WASHINGTON DC — President Donald Trump’s “actions and rhetoric” have tarnished the administration’s legacy, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a resignation letter submitted this week.
Azar submitted the standard resignation letter for a Cabinet secretary to offer an outgoing president, dated January 12 and obtained by CNN Friday.
In the letter, addressed to Trump, Azar laid out what he considered to be the best accomplishments of HHS over the past four years.
“Unfortunately, the actions and rhetoric following the election, especially during this past week, threaten to tarnish these and other historic legacies of this Administration,” Azar wrote in the letter.
“The attacks on the Capitol were an assault on our democracy and on the tradition of peaceful transitions of power that the United States of America first brought to the world,” Azar wrote in the letter, first reported by The New York Times.
“I implore you to continue to condemn unequivocally any form of violence, to demand that no one attempt to disrupt the inaugural activities in Washington or elsewhere, and to continue to support unreservedly the peaceful and orderly transition of power on January 20, 2021.”
Azar said he plans to stay in his role until January 20, when President-elect Joe Biden’s team takes over.
Azar mentions the coronavirus pandemic first and it was, by far, the biggest development of Trump’s presidency. More than 390,000 Americans have died in the pandemic and more than 23 million have been diagnosed with the virus.
But in his letter, Azar doesn’t mention those numbers, the federal government’s failure to warn of a pandemic for weeks or the greatly delayed rollout of tests that public health experts say slowed the US response during crucial weeks that could have curbed the spread of the virus.
Azar does not mention disagreements over the danger of the virus — Trump repeatedly claimed it would “disappear” — and doesn’t reference arguments over mandating or even recommending the use of masks to slow the spread.
Instead, Azar characterizes his department’s actions as quick and aggressive.
“While we mourn every lost life, our early, aggressive and comprehensive efforts saved hundreds of thousands or even millions of American lives,” Azar writes in the letter.
“Operation Warp Speed achieved in nine months what many doubted would be possible in a year and a half or more,” Azar said.
“As of this date we have two safe and effective vaccines being administered to millions of Americans, with more vaccines likely to be authorized shortly.”
While it’s true the vaccines have been developed in record time and are remarkably effective, the rollout has been slower than promised.
Operation Warp Speed repeatedly promised 20 million Americans would have been vaccinated by the end of December. As of Friday — three days after Azar submitted the letter — 10.6 million people had been vaccinated.
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This article has been updated to show that Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar plans to remain in his role until January 20.
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“We really would like to see him bring a few more people with some on-the-ground experience onto his team,” Dr. Plescia said. “One of the things about a federal jobs corps is, how do those people interface with the state public health departments? You need to really think through that.”
Mr. Biden’s bid to improve public health infrastructure recalls the approach that he and President Barack Obama took with the recession-ravaged economy they inherited in 2009, when Mr. Biden was the newly inaugurated vice president. Rahm Emanuel, Mr. Obama’s chief of staff at the time, said then that a serious crisis should never “go to waste” because it might provide “an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.”
In an interview on Friday, Mr. Emanuel, who went on to serve two terms as the mayor of Chicago, praised Mr. Biden for his plan to invest in such clinics — also known as federally qualified health centers, or F.Q.H.C.s.
“The F.Q.H.C. is singularly the best preventive health care for hard to reach communities,” Mr. Emanuel said, adding, that “what’s great about this investment that the president-elect is making is it is laying down a foundation” for a strong public health response to future crises.
Mr. Biden has long pledged to wage a far more aggressive federal response than Mr. Trump’s leave-it-to-the-states approach.
Also on Friday, Mr. Biden’s team announced that it intended to phase out Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s fast-track vaccine initiative. Dr. David A. Kessler, a former head of the Food and Drug Administration who has been advising Mr. Biden on the pandemic, will lead the new administration’s effort to accelerate the development and manufacture of Covid-19 vaccines.
“OWS is the Trump team’s name for their program,” Jennifer Psaki, Mr. Biden’s spokeswoman, wrote on Twitter, using the program’s initials. “We are phasing in a new structure, which will have a different name than OWS.”
WASHINGTON—President Trump’s top economic adviser criticized his boss’s handling of the riot at the U.S. Capitol and said he was disappointed in the way Mr. Trump treated Vice President Mike Pence, while defending the administration’s policy legacy.
