Summary
- Donald Trump called for the House committee tasked with investigating the 6 January 2021 insurrection on the US Capitol to “stop its work immediately”. The former president, who encouraged his supporters to “fight like hell” before they headed to the Capitol, falsely claimed the committee was a coverup for “Biden’s failed administration”.
- The US surpassed 900,000 Covid-19 deaths, the highest highest reported death toll of any country. The new figures come less than two months after Covid deaths in the US reached 800,000 as the highly contagious Omicron variant led to a surge in cases this winter.
- The Republican National Committee approved a resolution censuring Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the two Republican members of the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection. The resolution refers to the violent insurrection, which resulted in several deaths and hundreds of arrests, as “legitimate political discourse”.
-
The RNC’s mischaracterization of the insurrection sparked bipartisan outrage, with many accusing the party of attempting to normalize political violence. Cheney shared a video that included footage from the insurrection, showing rioters attacking police officers with chemical spray and flag poles. “This was January 6th. This is not ‘legitimate political discourse,’” Cheney said in her tweet.
- Mike Pence rejected Donald Trump’s claims that he could have overturned the results of the 2020 election. Trump and some of his allies have argued Pence could have overruled the Electoral College as the vice-president oversaw the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory on January 6. “President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election,” Pence said at a Federal Society event today. “The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone.”
- The House select committee investigating the insurrection has reportedly gathered evidence that Trump spoke to Republican congressman Jim Jordan the morning of the Capitol attack. According to CNN, call records show Trump spoke with Jordan for 10 minutes on the morning of January 6. The select committee has asked Jordan to voluntarily provide information on the events of January 6, but he has so far refused to do so.
- Biden celebrated the strong January jobs report, which showed that the US economy added 467,000 jobs last month. In a speech this morning, Biden noted that 6.6m jobs have been created in the year since he took office, as the country continues to recover from the coronavirus pandemic. “America is back to work,” Biden said. “History’s been made here.”
-Joan E Greve and Dani Anguiano
Tucker Carlson has been accused of promoting “antisemitic tropes” in his documentary Hungary vs Soros: The Fight for Civilization, which attacks the billionaire Democratic donor – and frequent target of antisemitic hate – George Soros.
The film, which aired last week, sees Carlson, a Fox News host with a long history of inflammatory rightwing rhetoric, travel to Hungary, where he tees up a selection of politicians and commenters to attack Soros, a wealthy philanthropist who has donated billions of dollars to Democratic causes.
Soros, who is Jewish and was born in Hungary, has been subjected to antisemitic attacks from conservatives for decades. Far-right activists and believers in the QAnon conspiracy theory have accused Soros of funding violent protests, of supporting an imagined global ring of pedophiles and of driving illegal immigration, a recurring theme in Carlson’s film.
Carlson claims in the documentary that Soros has “spent decades” waging “a kind of war, political, social and demographic war on the west”. Carlson’s narration is accompanied by black and white images and screeching, dystopian music.
“Unlike the threats from the Soviets and the Ottoman empire, the threat posed by George Soros and his nonprofit organizations is much more subtle and hard to detect,” Carlson says. Later, he claims that Soros has plotted to “oust democratically elected leaders” and “install ideologically aligned puppets”, nodding to antisemitic tropes about a global cabal which controls the world’s politics and finances.
Soros has given at least $18bn to his Open Society Foundations organization, which offers financial grants to groups around the world, and has been a key donor to Democratic politicians and causes. He has long been a target of the political right, which has projected an array of conspiracy theories about the billionaire. In 2018 a pipe bomb was delivered to Soros’s home in Bedford, about 40 miles north of New York City.
Full story:
US surpasses 900,000 Covid deaths
About two years into the pandemic, more than 900,000 people have died of Covid in the US, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The new total – the highest reported death toll of any country – comes less than two months after Covid deaths in the US reached 800,000 as the highly contagious Omicron variant led to a surge in cases this winter.
