Biden Bits: “Took the Risk”…

December 21, 2023 12:00 pm EST Tiff Biden Tweets (Open Thread) Comments Off on Biden Bits: “Took the Risk”…
Biden Tweets Christmas Logo. Image by Lenny Ghoul.

It’s Thursday…

President Biden’s public schedule for 12/21/2023:

10:00 AM
Presidential Daily Brief		The President receives the Presidential Daily Briefing
The White House Closed Press
10:00 AMIn-Town Pool Call Time
The White House Closed Press
1:00 PM
Press Briefing		Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and John Kirby @1:00 p.m. D.C., time:


Wisconsin Black Chamber of Commerce Tweets

From Wednesday…

The YouTube is 21 minutes and 35 seconds long. President Biden begins his remarks at the 4 minutes and 2 second mark. His full remarks can be found here.

It’s led to the fastest growth in Black business ownership in over 30 years.  Across the country, wages for workers are up.  Black wealth is a record — up a record 60 percent since the pandemic.

[snip]

So many of you had the vision and took the risk to open businesses, and you bet on yourself.  Together, we’re transforming the economy by investing in all of America and all Americans.

White House.gov. 12/20/2023.

You’re proof that Black small businesses with the talent, integrity, and ingenuity are the engines and the glue that hold communities together.  And I mean that sincerely, you hold communities together.

You’re the ones that sponsor the Little League teams.  You’re the one that spon- — involved in the church events.  You’re the ones that hold the community together, and you keep it going.  You keep it moving.

And every new business opening is a — is a vote for hope — just hope.  Hope.  You know, you’re making the American economy stronger and our nation more competitive.

White House.gov. 12/20/2023.

This is the United States of America, for God’s sake.  Everyone should be able to turn on a faucet and know whatever they’re drinking was clean and pure and not have to worry about it.  (Applause.)

Through the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, my administration is investing $15 billion — (applause) — to replace every lead pipe in every community in this country.  And our goal — our goal was to do that.  And I want to thank Kamala — I want to thank Kamala for leading this effort. 

White House.gov. 12/20/2023.

Since Kamala and I entered office, America has filed a record number of — in less than 3 years, 15 million new job app- — new applications to start new businesses — 15 million.  (Applause.)

It’s led to the fastest growth in Black business ownership in over 30 years.  Across the country, wages for workers are up.  Black wealth is a record — up a record 60 percent since the pandemic.

White House.gov. 12/20/2023.

From the White House…

12/20/2023:

FACT SHEET: President Biden to Highlight How His Investing in America Agenda Has Led to a Black Small Business Boom:


Happy Birthday, Space Force Tweet

From Wednesday…

via GIPHY


Americans released from Venezuela/Hamas Hostages Tweet

From Wednesday…

From the White House…

12/20/2023:

Background Press Call by Senior Administration Officials on Venezuela:

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL 1: 

Great, thanks. Thanks, everybody, for joining today on such short notice. I wanted to share the good news with everybody that we have reached an agreement to secure the release of six Americans who have been wrongfully detained in Venezuela, which means that all of the Americans wrongfully detained in Venezuela, as well as four other Americans, will soon be released. And we expect that they will be very soon on their way home to their families and friends and hope to be very soon in a position to share the news with their families.

This is the result of many, many months of negotiations, regular consultations with the President, an extensive amount of work involving our senior leadership involving Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer, and has culminated in what we think is a very positive outcome.

As part of this arrangement, Leonard Francis, who is also known as “Fat Leonard,” will be extradited from Venezuela [arrested and returned to the United States] and will be on a plane, hopefully very soon, on his way back to a federal detention facility.

For those of you who are not familiar with Leonard Francis’s case, he oversaw one of the most brazen bribery conspiracies in the U.S. Navy’s history from 2004 until his arrest until 2013. It was a long-running conspiracy to bribe U.S. Navy officials and employees and other federal employees who were public officials.

Francis pled guilty. As part of his guilty plea, he admitted that he required his Navy contacts to use their influence to benefit his company by steering contracts to it, by scheduling and directing Navy ships to various ports favored by the company, and by advocating for and advancing the company’s interests with the Navy with respect to the ships’ husbandry issues, and also admitted that he bribed “scores” of U.S. Navy officials with tens of millions of dollars in fraud and millions of dollars in bribes and gifts, including cash, prostitutes, and luxury travel, things like Cuban cigars, Kobe beef, and Spanish suckling pig.

While he was pending sentencing on house arrest, he cut off his ankle tracking bracelet and fled to Venezuela, where he was arrested and has been detained as he was about to board a plane to Florida. And his return to the United States will now assure that he is held fully accountable for his crimes as well as for his attempts to escape from justice.

