It’s Monday.
Today marks President Biden’s 68th day in office.
For day 68, President Biden will receive his daily brief. This afternoon President Biden will receive a coronavirus briefing before offering remarks on the COVID-19 response and the state of vaccinations.
When last we met on Friday, President Biden had tweeted 2 times, he added 4 more tweets giving him a total of 6 tweets and no retweets.
4:16 p.m. D.C., time he shares a photo from his virtual meeting with the EU Council.
On Thursday following his first press conference President Biden met with the European Council. The White House released a statement regarding the meeting: (the text in bold is text that appears in the tweet).
Today, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. participated virtually in a scheduled summit of the European Council. Meeting with the heads of state or government of the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) chaired by European Council President Charles Michel, the President reaffirmed his commitment to revitalizing relations between the United States and the European Union. He conveyed that a strong EU is in the U.S. interest, noting our shared democratic values and the world’s largest trade and investment partnership. He called for close cooperation on common challenges, including combating COVID-19, tackling the threat of climate change, deepening our economic ties, and ensuring that democracies rather than autocracies set the rules of the road. The President also expressed his desire to work together on shared foreign policy interests, including China and Russia. In addition, he noted the need for continued US-EU engagement on Turkey, the South Caucasus, Eastern Europe, and the Western Balkans.
4:41 p.m. D.C., time he shares a video wishing everyone a joyous Passover season.
The video is 2 minutes and 22 seconds long and features himself and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden.
First Lady: Hello everyone. We wish you all a joyous Passover season.
President Biden: As Jewish families across the country and around the world make this important tradition, we know you’re all setting the Seder table with heavy hearts, but also with hope for the year ahead. As we continue working to defeat this pandemic, we continue to confront discrimination and prejudice. As we seek to rebuild from the time of struggle and loss, we need inspiration of the Passover now, more than ever.
First Lady: Because at its heart, Passover is a story of overcoming adversity and finding hope. Of summoning the resilience and resolve to emerge from a long dark night to a brighter morning. It’s a story of empathy, and how our own rights are bound up with the rights of our neighbors. And it’s a story of faith. That even in the face of oppression, better days lie ahead. This celebration is Jewish, but its message is universal. It resonates from generation to generation.
President Biden: This year, like last, we’re still planning virtual celebrations, blessing the matzah and wine over the screen rather than side by side. And you know, there are still some grandparents who haven’t been able to embrace their grandchildren since the last Passover. And there are far, far too many empty chairs at our Seder. A solemn reminder of all that we’ve lost.
First Lady: Just like we remember the plight of the Israelites, the memories of these loved ones will never be far from our hearts. But if we learn anything from the Haggadah, it’s that our task isn’t to discard painful memories. It’s to turn that pain into purpose.
President Biden: You know, as we work to vaccinate the nation, bring our economy back from the brink–let’s hold that lesson close to our hearts. You know, we can close the Seder by adapting a familiar refrain–not only next year in Jerusalem–but next year in person. Next year, together. On behalf of our entire family, Chag Sameach. Have a wonderful Passover.
The White House also posted a statement regarding Passover:
Jill and I send our best wishes to everyone celebrating Passover in the United States, the State of Israel, and around the world.
At its heart, the Passover story is one of overcoming adversity and finding hope, of summoning the resilience and resolve to emerge from a long dark night to a brighter morning.
It’s a story of recognition that our own rights are bound up with the rights of our neighbors, and that none of us is free until all of us are free.
It’s a story of faith, a reminder that even in the face of oppression, there is reason for hope.
Though this celebration is Jewish, its message is universal. This year, it resonates anew for a generation that has seen a terrible virus leave empty chairs at too many of our nation’s tables, one that knows the oppression and injustice of our world all too well.
This year, we need the Passover story and the hope it provides more than ever.
As we close our Seders with the familiar refrain, “Next year in Jerusalem,” we will now offer an additional prayer: Next year in person. Next year, together.
White House.gov. 03/26/2021.
5:38 p.m. D.C., time he says that Republicans efforts across states to pass voter suppressing laws are blatant attacks on “the right to vote, the Constitution, and good conscience.” He adds that “it’s Jim Crow in the 21st Century.”
On Friday President Biden told reporters before leaving D.C., for Delaware when asked if there was anything the White House could do to protect voting rights in Georgia that he wasn’t exactly sure, adding that the Justice Department was “taking a look as well.”
Q: President Biden, you issued strong words about the Georgia voting bill —
Not — not as strong as I was really thinking.
Q: Is there anything the White House can do to protect voting rights in Georgia?
Well, we’re working on that right now. We don’t know quite exactly what we can do at this point. The Justice Department is taking a look as well.
White House.gov.
