Author: PolitCens

On January 20, the United States will inaugurate President-elect Joe Biden in Washington, D.C. Following the violent assault on the Capitol earlier this month by supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump, Americans are bracing for the worst but hoping for unity, the theme of Biden’s inauguration.  Mike O’Sullivan reports.
Camera: Genia Dulot and Natasha Mozgovaya
 
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U.S. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris has formally resigned her Senate seat in preparation for her inauguration on Wednesday alongside President-elect Joe Biden.  Harris had served as a senator representing the Western state of California since 2017. “Thank you California — it has been an honor serving as your senator for the past four years. Our country has faced many challenges, but I remain certain that our best days are ahead. I promise to keep standing up for our shared values as your Vice President,” Harris said in a tweet Monday. Gov. Gavin Newsom chose fellow Democrat Alex Padilla, who is currently California’s secretary of state, to serve the final two years of Harris’ term. Newsom announced his choice in December. Padilla, who is Mexican American, will be the first Latino senator to represent the state. Harris did not give a farewell speech on the Senate floor. The chamber is not scheduled to reconvene until Tuesday, the eve of Inauguration Day. As vice president, Harris will become the Senate’s presiding officer. With the Senate split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, her ability to cast tie-breaking votes could be crucial for Democrats to pass their legislative agenda.  In an op-ed for the San Francisco Chronicle, Harris made note of the fact that she will continue to have a role in the Senate. “And this is not goodbye. As I resign from the Senate, I am preparing to take an oath that would have me preside over it,” she wrote. “As senator-turned-Vice-President Walter Mondale once pointed out, the vice presidency is the only office in our government that ‘belongs to both the executive branch and the legislative branch.’ A responsibility made greater with an equal number of Democrats and Republicans in the Senate.” Harris is the first woman ever elected vice president. She will also be the first Black woman and first woman of South Asian descent to serve in the role. 
 
