A gym teacher in a progressive Virginia school district, who was suspended and then reinstated after refusing to use transgender students’ preferred pronouns, received an outpouring of support during a raucous school board meeting Tuesday.
Byron “Tanner” Cross was suspended after he said at a recent Loudoun County Public Schools meeting that he wouldn’t recognize that “a biological boy can be a girl and vice versa” because of his Christian faith.
“I am speaking out of love for those who are suffering from gender dysphoria,” the Leesburg Elementary teacher last month told the school board, which has already bitterly divided parents and educators by pushing critical race theory.
Judge James Plowman of Virginia’s 20th Judicial Circuit of granted Cross a temporary injunction, criticizing the district for the suspension three weeks before the end of the school year.
Cross had sued Loudoun County Public Schools last week, saying the suspension violated his First Amendment rights.Google Maps
During Tuesday’s meeting, many commenters either backed Cross or slammed the school board, Fox News reported.
“Where is your regard for our freedom of speech?” said mother of three Rachel Pisani. “When I saw a teacher express an opinion and suspended for expressing his religious beliefs, I could no longer stay silent. When did it become acceptable to be tolerant only when someone expresses a view that we agree with?”
She added, before her mic was cut off due to time constraints: “When did it become appropriate to silence those that hold Christian, biblical views just because you don’t? When did it become appropriate to allow the school board — I don’t know who you think you are — but it is not appropriate, it is not allowable to silence, bully, or dismiss our views.”
Another woman told the board: “Even being threatened with termination for simply speaking one’s opinion creates a culture of fear and silence — and this does not help anyone on either side of the aisle.”
Teacher Monica Gill said the board’s suspension of Cross and other actions “resemble totalitarianism, not the Constitution,” adding that “first and foremost, I am a Christian.”
“What is most important? We live in truth, not lies. We look at character, not skin color. We love our Lord and we love others. Know this — we will not yield. We will not let you have our souls or the souls of our children,” she said, according to Fox News.
Another teacher, Jeremy Wright, who described school board members as “Chardonnay Antifa,” left what he said was a copy of the First Amendment on the podium.
“For the members of Chardonnay Antifa, here is your assignment with a copy of the First Amendment attached,” Wright said. “I’m going to leave this here and I hope you learn something.”
After he received applause, Chairwoman Brenda Sheridan said: “I’ll remind you that I will entertain a motion to move public comment to the end of our agenda. Jazz hands only.”
But some speakers also appeared to support the district’s approach to gender.
State Delegate Jennifer Boyko, who wore a rainbow pin and mask, told the board: “I want to thank you for your commitment to equality and making sure every child feels loved and valued.”
A remote speaker who identified herself as a mother of Cross’ students suggested he was shirking his responsibilities as a teacher, according to the report.
She argued that he used a “literalist interpretation of the Bible to argue why he refuses to fulfill his responsibility as a public school teacher.”
Cross had sued last week, saying the suspension violated his First Amendment rights.
His remarks came at a meeting about a “Rights of Transgender and Gender-Expansive Students” policy in a district that’s already embroiled in a heated culture-wars debate about critical race theory.
The theory dictates that race is an underlying dynamic of all human interaction and views the human experience as a constant power struggle between the races, often with a focus on “white privilege.”
It has drawn national attention to the school district as parents clashed over the concept, with anti-CRT parents saying they were targeted for their views.
US Education Secretary Miguel Cardona helped implement a critical race theory curriculum for Connecticut students while operating the state’s school system.
Critics have argued against including it in students’ curriculum, with many arguing it teaches children to view each other based on race.
California’s workplace regulators are set to again reconsider controversial masking rules designed to protect employees against the coronavirus — requirements that business organizations say will make it harder for them to operate when the state fully reopens its economy next week.
A “special meeting” of the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board was hastily scheduled for Wednesday after State Health Officer Dr. Tomás Aragón sent a letter to the panel reiterating the state’s plans to follow federal guidance starting next Tuesday.
Aragón said the state will do away with virtually all social distancing requirements and drop the mask requirement for people who are vaccinated while “requiring face coverings for all unvaccinated individuals in indoor public settings and businesses.”
That policy conflicts with the board’s vote last week to allow workers to go maskless only if every employee in a room is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. The board will consider Aragón’s letter “and take action if appropriate,” board spokeswoman Erika Monterroza said.
Meanwhile, a dozen business groups including the California Retailers Association and organizations representing manufacturers, farmers, tourism interests and other industries sent a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom asking him to immediately issue an emergency order rescinding the board’s regulations, called Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS), and putting state workplaces in compliance with federal guidelines.
Without such action, the groups said the state’s economy won’t fully reopen next week as Newsom has said.
“Businesses will not bring employees back with the level of confusion and uncertainty created by the ETS and the mixed messages coming from state and local leaders,” the letter said.
The groups called the board’s regulations “expensive liabilities for businesses of all sizes, but especially for small businesses who may not have the legal expertise to navigate the confusing and contradictory statements and regulations coming from various levels of government.”
Newsom was asked last Friday if he would issue such an order and he indicated he was disinclined.
On Tuesday, Newsom’s office repeated its statement from last week: that the administration is “hopeful the board will further revise its guidance to reflect the latest science while continuing to protect workers and balancing realistic and enforceable requirements for employers.”
The Cal/OSHA board’s regulations apply in almost every workplace in the state, including workers in offices, factories and retail.
Its pandemic rules apply to all employees except those working from home or where there is a single employee who does not have contact with other people.
The board at Wednesday’s meeting could withdraw the new rules that it adopted less than a week ago because those have not yet become effective, Monterroza said.
But that would at least temporarily leave in place existing emergency rules that are even more stringent, requiring all workers to keep distanced and masked even if vaccinated.
The board can’t adopt new changes without posting the proposed revisions and giving the public at least five calendar days of notice, she said. That potentially sets up further public comment and action at the board’s regularly scheduled June 17 meeting.
