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President Biden spent his first full day in office focused on the main crisis affecting American lives: The scourge of low-flow toilets The raging coronavirus pandemic. (Sorry, still getting used to this.)
- On Thursday, the Biden administration released a 200-page document outlining the centralized, federal coronavirus response we can finally have now that Jared Kushner is off trying to get into country clubs by pretending to be three kids in a trench coat. Biden signed a series of executive orders and actions to implement the plan, which includes the creation of a National Pandemic Testing Board to increase testing capacity, using the Defense Production Act to ramp up vaccination supplies, testing capacity, and PPE production, a mask mandate on public transportation, and more funding and direction for state and local officials.
- Thanks to the Trump administration’s transition sabotage, Biden’s coronavirus team has only just learned the scope of the vaccination task they’ve inherited, which turns out to be less “doing some renovations on an existing structure” and more “shooing angry raccoons out of a half-dug foundation, then building a house from scratch.” Biden’s coronavirus czar Jeff Zients told reporters on Wednesday that Trump’s vaccine distribution strategy was nonexistent: “What we’re inheriting from the Trump administration is so much worse than we could have imagined. We don't have the visibility that we would hope to have into supply and allocations.”
- The implementation of Biden’s national response strategy will depend largely on Congress passing the $1.9 trillion relief package the administration proposed last week. In addition to the $1,400 direct payments that have caused some confusion and anger, the American Rescue Plan includes $350 billion in aid for state and local governments, $170 billion for schools, $50 billion for coronavirus testing, and $20 billion for a national vaccination program. Ten GOP senators would need to sign on for the package to pass with the bipartisan support Biden wants, in keeping with his promise of unity.
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The good news is, Democrats control the Senate, and have the tools to bypass the 60-vote threshold if and when Republicans decide they’d rather crouch behind Biden while Mitch McConnell shoves him.
- Meme King Bernie Sanders published an op-ed this week arguing for Democrats to use the reconciliation process to pass a major relief package quickly, including provisions that Republicans have already balked at, like raising the minimum wage to $15. Reconciliation bills can't be filibustered, and Republicans have happily used the process to pass trillion dollar tax breaks for the wealthy and to try to repeal the ACA. Democrats would be right to use it for a widely popular, aggressive response to a dire emergency, if Republicans remain intent on further sabotage.
- And it looks like Republicans plan to do exactly that, if you can believe it. Senate Extortion Leader Mitch McConnell has already created a standoff, delaying Democrats from taking control of Senate committees, by filibustering any updates to the Senate’s power-sharing arrangement until Democrats agree not to change the filibuster rules at all, no matter how badly he obstructs Biden’s agenda. “Promise to let me keep the rope I’m using to tie you up, or I will continue tying you up with my rope.” Might be time to take away the rope! Lady Gaga, please have a word with your new friend Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV).
Building up a national coronavirus response 10 months into a pandemic will be an enormous challenge for the Biden administration, even with the unique benefits of “plans based on science” and “a basic will to succeed.” Democrats won the power to stop Republicans from making it even harder, and here on Day Two, with McConnell trying to pretend the Senate elections never happened, it’s clear that’s a power they’ll need to exercise.
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On this week's Hysteria, Erin Ryan and Alyssa Mastromonaco are joined by Kiran Deol and Julissa Arce to rejoice in the Inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, and roast the Trump administration officials who they hope will ‘Fuck Off Forever.’ Plus, Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) stops by to talk about her role as Impeachment Manager, and what to expect from the upcoming Senate trial. Check it out wherever you get your podcasts →
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The Army repeatedly lied about Michael Flynn’s brother’s involvement in the Pentagon’s bizarre, suspicious response to the attack on the Capitol. Lt. Gen. Charles Flynn was in the room during a January 6 phone call with Capitol Police and Washington, DC, officials, as they pleaded with the Pentagon to dispatch the National Guard right away, and Army officials hemmed and hawed. His recently pardoned brother, you’ll recall, had urged Trump to declare martial law in the weeks after the election, and helped promote the Stop the Steal rally that morphed into a violent mob. There’s no reported indication that Army Flynn shared QAnon Flynn’s support for a coup, but it’s certainly, uh, interesting that the Army lied for days about his involvement in the weak response to an attack his brother was part of, and now refuses to explain those false denials.
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- The House and Senate have approved a waiver for retired Gen. Lloyd Austin to serve as defense secretary. The Senate also confirmed the first of Biden’s cabinet nominees on Wednesday night, making Avril Haines the nation’s spy chief.
- President Biden will leave FBI Director Chris Wray in his job, and White House press secretary Jen Psaki apologized for causing an “unintentional ripple” when she wasn’t clear about that on Wednesday. Psaki has yet to hold aloft any stacks of blank paper, though, so who knows if she’s telling the truth.
- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to propose waiting two weeks before starting Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, to give Trump’s legal team (so far, this one guy Trump hired after all of his other lawyers backed slowly into a bush) time to prepare.
- A group of Senate Democrats led by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) filed an ethics complaint against Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Josh Hawley (R-MO), calling for an investigation into their role in inciting an insurrection.
- Biden fired National Labor Relations Board general counsel Peter Robb, one of Trump’s most abhorrent appointees, after Robb refused to resign.
- NSA General Counsel Michael Ellis, whom Trump installed at the last minute, has been put on administrative leave because his appointment is now under investigation by the Defense Department inspector general.
- Coronavirus has now spread to every U.S. county, having finally reached its grubby little spikes into an isolated island enclave in Hawaii.
- China imposed sanctions on 28 former Trump administration officials on Wednesday, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
- The Proud Boys have turned on Trump, after he “willingly” left office and declined to pardon his Capitol-storming supporters. More like the Disappointed Boys, amirite? Did everyone stop scrolling? The Disappointed Boys.
- Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who still has a job for some reason, recycled an old, exceptionally dumb Trump line to complain about Biden rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, and has been appropriately dragged by the predictable trio of AOC, Greta Thunberg, and Seth Rogen.
- RIP, Oval Office Diet Coke button. May you live on forever in the Smithsonian Museum of National Embarrassments.
- Jane Krakowski and MyPillow guy Mike Lindell either secretly dated for nine months or have never met each other, so that’s just sort of the haunted liminal space we all inhabit now.
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Charlottesville leaders and activists have called on Joe Biden to put accountability before unity, based on the lessons they learned in the wake of the 2017 Unite the Right rally. Heather Heyer’s mother Susan Bro questioned Biden’s focus on healing and unity in response to the same right-wing extremism that killed her daughter: “The rush to hug each other and sing ‘Kumbaya’ is not an effective strategy.” Activist and professor Jalane Schmidt considers Charlottesville, which Biden has cited as his impetus for running, “the canary in the coal mine,” and pointed out the impossibility of unifying with a political party that doesn’t “adhere to basic democratic principles.” Local leaders saw the violence at the Capitol as part of an attack on the broader transfer of democratic power out of strictly white, male hands, and have urged Biden to seek unity not through civility, but by confronting the threat of white supremacy head-on.
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The Department of Homeland Security has announced a 100-day moratorium on many deportations.
The Interior Department has banned all new permits for gas and oil drilling on public lands for 60 days.
Joe Biden will soon reverse the Trump administration policy prohibiting the use of U.S. funding for aid groups that discuss abortion.
Dr. Anthony Fauci has been released from the proverbial scientist dungeon and seems very happy about it.
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