Ex-Covid tsar urges Donald Trump to tackle Republican vaccine hesitancy Donald Trump’s former coronavirus testing tsar has urged the former president to address Covid vaccine hesitancy among Republicans, even as the man who some say has assumed Trump’s platform and megaphone, the Fox News host Tucker Carlson, criticized vaccine outreach by the Biden administration. Several recent surveys have shown vaccine hesitancy is highest among Republican men. Public health experts are scrambling to respond. Speaking to CNN, Adm Brett Giroir, in charge of coronavirus testing in the Trump administration, asked the former president and former vice-president Mike Pence, who have both been vaccinated, “to actively encourage all of their followers to get the vaccine”. “We all have to get together and urge every American,” Giroir said. “The people who follow the former president are very committed to President Trump, and I think his leadership still matters a great deal.” Giroir also highlighted the Trump administration’s role in getting the vaccine made, with its Operation Warp Speed program. “This is something that the Trump administration developed under its time,” he said. Trump has encouraged followers to get vaccinated, recommending the step in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, but he has been more muted than the other living former presidents. In an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll last week, 49% of Republican men, 47% of Trump supporters and 41% of Republicans overall said they would not get a vaccine if one was available to them. In the survey, 11% of Democrats and 34% of independents said they would not get a vaccine. Alaska senator Lisa Murkowski was censured by the state’s Republican party for her decision to convict Donald Trump. The AP reports: The Alaska Republican party has censured Senator Lisa Murkowski for voting to convict Donald Trump at his impeachment trial and now doesn’t want her to identify as a GOP candidate in next year’s election, a member of the party’s state central committee said on Tuesday. “The party does not want Lisa Murkowski to be a Republican candidate,” said Tuckerman Babcock, the immediate past chair of the state party. The vote to censure Murkowski was 53-17 at a Saturday meeting in Anchorage, he said. The decision has not been publicly announced by the party. “It went further than censure, which was strong,” Babcock said. “But it also directed the party officials to recruit an opponent in the election and to the extent legally permissible, prevent Lisa Murkowski from running as a Republican in any election,” he said. It’s a watershed moment for Republican politics in Alaska. Murkowski has been in the US Senate since 2002, when her father, Frank Murkowski, selected her to finish his unexpired Senate term after he was elected governor. A Murkowski has represented Alaska in the Senate since 1981. The judge overseeing the criminal trial of Derek Chauvin, the former officer charged in the killing of Gorge Floyd, reinterviewed jurors and is still mulling a request from Chauvin’s attorney to delay the case. After Minneapolis agreed to a $27m settlement with Floyd’s family following his death at the hands of city police officers, Chauvin’s defense team have asked for the case to be delayed. Jurors are not allowed to read any news related to the case, but Chauvin’s attorney said jurors could come across news of the settlement on social media. But an attorney for Floyd’s family said there’s little chance the settlement could affect the jury, given that video of Floyd’s death under Chauvin’s knee was soo widely shared, and news of the case made international news, triggering protests against police brutality not only in the US but around the world. ‘The border is closed’: US deters adults but allows processing for child migrants Joe Biden’s homeland security secretary said on Tuesday that even as the US processes a growing number of unaccompanied child migrants at the US-Mexico border, the country remains closed to most asylum seekers. “Now is not the time to come to the border,” Alejandro Mayorkas said. US border patrol officials encountered more than 15,000 children traveling without adults in January and February and officials have warned the numbers continue to grow in the first weeks of March. The arrivals threaten to overwhelm stretched federal agencies, putting children at risk, though Mayorkas told ABC News it was a challenge his department could handle. “What we are doing is addressing young children who come to the border to make claims under the humanitarian laws established years and years ago and we are building capacity to address the needs of children when they arrive,” Mayorkas said. “But we are also, and critically, sending an important message that now is not the time to come to the border.” Mayorkas said the border was not permanently closed to adults and families, but urged people to wait before approaching it. “Give us the time to rebuild the system that was entirely dismantled in the prior administration,” he said. The secretary also issued a lengthy statement, warning that the US was on pace to encounter more individuals at the border with Mexico than it had in the past 20 years. His projection did not reflect a record number of people crossing the border, however, because it only included people apprehended by US border patrol – not those who cross without getting caught. That group has shrunk dramatically since the early 2000s. “This is not new,” Mayorkas said. “We have experienced migration surges before – in 2019, 2014 and before then as well.” He also acknowledged several factors pushing people north, including poverty, violence, corruption and two damaging hurricanes which hit Honduras in November. Michigan man charged with death threats against Biden, Pelosi and governor Gretchen Whitmer Michigan’s attorney general has charged a man for threatening Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer. The charges against the 21-year-old are one count of terrorism and one count of using a computer to commit a crime. He turned himself in today and was arraigned, officials said. “Threatening elected officials is against the law and my office will prosecute those who attempt to intimidate or terrorize our state and federal leaders,” said attorney general Dana Nessel. “I appreciate the thorough investigative work by the FBI and Michigan state police on this case, and I consider it another excellent example of showcasing the dedication that those