The board’s rules decision have put Newsom in an awkward position as the state nears what he promised would be a full reopening and while he faces a likely recall election in the fall.
The recall was driven by criticism of Newsom’s restrictions on businesses and personal activities during the pandemic. His Republican opponents have seized on the workplace regulations as evidence the Newsom administration continues to rule with overly heavy hand.
Carl DeMaio, a former San Diego city councilman who wants Newsom recalled, sent an email to supporters on Tuesday that highlighted an “absurd new mask mandate” that “is not only an inconvenience to workers, but this anti-science policy imposes significant costs on small businesses and opens them up to costly frivolous lawsuits.”
In their letter to Newsom, the business groups said requiring masks unless all are vaccinated in a workplace will “create yet another barrier to rehiring and reopening” at a time when “we need to be providing incentives to bring people back.”
The organizations also said requiring masks for people who have been fully inoculated could lead the public to believe the vaccine isn’t really effective.
“Now, more than ever, the state must stand with the science and show residents — customers and employees alike — that the COVID-19 vaccine is safe, effective and necessary,” the letter said.
Cal/OSHA board members made it clear when they adopted the measures that the regulations are temporary, and they appointed a subcommittee to continue working on revisions.
The board said it will hear briefings from the state Department of Public Health and California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health at Wednesday’s meeting before considering “the impact of the presented information” on its new rules.
Separately, the state health department has recommended that workers who aren’t vaccinated be tested once or twice a week, depending on the type of test, if they come in close or frequent contact with the public.
That for instance includes those working in restaurants, public transit, theaters, amusement parks and other areas.
It should also apply to those areas with higher virus transmission rates, the department said, and to high-density workplaces where physical distancing is difficult, such as factories or food processing plants.
The New York Times getting panned for its Mara Gay defense, a case of mistaken identity at Vice President Harris’ press conference, and a White House press corps flight being delayed by cicadas round out today’s top media headlines
Media attacks on Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., continued this week as contributors for MSNBC and the Washington Post questioned his motives for opposing the Democrat-led For the People Act.
Manchin came out against the legislation, which would be a massive federal overhaul of U.S. election laws, because it was too partisan.
“It’s the wrong piece of legislation to bring our country together and unite our country,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”
MSNBC’s Hayes Brown became one of the latest pundits to question Manchin’s decision, seemingly wondering why he chose to legislate with West Virginians in mind.
“In protecting his constituents’ interests as he defines them, Sen. Manchin leaves them vulnerable to the machinations that Republicans have set in motion across the country,” Brown wrote.
Brown acknowledged that Manchin does “believe” in the Senate, but shared his concern he “operates with an eye firmly on West Virginia and its people, not the country as a whole. It’s an increasingly antiquated view that he brandishes in defense of an increasingly antiquated chamber.”
Brown, citing polling he claimed showed popular support in the state for the legislation, fretted Manchin could “be the Union’s ruin.”
The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson didn’t hold back his feelings in a piece headlined, “Manchin is setting himself up to be the villain in this fairytale.” Robinson wrote Manchin’s calls for bipartisanship prove he lives in a “fantasy” world.
“There’s no way to spin this as anything other than awful,” Robinson fretted.
Author David A. Jones was more blunt in a new piece for The Grio entitled, “Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are a threat to Black Americans.” Sinema, a Democrat from Arizona, has joined Manchin in opposing an end to the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to end debate on a bill and force a vote.
In a Baltimore Sun commentary published Tuesday, editorial writer Peter Jensen argued that “Sen. Joe Manchin isn’t a statesman; He’s a fool.”
These new attacks on Manchin from the media come on the heels of Atlantic contributor Jemele Hill tweeting Manchin was a “cowardly, power-hungry White dude” and “clown.”
“Democracy killer” and “worse than a Republican” is how others have described him.
“The Democrats will try to bring up Trump,” said George Allen, the former Republican governor and senator. “But I don’t think that’s going to be the issue in this campaign.”
These are the battle lines for the first competitive statewide election of Joe Biden’s presidency: Democrats are eager to nationalize the race, with Trump still injecting himself into the country’s political scene, while Republicans are trying to refocus the contest on state and local issues.
But McAuliffe’s comeback bid is also grounded in voters’ positive feelings about his tenure — he touted his achievements, along with those of his Democratic successor, in his victory speech Tuesday — along with a bet that Biden’s early popularity will propel Democrats here, a year after he carried Virginia by 10 points.
Meanwhile, Trump’s tenure in the White House was a disaster for the Virginia GOP. Ralph Northam, the outgoing governor, cruised by Republican Ed Gillespie in the 2017 gubernatorial contest, part of four years of Democratic victories up and down the ballot.
Conservatives argue that this year will be different: With Trump off the ballot and Republicans out of power in both Richmond and Washington, they say voters are ready for a change. And the GOP is eager to prove the Trump-era drag in the nation’s suburbs — which has tanked the party’s prospects in states with Virginia’s demographic profile — is reversible. Internal polling from the Youngkin campaign, taken last week before the Democratic primary and shared first with POLITICO, has him trailing McAuliffe within the poll’s margin of error in a head-to-head matchup, 48 percent to 46 percent.
McAuliffe, however, has not shied away from his previous tenure in office, along with the four years of Northam’s administration. The McAuliffe camp’s first general election digital ad highlights his economic record while continuing to yoke Trump to Youngkin.
“I think it is necessary for us to highlight that Gov. McAuliffe and Gov. Northam, over the last eight years, have produced one of the most progressive tenures in Virginia government that we’ve ever seen,” Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, a co-chair of McAuliffe’s campaign, said. “Don’t be surprised that we highlight that, however, this election is about the future.”
The campaign is also betting that Biden’s popularity in the state will lift all Democratic boats.
“Having President Biden in the White House is an asset,” Stoney continued. “President Biden has been the individual who has righted the ship, got shots in arms, and is working on our recovery, investing in our infrastructure … and I think that is a perfect record to run on in November.”