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The U.S. Capitol complex was shut down temporarily on Monday out of an abundance of caution after a small fire broke out nearby, the U.S. Secret Service said, underscoring security jitters days before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.
“There is no threat to the public,” the Secret Service said in a tweet.Public safety and law enforcement responded to a small fire in the area of 1st and F streets SE, Washington, D.C. that has been extinguished. Out of an abundance of caution the U.S. Capitol complex was temporarily shutdown. There is no threat to the public. pic.twitter.com/kQfAI4NxNK— U.S. Secret Service (@SecretService) January 18, 2021The U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement that, in an abundance of caution following an external security threat near the Capitol, its acting chief ordered a shutdown of the complex.
“There are currently no fires on or within the Capitol campus,” the statement said. “Members and staff were advised to shelter in place while the incident is being investigated.”
The lockdown follows the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in Washington by Trump supporters, some of whom called for the death of Republican Vice President Mike Pence as he presided over the certification of Democrat Biden’s November election victory.
All participants in the rehearsal for Biden’s inauguration, were evacuated into the building, and participants were being held in the Capitol rotunda and other indoor areas, according to a Reuters witness. Biden will be sworn in on Wednesday.
The city’s fire department posted on Twitter that firefighters put out an outside fire near the Capitol complex.
“There were no injuries,” the department said. “This accounts for smoke that many have seen.”
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Americans are getting ready to inaugurate President-elect Joe Biden after one of the nation’s most contentious elections and a violent assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump. Mike O’Sullivan reports on the mood of the nation as the United States transitions into its next political phase.
Camera: Genia Dulot, Natasha Mozgovaya, Jose Pernalete
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On the steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Joe Biden is set to be inaugurated Wednesday as the 46th president of the United States. The national special security event comes amid reports domestic extremist groups may again protest the presidential election results. VOA’s Michelle Quinn reports.
Camera: Natasha Mozgovaya
Video editor: Mary Cieslak
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With U.S.-President-elect Joe Biden set to be inaugurated Wednesday, the FBI is conducting security screening of the 25,000 members of the National Guard assigned to Washington to protect the event amid worries of a potential insider attack. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told the Associated Press that he and other leaders have not seen evidence of any threats, and that so far the vetting had not turned up any issues among the Guard members. “We’re continually going through the process, and taking second, third looks at every one of the individuals assigned to this operation,” McCarthy said. McCarthy said there are intelligence reports suggesting outside groups are organizing armed rallies ahead of Inauguration Day.Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy, left, accompanied by Gen. James McConville, Chief of Staff of the Army, right, speaks during a briefing on an investigation into Fort Hood, Texas at the Pentagon, Dec. 8, 2020, in Washington.Security is an even bigger focus than usual with the inauguration coming two weeks after thousands of supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol.  Trump had urged them to march to the building as lawmakers met to certify Biden’s victory. The immediate area around the Capitol is a virtual armed encampment, with fencing and concertina wire encircling the grounds.  Authorities have also closed the National Mall along with roads and Metro stations in much of downtown Washington.  Bridges into the city from the state of Virginia are also being closed. Thousands of National Guard troops and law enforcement officers are stationed across the area to protect against further violence.  Despite the heightened security concerns, Biden plans to go ahead with the inauguration ceremony in its traditional location. “Our plan and our expectation is that President-elect Biden will put his hand on the Bible with his family outside on the west side of the Capitol on the 20th,” Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s incoming communications director, told ABC’s “This Week” show. She said the Biden team has “full faith in the United States Secret Service and their partners who have been working for over a year on the planning to ensure (the inauguration) is safe.”Streets sit largely deserted as National Guard personnel and police close off a block, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2021, in Washington, as part of increased security ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.Trump has refused to concede his defeat or congratulate Biden, while acknowledging there will be a “new administration” come Wednesday.  Trump, ignoring 160 years of the U.S. tradition of an outgoing president attending his successor’s swearing-in ceremony to demonstrate a peaceful transfer of power, has announced he plans to skip the inauguration.  Vice President Mike President is planning to attend. Trump instead is planning to leave Washington on Wednesday morning with a red-carpet ceremony as he boards Air Force One for a flight to his Atlantic Ocean retreat in Florida. Trump’s plan has drawn criticism, including from a group of five Democratic members of the House of Representatives who in a letter Saturday to acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller and Joints Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley urged the Pentagon to not divert any resources for what they called a “disruptive departure ceremony for the outgoing president.” “The proposed action is unwise, unconventional, and most importantly, puts the national security needlessly at risk by diverting essential personnel and resources from the protection of the U.S. Capitol, where all of the institutions of government will be represented, to providing for the security, protection, and transport of the outgoing president,” the lawmakers wrote.  Signatories included Congresswomen Sheila Jackson Lee and Jan Schakowsky and Congressmen André Carson, Steven Cohen and Danny Davis.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California signs the article of impeachment against President Donald Trump in an engrossment ceremony before transmission to the Senate for trial on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Jan. 13, 2021.The House last week impeached Trump for a second time, accusing him of inciting insurrection, and his Senate trial is set to start soon after Biden’s inauguration. If convicted, Trump, the first U.S. president to be impeached twice, could be barred from ever again holding office.  Before he leaves office, however, Trump is expected to grant several more pardons, possibly to key supporters convicted of crimes or facing trials.  People familiar with the matter said Trump met Sunday with aides to finalize a list of more than 100 pardons and commutations to issue before his term ends.  White House advisers have said Trump has had discussions about preemptively pardoning himself and other family members, none of whom have been charged with any crimes, but that at this point he is not expected to do so. Bedingfield said Sunday Biden is planning to lay out a “positive, optimistic” vision for the country in his inaugural address on Wednesday and “try to turn the page on the divisiveness, and the hatred of the last four years” under Trump.  “I think that’s what Americans all across the country want,” Bedingfield said.  “They want a government that once again is focused on doing the right thing by them and helping them in their day-to-day lives.”  Once in power, Biden plans to quickly overturn numerous Trump policies.  Incoming White House chief of staff Ron Klain said Saturday night that Biden “is assuming the presidency in a moment of profound crisis for our nation. We face four overlapping and compounding crises: the COVID-19 crisis, the resulting economic crisis, the climate crisis, and a racial equity crisis.” 
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Except for rare cases, the inauguration of a new president symbolizes the American tradition of a peaceful transfer of power. VOA’s Steve Redisch explains how and why Wednesday’s swearing-in of Joe Biden will be far from ordinary.
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Small groups of right-wing protesters — some of them carrying rifles — gathered outside heavily fortified statehouses around the country Sunday as National Guard troops and police kept watch to prevent a repeat of the violence that erupted at the U.S. Capitol.There were no immediate reports of any clashes.Security was stepped up in recent days after the FBI warned of the potential for armed protests in Washington and at all 50 state capitol buildings ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration Wednesday.A few people demonstrated in some capital cities, with crowds of a dozen or two, while streets in many other places remained empty. Some protesters said they supported President Donald Trump. But others said they weren’t backing Trump and had instead come to voice their support for gun rights or oppose government overreach.Some statehouses were surrounded by new protective fences, had boarded-up windows and were patrolled by extra police. Legislatures generally were not in session over the weekend.Tall fences also surrounded the U.S. Capitol. The National Mall was closed to the public, and the mayor of Washington asked people not to visit. Some 25,000 National Guard troops from around the country are expected to arrive in the city in the coming days.The security measures were intended to safeguard seats of government from the type of violence that broke out at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, when far-right Trump supporters galvanized by his false claims that the election had been stolen from him stormed the building while Congress was certifying the Electoral College vote.The attack left a Capitol Police officer and four others dead. More than 125 people have been arrested on charges related to the insurrection.  At the Ohio Statehouse on Sunday, about two dozen people, including several carrying long guns, protested outside under the watchful eyes of state troopers before dispersing as it began to snow.  Kathy Sherman, who was wearing a visor with Trump printed on it, said she supports the president but distanced herself from the mob that breached the U.S. Capitol.”I’m here to support the right to voice a political view or opinion without fear of censorship, harassment or the threat of losing my job or being physically assaulted,” she said.  The roughly 20 protesters who showed up at Michigan’s Capitol, including some who were armed, were significantly outnumbered by law enforcement officers and media.  At Oregon’s Capitol, fewer than a dozen men wearing military-style outfits, black ski masks and helmets stood nearby with semiautomatic weapons slung across their bodies. Some had upside-down American flags and signs reading such things as “Disarm the government.”At the Texas Capitol, Ben Hawk walked with about a dozen demonstrators up to the locked gates carrying a bullhorn and an AR-15 rifle hanging at the side of his camouflage pants. He condemned the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and said he did not support Trump.”All we came down here to do today was to discuss, gather, network and hang out. And it got blown and twisted completely out of proportion,” Hawk said.At Nevada’s Capitol, where demonstrators supporting Trump have flocked most weekends in recent months, all was quiet except for a lone protester with a sign.”Trump Lost. Be Adults. Go Home,” it read.Authorities in some states said they had no specific indication that demonstrations would occur, much less turn violent. Yet many state officials vowed to be prepared.One counter-protester came early to greet any demonstrators at the Pennsylvania Capitol, saying he had heard about the possibility of a meet-up of a far-right militant group. But no one else was there.”I’m fundamentally against the potential protesters coming here to delegitimize the election, and I don’t want to be passive in expressing my disapproval of them coming into this city,” Stephen Rzonca said.More than a third of governors had called out the National Guard to help protect their capitols and assist local law enforcement. Several governors declared states of emergency, and others closed their capitols to the public until after Biden’s inauguration.Some legislatures also canceled sessions or pared back their work for the coming week.Even before the violence at the Capitol, some statehouses had been the target of vandals and angry protesters during the past year.Last year, armed protesters entered the Michigan Capitol to object to coronavirus lockdowns. People angry over the death of George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee on his neck for several minutes, vandalized capitols in several states, including Colorado, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin.  Last month, crowds in Oregon forced their way into the state Capitol in Salem to protest its closure to the public during a special legislative session on coronavirus measures.Anticipating the potential for violence in the coming week, the building’s first-floor windows were boarded up and the National Guard was deployed.  “The state Capitol has become a fortress,” said Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney, a Democrat. “I never thought I’d see that. It breaks my heart.”
 
