Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022
Good Tuesday morning. Here’s what is happening:
POLITICO: In the first day of talks between The United States and Russian diplomats in Geneva, Russia downplayed a possible Ukraine invasion while the U.S. made no concessions.
But even as Russia’s lead negotiator, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, insisted the Kremlin had no plan for another invasion of its western neighbor, it was clear that Moscow and Washington are confronting virtually unbridgeable differences on many issues — including a repeated demand by the Kremlin for hard guarantees that Ukraine and Georgia will never join NATO.
The wide gulf between the former Cold War rivals became clear as Ryabkov and his U.S. counterpart, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, held dueling news conferences at the end of the daylong negotiations, which were conducted at the U.S. Mission in Geneva.
Discussions over the threat of a Russian military incursion and demands for an array of security concessions by the West will continue on Wednesday in Brussels at NATO headquarters, and on Thursday in Vienna at a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
The highlight from the first round of deliberations Monday, however, was Ryabkov's insistence that Russia was not preparing any imminent move against Ukraine, which it invaded in 2014 before annexing Crimea, and where it has backed an armed separatist uprising in the eastern region of Donbas that continues today.
“We explained to our counterparts that there were no plans or intentions to attack, quote-unquote, Ukraine,” Ryabkov told reporters. “We don’t have it, and we can’t have it.… There is no single reason to be afraid of any escalation, to be afraid of any escalatory scenario in this regard.”
But on the subject of a potential NATO expansion, Ryabkov was uncompromising, requesting “ironclad, waterproof, bulletproof, legally binding guarantees” that Ukraine and Georgia “will never ever” become members of the military alliance.
“This is one of the areas where we have the greatest difference of views with the U.S.,” Ryabkov said, adding of the Russian position: “That would be a welcome change for the better in the position of NATO. We are fed up with the loose talk, half-promises, misinterpretations of what happened … behind closed doors. We do not trust the other side.”
In her own call with reporters, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman described a “frank and forthright discussion” with Ryabkov. The U.S. delegation arrived at the talks with “a number of ideas [of] where our two countries could take reciprocal actions that would be in our security interest and improve strategic stability,” Sherman said.
Specifically, the “preliminary ideas” raised by the United States included “missile placements,” Sherman said, and the U.S. delegation “made clear that the United States is open to discussing the future of certain missile systems in Europe along the lines of the now-defunct INF Treaty” — which former President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from in 2019.
“We shared that we are also open to discussing ways we can set reciprocal limits on the size and scope of military exercises, and to improve transparency about those exercises, again, on a reciprocal basis,” Sherman said.
Chicago Tribune: The Chicago Teachers Union has agreed to a proposal that would resume classes Wednesday after four days of cancellations.
A proposal for Chicago Public Schools to resume in-person classes Wednesday has been approved by the Chicago Teachers Union’s House of Delegates following a contentious weeklong standoff.
The delegates also voted Monday night to suspend the union’s work action that saw teachers refuse to give their lessons in person, prompting the cancellation of the last four school days. There will be no Tuesday classes though teachers will report to schools for planning.
In addition to a return to in-person teaching Wednesday, the plan the House of Delegates approved will set conditions by which an individual school would return to remote learning, determined by the rate of staff absences and students in quarantine or isolation, as well as whether it’s during a period of high community COVID-19 transmission, where a lower threshold would apply.
The measure is expected to go to a union rank-and-file vote this week.
At a late news conference, Mayor Lori Lightfoot praised her team and hailed in-person learning, having staunchly rejected CTU’s calls for a wholesale return to remote learning. Lightfoot also thanked parents that, she said, supported the district.
“We can never forget the impact on the lives of our children and their families. They must always be front and center,” Lightfoot said. “Every decision has to be made with them at the forefront.”
The Associated Press: Private health insurers will be required to cover up to eight home COVID-19 tests per month starting Saturday, the Biden administration said Monday.
Under the new policy, first detailed to the AP, Americans will be able to either purchase home testing kits for free under their insurance or submit receipts for the tests for reimbursement, up to the monthly per-person limit. A family of four, for instance, could be reimbursed for up to 32 tests per month. PCR tests and rapid tests ordered or administered by a health provider will continue to be fully covered by insurance with no limit.
President Joe Biden faced criticism over the holiday season for a shortage of at-home rapid tests as Americans traveled to see family amid the surge in cases from the more transmissible omicron variant. Now the administration is working to make COVID-19 home tests more accessible, both by increasing supply and bringing down costs.
Later this month, the federal government will launch a website to begin making 500 million at-home COVID-19 tests available via mail. The administration also is scaling up emergency rapid-testing sites in areas experiencing the greatest surges in cases.
The insurer-covered testing would dramatically reduce costs for many Americans, and the administration hopes that by easing a barrier to more regular at-home testing, it can help slow the spread of the virus, get kids back into school more quickly and help people gather safely.
