor to this,” he said. “They’re really criticizing science because I represent science. That’s dangerous. To me, that’s more dangerous than the slings and the arrows that get thrown at me.”Asked if he thought attacks were meant to scapegoat him and deflect attention from Donald Trump’s failures, Fauci said: “You have to be asleep not to figure that one out.”“I’m just going to do my job and I’m going to be saving lives and they’re going to be lying,” he said.TopicsCoronavirusAnthony FauciBiden administrationUS politicsInfectious diseasesVaccines and immunisationUS domestic policynewsReuse this content More - in US Politics
Democrats need to admit that inflation is real – or voters will turn on them | Andrew Gawthorpe
Democrats need to admit that inflation is real – or voters will turn on themAndrew GawthorpeInflation is an issue of real concern to many Americans. It’s also a chance for Democrats to name and shame price-gougers Inflation is rapidly becoming a problem for the Democratic party and President Joe Biden. They need to get a grip on it before it imperils their wider agenda and sinks their chances of keeping control of Congress in the midterm elections next year. As they think about how to address it, one thing is certain: what they’ve been doing so far isn’t working. A recent poll found that two-thirds of Americans disapprove of how Biden is handling inflation, and the same number consider the issue “very important” in their evaluations of his presidency. Among those Americans concerned about the state of the economy, nearly nine in 10 ranked inflation as a reason why. Clearly something has to change.But inflation, a complicated product of economics and mass psychology, is also devilishly difficult to understand, and even more difficult to control. Presidents have few tools to tame it, and the ones they do have can backfire. The inflation of the 1970s crippled Gerald Ford’s presidency and was doing the same to Jimmy Carter until he opted for an extreme cure – installing a chair of the Federal Reserve who dramatically raised interest rates, stopping inflation but also plunging the economy into a deep recession which handed the White House to Ronald Reagan. These experiences left inflation with a reputation as a presidency-killer, with either the disease itself or the medicine taken to combat it ultimately killing the patient.Despite this, Democratic party elites have been slow to take the latest round of inflation as seriously as they should. American policymakers have not had to deal with levels of inflation as high as this for 30 years, and it shows. Many latched on to the message that inflation was “transitory”, a temporary consequence of the economy revving back into high gear as the country emerged from the coronavirus pandemic. Some liberals have even lashed out at those warning about rising prices, characterizing their concerns as an attempt to undermine support for Democrats’ plans to spend more to advance social welfare and combat climate change.Whatever the economic merits of the argument – and many economists still expect inflation to start falling soon – this response has been politically toxic. Democrats risk appearing out of touch on an issue of profound concern to many Americans. In order to change tack, they need to communicate to voters that they feel their pain and that they’re fighting to make things better.There are already signs that Democrats from the president on down are starting to get it. Biden recently gave a speech on the topic and announced the release of 50m barrels of oil from the US strategic petroleum reserve, an attempt to bring down gas prices at the pump. He also pointed the finger at oil companies for charging consumers high prices even as the wholesale price of oil has dropped over the past few weeks.But Democrats should also be doing more to point the finger at the businesses who are helping to foment the problem. The Wall Street Journal reports that companies in many different sectors are using this inflationary spike as a cover to raise prices faster than their costs, essentially betting that consumers won’t object when they already see prices rising all around them. According to the report, nearly two out of three big, publicly traded US companies have seen larger profit margins this year than in the same period in 2019. Inflation might be hurting consumers, but it’s a boom year for corporate America.Democrats ought to use all the tools of government to highlight and combat these abuses. As Biden has been finding out, public anger over inflation tends to be directed towards the incumbent president – and the only way to survive might be to redirect it at a more appropriate target. The presidential bully pulpit can be used to highlight corporate abuses and regulatory investigations, such as the one already announced by the FTC into the oil and gas sector, can hold industries to account and combat potentially illegal practices. Nor should Democrats stop there. They control both houses of Congress and should consider holding congressional hearings to name and shame particularly egregious price-gougers.Whether any of these measures will actually serve to lower prices is an open question. But the only responsible thing to do is try. Corporate price rises risk kicking off an inflationary spiral in which the initial reasons for rising prices become secondary to a general feeding frenzy, and anything that can be done to discourage it is healthy. Administration actions might also serve to dampen consumers’ expectations of future inflation, which will reduce the risk of a spiral. Because the media narrative is driven by inflation that has already happened, reassurance remains important even after prices have begun to stabilize.But even if we shouldn’t hold our breath for these actions to actually slow the rate of price increases, it’s important to show leadership on this issue for the simple reason that it’s what worried voters want and deserve. To be seen to be acting and pointing a finger at those to blame is smart politics, especially if this bout of inflation does indeed prove to be transitory and prices begin to fall next year.Meanwhile, corporate America has to decide if it really wants to undermine the Democrats and risk handing stewardship of the economy back to the party of Donald Trump. With the modern Republican party increasingly the party of incompetence and ignorance, self-restraint might be the better option. As Democrats should seek to remind the price-gougers, profiting less now will help everyone mightily down the road.
Andrew Gawthorpe is a historian of the United States at Leiden University, and host of the podcast America Explained
TopicsUS politicsOpinionDemocratsInflationEconomicsJoe BidenBiden administrationcommentReuse this content More