“I was hoping that he would come out quickly and make statements calling everybody back and stopping the violence,” White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said during an 80-minute interview with The Wall Street Journal. He praised the video the president made earlier this week condemning violence, adding that he wished he had released it earlier.
Mr. Trump, in a speech to thousands of protesters gathered near the Washington Monument on Jan. 6, falsely asserted he had won the election and urged his supporters to march to the Capitol, where lawmakers were certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral victory. As the protesters began breaching security lines, Mr. Trump criticized Mr. Pence on Twitter for not blocking the certification. After hundreds had broken into the Capitol, Mr. Trump called on the rioters to remain peaceful and avoid violence.
But later that day, the president tweeted, “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long.”
Mr. Kudlow joined the ranks of administration officials who have publicly criticized the president’s actions in relation to the riot. Three cabinet secretaries and several senior officials across the administration have stepped down in the aftermath of the attack.
The National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in 2019 in Indiana. The NRA filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Friday, saying it aims to reincorporate as a nonprofit in Texas and leave New York, where the state has filed a fraud suit against it.
Michael Conroy/AP
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Michael Conroy/AP
The National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in 2019 in Indiana. The NRA filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Friday, saying it aims to reincorporate as a nonprofit in Texas and leave New York, where the state has filed a fraud suit against it.
Michael Conroy/AP
The National Rifle Association filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Texas on Friday as its current home, New York, pursues a fraud case against the organization.
The NRA was founded in New York in 1871 and has since presented itself as a defender of Second Amendment rights. The NRA attributes the move to Texas to a “corrupt political and regulatory environment” in New York.
New York Attorney General Letitia James filed suit to have the NRA dissolved in August. She accused CEO Wayne LaPierre and other senior staff with diverting millions of the nonprofit group’s dollars to luxury vacations, private jets and more. James called for the funds to be returned and the executives to be prohibited from serving on any not-for-profit in New York ever again.
“This is a transformational moment in the history of the NRA,” LaPierre said in a statement. He said the NRA is “dumping New York … at a time when the NRA is in its strongest financial condition in years. “
NPR’s Tim Mak previously reported that legal troubles have cost the organization $100 million.
James vowed to hold the nation’s largest pro-gun organization accountable. “The NRA’s claimed financial status has finally met its moral status: bankrupt,” she said on Twitter. “While we review its bankruptcy filing, we will not allow @NRA to use this or any other tactic to evade accountability and my office’s oversight.”
The organization said the move to Texas would “enable long-term, sustainable growth and ensure the NRA’s continued success as the nation’s leading advocate for constitutional freedom – free from the toxic political environment of New York. “
Its continuing goals are “confronting anti-Second Amendment activities, promoting firearm safety and training, and advancing public programs across the United States,” the NRA said.
If President-elect Joe Biden’s economic relief plans get a green light from Congress, more students may be able to return to class, jobless benefits could get a boost, and many low-wage workers will get a raise.
Biden’s $1.9 trillion package, announced Thursday, would be the next phase in a relief rollout meant to ease the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic which has caused more than 385,000 deaths and left millions of Americans unemployed as the nation struggles to contain the novel coronavirus.
Biden’s plan builds on a $900 billion relief package passed by Congress in December. He says he will unveil yet another round of measures that intend to help the country rebound from the pandemic during an address to Congress in February.
There is no guarantee that Biden’s proposals will be approved. Democrats hold a narrow majority in the House and Senate following the recent Georgia run-off wins of incoming Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. But Biden is hoping there can be agreement across the aisle.
“There’s no time to waste,” Biden said during his remarks Thursday. “We have to act, and we have to act now.”
Will enhanced unemployment benefits be extended?
Biden is calling to increase enhanced unemployment benefits to $400 per week from $300 through September.
States are in the process of issuing a $300-per-week boost to benefits provided by the $900 billion relief package passed in December. The payments are currently set to expire in mid-March.
More than 18 million Americans are collecting jobless benefits, according to the Labor Department.
Will we see an increase of the minimum wage?
Biden has made raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour a key goal.
“People tell me that’s going to be hard to pass,” Biden said in his remarks Thursday. There “should be a national minimum wage of $15 dollars an hour. No one working 40 hours a week should live below the poverty level.’’
The federal minimum wage of $7.25 hasn’t budged since 2009, stymied by Senate Republicans who’ve refused to raise it. And some business groups have said a $15-an-hour minimum will hobble businesses already reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic.
