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Presenter helps dun-coloured pants also worn by President-elect Biden roar back into geek chic fashionSteve Kornacki, the MSNBC pundit who broke the internet in November with his khaki trousers, returned to TV screens for the Georgia Senate runoffs this week. Related: ‘You can’t lose a single vote’: can Biden navigate the 50-50 Senate? Continue reading… More
With the storming of the Capitol, the fired FBI director’s earnest attempt to help America recover has been overtaken by eventsComey: Trump should not be prosecuted after leaving officeA centuries-old norm has been broken. The inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will not mark the peaceful transition of power. On Wednesday, American carnage arrived. Five people including a police officer are dead. Related: After Trump review: a provocative case for reform by Biden and beyond Continue reading… More
A swift impeachment is imperative but from Rudy Giuliani and Don Jr to Fox News and Twitter, the president did not act aloneInsurrection: the day terror came to the US CapitolCall me old-fashioned, but when the president of the United States encourages armed insurgents to breach the Capitol and threaten the physical safety of Congress, in order to remain in power, I call it an attempted coup. Related: Saving Justice review: how Trump’s Eye of Sauron burned everything – including James Comey Continue reading… More
Secretary of state Mike Pompeo on Saturday said he was lifting restrictions on contacts between US officials and their Taiwanese counterparts, a move likely to anger China and increase tensions between Beijing and Washington in the waning days of Donald Trump’s presidency.China claims democratic and separately ruled Taiwan as its own territory, and regularly describes Taiwan as the most sensitive issue in its ties with the US.While the US, like most countries, has no official relations with Taiwan, the Trump administration has ramped up support, with arms sales and laws to help Taiwan deal with pressure from China.In a statement, Pompeo said that for several decades the US state department had created complex internal restrictions on interactions with Taiwanese counterparts by American diplomats, service members and other officials.“The United States government took these actions unilaterally, in an attempt to appease the Communist regime in Beijing,” Pompeo said. “Today I am announcing that I am lifting all of these self-imposed restrictions.”The US ambassador to the United Nations, Kelly Craft, will visit Taiwan next week for meetings with senior Taiwanese leaders, prompting China to warn on Thursday that the Trump administration was playing with fire.Chinese fighter jets approached the island in August and September during the last two visits: by US health secretary Alex Azar and under secretary of state Keith Krach.The US is Taiwan’s strongest international backer and arms supplier, and is obliged to help provide it with the means to defend itself under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act.“Today’s statement recognizes that the US-Taiwan relationship need not, and should not, be shackled by self-imposed restrictions of our permanent bureaucracy,” Pompeo said. More
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Efforts to remove Donald Trump from the White House gathered pace on Saturday, as Democrats announced that at least 180 members of Congress would co-sponsor an article of impeachment they intend to introduce in the House of Representatives on Monday.
The show of force by the president’s opponents comes amid continuing revulsion at Trump’s incitement of Wednesday’s deadly US Capitol riot and his attempts to overturn electoral defeat by Joe Biden.
One of the authors of the impeachment resolution, the California congressman Ted Lieu, repeated demands for Trump to resign or face the ignominy of being the first president to be impeached twice.
On Twitter, Lieu announced that the vast majority of the 222 Democratic House members were onboard for impeachment, and revealed a letter to the New York state bar demanding the disbarment of Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, who advocated “trial by combat” at a rally preceding the violent invasion of the US Capitol building by a mob of Trump supporters.
“We will hold responsible everyone involved with the attempted coup,” Lieu wrote.
Trump’s grip on the presidency appeared increasingly tenuous as impeachment plans advanced, allies continued to abandon him and Twitter banned him, removing his most powerful way to spread lies and incite violence.
On Friday night one Republican senator, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, called for the president’s removal.
“I want him to resign,” she said. “I want him out. He has caused enough damage.”
Five people died around the chaos at the Capitol, including a police officer who confronted rioters and a rioter shot by law enforcement. Multiple arrests have been made, among them a Florida resident photographed walking off with the lectern of the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi. Also arrested was a man from Arizona who styles himself as the QAnon shaman and who sat in the Vice-President’s chair in the Senate, dressed in horns and animal skins.
Amid reports the FBI was investigating whether some rioters intended to take lawmakers hostage, the Washington US attorney said a 70-year-old Alabama man was charged after his truck was discovered packed with homemade bombs and guns. Another man was alleged to have threatened to kill Pelosi and to have been heavily armed.