In response to the bill signed into law by Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp President Biden prior to his remarks he issued the following statement:
More Americans voted in the 2020 elections than any election in our nation’s history. In Georgia we saw this most historic demonstration of the power of the vote twice – in November and then again in the runoff election for the U.S. Senate seats in January. Recount after recount and court case after court case upheld the integrity and outcome of a clearly free, fair, and secure democratic process.
Yet instead of celebrating the rights of all Georgians to vote or winning campaigns on the merits of their ideas, Republicans in the state instead rushed through an un-American law to deny people the right to vote. This law, like so many others being pursued by Republicans in statehouses across the country is a blatant attack on the Constitution and good conscience. Among the outrageous parts of this new state law, it ends voting hours early so working people can’t cast their vote after their shift is over. It adds rigid restrictions on casting absentee ballots that will effectively deny the right to vote to countless voters. And it makes it a crime to provide water to voters while they wait in line – lines Republican officials themselves have created by reducing the number of polling sites across the state, disproportionately in Black neighborhoods.
This is Jim Crow in the 21st Century. It must end. We have a moral and Constitutional obligation to act. I once again urge Congress to pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to make it easier for all eligible Americans access the ballot box and prevent attacks on the sacred right to vote.
And I will take my case to the American people – including Republicans who joined the broadest coalition of voters ever in this past election to put country before party.
If you have the best ideas, you have nothing to hide. Let the people vote.
White House.gov. 03/26/2021.
7:45 p.m. D.C., time he says that his “Administration stands united with the Asian American community in the face of rising violence.”
CBSN explained that on Saturday the 27th of March many cities “across the U.S. are holding “National Day of Action” rallies this weekend in a show of solidarity with the Asian American community.”
The rallies come days after a shooter killed 8 people in Georgia, six of whom were of Asian descent.
For Saturday and Sunday President Biden tweeted 5 times in total with no retweets.
He shares a video from his meeting on Equal Pay Day with Megan Rapione and Margaret Purce.
He follows that up with tweeting “if you have the best ideas, you have nothing to hide. Let the people vote.”
He starts Sunday’s tweeting with saying we are making progress to have most adult American’s eligible for the coronavirus vaccine by May 1st.
Speaking of the vaccine…
I have received my first dose of the Moderna vaccine. I was allowed to receive the vaccine as the spouse of a qualified person. Plus Rite Aid pharmacy where we got the vaccine, had doses left over. Side effects were small, my left arm stayed sore longer than my husbands did, but even that only lasted 24 hours.
Moving on from the coronavirus vaccine he tweets that he is urging Congress to pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
I believe he is using Congress as a whole as the For the People Act 2021 passed the House on March 3rd, 2021, with 220 Yeas and 210 Nays.
Politico explains that the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act originally passed the House “the 116th Congress, and like a lot of legislation in a divided Washington, went to die in the other chamber. The bill — then called the Voting Rights Advancement Act (116), before it was renamed for the late civil rights icon and congressman following his death — looks to restore the preclearance formula to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The formula, sparsely updated since the bill passed, dictated who was covered by Section 5, which requires certain jurisdictions to get preapproval from either the Department of Justice or the U.S. District Court for D.C. before making changes to elections. That formula was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013 in the Shelby County v. Holder decision, which ruled that the old formula needed to be updated.”
The article goes on to say that while H.R. 1 and H.R. 4 are often mentioned together; they’re on very different paths. H.R. 1 is already in the hands of the Senate, but H.R. 4 has not been formally re-introduced in the House this Congress. That is intentional, the bill’s lead sponsor in the House said recently. “We look forward to building that evidentiary record,” Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) said at a recent press briefing from the Southern Poverty Law Center, saying the House was planning a number of hearings to build a case to defend the bill from inevitable court challenges (should it actually become law).
CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale fact-checked a few of the R’s claims about H.R. 1 currently awaiting Senate action.
To end Sunday he says the American Rescue Plan will cut “childhood poverty in half.”
On March 11, 2021, the Center on Poverty and Social Policy said; We find that a relief package containing enhanced Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, unemployment benefits, family and child care tax credits, as well as direct cash payments could cut child poverty by more than half in 2021.
The three page brief that was updated on March 11th, 2021, can be found here.
To be fair, though I cannot for the life of me remember where I read it, there is a debate among economists if the poverty rate will fall among children. As of right now, the articles I’m finding say “it could,” not that it will for sure have a net positive impact or decrease.
He has not so far tweeted, since he is delivering remarks, his first tweet most likely will be a live link to his remarks, as seems to be the pattern.
Daily Press Briefing live feed: The White House.
2:10 p.m. D.C., time President Biden offers remarks on the COVID-19 response and State of Vaccinations live feed: The White House.
This is an Open Thread.
