It’s Monday aka the First Day of February 2021.
The First Day of February marks the 12th day of President Biden’s First 100 Days in Office.
Day 12 finds President Biden meeting with ten Senate Republicans in the hopes they can reach a bipartisan agreement on another round of coronavirus relief.
Due to the severe weather hitting the D.C., area, President Biden’s planned trip to visit the State Department were he was expected to deliver a foreign policy speech has been delayed until later in the week.
The ten Republicans Senators, who issued on January 31st, 2021, a letter to President Biden requesting a meeting, are led by Senator Susan Collins of Maine.
The White House released the following statement regarding the upcoming meeting on Sunday evening.
The President spoke to Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer today; he is grateful that Congress is prepared to begin action on the American Rescue Plan in just his second full week in office.
As has been widely reported, the President received a letter today from 10 Republican Senators asking to meet with him to discuss their ideas about the actions needed to address these crises. In response, the President spoke to Senator Collins, and invited her and other signers of the letter to come to the White House early this week for a full exchange of views.
With the virus posing a grave threat to the country, and economic conditions grim for so many, the need for action is urgent, and the scale of what must be done is large. The American Rescue Plan – including $1400 relief checks, a substantial investment in fighting COVID and reopening schools, aid to small businesses and hurting families, and funds to keep first responders on the job (and more) – is badly needed. As leading economists have said, the danger now is not in doing too much: it is in doing too little. Americans of both parties are looking to their leaders to meet the moment
White House. 01/31/2021.
The New York Times reported that the Republican proposal “would include $160 billion for vaccine distribution and development, coronavirus testing and the production of personal protective equipment; $20 billion toward helping schools reopen; more relief for small businesses; and additional aid to individuals. The package would also extend enhanced unemployment benefits of $300 a week — currently slated to lapse in March — until June 30.”
Monday morning in CNN‘s live updates on the latest in President Biden’s presidency, they broke down the differences between the Biden administrations plan to spend $1.9 trillion and the Republican Senators plan to spend $618 billion.
For example:
Stimulus payments:
Biden’s plan plan calls for sending another $1,400 per person to eligible recipients. This money would be in addition to the $600 payments that were approved by Congress in December – for a total of $2,000.
GOP senators want to send $1,000 checks, per adult, but target them to those with lower incomes. The amount would begin phasing out at $40,000 for individuals and $80,000 for couples filing jointly. The upper cap would be $50,000 for individuals and $100,000 for couples. Dependent adults and children would receive $500.
CNN Live Updates. 02/01/2021.
The ten Senators meeting include, Senator Rob Portman from Ohio, who in late January announced that he would not be seeking reelection and Utah Senator Mitt Romney.
In fairness, I did attempt to find a less snarky tweet that pictured the Senators attending the meeting at the White House, but I won’t lie, I did snicker at the snark…
President Biden’s plans weren’t the only plans hindered by the weather, according the Republican Senate Cloakroom staff, the February 1st, 2021, scheduled floor vote to confirm Department Of Homeland Security nominee, Alejandro Mayorkas, has been pushed back to Tuesday, versus Monday at 5:30 p.m. D.C., time.
Speaking of snow in D.C….
In Insurrection News.
“I knew I shouldn’t have kicked in the window. I was upset and wasn’t thinking rationally.”
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) February 1, 2021
The prosecution rests, your honor. pic.twitter.com/u8alDaq7Sl
Speaking of the insurrectionists…
On Saturday CNN reported that five attorneys on the Doubled-Impeached former Assholes Impeachment Senate trial defense team had left the team.
Allegedly the reason for the split was how to defend the inciter of insurrection against the Impeachment. He reportedly wanted his defense team to make the case that the election was stolen, while the legal team, wanted to focus on whether or not it was constitutional to try a former President after that person has left office.
CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins reported on Sunday…
For What it’s Worth…
The linked article was published by Fox News March 12th, 2020.
Schoen told Fox Nation’s “Deep Dive”, that he didn’t believe it was suicide because he’d met with Epstein just a few days before his death coming to an agreement that he would take over Epstein’s defense.
I saw him a few days earlier. The reason I say I don’t believe it was suicide is for my interaction with him that day. The purpose of asking me to come there that day and over the past previous couple of weeks was to ask me to take over his defense.
We came to an agreement during the course of that discussion. We met for five hours on Aug. 1. I said that I would want to meet with his team first to see how they felt about that. And then we would go forward. We mapped out a strategy going forward.
He was upbeat and excited about going forward. The following day, I got a phone call from one of his lawyers saying he just met with him after I met with him. How excited he is about going forward with this. If I could get in that night and start giving orders to the team, it would be a great help.
Fox News. 03/12/2020.
The Senate Impeachment trial is expected begin on February 9th, 2021.
The daily press briefing from the White House is scheduled to start at 12:30 p.m. D.C., time.
Live Feeds.
The Hill.
CBS News.
PBS NewsHour.
In super sorry belated news…
The Whit House Covid-19 Response Team held their briefing at 11 a.m. D.C., time. I apologize for not having a live feed. The next briefing is scheduled for Wednesday.
Some news that came out of the briefing…
This is an Open Thread.