As I said, this is the culmination of extraordinary efforts and perseverance across the U.S. government for many, many months to bring these 10 Americans home on top of the 9 wrongfully detained Americans — detainees — Americans that were returned last year. Six of these Americans have been detained — designated as wrongfully detained. They will be provided health care and a range of support upon return to the United States.

And as I said, this is part of our President, President Biden’s strong prioritization of the safe return of all Americans been held hostage — held hostage and wrongfully detained abroad.

This administration is proud to have brought home American hostages and wrongfully — wrongful detainees from Afghanistan, Burma, Haiti, Russia, Venezuela, West Africa, and other parts of the world.

And we have worked diligently through various complications and continue to make this a high priority for the Americans who do remain detained in the other places in the world, including the hostages in Gaza.

In order to make this exchange, the President had to make the extremely difficult decision to offer something that the Venezuelan counterparts have actively sought, and he made the decision to grant clemency to Alex Saab, who is pending trial for money laundering, and allow his return to Venezuela in what was essentially an exchange of 10 Americans and a fugitive from justice for one person returned to Venezuela.

The consequences of this difficult decision will be to reunite parents with their children and grandchildren; children with their parents, family, and friends; and to ensure that one of the most notorious fugitives from justice, Fat Leonard, is returned and held to account for his crimes.

I am going to turn this over to [senior administration official] now, who will talk a little bit more about how this also fits in with a broader set of efforts to encourage Venezuela to hold competitive elections and to push for the restoration of democracy in Venezuela.

White House.gov. 12/20/2023.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL 2:

Great. Thank you. I want to — in addition to what my colleague said, I wanted to also highlight that as a part of the actions that are going to take place today —

Actually, first, let me start by just, I think, kind of just underscoring that, I think as our moderator did, that this process remains extremely complex, fragile, and could still hit unanticipated hurdles.

I wanted to note that in addition to the wrongfully detained Americans, the representatives of Nicolás Maduro have also agreed to release 20 Venezuelan prisoners as well as the release of Roberto Abdul from Súmate, and then three individuals that — Venezuelan individuals that had arrest warrants issued for them. Those will — they will be actually released this morning.

As the previous speaker mentioned, the outcomes of today are the result of several months of negotiations, active internal deliberations, and regular consultation with the President, who’s been apprised of every step of this process since the direct negotiations with representatives from Venezuela started in May.

I think all the decisions, as we said, really would only have been possible thanks to the President’s commitment to the safety and wellbeing of Americans.

I also wanted to note specifically that National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan oversaw the negotiations; from the beginning of the administration has made clear that the United States would calibrate sanctions on Venezuela on the basis of concrete outcomes from the negotiations.

Since May, Jake and the Secretary of State, as well, have made — have held regular strategy meetings on Venezuela and personally engaged with partners in the region, with Europe, and the Middle East, in support of elections in Venezuela and the liberation of Americans.

Specifically also, in the run-up to the Essequibo referendum on November [December] 3rd and the days following, Jake Sullivan engaged with President Irfaan Ali of Guyana and had numerous calls with Brazilian National Security Advisor Celso Amorim and other regional counterparts in order to avoid or discourage military confrontation between Venezuela and Guyana, to underscore the need for diplomacy and dialogue to address those border tensions.

Similarly, Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer’s visit to Bogotá in April for a meeting hosted — of the international community on Venezuela, that was hosted by Colombia, laid the groundwork for the direct negotiations between the United States and representatives of Nicolás Maduro by laying out the U.S. policy toward Venezuela and successfully expanding the international consensus in favor of competitive and inclusive elections. Since 2021, Jon has chaired active deputy discussions on Venezuela and provided instructions in real-time to the U.S. negotiating team.

Now, how does this fit in the context of our overall U.S. policy toward Venezuela? I think it’s key here to underscore that even though there have been a bump in the road, pursuing an approach where we are engaging directly with representatives of Nicolás Maduro but also engaging actively in consulting with members of the Venezuelan opposition, the Unitary Platform, and including presidential candidate Maria Corina Machado, as well as our active engagement with Congress, has really been what has allowed us to make breakthroughs not just in the signing of the Barbados agreement in October, but the release of Americans, the continued release of Venezuelan prisoners.

And it is something that demonstrates the results of dialogue, and it opens the doors for us to continue to engage in dialogue so that when Venezuela holds elections next year, that they’re competitive and inclusive and that it will allow Venezuelans to really determine the future of their country.

I think this established, I think, a solid foundation for us to build upon and to continue the dialogue in the months ahead.

I will leave it there and turn it over to my other colleague. Thank you.

White House.gov. 12/20/2023.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL 3:

 Thanks very much. The events of today really reflect the President and Secretary Blinken’s unwavering commitment to secure the release of wrongfully detained Americans around the world and to seek a path forward for a better, more democratic future for the people of Venezuela.