“This is all part of our overall strategy to ramp up access to easy-to-use, at-home tests at no cost,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “By requiring private health plans to cover people’s at-home tests, we are further expanding Americans’ ability to get tests for free when they need them.”
Biden announced the federal requirement late last year, and it kicks in on Jan. 15, but the administration had been silent until now on details of the plan.
CBS News: Pfizer’s CEO said Monday that a new COVID-19 vaccine targeting omicron should be ready by March.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said the company has already begun manufacturing a new version of its COVID-19 vaccine that aims to protect recipients against Omicron. "This vaccine will be ready in March," he told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Monday. "We [are] already starting manufacturing some of these quantities at risk."
Last week, Omicron made up more than 95% of all new COVID-19 cases in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Pfizer also said it is working to improve its existing vaccine formulation, developed jointly with Germany's BioNTech, based on the vaccine's reaction to new COVID-19 variants that arise. Pfizer can "update the current vaccine to address any future variant of potential concern, if needed," a company spokesperson said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch.
"In the event that a third dose with the current vaccine is not found to protect against the Omicron variant or other future variants, Pfizer expects to be able to develop and produce a tailor-made vaccine against that variant in approximately 100 days, subject to regulatory approval," the spokesperson added.
The spokesperson confirmed that it has already begun manufacturing doses of the Omicron-specific vaccine, should it be deemed necessary.
White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci in December predicted that Omicron would become the dominant virus strain in the U.S., but he has not said that a new Omicron-specific shot is necessary to maintain immunity. Fauci instead urged Americans to get booster shots, which studies have shown provide greater protection against Omicron.
Reuters: Mexico’s president has contracted COVID-19 for second time and is showing ‘mild’ symptoms.
The 68-year-old Lopez Obrador, who also tested positive for COVID-19 in January last year, sounded hoarse during his morning news conference on Monday, prompting him to say he would take a test later in the day.
"Although the symptoms are mild, I will remain in isolation and will only do office work and communicate virtually," until recovering, Lopez Obrador said in a tweet.
The leftist leader, a former smoker who had a heart attack in 2013, also suffers from hypertension but his previous COVID-19 infection was light, Mexican officials say. Lopez Obrador received an AstraZeneca vaccine booster shot on Dec. 7.
For now, Interior Minister Adan Augusto Lopez will replace the president during his daily morning press conferences and other official acts, Lopez Obrador added.
Critics have attacked the Mexican leader for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, arguing he downplayed its seriousness during the early phase of the health emergency.
He has also rarely been seen in public wearing a face mask, except on planes, and Mexico has imposed comparatively few restrictions on travelers entering the country.
The State: South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace tested positive for a breakthrough COVID-19 case, her second bout with the virus.
The Daniel Island Republican said she tested for coronavirus after one of her children tested positive.
Mace, who has been fully vaccinated since last spring, has now tested positive for COVID-19 twice, after the first time on June 23, 2020.
“I’m feeling OK. This is more mild than the first time. I’m completing quarantine and working from home as I recover,” Mace said in an official statement. “We are all frustrated with our common enemy COVID-19. I am praying everyone can stay healthy and we can all get past this soon.”
Mace is at least the second House member from South Carolina to report a breakthrough case, and she is among a growing list of members of Congress who have tested positive for COVID-19 and who are vaccinated.
Some email clients will cut off our note due to length. Make sure to click “read more” or “view entire message” to keep reading.
CNBC: Experts are casting doubts over a new possible COVID-19 mutation made up of both delta and omicron, saying it’s more likely the result of a lab error.
Global health experts are casting doubts over reports of a new possible Covid-19 mutation that appeared to be a combination of both the delta and omicron variants, dubbed as “deltacron,” saying it’s more likely that the “strain” is the result of a lab processing error.
At the weekend it was reported that a researcher in Cyprus had discovered the potential new variant. Bloomberg News said Saturday that Leondios Kostrikis, professor of biological sciences at the University of Cyprus, had called the strain “deltacron,” because of its omicron-like genetic signatures within the delta genomes.
Kostrikis and his team said they had found 25 cases of the mutation, with the report adding that at the time it was too early to tell whether there were more cases of the apparent new strain or what impact it could have. Bloomberg reported that the findings had been sent to Gisaid, an international database that tracks changes in the virus, on Jan. 7.
ome experts have since cast doubt over the findings, with one World Health Organization official tweeting Sunday that “deltacron,” which was trending on the social media platform on the weekend, is “not real” and “is likely due to sequencing artifact,” a variation introduced by a nonbiological process.
WHO Covid expert Dr. Krutika Kuppalli said on Twitter that, in this case, there was likely to have been a “lab contamination of Omicron fragments in a Delta specimen.”
In another tweet, she noted wryly, “Let’s not merge of names of infectious diseases and leave it to celebrity couples”
Other scientists have agreed that the findings could be the result of a lab error, with virologist Dr. Tom Peacock from Imperial College London also tweeting that “the Cypriot ‘Deltacron’ sequences reported by several large media outlets look to be quite clearly contamination.”