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U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is planning to lay out a “positive, optimistic” vision for the country in his inaugural address on Wednesday and “try to turn the page on the divisiveness, and the hatred of the last four years” under outgoing President Donald Trump, a key Biden aide said Sunday.Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s incoming communications director, told ABC’s “This Week” show that the new U.S. leader will “lay out a path forward that really calls on all of us to work together.”She added, “I think that’s what Americans all across the country want. They want a government that once again is focused on doing the right thing by them and helping them in their day-to-day lives.”“Eighty-one million Americans voted for President-elect Biden in part because he was laying out a vision for this country that gets us to a point where we can work together,” she said.Biden is set to be inaugurated on the west steps of the U.S. Capitol at noon on the 20th in a ceremony that is steeped in U.S. history every four years. This time, however, it is fraught with tension after the January 6 storming of the Capitol by a mob of thousands of supporters of President Donald Trump. The outgoing president urged them to march to the building as lawmakers met to certify Biden’s victory in the Electoral College that is determinative of U.S. presidential elections.FILE – President-elect Joe Biden speaks during an event at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Delaware, Jan. 14, 2021, as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris listens.The House of Representatives last week impeached Trump for a second time, accusing him of inciting insurrection, and his Senate trial is set to start soon after Biden’s inauguration. If convicted, Trump, the first U.S. president to be impeached twice, could be barred from ever again holding office.The immediate area around the Capitol where Biden will take the oath of office to uphold the country’s Constitution and protect the country against all enemies, foreign and domestic, is a virtual armed encampment, with fencing and concertina wire encircling the inaugural platform. Thousands of National Guard troops and law enforcement officials are already stationed there to protect against further violence.But Bedingfield said, “Our plan and our expectation is that President-elect Biden will put his hand on the Bible with his family outside on the west side of the Capitol on the 20th.”She said, “There is no question that, of course, we are in a volatile time. We only have to look at the chatter on social media” about the possibility of further protests. Trump has refused to concede his defeat or congratulate Biden while acknowledging there will be a “new administration” come Wednesday.National Guard troops reinforce security around the U.S. Capitol ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, Jan. 17, 2021.Trump, ignoring 160 years of U.S. tradition with an outgoing chief executive attending his predecessor’s swearing-in ceremony to demonstrate a peaceful transfer of U.S. power, has announced he plans to skip the inauguration, although Vice President Mike Pence is planning to attend.Trump instead is planning to leave Washington on Wednesday morning with a red-carpet ceremony as he boards Air Force One for a flight to his Atlantic Ocean retreat in Florida. Before he leaves office, however, Trump is expected to grant several more pardons, possibly to key supporters convicted of crimes or facing trials.Bedingfield said that starting Monday, the Biden transition team is holding “daily meetings with the outgoing leadership in national security and law enforcement to make sure we’re ensuring we’re prepared for any scenario that should arise on January 20th.She said the Biden team has “full faith in the United States Secret Service and their partners who have been working for over a year on the planning to ensure (the inauguration) is safe. We’re much looking forward to President-elect Biden putting his hand on the Bible on January 20th.”Once in power, Biden plans to quickly overturn numerous Trump policies.With the U.S. Capitol dome in the background, razor wire is installed to increase security ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, in Washington, Jan. 17, 2021.Incoming White House chief of staff Ron Klain said Saturday night that Biden “is assuming the presidency in a moment of profound crisis for our nation. We face four overlapping and compounding crises: the COVID-19 crisis, the resulting economic crisis, the climate crisis, and a racial equity crisis.”Klain said that Biden will “take immediate action” and “sign dozens of executive orders, presidential memoranda, and directives to Cabinet agencies in fulfillment of the promises he made…not just to reverse the gravest damages of the Trump administration, but also to start moving our country forward.”Klain said that on Inauguration Day, Biden would “sign roughly a dozen actions to combat the four crises, restore humanity to our immigration system, and make government function for the people.”Among them, Klain said, would be orders to “extend the existing pause on student loan payments and interest for millions of Americans with federal student loans,” to have the U.S. re-join the Paris climate change agreement and to reverse the ban on Muslims entering the U.S.Klain said the new president would challenge Americans to wear face masks for 100 days to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and make mask wearing mandatory on federal property and in interstate travel.He said Biden would issue other orders in the succeeding days to combat the virus that has killed nearly 400,000 Americans and to speed up vaccinations against it.
 
