19: 58
Summary
- Joe Biden announced the US has administered 150m vaccine doses since he took office in January. The president also announced all American adults will be eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine by 19 April, pushing up his earlier deadline of 1 May by about two weeks.
- A shooting occurred at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland, this morning. The US navy confirmed the shooter, who is now dead, was a naval hospital corpsman. The two victims of the shooting are in critical condition and were airlifted to a Baltimore hospital, Frederick police told reporters.
- Derek Chauvin’s trial resumed in Minneapolis, where the former police officer is facing murder charges over the killing of George Floyd. A police trainer who instructed Chauvin in the use of force told the jury that placing a knee on a suspect’s neck when they are already subdued, as Chauvin did with Floyd, “is not authorized”.
- The Democratic congressman Alcee Hastings died at 84. Hastings, who had pancreatic cancer for more than two years, was the longest-serving member of Florida’s House delegation.
- US Capitol police officer William “Billy” Evans will lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda next week, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer. announced. Evans was killed in the car attack at the Capitol last week. In a statement released by USCP today, Evans’ family described him as “the best father, son, brother, and friend anyone could ever hope for”.
- Arkansas lawmakers overrode their governor’s veto to enact the country’s first ban on gender-affirming treatment for transgender youth.The law, which has been opposed by medical groups and child welfare groups including the American Academy of Pediatrics, would punish healthcare providers who offer treatments like hormone therapy and puberty blockers to trans children.
- Caitlyn Jenner, the former reality star, is reportedly considering a run for California governor. According to an Axios report, Jenner is working with GOP fundraiser Caroline Wren, to explore running against California governor Gavin Newsom in an impending recall election.
- Atlanta’s mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, signed an order to “mitigate the impact of new voting restrictions imposed” by Georgia’s restrictive new voting laws. Civil rights groups and businesses have spoken out against Georgia Republicans’ sweeping voter restrictions, which will disproportionately affect Black voters’ ability to cast their ballots.
– Joan E Greve and Maanvi Singh
Updated
19: 45
Matt Gaetz, the Florida Republican congressman who is being investigated over child sex trafficking charges, and who reportedly shared nude pictures of women with colleagues, is speaking at former president Donald Trump’s resort in Doral, at a rally for a pro-Trump women’s group.
Politico reports:
Women for America First announced late Tuesday that Gaetz would be a speaker at the three-day “Save America Summit.” This is the same group that helped organize the “March for Trump” rally in Washington that took place just hours before the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol that left five people dead.
The organization praised Gaetz as one of the “few members of Congress” willing to “stand up & fight on behalf of President Trump & his America First agenda.” Women For America First says on its website that “We won’t be pushed around by bullies who tell us who we are ‘supposed’ to like. And we’re not going to keep quiet just because the Washington, D.C. power elites and mainstream media want us to!”
Gaetz on Twitter thanked the group for “the invitation to share my vision for our great nation.”
Read more:
Updated
19: 27
Kamala Harris issued a statement on the death of Alcee Hastings:
Congressman Alcee Hastings welcomed me to the Congressional Black Caucus when I was still new to the Senate. He exuded the kind of warmth and good humor that not only put me at ease, but encouraged me to speak my mind. Since then, I’ve had the privilege of working with the Congressman on a number of issues, and learning from his collaborative and candid style of leadership.
Born in the Jim Crow South, Congressman Hastings understood our obligation to speak truth better than most. He began his career as a civil rights lawyer in the 1960s, channeling his passion for justice into the work of desegregating the public spaces of south Florida. As we mourn his death, I am comforted that his commitment to public service will serve as an example for generations to come.
The Democratic congressman of Florida was 84.
19: 11
Atlanta’s mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, signed an order to “mitigate the impact of new voting restrictions imposed” by Georgia’s restrictive new voting laws.
Civil rights groups and businesses have spoken out against Georgia Republicans’ sweeping voter restrictions, which will disproportionately affect Black voters’ ability to cast their ballots.
“The voting restrictions of SB 202 will disproportionately impact Atlanta residents – particularly in communities of color and other minority groups,” Bottoms said in a statement. “This Administrative Order is designed to do what those in the majority of the state legislature did not – expand access to our right to vote.”
