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Joe Biden on Vladimir Putin’s leadership of Russia
President Joe Biden returned home on Sunday fighting off criticism from world leaders and experts for the unscripted shot the president took at Vladimir Putin over the weekend in which he remarked that the Russian president “cannot remain in power”. The comments, which many critics say could inflame tensions and harden Mr Putin’s resolve, seemed to distract from what would otherwise be considered a successful four-day trip to Europe.
Biden aides swiftly came in over the weekend to walk back the president’s comments, explaining in interviews that Mr Biden had not been calling for a regime change in Russia but had rather been underscoring that Mr Putin “cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region,” one administration official told reporters.
The president’s remarks were made as he toured Poland, where he warned Russia not to tread one inch on a Nato ally’s soil.
The president returned home to an administration struggling to earn back the electorate’s goodwill. Mr Biden’s approval ratings have continued to bottom out on issues that matter most to voters, such as the economy, the ongoing pandemic and an increasingly complicated foreign policy crisis.
Dem senator approves of Biden’s billionaire tax plan
The news that Joe Biden is proposing new taxes on households worth more than $100m is going down well with Democratic senators who have been calling for the wealthy to “pay their fair share”, some of them since the financial crisis and before.
Roll Call reporter Lindsey McPherson has this chatter from the Capitol.
Andrew Naughtie28 March 2022 17:04
Sanders knocks Biden’s defence spending
Joe Biden’s budget includes a substantial boost to military spending, with the war in Ukraine clearly a major factor in the calculation. But Senator Bernie Sanders, who chairs the Senate’s Budget Committee, is unimpressed:
Andrew Naughtie28 March 2022 16:55
Biden calls new budget a “statement of values”
Announcing his new fiscal proposal for the next year, Joe Biden has not held back on the lofty rhetoric.
“Budgets are statements of values,” he said in a White House statement, “and the budget I am releasing today sends a clear message that we value fiscal responsibility, safety and security at home and around the world, and the investments needed to continue our equitable growth and build a better America.”
In translation, this means a great deal more money for law enforcement (bucking the “defund the police” trend in parts of his party), “one of the largest investments in our national security in history” – and, crucially for those concerned about the survival of American democracy, major investment in voting infrastructure.
As America’s democracy faces threats across the Nation, the State, county, and municipal governments that run Federal elections have struggled to obtain resources commensurate with the improved access and security that voters expect and deserve. Federal funding for the equipment, systems, and personnel that comprise the Nation’s critical election infrastructure has been episodic or crisis-driven. To provide State and local election officials with a predictable funding stream for critical capital investments and increased staffing and services, the Budget proposes $10 billion in new elections assistance funding to be allocated over 10 years. The Budget also proposes to fund an expansion of USPS delivery capacity in underserved areas and support for vote-by-mail, including making ballots postage-free and reducing the cost of other election-related mail for jurisdictions and voters.
If you feel up to it, you can look through the entire budget proposal here.
Andrew Naughtie28 March 2022 16:40
Former US ambassador to Russia: Biden right about Putin
The Biden administration is struggling to convince the rest of the world that Joe Biden was not yesterday calling for Vladimir Putin to be forcibly ousted from power. But Michael McFaul, a top Russia expert who served as US ambassador to Moscow under the Obama administration, has this take on Mr Biden’s “regime change” remarks in Poland yesterday…
Andrew Naughtie28 March 2022 16:13
Report: Biden will ask Congress to fund the police
Having insisted at his State of the Union address this year that he does not agree with those calling to “defund the police”, Joe Biden is now reportedly preparing to launch a budget that will do exactly the opposite.
As reported by Axios, the budget proposal will include some $32bn in new law enforcement spending. As the president said to Congress in January, “We should all agree: The answer is not to defund the police. It’s to fund the police. Fund them. Fund them. Fund them with resources and training.”
Andrew Naughtie28 March 2022 15:43
Cory Booker on the “unassailable” Ketanji Brown Jackson
Democratic Senator Cory Booker has spoken out on the treatment of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson by Judiciary Committee Republicans at her confirmation hearings last week.
Speaking to MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart yesterday, Mr Booker – whose closing remarks to Ms Brown Jackson moved the judge to tears – regretted how his colleagues’ focus on issues like critical race theory detracted from the import of the work at hand: confirming the US Supreme Court’s first Black woman justice.
Andrew Naughtie28 March 2022 15:09
Biden on Putin: A warning from Macron
As the Russian attack on Ukraine drew near, French President Emmanuel Macron was one of the west’s key high-level communicators with Vladimir Putin (much good that it did). Like many other voices in Nato, he has now warned that Mr Biden’s words over the weekend.
“I wouldn’t use this type of wording,” he said, “because I continue to hold discussions with President Putin. “If this is what we want to do, we should not escalate things – neither with words nor actions.”
Andrew Naughtie28 March 2022 14:30
Americans stuck in Ukraine feel “abandoned”
An American couple whose daughter and grandchild are stuck in Ukraine say they feel abandoned by their representatives in the US Congress after their daughter failed in an attempt to flee the country into Slovakia.
Massachusetts parents Dr Deborah Hubbard and Dr William Hubbard say their daughter, Aislinn Hubbard, who had been studying in Kyiv at a prestigious dance school since 2018, had tried to cross the Slovakian border shared with the at-war country, but failed to make it across when agents asked to see her son’s birth certificate.
Because the young mother had a home birth, a byproduct of the ongoing pandemic, and the fact that she hadn’t anticipated fleeing the country from an invading army so soon after having her son, Seraphim, she still hadn’t procured the necessary documents (either a passport or a birth certificate) for travelling with her baby.
Seraphim’s father, a Ukrainian, isn’t allowed to leave the country due to the government’s ban on all men aged 18-60 from leaving the country.
Johanna Chisholm reports:
Andrew Naughtie28 March 2022 13:50
Catch up: What Biden said about Putin
The storm swirling around Joe Biden as he returns from Europe was set off by just one sentence about Vladimir Putin: “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power”.
Biden calls for ‘dictator’ Putin to be removed from power during Poland speech
The Biden administration’s efforts to walk back the apparently off-the-cuff remark have not quelled the near-universal alarm that the president created among western allied governments. The line has also eclipsed much of the rest of Mr Biden’s speech, which you can read in full on the White House website.
Per that transcript, here’s what he said leading up to the already infamous last line…
So, in this hour, let the words of Pope John Paul burn as brightly today: “Never, ever give up hope, never doubt, never tire, never become discouraged. Be not afraid.”
A dictator bent on rebuilding an empire will never erase a people’s love for liberty. Brutality will never grind down their will to be free. Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia — for free people refuse to live in a world of hopelessness and darkness.
We will have a different future — a brighter future rooted in democracy and principle, hope and light, of decency and dignity, of freedom and possibilities.
Read more on the incident below courtesy of Andrew Feinberg.
Andrew Naughtie28 March 2022 13:00
Biden staffer tests positive for Covid
Another member of Joe Biden’s team has tested positive for Covid-19, this time after joining him on his trip to Europe. So far, there is no indication that the president himself has been infected.
Andrew Naughtie28 March 2022 12:25
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