President Joe Biden surprised his second-in-command Kamala Harris with a bouquet of flowers and a gift for her birthday on Wednesday.
Vice President Harris, 57, was flattered by the gesture. “Really?” she said as the president walked into her office holding the bouquet, “Oh, I’m very touched,” she added as she leant in to kiss the president on the cheek, while they were both wearing black face masks. “Oh, look how gorgeous,” she said looking at the flowers.
President Biden then presented her with a framed photo of both of them laughing on the White House lawn. The pair posed for a picture during the gift-giving and VP Harris told President Biden: “I’m going to hang this up with great pride”.
The video of the flower-giving at the White House has already clocked up close to a million views since it was posted on the Twitter office POTUS account early on Thursday morning.
VP Harris also celebrated her birthday with White House staff, who shouted “surprise” when she walked into the room where a chocolate cake, balloons and more flowers were waiting for her. The room was filled with dozens of people who sang “happy birthday to madam vice president”, before erupting into a round of applause.
Ms Harris’s parents immigrated to America from Jamaica and India. Born in 1964 in Oakland, California, she was raised by biologist Shyamala Gopalan and Stanford professor Donald J. Harris. In 2020, Ms Harris became the first person of colour to be elected vice president of the United States.
Ms Harris was also the second African American woman to be elected to the senate in 2017, after Illinois’s Carol Moseley Braun, who served one term in the 1990s.
The White House told Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday that a proposed hike in US corporate taxes is unlikely to make it into their signature social spending bill, according to a congressional source familiar with the discussions.
President Joe Biden’s plans to hike the corporate tax rate to 28 percent from 21 percent, a key campaign promise, are likely to be one of the steep concessions he makes to steer his economic revival package through Congress, the White House disclosed in the private meeting with top Democrats.
The proposed rate had sparked concern among small business owners who feared they could be penalized as harshly as larger corporations the proposed rise was intended to target, despite assurances from Biden that it would have no such impact.
‘There is an expansive menu of options for how to finance the president’s plan to ensure our economy delivers for hardworking families, and none of them are off the table,’ said White House spokesperson Andrew Bates.
Biden, his aides and congressional leadership are racing to close a deal as soon as this week on a set of tax hikes they hope will fund more than $1.75trillion over a decade in programs ranging from childcare to eldercare, healthcare, affordable housing and climate change mitigation.
President Joe Biden is seen above returning to the White House on Wednesday. Biden aides have told Democratic lawmakers that it is unlikely new spending legislation will include a corporate tax hike
They have no margin for error because Democrats hold only narrow majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate. Republicans oppose the legislation.
‘The president knows that he’s not going to get everything he wants in this package,’ White House spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters on Air Force One.
‘Nor will any member of Congress, probably, and that’s what compromise is all about.’
The original price tag for the social spending bill was $3.5trillion, but it has now been hacked back to less than $2 trillion, with tuition-free community care college and indefinite raises to child tax credits also on the chopping block.
Democrats hope to pass the measure in the Senate through a ‘reconciliation’ process that requires support by only a simple majority rather than the 60 votes needed for most legislation in the evenly split 100-member chamber.
Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris holds the tiebreaking vote.
Biden, who framed the 2020 election against Republican then-President Donald Trump as one between working-class Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Manhattan’s Park Avenue, pitched the tax hike as an effort to make sure the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share.
Trump and congressional Republicans cut corporate rates to 21 percent from 35 percent in 2017.
After taking office in January, Biden paired the tax hike with a mix of programs he has argued will put the United States on a more sustainable economic footing to compete with China, from universal pre-kindergarten to dental benefits for seniors and incentives to encourage a shift to low-carbon energy sources.
Progressive legislators led by Senator Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont, have argued for a hike in corporate taxes
But centrist Democrats in Congress, including Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia (left) and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona (right), have balked at the proposed tax hikes and the $3.5trillion price tag
Business groups and Republicans have fought the measures, arguing they will hamper the economy’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Two moderate Democrat senators – Joe Mancin and Krysten Sinema – have also held out, and are believed to be responsible for many of the concessions Biden has made so far.