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Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Wednesday, a history-making event in which the first Black, South Asian and female vice president will take her oath of office from the first Latina justice.Harris chose Sotomayor for the task, according to a person familiar with the decision. She’ll also use two Bibles for the swearing-in, one of which belonged to Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court justice.ABC News first reported the latest details of Harris’ inauguration plans.Harris has expressed admiration for both Sotomayor and Marshall. She and Sotomayor share experience as prosecutors, and she once called Marshall — like Harris, a graduate of Howard University — one of her “greatest heroes.”The vice president-elect said in a video posted to Twitter that she viewed Marshall as “one of the main reasons I wanted to be a lawyer,” calling him “a fighter” in the courtroom.And this will be the second time Sotomayor takes part in an inauguration. She swore in President-elect Joe Biden as vice president in 2013. 
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In the 10 days since the violent Jan. 6 rampage at the U.S. Capitol by President Donald Trump’s supporters, a fuller picture has emerged about the rioters, with researchers identifying members of more than a dozen extremist groups that took part in the riots.The storming of the Capitol drew extremists that included adherents of the QAnon conspiracy theory, the far-right group the Proud Boys, militiamen, white supremacists, anti-maskers and diehard Trump supporters, all gathered to stop Congress from certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.“There have been any number of groups that the Southern Poverty Law Center normally tracks and monitors as a part of our work addressing hate and extremism,” said Lecia Brooks, chief of staff for the SPLC.Brooks shared with VOA the names of more than a dozen extremist groups that she said took part in the riots. Other extremist researchers interviewed by VOA confirmed the list. While designated as hate groups by the SPLC, none of the organizations is considered a domestic terrorist entity, and law enforcement officials have not accused any of them of conspiring to mount an attack on the Capitol.Clues into the rioters’ affiliation came from their clothes, signs, flags, banners and other markers, experts say.  While some groups sought to disguise their ties, others flaunted their ideological affiliation. A group of Proud Boys in orange hats identified themselves on camera as members of a state chapter. The Three Percenters carried a U.S. Revolution-era American flag.“They were operating in plain sight,” said Brian Levin, executive director of the center for the study of hate and extremism at California State University.While the presence of the militias and the Proud Boys has attracted the most attention, members of lesser-known groups also joined the rioters.One is the Nationalist Socialist Club, or NSC-131, a recently founded hate group known for disrupting Black Lives Matter protests. Another is No White Guilt, a white nationalist group whose founder has blamed “anti-whiteism” for the spread of the coronavirus in the United States.Levin said that a combination of national groups, smaller state chapters and autonomous regional entities “participated in one way or another in the gathering.”Just how many extremist group members took part in the rioting is unclear. While QAnon boasts tens of thousands of adherents, several of the groups identified by the SPLC have far fewer members. The precise number taking part in the riots may never be known.While prosecutors have so far identified about 300 suspects accused of involvement in the riots, with one or two exceptions, they’ve not tied them to any known extremist groups. Two days after the riots, the FBI arrested Nick Ochs, the founder of the Proud Boys Hawaii, who was among the rioters.Michael Sherwin, the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said law enforcement officials are aware of the ties between the rioters and extremist groups and are seeking to determine the extent to which the attack was a coordinated effort among multiple groups.“If you look at social media you could see a lot of affiliation with some of the protest activity, some of the rioting activity, and it runs the whole gamut of different groups, from soup to nuts, A to Z,” Sherwin told reporters Friday. “But right now … we’re not going to label anything because everything’s on the table in terms of extremist groups.”Arie Perliger, an extremism researcher and professor at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell, said that the extremist groups that took part in the Capitol riots also attended the sometimes-violent protest against state-imposed lockdowns earlier this year.“I’m talking about the Boogaloo, I’m talking about the Proud Boys, I’m talking Rise Above Nation,” Perliger said. “I think what really brings all these groups together is their perception that Trump was a very effective vehicle to try to disrupt, to dismantle, to undermine the capabilities of the federal government.”Among those who stormed the Capitol were participants of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that resulted in the death of a counterprotester.One was Tim Gionet, a far-right activist who goes by the online pseudonym “Baked Alaska.” Gionet livestreamed a video of himself on DLive from inside the capitol.users on Tim Gionet’s, aka Baked Alaska, live stream on DLive are calling to give lawmakers the “rope” and to “hang all the congressmen” on DLive while he’s streaming inside the Capitol building. pic.twitter.com/fq9t7KAlfA— hannah gais (@hannahgais) January 6, 2021He was arrested Friday by the FBI in Houston, Texas, and charged with participating in the Capitol riot.Another is Nick Fuentes, an organizer of the Charlottesville rally who attended Trump’s speech before the riots but did not enter the building, according to Brooks.Here is a look at some of the groups involved in the Capitol riot.Proud BoysThe Proud Boys describe themselves as a “Western male chauvinist” club.The group came to national attention after Trump, asked during a presidential debate in late October to denounce them, declared, “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.”The Proud Boys’ leader, Enrique Tarrio, is a staunch Trump supporter and led the Latinos for Trump group during the campaign.Brooks said the Proud Boys were among the organizers of the Capitol rioting. In the days leading up to the riots, Brooks said, the Proud Boys used social media platforms popular with extremists to telegraph that “this was something that was going to happen, that other extremist groups should be involved in, so they kind of they kept this going.”In late December, Tarrio wrote on Parler that the Proud Boys “will turn out in record numbers” on Jan. 6 without their traditional black and yellow uniform.Tarrio was arrested days before the riots and barred from returning to Washington. Two days after the riots, the FBI arrested Nick Ochs, the founder of Proud Boys Hawaii.Oath Keepers and Three PercentersThe Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters are part of a growing anti-government “Patriot” movement known for recruiting members of law enforcement and the military.The Oath Keepers was founded in 2009 by Stewart Rhodes, a former paratrooper and Yale Law School graduate. The oath in the name is a reference to the vow military personnel make to defend the Constitution. The group requires its members to pledge, among other things, not to “disarm the American people,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.The Three Percenters, established in 2018, view themselves as the ideological descendants of the purported 3% of Americans that took part in the Revolutionary War.Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, said dozens of Oath Keepers took part in the riots, many carrying the group’s flag. Rhodes was seen in photographs standing outside the Capitol building.The Oath Keepers took to Telegram and other social media and messaging platforms to urge their followers to show up for the protest, according to Beirich. In an interview after the Nov. 3 election with Alex Jones, a far-right radio show host and conspiracy theorist, Rhodes said “we have men stationed outside D.C. as a nuclear option. In case they attempt to remove the president illegally, we’ll step in and stop it.”QAnonQAnon is not an organized group but rather a growing conspiracy theory movement that believes Trump is secretly battling a “deep state” cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles that control the world.Trump has repeatedly retweeted messages from accounts that promote QAnon, and more than a dozen Republican candidates running for Congress in the November election have embraced some of its tenets.Beirich said a number of people marching on the Capitol were carrying QAnon signs.“QAnon were everywhere,” she said. “So it sure seems like a large chunk of the people who stormed the Capitol were members of QAnon.”The FBI has identified QAnon as a potential domestic terror threat. 
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In his first hours as president, Joe Biden plans to take executive action to roll back some of the most controversial decisions of his predecessor and to address the raging coronavirus pandemic, his incoming chief of staff said Saturday.The opening salvo would herald a 10-day blitz of executive actions as Biden seeks to act swiftly to redirect the country in the wake of Donald Trump’s presidency without waiting for Congress.On Wednesday, following his inauguration, Biden will end Trump’s restriction on immigration to the U.S. from some Muslim-majority countries; move to rejoin the Paris climate accord; and mandate mask-wearing on federal property and during interstate travel. Those are among roughly a dozen actions Biden will take on his first day in the White House, his incoming chief of staff, Ron Klain, said in a memo to senior staff.Other actions include extending the pause on student loan payments and taking steps to prevent evictions and foreclosures for those struggling during the pandemic.”These executive actions will deliver relief to the millions of Americans that are struggling in the face of these crises,” Klain said in the memo.Key legislation awaits “Full achievement” of Biden’s goals will require Congress to act, Klain said, including passage of the $1.9 trillion virus relief bill the president-elect outlined Thursday. Klain said Biden would also propose a comprehensive immigration reform bill to lawmakers on his first day in office. The next day, Thursday, Klain said Biden would sign orders related to the COVID-19 outbreak aimed at reopening schools and businesses and expanding virus testing. The following day, Friday, will see action on providing economic relief to those suffering the economic costs of the pandemic. In the following week, Klain said, Biden will take actions relating to criminal justice reform, climate change and immigration — including a directive to speed the reuniting of families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border under Trump’s policies. More actions will be added, Klain said, once they clear legal review. Incoming presidents traditionally move swiftly to sign an array of executive actions when they take office. Trump did the same, but he found many of his orders challenged and even rejected by courts. 
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The Trump administration on Friday carried out its 13th federal execution since July, an unprecedented run that concluded just five days before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden — an opponent of the federal death penalty.Dustin Higgs, convicted in the killings of three women in a Maryland wildlife refuge in 1996, was the third to receive a lethal injection this week at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.President Donald Trump’s Justice Department resumed federal executions last year following a 17-year hiatus. No president in more than 120 years had overseen as many federal executions.Higgs, 48, was pronounced dead at 1:23 a.m. In his final statement, Higgs was calm but defiant, mentioning the victims by name.“I’d like to say I am an innocent man,” he said. “I did not order the murders.”Louds sobs of a woman crying inconsolably echoed for several minutes from a room reserved for Higgs’ family as his eyes rolled back in his head, showing the whites of his eyes before he stopped moving entirely.Biden signals he’ll end federal executionsThe number of federal death sentences carried out under Trump since 2020 is more than in the previous 56 years combined, reducing the number of prisoners on federal death row by nearly a quarter. It’s likely none of the around 50 remaining men will be executed anytime soon, with Biden signaling he’ll end federal executions.The only woman on death row, Lisa Montgomery, was executed Wednesday for killing a pregnant woman, then cutting the baby out of her womb and claiming it as her own. She was the first woman executed in nearly 70 years.Federal executions began as the coronavirus pandemic raged through prisons nationwide. Among those prisoners who got COVID-19 last month were Higgs and former drug trafficker Corey Johnson, who was executed Thursday. Some members of the execution teams have also previously tested positive for the virus.Not since the waning days of Grover Cleveland’s presidency in the late 1800s has the U.S. government executed federal inmates during a presidential transition, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Cleveland’s was also the last presidency during which the number of civilians executed federally was in the double digits in one year, 1896, during Cleveland’s second term.In October 2000, a federal jury in Maryland convicted Higgs of first-degree murder and kidnapping in the killings of Tamika Black, 19; Mishann Chinn, 23; and Tanji Jackson, 21. His death sentence was the first imposed in the modern era of the federal system in Maryland, which abolished the death penalty in 2013.Higgs’ lawyers argued it was “arbitrary and inequitable” to execute Higgs while Willis Haynes, the man who fired the shots that killed the women, was spared a death sentence.The federal judge who presided over Higgs’ trial two decades ago said he “merits little compassion.”