“It is an astronomically high number. If you had told most Americans two years ago as this pandemic was getting going that 900,000 Americans would die over the next few years, I think most people would not have believed it,” said Dr Ashish K Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.
While new case rates appear to be falling across much of the country, the pandemic has tested the limits of the US healthcare system. Experts have warned for months that increasing vaccination rates is key to fighting the pandemic and preventing new variants. Sixty-four percent of Americans are vaccinated, according to the CDC.
More here:
Hours after Mike Pence offered his strongest rebuke of Donald Trump yet, the Democratic National Committee criticized the former vice-president for standing “silent as Trump undermined our democracy”.
“Let’s be very clear – former vice-president Mike Pence doesn’t deserve credit for ‘breaking’ with Trump after standing shoulder to shoulder with him for nearly six years ... he surely could have done more before Trump incited a mob to attack the Capitol, assault police officers, and try to overturn an election,” said the DNC spokesperson Adonna Biel, calling his remarks “a day late and a dollar short”.
At an event for the conservative legal group the Federalist Society on Friday, Pence pushed back against Trump’s false claims that the vice-president had the ability to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
“President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election,” Pence said. “The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone. Frankly there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.”
A jury found high-profile attorney Michael Avenatti guilty of cheating the adult film star Stormy Daniels out of nearly $300,000 she was supposed to get for writing a book about an alleged tryst with Donald Trump.
The lawyer, who rose to fame as one of Trump’s leading critics on cable news early in his administration, has faced a host of legal problems in recent years including a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for trying to extort up to $25m from Nike.
Prosecutors said Avenatti spent a share of Daniels’ money on airfare, food and payroll for his debt-ridden law firm, and repeatedly lied to her when she pressed him on when she would get an installment she was owed on the $800,000 book deal.
More here:
Greetings from Los Angeles, readers. I’m Dani Anguiano and I’ll be taking over the Guardian’s live coverage of US politics for the next few hours.
Donald Trump called for the House committee tasked with investigating the 6 January 2021 insurrection on the US Capitol to “stop its work immediately”. His statement was released Friday shortly after Mike Pence offered a strong rebuke of the former president and Republicans voted to censure Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for their involvement with the 6 January House committee.
The former president, who encouraged his supporters to “fight like hell” before they headed to the Capitol, blamed Pelosi for security issues on 6 January and falsely claimed the committee was a coverup for “Biden’s failed administration”. Capitol security is the responsibility of the Capitol police board, not the speaker of the House.
Meanwhile, the Republican party on Friday sought to frame Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election defeat and the US Capitol attack as “legitimate political discourse”. Seven people died in the attack on the US Capitol and more than 100 police officers were injured. Trump, who was impeached by the House for inciting an insurrection, has promised pardons for 6 January rioters if he is elected again.
Today so far
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Dani Anguiano, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- The Republican National Committee approved a resolution censuring Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the two Republican members of the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection. The resolution refers to the violent insurrection, which resulted in several deaths and hundreds of arrests, as “legitimate political discourse”.
-
The RNC’s mischaracterization of the insurrection sparked bipartisan outrage, with many accusing the party of attempting to normalize political violence. Cheney shared a video that included footage from the insurrection, showing rioters attacking police officers with chemical spray and flag poles. “This was January 6th. This is not ‘legitimate political discourse,’” Cheney said in her tweet.
- Mike Pence rejected Donald Trump’s claims that he could have overturned the results of the 2020 election. Trump and some of his allies have argued Pence could have overruled the Electoral College as the vice-president oversaw the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory on January 6. “President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election,” Pence said at a Federal Society event today. “The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone.”
- The House select committee investigating the insurrection has reportedly gathered evidence that Trump spoke to Republican congressman Jim Jordan the morning of the Capitol attack. According to CNN, call records show Trump spoke with Jordan for 10 minutes on the morning of January 6. The select committee has asked Jordan to voluntarily provide information on the events of January 6, but he has so far refused to do so.
- Biden celebrated the strong January jobs report, which showed that the US economy added 467,000 jobs last month. In a speech this morning, Biden noted that 6.6m jobs have been created in the year since he took office, as the country continues to recover from the coronavirus pandemic. “America is back to work,” Biden said. “History’s been made here.”