‘When I ran for president, I came back to Scranton,’ Biden said on Wednesday on his first trip back to his birthplace since Election Day last November.
‘I resolved to bring Scranton values to bear, making fundamental shifts in how our economy works for working people, build the economy from the ground up … and not from the top down.’
Top Democrats may now put on the table alternate financing proposals for the bill that have been discussed for weeks, including imposing new levies on stock buybacks and business partnerships, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Kyrsten Sinema, a key swing-vote Democrat who has expressed the most concern about tax hikes, may be amenable to other measures that only raise rates for highly profitable large corporations paying next to nothing in federal taxes under current rules, according to Senate colleague Elizabeth Warren.
‘Our problem is partly about too low a rate at the top, and obviously some Democrats disagree,’ Warren, a Democrat, said on CNN.
‘But I think all the Democrats agree, by golly, everybody ought to be paying something.’
The S&P 500 closed 0.4 percent higher after the news about the White House’s private comments was first reported by The Washington Post.
After-hours trading in the US stock index trended 0.3 percent higher.
That’s what BAKARI SELLERS, one of the most public and vocal defenders of Vice President KAMALA HARRIS, thinks of the slate of policy issues she’s been assigned to address.
Speaking as part of a panel for Politics & Prose earlier this week moderated by theGrio’s APRIL RYAN, Sellers knocked President JOE BIDEN for not utilizing Harris properly, and for giving her “a portfolio that’s not meant for [her] to succeed.”
That portfolio is full of issues that, given the political realities, are difficult to tackle — the two biggest being shoring up federal voting rights (which she asked for) and curtailing the number of immigrants coming to the southern border from Northern Triangle countries by fixing the root causes of migration. The fact that one of Harris’ most public allies was saying, essentially, that Biden saddled her with it raises the obvious question: Was he sanctioned to do so?
In an interview, Sellers was very clear his comments weren’t a form of backdoor complaining from the VP’s office, and emphasized that he hadn’t talked to her office before he made them.
“My only point was if you’re going to task her with voting rights, then the president needs to be passionate in his push to narrow the filibuster,” Sellers said. “The work she’s doing on it is amazing. No doubt. But the ultimate success comes from the president actually taking on the very real issue of the filibuster.”
West Wing Playbook asked around to see if Sellers’ comments were causing any friction internally. They’re not … for now. “The Vice President appreciates the faith the President has in her and her ability to tackle tough assignments,” Harris’ Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told POLITICO.
Still, as far as D.C. parlance goes, it’s rare for a surrogate to take such complaints public. Indeed, we had trouble thinking of a past time when such a prominent ally of a sitting Vice President openly complained about the work the president had handed him.
But Sellers does love to speak his mind. He is one of the most recognizable Democratic pundits on TV. In 2006, he became the youngest African American elected official in the country as a member of the South Carolina legislature. During the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, his much sought after endorsement went to Harris. He was later chosen as a co-chair for the Harris campaign and continues to be one of her most vocal defenders.
Sellers says his frustration lies in what he sees as a larger under-utilization of Harris as the administration looks to sell its “Build Back Better” agenda — trillions of dollars worth of spending on infrastructure and domestic programs packaged in two pieces of legislation currently being debated in Congress.
A White House official pushed back on Sellers’ characterization of Harris’ portfolio as quixotic. “The most pressing issues confronting our country are what make it to the vice president and the president. The easy things don’t make it there,” they said. “Vice President Harris is taking on pressing issues no different than the vice presidents before her.”
And aides note that the vice president has been on the road multiple times promoting aspects of the two bills. On Friday, Harris was in New Jersey pitching the child care provisions that are expected to be included in the Democrat-only bill the party is looking to pass via budget reconciliation. “Our nation is strongest when everyone is able to participate. This is fundamentally what the issue is about when it comes to working parents,” Harris said during a roundtable.