But many local jurisdictions have raised their pay floors on their own. In 2021, a record high 24 states and 50 cities and counties will increase their lowest wages, according to the National Employment Law Project. Many are aiming to reach $15 an hour if not immediately, then in the next few years.
Will shuttered schools be able to reopen?
Biden’s plan includes $170 billion to help schools reopen and to give financial relief to students.
Students have been hunkered down at home across the U.S. as many schools shuttered in the spring to slow the spread of the coronavirus. But the effects have been devastating, as some students found it difficult to absorb remote lessons, while others were put at a disadvantage because they didn’t have computers or steady access to WiFi at home.
Gender and racial pay gaps may also widen because of the closures. Women took on much of the responsibility for children studying remotely and were more likely to alter their hours or drop out of the workforce altogether because of the strain.
Will there be another stimulus check?
Biden’s plan calls for $1 trillion in direct relief to taxpayers, which includes a boost in stimulus checks.
The second round of $600 economic impact payments would be increased to $2,000 for taxpayers who qualify and their dependents, which means that eligible Americans could receive up to $1,400 more per person.
Will it expand which dependents are eligible?
Yes. Biden wants to expand eligibility for the checks after the first two rounds of payments only went to families with dependent children under 17. His plan includes payments for non-child dependents, including many college students and elderly parents living with their adult children.
Those who qualify to claim these dependents on their tax return would get an additional $1,400 per dependent.
Are immigrant families eligible for checks?
Families who are considered mixed-status households, or those where a family member doesn’t have a Social Security number, would be eligible for stimulus payments, similar to the most recent round of direct payments.
The second payment broadened the rules for the first check by allowing U.S. citizens who are married to foreign nationals without Social Security numbers to receive the aid. In those families, children with Social Security numbers would qualify.
Those without Social Security numbers, typically unauthorized immigrants, weren’t eligible for checks in the first two rounds. Democrats have argued that undocumented U.S. residents should be eligible for relief if they pay taxes through an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, a tax processing number only available for certain nonresident and resident aliens, their spouses, and dependents who can’t get a Social Security Number.
It’s unclear whether they would qualify under Biden’s proposal.
Will local governments get more aid?
Biden will invest $20 billion in a national vaccination program, which will work with states, tribes and territories to get Americans vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. It also provides $50 billion to help schools and local governments put testing protocols in place, along with enabling the purchase of rapid tests and expansion of lab capacity.
“The vaccine rollout in the United States has been a dismal failure thus far,” Biden said.
Indian Country would also receive $20 billion in Biden’s plan to assist tribal governments’ efforts to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.
Would eviction moratoriums be extended?
The measure would include $25 billion in rental assistance for struggling Americans and an extension of the nationwide eviction moratorium through the end of September. It is currently set to expire at the end of January.
If President-elect Joe Biden’s economic relief plans get a green light from Congress, more students may be able to return to class, jobless benefits could get a boost, and many low-wage workers will get a raise.
Biden’s $1.9 trillion package, announced Thursday, would be the next phase in a relief rollout meant to ease the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic which has caused more than 385,000 deaths and left millions of Americans unemployed as the nation struggles to contain the novel coronavirus.
Biden’s plan builds on a $900 billion relief package passed by Congress in December. He says he will unveil yet another round of measures that intend to help the country rebound from the pandemic during an address to Congress in February.
There is no guarantee that Biden’s proposals will be approved. Democrats hold a narrow majority in the House and Senate following the recent Georgia run-off wins of incoming Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. But Biden is hoping there can be agreement across the aisle.
“There’s no time to waste,” Biden said during his remarks Thursday. “We have to act, and we have to act now.”
Will enhanced unemployment benefits be extended?
Biden is calling to increase enhanced unemployment benefits to $400 per week from $300 through September.
States are in the process of issuing a $300-per-week boost to benefits provided by the $900 billion relief package passed in December. The payments are currently set to expire in mid-March.
More than 18 million Americans are collecting jobless benefits, according to the Labor Department.
Will we see an increase of the minimum wage?
Biden has made raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour a key goal.
“People tell me that’s going to be hard to pass,” Biden said in his remarks Thursday. There “should be a national minimum wage of $15 dollars an hour. No one working 40 hours a week should live below the poverty level.’’
The federal minimum wage of $7.25 hasn’t budged since 2009, stymied by Senate Republicans who’ve refused to raise it. And some business groups have said a $15-an-hour minimum will hobble businesses already reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic.