McAuliffe told CNN Tuesday night that he spoke to Biden shortly after he was declared the victor, and that the president said he was “all in” on helping his campaign.
Aides to McAuliffe argue that his sweeping primary win — capturing 62 percent of the vote in a five-way race — shows he can replicate the same coalition of voters that propelled Biden last year, while trying to goad Trump to get more involved in the race. McAuliffe said in an MSNBC interview on Wednesday that he didn’t think Trump “has the courage” to come to the state and campaign for Youngkin.
After jitters earlier on primary day about voter turnout, Democrats largely breathed a sigh of relief when all the ballots were counted. As of late Tuesday, 488,000 votes had been tallied in the gubernatorial primary — down from the 2017 primary, but still amounting close to 90 percent of the turnout in a supercharged faceoff between Northam and the more progressive former Rep. Tom Perriello.
But there’s still concern among some on the left that political exhaustion could dim turnout in November, making the race a more difficult win for McAuliffe.
“Virginia is a deeply blue state when Donald Trump is president,” said Ben Tribbett, a Virginia-based Democratic strategist. “I’m not sure we’re anything other than a purple state when he’s not.”
Because of that uncertainty, Virginians across the political spectrum are expecting the race to attract a historic amount of money, both because of the individual candidates and the fact it is the most competitive statewide election this year. McAuliffe is widely known as a prodigious fundraiser, and Youngkin brings enormous personal wealth to the race, having already poured $12 million of his own money into his campaign.
“It will definitely be the most expensive gubernatorial race in Virginia history,” state Republican Party chair Rich Anderson said, adding that he is expecting a lot of outside groups to get involved as well.
Democrats, meanwhile, are coalescing behind the all-establishment ticket across the spectrum. Both former state Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy and state Sen. Jennifer McClellan, who combined for a little over 30 percent of the vote on Tuesday, committed to supporting McAuliffe’s general election bid in their post-election statements.
While McAuliffe made education and recovery from Covid-19 core campaign issues, progressives are calling for him to move further left on health care and organized labor laws in his platform. Virginia’s state legislature has already passed a number of progressive policies since Democrats flipped the statehouse in 2019, including Medicaid expansion and enacting of its own version of the Voting Rights Act to increase access to the ballot.
Keeping these policies in place, however, will be contingent upon whether Democrats maintain control in Richmond. The battle over the state House of Delegates is expected to be intense after the chamber flipped two years ago. An added wrinkle: The election is being held on last decade’s map lines, after the lengthy delay in the release of redistricting data, opening up the possibility that there could be three consecutive years of legislative elections.
The gains Democrats made over the last few years are “hanging on Terry’s shoulders,” said Nick Rathod, a Virginia-based Democratic strategist.
“He’s going to have to remind [progressive voters] of what’s hanging in the balance.”
Youngkin is also trying to cleave progressives away from McAuliffe. One of the two ads he launched immediately following McAuliffe’s primary victory was one that extensively featured Carroll Foy’s criticism of the former governor throughout the primary, opening with the former delegate saying McAuliffe is “not inspiring” and failed the state.
Carroll Foy also warned that Democrats needed more than an anti-Trump message to win the state. “I think that it is fair, because Trump has endorsed Glenn Youngkin,” she said in an interview at a polling place in Northern Virginia on Tuesday, before the ballots were counted. “But I think to lead with that narrative is a mistake. … Attack tactics alone just won’t cut it. We have to let people know what our positive vision is for Virginia.”
After a successful vaccination effort in the United States, Biden tapped Jeff Zients, the covid-19 coordinator, to oversee the country’s global vaccination strategy. Zients has been working on the deal for a month, officials said, and the White House wanted the announcement to be a signature part of Biden’s trip to the G7 given the urgency of boosting global vaccine supply.
National Guard soldiers protect a park during protests near the White House on June 1, 2020.
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National Guard soldiers protect a park during protests near the White House on June 1, 2020.
Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images
The U.S. Park Police did not clear protesters from a park outside the White House so then-President Donald Trump could take a photo-op at a nearby church, an Interior Department inspector general’s report found.
“[T]he evidence established that relevant USPP officials had made those decisions and had begun implementing the operational plan several hours before they knew of a potential Presidential visit to the park, which occurred later that day,” Interior Department Inspector General Mark Greenblatt wrote in a statement with the report’s release Wednesday. “As such, we determined that the evidence did not support a finding that the USPP cleared the park on June 1, 2020, so that then President Trump could enter the park.”
Trump walked to St. John’s Church, which had been damaged the day before during protests over racial injustice. As he did, law enforcement violently cleared what had been mostly peaceful protesters in Lafayette Park.
As those scenes unfolded, Trump posed for photographs, holding up a Bible outside the church.
Then-President Donald Trump holds up a Bible in front of St. John’s Church after walking across Lafayette Park from the White House on June 1, 2020.
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Then-President Donald Trump holds up a Bible in front of St. John’s Church after walking across Lafayette Park from the White House on June 1, 2020.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
The report noted that the Park Police made the decision “to allow a contractor to safely install antiscale fencing in response to destruction of Federal property and injury to officers.”
The report, however, “does not clear law enforcement on use of force and acknowledges problem with its response. … This report does not address allegations of individual use-of-force incidents, as those are the subject of separate inquiries as well as ongoing lawsuits.”
Two of the problems it pointed to included:
“the U.S. Secret Service’s deployment before the USPP had begun its dispersal warnings, and
“the USPP’s failure to provide dispersal warnings that were loud enough for everyone to hear and that told protesters where to exit before the clearing operation began.”
Trump reacted triumphantly to the report, thanking the inspector general in a statement for “Completely and Totally exonerating me in the clearing of Lafayette Park!”
Park Police officials said the plan to clear the area was in place before a 2 p.m. meeting that included then-Attorney General William Barr.
The Park Police operations commander said “the Attorney General did not mention a potential presidential visit to the park,” according to the report.
