House sends Trump impeachment to Senate for second time
House Democrats have sent the impeachment charge of “incitement of insurrection” to the Senate, kicking off the trial process.
USA TODAY
President Joe Biden announced the U.S. is working to purchase an additional 200 million coronavirus vaccines, doubling the nation’s vaccine supply with enough to fully vaccinate 300 million Americans by the end of this summer.
Biden, who outlined the new purchase in remarks on the COVID-19 pandemic Tuesday evening, is also expected to announce an increase in the weekly vaccine allocation to states, tribes and territories from 8.6 million doses to a minimum of 10 million doses for the next three weeks, according to the official.
The 1.4 million federal boost will primarily be supplied by Moderna’s vaccine, one of two authorized for emergency use in the United States. Pfizer, which makes the second authorized vaccine, announced earlier Tuesday it was ahead of schedule on fulfilling the 200 million doses the U.S. purchased last year.
Each of the vaccines require two doses. A second shot should be administered about three or four weeks after the first, depending on the vaccine given.
The Department of Health and Human Services is also planning to provide states, tribes and territories with allocation estimates for the upcoming three weeks instead of the one week look-ahead they previously received, Biden said.
“These estimates will be updated on a running basis so that every state has at least three weeks notice to help them plan for their vaccination distribution and administration,” the an administration official said.
The announcement comes after several states have reported vaccine and supply shortages while tens of thousands of people who managed to get appointments for a first dose have complained of cancellations.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters earlier Tuesday that administration officials were making calls to brief governors on the updated plans for vaccination distribution and coordinate a further rollout.
— Courtney Subramanian
The Senate voted Tuesday to uphold the constitutionality of the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, but the vote suggested a lack of support for convicting him on the charge of inciting insurrection.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., forced the vote with a point of order arguing that Trump couldn’t be tried as a private citizen – and if he were tried, that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts should preside.
Instead, the longest-serving member of the Democratic majority, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, will preside. The Constitution calls for the chief justice to preside only over a trial of a sitting president.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Paul’s argument “has been completely debunked by constitutional scholars from all across the political spectrum.”
“The theory that the impeachment of a former official is unconstitutional is flat-out wrong by every frame of analysis,” Schumer said.
The Senate voted 55-45 to reject Paul’s motion. The vote revealed more than one-third of the chamber opposing the trial. A two-thirds majority is required to convict Trump.
The vote signaled that more than one-third of the Senate – and the vast majority of Republicans – found the trial unconstitutional. “We’re excited about it,” Paul said after the vote. “It was one of the few times in Washington where a loss is actually a victory.”
Mark Meadows, who was Trump’s White House chief of staff, said the vote showed the case is “dead on arrival.”
“If today’s Senate vote is any sign, the Democrats’ ridiculous impeachment of former President Trump will fail – again – by a long shot,” Meadows said in a tweet. “Dead on arrival.”
Paul had argued that the trial is a “kangaroo court” that will stoke partisan division. But the Senate has tried a former Cabinet official and former judges after leaving office.
Impeachment is typically used to remove someone from office, but the sentence upon conviction could also bar an official from holding future office.
Republican Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania joined Democrats in killing Paul’s motion.
Collins said the vote indicated Trump would likely be acquitted.
“I do the math, but I think that it’s extraordinarily unlikely the president will be convicted,” she said.
— Bart Jansen
Senators took their oaths Tuesday as jurors in the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, setting the stage for oral arguments to begin Feb. 9.
The ceremonial start to the trial also formally installed Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the longest-serving member of the Democratic majority, as the presiding officer. Some Republicans argued that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts should preside, but the Constitution calls for the chief justice only in trials of a sitting president.
The longest-serving Republican in the chamber, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, administered the oath to the longest-serving member of the Democratic majority, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont.
Leahy then administered the oath to the 99 other senators, to serve as jurors in the trial.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., raised a point of order challenging the constitutionality of trying a president who is already out of office. He didn’t expect to win the vote, but to demonstrate that the necessary two-thirds of the Senate wouldn’t vote to convict Trump.
Senators were sworn in after House prosecutors, who are called managers, carried over Monday the article of impeachment that charges Trump with inciting the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
A clerk handed each senator a different pen as a health precaution during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., signed with a quill pen.
The trial will pause while sides in the trial prepare written arguments about the case. Senators will resume debating confirmation of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet nominees and legislation to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
House managers now have until Feb. 2 to provide the Senate with written arguments in the case. Trump’s defense team will have until Feb. 8 to file written arguments. Then oral arguments begin the next day.
— Bart Jansen
President Joe Biden had his first phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin since being sworn into office last week – a conversation that came amid heightened US-Russia tensions.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Biden called Putin on Tuesday to discuss renewing an expiring US-Russia nuclear arms control agreement and to press the Russian leader on a batch of more nettlesome issues.