The article of impeachment, which charges Trump with inciting an insurrection and having “gravely endangered the security of the United States” and its institutions, prompted a flurry of legal activity at the White House, according to Maggie Haberman, a New York Times reporter. She tweeted that a defence team was beginning to take shape, including Giuliani and possibly Alan Dershowitz, a celebrity lawyer who has defended Trump before.
Significantly, current White House counsel, including Jay Sekulow, Marty and Jane Raskins, Pat Cipollone and Pat Philbin, were reportedly unlikely to be involved in any Senate trial, which according to indications from Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is almost certain to take place after Trump leaves office on 20 January.
The impeachment move is part of a multi-pronged approach by Democrats pressing for Trump’s removal ahead of Biden’s inauguration. Pelosi, who spoke to the leader of the US military, seeking to ensure Trump cannot launch a nuclear attack, has also called for Trump’s removal via the 25th amendment, which provides for the ejection of a president deemed unable to fulfil his duties.
The treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, was reportedly among officials to discuss such a course but it seems unlikely, particularly as cabinet members who might participate have resigned.
White House sources have asserted Trump will not resign or turn over power to Vice-President Mike Pence in order to seek a pardon, so a second and high-speed impeachment looms. In his first impeachment, over approaches to Ukraine for dirt on political rivals, Trump was acquitted by a Republican-held Senate.
This time, more Republican senators are indicating support. Murkowski became the first in the open, telling the Anchorage Daily News: “I think he should leave.
“He’s not going to appear at the inauguration. He hasn’t been focused on what is going on with Covid. He’s either been golfing or he’s been inside the Oval Office fuming and throwing every single person who has been loyal and faithful to him under the bus, starting with the vice-president. More
The events at the Capitol building in Washington were shocking, but sadly not that surprising. Yes, President Donald Trump incited a fascist mob to try to violently overthrow the legitimate outcome of a democratic election – but this was the tragic yet inevitable consequence of the far-right movement the president has built and fostered over the last five years.Many around the world have long warned that it could end this way, or worse. Trump followed the playbook of the fascist dictators and strongmen that came to power in the 1930s and 40s.Trump pitted his own citizens against each other. He preyed on genuine economic suffering. He lied to stoke fear of those who are different. He denied basic scientific facts about Covid-19 and refused to act to save lives and jobs. He separated children from their parents. He used people’s religion as a reason to ban them from coming to the US. He gave equivalence to far-right racists and anti-racist protesters. He denigrated women and denied many the right to choose what they do with their body.And he also undermined and delegitimised the fundamental pillars of democracy – equality under the law, the freedom of the press, an independent judicial system and, ultimately, even elections themselves.Tragically, the warnings were deliberately ignored by too many supposedly mainstream politicians, commentators and observers around the world, including here in the UK. Some greedily eyed an opportunity for their own advancement, which they valued more than the long-term health of democracy. Others were simply too scared of the consequences of doing the right thing and challenging the ugly new populist and nativist political movements that Trump spawned.This clearly applies to the Republican party in the US – from the congressional leadership downwards – with too few notable exceptions. Too many stood by and did nothing while Trump rose to power and emboldened white nationalists. The GOP must now face a true reckoning for what it has enabled.It also applies to the Conservative party in the UK. Whatever they say now, the most senior Conservative ministers rushed to fawn over Trump. Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Priti Patel, Dominic Raab and others deliberately tied their political project to his. Not just by facilitating a clearly inappropriate state visit to the UK – but by forging close links between their party and Trump’s movement. Their appeasement will not be forgotten despite their eleventh-hour belated attempts to put distance between themselves and Trump.Trump followed the playbook of the fascist dictators and strongmen that came to power in the 1930s and 40sThe events in the US must now act as a wake-up call for democracies around the world. There is no guarantee that other democracies will prove to be as robust as the US has, especially as some countries will likely suffer horrendous economic consequences from the pandemic – conditions that history tells us are ripe for the rise of fascism.Donald Trump’s defeat is not the end of his brand of far-right politics. More than 74 million voted for him in November. Viktor Orbán in Hungary, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey, Matteo Salvini in Italy, Andrzej Duda in Poland and others are from the same mould. As are a growing group on the fringes of the Brexit movement.Thankfully the president-elect, Joe Biden, has shown