According to the report:
The Secret Service informed the commander by mid-to-late afternoon, sometime between 3 and 5 p.m. ET, of Trump’s planned visit. It was to take place “after protesters had been removed from the area.”
The ops commander saw Barr coming out of the White House, according to the report. He went over to Barr and told him the area was unsafe. Barr responded by asking why people were still on H Street outside the White House and that he thought it would be cleared by now.
“The USPP operations commander said the Attorney General asked him, ‘Are these people still going to be here when POTUS [President of the United States] comes out?’ The USPP operations commander told us he had not known until then that the President would be coming out of the White House and into Lafayette Park.
“He said he replied to the Attorney General, ‘Are you freaking kidding me?’ and then hung his head and walked away.”
Trump stands outside St. John’s Church on June 1, 2020, along with members of his administration, Attorney General William Barr (far left), White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien (second from left) and White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
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The incident commander said the Park Police wanted to clear the area “to erect the fence and de-escalate the situation. He added that the Attorney General was ‘not in his chain of command’ and that clearing the park had ‘nothing to do with [him] or the President wanting to come out.’
“He stated, ‘This plan doesn’t get developed in 2 minutes. … [The Attorney General] might be a very important guy in the Government, he’s just not my boss.’ “
The inspector general noted in his report that he did not seek to interview Barr because his report focused on Park Police conduct.
In June 2020, Barr said at a news conference that the decision to clear the park was made before he was aware of Trump’s plans. He noted, however, that Trump had the right to go and denied it was a political move.
A chaotic scene
The timeline of events that day shows chaotic parallel tracks emerging — on one side, the Park Police’s plan to clear protesters to build a fence and then on the other, Trump’s desire to address what he described in a Rose Garden speech as violent protests and then walk to the church.
“The Secret Service lieutenant later apologized for the early entry onto H Street during the operation but did not explain why it occurred,” the report noted, adding, “Some speculated it occurred because of miscommunication between a Secret Service supervisor and his officers near the gate area. Others guessed it could have occurred because the USPP and the Secret Service did not have a shared radio channel and had no way of intercepting and resolving conflicting radio communications.”
Whatever the reason, the fencing company told the Secret Service at 6:30 p.m. ET it was concerned about the increasing crowd size. Trump then gave his Rose Garden speech 13 minutes later and then 18 minutes afterward, he departed the White House for the church.
Sheriff Mark Lamb of Pinal County, Arizona reacts to Vice President Kamala Harris facing pressure from the media to visit the border
Pinal County, Arizona Sheriff Mark Lamb slammed Kamala Harris for dodging press questions about the border crisis with laughter, saying the issue is “not a laughing matter” and that her response proves she’s not the right person for the job, on “Fox & Friends” Wednesday.
SHERIFF MARK LAMB: Look, this is our Vice President who says to Lester [Holt], ‘I don’t even know what you’re asking here.’ Listen, Kamala, if you don’t know what he’s asking, then you’re definitely not the right person for the job.
And she keeps proving time and time again why she’s not the right person for the job. This isn’t an important issue for her. That’s why she’s not coming down. And we are left to only believe that this is exactly what they want. They want this chaos that is coming into this country. That’s why they refuse to address it, and her in particular. And it’s not a laughing matter. Shame on her…
President Joe Biden on Wednesday embarked on his first overseas trip since taking office, seeking to reaffirm the United States’ standing on the world stage with familiar allies, and portraying himself as the leader of the free world, including in his first face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
After touching down in the United Kingdom, at Royal Air Force Base Mildenhall, Biden delivered a fiery speech to American service members stationed there, telling them he was going to Geneva “to meet with Mister Putin to let him know what I want him to know.”
“I’ll travel to Geneva to sit down with a man I’ve spent time with before, President Vladimir Putin,” Biden said to cheers from many of the 1,000 airmen, airwomen, their spouses and children in the audience. “We are not seeking conflict with Russia. We want a stable, predictable relationship. Our two nations share incredible responsibilities and, among them, ensuring strategic stability and upholding arms control agreements.”
It was Biden’s first stop on his trip to Europe, and he laid out many of the large themes of his trip: America’s return to the world stage, reaffirming support for NATO, and celebrating multilateralism to address the world’s greatest challenges — from the pandemic to global warming, from Russia to China.
“At every point along the way,” Biden said, “we’re going to make it clear that the United States is back and democracies of the world are standing together to tackle the toughest challenges and the issues that matter most to our future, that we’re committed to leading with strength, defending our values, and delivering for our people.”
His serious tone was in contrast to a joking moment Biden had with reporters before boarding Air Force One in Maryland. “Watch out for cicadas,” Biden warned them, saying he had to brush one off his neck. “I just got one, it got me.”
(A White House press charter was delayed late Monday due to cicadas disabling the plane’s auxiliary power unit, a Delta spokesperson said.)
The White House previewed his trip Tuesday.
“He’s been getting ready for 50 years. He has been on the world stage. He’s known a number of these leaders for decades, including President Putin, and including a number of the leaders he’ll see at NATO and he’ll see at the G-7. Now, this is an important opportunity for him to see them in person, and there’s nothing like face-to-face engagement in diplomacy,” press secretary Jen Psaki said.
The climax of the trip will be his first meeting as president with Russian Putin next Wednesday in Geneva. There, Biden will be forced to walk a fine line. He plans to deliver a strong warning that malign attacks in the cybersecurity, military and political spheres will no longer be tolerated, while avoiding any escalation in the already-tense relationship, seeking to restore “predictability” and “stability,” the White House has said.
Leading into that summit, Biden hopes to shore up the backing of long-term U.S. allies at the G-7 summit in the United Kingdom and at a NATO summit in Brussels. Wary after the shock of the Trump era, European allies will be looking to Biden to assure them the political upheaval of the past four years was more a blip than a true sea change, and that there’s substance behind Biden’s “America is Back” catchphrase.