In another tweet, he noted that “quite a few of us have had a look at the sequences and come to the same conclusion it doesn’t look like a real recombinant,” referring to a possible rearrangement of genetic material.
ABC News: Officials in New York have revised down the death toll in Sunday's apartment fire, saying 17 are dead, including nine children, but more fatalities are possible.
Officials previously reported that 19 people -- including nine children -- had died in the fire, but the death toll was revised Monday. The victims were taken to seven different hospitals, which led to the miscount, New York City Fire Department Commissioner Daniel Nigro said Monday.
More than 200 firefighters responded to the scene of the five-alarm fire that originated Sunday morning in a duplex apartment on the third floor of a high-rise building, located in the Tremont section of the Bronx, officials said. More than 60 people were injured in the fire, according to the New York City Fire Department.
Many of the victims were located on the upper floors and likely suffered from severe smoke inhalation, Nigro said during a press conference Sunday afternoon.
Firefighters arrived on the scene within three minutes of the initial 911 call and were met with fire in the hallways, Nigro said. A door that was left open allowed the fire and smoke to spread, Nigro added, describing the fire as "unprecedented."
The fire never left the hallway on the floor where it originated, he said.
Fox News: Convicted killer and New York real estate scion Robert Durst, who was sentenced to life in prison last October, died Monday morning at a California state prison hospital facility.
Durst, heir to a real estate empire, died of natural causes around 6 a.m. PST Monday, according to his attorney Chip Lewis, and a statement from the office of Durst's longtime defense attorney, Dick DeGuerin. Lewis also told the New York Times that Durst had been taken to the San Joaquin General Hospital, where he suffered cardiac arrest.
"Mr. Durst passed away early this morning while in the custody of the California Department of Corrections," Lewis said in a statement. "We understand that his death was due to natural causes associated with the litany of medical issues we had repeatedly reported to the court over the last couple of years."
Durst has long been accused of being involved in the death of his wife, Kathleen McCormack Durst, but had not been officially charged until late last year. He was convicted in September 2021 and sentenced to life without parole for the murder of his best friend, Susan Berman.
Durst took the stand for three weeks of testimony. A jury ultimately found him guilty of shooting Berman at point-blank range in 2000 at her Los Angeles home.
Under devastating cross-examination from prosecutor John Lewin, Durst admitted that he lied under oath in the past and would do it again to get out of trouble.
"‘Did you kill Susan Berman?’ is strictly a hypothetical," Durst said from the stand. "I did not kill Susan Berman. But if I had, I would lie about it."
Durst’s health was often a topic of concern for his attorneys during the trial, when Durst had bladder cancer and his health deteriorated. He was escorted into court in a wheelchair wearing prison attire each day because his attorneys said he was unable to change into a suit. But the judge declined further delays after a 14-month pause during the coronavirus pandemic.
DeGuerin said at the time that Durst was "very, very sick" at his sentencing hearing, and it was the worst the suspect looked in the 20 years he spent representing him.
MSNBC: President Joe Biden is expected to call for changes to filibuster rules in a speech in Georgia Tuesday on voting rights.
NBC News’ Sahil Kapur reports on the threat that voting rights legislation will face if filibuster rules do no change in the Senate.
Axios: A coalition of Georgia voting and civil rights groups say they will skip President Biden’s speech Tuesday in Atlanta: ‘We’re beyond speeches. We’re beyond events.’
The New York Times: Despite reports of cooperation with those close to former Vice President Mike Pence and the January 6 committee, he has grown disillusioned with the idea of speaking to them as he sees a partisan turn.
As the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol rushes to gather evidence and conduct interviews, how far it will be able to go in holding former President Donald J. Trump accountable increasingly appears to hinge on one possible witness: former Vice President Mike Pence.
Since the committee was formed last summer, Mr. Pence’s lawyer and the panel have been talking informally about whether he would be willing to speak to investigators, people briefed on the discussions said. But as Mr. Pence began sorting through a complex calculation about his cooperation, he indicated to the committee that he was undecided, they said.
To some degree, the current situation reflects negotiating strategies by both sides, with the committee eager to suggest an air of inevitability about Mr. Pence answering its questions and the former vice president’s advisers looking for reasons to limit his political exposure from a move that would further complicate his ambitions to run for president in 2024.
But there also appears to be growing tension.
In recent weeks, Mr. Pence is said by people familiar with his thinking to have grown increasingly disillusioned with the idea of voluntary cooperation. He has told aides that the committee has taken a sharp partisan turn by openly considering the potential for criminal referrals to the Justice Department about Mr. Trump and others. Such referrals, in Mr. Pence’s view, appear designed to hurt Republican chances of winning control of Congress in November.