working in law enforcement have to protect the public.” The man had made direct death threats on social media in January, and said he would “be the catalyst” for revolution. He also had information for making a bomb and procuring the necessary materials on his phone. Several other men have been arrested and charged in relation to a plot last year to kidnap Whitmer. You can read more about that here. The Biden administration could announce new sanctions related to election interference, CNN reports, based on information from three US state department sources. The sanctions will target “multiple countries including Russia, China and Iran”, per CNN. “You’ve already seen us take a number of actions in response to Russia’s use of a chemical weapon in the attempted murder of Alexei Navalny,” an administration official told Reuters, referring to the administration’s sanctions on seven Russian government officials and 13 Russian and European companies in response to the poisoning of the opposition leader. “There will be more soon,” the official said. Afternoon summary It’s been a lively day so far in US political news and there’s more to come as we hand over from east coast to west coast and my California colleague Maanvi Singh takes over for the next few hours. Thanks for following us so far today and stay tuned. Here are the main events that caught our eye this morning and afternoon. A prosecutor in Georgia has reportedly called in a lawyer who’s an expert in racketeering law to assist in the investigation over whether Donald Trump interfered in the state’s election results to try to pressure officials into declaring him the winner over Joe Biden. The attempt was unsuccessful! Joe Biden visited a small, Black-owned and union-friendly flooring business in Chester, Pennsylvania, and said that the aid provided by the American Rescue Plan he signed last week will “change lives”. Russia sought to influence the 2020 election in favor of Donald Trump, by planting “misleading or unsubstantiated allegations” against Joe Biden. It’s a declassified report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Veep Kamala Harris addressed the United Nations on gender equality and women’s rights and said that “The status of democracy depends on fundamentally on the empowerment of women.” US coronavirus vaccine developer Moderna has begun advanced trials of its vaccine on babies and children under 12. If Georgia’s Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, pursues racketeering charges against Donald Trump, she will need to prove a pattern of corruption by the former president, alone or with his allies, aimed at overturning the election results in order to stay in power. Reuters, which is bringing out this report exclusively, further notes that: While racketeering is typically pursued by prosecutors in cases involving such crimes as murder, kidnapping, and bribery, the Georgia statute defines racketeering more broadly to include false statements made to state officials. The federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) was originally passed in 1970 to help tie Mafia bosses to the crimes of their underlings by allowing prosecutors to argue they conspired together in a “criminal enterprise.” Over the years, however, its reach has grown to include businesses and other organizations as enterprises subject to the law. Willis specifically listed racketeering and lying to public officials in detailing the possible crimes her office intended to investigate in a Feb. 10 letter to four Republican state officials, asking them to preserve records related to the case. “That letter was really a signal to the public that she was going after a number of possibilities,” said Clark Cunningham, a Georgia State University law professor. Georgia lawyers familiar with the state RICO law said Willis may be considering whether it would apply to alleged false statements made by Trump and his allies as they sought to influence state officials to reverse his election loss. “It’s not a stretch to see where she’s taking this,” said Cathy Cox, the dean of Mercer University’s law school in Macon, Georgia and a former Georgia secretary of state. “If Donald Trump engaged in two or more acts that involve false statements - that were made knowingly and willfully in an attempt to falsify material fact, like the election results - then you can piece together a violation of the racketeering act.” Racketeering, a felony in Georgia, can carry stiff penalties including up to 20 years in prison and a hefty fine. “There are not a lot of people who avoid serving prison time on a racketeering offense,” said Cox. Here’s the Guardian’s report from January 3 about the crucial phone call Trump made to Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, part pressuring, part threatening him as he urged him to “find” the votes Trump needed to overturn Biden’s victory in Georgia. Raffensperger held his ground and told the outgoing president that Trump’s data was wrong (ie those votes were not out there to be ‘found’ and Biden had, in fact, won the state and the White House). Racketeering expert hired in Trump election interference case in Georgia – report Talking of election interference, let’s switch from Russia to Georgia, not in the former Soviet Union but the southern US. Reuters brings a report it’s labeling exclusive. The district attorney investigating whether the former US president Donald Trump illegally interfered with Georgia’s 2020 election has hired an outside lawyer who is a national authority on racketeering, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis has enlisted the help of Atlanta lawyer John Floyd, who wrote a national guide on prosecuting state racketeering cases. Floyd was hired recently to “provide help as needed” on matters involving racketeering, including the Trump investigation and other cases, said the source, who has direct knowledge of the situation. The move bolsters the team investigating Trump as Willis prepares to issue subpoenas for evidence on whether the former president and his allies broke the law in their campaign to pressure state officials to reverse his Georgia election loss. Willis has said that her office would examine potential charges including “solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies, conspiracy, racketeering” among other possible violations. A representative for Trump did not respond to requests for comment. Floyd’s appointment signals that racketeering could feature prominently in the investigation. It’s an area of law where Willis has extensive experience - including a high-profile Atlanta case where she won racketeering convictions of 11 public educators for a scheme to cheat on standardized tests. The investigation of Trump focuses in part on his phone call to Georgia’s secretary of state, asking the secretary to “find” the votes needed to overturn Trump*s election loss, based on false voter-fraud claims. Floyd declined to comment when asked about the appointment but spoke to Reuters about his past experiences working with Willis. While racketeering is typically pursued by prosecutors in cases involving such crimes as murder, kidnapping, and bribery, the Georgia statute defines racketeering more broadly to include false statements made to state officials. Joe Biden visited a small family flooring business in Chester, Pennsylvania, on the outskirts of greater Philadelphia, this afternoon. The owners said politicians didn’t often stop by that part of the world. Here’s some of what the president said on the premises of Smith Flooring. “This is a great outfit. This is a union shop. You can make a decent wage, a living wage,” he said, according to the pool report. Then he stressed how many Pennsylvanians lost their jobs during the coronavirus crisis. He talked of government cash on the way, for individual payments and aid for administering vaccines. “More help is on the way,” Biden said. The owners, Kristin and James Smith, thanked him for helping a small business, saying it meant a lot that he was there. “Not many people come and stop here in Chester,” Kristin Smith said. Meanwhile, a tidbit of extra news. The president will hold his first formal press conference next Thursday. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, in its declassified report, says that Moscow viewed the prospect of Joe Biden’s election to the White House in 2020 as potentially disadvantageous to Russia’s interests and that drove their efforts to undermine his candidacy. “We have high confidence in this assessment,” the report says. The primary race for the Democratic nomination was just the start. “Moscow’s range of influence actors uniformly worked to denigrate President Biden after his entrance into the race. Throughout the primaries and the general election campaign, Russian influence agents repeatedly spread … claims against Biden and his family’s alleged wrongdoing related to Ukraine.” It then goes on to say that Moscow worked online to promote candidates it viewed as “outside what it perceives to be an anti-Russia political establishment”. After Biden had won the election, Moscow continued its covert influence campaign to question the result. Meanwhile, more on the declassified report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that Russia attempted to influence the 2020 presidential election in favor of Donald Trump. Among the report’s key findings is this conclusion that: “Russian President Putin authorized and a range of Russian government organizations conducted influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting former President Trump, undermining public confidence in the electoral process, and exacerbating sociopolitical divisions in the US … “… Russian state and proxy actors who all serve the Kremlin’s interests worked to affect US public perceptions in a consistent manner. A key element of Moscow’s key strategy this election cycle was its use of proxies linked to Russian intelligence to push influence narratives - including misleading or unsubstantiated allegations against President Biden - to US media organizations, US officials, and prominent US individuals, including some close to former President Trump and his administration.” ODNI also concludes that interference efforts came from Iran, China, Lebanese Hezbollah, Cuba and Venezuela. The White House has provided the following information about Smith Flooring, the business Joe Biden just visited. Smith Flooring has received Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, and also qualifies for additional programs such as the community navigator services and the employee retention tax credit under the American Rescue Plan (ARP). Although Smith Flooring lost around 20% of revenue in 2020, it was deemed essential and survived because of the PPP loans and a few key contracts. Smith Flooring received the original installment of PPP in April of 2020 and their second installment in March of 2021. It is using the second PPP loan, which it received during the Biden-Harris Administration’s two-week exclusivity period for small businesses with 20 or fewer employees, to retain workers and upgrade technology. Pennsylvania congresswomen Chrissy Houlahan and Mary Gay Scanlon also visited. Biden asked the Smiths, who own the small business, which employs at peak times less than two dozen people, what else the government needed to do for them and Americans. Biden: latest Covid aid will "change lives" Joe Biden has arrived in Chester, Pennsylvania, a small city in Delaware County, within the greater metropolitan area of Philadelphia. The first place he visited was a small flooring company, a Black-owned, union-affiliated business not far from the Delaware River. Biden is at the start of a tour to promote the $1.9tr American Rescue Plan coronavirus relief legislation passed by Congress and signed by him at the White House last week. Biden met the owners of Smith Flooring, Kristen and James Smith, who had donned suits and seemed rather nervous at meeting the president and two Pennsylvania members of Congress. Biden pointed out that 100m people in the US will soon be receiving individual Treasury checks of $1,400. “No joke, it’s going to change their lives,” he said. Here’s more on Russian actions meant to undermine the 2020 US elections, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declassified report out today. Russia made efforts that were intended to result in “denigrating President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting former President Trump, undermining public confidence in the electoral process, and exacerbating sociopolitical divisions in the US,” the report said. It adds: “Unlike in 2016, we did not see persistent Russian cyber efforts to gain access to election infrastructure.” And the report noted that there were “no indications that any foreign actor attempted to alter any technical aspect of the voting process in the 2020 US elections, including voter registration, casting ballots, vote tabulation, or reporting results.”