how sensible democratic politicians – from across political divides – can unite people to reject this form of far-right nativist populism.People on both the left and right must show no hesitation in challenging racism and discrimination, be fearless in speaking up to protect all minority groups while promoting equality and focus relentlessly on tackling the economic inequalities and lack of opportunities that create a fertile breeding ground for the far-right – challenges that will only get harder after the pandemic.We should tell truly inclusive patriotic stories about our national identity that show the genuine diversity of both our history and modern societies. And we need to be clear that compromising with those on the other side of the political aisle is not always a bad thing. Sometimes it is essential for the health of democracy.Despite how shocking it was, the attack on the Capitol was not the most significant event in US politics last week. Instead, we should look to positives like the certification of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s victory, the election of the first ever Jewish senator from Georgia and the first black Democrat senator to be elected from a former confederate state. They show us the way forward. Now it’s on the rest of the world to pick up their mantle as we seek to rebuild and strengthen our democracies in the aftermath of the pandemic.Sadiq Khan is mayor of London More
“Big protest in DC on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” Donald Trump tweeted on December 19, a week after his would-be Brown Shirt followers rioted in the streets of Washington to protest the “stolen” election. When Der Tag – the climactic day of battle arrived – Trump assembled his true believers on the South Ellipse at the White House for a “Save America” rally, waving them up Pennsylvania Avenue as his army to nullify the congressional certification of electoral college votes in the presidential election.Near the steps of the Capitol, as Trump’s shock troops prepared themselves for the assault on the citadel, they built a bare but dramatic monument to their revenge fantasy: wooden gallows with steps leading up to a swinging noose. Smashing their way through the windows and doors of the Capitol, they rampaged in a mad dash, breaking furniture, slashing paintings and looting offices. One of the invaders roamed through the corridors carrying a large Confederate flag, the first and only time that emblem of the Slave Power has ever appeared inside the Capitol.Just two weeks earlier, on 21 December, at the request of the commonwealth of Virginia, the statue of Robert E Lee that the state had given as a gift to the Congress in 1909 to represent it in Statuary Hall was replaced with one of Barbara Rose Johns Powell, who as a teenager had integrated Virginia’s public schools. Trump’s rabble had first rioted in 2017 in defense of another statue of Lee, in Charlottesville, Virginia, after the city council had voted to remove it.“Jews will not replace us!” they chanted, and a young woman was murdered by a neo-Nazi. Trump praised them as “very fine people,” and tweeted, “Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments.”The rioter parading through the Capitol with a Confederate flag, as though he had reached the high-water mark of Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg, was captured in a photo between two portraits on the Senate side, one of Senator John C Calhoun, the proslavery ideologue and nullifier from South Carolina, and the other of Senator Charles Sumner, the abolitionist from Massachusetts. The neo-Confederate rioter appeared indifferent to the images, even as he flaunted the symbol of the Lost Cause for Trump’s lost cause in a new civil war.In a valentine to the vandals of the Capitol, Trump proclaimed, “We love you,” and, “You’re special.” The rabble was a mélange of true believers in conspiracy theories, paranoid delusions and twisted history. For the QAnon followers, their presence at the Capitol was the moment when the storm of the rapture would bring about the revelation of Trump’s final plan and his restoration to perpetual power. It was the culmination of Trump’s promise for apocalyptic change. For neo-Nazis, carrying flags with abstract versions of broken swastikas, and tattooed latter-day Klansmen, it was a stand for racial supremacy. Charging the gates of the Capitol was storming the gates of heaven. Or, alternatively, it was a heroic last-ditch defense of Trump’s bunker from the onslaught of hordes of impure infidels led by Joe Biden.As William Faulkner famously wrote, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” But the warped history that the Trump mob thinks it is enacting, reenacting or conjuring is a costume drama of militant ignorance. The true history sheds more light on their feeble attempted coup than their fervid visions of pedophile liberal celebrities acting in concert with the deep state and the Illuminati.When senators scrambled for cover from violent assailants, it recalled the nearly fatal attack on Charles Sumner. In 1856, after delivering a stem-winding speech against the effort to turn the Kansas territory into a slave state, “The Crime Against Kansas,” Sumner sat at his desk on the floor of the Senate writing letters. Representative Preston Brooks, of South Carolina, taking umbrage at his remarks, clubbed him with a gold-handled cane until he was almost dead. Blood ran across the floor of the Senate. The caning of Sumner was a precipitating