And Mr. Pence, they said, has grown annoyed that the committee is publicly signaling that it has secured a greater degree of cooperation from his top aides than it actually has, something he sees as part of a pattern of Democrats trying to turn his team against Mr. Trump.
For the committee, Mr. Pence’s testimony under oath would be an opportunity to establish in detail how Mr. Trump’s pressuring him to block the certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory brought the country to the brink of a constitutional crisis and helped inspire the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
It could also be vital to the committee in deciding whether it has sufficient evidence to make a criminal referral of Mr. Trump to the Justice Department, as a number of its members have said they could consider doing. The potential charge floated by some members of the committee is violation of the federal law that prohibits obstructing an official proceeding before Congress.
The Associated Press: The Georgia prosecutor investigating former President Donald Trump and others trying to overturn the presidential election said a decision on whether to bring charges could come as early as the first half of this year.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said in an interview with The Associated Press last week that her team is making solid progress, and she’s leaning toward asking for a special grand jury with subpoena power to aid the investigation.
“I believe in 2022 a decision will be made in that case,” Willis said. “I certainly think that in the first half of the year that decisions will be made.”
But Willis told the AP that she hasn’t imposed deadlines on her staff and has urged them to be thorough in their examination.
She’s assembled a team of fewer than 10 people — lawyers, investigators and a legal assistant — who are focused primarily on this case and can consult outside lawyers with particular expertise in certain areas of law, she said.
“We’re going to just get the facts, get the law, be very methodical, very patient and, in some extent, unemotional about this quest for justice,” she said.
Willis declined to speak about the specifics, but she confirmed that the investigation’s scope includes — but is not limited to — a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a November 2020 phone call between U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and Raffensperger, the abrupt resignation of the U.S. attorney in Atlanta on Jan. 4, 2021, and comments made during December 2020 Georgia legislative committee hearings on the election.
A Trump spokesman dismissed the Fulton investigation as a politically motivated “witch hunt” when it became public last February, after Willis instructed Georgia’s top elected officials to preserve any records related to the general election, particularly any evidence of attempts to influence election officials. The probe includes “potential violations of Georgia law prohibiting the solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local government bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office and any involvement in violence or threats related to the election’s administration,” the letters said.
Breitbart: If Republicans win a majority in Congress in 2022, GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy said he will remove Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell from their seats on the intelligence committee and boot Rep. Ilhan Omar off the foreign affairs committee.
McCarthy also said Swalwell would not be allowed to serve on the Homeland Security Committee either. McCarthy’s comments came during the latest On The Hill long-form video special, taped in December at an Eastern Market establishment on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
“The Democrats have created a new thing where they’re picking and choosing who can be on committees,” McCarthy said. “Never in the history [of Congress] have you had the majority tell the minority who can be on committee. But this new standard which these Democrats have voted for—if Eric Swalwell cannot get a security clearance in the private sector, there is no reason why he should be given one to be on Intel or Homeland Security. He will not be serving there.”
“Yes,” McCarthy replied when asked if that meant he will use the standard Democrats have created by stripping Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) of their committee assignments to remove Swalwell from those two committees.
McCarthy also said he will remove Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
“Ilhan Omar should not be serving on Foreign Affairs,” McCarthy said. “This is a new level of what the Democrats have done.”
In addition, he said he will pull Schiff—the current HPSCI chairman—off the Intelligence Committee.
“You look at Adam Schiff—he should not be serving on Intel when he has openly, knowingly now used a fake dossier, lied to the American public in the process and doesn’t have any ill will [and] says he wants to continue to do it,” McCarthy said. “We’re going to reshape—think about what happened in Afghanistan. Why did Afghanistan collapse so fast? Was the Intel Committee under Adam Schiff focused on impeachment and not on the safety of America? Why are people coming across the border that are on a terrorist watch list? What are they doing about it? Their own members on that committee say it’s not happening when it’s true. We need to have an Intel Committee that looks at what’s happening around the world and keeps America safe. It should do exactly what it was created [to do]—overseeing of our agencies and others. We’re going to hold people to a higher standard in the process if they want to be on the Intel Committee and the training to be a part of it. Take the politics out of it.”
The Sacramento Bee: California Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing a new health care plan that would cover undocumented Californians.
Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing to extend Medi-Cal coverage to all low-income, undocumented adults, a historic expansion that would make California the first state in the nation to provide universal health care access for all residents regardless of legal status.
The plan is included in Newsom’s $286 billion state budget proposal, which is flush with a projected $45.7 billion surplus.
Coverage would begin on Jan. 1, 2024 and would cost the state an ongoing $2.7 billion annually. The program’s launch in the 2023-24 fiscal year is expected to cost $819.3 million.
“Here’s the big one: California is poised to be — if this proposal is supported — the first state in the country to achieve universal access to health coverage,” he said during Monday’s announcement. “That mean means full-scope Medi-Cal, including long-term care, (In-Home Supportive Services), and behavioral health to all low-income Californians, regardless of immigration status.”