“This is a defining question of our time: Can democracies come together to deliver real results for our people in a rapidly changing world? Will the democratic alliances and institutions that shaped so much of the last century prove their capacity against modern-day threats and adversaries? I believe the answer is yes. And this week in Europe, we have the chance to prove it,” Biden wrote in an op-ed in the Washington Post Sunday.
Along the way, Biden will try to frame it all in a way that appeals to Americans at home. He’ll address a gamut of issues with world leaders, from climate change to taxes, from defense to trade, and work to persuade Americans that it’s all in service of his “Build Back Better” agenda; the push to recover equitably from the economic downturn of the pandemic.
Here are key issues to track during Biden’s eight-day overseas trip.
A warning to Russia?
The most anticipated event of Biden’s first trip abroad will be his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, where Biden intends to cover a range of issues with the man he previously said he didn’t think had a soul.
“In my phone calls with President Putin, I have been clear and direct. The United States does not seek conflict. We want a stable and predictable relationship where we can work with Russia on issues like strategic stability and arms control,” Biden wrote in his op-ed.
“At the same time, I have also imposed meaningful consequences for behaviors that violate U.S. sovereignty, including interference in our democratic elections. And President Putin knows that I will not hesitate to respond to future harmful activities. When we meet, I will again underscore the commitment of the United States, Europe and like-minded democracies to stand up for human rights and dignity,” he continued.
Psaki previewed the recent spree of cyberattacks and use of ransomware, believed to be perpetrated by entities in Russia, and the country’s aggressive actions in Ukraine would be some of the topics on the table during the meeting.
Ahead of the meeting, the White House said it was not going into the summit with specific “deliverables” in mind.
“We don’t think in terms of US-Russia summits as being about deliverables because if you’re going to wait for really significant deliverables, you could be waiting a long time, conceivably,” White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Monday.
Global pandemic aid
Looming over all of Biden’s trip will be the COVID-19 virus — altering both the subject matter and the proceedings of the events.
At the G-7, Biden, who has gotten used to updated U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance allowing fully vaccinated Americans to go maskless in most settings, will have to go back to strict requirements. In the U.K., fears of a third COVID-19 surge are swirling as the vaccine rollout has lagged.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was invited to attend the G-7, but declined due to the COVID-19 crisis in his country.
A real challenge for Biden will be meeting demands from allies and partners to share COVID-19 vaccines. The United States has committed to sharing 80 million doses around the globe by the end of June, and has already announced destinations for 25 million doses. The U.S. commitment to share 80 million doses is five times larger than any other country so far, but it’s not nearly enough to meet demand around the world.
During the last G-7 virtual meeting in April, leaders were unwilling to commit to sharing a specific number of doses, nor would they offer a timeline. On Monday, a group of think tanks and public health experts called for G-7 leaders to commit to sharing 1 billion to 2 billion doses by the end of 2021, in order to facilitate widespread global vaccination by the end of 2022.
“Everything, everything hangs on vaccine distribution and the success and the durable recovery of G-7 nations of developed countries, relies on the distribution to the developing world, where of course, we derive much of our supply chains,” said Julia Friedlander, deputy director of the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
Back to basics at NATO
Biden will make his first trip as president in the wake of four years of former President Donald Trump representing the U.S. on the world stage.
“In this moment of global uncertainty, as the world still grapples with a once-in-a-century pandemic, this trip is about realizing America’s renewed commitment to our allies and partners, and demonstrating the capacity of democracies to both meet the challenges and deter the threats of this new age,” Biden wrote of the summit.
While Trump often disrupted the status quo during NATO gatherings during his administration, and at times criticized the group as “obsolete,” expect Biden to take a more traditional tact.
In his op-ed, Biden pledged to “affirm the United States’ unwavering commitment to Article 5 and to ensuring our alliance is strong in the face of every challenge, including threats like cyberattacks on our critical infrastructure.”
Biden’s time in Europe will also feature a focus on addressing the challenge of China, pledging that the “world’s major democracies will be offering a high-standard alternative to China for upgrading physical, digital and health infrastructure that is more resilient and supports global development.”
“As new technologies reshape our world in fundamental ways, exposing vulnerabilities like ransomware attacks and creating threats such as invasive AI-driven surveillance, the democracies of the world must together ensure that our values govern the use and development of these innovations — not the interests of autocrats,” he wrote.
Biden will also address China in his meetings with the president of the European Commission and the president of the European Council in Brussels.
“We will focus on ensuring that market democracies, not China or anyone else, write the 21st-century rules around trade and technology. And we will continue to pursue the goal of a Europe whole, free and at peace,” Biden previewed
The special relationship
With Cornwall the site the G-7 summit, the trip provides an opportunity for Biden to recenter the so-called “special relationship” between the U.S. and the U.K. Biden used the term in his Washington Post op-ed.
“The fact that he said those words reinforces that even when, as vice president, President Biden didn’t support the U.K. departing the European Union, certainly President Biden has noted that Prime Minister Johnson had very similar approaches to politics as did former President Trump, I think you’re really seeing where the White House is placing allies as the highest priority, even over some of the decisions and the behaviors that they’ve exhibited,” said Heather A. Conley, director of the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Biden will also become the 12th U.S. president to meet with Queen Elizabeth II. The meeting comes at a time of immense personal change for the Queen, after the death of Prince Philip and the birth of a granddaughter.
WASHINGTON—President Biden revoked executive orders targeting the Chinese-owned TikTok and WeChat apps initiated by former President Donald Trump and signed a new order requiring security reviews of these and other apps in the jurisdiction of foreign adversaries.
The order Wednesday doesn’t target any companies specifically. Instead, it directs the Commerce Department to evaluate all software applications with potential ties to foreign adversaries including China and take action to protect data on U.S. citizens gathered by the apps.
The new executive order is designed to replace the Trump administration’s approach targeting individual companies with a broader process for reviewing risks posed by apps that are connected to potentially hostile countries, according to senior Biden administration officials.
The officials say they remain concerned about security risks from Chinese and certain other foreign-owned apps but that the executive orders signed by Mr. Trump were effectively unenforceable.