My colleague Sam Levine wrote about the new voting law in Georgia:
It requires voters to submit ID information with both an absentee ballot request and the ballot itself. It limits the use of absentee ballot drop boxes, allows for unlimited challenges to a voter’s qualifications, cuts the runoff election period from nine to four weeks, and significantly shortens the amount of time voters have to request an absentee ballot.
The legislation also empowers the state legislature, currently dominated by Republicans, to appoint a majority of members on the five-person state election board. That provision would strip Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who stood up to Trump after the election, from his current role as chairman of the board. The bill creates a mechanism for the board to strip local election boards of their power.
Major League Baseball announced today it was moving its 2021 All-Star Game to Colorado over Georgia’s passage of the law.
Updated
18: 37
How the far-right group ‘Oath Enforcers’ plans to harass political enemies
Jason Wilson
Revealed: online chats indicate some members are threatening to unleash harassment tactics on officials and government workers
A national online network of thousands of rightwing, self-described “Oath Enforcers” is threatening to unleash harassment tactics on elected officials and government workers around the country, the Guardian can reveal.
While the network’s founder insists that the group is neither violent nor a militia, internal chats indicate that some members are planning for confrontations with law enforcement and their perceived political enemies.
The chats also indicate that white supremacists and others connected with the militia movement are aiming to leverage the group’s success in recruiting disillusioned supporters of Donald Trump and the “QAnon” conspiracy movement, who are being exposed to a wide range of conspiracy theories, white nationalist material and rightwing legal theories inside the groups.
The group’s founder, who makes videos and organizes under the name Vince Edwards, lives off-grid in a remote corner of Costilla county, in Colorado’s high desert region. Arrest records from 2016 indicate that he has also used the name Christian Picolo, and other public records associate him with the name Vincent Edward Deluca.
Experts say that Edwards’ personal history reflects the potential danger in the spread of “sovereign citizen” ideology – along with voluminous online propaganda, that history includes an armed standoff with Costilla county sheriff’s deputies in 2016
Read more:
18: 06
Arkansas lawmakers overrode their governor’s veto to enact the country’s first ban on gender-affirming treatment for transgender youth.
The law, which has been opposed by medical groups and child welfare groups including the American Academy of Pediatrics, would punish healthcare providers who offer treatments like hormone therapy and puberty blockers to trans children. The treatments are part of a gradual process that can vastly improve mental health in young people, and can be life-saving, experts say.
Arkansas’ Republican-controlled legislature overrode Republican governor Asa Hutchinson’s veto of the measure. Hutchinson held that the law went too far in interfering with parents’ decisions, and would cut off care for young people already receiving treatment.
Earlier, my colleague Sam Levin spoke to healthcare providers, families, and trans children affected by legislation banning affirming healthcare. Efforts to end gender-affirming care have cropped up not just in Arkansas, but across the country.
Corey Hyman, a 15-year-old boy from St Charles, Missouri, waited years to access the medical treatments that he said saved his life.
Corey said he had long known that he was a boy and came out to his mother as trans at age 12. She researched clinics that supported children like him, and after dozens of sessions with therapists and doctors over two years, Corey was approved to start taking testosterone hormones.
“I was being my true self and actually presenting as a male, and it just made me feel so much better,” said Corey, who previously struggled with severe psychological distress, including self-harm and suicidal thoughts. “Everyone told me that they could see me getting happier.”
The number of kids receiving gender-affirming care in the US is limited. Jules Gill-Peterson, professor of gender, sexuality and women’s studies at the University of Pittsburgh, said that access to the treatment is extremely restricted, given that there are few clinics that do this work and that families often need significant time and money to advocate for and get treatment.
“We’re facing the proposition of banning forms of healthcare that almost no trans kids even have access to,” she said. She noted that at a clinic in Pittsburgh, some families drive from five hours away to get care. “We’re talking about healthcare that at the moment is generally accessible only to upper-middle-class families.”
Read more:
Updated
17: 40
Caitlyn Jenner, the former reality star, is reportedly considering a run for California governor.
According to an Axios report, Jenner is working with GOP fundraiser Caroline Wren, to explore running against California governor Gavin Newsom in an impending recall election.