The governor’s proposal would fill a gap in health care coverage for undocumented Californians.
Currently, undocumented people are eligible for Medi-Cal through age 26. Undocumented adults ages 50 and older will become eligible for Medi-Cal after May 1.
But Sen. Jim Nielsen, R-Red Bluff, opposed the proposal, arguing that it would allocate public dollars to “illegal” residents.
“He’s opening the door to a blank check providing for illegal individuals who have come to California,” Nielsen said.
CNBC: Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida said Monday he will step down early following scrutiny over his trading during the pandemic.
In an announcement released Monday afternoon, Clarida said he will be stepping down from his post this Friday. His term expires on Jan. 31.
The move comes following additional disclosures regarding trades Clarida made in February 2020, around the time when the Fed was getting ready to roll out what eventually would become its most aggressive policy tools ever, in an effort to combat the Covid crisis.
“Rich’s contributions to our monetary policy deliberations, and his leadership of the Fed’s first-ever public review of our monetary policy framework, will leave a lasting impact in the field of central banking,” Fed Chairman Jerome H. Powell said in a statement. “I will miss his wise counsel and vital insights.”
Clarida’s exit comes amid heightened scrutiny over what he had described as pre-planned portfolio rebalancing on Feb. 27, 2020. However, recent disclosures, first reported by the New York Times, showed that three days earlier, Clarida sold shares in three stock funds that he would repurchase on the 27th.
Markets dropped on Feb. 24 amid worries that the spreading coronavirus could cause substantial economic damage. On Feb. 26, Fed policymakers huddled to discuss what policy moves they might take to combat what eventually would become a full-blown pandemic.
Within weeks, the Fed would cut its benchmark interest rate to zero and institute an unprecedented array of lending and liquidity programs to help the economy and financial markets function.
KMGH-TV: Colorado Rep. Ed Perlmutter says he will not run for reelection in 2022, becoming the 26th Democrat to announce they are retiring.
“I’ve never shied away from a challenge but it’s time for me to move on and explore other opportunities. There comes a time when you pass the torch to the next generation of leaders. I’m deeply gratified that our bench in the 7th District is deep and fortunately we have a strong group of leaders who are ready and able to take up that torch,” Perlmutter said in a statement.
Perlmutter first won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006, defeating Republican Rick O’Donnell by nearly 13 percentage points. He won re-election every two years since then by at least 10 percentage points – most recently defeating Republican Casper Stockholm by more than 11 points in 2020 in the district comprised mostly of parts of Jefferson and Adams counties.
He is the 26th House Democrat so far to announce they are not seeking re-election in 2022.
More conservative areas of the mountains, including Lake, Park, Teller, Custer, Chaffee and Fremont counties, were drawn into the new 7th Congressional District during this year’s independent redistricting process, though Democrats are still favored in the district by about 7 percentage points, according to an average of past statewide elections the redistricting committee used. The district swung for Democrats by 10 percentage points in the 2020 Colorado U.S. Senate seat election, won by Sen. John Hickenlooper.
The Associated Press: Inflation concerns are up while concern over COVID-19 is down, a new AP-NORC poll shows.
Heading into a critical midterm election year, the top political concerns of Americans are shifting in ways that suggest Democrats face considerable challenges to maintaining their control of Congress.
A poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that management of the coronavirus pandemic, once an issue that strongly favored President Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats, is beginning to recede in the minds of Americans. COVID-19 is increasingly overshadowed by concerns about the economy and personal finances — particularly inflation — which are topics that could lift Republicans.
Just 37% of Americans name the virus as one of their top five priorities for the government to work on in 2022, compared with 53% who said it was a leading priority at the same time a year ago. The economy outpaced the pandemic in the open-ended question, with 68% of respondents mentioning it in some way as a top 2022 concern. A similar percentage said the same last year, but mentions of inflation are much higher now: 14% this year, compared with less than 1% last year.
Consumer prices jumped 6.8% for the 12 months ending in November, a nearly four-decade high. Meanwhile, roughly twice as many Americans now mention their household finances, namely, the cost of living, as a governmental priority, 24% vs. 12% last year.
The poll was conducted in early December, when worries about the virus were rising as omicron took hold in the country, but before it sparked record caseloads, overwhelmed testing sites and hospitals and upended holiday travel. Still, in recent follow-up interviews with participants, including self-identified Democrats, many said those developments didn’t shake their views.
“If we say anything along the lines of, ‘Let’s wait until the pandemic dies down,’ well, this son of a gun virus has unlimited ability to mutate,” said Mary Small, a 65-year-old pharmaceutical research contractor in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, who hopes efforts to promote gun safety will take center stage in November’s elections, including her state’s race for an open Senate seat. “We might never be done with this.”
That sentiment reflects the challenge for Democrats at the onset of the election year. The party won the White House and control of Congress in 2020 with pledges to manage the pandemic more competently than the Trump administration. After initially earning high marks — roughly 70% approved of Biden’s handling of the pandemic from late February through mid-July — the virus’ persistence has undermined the new president’s message.
