Category: Joe Biden

The Justice Department Is Investigating Officials Who Talked To The Press About The Capitol Riot Investigation

Michael Sherwin, the former acting US Attorney in DC, had told media “the facts” support charging some Capitol rioters with sedition.

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has launched internal probes into a recent spate of apparently unauthorized comments to the media about the status of the Capitol insurrection investigation, a supervisor in the US Attorney’s office in Washington told a judge on Tuesday.

US District Judge Amit Mehta scheduled an emergency hearing to question the government about a March 21 broadcast of 60 Minutes featuring an interview with Michael Sherwin, the former acting US Attorney in Washington, DC, as well as a New York Times article published Monday that quoted anonymous law enforcement sources. Both reports addressed the government’s conspiracy case against 10 people associated with the Oath Keepers militia collective who are charged with participating in the insurrection; Mehta is presiding over that case.

John Crabb, the head of the Criminal Division in the DC US Attorney’s office, told Mehta it appeared that Sherwin had failed to comply with the department’s rules and policies that govern contacts with the press. Crabb said Sherwin had been referred to the Office of Professional Responsibility, which investigates misconduct allegations against DOJ lawyers and officials. Continue reading.

New shootings plunge Biden, Congress into gun control debate

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President Biden on Tuesday urged Congress to enact meaningful gun reforms after the second mass shooting in under a week, plunging Washington back into a familiar debate where lawmakers have stalemated in recent years.

Eight people in the Atlanta area and 10 people in Boulder, Colo., were killed in the most recent shootings, but there was little sign it would move the needle in Congress — even as political leaders who back gun reforms noted the United States is the only country in the world that continually suffers from mass shooting events.

There had been no mass shooting in a year as much of the country stayed home from work and school during the pandemic, a fact noted ruefully by former President Obama. Continue reading.

Rachel Levine becomes first transgender official confirmed by Senate

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The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Rachel Levine as assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services. 

Why it matters: Levine is the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The vote was 52-48.

Background: Levine, who is a graduate of Harvard and Tulane Medical School, has helped lead Pennsylvania’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. She previously served as the state’s physician general. Continue reading.

Senate confirms Young as deputy budget director

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The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Shalanda Young as the White House’s deputy budget director, even as plans to fill the top spot remain on hold.

Young, a former staff director for the House Appropriations Committee, was confirmed by a vote of 63-37.

Many Republicans who initially supported Young’s confirmation as the No. 2 at the Office of Management and Budget withdrew their support after an initial round of confirmation hearings, citing objections to her support for repealing the Hyde Amendment in her written responses. Continue reading.

‘Sitting on their hands’: Biden transition officials say Trump officials delayed action on child migrant surge

Trump officials didn’t increase capacity for child migrants despite warnings, Biden transition officials say. “They were sitting on their hands,” one said.

WASHINGTON — In early December, the Biden transition team and career government officials began sounding an alarm on the need to increase shelter space for the large number of migrant children expected to soon be crossing the border, but the Trump administration didn’t take action until just days before the inauguration, according to two Biden transition officials and a U.S. official with knowledge of the discussions.

“They were sitting on their hands,” said one of the transition officials, who does not currently work for the Biden administration and spoke on the condition of anonymity. “It was incredibly frustrating.”

The Biden transition team made its concerns about the lack of shelter space known to Trump officials both at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Homeland Security, laying out the need to open an influx shelter in Carrizo Springs, Texas, and to issue what’s known as a “request for assistance” that would start the process of surveying new sites for expanded shelters, according to the transition officials. Continue reading.

Biden urges Congress to pass assault weapon ban

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President Biden on Tuesday called on Congress to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and to close loopholes in the background check system after a gunman killed 10 people at a grocery store in Boulder, Colo.

“I don’t need to wait another minute, let alone an hour, to take common sense steps that will save lives in the future and to urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to act,” Biden said in remarks at the White House following Monday’s shooting. “We can ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in this country once again. I got that done when I was a senator. … We should do it again.”

Biden called on the Senate to “immediately pass” two House-passed bills that would expand background checks for firearm sales, noting that both passed the Democratic-controlled lower chamber with some Republican support. One of the bills would close the so-called Charleston loophole by extending the initial background check review period from three to 10 days. The bill is linked to the 2015 shooting in Charleston, S.C., in which a white supremacist killed nine Black Americans at the Mother Emanuel AME Church. Continue reading.

White House prepares massive infrastructure bill with universal pre-K, free community college, climate measures

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White House officials are preparing to present President Biden with a roughly $3 trillion infrastructure and jobs package that includes high-profile domestic policy priorities such as free community college and universal prekindergarten, according to three people familiar with internal discussions.

After completing the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package this month, Biden administration officials are piecing together the next major legislative priority. Although no final announcement has been made, the White House is expected to push a multitrillion-dollar jobs and infrastructure plan as the centerpiece of the president’s “Build Back Better” agenda.

That effort is expected to be broken into two parts — one focused on infrastructure, and the other focused on other domestic priorities such as growing the newly expanded child tax credit for several years. The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations, stressed that planning was preliminary and subject to change. Some aides said that the package’s final price tag remains unclear. Continue reading.

Senate confirms Vivek H. Murthy as surgeon general

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Biden adviser returns to role he held during the Obama administration

The Senate on Tuesday voted 57 to 43 to confirm Vivek H. Murthy as United States surgeon general, ensuring that a top ally of President Biden will play a visible role in responding to the coronavirus pandemic.

All 50 Senate Democrats and Independents voted to support Murthy, joined by seven Republicans.

“Glad he was confirmed today — and I’m looking forward to working with him to address this pandemic and the underlying health inequities it has made way worse,” tweeted Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, calling Murthy a “highly experienced, crisis-tested leader.” Continue reading.

U.S., U.K., EU and Canada sanction Chinese officials over Uyghur abuses

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The U.S., U.K., European Union and Canada all announced sanctions on Monday against Chinese officials involved in human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims.

Why it matters: It’s a coordinated Western effort to hold Beijing accountable for its sweeping campaign of arbitrary detention, forced labor and forced sterilization against ethnic minorities in the far west region of Xinjiang, which the U.S. State Department and several legislative bodies have recognized as genocide.

Driving the news: The sanctions come on the heels of a frosty first high-level U.S.-China meeting in Alaska last week, which saw Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan clash with their Chinese counterparts over human rights and other issues. Continue reading.

Shadowy group behind Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation spending big to undermine Biden’s Justice Department

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The right-wing dark money group that helped Donald Trump “capture” the Supreme Court is now working to undermine the Biden administration’s efforts to enforce voting rights.

The Judicial Crisis Network is running ads attacking Justice Department nominees Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke — a pair of widely respected litigators and civil rights activists — as part of a related new organization, the Honest Elections Project, with an improbable name, reported The Daily Beast.

Conservative legal activist Leonard Leo, the longtime executive vice president of the Federalist Society, is coordinating efforts by the various dark-money front groups to pack the Supreme Court and then to bring voting rights cases in front of those right-wing courts. Continue reading.