Biden used the call to “reaffirm our strong support for Ukraine sovereignty in the face of Russia’s ongoing aggression,” she said, and to raise questions about Russia’s alleged role in the massive SolarWinds cyberattack, the country’s meddling in US elections, and reports that it offered bounties to militant extremists in Afghanistan to kill American soldiers.
“His intention was also to make clear that the United States will act firmly in defense of our national interests in response to malign actions by Russia,” Psaki said.
She said the president also pressed Putin on allegations that the Kremlin tried to poison Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition leader, and then engaged in a widespread crackdown against protesters who demanded Navalny’s release from prison in demonstrations over the weekend.
Putin’s spokesman has denied playing a role in Navalny’s poisoning.
Even though Tuesday’s call focused on several flashpoints between the two countries, a readout from the White House suggested the U.S. and Russia would be able to work together on renewing the New START treaty for five years. That arms control agreement expires next week, so it’s an urgent issue, but Putin and Biden have both expressed support for a long-term extension.
“They also agreed to explore strategic stability discussions on a range of arms control and emerging security issues,” the White House said in its readout of the conversation.
While this is Biden’s first call as U.S. president with Putin, the two men have a long history of engagement – much of it frosty.
In 2011, for example, Biden was in Russia for a meeting with Putin when Biden made a startling remark about Putin’s character.
“Mr. Prime Minister, I’m looking into your eyes, and I don’t think you have a soul,” Biden recalled in an interview with Evan Osnos, whose biography of Biden was published in October. “And he looked back at me, and he smiled, and he said, ‘We understand one another.’ ”
The comment was a play on former President George W. Bush’s warmer assessment of Putin in 2001, when Bush called the Russian strongman “very straightforward and trustworthy.”
Putin was among the last major world leaders to recognize Biden’s win in the 2020 election. He had a seemingly cozy relationship with President Donald Trump, who often downplayed Russia’s malign actions.
— Deirdre Shesgreen
The Senate overwhelmingly confirmed Antony Blinken to be the nation’s 71st secretary of State on Tuesday, as lawmakers scrambled to approve President Joe Biden’s Cabinet nominees before impeachment proceedings begin.
In a strong show of bipartisan support, the final Senate tally was 78 to 22 and included “yes” votes from several top Republicans.
Blinken will become America’s top diplomat as the world confronts a confluence of threats: the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and a great-power competition that increasingly pits the U.S. against China on trade, technology and other issues.
Biden will sign four new executive orders, building on steps taken in his first week as part of his campaign promise to create a more equitable society.
Biden will also lay out his agenda to address racial inequity, which a senior Biden administration official said will be substantially an economic agenda,
The official also stressed that the actions aimed at creating a more equitable society are not aimed solely at communities of color and stressed that helping the disadvantaged will help the entire society.
The executive actions Biden will sign include:
Directing the Housing Department to address racially discriminatory federal housing policies.
Not renewing the Justice Department’s contracts with private prisons.
Recommitting federal respect for tribal sovereignty
Directing federal agencies to mitigate xenophobia and violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
On Biden’s first day in office, he signed an order launching a government-wide initiative directing every federal agency to review its state of racial equity and deliver an action plan within 200 days to address any disparities in policies and programs.
The administration said Biden’s “comprehensive mandate” to embed racial equity throughout everything being done is unprecedented.
— Maureen Groppe
Sen. Rand Paul plans to force a vote Tuesday challenging the constitutionality of the impeachment trial for former President Donald Trump – a move he doesn’t expect to win, but one to demonstrate the unlikelihood of conviction.
Paul, R-Ky., called the trial “a sham impeachment” if the chief justice doesn’t preside. “It’s just a partisan farce,” he told reporters.
The Senate is scheduled to be sworn in at 2:30 p.m. to serve as jurors in the trial, after the House delivered a charge that Trump incited insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Paul plans to raise a point of order during that ceremonial start to the trial to challenge its constitutionality. He doesn’t expect to win in a chamber controlled by Democrats. But because a two-thirds majority is required for conviction in the 100-member Senate, Paul said if the vote could demonstrate that Trump won’t be convicted.
“I think it’ll be enough to show that, you know, more than a third of the Senate thinks that the whole proceeding is unconstitutional, which will show that ultimately they don’t have the votes to do an impeachment,” Paul said.
Paul and some other Republicans contend the trial is unconstitutional because Trump left office Jan. 20. A Cabinet member and judges have been tried after leaving office, but never a president.
“The Constitution says you can only impeach the president, and it says if you impeach the president, the chief justice shall preside,” Paul said.
The result of prosecuting a former president is that Chief Justice John Roberts won’t be presiding, as he did at Trump’s first impeachment trial. The Constitution calls for the chief justice to preside at the trial of a sitting president, but is silent on who presides for a former president.
Instead, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the longest-serving member of the Democratic majority, will preside, as happens in the impeachment of judges or executive branch officials. Leahy has insisted he will be impartial in overseeing the proceedings.
Paul called the trial a “kangaroo court” that would further divide the country. He argued both that Trump can’t be tried as a private citizen and that if he were tried, the chief justice should preside.