outrage that helped bring on the civil war.President Lincoln was determined that Washington would never fall to the Confederacy. He ringed the city with forts. Tens of thousands of troops were stationed there. In August 1864, when a Confederate army came within sight of the Capitol, Lincoln himself rushed to Fort Stevens to participate in the battle, and was shot at. A young officer, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, later the supreme court justice, shouted at him, “Get down, you fool!”Lincoln directed the rebuilding of the Capitol dome, originally a wooden structure that had rotted, as a symbol of confidence in the ultimate victory of democracy. The dome was completed in December 1863, a month after Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address proclaiming “a new birth of freedom”.The Trump diehard brandishing the Confederate flag in the Capitol mocks the constitutional democracy that Lincoln died forLincoln’s second inaugural took place at the newly restored Capitol. He ordered that units of Black soldiers, who had been recruited as a result of the Emancipation Proclamation, be present in force. In the Rotunda, where Trump’s rioters so recently frolicked, there was a disturbance as Lincoln passed through. A man rushing forward was restrained, later identified as John Wilkes Booth. The famed actor had become a Confederate secret service agent stalking Lincoln. Booth edged himself onto the Capitol Portico to observe Lincoln while he spoke. One hundred and fifty-six years later, Trump’s mob climbed over the spot where Booth had stood.“Right makes might,” Lincoln had stated in his Cooper Union address of 1860, which launched him on his campaign for the presidency. Six months later, on 11 July 1860, Charles Sumner came to Cooper Union to support Lincoln’s candidacy by speaking on the subject of The Republican Party: Its Origins, Necessity, and Permanence. He defined the new liberal party as the antithesis of John C Calhoun, “chief in all the pretensions of slavery and slave-masters,” who attacked “the self-evident truths of the declaration of independence as ‘absurd,’ and then to proclaim that human beings are ‘property’ under the constitution.”“All that the Republican party now opposes,” said Sumner, “may be found in John C Calhoun.”But now, it should be apparent in the last days of Trump, as he invokes the spirit of Calhoun’s nullification, that original Republican party has ceased to exist. The Trump diehard brandishing the Confederate flag in the Capitol mocks the constitutional democracy that Lincoln died for. Not since the intrusion of John Wilkes Booth has there been such a traitorous presence. More
Key events
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3.35pm EST15:35
West Virginia legislator arrested for alleged role in Capitol riot
3.10pm EST15:10
Biden agrees with Trump’s decision not to attend inauguration
2.59pm EST14:59
Biden on Trump impeachment: ‘That’s a decision for the Congress’
2.53pm EST14:53
Perdue formally concedes to Ossoff in Georgia Senate race
2.19pm EST14:19
Biden introduces nominees to lead commerce and labor departments
2.05pm EST14:05
Biden offers sympathy to family of fallen Capitol Police officer
1.56pm EST13:56
Rioter from viral photo in Pelosi’s office arrested – report
Live feed
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4.45pm EST16:45
The White House has issued a statement on the prospect of an unprecedented second round of impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump.
“As President Trump said yesterday, this is a time for healing and unity as one nation. A politically motivated impeachment against a president with 12 days remaining in his term will only serve to further divide our great country,” it said.
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4.23pm EST16:23
Donald Trump will reportedly fly to Mar-a-Lago the day before Joe Biden’s inauguration, according to CNN.
Kaitlan Collins
(@kaitlancollins)
After announcing he won’t attend his inauguration, President Trump is currently scheduled to head to Mar-a-Lago the day before President-elect Biden is sworn in. Our report from the White House today: pic.twitter.com/gtIcNmVAYP
January 8, 2021
Trump announced earlier today that he would not attend Biden’s inauguration, breaking 150 years of tradition of outgoing presidents attending their successors’ inaugurations.
It’s unclear whether Mike Pence will attend the inauguration, although Biden said today that the vice-president is “welcome” to be part of the event.
4.13pm EST16:13
A draft of House Democrats’ articles of impeachment against Donald Trump includes an article for “incitement of insurrection.”
The draft, obtained by CNN, accuses the president of having “gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government.”
“President Trump’s conduct on January 6, 2021 was consistent with his prior efforts to subvert and obstruct the certification of the results of the 2020 presidential election,” the draft says.
“He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coordinate branch of government. He thereby betrayed his trust as President, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.”
House Democrats could file the articles of impeachment as soon as Monday, according to multiple reports, potentially setting up a mid-week vote.
3.58pm EST15:58
Jen Psaki, the incoming White House press secretary, said Joe Biden will receive his second dose of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine on Monday.