“He received a fair trial and was convicted and sentenced to death by a unanimous jury for a despicable crime,” U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte wrote in a Dec. 29 ruling.In a statement after the execution, Higgs’ attorney, Shawn Nolan, said his client had spent decades on death row helping other inmates and “working tirelessly to fight his unjust convictions.”“The government completed its unprecedented slaughter of 13 human beings tonight by killing Dustin Higgs, a Black man who never killed anyone, on Martin Luther King’s birthday,” Nolan said. “There was no reason to kill him, particularly during the pandemic and when he, himself, was sick with COVID that he contracted because of these irresponsible, super-spreader executions.”’Difficult upbringing’Higgs’ Dec. 19 petition for clemency argued he had been a model prisoner and dedicated father to a son born shortly after his arrest. Higgs had a traumatic childhood and lost his mother to cancer when he was 10, the petition said.“Mr. Higgs’s difficult upbringing was not meaningfully presented to the jury at trial,” his attorneys wrote.Higgs was 23 on the evening of Jan. 26, 1996, when he, Haynes and a third man, Victor Gloria, picked up the three women in Washington, D.C., and drove them to Higgs’ apartment in Laurel, Maryland, to drink alcohol and listen to music. Before dawn the next morning, an argument between Higgs and Jackson prompted her to grab a knife in the kitchen before Haynes persuaded her to drop it.Gloria said Jackson made threats as she left the apartment with the other women and appeared to write down the license plate number of Higgs’ van, angering him. The three men chased after the women in Higgs’ van. Haynes persuaded them to get into the vehicle.Instead of taking them home, Higgs drove them to a secluded spot in the Patuxent National Wildlife Refuge, federal land in Laurel.“Aware at that point that something was amiss, one of the women asked if they were going to have to ‘walk from here’ and Higgs responded, ‘Something like that,’” said an appeals court ruling upholding Higgs’ death sentence.Higgs handed his pistol to Haynes, who shot all three women outside the van before the men left, Gloria testified.“Gloria turned to ask Higgs what he was doing, but saw Higgs holding the steering wheel and watching the shootings from the rearview mirror,” said the 2013 ruling by a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.Investigators found Jackson’s day planner at the scene of the killings. It contained Higgs’ nickname, “Bones,” his telephone number, his address number and the tag number for his van.Chinn worked with the children’s choir at a church, Jackson worked in the office at a high school and Black was a teacher’s aide at National Presbyterian School in Washington, according to The Washington Post.On the day in 2001 when the judge formally sentenced Higgs to death, Black’s mother, Joyce Gaston, said it brought her little solace, the Post reported.“It’s not going to ever be right in my mind,” Gaston said, “That was my daughter. I don’t know how I’m going to deal with it.”
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The FBI is issuing new security warnings ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, citing potential armed protests in state capitals nationwide. Meanwhile, Congress is considering proposals to establish a national bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol building. Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
Producer: Bakhtiyar Zamanov
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U.S. President-elect Joe Biden named pioneering geneticist Eric Lander as the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy on Friday, elevating the post to Cabinet-level status for first time.Lander, a Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who helped lead the Human Genome Project, will also serve in the role of presidential science adviser, Biden’s team said.”Science will always be at the forefront of my administration — and these world-renowned scientists will ensure everything we do is grounded in science, facts and the truth,” Biden said in a statement, which announced several personnel appointments to the White House science team.”Their trusted guidance will be essential as we come together to end this pandemic, bring our economy back and pursue new breakthroughs to improve the quality of life of all Americans,” Biden said.Lander, 63, will succeed meteorologist Kelvin Droegemeier, who was named director by President Donald Trump in 2019 after the role was left vacant for nearly two years.Biden, who will be sworn in as president on January 20, excoriated Trump repeatedly during the election campaign for undermining faith in science, whether it was Trump’s downplaying of evidence of climate change or suggesting injecting disinfectants might treat COVID-19.Biden has pledged to increase funding in U.S. research and development, including medical research and clean energy. He also appointed former Secretary of State John Kerry as a special presidential envoy for climate.”Tremendously excited to work alongside so many bright minds to advise the President-elect and push the boundaries of what we dare to believe is possible. We need everyone,” Lander said in a tweet.The duties of OSTP, the White House’s top body for space policy formation under former President Barack Obama, could clash with the National Space Council that Trump revived in 2017.Biden’s transition team is weighing whether to disband or keep the council, a person familiar with the team’s planning said.