On voting rights, Harris has spent months conducting meetings with key stakeholders and amplifying the work of groups like the Texas Democrats who came to D.C. to delay a vote on a restrictive state law. But with almost zero appetite from Senate Republicans to support federal voting rights legislation, it’s not going anywhere unless the chamber’s 50 Democrats decide to overhaul filibuster rules. And that’s not happening, at least anytime soon.
After Sellers’ “trash” comment went public, he received some blowback from Harris fans on Twitter who were concerned he wasn’t helping her cause. But he says he’s not going to stop. “People want to punish me for being critical or being opinionated but I don’t care,” Sellers said.
“One of the things the vice president has done is be a team player. I know those questions were always looming when she was nominated [as Biden’s vice president] but she’s been nothing but a team player. My advocacy is that it goes both ways,” Sellers said
PROGRAMMING NOTE: West Wing Playbook will not publish on Monday Oct. 11. We’ll be back on our normal schedule on Tuesday Oct. 12. We hope absence makes the heart grow fonder.
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PRESIDENTIAL TRIVIA
This one is courtesy of CHARLES BROLL — which president had the most children?
(Answer at the bottom.)
Cartoon of the Week
Every Friday, we’ll feature a cartoon of the week — this one is courtesy of ROB ROGERS. Our very own MATT WUERKER also publishes a selection of cartoons from all over the country. View the cartoon carousel here.
The Oval
WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: Chief of staff RON KLAIN and rapid response director MIKE GWINboth shared NEIL IRWIN’s story from The New York Times with the sunny headline, “The New Jobs Numbers Are Pretty Good, Actually,” and a lede that read, “It’s not as bad as it looks.”
Klain took out this part of the story: “The story of the economy in the second half of 2021 remains one of steady expansion … more rapid than other recent recoveries. It is being held back by supply constraints and … the Delta variant. But the direction is clear, consistent and positive.”
WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: The New York Times’ BEN CASSELMAN’s assessment of the jobs numbers, which was not quite so optimistic. “The latest coronavirus wave led to a second straight month of disappointing job growth in September, as Americans avoided restaurants and travel and were reluctant to rejoin the work force,” went his lede.
The White House tried to tout the lower unemployment rate of 4.8 percent but Casselman reported “that was partly a result of people leaving the labor force entirely — a sign that public health fears and other disruptions from Covid are still keeping people from looking for work.”
WEDDING BELLS: Deputy Press Secretary CHRIS MEAGHER had to wear a “Groom To Be” sash at the press briefing today ahead of his wedding next weekend.
Filling the Ranks
CALLISTA GINGRICH’S REPLACEMENT —Biden, the second Catholic president in U.S. history, will nominate former Indiana Democratic Sen. JOE DONNELLY to be his ambassador to the Vatican. Donnelly was one of five new ambassador nominees the White House announced this afternoon.
EPA HIRE: ROD SNYDER, president of Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, has been appointed to serve as a senior adviser for agriculture under EPA administrator MICHAEL REGAN, Snyder announced. Snyder’s company promoted sustainability for commodity crop farms.
Advise and Consent
TRUMP RECORDS FAIR GAME — Biden will not invoke executive privilege to shield an initial set of records from DONALD TRUMP’s White House that’s being sought by congressional investigators probing the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, NICHOLAS WU, KYLE CHENEY and BETSY WOODRUFF SWAN report.
“After my consultations with the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice, President Biden has determined than an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States, and therefore is not justified as to any of the Documents,” White House Counsel DANA REMUS wrote in a letter to Archivist of the United States DAVID FERRIERO.
Biden signed the HAVANA Act of 2021 and K-12 Cybersecurity Act of 2021 into law this morning before delivering remarks on the latest jobs report.
He later joined national climate adviser GINA McCARTHY, Interior Secretary DEB HAALAND and Council on Environmental Quality Chair BRENDA MALLORY to speak about the administration’s initiative to restore national monuments and conservation areas in Utah and New England.
He heads to Wilmington, Del. this evening, where he’ll spend the weekend.