Seung Min Kim
(@seungminkim)
>@jrpsaki says Biden will get his second dose of the coronavirus vaccine on Monday
January 8, 2021
During a virtual briefing with reporters, Psaki added that some members of the incoming administration, including close aides to Biden and Kamala Harris as well as cabinet secretaries, are starting to receive the vaccine as well.
3.35pm EST15:35
West Virginia legislator arrested for alleged role in Capitol riot
Derrick Evans, a newly elected legislator in West Virginia, has been arrested on federal charges related to the violent riot at the Capitol.
Chad Hedrick
(@WSAZChadHedrick)
#BREAKING WV Delegate Derrick Evans has been taken into federal custody. He’s charged after allegedly entering a restricted area of the US Capitol with rioters Wednesday. A woman saying he was his grandmother came out telling us to leave as he was put in a car. #WSAZ pic.twitter.com/wK2RqFcaF7
January 8, 2021
A reporter for the local NBC affiliate WSAZ shared a video of Evans, who serves in the West Virginia House of Delegates, being taken into federal custody.
A woman who identified herself as Evans’ grandmother confronted the reporter as he was put in a car.
Asked for a comment about the arrest, the woman said, “He’s a fine man, and thank you, Mr Trump, for invoking a riot.”
3.16pm EST15:16
Joe Biden said he believed the violent siege of the Capitol made it easier to unify the country because Americans of both parties were horrified by what took place.
“My overarching objective is to unify this country,” Biden told reporters in Wilmington, Delaware. “We must unify this country.”
The president-elect applauded Republicans who have denounced the violence and the baseless claims of widespread election fraud that helped spur it, such as Mitt Romney.
Biden noted he spoke to Romney this morning, and he applauded the Republican senator as “a man of enormous integrity”.
Asked whether senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz should resign for supporting Donald Trump’s lies about the election, as some Democrats have suggested, Biden said, “I think they should be just flat beaten the next time they run.”
The president-elect has now wrapped up his event in Wilmington.
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3.10pm EST15:10
Biden agrees with Trump’s decision not to attend inauguration
Joe Biden said Donald Trump’s decision not to attend his inauguration is “one of the few things he and I have ever agreed on”.
“It’s a good thing, him not showing up,” the president-elect told reporters in Wilmington, Delaware. “He has exceeded even my worst notions about him. He’s embarrassed us around the world.”
Trump announced earlier today that he would not attend Biden’s inauguration, making him the first president since 1869 not to attend his successor’s inauguration.
Asked later about Mike Pence, Biden said the vice-president is “welcome to attend”.
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3.04pm EST15:04
Joe Biden condemned the rioters who stormed the Capitol as “a bunch of thugs,” “domestic terrorists” and “white supremacists.”
The president-elect specifically called out the rioters who wore shirts saying “6MWE.”
“6MWE” is an anti-Semitic phrase that stands for “Six million wasn’t enough,” referring to the six million Jewish people who were murdered during the Holocaust.
“These shirts they’re wearing? These are a bunch of thugs,” Biden said.
2.59pm EST14:59
Biden on Trump impeachment: ‘That’s a decision for the Congress’
Joe Biden is now taking questions from reporters at his event in Wilmington, Delaware, after introducing his nominees to lead the labor and commerce departments.
No surprise here: the first question (from CNN’s Arlette Saenz) was focused on House Democrats’ plans to file articles of impeachment against Donald Trump, after the president incited a violent mob to storm the Capitol.
“I’ve thought for a long, long time that President Trump wasn’t fit to hold the job. That’s why I ran,” Biden said.
When pressed on whether he would advise a Democratic lawmaker to support impeachment, the president-elect dodged, saying, “That’s a decision for the Congress to make. I’m focused on my job.”
Biden noted he would be having a phone call with Democratic congressional leaders later this afternoon, when impeachment will likely come up.
2.53pm EST14:53
Perdue formally concedes to Ossoff in Georgia Senate race
Former Republican senator David Perdue has formally conceded to Jon Ossoff in their Georgia Senate runoff race.
“Although we won the general election, we came up just short of Georgia’s 50% rule, and now I want to congratulate the Democratic Party and my opponent for this runoff win,” Purdue said in a statement.
After a bitter campaign defined by sharp attacks from both candidates, Perdue did not mention Ossoff by name in his concession statement.
Purdue’s concession comes one day after Republican Kelly Loeffler conceded to Democrat Raphael Warnock in the other Georgia Senate race.
After the victories of Warnock and Ossoff, the Senate is now evenly split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans. Once Kamala Harris is sworn in as vice-president, Democrats will take the majority.
