Biden on impeachment: “What the Congress decides to do is for them to decide.”
Biden repeats this in response to a follow up. He’s not budging on whether he thinks Congress should push ahead on impeachment.
Biden on the next covid relief bill: “The price tag will be high.”
Biden says he will be laying out his immediate legislative plans next Thursday and that the entire package will be in the trillions of dollars.
"They're a bunch of thugs, insurrections, white supremacists, anti-Semites, '6M is not enough,'" Biden says. "I mean, come on ... these are a bunch of thugs, thugs. And they're terrorists, domestic terrorists."
Biden calls for a full investigation of what happened on Wednesday at the Capitol, including how law enforcement handled it. Notes "photographs that looked like you had ... some of the Capitol Police taking selfies with these people. That has to be thoroughly investigated."
Biden says Trump not attending the inauguration is “one of the few things he and I have ever agreed on."
"He exceeded even my worst notions about him. He's been an embarrassment to the country, embarrassed us around the world. He's not worthy to hold that office.”
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Biden says he will lay out the framework for the next round of covid relief next week. “We need more direct relief flowing to families, small businesses,” he says.
In addition to calling for more crisis economic relief, Biden says that with Democratic majorities in both chambers of Congress, it should be possible to raise it to $15 an hour. “People in both parties recognize it’s time to raise the minimum wage,” he says.
Biden: “The bottom line is we’re in the midst of the most unequal economic and jobs crisis in modern history.”
President-elect Biden has chosen Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo for commerce secretary, a person familiar says, confirming @jmartNYT scoop.
@jmartNYT And Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is Biden's pick for labor secretary, confirming @tylerpager scoop.
@jmartNYT@tylerpager With picks this week for attorney general, commerce secretary and labor secretary, Biden has now selected nominees for all cabinet-level positions. Biden has already touted it as the most-diverse cabinet ever but it won't satisfy everyone. No Latinas or AAPIs to be secretaries.
Biden’s introduction of his pick for education secretary, Miguel Cardona, begins with a lengthy discussion of supporting schools and families through the pandemic with the goal of reopening most schools by the end of his first 100 days in office.
Biden reiterates his support for canceling $10,000 in student debt amid the pandemic.
Biden says his administration will "combat campus sexual assault under Title IX, something he says the Trump administration and the current secretary of education "have only undermined."
New: Trump pardons two former Republican members of Congress, Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins, and commutes the sentence of a third, Steve Stockman.
Trump pardons George Papadopoulos, with statement that in part reads “Today’s pardon helps correct the wrong that Mueller’s team inflicted on so many people.”
Trump has also pardoned Blackwater contractors Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard, who convicted of killing civilians in Iraq.
NEW: Bruce Reed will be a deputy chief of staff in the Biden White House, transition says. A former Biden VP chief of staff, he spent much of the last two years staffing Biden on the campaign trail. Much of his recent policy work has focused on regulating big tech.
Some progressives have voiced concerns about Reed joining the administration, pointing to his long ties to the centrist Democratic Leadership Council and his record as a domestic policy adviser during the Clinton administration, including helping write the 1996 welfare law.
More Biden staff: @ryanmontoya will be director of scheduling and advance, @AnneFilipic will be dir of management and administration, @gauragDC will be dep dir of the Office of Presidential Personnel. Vinay Reddy will be dir of speechwriting & Elizabeth Wilkins sr adv to COS.
Biden names two deputy directors of the National Economic Council: @davidckamin and @BharatRamamurti, whose focus will be financial reform and consumer protection. Plus @joelle_gamble as a special assistant to the president for economic policy.
Ramamurti was Elizabeth Warren’s top economic adviser during her 2020 presidential campaign. Both he and Gamble have ties to the progressive @rooseveltinst.
Kamin and fellow NYU prof @lilybatch’s 2019 paper “Taxing the Rich: Issues and Options” was extensively cited in Biden’s tax plan. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…