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Courtney Subramanian
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Deirdre Shesgreen
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Ledyard King
| USA TODAY
Here’s what’s going on in politics January 27, 2021. Check back for updates.
Former President Donald Trump is due to meet privately on Thursday with a prominent Congressional legislator: Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy.
McCarthy criticized Trump after the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol – “the president has a responsibility,” he said a week after the insurrection – but he also voted against impeachment. He has also adopted a softer tone towards Trump in recent days.
“I don’t believe he caused that, if you hear what he said at the rally” just before the January 6 attack, McCarthy told reporters on Thursday.
A Trump adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss his agenda, said the former president plans to meet with McCarthy on Thursday in South Florida.
The meeting takes place as Trump and lawyers prepare their defense at an impeachment trial in the Senate next month; opening arguments are scheduled for February 9.
McCarthy’s office did not comment on the conference with Trump.
– David Jackson
The White House does not intend to give any public attention to the rep. Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene, who made headlines for incendiary comments and conspiracy theories as a candidate and has remained controversial since joining Congress earlier this month.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked on Wednesday about CNN’s report that Greene’s previous social media posts indicated support for the execution of Democratic politicians.
Does the White House have an opinion on whether Greene should face discipline?
“We don’t know,” said Psaki. “And I’m not going to talk about her in this instruction room anymore.”
A former White House occupant, however, weighed in.
“This woman should be on a watch list. It’s not in Congress, ”tweeted Hillary Clinton, one of the Democrats targeted by Greene’s comments on Facebook.
In a tweet, Greene dismissed the CNN report as “another hit on me”.
– Maureen Groppe and Courtney Subramanian
The Department of Homeland Security warned on Wednesday of a continuing threat posed by domestic extremists, warning that a “high-threat environment” across the country is likely to persist through the spring.
The bulletin, issued by Acting DHS Secretary David Pekoske, said that there is no current evidence of a specific conspiracy, but officials “remain concerned that individuals frustrated with the exercise of government authority and the presidential transition … may continue to mobilize a wide range of actors with ideological motivation to incite or commit violence. “
Three weeks after the attack on the Capitol, Pekoske’s national adviser said that extremists harboring a volatile mix of complaints “can be encouraged” by the January 6 attack to target elected officials and government properties.
The bulletin recalled the 2019 mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, in which the attacker told police he had considered Mexicans to be a symbol of “racial and ethnic tension, including opposition to immigration”, which sparked violent attacks by domestic extremists.
“Threats of violence against critical infrastructure, including the electricity, telecommunications and health sectors, increased in 2020 with violent extremists citing misinformation and conspiracy theories about COVID-19 for their actions,” the bulletin said.
– Kevin Johnson
Senator Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who is expected to preside over former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, returned to the Senate on Wednesday after a brief visit to the hospital.
Leahy presided as the Senate met again on Wednesday morning. He was taken to the hospital on Tuesday night “just in case” after “not feeling well,” said spokesman David Carle.
He was discharged on Tuesday night after receiving test results and receiving a “thorough examination,” said Carle.
Leahy, the most senior Democrat in the Senate who serves as president pro tempore, is expected to preside over Trump’s trial when he begins the week of February 8. Supreme Court chief judge John Roberts normally presides over any president’s impeachment trials, but the constitution stipulates that the president of the court of justice presides over only the trials of incumbent presidents. Roberts presided over Trump’s first impeachment trial on negotiations with Ukraine.
Leahy told reporters on Capitol Hill that he went to the hospital because of muscle spasms, but did not specify where they were. “They didn’t stop,” said Leahy. His doctor said that instead of taking chances with “so much going on,” they examined him and then sent him home with his wife, a registered nurse.
“They sent me home with a nurse,” said Leahy.
He told reporters he was healthy enough to preside over the former president’s impeachment trial. He has not yet decided whether to seek re-election in 2022, a decision he hopes to make by December.
