Tag: President Biden

Biden’s Approval Rating Is Trump’s in Reverse

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Support from a slim majority might be all President Biden can expect — and maybe it’s all he needs.

President Biden entered the White House last month with a broadly positive approval rating — but well shy of the two-thirds of Americans who expressed support for his former boss, Barack Obama, when he took office 12 years ago.

In fact, Biden’s net approval rating is lower than that of any incoming president since the dawn of modern polling, except for his predecessor, Donald Trump. It’s just another clear sign that we’ve entered a new era of partisanship: Media fragmentation and the hard-line politics it has helped foster may make it impossible for any leader to become a true consensus figure.

But it also bears noting that Biden’s approval rating is basically a reverse image of Trump’s. In addition to being loathed by Republicans and embraced by Democrats, he’s firmly in positive territory among independents — who had consistently disapproved of Trump’s performance. Continue reading.

Growing extremist threats put more pressure on Biden

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With far-right domestic terror threats on the rise, experts are urging President Biden to go beyond his initial executive actions and ensure national security forces are better equipped to address homegrown threats.

Biden is coming under pressure to shift resources and boost intelligence sharing following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, when law enforcement agencies were caught flat-footed by hundreds of violent protesters who stormed the building in support of former President Trump.

And the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last week warned that the U.S. may face heightened threats from “ideologically-motivated violent extremists.” Continue reading.

‘It’s a mess’: Biden’s team exposes the chaotic Trump White House they inherited

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President Joe Biden has been in office for 10 days and, already, his administration has uncovered a number of chaotic issues inherited from the Trump administration. 

According to Politico, Biden’s team had a prioritized focus on combatting the raging coronavirus pandemic, but instead of completely focusing on their 200-page pandemic response plan, this week has been largely dedicated to “trying to wrap their hands around the mushrooming crisis — a process officials acknowledge has been humbling, and triggered a concerted effort to temper expectations about how quickly they might get the nation back to normal.”

While the Biden administration’s work should be well underway, they are still working to locate more than 20 million doses of coronavirus vaccines that have already been shipped to states. According to Biden’s administration, they inherited a deeply flawed for maintaining proper records and inventory of vaccine distribution. Continue reading.

Biden’s cleaning up after Trump just like he promised — and the GOP is outraged

President Joe Biden has issued more than 30 executive orders since taking office.

Congressional Republicans are complaining that President Joe Biden has issued a large number of executive orders in his first week in office. They fail to mention the fact that many of Biden’s orders undo some of the 220 executive orders issued by Donald Trump during his time in the White House.

While the lawmakers’ counts have varied, the outrage has been consistent.

“President Biden is setting records and breaking promises,” complainedRep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) on Thursday. “Biden has signed more executive orders in his first week (22) than any other president in history (on pace to sign more than 4,500 EOs in four years).” Continue reading.

Biden just took his first step to expand health coverage

Biden is opening up Obamacare enrollment and planning an ad blitz.

Eight days into his administration, President Joe Biden took a small step to expand health coverage during the Covid-19 pandemic — one that Donald Trump refused to take last year.

In an executive order Biden is signing Thursday, the president directs the US Department of Health and Human Services to open a special enrollment period on HealthCare.gov, allowing Americans to sign up for a new health insurance plan subsidized by the federal government. From February 15 to May 15, people who are uninsured can log on to the federal website and choose a health plan. (HealthCare.gov serves most states but not all; Biden officials said they expected the states that run their own insurance marketplaces to also open up enrollment.)

“These actions demonstrate a strong commitment by the Biden-Harris Administration to protect and build on the Affordable Care Act, meet the health care needs created by the pandemic, reduce health care costs, protect access to reproductive health care, and make our health care system easier to navigate and more equitable,” the White House said in a statement announcing the order. Continue reading.

Federal judges from both sides of the aisle are retiring now that Biden can appoint their replacements

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As President Joe Biden was being sworn in, one federal judge was breathing a sigh of relief knowing she could retire with a viable replacement. On Wednesday, Jan. 20, U.S. District Judge Victoria Robert submitted her letter of resignation just 90 minutes after Biden was sworn in on Inauguration Day. 

“It has been my honor to serve,” Roberts wrote to the newly-elected president on Inauguration Day. “With respect, I congratulate you on your election as the 46th President of the United States, and Kamala Harris on her election as Vice President.”

However, she is not the only one. According to Huff Post, since Biden’s inauguration, a substantial number of federal judges—both Democratic and Republican with lifetime appointments—have submitted letters announcing their intent to resign or partially retire. Continue reading.

Biden, Emphasizing Job Creation, Signs Sweeping Climate Actions

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The array of directives — touching on international relations, drilling policy, employment and national security, among other things — elevate climate change across every level of the federal government.

WASHINGTON — President Biden on Wednesday signed a sweeping series of executive actions — ranging from pausing new federal oil leases to electrifying the government’s vast fleet of vehicles — while casting the moves as much about job creation as the climate crisis.

Mr. Biden said his directives would reserve 30 percent of federal land and water for conservation purposes, make climate policy central to national security decisions and build out a network of electric-car charging stations nationwide.

But much of the sales pitch on employment looked intended to counteract longstanding Republican attacks that Mr. Biden’s climate policies would inevitably hurt an economy already weakened by the pandemic. Continue reading.

5 things to know about Biden’s racial equity orders

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President Biden took strides toward advancing racial equality on Tuesday with the signing of four new executive orders.

The directives come on the heels of more than two dozen signed since he took office just a week ago and cover a wide breadth of issues: better enforcement of federal housing laws, increased communication with and support for Native American tribes, criminal justice reform and the condemnation of xenophobia.

Here are five things to know about Biden’s orders on racial equity. Continue reading.

Biden signs orders on racial equity, and civil rights groups press for more

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President Biden signed four executive actions Tuesday aimed at increasing racial equity across the nation, a move the administration said was a big early step in his efforts to dismantle systemic racism, though civil rights groups made it clear they will press for more-sweeping change in the months ahead.

The measures seek to strengthen anti-discrimination housing policies that were weakened under President Donald Trump, halt new Justice Department contracts with private prisons, increase the sovereignty of Native American tribes and combat violence and xenophobia against Asian Americans and Pacific islanders, weeks after the departure of a president who blamed the Chinese for the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden said the actions were part of an effort to infuse a focus on equity into everything the federal government does. Continue reading.

Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas blocks Biden’s deportation ‘pause’

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A federal judge in Texas blocked President Biden’s 100-day deportation “pause” on Tuesday in a ruling that may point to a new phase of conservative legal challenges to his administration’s immigration agenda.

Judge Drew Tipton, a Trump appointee, granted a temporary restraining order sought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, saying the state had demonstrated a likelihood of facing immediate harm from Biden’s pause. The court order will be in effect for 14 days while Tipton considers a broader motion by the state for a preliminary injunction.

Though the order is temporary, the state’s lawsuit portends more legal challenges by Biden opponents, appealing to a judicial branch reshaped by the confirmation of hundreds of Trump appointees. Continue reading.