Secretary Blinken has focused our efforts on close coordination with the Unitary Platform of Venezuela, with democratic forces within Venezuela, as well as leveraging our relationships around the world to make sure that we’re in the best position to achieve those goals. We’ve leveraged facilitation by Qatar, as well as other partners, to reach this point that we’ve arrived at today.

I would just agree that this remains a fragile moment. We believe that all of the pieces are moving in the right direction at this moment, but literally pieces are in movement right now.

We hope that if we are able to successfully complete the actions hoped for today, then we will be well placed to see a more democratic path in Venezuela.

There remains much work to be done and much coordination with all forces within Venezuela to achieve competitive elections in 2024. Like, giving the Venezuelan people the possibility of a more prosperous, democratic, stable nation is important for the wellbeing of our region, and it’s something that we’re focused on.

But again, today, we are very, very happy and proud that months of long work are coming to fruition to allow Americans to be reunited with their families, as well as Venezuelan prisoners to be reunited with their friends and families in Venezuela.

And I’ll just leave it there. Thank you.

White House.gov. 12/20/2023.

*I omitted the moderators words and the Q&A*

Statement from President Joe Biden on Securing the Release of Americans Detained in Venezuela:

Today, ten Americans who have been detained in Venezuela have been released and are coming home, including all six wrongfully detained Americans. These individuals have lost far too much precious time with their loved ones, and their families have suffered every day in their absence. I am grateful that their ordeal is finally over, and that these families are being made whole once more. 

Additionally, a fugitive named Leonard Francis, who fled the United States before he could be sentenced for his lead role in a brazen bribery and corruption case – was arrested and returned to the United States from Venezuela so that he will face justice for crimes he committed against the U.S. Government and the American people.
 
We are ensuring that the Venezuelan regime meets its commitments.  They have announced an electoral roadmap – agreed to by opposition parties – for competitive Presidential elections in 2024.  This a positive and important step forward. And today, they are releasing twenty political prisoners, on top of five released previously.  We will continue to monitor this closely and take appropriate action if needed.  We stand in support of democracy in Venezuela and the aspirations of the Venezuelan people.
 
As we welcome home our fellow citizens, I must also remind all Americans of the long-standing warning against traveling to Venezuela. Americans should not travel there.
 
Reuniting wrongfully detained Americans with their loved ones has been a priority for my Administration since day one. As is the return to the United States of fugitives from justice.
 
But even as we celebrate the return of these Americans, we also remain deeply focused on securing the release of the hostages in Gaza and wrongfully detained Americans around the world, including Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, who are being detained in Russia, and Americans in Afghanistan, Syria, and China. We will not stop working until we bring them all home.

White House.gov. 12/20/2023.

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George Floyd Justice in Policing Act Tweet

From Thursday…

From Congress.gov…

03/03/2021:

H.R.1280 – George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021:

Summary:

George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021

This bill addresses a wide range of policies and issues regarding policing practices and law enforcement accountability. It increases accountability for law enforcement misconduct, restricts the use of certain policing practices, enhances transparency and data collection, and establishes best practices and training requirements.

The bill enhances existing enforcement mechanisms to remedy violations by law enforcement. Among other things, it does the following:

Congress.gov. 03/03/2021.
  • lowers the criminal intent standard—from willful to knowing or reckless—to convict a law enforcement officer for misconduct in a federal prosecution,
  • limits qualified immunity as a defense to liability in a private civil action against a law enforcement officer, and
  • grants administrative subpoena power to the Department of Justice (DOJ) in pattern-or-practice investigations.

It establishes a framework to prevent and remedy racial profiling by law enforcement at the federal, state, and local levels. It also limits the unnecessary use of force and restricts the use of no-knock warrants, chokeholds, and carotid holds.

The bill creates a national registry—the National Police Misconduct Registry—to compile data on complaints and records of police misconduct. It also establishes new reporting requirements, including on the use of force, officer misconduct, and routine policing practices (e.g., stops and searches).

Finally, it directs DOJ to create uniform accreditation standards for law enforcement agencies and requires law enforcement officers to complete training on racial profiling, implicit bias, and the duty to intervene when another officer uses excessive force.

Congress.gov. 03/03/2021.

Actions:

DateActions Overview
03/03/2021Passed/agreed to in House: On passage Passed by the Yeas and Nays: 220 – 212 (Roll no. 60).(text: CR H1039-1054)
02/24/2021Introduced in House

This is an Open Thread.


About the opinions in this article…

Any opinions expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this website or of the other authors/contributors who write for it.

About Tiff 2558 Articles
Member of the Free Press who is politically homeless and a political junkie.