But many local jurisdictions have raised their pay floors on their own. In 2021, a record high 24 states and 50 cities and counties will increase their lowest wages, according to the National Employment Law Project. Many are aiming to reach $15 an hour if not immediately, then in the next few years.
Will shuttered schools be able to reopen?
Biden’s plan includes $170 billion to help schools reopen and to give financial relief to students.
Students have been hunkered down at home across the U.S. as many schools shuttered in the spring to slow the spread of the coronavirus. But the effects have been devastating, as some students found it difficult to absorb remote lessons, while others were put at a disadvantage because they didn’t have computers or steady access to WiFi at home.
Gender and racial pay gaps may also widen because of the closures. Women took on much of the responsibility for children studying remotely and were more likely to alter their hours or drop out of the workforce altogether because of the strain.
Will there be another stimulus check?
Biden’s plan calls for $1 trillion in direct relief to taxpayers, which includes a boost in stimulus checks.
The second round of $600 economic impact payments would be increased to $2,000 for taxpayers who qualify and their dependents, which means that eligible Americans could receive up to $1,400 more per person.
Will it expand which dependents are eligible?
Yes. Biden wants to expand eligibility for the checks after the first two rounds of payments only went to families with dependent children under 17. His plan includes payments for non-child dependents, including many college students and elderly parents living with their adult children.
Those who qualify to claim these dependents on their tax return would get an additional $1,400 per dependent.
Are immigrant families eligible for checks?
Families who are considered mixed-status households, or those where a family member doesn’t have a Social Security number, would be eligible for stimulus payments, similar to the most recent round of direct payments.
The second payment broadened the rules for the first check by allowing U.S. citizens who are married to foreign nationals without Social Security numbers to receive the aid. In those families, children with Social Security numbers would qualify.
Those without Social Security numbers, typically unauthorized immigrants, weren’t eligible for checks in the first two rounds. Democrats have argued that undocumented U.S. residents should be eligible for relief if they pay taxes through an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, a tax processing number only available for certain nonresident and resident aliens, their spouses, and dependents who can’t get a Social Security Number.
It’s unclear whether they would qualify under Biden’s proposal.
Will local governments get more aid?
Biden will invest $20 billion in a national vaccination program, which will work with states, tribes and territories to get Americans vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. It also provides $50 billion to help schools and local governments put testing protocols in place, along with enabling the purchase of rapid tests and expansion of lab capacity.
“The vaccine rollout in the United States has been a dismal failure thus far,” Biden said.
Indian Country would also receive $20 billion in Biden’s plan to assist tribal governments’ efforts to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.
Would eviction moratoriums be extended?
The measure would include $25 billion in rental assistance for struggling Americans and an extension of the nationwide eviction moratorium through the end of September. It is currently set to expire at the end of January.
Vice President Mike Pence called his soon-to-be successor, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, to congratulate her and offer his assistance before she and President-elect Joe Biden are sworn in next Wednesday, a person familiar with the matter said.
The phone call on Thursday between Pence and Harris marked their first discussion since they debated publicly last fall during the vicious presidential campaign.
President Donald Trump, who spent weeks angrily denying his election loss to Biden while falsely asserting widespread fraud, has not called the incoming president.
Trump has acknowledged that the Biden administration will soon take charge but has vowed never to concede the election and has not publicly done so.
On Tuesday, Chansley became one of the first three people indicted by federal prosecutors in connection with the violence at the Capitol. He was charged with a felony violation of the Federal Anti-Riot Act, as well as obstruction of Congress and other offenses.
In a filing on Thursday, prosecutors said Chansley was as “an active participant in” and “the most prominent symbol of” what they described as a “violent insurrection.” Prosecutors also said Chansley had expressed his intention of returning to Washington, D.C., for President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration next week.
The language in the filing suggests more severe charges, such as sedition or insurrection, could be coming for those involved in the siege.
Watkins, Chansley’s attorney, said on Thursday that his client, “like a lot of other disenfranchised people in our country, felt very, very, very solidly in sync” with the president — suggesting Chansley was incited to storm the Capitol in Trump’s name.
“He felt like his voice was, for the first time, being heard,” Watkins said. “And what ended up happening, over the course of the lead-up to the election, over the course of the period from the election to Jan. 6 — it was a driving force by a man he hung his hat on, he hitched his wagon to. He loved Trump. Every word, he listens to him.”