“Democrats brazenly appointing a pro-impeachment Democrat to preside over the trial is not fair or impartial,” Paul said on the Senate floor. “Hyper-partisan Democrats are about to drag our great country down into the gutter of rancor and vitriol, the likes of which has never been seen in our nation’s history.”
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., called Trump’s rhetoric at a rally near the White House on Jan. 6, before a violent mob stormed the Capitol, “inflammatory” and “irresponsible.” But Hawley called the trial unconstitutional for pursuing a former president without the chief justice presiding.
“I think it’s clearly unconstitutional,” Hawley said. “To me, this is an incredibly abusive process.”
At least one Republican senator said he wouldn’t support Paul’s motion. Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the only Republican to vote for Trump’s conviction in the first impeachment trial, said most opinion supports the constitutionality of trying a former president.
“The preponderance of opinion with regards to the constitutionality of a trial of impeachment of a former president is saying that it is a constitutional process,” Romney said.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, also said the trial was constitutional.
“My review of it has led me to conclude that it is constitutional in recognizing that impeachment is not solely about removing a president, it is also a matter of political consequence,” Murkowski said.
— Bart Jansen
A Senate panel recommended confirmation Tuesday of Alejandro Mayorkas to become secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, where he would be the first immigrant and the first Latino to lead the department.
The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted 7-4 to recommend his confirmation by the whole Senate.
President Joe Biden had asked for the Senate to confirm Mayorkas and three other top posts quickly. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was confirmed last week, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was confirmed Monday, and Secretary of State nominee Antony Blinken has a confirmation vote scheduled Tuesday.
Mayorkas has faced the most contentious confirmation hearing of Biden’s Cabinet so far. Republicans posed pointed questions about Biden’s proposals to create a path to citizenship for an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants and to suspend construction of the wall along the southern border with Mexico.
Republicans also questioned him about an inspector general’s report that found an appearance of favoritism in how he handled visas associated with business investments during a previous stint with the Democrat. But Mayorkas said he was trying to fix problems in a complicated bureaucracy, and Democrats called the report an attempt to smear him.
The top Republican on the committee, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., said Tuesday he would not support Mayorkas’ nomination, citing “serious issues” in his background like the inspector general report, but Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who also serves on the panel, said Mayorkas had acknowledged his previous errors and supported his nomination heading to a full Senate vote.
Mayorkas has previously been deputy secretary of the department and headed its citizenship agency. He arrived with his parents from Cuba as refugees from Fidel Castro’s regime in 1960.
— Bart Jansen and Nicholas Wu
Biden to outline racial equity agenda
After focusing his first few days on the coronavirus pandemic, President Joe Biden is turning the spotlight on another top priority: racial inequality.
Biden plans to outline on Tuesday has agenda for fighting racial inequality, one of the four “converging crises” he has said is facing the nation.
“The dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer,” Biden said in his inauguration speech.
Officials have said that addressing inequality will be a focus across all issues. For example, Biden has emphasized the need to help minority communities hit harder by the health and economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
But the administration is also putting a standalone emphasis on the initiative.
Susan Rice, the head of Biden’s Domestic Policy Council, is expected to talk about the efforts at Tuesday’s White House press briefing.
“The first Secretary of Defense in history to be sworn in by an African American @VP…is an African American Secretary of Defense,” tweeted Ron Klain, Biden’s chief of staff.
Senate to take oath for second Trump impeachment trial
Senators on Tuesday will be sworn in as jurors in the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, who is charged with inciting the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6 that left five dead.
The formal oath-taking comes after House prosecutors walked the article of impeachment Monday across the Capitol, which some have called the scene of the crime.
Trump has said his rally speech near the White House questioning the results of the 2020 election was “appropriate.” But Democrats contend he exhorted a violent mob to lay siege to the Capitol, which interrupted the House and Senate while counting Electoral College votes.
House prosecutors, who are called managers, will present their written arguments to the Senate by Feb. 2. Trump’s defense team will then present written arguments in the case to the Senate by Feb. 8. Oral arguments begin the next day.
Vice President Harris to get second dose of COVID vaccine Tuesday
Vice President Kamala Harris will receive her second dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday evening, according to her office.
Harris received her first dose in December before live television cameras as part of a concerted effort to convince the public the inoculations are safe.
Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, will receive the second dose in front of the news media at the National Institutes of Health.
President Joe Biden received his second dose of the coronavirus vaccine on Jan. 11.
Biden’s and Harris’ vaccinations were staggered at the recommendation of medical and national security experts.
–Savannah Behrmann
Secretary of State nomination moving forward
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee greenlighted Antony Blinken’s nomination to be secretary of State in a bipartisan vote on Monday. The 15-to-3 vote sends Blinken’s nomination to the full Senate, which could take up his confirmation as early as Tuesday.
Also on Tuesday, the Senate Commerce Committee will hold a confirmation hearing for Gina Marie Raimondo, Biden’s nominee to head the Commerce Department.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
