McConnell proposes delaying Trump's trial as Biden details Covid strategy – as it happened

Nancy Pelosi said she believed the House would approve a waiver for Lloyd Austin to lead the Pentagon when the chamber holds its vote this afternoon.

Because Austin left the military less than seven years ago, the retired general needs a waiver from Congress before he can be confirmed as secretary of defense.

“Once the waiver is approved, I feel confident the Senate will confirm,” the Democratic speaker said.

Nancy Pelosi is now holding her weekly press conference on Capitol Hill, and the Democratic speaker celebrated the inauguration of Joe Biden yesterday.

Pelosi described the inauguration as “beautiful” and “so perfect”. She told reporters, “That inauguration was a breath of fresh air for our country.”

The speaker added that she was “overwhelmed with joy” about the two new Democratic senators from Georgia being sworn in yesterday, giving Democrats control of the chamber.

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Joe Biden intends to keep Christopher Wray as FBI director, according to multiple reports.

Wray was confirmed as FBI director in 2017, after Donald Trump fired Jim Comey because of his frustration with the Russia investigation.

But Wray and Trump also bumped heads repeatedly, and the former president reportedly considered firing the FBI director after the bureau failed to provide any kind of last-minute boost to his re-election campaign.

FBI directors usually serve a 10-year term, so if he stays on, Wray would be able to remain in the role until 2027.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have just participated in the Presidential Inaugural Prayer Service, which was virtual this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden and Harris sat in the White House’s State Dining Room with their spouses – Dr Jill Biden and Doug Emhoff – to participate in the service. Some other members of Biden’s family, including his granddaughter Finnegan, were also in attendance.

A singer at the prayer service offered the new president and vice-president a blessing for their term in office.

The White House press pool was ushered out of the room after a few minutes. Biden did not take any questions.

Pete Buttigieg, the former Democratic presidential candidate, is currently testifying before the Senate commerce, science and transportation committee.

Joe Biden nominated his former primary rival to lead the transportation department, and the Senate committee will soon vote on Buttigieg’s confirmation to that post.

Buttigieg was introduced at the hearing by Todd Young, a Republican senator from his home state of Indiana, which points to his likely confirmation by the Senate.

Buttigieg said in his opening remarks, “I want you to know that if confirmed, I will work every day to ensure that the department meets its mission of ensuring safety – for both travelers and workers – and I will work closely with Congress to do so.”

The former South Bend mayor also took a moment to introduce his husband, Chasten, who is in the committee hearing room today.

“I want to thank him for his many sacrifices and his support in making it possible for me to pursue public service,” Buttigieg said.

If confirmed, Buttigieg would be the first openly gay cabinet secretary to be confirmed by the Senate.

Steny Hoyer, the House majority leader, announced a change in the chamber’s schedule. The House will now be out next week and will return the week of February 1.

The change may signal that Democrats need more time to figure out how to move forward on the next coronavirus relief bill.

Joe Biden has promised a massive relief package, but the new president has also pledged to seek bipartisan solutions to the country’s problems, and those two goals may be at odds with a 50-50 Senate.

Normally, bills need 60 votes in the Senate to pass. But according to Politico, Democrats are discussing using a budgetary mechanism called reconciliation to pass the bill, which would lower the number of needed Senate votes to 51.

Politico has more details:

In recent days, Democrats on the Hill and incoming administration officials have been privately discussing several potential paths to bringing legislation to the floor quickly. One of the leading options is a powerful budgetary maneuver that would allow Democrats to evade a Senate filibuster and muscle their package through both chambers with virtually no support from Republicans.

But that tool — known as reconciliation — would be a divisive first move for a Biden administration insistent on bipartisanship. It’s also an imperfect process: any bill would likely be limited in scope to comply with strict budget rules, and Democratic leaders would have zero room for error to secure the 51 votes for passage in the Senate. ...

Some House Democrats are also eyeing another possible alternative: a bipartisan bill to dole out quick cash for vaccine distribution and $1,400 stimulus checks that would cost far less than the $1.9 trillion package that Biden initially sought. That path, those Democrats argue, would address two critical areas of relief and deliver a much-needed win in the early weeks of Biden’s term.

And some lawmakers in both parties are still holding out hope for a big, bipartisan bill that moves through both chambers quickly with enough Republican backing that Democrats could hold reconciliation in reserve. That would require support from at least 10 GOP senators to clear the Senate’s 60-vote threshold — an uncertain outcome.

This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.

House Democrats are discussing the possibility of sending over the article of impeachment as soon as tomorrow, according to CNN.

Once the article is transmitted to the Senate, the chamber must start a trial to determine whether Donald Trump should be convicted, which could result in the former president being barred from seeking federal office again.

But according to CNN, one remaining complicating factor is that Trump still does not have a lawyer to defend him in the Senate trial.

A number of Trump’s former lawyers, who represented him in his first impeachment trial, have already said they don’t want the job.

21 Jan 202109.23 EST

Dominic Rushe

Joe Biden’s first full day in office has begun with more depressing news on the jobs front. Another 900,000 people filed for unemployment benefits last week - more people than live in San Francisco.

Another 424,000 claims were filed for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, an emergency federal program for gig workers, freelancers and others normally ineligible for state jobless benefits.

The 900,000 figure was 26,000 lower than the previous week but remains extraordinarily high. Before the pandemic weekly filings typically totaled around 200,000. New restrictions imposed after the latest surges in coronavirus infections have led to a rise in layoffs and until the virus is under control these historically high numbers look set to continue.

By the way, here’s president Joe Biden’s public schedule for today. It’s no “President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings.”

100 days has become a cliched typical measure of a new administration, but John Nichols suggests a faster timetable in an op-ed in The Nation today – ten days. He urges Joe Biden to bury obstruction in a blizzard of executive orders:

Even as Biden issued Wednesday’s orders evidence of the congressional obstruction he will face came into focus, as noxious Missouri Senator Josh Hawley blocked quick consideration of Homeland Security nominee Alejandro Mayorkas. This Democratic president will have a Democratic House and Senate to work with, but the margins are so narrow that the fights on Capitol Hill will be difficult—especially with an impeachment trial in the offing. Biden, a veteran of 36 years in the Senate, is familiar with such difficulties. But he cannot allow obstructionists like Hawley and Texas Senator Ted Cruz—or reluctant Democrats like West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin—to delay action. The Biden administration must be prepared to govern by every means necessary. His administration is reportedly preparing to take additional action on coronavirus policies, economic relief, “Buy American” procurement standards, racial equity, climate change, health care, immigration, and international affairs and national security by 1 February. It must do all of that—and more, including the gun violence issues that Kamala Harris proposed to address with executive orders.

Some vital initiatives will take 100 days, or longer. But the identification of this new presidency as an activist response to the failures of the past, and to the demands of the future, requires a first 10 days “blizzard” of executive orders—and it looks like that’s what’s going to happen.

Read more here: The Nation – Forget about ‘100 Days.’ These are the 10 days that will define Biden’s presidency