Biden plans immediate orders on immigration, COVID-19, environment
WASHINGTON, United States — US President-elect Joe Biden plans to kick off his new administration Wednesday with orders to restore the United States to the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organization, aides said.
Biden will sign 17 orders and actions just hours after being sworn in as US leader to break from policies of departing President Donald Trump and set new paths on immigration, the environment, fighting COVID-19 and the economy, they said.
In first-day moves, he will end Trump's much-assailed ban on visitors from several majority-Muslim countries and halt construction of the wall that Trump ordered on the US-Mexico border to stem illegal immigration, the aides said.
He will also set a mask mandate on federal properties to stem the spread of COVID-19; restore protections of valuable nature reserves removed by Trump; and seek freezes on evictions and protection for millions behind on their mortgages due to the coronavirus pandemic.
He also plans to send a bill to Congress to revamp immigration policies and give millions of undocumented migrants living inside the country a path to citizenship that the Trump administration denied.
Biden's staff said he wanted to hit the ground running given the deep health and economic challenges facing the country.
Biden "will take action — not just to reverse the gravest damages of the Trump administration — but also to start moving our country forward," the aides said in a statement.
"These actions are bold, begin the work of following through on President-elect Biden's promises to the American people, and, importantly, fall within the constitutional role for the president."
New approach to Covid
Many of the actions will take government policies back to where they were on January 19, 2017 — the final day of the Barack Obama-Joe Biden administration, before Trump entered office and took a wrecking ball to many of their initiatives.
Jeff Zients, the new president's point-man for fighting the pandemic, said Biden would start by establishing an office of Covid-19 response inside the White House.
A 100-day "masking challenge" will be led with a presidential order for wearing masks in all federal properties and activities, setting the standard for private companies, individual states and communities to follow suit, Zients said.
Wednesday "starts a new day, a new, different approach to managing the country's response to Covid-19 crisis," he said.
That includes reversing Trump's decision to leave the World Health Organization.
To underscore Biden's decision, Zients said, leading US coronavirus expert Anthony Fauci will lead a delegation to take part in the WHO Executive Board meeting on Thursday.
"America's withdrawal from the international arena has impeded progress on the global response and left us more vulnerable to future pandemics," he said.
Gina McCarthy, the new administration's chief climate advisor, said returning to the 2016 Paris accord was essential to making fighting climate change a central tenet of Biden administration policy.
Biden will reverse Trump decisions to ease emissions and efficiency standards, and rescind the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, a large project that would bring relatively high-polluting Canadian oil into the United States.
"The day-one climate executive orders will begin to put the US back on the right footing, a footing we need to restore American leadership, helping to position our nation to be the global leader in clean energy and jobs," said McCarthy.
Other actions by the new president will require a government-wide, proactive equality effort for minority groups, in hiring, contracting, and service.
"The President-elect has promised to root out systemic racism from our institutions," said Susan Rice, his Domestic Policy Council director.
US President-elect Joe Biden unveiled plans Thursday for fighting COVID and injecting $1.9 trillion into a battered US economy, but already his ambitious first 100 days agenda is overshadowed by the looming Senate trial of his soon-to-be predecessor Donald Trump.
Biden promised "a new chapter" for the nation on the day after Trump became the first US president to ever be impeached twice, as the incoming Democrat sought to seize the narrative in a primetime address and get Americans looking forward again. — AFP
Photo: Angela Weiss/ AFP
Former US president Donald Trump says he expected to be charged over the January 6 attack on the US Capitol -- an indictment that would ramp up his legal woes as he makes another White House run.
Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is already facing criminal charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith for mishandling top secret government documents after leaving office.
Trump said he received a letter from Smith on Sunday stating that he's a target of the probe into January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed Congress in a bid to prevent certification of Democrat Joe Biden's 2020 election victory.
"Deranged Jack Smith, the prosecutor with Joe Biden's DOJ, sent a letter... stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6 Grand Jury investigation," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
The 77-year-old Trump said he was given four days to report to a grand jury, "which almost always means an Arrest and Indictment." — AFP
New York police tightened security Monday ahead of a possible historic indictment of Donald Trump over hush money paid to a porn actress, with the ex-president calling for mass demonstrations if he is charged.
Only a couple of dozen Trump supporters attended a protest in America's financial capital on Monday evening though, as a grand jury weighs an investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg over the 2016 payment to Stormy Daniels.
Trump would become the first former or sitting president to be charged with a crime if an indictment is filed -- a move that would send shockwaves through the 2024 White House race, in which the 76-year-old is running to regain office. -- AFP
Senior Republicans Sunday echoed Donald Trump's claim that a looming indictment in a hush-money case would amount to political "persecution," while Democrats warned his call for protests could trigger a repeat of chaos his supporters unleashed at the US Capitol.
In an explosive announcement Saturday, the former president said he expected to be arrested Tuesday in connection with a grand jury inquiry into a 2016 payment to a porn star, allegedly to keep her from revealing a past affair with Trump.
On Sunday, he blasted the possible move as a "witch hunt" on his Truth Social platform, lashing out at the Manhattan prosecutor for "using the power of his office to persecute, indict, and prosecute a former president of the United States of America -- for no crime!" -- AFP
Former US vice president Mike Pence on Saturday said history would hold former president Donald Trump "accountable" for his role in the 2021 attack on the US Capitol, US media report.
The remarks are likely to widen the rift between the former running mates, who have been at loggerheads ever since Pence refused to go along with Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and remain in power.
"President Trump was wrong," Pence says in a speech at the annual Gridiron Dinner in Washington, a white-tie gala put on by journalists that draws top politicians.
"I had no right to overturn the election. And his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day. And I know that history will hold Donald Trump accountable," Pence was quoted as saying by multiple media. — AFP
Former US president Donald Trump can be sued by police and others injured in the January 6, 2021 attack by his supporters on the US Capitol, the Justice Department says in a court filing.
In an official legal opinion submitted to federal court in Washington, the department says although a president has absolute immunity for his official acts in office, he can be sued for acts judged clearly outside of his official duties.
The opinion was submitted at the request of the court, which is hearing a suit by two police officers and 11 lawmakers claiming injury during the January 6 attack. — AFP
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