– Christal Hayes and Bart Jansen
COVID-19 vaccine: Kamala Harris receives second dose
Vice President Kamala Harris received her second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
USA TODAY
President Joe Biden on Wednesday is expected to issue another series of executive actions related to combating climate change, prioritizing science and evidence-based policies at federal agencies and stopping oil drilling on public lands. It is the latest move to undo Trump’s environmental policies, which challenged the basis of climate change and had former energy industry lobbyists directing major environmental agencies.
Biden vowed to be the most aggressive president on climate change, what he called “an existential threat”. Its goal is to decarbonize the United States’ energy sector by 2035, in order to achieve net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
The United States emits the second largest amount of carbon dioxide in the world, after China.
The actions he will sign on Wednesday afternoon will also elevate climate change as a national security concern, commit to the goal of conserving at least 30% of all federal land and water by 2030, which is 12 % today, and build their economy’s political agenda to direct federal agencies to “acquire carbon-free electricity and clean, zero-emission vehicles to create well-paying union jobs and stimulate clean energy industries.”
Part of that order will ensure that federal purchases are in line with Biden’s “Buy American” initiative, which aims to boost federal government purchases of products manufactured in the United States.
Republicans who say Biden’s climate policies have prohibitive costs, will hurt American companies and eliminate jobs in the oil and gas sector.
The move follows Biden’s decisions last week to suspend for 60 days new drilling licenses on federal land and waters, halt construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline and re-join the Paris Agreement on climate change.
The latest orders will not prevent energy companies from acting on existing oil and gas lease agreements in the western United States and the Gulf of Mexico, some of which were issued in the last weeks of the Trump administration.
The action will also create a National Climate Task Force, which will include leaders from 21 federal agencies and departments and will formally announce a climate summit of world leaders on Earth Day, April 22.
The League of Voters for Conservation applauded the plan, describing it as a “government-wide approach that puts bold climate action, clean energy and environmental justice at the center of its domestic and foreign policy agenda”.
“Congress must complement these executive actions with bold legislation that puts our economy on the road to recovery, making transformative investments in healthy, equitable and safe communities powered by clean energy,” the organization said in a statement.
–Courtney Subramanian and Ledyard King
White House COVID response team to hold first press conference
The White House has announced the first of what will be a regular coronavirus response briefing starting on Wednesday at 11 am.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, Andy Slavitt, Dr. Rochelle Walensky and Jeff Zients will participate. Missing recently retired Dr. Deborah Birx, former coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, who has become nationally known for her role at press conferences under the Trump administration.
During a recent CBS interview “Face the Nation”, Birx said he “always considered” resigning the White House coronavirus task force, and that someone was handing a “parallel set of data” to Trump.
Press conferences for the coronavirus task force were a daily occurrence at the beginning of the pandemic, but then became increasingly sparse as Trump dismissed them a few weeks later.
Biden announced on Tuesday that the US had reached an agreement to buy 200 million additional doses of the coronavirus vaccine, a boost that means the US will have enough supplies to fully vaccinate 300 million Americans by the end of the summer or early summer. of autumn.
—Savannah Behrmann
At an oath ceremony, Harris congratulates Blinken as Secretary of State
Vice President Kamala Harris conducted a swearing-in ceremony for Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the White House on Wednesday.
Blinken won bipartisan support for his confirmation on Tuesday, when the Senate passed his nomination 78-22, a vote that included the support of several major Republicans.
More: Senate confirms Antony Blinken as secretary of state for Biden
“The world is watching us closely now,” Blinken told a group of State Department officials on Wednesday morning, as he arrived for his first full day as America’s chief diplomat.
“They want to know if we can heal our nation. They want to see … whether we will value diplomacy with our allies and partners to face the great challenges of our time, ”he said, citing the pandemic, climate change and threats to democracy, among other latent issues.
Blinken was officially sworn in on Tuesday afternoon at the State Department.
On Tuesday night, Blinken spoke to several foreign ministers, including those from Mexico, Canada and South Korea.
– Deirdre Shesgreen