It’s Wednesday.
Wednesday marks President Biden’s 28th day of his first 100 days in office.
For day 28, CNN fact-checker and over all great Twitter follow, has not posted President Biden’s schedule as he normally does.
According to Factba.se President Biden will meet at 3:30 p.m. D.C., time with labor leaders to discuss the American Rescue Plan.
At 12:30 p.m. D.C., time, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki will hold her daily presser. Joining Psaki at today’s briefing is Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technology Anne Neuberger.
White House correspondent for Politico reports that Neuberger’s appearance in the briefing room follows a Department of Justice cyber-related national security announcement, which is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. D.C., time, on Wednesday.
To finish Tuesday President Biden tweeted 4 times, adding to his one tweet covered in Tuesday’s Open Thread.
At 12:58 p.m. D.C., time he tells American’s to mask up.
He followed up his afternoon tweet with tweeting at 5:30 p.m. D.C., time, explaining that starting this week the Biden administration will “increase weekly vaccine shipments and double the direct shipments sent to pharmacies.
At 7:07 p.m. D.C., time, he shared a video of himself boarding Air Force One saying he’d see “Milwaukee,” soon.
And yes for those wondering, my eyes auto-rolled as I read the text with the tweet.
At 8:04 p.m. D.C., time, he promoted his town hall hosted by CNN.
Some Highlights from his town-hall.
Believes that all American’s that want a vaccine should be able to get vaccinated starting around the end of July.
Biden says every American who wants a vaccine will have one available to them by the end of July pic.twitter.com/O7OKRfUS1x
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 17, 2021
Says he believes that teachers should be getting vaccinated.
"I think that we should be vaccinating teachers. We should move them up in the hierarchy." — Biden pic.twitter.com/6GQC62oDYD
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 17, 2021
In this clip he is asked when he thought we’d get back to normal or as I call it, off coronavirus pandemic footing. He says that he believes a “return” to normal should occur sometime around Christmas time. He does open his comment by saying he’s been told by experts not to set a time-line. He also added that he didn’t want to over promise on anything.
Biden says that while nobody knows anything for certain, he believes the coronavirus pandemic will be winding down by this upcoming Christmas pic.twitter.com/M5egpPe3uv
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 17, 2021
He was asked about former Impeached Asshat, and said in one clip, “I’m tired of talking about **Donald Trump aka the Twice Impeached Former Asshat.
Biden: "I'm tired of talking about Donald Trump. I don't want to talk about him anymore." pic.twitter.com/0Ac3U4H4G7
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 17, 2021
In this clip he is asked whether or not he agrees with Speaker Nancy Pelosi that the Republicans in the Senate are cowards. He says “I’m not going to call names out. Look for 4 years all that’s been in the news, is Trump, the next 4 years, I want to make sure all the news is about the American people. I’m tired of talking about Trump.” [I guess that’s where the snip above this one came from.]
"It's done" — Asked about the impeachment trial, Biden reiterates that he's tired of talking about Trump pic.twitter.com/3ZCx6xGpkU
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 17, 2021
Aaron has more clips. As does CNN Politics via Twitter.
For Wednesday, he has tweeted one time so far, it’s possible he retweeted his Press Secretary this morning prior to his tweet, but also possible, he retweeted it last night. As I don’t follow his feed 24/7 yet, but might have to start, I can’t say for certain.
At 8:50 a.m. D.C., time, he quoted a CNN clip answering a 2nd graders question from last nights town hall.
He tells her not to worry. He does say that kids are less likely to get COVID-19, which is still very much up for debate. He is also asked when kids could get the vaccine, and says that that requires further study as the focus has been on vaccinating adults and teens, so we aren’t sure how the vaccine will affect children.
Given the DOJ announcement, we will not be traveling in our way back machine today….I know such disappointment…but such is life.
As to the announcement, there was no live feed I found, but the Department of Justice has posted the following to their website:
Today, the Justice Department is announcing charges following a significant national security cyber investigation first disclosed publicly more than two years ago.
As laid out in today’s indictment, North Korea’s operatives, using keyboards rather than guns, stealing digital wallets of cryptocurrency instead of sacks of cash, are the world’s leading bank robbers. The Department will continue to confront malicious nation state cyber activity with our unique tools and work with our fellow agencies and the family of norms abiding nations to do the same. We were together back in September 2018, when the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, with the assistance of the National Security Division, charged a North Korean programmer, who was working for the government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), with conspiring to conduct some of the most damaging cyberattacks ever, including the:
Justice.gov. 02/17/2021.
- November 2014 destructive attack and hack-and-dump targeting Sony Pictures Entertainment over a comedy film they did not like;
- February 2016 cyber-enabled heist of $81 million from the Bank of Bangladesh and other heists; and
- May 2017 global Wannacry 2.0 attack.
Today, the Department unseals an indictment, returned by a grand jury in the Central District of California, charging the same DPRK programmer, as well as two newly-identified DPRK conspirators, with a campaign of cyber heists and extortion schemes, targeting both traditional and cryptocurrencies. The indictment adds to the list of victims since 2018, including continued cyber-enabled heists from banks on four continents targeting over $1.2 billion. It also describes in stark detail how the DPRK cyber threat has followed the money and turned its revenue generation sights on the most cutting edge aspects of international finance, including through the theft of cryptocurrency from exchanges and other financial institutions, in some cases through the creation and deployment of cryptocurrency applications with hidden backdoors. The indictment refines the attribution of this crime spree to the DPRK military intelligence services, specifically the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB). Simply put, the regime has become a criminal syndicate with a flag, which harnesses its state resources to steal hundreds of millions of dollars.
Justice.gov. 02/17/2021.
The federal indictment filed in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles alleges that; Jon Chang Hyok (전창혁), 31; Kim Il (김일), 27; and Park Jin Hyok (박진혁), 36, were members of units of the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), a military intelligence agency of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), which engaged in criminal hacking. These North Korean military hacking units are known by multiple names in the cybersecurity community, including Lazarus Group and Advanced Persistent Threat 38 (APT38). Park was previously charged in a criminal complaint unsealed in September 2018.
In a press release the Justice Department also said that a “second case unsealed today revealed that a Canadian-American citizen has agreed to plead guilty in a money laundering scheme and admitted to being a high-level money launderer for multiple criminal schemes, including ATM “cash-out” operations and a cyber-enabled bank heist orchestrated by North Korean hackers.”
Press Briefing Live Feed. The daily briefing is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. D.C., time.
The White House.
This is an Open Thread.