The Guardian: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says in an interview that Democrats are failing: ‘The party has turned its back on the working class.’
The White House is likely to see his comments as a shot across the bow by the left wing of a party increasingly frustrated at how centrist Democrats have managed to scupper or delay huge chunks of Biden’s domestic policy plans.
In an interview with the Guardian, Sanders called on Joe Biden and the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, to push to hold votes on individual bills that would be a boon to working families, citing extending the child tax credit, cutting prescription drug prices and raising the federal hourly minimum wage to $15.
Such votes would be good policy and good politics, the Vermont senator insisted, saying they would show the Democrats battling for the working class while highlighting Republican opposition to hugely popular policies.
“It is no great secret that the Republican party is winning more and more support from working people,” Sanders said. “It’s not because the Republican party has anything to say to them. It’s because in too many ways the Democratic party has turned its back on the working class.”
Sanders, who ran for the party’s nomination in both 2016 and 2020, losing out in fierce contests to Hillary Clinton and then Biden, is a popular figure on the left of the party. The democratic socialist from Vermont remains influential and has been supportive of Biden during his first year as the party tries to cope with the twin threats of the pandemic and a resurgent and increasingly extremist Republican party.
But his comments appear to reflect a growing discontent and concern with the Biden administration’s direction. “I think it’s absolutely important that we do a major course correction,” Sanders continued. “It’s important that we have the guts to take on the very powerful corporate interests that have an unbelievably powerful hold on the economy of this country.”
The individual bills that Sanders favors might not attract the 60 votes needed to overcome a Republican filibuster, and a defeat on them could embarrass the Democrats. But Sanders, chairman of the Senate budget committee and one of the nation’s most prominent progressive voices, said, “People can understand that you sometimes don’t have the votes. But they can’t understand why we haven’t brought up important legislation that 70 or 80% of the American people support.”
The Associated Press: A group of North Carolina activists told state officials they want Rep. Madison Cawthorn disqualified as a candidate for his involvement in last year’s attempts to overturn the election.
Cawthorn’s office quickly condemned the candidacy challengeof the Republican, which was filed on behalf of 11 voters with the State Board of Elections, which oversees a process by which a candidate’s qualifications are scrutinized. The voters contend that Cawthorn, who formally filed as a candidate for the 13th District seat last month, can’t run because he fails to comply with an amendment in the U.S. Constitution ratified shortly after the Civil War.
The 1868 amendment says no one can serve in Congress “who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress . . . to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.”
The written challenge says the events on Jan. 6, 2021 “amounted to an insurrection” and that Cawthorn’s speech at the rally supporting President Donald Trump, his other comments and information in published reports provide a “reasonable suspicion or belief” that he helped facilitate the insurrection and is thus disqualified.
“The importance of defending the bedrock constitutional principle that oath breakers who engage in insurrection cannot be trusted in future office is essential to maintain,” Ron Fein, legal director of Free Speech for People, a national election and campaign finance reform group backing the challenge election, told The Associated Press.
Fein said the Cawthorn challenge will be the first of many they intend to file against other members of Congress associated with the insurrection in the near future. Free Speech for People and the group Our Revolution announced last week that it would urge state election administrators to bar Trump and members of Congress from appearing on future ballots
The “leading national precedent” for such cases was created in 1869 by the North Carolina Supreme Court, which described the meaning of “engage” when it comes to a disqualifying act of insurrection or rebellion under the 14th Amendment, the filing says.
State law says Cawthorn has the burden to “show by a preponderance of the evidence” that he’s qualified to run.
The Associated Press: President Joe Biden has held fewer news conferences and given fewer interviews than his five immediate predecessors after nearly a year in office.
As Biden wraps up his first year in the White House, he has held fewer news conferences than any of his five immediate predecessors at the same point in their presidencies, and has participated in fewer media interviews than any of his recent predecessors.
The dynamic has the White House facing questions about whether Biden, who vowed to have the most transparent administration in the nation’s history, is falling short in pulling back the curtain on how his administration operates and missing opportunities to explain his agenda.
Biden does more frequently field questions at public appearances than any of his recent predecessors, according to new research published by Martha Joynt Kumar, a professor emerita in political science at Towson University and director of the White House Transition Project.
He routinely pauses to talk to reporters who shout questions over Marine One’s whirring propellers as he comes and goes from the White House. He parries with journalists at Oval Office photo ops and other events. But these exchanges have their limitations.
“While President Biden has taken questions more often at his events than his predecessors, he spends less time doing so,” Kumar notes. “He provides short answers with few follow-ups when he takes questions at the end of a previously scheduled speech.”
Biden has done just 22 media interviews, fewer than any of his six most recent White House predecessors at the same point in their presidencies.