Where’s Kamala
She was in Newark, N.J., where she participated in a roundtable conversation on child care at the Ben Samuels Children’s Center at Montclair State University. She also toured a vaccination site at Essex County College and made an unscheduled stop with Gov. PHIL MURPHY and Sen. CORY BOOKER at Tommie’s Minis, a cake and cupcake shop in Newark, where she bought some red velvet cupcakes and slices of carrot. pineapple coconut, and sponge cake with chocolate icing. Harris returned to D.C. later in the afternoon.
The Oppo Book
With three kids, White House deputy chief of staff JEN O’MALLEY DILLON (aka JOD) not only handles presidential matters, but also things like helping her daughters earn the latest Girl Scout badge.
But this year’s Girl Scout cookie season caught her off guard: “I hadn’t realized you have to sell a certain amount of cookies in order for them to get a badge — you have to sell something like 150 boxes to get a badge,” she told Insider’s ADAM WREN in September.
JOD admitted that White House chief of staff RON KLAIN came to the rescue.
“Later that day, Ron sent me a note on his personal email and asked for the girls’ link, because he had overheard the conversation and wanted to make sure to buy cookies,” she said.
Klain pressed to help even more, telling her: “You have two daughters, you have to send me the other one, too. I have to buy cookies from both girls.”
AND A CALL OUT — A big thanks to Charles (again!) for sending over this question! Do you have a harder trivia question about the presidency? Send us your best one and we may use it:[email protected].
We want your trivia, but we also want your feedback. What should we be covering in this newsletter that we’re not? What are we getting wrong? Please let us know.
Biden is pitching idea to give the elderly $800 debit cards to help with medical and dental as Democrats haggle over slimmed-down reconciliation bill and Pelosi says it will be smaller but ‘still historic’
Sen. Bernie Sanders proposed a similar idea last month
Biden has become more engaged in negotiations, scheduling spate of meetings
The $3.5 trillion framework was on track to get trimmed below $2 trillion
Democrats need to secure support from Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema
White House tells Democratic lawmakers there likely won’t be corporate tax hike
President Joe Biden planned to raise corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%
Plan was to have hikes fund social programs including child care, health care
But centrist Democrats in Congress have balked at the $3.5trillion price tag
Biden White House now scrambling to strike compromise to save legislation
Trump administration cut corporate taxes from 35% to 21% in 2017
President Joe Biden is getting more personally engaged in negotiations as lawmakers haggle over the composition of a scaled back reconciliation bill – pressing an idea to give seniors gift cards for dental benefits.
Biden is faced with a highly complex task – figuring out which prized programs to throw overboard from a $3.5 trillion framework in order to try to secure support from two Senate Democratic holdouts.
He has already signaled that a program providing free community college is already not likely to survive, despite support by first lady Dr. Jill Biden, who teaches at a community college.
A new benefit extending Medicare benefits to cover hearing and dental coverage appears likely to survive negotiations.
President Joe Biden is seen above returning to the White House on Wednesday. Biden has been touting a proposal to give seniors $800 gift cards they could use on dental spending through Medicare. It could fill in a gap if a new benefit Democrats want to create takes a while to phase in
But Biden is touting another short-term benefit: $800 gift cards for the elderly to help them spend on dental coverage as part of Medicare, the Washington Post reported.
Sanders, who has championed the dental and hearing expansion for Medicare, has proposed his own $1,000 version of a gift card proposal.
One reason is that establishing a new benefit under Medicare will take time. A House bill wouldn’t have it in place until 2028, with hearing benefits beginning to come online in 2023. The debit card may be one way to fill in the gap.
A summary provided by Senate Democrats on the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package says only: ‘Expanding Medicare to include dental, vision, hearing benefits and lowering the eligibility age.’
Biden has been meeting with various factions of the House and Senate for weeks. According to the Post, Biden has revealed is feeling heat from his wife on the higher education benefit, which was also a Sanders priority. Sanders chairs the Senate budget committee. The president has joked that if he doesn’t push for the spending he might need to find another place to sleep.
‘Although it’s a smaller bill, it’s still historic,’ said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of a slimmed-down reconciliation bill being negotiated
Remarks by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Wednesday indicated negotiators have been making some decisions.