The recall campaign against Newsom, a Democrat, is spearheaded by Republicans who opposed the governor’s pandemic-era business shutdowns, as well as his immigration and tax policies. Amid the previous coronavirus surge, and with the aid of funds from big business donors and a few Silicon Valley venture capitalists, the recall campaign amassed more than 2m signatures, its leaders say. If election officials are able to validate at least 1.5m signatures by the end of this month, the state will hold a recall election this year. Voters will choose first whether they want to recall Newsom and then who they would like to replace him.
The Republicans currently running against Newsom include San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer; conservative activist Mike Cernovich; and John Cox, who lost to Newsom in 2018 by 23 points. Strategists say that none of these candidates have an easy path to victory in a state that leans heavily Democratic. However, a big-name Republican like Jenner could change the dynamics of the race. In the 2003 recall of former California governor Gray Davis, it was actor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s decision to run against Davis that helped energize the effort. Schwarzenegger ultimately replaced Davis.
Jenner, a former Olympic medalist who starred in Keeping Up with the Kardashians, has been critical of Donald Trump’s views on trans rights, but she has ultimately aligned with the Republican party on many major issues. Wren, who worked for Trump’s 2020 campaign fundraising committee and helped organize the rally that preceded the 6 January Capitol attack, connected with Jenner through a GOP nonprofit focused on LGBT issues, according to Axios.
Democrats in California and in DC have aligned themselves with Newsom. Progressive Vermont senator Bernie Sanders has thrown his support behind Newsom, and Kamala Harris – a longtime friend of the California governor – appeared alongside him Monday during her visit to the state and praised him as “a real champion in California and outside of California”.
The governor’s approval rating dropped from an early-pandemic peak, but it remains relatively strong in recent polls. A recent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California found 56% of likely voters would oppose a recall.
Updated
17: 01
California to lift most coronavirus-related restrictions June 15
Joan E Greve
California will lift most of its coronavirus-related restrictions starting June 15, Governor Gavin Newsom announced today.
The Democratic governor emphasized the statewide mask mandate will remain in effect, and restrictions will only be lifted if vaccinations continue to steadily increase and coronavirus hospitalizations stay low over the coming weeks.
Gavin Newsom
(@GavinNewsom)BREAKING: CA has administered 20+ million vaccinations. We have the lowest positivity rate in the US. Stable hospitalizations.
Now, we’re looking forward.
We’re setting our eyes on fully reopening by June 15th — with commonsense measures like masking.
Mask up & get vaxed, CA.
“With more than 20 million vaccines administered across the state, it is time to turn the page on our tier system and begin looking to fully reopen California’s economy,” Newsom said in a statement.
The announcement is hugely consequential, considering California was the first state to approve a statewide stay-at-home order last spring and Newsom has been generally hesitant to relax restrictions on businesses, due to concerns about a potential surge in cases.
But the governor is now moving forward with easing restrictions, as more than a third of Californians have received at least one coronavirus vaccine dose.
“We can now begin planning for our lives post-pandemic, Newsom said. “We will need to remain vigilant, and continue the practices that got us here – wearing masks and getting vaccinated – but the light at the end of this tunnel has never been brighter.”
Updated
17: 00
Today so far
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague Maanvi Singh will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Joe Biden announced the US has administered 150 million vaccine doses since he took office in January. The president also announced all American adults will be eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine by April 19, pushing up his earlier deadline of May 1 by about two weeks.
- A shooting occurred at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland, this morning. The US navy confirmed the shooter, who is now dead, was a naval hospital corpsman. The two victims of the shooting are in critical condition and were airlifted to a Baltimore hospital, Frederick police told reporters.
- Derek Chauvin’s trial resumed in Minneapolis, where the former police officer is facing murder charges over the killing of George Floyd. A police trainer who instructed Chauvin in the use of force told the jury that placing a knee on a suspect’s neck when they are already subdued, as Chauvin did with Floyd, “is not authorized”.
- Democratic congressman Alcee Hastings died at 84. Hastings, who had had pancreatic cancer for more than two years, was the longest-serving member of Florida’s House delegation.
- US Capitol police officer William “Billy” Evans will lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda next week, House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer announced. Evans was killed in the car attack at the Capitol last week. In a statement released by USCP today, Evans’ family described him as “the best father, son, brother, and friend anyone could ever hope for”.
Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Updated
16: 42
Joe Biden took a few questions from reporters after concluding his prepared remarks on his administration’s efforts to distribute coronavirus vaccines across the country.
One journalist asked whether the president believed the PGA should move the Masters golf tournament from Georgia due to the outcry over the state’s new law restricting voting access.
This Week
(@ThisWeekABC)Pres. Biden says it’s “reassuring” to see corporations opposing Georgia’s sweeping voting law, but cautions businesses leaving the state could hurt workers.
“The best way to deal with this is for Georgia and other states to smarten up. Stop it. Stop it.” https://t.co/04o558mesk pic.twitter.com/lLh2pydIbX
“I think that’s up the Masters,” Biden said. “It’s reassuring to see that for-profit operations and businesses are speaking up about how these new Jim Crow laws are just antithetical to who we are.”
But the president acknowledged such decisions can be incredibly challenging because the ramifications of them often hurt “the people who need the help the most, people who are making hourly wages”.
“I think it’s a very tough decision for a corporation to make,” Biden said. “The best way to deal with it is for Georgia and other states to smarten up. Stop it. Stop it. It’s about getting people to vote.”
Biden’s comments come days after the Major League Baseball All-Star game was moved from Atlanta because of the Georgia voting law.
Updated
16: 34
Joe Biden concluded his prepared remarks by once again encouraging Americans to continue taking precautions to limit the spread of coronavirus.
“This progress we’ve worked so hard to achieve can be reversed,” Biden said. “Now’s not the time to let down. Now’s not the time to celebrate.”
The president reiterated his hope that the country will be able to return to a sense of normality by July 4, when America celebrates Independence Day.
Biden said, “I want to have an Independence Day, an independence from the Covid.”
16: 27
Biden urges seniors: ‘Get vaccinated now,’ before all adults become eligible on April 19
Joe Biden announced all American adults will be eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine by April 19, pushing up his earlier deadline of May 1 by about two weeks.
Every US state except for Hawaii had already announced it would make the vaccine available to all adult residents by that date, so Biden’s announcement is not necessarily shocking.
The president also made a point to urge older Americans to get their shots before vaccine eligibility expands and lines get longer.
“Seniors, it’s time for you to get vaccinated now,” Biden said.
The president noted his administration is ramping up transportation assistance to vaccination sites in order to help older Americans get their shots.
Updated
16: 21
Biden celebrates 150 million shots administered but tells Americans to stay vigilant
Joe Biden is now speaking at the White House to deliver an update on his administration’s efforts to distribute coronavirus vaccines across the country.
The president noted he visited a vaccination site in Alexandria, Virginia, earlier today, and he described it as an “example of America at its finest”.
As expected, Biden announced the US has administered more than 150 million vaccine doses since he took office in January.
“Yesterday, we crossed 150 million shots in 75 days, the first 75 days of my administration,” Biden said.
President Biden
(@POTUS)I’m proud to share that yesterday, we crossed 150 million shots in just 75 days of my Administration — on our way to hitting our goal of 200 million shots by my 100th day in office.
The president noted more than 4 million shots were administered on Saturday alone, and more than 75% of people over 65 have been vaccinated, an important milestone given that seniors account for 80% of all coronavirus deaths.
But Biden warned that, even as vaccinations increase, coronavirus variants are also spreading quickly. The president urged Americans to remain vigilant about wearing masks and practicing social-distancing to limit the spread of the virus.
“Let me be perfectly earnest with you: we aren’t at the finish line,” Biden said.
Updated
15: 58
Joe Biden mourned the passing of Democratic congressman Alcee Hastings, who has died at the age of 84 after struggling with pancreatic cancer for over two years.
“I had the privilege of getting to know Alcee Hastings during the years when he served in the House of Representatives and I served in the United States Senate and later as Vice President. I greatly admired him for his singular sense of humor, and for always speaking the truth bluntly and without reservation,” the president said in a new statement.
Hastings was elected to Congress 15 times, and he was the longest-serving member of Florida’s House delegation when he died.
“Across his long career of public service, Alcee always stood up to fight for equality, and always showed up for the working people he represented. And even in his final battle with cancer, he simply never gave up,” Biden said.
“Jill and I are saddened to learn of his passing. May God bless Alcee Hastings and his family.”
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