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Thousands upon thousands of troops are preparing to pour into an increasingly fortified Washington ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, as the district begins to remind some officials of beleaguered capitals such as Baghdad or Kabul, rather than the seat of government for the leader of the free world.Military officials said Friday that 18,000 armed troops with the United States National Guard were expected to arrive in the U.S. capital over the next five days, in addition to the 7,000 sent in following the January 6 riot and siege of the U.S. Capitol by extremists supporting outgoing President Donald Trump.The National Guard — a part-time force that can be deployed overseas but is often called upon to help with domestic emergencies — has become a key contributor to what some officials are describing as the strongest capital-area security response in history.The troops, along with the area’s police forces, are being briefed on the rules of engagement, which govern when they are authorized to respond with potentially deadly force.Already, numerous streets around the Capitol have been closed to traffic, while the core area of the National Mall, which runs from the Lincoln Memorial to the west side of the Capitol and has been the site of some of the country’s most famous protests, is closed to visitors.’Green Zone’Temporary fences increasingly block the view, while the U.S. Secret Service, in charge of security planning for the January 20 inauguration, has created Washington’s own “Green Zone” for the occasion, warning that any vehicle trying to enter will be searched for explosives and weapons.The beefed-up security stands in sharp contrast to the presidential inauguration four years ago, when 8,000 National Guard troops were called in to help.“I’m sad about it,” Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters during a security briefing Friday.“I’m committed to making sure that we get our city back,” she said. “But I also know that we have a special responsibility that there is a peaceful transition of power in our country.”Officials organizing the security effort say the goal is to make sure the Biden inauguration is not marred by the same violence that led to the riot and siege of the Capitol earlier this month that left five people dead.Concerning ‘chatter’They warn, however, that the threat of violence at the hands of domestic extremists is real.“We are seeing an extensive amount of concerning online chatter,” Christopher Wray, director of the FBI, warned late Thursday, while briefing outgoing Vice President Mike Pence on the preparations.”We’re tracking calls for potential armed protests and activity leading up to the inauguration,” Wray said. “We’re concerned about the potential for violence at multiple protests and rallies planned here in [Washington].”Officials said Friday that permits had been approved for two protests along Pennsylvania Avenue, which leads to the White House. But they said the protests would be limited to about 100 people, who will have to go through metal detectors and be escorted by police.They were unsure whether extremist groups, such as the far-right Boogaloo Boys or Proud Boys, might seek to cause trouble.“I don’t know if anyone has raised their hand to say, ‘We are coming, we will be there,’ but we are preparing as if they are,” Matt Miller, the agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service Washington Field Office, told reporters.JUST IN: Senate Intelligence Committee requesting update from @DNI_Ratcliffe on “all intelligence related to efforts by foreign actors to disrupt the inauguration”Also on what @ODNIgov capabilities will be deployed for #BidenInaugurationpic.twitter.com/3RaWC9ncIU— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) January 15, 2021Other parts of Washington are bracing for possible spillover.“We do recognize that because we have such a robust and hardened perimeter, we have so many assets … there is a potential for people to go elsewhere, whether it’s back to their state capitals or to other parts of the city,” Miller said.“It’s not just all hands on deck for the [Green] zone. It’s all hands on deck for our entire agency,” said Robert Contee, Washington’s acting police chief. “Because our entire agency has a responsibility for the entire city.”NEW: Threat to #Washington – “The inauguration is not the only target or activity out there that is being discussed” per @MayorBowser— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) January 15, 2021Security measures are also being put into place in the neighboring state of Virginia, which agreed to shut down a number of roads and bridges leading into Washington.Other states are also on alert. Officials say they are in contact with the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and local police agencies sometimes on an hourly basis.“We have a tremendous capability built up to exchange information and be in the loop on potential threats,” Jared Maples, director of New Jersey’s Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, told VOA.“As far as the potential threat to the [New Jersey] statehouse [that] we are tracking, there’s been a lot of chatter,” he said, noting a proliferation of flyers pushed via social media promoting insurrection.“Right now, we don’t have a specific or credible threat,” Maples said. “But we are absolutely chasing down every single lead. We are investigating to the fullest extent any tip that comes in.”Arrests elsewhereOther states have started making arrests.Florida officials, for example, arrested a former U.S. Army infantryman on Friday, charging him with inciting violence after he tried to rally his social media followers to attack protesters who might gather at the state Capitol in Tallahassee.Daniel Baker, who had been kicked out of the Army and later fought against the Islamic State terror group in Syria with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), was reportedly upset over the riot and siege of the U.S. Capitol.“Extremists intent on violence from either end of the political and social spectrums must be stopped, and they will be stopped,” Lawrence Keefe, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Florida, said in a statement.In New York on Tuesday, federal agents arrested 40-year-old Eduard Florea after he posted on social media that he planned to travel to Washington to kill one of the newly elected Democratic senators from Georgia.Fears that some extremists might try to target U.S. officials and lawmakers grew Thursday after a court filing related to the siege of the Capitol alleged some of the rioters were seeking “to capture and assassinate elected officials.”But acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin said Friday that there was no “direct evidence” that any of the rioters had created so-called “kill capture teams.” 
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U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has promised a quick and dramatic reversal of the restrictive immigration policies put in place by his predecessor President Donald Trump. While Biden pledged to undo many of Trump’s policies starting the first day he takes office on January 20, the layers of reforms will take much longer to implement.
 Immigration reform and ‘dreamers’
 
