President Bidens German Shepherds Move Into White House

BIDEN’S SUNDAY — The president and VP KAMALA HARRIS have nothing on their public schedules. In the NYT, ASTEAD HERNDON reports on the growing impatience of many progressives and has a nice overview of how Biden is suddenly grappling with friendly fire on the minimum wage, student loan policy, immigration and his OMB director. “While both sides are eager to push clean energy projects forward and make them a bigger part of the nation’s electrical grid, their disagreements will test Biden’s vow to be both the greenest and the most pro-union president in history. As President JOE BIDEN gets ready for two of the most important weeks of his presidency, the big political story is the cracks that are emerging in the Democratic coalition. National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins tells "Axios on HBO" that the Trump administration deserves credit for the "breathtaking" speed of COVID vaccine development. President Biden wants the 650,000 vehicles operated by the federal government to be electric, union-made — and made in America.

Biden's EPA faces the task of reestablishing greenhouse gas regulations the Trump administration denuded. The Interior Department is expected to return the Bureau of Land Management headquarters to Washington. The Commerce Department will have to rebuild climate science programs under NASA and NOAA.

Trump’s efforts to hobble federal labor unions, although they gained less attention than furloughs and shutdown threats, were just as significant. a hallmark of Trump’s tenurethat affected federal workers in different agencies. President Joe Biden has already sent a very different message as the new boss of the federal workforce.

The dynamic leaves Biden with little choice but to try to govern from the vanishing middle of a Washington that’s been badly ruptured by the tumult of the last decade. With the forces of partisanship and gridlock entrenched, ending what Biden called the “grim era of demonization” could be the central challenge of his presidency — and one that could prove vexing if forces on the left and right refuse to go along. The clubby atmosphere that Biden knew so well during his 36-year Senate career is gone, probably forever.

International observers from the Organization of American States say they saw no instances of fraud or voting irregularities in the U.S. presidential election. WASHINGTON – In “Recount,” the made-for-television film version of the 2000 presidential election standoff that gripped the nation, Republican superlawyer Ben Ginsberg is portrayed as a bare-knuckled brawler with a jaded view of his adversaries. In the week since Election Day, Trump has refused to concede and has publicized spurious claims of fraud to overshadow the result. He also has declined to give President-elect Joe Biden resources and daily presidential intelligence briefings to aid the transition to the new administration. The Pentagon turmoil could further jeopardize the prospect of a seamless handover, at what experts say is a sensitive time.

Biden built the 6,850-square-foot mansion on land he purchased in 1998 for $350,000, according to Realtor.com. The property is now estimated to be worth at least $2 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. Get access to our comprehensive, daily coverage of energy and environmental politics and policy. But in the meantime, the Trump administration is making Biden's to-do list even longer by rushing to finalize actions like drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. BLM hasn't had a Senate-appointed director since 2017, creating a legal morass for the next administration to untangle, he said. Biden could get a head start on that by naming a BLM director before his inauguration, he added.

The flurry of cooley and the gang orders—which deal with the pandemic, climate change, and racism—is a testament to how swiftly the new administration wants to reverse Trump’s legacy. It’s also at odds with Biden’s historical instinct of turning to Congress to enact legislation. Politico reports that more progressive Democrats have pushed the newly elected president to use his executive powers to the fullest extent, as Biden might otherwise struggle to enact his agenda with only a slim Congressional majority. While the President doesn’t have the authority to mandate face masks nationwide, his executive order will compel people to wear masks on federal property, his aides said. Ryan Lizza is a Playbook Co-Author and the Chief Washington Correspondent for POLITICO.

I’ve done 30 Super Bowls, numerous World Series and NBA Finals games, Final Fours, several Indianapolis 500, Daytona 500 and other auto races, major prize fights and golf tournaments, college football bowl games and more. Just four years ago, Trump and Belichick were so tight that the candidate read a sappy letter to the crowd he got from Mr. Hoodie on the presidential campaign trail. Belichick ranks with George Halas, Vince Lombardi and Paul Brown on the NFL’s Mount Rushmore of head coaches. He has six Super Bowl rings, and he joined Tom Brady to help the New England Patriots evolve into the No. 2 team on Forbes’ list of the league’s most valuable franchises, at $4.4 billion.

On Thursday, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Directory Anthony Fauci, who will serve as the chief medical officer on Biden’s coronavirus response team, is scheduled to speak at a meeting of the WHO’s executive board. Secretary of State nominee Antony Blinken confirmed the new administration’s intent to join COVAX during his Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday. “We believe strongly that we can do that — ensure that every American gets the vaccine, but also help make sure that others around the world who want it have access to it,” he said. The new administration intends to place “all hands on deck to ramp up getting shot in arms,” Jeff Zients, the incoming coordinator of the White House’s coronavirus response team appointed by Biden, said in a briefing on the eve of the inauguration, per The Washington Post. President-elect Joe Biden plans to sign a series of pandemic-related executive orders on his first day in office to speed up the slow-moving vaccination campaign and reverse a number of Trump-era policies.

Biden campaigned on orienting the entire federal government toward climate action. Observers say his early picks have lived up to that, including former Secretary of State John Kerry as a global climate envoy. That is raising expectations that climate change will continue to shape his Cabinet. President-elect Joe Biden sent tremors through boardrooms and world capitals yesterday by picking a climate-oriented foreign policy team. Biden is coming out of the gate with ambitious plans to reverse the last four years and move forward as a country dedicated to global leadership on climate change, social justice, and public health. As ever, it will be up to engaged citizens to hold his administration to those promises. Biden has said he willsign an executive order revoking Trump’s immigration policies.