‘Although it’s a smaller bill, it’s still historic,’ she said.
She responded to a question about negotiators pulling back tax hikes on the wealthy, amid reported objections by Kyrsten Sinema. ‘That’s one of the options, that’s for sure,’ she said. She pointed to House-passed hikes in corporate tax rates and capital gains. ‘It was a very well received proposal because it wasn’t punitive, it was fair,’ she said.
As for reports of Sinema’s opposition, Pelosi said: ‘Her position is well known.’
The White House told Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday that a proposed hike in US corporate taxes is unlikely to make it into their signature social spending bill, according to a congressional source familiar with the discussions.
President Joe Biden’s plans to hike the corporate tax rate to 28 percent from 21 percent, a key campaign promise, are likely to be one of the steep concessions he makes to steer his economic revival package through Congress, the White House disclosed in the private meeting with top Democrats.
The proposed rate had sparked concern among small business owners who feared they could be penalized as harshly as larger corporations the proposed rise was intended to target, despite assurances from Biden that it would have no such impact.
‘There is an expansive menu of options for how to finance the president’s plan to ensure our economy delivers for hardworking families, and none of them are off the table,’ said White House spokesperson Andrew Bates.
Biden, his aides and congressional leadership are racing to close a deal as soon as this week on a set of tax hikes they hope will fund more than $1.75trillion over a decade in programs ranging from childcare to eldercare, healthcare, affordable housing and climate change mitigation.
They have no margin for error because Democrats hold only narrow majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate. Republicans oppose the legislation.
‘The president knows that he’s not going to get everything he wants in this package,’ White House spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters on Air Force One.
‘Nor will any member of Congress, probably, and that’s what compromise is all about.’
The original price tag for the social spending bill was $3.5trillion, but it has now been hacked back to less than $2 trillion, with tuition-free community care college and indefinite raises to child tax credits also on the chopping block.
Democrats hope to pass the measure in the Senate through a ‘reconciliation’ process that requires support by only a simple majority rather than the 60 votes needed for most legislation in the evenly split 100-member chamber.
Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris holds the tiebreaking vote.
Biden, who framed the 2020 election against Republican then-President Donald Trump as one between working-class Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Manhattan’s Park Avenue, pitched the tax hike as an effort to make sure the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share.
Trump and congressional Republicans cut corporate rates to 21 percent from 35 percent in 2017.
After taking office in January, Biden paired the tax hike with a mix of programs he has argued will put the United States on a more sustainable economic footing to compete with China, from universal pre-kindergarten to dental benefits for seniors and incentives to encourage a shift to low-carbon energy sources.
Progressive legislators led by Senator Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont, have argued for a hike in corporate taxes. Sanders had made dental, vision and hearing coverage under Medicare a priority as well
But centrist Democrats in Congress, including Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia (left) and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona (right), have balked at the proposed tax hikes and the $3.5trillion price tag
Business groups and Republicans have fought the measures, arguing they will hamper the economy’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Two moderate Democrat senators – Joe Mancin and Krysten Sinema – have also held out, and are believed to be responsible for many of the concessions Biden has made so far.
‘When I ran for president, I came back to Scranton,’ Biden said on Wednesday on his first trip back to his birthplace since Election Day last November.
‘I resolved to bring Scranton values to bear, making fundamental shifts in how our economy works for working people, build the economy from the ground up … and not from the top down.’
Top Democrats may now put on the table alternate financing proposals for the bill that have been discussed for weeks, including imposing new levies on stock buybacks and business partnerships, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Kyrsten Sinema, a key swing-vote Democrat who has expressed the most concern about tax hikes, may be amenable to other measures that only raise rates for highly profitable large corporations paying next to nothing in federal taxes under current rules, according to Senate colleague Elizabeth Warren.
‘Our problem is partly about too low a rate at the top, and obviously some Democrats disagree,’ Warren, a Democrat, said on CNN.
‘But I think all the Democrats agree, by golly, everybody ought to be paying something.’