Federal court rulings had blocked the orders from taking effect. In the case of TikTok, Mr. Trump had sought to shut down the app in the U.S. if the company wasn’t put under control of U.S. owners.
Joe Biden and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, are set to hold their 16 June summit in an 18th-century Swiss villa overlooking Lake Geneva, a soothing setting for what promise to be heated talks.
The US president’s first foreign trip since entering the White House got off to an inauspicious start, however, when he was assaulted by a cicada before boarding Air Force One bound for the UK on Wednesday morning, ready to begin his overseas visit by attending the G7 meeting in Cornwall.
Biden made light of it, as he prepared to take off for Europe while leaving his domestic legislative agenda up against a brick wall after the collapse on Tuesday of the latest bipartisan talks on infrastructure spending. Republicans also refuse to come onboard with sweeping voting rights reform, prompting the moderate Democratic senator Joe Manchin to hold back support, too.
Biden will meet Boris Johnson to discuss the UK-US relationship and he and Jill Biden will meet Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle on Sunday.
On Wednesday morning, cicadas could be seen whizzing through the air at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where Biden and the first lady were crossing the tarmac to the Air Force One jumbo after transferring by helicopter from the White House.
A huge brood of cicadas emerged a few weeks ago on the US east coast and into some midwest states after 17 years underground, and the insects are creating news of all kinds and now at the top level of US power.
The press corps was delayed for five hours before flying out on Tuesday evening to try to be in place to cover Biden’s trip to the UK for the G7 meeting, a visit to Brussels for a Nato summit and a meeting with Putin in Switzerland at which he is expected to raise security matters and cyber-attacks on US entities by criminal gangs based in Russia and the region.
On Wednesday morning, Biden was chatting with members of the armed forces who were escorting him between aircraft, when he slapped sharply at his neck. Then, walking over to address journalists, Biden said, laughing: “Watch out for the cicadas. I got one.”
Asked about his aim for the foreign trip, Biden said it was “strengthening the alliance”, probably referring to both the Group of Seven powers (G7) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato).
That aim, he said was to “make it clear to Putin and China that Europe and the US are tight”. He said he did not know if talking to Putin about harbouring cybercriminals in Russia would produce an agreement, against a backdrop of the US facing an increasing threat from foreign ransomware attacks.
Biden brushes a cicada from his neck as he and the first lady, Jill Biden, prepare to board Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland no Wednesday. Photograph: Patrick Semansky/AP
Bitter disputes over election interference, cyberattacks, human rights and Ukraine hang over the first face-to-face meeting with Putin since Biden took office on 20 January.
Strategic nuclear stability and regional conflicts will also be on the table.
Meanwhile, diplomatic sources expect confirmation of the Geneva venue later on Wednesday. The Swiss police and army have closed the two parks surrounding the Villa La Grange and installed barricades and barbed wire.
Neutral Switzerland, which did not join western sanctions against Russia for its 2014 annexation of the Crimea region from Ukraine, lobbied hard to land the first big power summit in the Alpine country in decades.
In the cold war era, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev held their first summit in Geneva in November 1985 and agreed to pursue cuts in the US and Soviet nuclear arsenals.
In Geneva in 2009, the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, gave the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, a yellow box bearing a red “reset” button to symbolise improved ties under Barack Obama’s presidency. But the word “reset” was mistranslated into the Russian word for “overcharge”, creating an awkward moment.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and Lavrov will accompany Biden and Putin.
The villa is located in a park along the left bank of the lake. Dotted with redwood trees, rose bushes and ancient fountains, the park offers a stunning view of Lake Geneva and sailboats.
Biden is also scheduled to hold talks with the Swiss president, Guy Parmelin.
Switzerland has represented US interests in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, often facilitating the transfer of prisoners between the two foes.
Tax issues are likely to be raised after Biden referred to Switzerland as a “fiscal paradise” in April.
Scores of workers at a Houston hospital system have been suspended and face being fired for refusing the COVID-19 vaccination, a controversial company mandate that has drawn protests and an outcry from those facing termination.
Houston Methodist CEO Dr. Marc Bloom said the 178 workers represent less than 1% of almost 25,000 employees.
“We are nearly 100% compliant with our COVID-19 vaccine mandate,” Bloom said in an email to staff Tuesday. “Houston Methodist is officially the first hospital system in the country to achieve this goal for the benefit of its patients.”
Bloom said 27 of the 178 suspended workers have received one dose of vaccine, and that he is hopeful they will get the second dose. All are suspended for two weeks and are set to be fired if they fail to be fully vaccinated.
“I wish the number could be zero, but unfortunately, a small number of individuals have decided not to put their patients first,” Bloom said.
An additional 285 employees received a medical or religious exemption, and 332 were granted deferrals for pregnancy and other reasons, Bloom said.
“I feel betrayed a little bit,” Amanda Rivera told KHOU-TV as she left the building Monday. “I worked in the ER. It was crazy during the pandemic. We were short-staffed. The hospital was over capacity with patients. It was just a lot. Now for them to come and do this is like a slap in the face.”
Hospital workers across the nation risked their lives during the pandemic, and many died of the virus. Yet a recent USA TODAY survey of some of the largest hospital networks and public hospitals in the country reveal staff vaccination rates vary widely, ranging from 51% to 91%.
Mandatory vaccination is not popular with lawmakers in Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law Monday denying state contracts to businesses that require customers to be vaccinated. Vaccine “passports” also are prohibited.
“Texas is open 100%, and we want to make sure you have the freedom to go where you want without limits,” Abbott said.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has issued guidance saying employers have the right to require COVID-19 vaccination, citing a “direct threat” to others in the workplace. Still, more than 100 Houston Methodist employees filed suit against the hospital system last month saying the vaccines are “experimental” and that the mandatory vaccination policy is unfair.
“I cried the whole way out,” Jennifer Bridges, a nurse involved in the lawsuit, told KHOU-TV as she exited the hospital Monday.
