Tag: joe biden

Joe Biden Exploring Ways to Tie Climate Change Legislation to Coronavirus Relief

Biden, whose environmental agenda is heavily influenced by the recommendations of a unity task force set up with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) after the Democrat primaries, has proposed spending $2 trillion over four years to combat climate change.

A major portion of the money will be used to create one million new jobs in the auto industry by boosting the production of energy-efficient vehicles. In order to achieve the goal, Biden is backing legislation, introduced by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), to incentivize individuals to trade in their gas-powered vehicles for ones running on either electricity or hydrogen.

The former vice president has also proposed to adopt a 100 percent clean-electricity standard by 2035. A similar idea was initially raised by Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA) during his own ill-fated run for the Democrat nomination in 2019. If implemented, it would ensure that all electricity produced in the United States would be “carbon-free.

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Fauci says America may still need masks after Biden’s first 100 days

The president-elect said on Thursday that he planned to call on Americans to wear masks for his first 100 days in office. He has long urged Americans to wear masks to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Just 100 days to mask, not forever. 100 days. And I think we’ll see a significant reduction” in COVID-19 infections, Biden said.

Fauci told NBC “Today” host Savannah Guthrie that he spoke with Biden about the plan, and said it was a good idea.

“He’s saying ‘hey folks, trust me, everybody for 100 days,’” Fauci said. “Now, it might be that after that, we still are gonna need it, but he just wants it — everybody for a commitment for 100 days.”

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In Bizarre Interview, Biden Jokes He Would ‘Fake Illness And Resign’ Over Disagreement

Joe Biden may have just said the quiet part out loud.

During a Thursday CNN interview with Kamala Harris, Biden was asked about his relationship with his running mate, to which he gave a rambling reply capped off with the most awkward of ‘jokes’: that under certain circumstances he’d fake an illness and resign.

“It’s a matter of, the thing – we are simpatico on our philosophy of government. Sympatico on how we want to approach these issues that we’re facing. And when we disagree, it’ll be just like so far, it’s been just like when Barack and I did. It’s in private, she’ll say ‘I think you should do A, B, C or D,’ and I’ll say ‘I like A, I don’t like B and C, and s’go OK…’

“And like I told Barack, if there’s a fundamental disagreement we have based on a moral principle, I’ll develop some disease and say I have to resign.”

Biden then goes on to gush over Kamala’s credentials – saying “The great thing is she has a background in the Senate on intelligence, the intelligence community, she has a background in the Senate on a whole range of things that are gonna be pertinent to what we have to do.”

“It’s a matter of who takes what, when.”

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Reasons why the 2020 presidential election is deeply puzzling

To say out-loud that you find the results of the 2020 presidential election odd is to invite derision. You must be a crank or a conspiracy theorist. Mark me down as a crank, then. I am a pollster and I find this election to be deeply puzzling. I also think that the Trump campaign is still well within its rights to contest the tabulations. Something very strange happened in America’s democracy in the early hours of Wednesday November 4 and the days that followed. It’s reasonable for a lot of Americans to want to find out exactly what.

First, consider some facts. President Trump received more votes than any previous incumbent seeking reelection. He got 11 million more votes than in 2016, the third largest rise in support ever for an incumbent. By way of comparison, President Obama was comfortably reelected in 2012 with 3.5 million fewer votes than he received in 2008.

Trump’s vote increased so much because, according to exit polls, he performed far better with many key demographic groups. Ninety-five percent of Republicans voted for him. He did extraordinarily well with rural male working-class whites.

He earned the highest share of all minority votes for a Republican since 1960. Trump grew his support among black voters by 50 percent over 2016. Nationally, Joe Biden’s black support fell well below 90 percent, the level below which Democratic presidential candidates usually lose.

Trump increased his share of the national Hispanic vote to 35 percent. With 60 percent or less of the national Hispanic vote, it is arithmetically impossible for a Democratic presidential candidate to win Florida, Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico. Bellwether states swung further in Trump’s direction than in 2016. Florida, Ohio and Iowa each defied America’s media polls with huge wins for Trump. Since 1852, only Richard Nixon has lost the electoral college after winning this trio, and that 1960 defeat to John F. Kennedy is still the subject of great suspicion.

Midwestern states Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin always swing in the same direction as Ohio and Iowa, their regional peers. Ohio likewise swings with Florida. Current tallies show that, outside of a few cities, the Rust Belt swung in Trump’s direction. Yet, Biden leads in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin because of an apparent avalanche of black votes in Detroit, Philadelphia, and Milwaukee. Biden’s ‘winning’ margin was derived almost entirely from such voters in these cities, as coincidentally his black vote spiked only in exactly the locations necessary to secure victory. He did not receive comparable levels of support among comparable demographic groups in comparable states, which is highly unusual for the presidential victor.

We are told that Biden won more votes nationally than any presidential candidate in history. But he won a record low of 17 percent of counties; he only won 524 counties, as opposed to the 873 counties Obama won in 2008. Yet, Biden somehow outdid Obama in total votes.

Victorious presidential candidates, especially challengers, usually have down-ballot coattails; Biden did not. The Republicans held the Senate and enjoyed a ‘red wave’ in the House, where they gained a large number of seats while winning all 27 toss-up contests. Trump’s party did not lose a single state legislature and actually made gains at the state level.

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Biden: Americans Need To ‘Forgo’ Holiday Traditions This Year

In a monotone Thanksgiving eve address against a yellow “Office of the President Elect” backdrop (an office which doesn’t actually exist), the presumptive president-elect said that every American has “a responsibility” to take coronavirus seriously and ‘redouble our efforts’ to fight the disease.

“This year we are asking Americans to forgo so many of the traditions that have long made this holiday,” said Biden, before urging people to limit travel and practice social distancing to reduce the risk of exposure – noting that he and wife Jill Biden will be spending Thanksgiving with their daughter and son-in-law, while their other children will be doing their own thing “in small groups” (which may include hookers and crack).

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Biden’s pick for US spy chief played a central role in Obama’s secretive drone war that resulted in hundreds of civilian deaths

President-elect Joe Biden has received applause across the political spectrum over his picks for top foreign policy and national security roles in his incoming administration. But human rights groups and progressives have expressed concern about his choice for director of national intelligence (DNI), Avril Haines. 

Haines, a former deputy CIA director who would be the first woman to serve as the top US spy chief if confirmed, played a central role in crafting the legal framework surrounding the Obama administration’s controversial, secretive drone war.

As a widely-cited 2013 Newsweek profile put it: “Haines was sometimes summoned in the middle of the night to weigh in on whether a suspected terrorist could be lawfully incinerated by a drone strike.”

“My concerns about her are more my concerns about the Obama administration,” Andrea J. Prasow, the deputy Washington director of Human Rights Watch, told the New York Times. “With these cabinet picks, we are returning to the previous administration instead of making bold and forward-leaning picks.”

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