The 46th president has held just nine formal news conferences — six solo and three jointly with visiting foreign leaders. Ronald Reagan, whose schedule was scaled back early in his first term in 1981 after an assassination attempt, is the only recent president to hold fewer first-year news conferences, according to Kumar. Reagan did 59 interviews in 1981.
Daily Mail: Alan Dershowitz, Jeffrey Epstein’s former lawyer, asked Donald Trump to grant Ghislaine Maxwell a pre-emptive pardon in the final days of his presidency, according to Maxwell’s brother.
The request to absolve Maxwell - now a convicted sex predator - reportedly came after she was hit with sex trafficking charges and extradited to New York to await trial in July 2020.
Maxwell's brother Ian told the Times of London that 'there was one phone call between Professor Dershowitz and a family member during which the generic issue of pardons was touched on.'
Dershowitz dismissed the claim Monday, telling DailyMail.com: 'It's not true. It's false.'
Trump did not issue a pardon for Maxwell who was convicted for her role in a sex trafficking scandal alleged to involve high-profile political figures, billionaires, and at least one member of the British royal family last month.
She faces up to 65 years in prison, but more time could be tacked onto her sentence after she faces trial again on perjury charges.
Trump had previously wished Maxwell well after confirming they had met several times in the past.
When asked to comment on whether he believed Maxwell would turn in the names of powerful people shortly after her arrest, Trump responded he 'hadn't been following it too much' but that he 'wishes her well'.
'I just wish her well frankly,' he said.
The Athletic: Who is out in the NFL? The Dolphins surprised with the firing of Brian Flores while the Bears fired Matt Nagy and the Vikings parted ways with Mike Zimmer.
The NFL regular season is over, and now the coaching changes begin.
On Monday, the Vikings fired Mike Zimmer and GM Rick Spielman. Bears coach Matt Nagy and GM Ryan Pace are out, too. In a surprise, the Dolphins fired Brian Flores. The Broncos parted ways over the weekend with Vic Fangio after a third consecutive losing season.
Speculation remains about the futures of Pete Carroll, Joe Judge, David Culley and Matt Rhule in Seattle, New York, Houston and Carolina, respectively. The Jaguars also must find a new coach after firing Urban Meyer earlier in the season, and the Raiders have a decision to make about Rich Bisaccia, who has guided the Raiders to the playoffs but still has interim status.
New York Post: Apple is in serious talks with the MLB to broadcast games next season.
If a deal is finalized, it would represent a significant milestone in sports broadcasting since Apple has long been looked upon as a potential stop for major sports TV rights. One of Apple’s rival companies, Amazon, has already carved out an important piece of real estate in this space, as it will become the exclusive home of NFL “Thursday Night Football” in the fall.
A potential MLB-Apple deal would not be anywhere close to the magnitude of the NFL and Amazon — which is for more than a billion dollars per year — but MLB and Apple would be the entree for the technology behemoth into the coverage of top live sports.
This genre has long been dominated by ESPN, Fox Sports, NBC and CBS. The digital companies are new players in this field.
The package MLB has been attempting to sell is weekday national games that ESPN recently relinquished. ESPN will no longer have regular Monday and Wednesday games. The ESPN games were not exclusive in local markets. It is unclear at this point if Apple would be allowed to wall off these select games from regional sports network coverage or not.
MLB and Apple declined comment.
Variety: Audie Cornish, who announced last week she was leaving NPR's flagship program 'All Things Considered,' is joining CNN+, the network's new streaming service.
She is also expected to will appear on CNN covering national, political and breaking news.
“I am very excited to join CNN and the CNN Plus team. There are fresh stories to be told and new ways to tell them,” said Cornish, who was a co-host of NPR’s popular “All Things Considered,” in a prepared statement. “CNN has a dynamic system of reporters and storytelling channels. I am thrilled to be a part of it.” She is expected to start in February.
Cornish is one of a parade of new hosts and correspondents joining the WarnerMedia-backed outlet, which is expected to launch CNN Plus in the next few months. CNN has hired cooking writer Alison Roman; business professor Scott Galloway; congressional correspondent Kasie Hunt; and former “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace, among others, in a bid to attract news aficionados as well as those interested in topics such as business, food and travel to a new subscription-video hub.
“We are thrilled to welcome Audie to CNN Plus and CNN Audio,” said Andrew Morse, CNN’s executive vice president and chief digital officer, who is overseeing the CNN Plus launch. “Her voice has been such an important part of the lives of so many people, and the perspective, integrity and grace that have been hallmarks of her career will make her such an important addition to our teams.”Cornish will be based in CNN’s Washington, DC bureau.
POLITICO: Symone Sanders, Vice President Kamala Harris’ former top spokesperson, is joining MSNBC.
MSNBC announced on Monday that former press secretary Symone Sanders is joining the network as the host of both a weekend program and a show airing on MSNBC's The Choice on Peacock. Both shows are slated to launch later this spring. The network said further details, including the show name, premier date and time slot, will be announced in the coming months.