Biden, a Democrat, said in a June tweet he will send a bill to Congress “on day one” that laid out “a clear roadmap to citizenship” for some 11 million people living in the United States unlawfully.
 
Biden has said he would create permanent protection for young migrants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, known as “Dreamers.” Started by former President Barack Obama when Biden was vice president, the program currently provides deportation protection and other benefits to approximately 645,000 people.
 
Trump’s Republican administration tried to end DACA but was stymied in federal court. The program still faces a legal challenge in a Texas court.
 
Vice president-elect Kamala Harris said in an interview with Univision on January 12 that the administration planned to shorten citizenship wait times and allow DACA holders, as well as recipients of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), to “automatically get green cards,” but did not explicitly say when or how these changes would happen.
 
Trump moved to phase out TPS, which grants deportation protection and allows work permits to people from countries hit by natural disasters or armed conflict. Earlier in his campaign, Biden promised to “immediately” grant TPS to Venezuelans already in the United States.
 
For years lawmakers have failed to pass a major immigration bill. Democrats may stand a better chance of passing legislation after a run-off election in Georgia handed them control of both houses of Congress.
 Restoring asylum and refugees
 
Trump blasted what he called “loopholes” in the asylum system and implemented overlapping polices to make it more difficult to seek refuge in the United States.
 
One Trump program called the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) forced tens of thousands of asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court. Biden said during the campaign he would end the program on day one. His transition team, however, has said dismantling MPP and restoring other asylum protections will take time.
 
Under rules put in place by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control during the coronavirus pandemic, most migrants arriving at the border are now immediately expelled. Biden’s team has not pledged to reverse that policy right away.
 
Migrant caravans have been on the move in Central America, with some aiming to arrive at the southwest border after Biden’s inauguration. Advocates worry that the pandemic will make it difficult for border officials and migrant shelters to handle large numbers of people.
 
Biden has also said he would raise the cap for refugees resettled in the United States from abroad to 125,000 from the historic low-level of 15,000 set by Trump this year.
 Family reunification  
 
Biden’s transition team promised to immediately create a federal task force to reunify children separated from their parents under one of the Trump administration’s most controversial policies.
 
Thousands of children were separated from their parents when Trump implemented a “zero tolerance” policy of prosecuting all border crossers, including families, for illegal entry. Though Trump officially reversed the policy in June 2018 amid international outcry, some children have continued to be separated for other reasons. Advocates are still searching for the parents of more than 600 separated children.
 Travel and visa bans
 
One of Trump’s first actions after taking office in 2017 was banning travel from several Muslim-majority countries. Following legal challenges, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a revised version of the ban in 2018. It has since been expanded to 13 nations.
 
Biden has promised to immediately rescind the bans, which were issued by executive actions and could be easily undone, according to policy experts.
 
During the coronavirus pandemic Trump issued proclamations blocking the entry of many temporary foreign workers and applicants for green cards. While Biden has criticized the restrictions, he has not yet said whether he would immediately reverse them.
 Border wall
 
Biden pledged to immediately halt construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall, which Trump touted as a major accomplishment during a Texas visit just days before leaving office.
 
It is not entirely clear what Biden’s administration will do with contracts for wall construction that have already been awarded but have yet to be completed, or with private land seized by the government in places where building has stopped.
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