The S&P 500 closed 0.4 percent higher after the news about the White House’s private comments was first reported by The Washington Post.
After-hours trading in the US stock index trended 0.3 percent higher.
How much did that cost? Design agency takes THIRTY attempts to ‘capture the spirit of the Biden administration’ in revamped White House logo that’s simply a negative version of the old one
Joe Biden’s administration has revamped the White House logo
The redesign took a design agency nearly 30 tries to get perfect
The difference in the new logo is that the White House has sharper architectural elements, such as defined columns and windows, and roof detailing
It also sits on a blue background with the presidential mansion in white, opposed to Trump’s white background and blue White House
The Biden administration hired agency Wide Eye for the revamp in December
The firm has been behind the branding of the Democratic National Convention and VP Kamala Harris’ primary presidential campaign
The White House director of digital strategy Rob Flaherty said the redesign tried to capture the spirit of the Biden administration
He explained that the team made sure the White House’s front door was clearly visible to symbolize the administration is accessible
Joe Biden‘s administration has revamped the White House logo, with the redesign taking a creative agency nearly 30 attempts to get just right, according to a new report.
In fact, the whole website got spruced up and finished in record time, only having six weeks to overhaul the site from scratch before Biden was sworn in as president last Wednesday, reported Fast Company.
The main difference in the new logo is that the White House has sharper architectural elements, such as defined columns and windows, and more roof detailing. It also sits on a blue background with the presidential mansion in white, opposed to Trump’s white background and a navy White House.
However, there are versions of Biden’s new White House logo that inverts the color scheme.
Back in December, the Biden administration hired creative agency Wide Eye for the revamp. The firm has been behind the branding of the Democratic National Convention and VP Kamala Harris’ primary presidential campaign.
Joe Biden’s administration has revamped the White House logo, with the redesign taking a creative agency nearly 30 attempts to get just right, according to a new report
TRUMP’S: It also sits on a blue background with the presidential mansion in white, opposed to Trump’s white background and a navy blue White House
‹Slide me›
The clear difference in the new logo is that the White House has sharper architectural elements, such as defined columns and windows, and more roof detailing. Pictured: Biden’s White House logo (left) and Trump’s (right)
And according to White House director of digital strategy Rob Flaherty, the redesign went much further than just inverting colors and adding some structural details to the logo. He explained that the team made sure the White House’s front door was clearly visible to symbolize the administration is accessible
And according to White House director of digital strategy Rob Flaherty, the redesign went much further than just inverting colors and adding some structural details to the logo.
He explained the team made sure the White House’s front door was clearly visible to symbolize that the administration is accessible.
He said of the redesign: ‘It is both forward looking while having its roots in something very traditional. That’s a nice statement about what we’re trying to do here.
‘We are bringing the country together and winning the battle for the soul of the nation, but also trying to do it in a way that makes people’s lives materially better.’
He added: ‘Our whole pitch, that we assembled in about two to three days, was the idea that the White House is the people’s house.’
Redesigning the White House logo and changing up the government website is nothing new.
Each new administration puts their own touches on the signage, including President Trump.
His team removed the oval that used to circle the White House on the logo and updated the colors to a white background and a navy blue house.
Redesigning the White House logo and changing up the government website is nothing new. Each new administration puts their own touches on the signage, including President Trump
In fact, the whole website got spruced up and finished in record time, only having six weeks to overhaul the site from scratch before Biden was sworn in as president last Wednesday, reported Fast Company
The website landing page was filled with pictures of Trump, touring the border wall, visiting troops and making speeches
The Trump administration’s White House website landing page was filled with pictures of Trump touring the border wall, visiting troops and making speeches.
Biden’s website is more streamlined, with minimal photos and highlights recent remarks and statements he’s made.
Meanwhile, former president Trump has opened the ‘Office of the Former President’ in Florida that will handle his duties and seek to further his administration’s agenda.
In his first official statement since leaving office, he said he will ‘always and forever be a champion for the American People.’
‘The Office will be responsible for managing President Trump’s correspondence, public statements, appearances, and official activities to advance the interests of the United States and to carry on the agenda of the Trump Administration through advocacy, organizing, and public activism,’ the statement on executive letterhead said.