Politico reported last month that while multiple networks reached out to Sanders about potential on-air contributor gigs, MSNBC had gone further, expressing interest in bringing Sanders on board as a contributor or on-air host.
Fox News: Jesse Watters has been named the permanent host of the network’s 7pm hour.
“Jesse’s versatility and hosting acumen has grown exponentially over the last five years, and he has developed a deep connection to the audience through two hit shows The Five and Watters’ World. We look forward to watching him expand his connection even further through this new solo weeknight hour," Scott said.
Watters, who co-hosts the wildly successful "The Five" and the weekend program "Watters’ World," will take over the "Fox News Primetime" slot that has been filled by rotating guest hosts since the network shook up its programming lineup last year.
Watters will remain co-host of "The Five," and a new Saturday night program to replace "Watters’ World" will be announced later this year.
"Jesse Watters Primetime" will debut on Jan. 24.
NBC News: The coldest air in three years is coming to parts of the U.S. Tuesday.
Monday started the workweek with 15 million people under wind chill alerts stretching from the northern Plains and Upper Midwest into the interior Northeast and New England.
Wind chills across the Upper Midwest were forecast to be as cold as 45 below zero and wind chills across the Northeast and New England as cold as 35 below zero.
Monday is the coldest day of the week for the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes and Tuesday the coldest day for the East. After that, temperatures rebound quickly for the rest of the week.
On Tuesday, the high temperature forecasts for New York (22 degrees) and Boston (12 degrees) will be the coldest high temperatures experienced since 2019.
As the bitterly cold air flows over the largely ice-free Great Lakes, the combination will lead to the potential for very heavy lake effect snow through Tuesday.
This day in history: In 2006, the Augustine volcano in Alaska erupted, its first major eruption since 1986, The Associated Press reported.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) _ A volcano on an uninhabited island erupted early Wednesday, spewing an ash plume about 5 miles into the sky.
The ash from Augustine Volcano was expected to steer clear of Anchorage, the state’s most populous city nearly 200 miles to the northeast, meteorologists said.
“Fortunately, it’s not going to Anchorage this time,″ said Bob Hopkins, in charge at the National Weather Service office in Anchorage.
Two explosions at 4:44 a.m indicated an eruption at the volcano, said geologist Jennifer Adleman of the Alaska Volcano Observatory. Satellite images and radar later confirmed the eruption, Hopkins said.
Residents on the Kenai Peninsula, east of the volcanic island, confirmed the eruption and reported seeing ash, Adleman said.
History Channel: It was also on this day in 1964 that United States Surgeon General Luther Terry announced a link between smoking and cancer.
United States Surgeon General Luther Terry knew his report was a bombshell. He intentionally chose to release it on January 11, 1964, a Saturday, so as to limit its immediate effects on the stock market. It was on this date that, on behalf of the U.S. Government, Terry announced a definitive link between smoking and cancer.
The link had long been suspected. Anecdotal evidence had always pointed to negative health effects from smoking, and by the 1930s physicians were noticing an increase in lung cancer cases. The first medical studies that raised serious concerns were published in Great Britain in the late 1940s.
American cigarette companies spent much of the next decade lobbying the government to keep smoking legal and advertising reduced levels of tar and nicotine in their products. 44 percent of Americans already believed smoking caused cancer by 1958, and a number of medical associations warned that tobacco use was linked with both lung and heart disease. Despite all this, nearly half of Americans smoked, and smoking was common in restaurants, bars, offices, and homes across the country.
Dr. Terry commissioned the report in 1962, and two years later he released the findings, titled Smoking and Health, which stated a conclusive link between smoking and heart and lung cancer in men. The report also stated the same link was likely true for women, although women smoked at lower rates and therefore not enough data was available.
The news was major, but hardly surprising—the New York Times reported the findings saying "it could hardly have been otherwise." Still, the Surgeon General's report was a major step in health officials' crusade against smoking. Though tobacco companies spent millions and millions and were largely successful in fending off anti-smoking laws until the 1990s, studies have shown that the report increased the percentage of Americans who believed in the cancer link to 70 percent, and that smoking decreased by roughly 11 percent between 1965 and 1985. California became the first state to ban smoking in enclosed public spaces in 1995. 25 more states have now passed similar laws, including 50 of the 60 largest cities in America. In 2019, the Surgeon General announced a link between serious disease and e-cigarettes, an alternative to smoking in which traditional tobacco companies have invested heavily.
Like our flashbacks in history? We have an entire newsletter dedicated to rewinding you to the events on this day in history. Subscribe to Rewind and receive a weekly flashback in your inbox each Monday evening. Our first edition publishes tonight. We will continue to bring you one or two events from Rewind here in our daily Bulletin email.
Our weekly newsletter 'Rewind,' which highlights the news from this week in history just landed in inboxes. Read here if you have not subscribed: