The House Select Committee probing the 6 January insurrection have issued subpoenas to policy adviser Ross Worthington, who helped draft the speech that Donald Trump delivered prior to the attack on the capitol. The committee has also subpoenaed two advisers to Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr, Andy Surabian and Arthur Schwartz. Today so far Thanks for tuning into the US politics news live blog, we’re handing over from the east coast to the west now, where Maanvi Singh will take you through the next few hours as things continue to develop. Here’s where things stand: Joe Biden called on the US Senate to eliminate the filibuster rule in order to pass the two voting rights bills that are crucial to his legislative agenda but are stalled there by Republican opposition and a lack of will to change the rules to work around them. The US president is at the bully pulpit, using a speech in Atlanta, Georgia, the cradle of the civil rights movement, to give an impassioned plea for Congress to pass his bills to ensure Americans’ access to the ballot box. Biden said he is “tired of being quiet”. (But has he left it too late?) Kamala Harris, accompanying the president and speaking first, argued that Senate Democrats should not allow the filibuster to prevent them from advancing national voting rights legislation. The vice president said: “The American people have waited long enough. The Senate must act.” Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, the Democratic senator from New York, said earlier today that the Senate will act on voting rights “as soon as tomorrow”. Dr Anthony Fauci, the president’s chief medical adviser, once again clashed with Republican Senator Rand Paul today, as members of the White House pandemic response team testified before the Senate committee on health, education, labor and pensions. The top US public health official accused the right-winger of using the Covid pandemic for his political benefit. Joe Biden argued that the Republican minority in the Senate should not be allowed to use the filibuster to prevent the Democratic majority from enacting its agenda. “Today, I’m making it clear,” the president said in Atlanta, to protect our democracy, I support changing the Senate rules, whichever way they need to be changed, to prevent a minority of senators from blocking action on voting rights.” Biden’s speech represented his most direct appeal yet to change Senate rules, but his strong words still may not be enough to get voting rights bills across the finish line. Because the Senate is evenly divided between the two parties, majority leader Chuck Schumer needs all 50 Democratic senators’ support to move forward with rule changes. At least one of those senators, Joe Manchin, has made it clear that he will not support any rule changes unless they can attract bipartisan support, which seems virtually impossible given Republicans’ unified opposition to filibuster reform. Joe Biden encouraged election officials to decide whether they want to be on the right side of history when it comes to protecting voting rights for all Americans. “History has never been kind to those who have sided with voter suppression over voters’ rights,” the president said in Atlanta. “Do you want to be on the side of Dr King or George Wallace? Do you want to be on the side of John Lewis or Bull Connor? Do you want to be on the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis? This is the moment to decide.” Biden calls on the Senate to eliminate filibuster to pass voting rights bills Joe Biden said the Senate had been “rendered into a shell of its former self” because the filibuster has been “weaponized and abused” by the Republican minority. The president argued Democrats should use every tool at their disposal to protect American democracy and strengthen voting rights. “Let the majority prevail,” Biden said. “And if that bare minimum is blocked, we have no option but to change the Senate rules, including getting rid of the filibuster for this.” However, it remains unclear whether Democrats have the votes to amend the filibuster, as some centrists -- namely Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema -- have expressed skepticism of the idea. "The Senate must act" on voting rights, Harris says Kamala Harris argued that Senate Democrats should not allow the filibuster to prevent them from advancing national voting rights legislation. “The American people have waited long enough. The Senate must act,” the vice-president said in Atlanta, Georgia. Harris warned that future generations would one day ask us what we did to protect democracy, framing this moment as a crucial inflection point in American history. “They will ask us not about how we felt. They will ask us, what did we do?” Harris said. “We cannot tell them that we let a Senate rule stand in the way of our most fundamental freedom.” Kamala Harris acknowledged America’s long history of passing laws to make it more difficult for certain voters, particularly people of color, to access the ballot box. “Anti-voters laws are not new in our nation, but we must not be deceived into thinking they’re normal,” Harris said. “There is nothing normal about a law that makes it illegal to pass out water or food to people standing in long voting lines.” The vice-president urged Americans not to be complacent about the enactment of voting restrictions, warning that Republicans were trying to “interfere with our elections to get the outcomes they want”. “Do not succumb to those who would dismiss this assault on voting rights as an unfounded threat,” Harris said. “If we stand idly by, our entire nation will pay the price for generations to come.” Jewel Wicker The sun beamed down over the area where the stage was set up, with the weather peaking at 50 degrees. Attendees included students wearing maroon-colored Morehouse face masks and members of Vice President Kamala Harris’ Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Outside nearly a dozen people waved signs in protest of the administration’s appearance on campus. Prior to the event beginning, Reverend Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson were seen riding through a crowd of attendees on a golf cart. Despite being inaccurately introduced as Martin Luther King High School, the drum line from Southwest Dekalb High School performed. The band had been silently practicing for its big moment for more than an hour before the event began. The event took place at the Atlanta University Center consortium on the Clark Atlanta University and Morehouse College’s campus in southwest Atlanta’s West End neighborhood. The AUC consortium is comprised of four HBCUS, including Spelman and Morris Brown college. Spelman college SGA president Jillian Jackson invoked the activist legacies of Julian Bond, Raphael Warnock and Stacey Abrams who attended schools within the Atlanta University Center consortium while introducing the president and vice president. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are now delivering remarks on the need to pass national voting rights legislation at the Atlanta University Center Consortium. The president and vice-president were introduced by Jillian Jackson, the student body president at the historically Black Spelman College. Jackson recounted her pride when she registered to vote at an NAACP drive, and she lamented the challenges that many Americans face in trying to access the ballot box. As Harris stepped up to the podium, she told Jackson, “I can’t wait to see what you do next.”