‘President Trump will always and forever be a champion for the American People.’
The statement, which was sent to reporters via email, includes a new logo designed by Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale, according to Wall Street Journal journalist Rebecca Ballhaus.
Donald Trump has said he will ‘always and forever be a champion for the American People’ in his first official statement since leaving office
Spot the difference: The Trump office logo uses almost all of the elements of the Great Seal of the United States (left) but takes the shield, the lower legs and tail feathers and arrows and olive branch from the presidential seal (right)
The logo is a cross between the Great Seal of the United States and the presidential seal.
Parscale has used almost all the elements of the Great Seal but he has taken the shield from the presidential seal.
Parscale first been demoted from campaign manager after the disastrous June rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which he claimed one million wanted to attend but had ended up with empty seats, then quit entirely in disgrace after being arrested at his house following a drunken armed standoff.
But Parscale now appears to be back in the fold, having called the Trumps ‘family’ and spoken loyally in their favor despite being forced out.
The announcement came on the same day the House of Representatives delivered to the Senate an impeachment article charging the former President with inciting insurrection in a speech to supporters before the attack on the Capitol on January 6. The Senate trial is expected to start on February 9.
Former U.S. presidents are funded for the costs of their ‘transition’ in leaving office for seven months under the Presidential Transition Act.
This can include the funds required to set up a new office and pay staff for 30 months.
They also receive a lifetime allowance of $96,000 a year towards staff costs, the cost of renting office accommodation, and paying its running expenses.
April 26 (Reuters) – The White House hopes to capitalize on growing support from U.S. utilities, unions and green groups for a national clean energy mandate by backing efforts to require the U.S. grid to get 80% of its power from emissions-free sources by 2030, according to a senior administration official.
A 2030 target would be a milestone on the way to achieving President Joe Biden’s stated ambition of net zero carbon emissions in the grid by 2035. It could also potentially be passed without Republican support through a process called budget reconciliation.
“Our goal is to enact this into law,” deputy White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi told Reuters, speaking of the administration’s push for a so-called clean energy standard (CES) to decarbonize the power sector.
The latter would require reductions in emissions by adopting renewables like wind and solar, using nuclear energy or finding ways to suck up and sequester greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel plants.
“There are multiple pathways to get meaningful progress in the power sector,” Zaidi said. “We think this is a really powerful one in terms of giving utilities a clear and clean planning horizon.”
Requiring utilities to move away from coal and natural gas is a cornerstone of U.S. President Joe Biden’s plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions in half across the U.S. economy in the next decade.
Many utilities already have plans to remove carbon from their systems due to investor pressure or state mandates, so they broadly support the policy. They are concerned, however, that technological breakthroughs needed to reach zero emissions may not materialize in time to meet a 2035 timeline.
In a statement, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association said the administration’s 2035 goal was “overly ambitious.”
This month, however, 13 major utilities sent a letter to Biden in support of a power sector goal that would cut emissions by 80% below 2005 levels by 2030.
The country’s grid is currently just 40% clean, but getting to 80% by 2030 can be achieved with existing technologies at no additional cost to ratepayers in every region because the cost of renewables and batteries have come down so much, according to a new analysis by researchers at Energy Innovation and the University of California, Berkeley.
The policy has support from members of both parties in Congress, though Republicans have not embraced the administration’s aggressive timeline due to concerns that it will drive up costs and kill jobs in fossil fuel industries.
Democrats could pass a CES with a simple majority as a revision of budget legislation if the CES sets a 2030 target, since reconciliation measures must fall within a 10-year window.
The Senate is currently divided 50-50 between Democrats and Republican, but Democrats have control because Vice President Kamala Harris can break a tie. Legislation outside of the reconciliation process would need 60 votes to bypass a potential Republican procedural move known as a filibuster.
The White House is weighing various legislative options and speaking to lawmakers in both parties.
Reporting by Nichola Groom and Valerie Volcovici; Editing by David Gregorio