Prior to the Capitol siege, the president, his family members and his political allies riled up his supporters at a rally on the White House Ellipse. When it was his turn to speak, Trump urged those in attendance to march on the Capitol amid Congress’ certification of Biden’s Electoral College victory.
“If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” Trump said. He also said that “you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”
On Thursday, Trump became the only president in American history to be impeached twice — this time, in a bipartisan vote on a single count of “incitement of insurrection.”
“We all have to understand that the words that were spoken by the president meant something, not just to my client. They meant something to a lot of people,” Watkins said in his interview.
“They listened to those words. And those words meant something to them. And they had a right to rely on the words of their president that was strewed forth worldwide,” he said. “And they did. And now they’re turning around [and] they’re getting arrested, as well many should be.”
Nevertheless, Trump “needs to stand up and own these people,” Watkins argued. “He has an obligation to them. He has an obligation to our nation. It’s not going to happen.”
Pressed by host Chris Cuomo on what exactly he would like Trump to do, Watkins replied: “Oh, give a pardon.”
As Chansley’s attorney, “my role is not to judge somebody. My role is to be an advocate,” Watkins said. “If there’s one iota of a chance that the guy who’s the president of our country — who invited everybody down Pennsylvania [Avenue] — will give my client a pardon, you know what? I’m going to do it.”
Watkins acknowledged, however, that his plea was unlikely to succeed. “Am I holding my breath thinking that Donald Trump is going to be sitting around going, ‘You know what? … What’s the name of that guy with the horns? Yeah … let’s give him a pardon.’”
But “with Trump, you never know,” Watkins said. “He may say, ‘I want the guy with the horns.’ Next thing you know, maybe he’s represented by the shaman instead of Rudy Giuliani.”
Watkins went on to compare the president’s supporters who stormed the Capitol to the Jonestown cult members who committed mass suicide at their settlement in Guyana in 1978: “You know the only thing different here? There’s no Kool-Aid.”
Throughout his presidency, President Donald Trump has remained hugely popular among fellow Republicans. As recently as December, after Trump had lost the 2020 election to President-elect Joe Biden, some polls showed the president with an approval rating in the high 80s among Republicans.
But a new poll by the Pew Research Center suggests that the events of the last few weeks — a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol, and then Trump was impeached for the second time in his presidency — are finally starting to weigh on Republican voters. The poll was conducted from January 8-12, so it was conducted entirely after the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
The poll shows Trump with a disastrous 29 percent approval rating among US adults. Notably, this rating, the lowest of his presidency, appears to be driven in large part by a significant minority of Republicans who have lost faith in the president. Only 60 percent of Republicans approve of Trump, a stark drop from previous Pew polls.
Pew Research Center
The poll potentially bodes bad news for the Republican Party, as it shows that a rift may be forming within the GOP between hardcore Trump loyalists and Republicans who would prefer to see the party leader fade away. Other recent polls have also found a sharp decrease in Trump’s support, as FiveThirtyEight’s tracker shows, though not all to such a low.
According to Pew, 29 percent of Republicans agree with four pro-Trump statements — they “endorse Trump’s post-election conduct, hold him blameless for the riot, believe he is the election’s rightful winner and want him to have a major role in politics going forward.”
At the same time, 25 percent of Republicans disagree with all four of these statements.
At least some of Trump’s falling approval rating might be explained by a phenomenon known as “response bias.” When the news is dominated by stories that reflect badly on a politician, that politician’s supporters sometimes stop responding to pollsters, leading to artificially poor pooling numbers for the embattled figure.
And Republicans don’t seem to have budged much yet on support for impeachment, with a slim majority of Americans saying that Trump should be removed, but only 15 percent of Republicans agreeing, according to FiveThirtyEight’s poll average.
But Pew’s numbers are especially stark, and if other polls show similarly large declines, they could potentially have serious long-term implications for Trump.
Most likely next week, the Senate will convene to hold Trump’s second impeachment trial. While it is very unlikely that this trial will conclude soon enough to remove Trump from office before his term expires on Wednesday, the Senate has the power to permanently disqualify Trump from holding office — but only if two-thirds of senators first agree to convict Trump on a charge of inciting insurrection.
That means that at least 17 Republican senators would need to break with Trump for him to be convicted.
Republican senators will be more likely to do so if Trump is a toxic figure with the public at large. And they’ll be even more likely to do so if large numbers of their own base view Trump’s insurrectionist behavior as unforgivable.
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