Bloom said the science, along with data from 300 million doses already distributed in the U.S. alone, proves the vaccines are safe and necessary “if we are going to turn the corner against COVID-19.” The number of both positive cases and hospitalizations continue to drop across the nation continue to decline, he said, proving the vaccines’ effectiveness.
Bloom said the mandate has been challenged by the media and some outspoken employees. But he said several other major health care centers have followed Houston Methodist’s lead.
“As the first hospital system to mandate COVID-19 vaccines we were prepared for this,” he said. “The criticism is sometimes the price we pay for leading medicine.”
In an interview, Manchin said Biden has not leaned on him to support the sweeping elections bill that the moderate Democrat publicly rejected over the weekend. Nor has Biden covertly asked Manchin to support another Democrat-only spending bill focused on jobs and the economy. Yet.
“The president respects the institution so much because he was here and knows it better than everyone else. He does not get involved,” Manchin said on Tuesday in the Capitol. “I already know where he is. I know the challenges he has, and I know basically the pressure he’s receiving all the time. We’re just trying to find a balance for it.”
Despite his jab at Manchin, Biden has largely remained quiet about the senator’s insistence that infrastructure bills be bipartisan and his opposition to both filibuster reform and the sweeping elections bill that expands voting access. Biden and his senior staff are regularly in touch with Manchin, according to a White House aide.And Biden appointed Manchin’s wife, Gayle, to the Appalachian Regional Commission.
Manchin described Biden as “just a good human being, but also an astute politician who understands the process in the Senate.” Still, they don’t see eye-to-eye on everything.
“Biden’s very perplexed by Manchin. He doesn’t know how, or what he thinks. Or what he really wants,” said a lawmaker who has spoken with Biden recently. “That makes it hard for the president to ‘get him,’ so to speak.”
Known inside their party’s caucus as the “Two Joes,” Manchin and Biden’s relationship is the linchpin in the Democratic Party’s success over the next 18 months. Manchin is the squeakiest wheel in a 50-50 Senate that’s incredibly hard to tame, while Biden forged his reputation on cutting deals with lawmakers like Manchin, one of the last conservative Democrats in Washington.
Without Manchin, Biden simply cannot win — and the ever-quotable senator says he’s committed to making the president successful. What’s more, both are back-slapping throwback pols from small states where everyone knows them, and each often harkens back to when the Senate wasn’t a morass of partisanship and gridlock.
It’s all part of what Manchin’s colleagues see as a larger strategy. Biden can win Manchin over when it matters, but the former longtime Democratic senator must be strategic in both timing and substance.
“There’s a personal relationship between the president and Sen. Manchin. I think that can make a difference,” said Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.). “He knows that he will have impact on Sen. Manchin. It would not be effective at this particular moment. But I think he’s waiting for that opportunity.”
Bipartisan talks are still playing out on infrastructure, for example, meaning it’s not yet time for Biden to secure Manchin’s vote on a more aggressive, partisan proposal. And the 50-member Senate Democratic majority lacks the votes to change the filibuster rules even if Manchin were to entirely reverse his hard stance against reforming it, making the West Virginian’s support for the sweeping elections bill a far less urgent matter for the White House.
There will come a time, however, when Biden needs Manchin to back him up. And Democratic senators are confident that the president will be far more successful with Manchin than either former Presidents Barack Obama or Donald Trump were.
“Sen. Manchin is strong willed,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). “But President Biden has dealt with plenty of strong-willed senators.”
Former Obama chief of staff, Bill Daley, said the White House has carefully controlled what is said about Manchin’s outsized influence in the 50-50 Senate.
“You don’t need somebody trashing a politician. [Biden] would be incensed if that happened,” said Daley. “Other politicians may do that, but you have not seen one hint of White House staff disgruntled, mad at Manchin, pissing on him.”
Still, Biden’s comment about Manchin’s record made waves in Democratic circles. Manchin said Biden’s jab about his voting record was “out of context” and shrugged it off. Then, in an elevator ride with Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Daines said he was Manchin’s “body man” and briefly shielded him from a reporter.
“Joe Manchin is saving our country. Joe is trying to get bipartisanship,” Daines said. Manchin replied: “I need you to help me with that.”
Working with Republicans like Daines, Manchin sees his job “as saving democracy.” But Manchin’s bipartisanship-at-all-costs ethos has drawn the ire of House progressives and activists, particularly for his position against Democrats’ sweeping elections bill and his defense of the filibuster.
When asked about progressive anger toward Manchin and his refusal to back the sweeping legislation to overhaul voting access, White House press secretary Jen Paski said Tuesday ”we’re going to leave the name calling to others.”
“The president considers Sen. Manchin a friend,” Psaki continued. “He disagrees with him on voting rights and the bill the senator has expressed he won’t support … We’ll continue to seek ways we can work with Sen. Manchin even in areas we have disagreement.”
Psaki would not say whether liberal attacks on Manchin worried the White House as they work to ensure Manchin comes along on Biden’s infrastructure proposals and other major agenda items. She said she suspects that Manchin, rather than feeling hurt, has a “stronger backbone” and his colleagues said being filleted by liberals actually helps him in West Virginia.
Democratic senators have held two caucus meetings on the broad elections bill, and Manchin attended only the second one, listening intently the whole time. Just a few days later, however, he came out against his colleagues’ bill — prompting a flood of private conversations with Senate Democrats intended to sway him.
“I don’t think it’s ‘can Joe Biden reach him or not.’ And that’s the end of the conversation,” said a Senate Democrat, who estimated as many as 10 Democrats have spoken to Manchin about voting rights in the past two days. But this senator also said Biden will be a key ingredient to swaying Manchin.
And as one source familiar with the dynamics put it: “Manchin is still getting everything he wants and unless you take something from him, he’s not going to move.” That source said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is the one person who can move Manchin, describing Schumer as the person Manchin has the “strongest personal relationship” with and “whom he respects.”