2.37pm EST14:37
Joe Biden’s event is ongoing, but the blog is going to pivot back to Capitol Hill, where a prominent Democrat addressed calls for two of her Republican colleagues to resign.
Patty Murray, the third-ranking Senate Democrat, said she believed senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz should resign for their role in stirring up baseless doubts about the legitimacy of the election, after a violent pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol on Wednesday.
Senator Patty Murray
(@PattyMurray)
At the end of the day, our job is to keep this country a democracy where voices win, not brute force. Any Senator who stands up and supports the power of force over the power of democracy has broken their oath of office. Senators Hawley and Cruz should resign.
January 8, 2021
“I come to the Capitol every day to fight for what I believe in,” the Washington Democrat said in a statement. “I use my voice to tell people what I believe to be right, and I listen to the other side. We hear each other out, we vote, and whoever has the votes wins. And I accept that. Do I always like the outcome? No, but I accept it, because that is what our democracy requires.”
Murray condemned the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Wednesday, describing them as “people who don’t accept democracy, and want to take this country by use of force.”
“As a Senator, I respect every member who disagrees with my ideas. I reserve my right to use my voice to fight for what I believe in. But at the end of the day, our job is to keep this country a democracy where voices win, not brute force,” Murray said.
“Any Senator who stands up and supports the power of force over the power of democracy has broken their oath of office. Senators Hawley and Cruz should resign.”
2.24pm EST14:24
Joe Biden said he gave “serious consideration” to nominating Bernie Sanders as labor secretary, but the two agreed that it was too risky to jeopardize control of the Senate.
CBS News
(@CBSNews)
Biden says he gave “serious consideration” to nominating Bernie Sanders for labor secretary, but they both decided against it to avoid vacating seat and risking Democrats’ Senate controlHe and Sanders will still “work closely on our shared agenda of increasing worker power” pic.twitter.com/97SRFlrOAj
January 8, 2021
After Democrats swept the Georgia Senate races this week, they took control of the chamber, which will now be 50-50, with vice-president-elect Kamala Harris providing a tie-breaking 51st vote for Democrats.
Sanders has served as one of Vermont’s senators since 2007, and his cabinet nomination would trigger a special election.
The labor secretary nomination ultimately went to Marty Walsh, the mayor of Boston, and Biden said Sanders told him he had made a good choice.
Updated
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2.19pm EST14:19
Biden introduces nominees to lead commerce and labor departments
Joe Biden is now introducing his nominees to lead the commerce and labor departments, rounding out his cabinet nominations.
Gina Raimondo, the governor of Rhode Island, will be nominated to lead the commerce department, and Marty Walsh, the mayor of Boston, will be nominated as labor secretary.
Biden celebrated his nominees as the right people to help the millions of Americans desperately seeking financial assistance amid the coronavirus pandemic.
2.16pm EST14:16
Joe Biden said he would lay out the groundwork for the next round of coronavirus relief next week, emphasizing the need to offer more financial assistance to American families amid the pandemic.
“We need more direct relief flowing to families, small businesses,” Biden said. “Our focus will be on small businesses on Main Street.”
The president-elect also criticized the rollout of coronavirus vaccines so far. “Vaccines give us hope, but the rollout has been a travesty,” Biden said.
The Democrat previously pledged to distribute 100 million doses of the vaccine over his first 100 days in office.
2.11pm EST14:11
Joe Biden noted that, with his announcement today, he will have completed his cabinet nominations, and he called on the Senate to swiftly confirm his nominees.
The president-elect applauded himself for building a cabinet that “looks like America,” noting that this would be the first presidential cabinet to be evenly divided between men and women.
Updated
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2.05pm EST14:05
Biden offers sympathy to family of fallen Capitol Police officer
Joe Biden has taken the podium in Wilmington, Delaware, for his event to introduce members of his economic team.
The president-elect opened his remarks by expressing his “deep sympathy” for the family of Brian Sicknick, the Capitol Police officer who died as a result of his injuries from the violent siege of the Capitol.
“The people responsible should be held accountable — and they will be,” Biden said.
Biden also said he would take reporters’ questions after he introduces his cabinet members, and he will likely be pressed on calls to remove Donald Trump from office.
Updated
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1.56pm EST13:56
Rioter from viral photo in Pelosi’s office arrested – report
The rioter who was photographed sitting in the office of House speaker Nancy Pelosi amid the violent siege of the Capitol has been arrested, according to multiple reports. More