Still, the majority of people who spoke about the relationship between Biden and Manchin said the president is key to moving Democrats forward. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich), a member of Democratic leadership, said “President Biden understands West Virginia. I think Joe wants to work with the president.”
Manchin has always marched to his own tune in the caucus, voting more often with Republicans than his colleagues and opposing things like gutting the filibuster on nominations in 2013. But now he’s doing it at a time of total Democratic control and in a split Senate, making him the hardest Democrat to sway on big issues of the day and a pivotal vote that determines the success of Biden’s agenda.
Former Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who worked alongside both Biden and Manchin, said it’s in Biden’s “DNA” to “try to find agreements. And he’s going to keep trying.”
Mr. Biden planned to continue talking with members of the group while traveling to Europe this week for the Group of 7 summit, Ms. Psaki said, and dispatched Steve Ricchetti, his counselor; Louisa Terrell, his head of legislative affairs; and Brian Deese, his National Economic Council director, to carry on talks while he was gone.
Ms. Terrell and Mr. Deese have also been in touch with members of the bipartisan House Problem Solvers Caucus, including Representatives Josh Gottheimer, Democrat of New Jersey, and Brian Fitzpatrick, Republican of Pennsylvania, on an infrastructure plan. Mr. Gottheimer has been keeping in touch with Mr. Cassidy and Ms. Sinema.
Members of the Senate group, which has sought to position itself as a catalyst for compromise in an evenly divided chamber, have been quietly discussing their own framework for an infrastructure agreement for weeks. Not long after Ms. Capito reluctantly announced her talks with Mr. Biden were off, they stole away to a cramped basement office to further discuss their alternative.
“I’m trying to figure out a way that we can get an infrastructure package that can find support, so let’s make this happen,” said Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska. “Around this place there’s a lot of things that appear to be dead that take on a life of their own afterward.”
Fortified in part with a pizza delivery, the group met for hours on Tuesday night, and senators emerged pleased with their progress but unwilling to divulge specifics about their plan’s framework and what hurdles remained.
A new year, a new budget: The 2022 fiscal year for the federal government begins on October 1, and President Biden has revealed what he’d like to spend, starting then. But any spending requires approval from both chambers of Congress.
Ambitious total spending: President Biden would like the federal government to spend $6 trillion in the 2022 fiscal year, and for total spending to rise to $8.2 trillion by 2031. That would take the United States to its highest sustained levels of federal spending since World War II, while running deficits above $1.3 trillion through the next decade.
Infrastructure plan: The budget outlines the president’s desired first year of investment in his American Jobs Plan, which seeks to fund improvements to roads, bridges, public transit and more with a total of $2.3 billion over eight years.
Families plan: The budget also addresses the other major spending proposal Biden has already rolled out, his American Families Plan, aimed at bolstering the United States’ social safety net by expanding access to education, reducing the cost of child care and supporting women in the work force.
Mandatory programs: As usual, mandatory spending on programs like Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare make up a significant portion of the proposed budget. They are growing as America’s population ages.
Discretionary spending: Funding for the individual budgets of the agencies and programs under the executive branch would reach around $1.5 trillion in 2022, a 16 percent increase from the previous budget.
How Biden would pay for it: The president would largely fund his agenda by raising taxes on corporations and high earners, which would begin to shrink budget deficits in the 2030s. Administration officials have said tax increases would fully offset the jobs and families plans over the course of 15 years, which the budget request backs up. In the meantime, the budget deficit would remain above $1.3 trillion each year.
“This group is making a lot of progress,” Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, told reporters. “But we have a total of 100 senators, not eight.”
But it remains unclear whether the group could successfully bridge the divides that derailed the discussions with Ms. Capito. Mr. Biden has repeatedly suggested increasing taxes to help pay for the plan and has outlined a sweeping economic agenda that broadens the traditional definition of infrastructure beyond core physical projects, which Republicans have repeatedly rejected.
It’s less than a month until the Fourth of July, which was President Biden’s goal for 70% of American adults to have gotten at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
It looks like it’s going to be a stretch to get there.
As of Tuesday, nearly 64% of U.S. adults have had at least one shot, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The key issue is that demand has dropped off. After an initial crush, the number of doses being administered daily is on a steep decline from the early April peak.
So what’s going on? A few things to note:
There’s a huge political divide. Speaking over the weekend, former President Donald Trump took credit for the vaccine rollout and told a North Carolina crowd of supporters that “most of you” have likely been vaccinated.
But surveys have shown Trump supporters are the least likely to say they have been vaccinated or plan to. Remember, Trump got vaccinated before leaving the White House, but that was reported months later. Unlike other public officials who were trying to encourage people to get the shot, Trump did it in private.
The top 22 states (including D.C.) with the highest adult vaccination rates all went to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Some of the least vaccinated states are the most pro-Trump. Trump won 17 of the 18 states with the lowest adult vaccination rates. Many of these states have high proportions of whites without college degrees.
But it’s not just about politics:
Black Americans, who vote overwhelmingly Democratic, aren’t getting the vaccine at the rate of whites. Less than a quarter of Black Americans had gotten at lease one vaccine dose as of Tuesday, according to the CDC. It’s the lowest of any racial or ethnic group listed.
Black Americans also make up a significant percentage of the population in places like Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Arkansas, South Carolina and Georgia. Those are seven of the 10 states with the lowest adult vaccination rates, though the gathering of data by race and ethnicity has been spotty depending on the state.
Young people, who also lean heavily toward Democrats, are also less likely to get vaccinated. More than 80% of people over 65 have gotten at least one shot, compared to just 45% of 18- to 24-year-olds and 51% of those 25 to 39.
And it’s not necessarily about hesitancy. The MayNPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found 75% of Black adults said they had gotten a shot or would get it when one came available. That was about the same as white adults, but Black adults trailed whites when it came to those who said they’d actually received one.
Equitable distribution of the vaccines has been a focusof the Biden White House, and they can’t be happy with the lag.
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