Dani will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Updated
Constitutional law experts have consistently rejected claims from Donald Trump and his supporters that the vice-president can overturn the results of a presidential election while overseeing the congressional certification process.
“Any claim that the vice-president can unilaterally overturn the results of a presidential election is patently absurd,” Matthew Hall, a professor of constitutional studies and political science at the University of Notre Dame, recently told USA Today.
“If the vice-president had total discretion to overturn election results, the party that controls the White House could simply refuse to surrender power when they lose an election. Such an arrangement would completely undermine the integrity of our democratic system.”
Mike Pence’s comments come days after Donald Trump reiterated the baseless claim that the vice-president could have overturned the results of the 2020 election on January 6.
In a Sunday statement, Trump criticized efforts to reform the 1887 Electoral Count Act, which outlines how the results of presidential elections are meant to be certified by Congress.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing to change the law to clarify, among other things, that the vice-president’s role overseeing the certification process is purely ceremonial.
“Actually, what they are saying, is that Mike Pence did have the right to change the outcome, and they now want to take that right away,” Trump said. “Unfortunately, he didn’t exercise that power, he could have overturned the Election!”
Pence has now rejected Trump’s claims, saying he had no authority to overturn the results of the election. And that view is supported by constitutional law experts.
Pence: 'President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election'
Mike Pence has pushed back against Donald Trump’s baseless claims that the vice-president had the ability to overturn the results of the 2020 election as he oversaw the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory on January 6.
Speaking at an event for the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group, Pence said the Constitution does not give the vice-president any authority to override the Electoral College.
MIKE PENCE: “President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election. The presidency belongs to the American people, and the American people alone. And frankly, there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president." pic.twitter.com/7feWD75Fq1
— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) February 4, 2022
“I heard this week that President Trump said I had the right to overturn the election. President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election,” Pence said in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
“The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone. Frankly there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.”
Pence then pivoted to discussing the next presidential election, saying, “Under the Constitution, I had no right to change the outcome of our election. And Kamala Harris will have no right to overturn the election when we beat them in 2024.”
Pence has been named as a potential presidential candidate for the 2024 race, but his direct criticism of Trump will likely irk the former president’s supporters, who make up much of the Republican base.
Liz Cheney also sharply criticized the Republican National Committee for referring to the Capitol insurrection as “legitimate political discourse”.
The Republican congresswoman, who was censured by the RNC over her work for the House select committee investigating the insurrection, shared a video of some of the violence that occurred on January 6.
The tweeted video shows insurrectionists assaulting police officers and attacking them with chemical spray and flag poles as they storm the Capitol.
“This was January 6th. This is not ‘legitimate political discourse,’” Cheney said in her tweet.
This was January 6th.
— Rep. Liz Cheney (@RepLizCheney) February 4, 2022
This is not “legitimate political discourse.” pic.twitter.com/lKgbVyVcJr
Updated
Government watchdog groups are fiercely criticizing the Republican National Committee for characterizing the Capitol insurrection as “legitimate political discourse” in its resolution censuring Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.
“January 6 was an insurrection that left dead and scores of seriously injured in its wake. It was not legitimate political discourse no matter what the GOP says,” said Karen Hobert Flynn, the president of the group Common Cause.
“It was a violent attempt to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election and ignore the will of the people. It was a dangerous and irresponsible attempt to try to intimidate Congress with an angry racist mob assembled and then set loose by a man who had just lost the presidential election.”
Flynn accused the RNC of attempting to normalize political violence, and she described the vote to censure Cheney and Kinzinger over their work investigating the insurrection as “anti-democratic”.
“There is no room for ambiguity when it comes to an attack on the peaceful transfer of power and our democratic system of government,” Flynn said.
“January 6 was an attack on the rule of law, the very concept of free and fair elections, and it was an attack on America. Elected leaders who endorse political violence have no business governing in the name of the American people.”
Biden signs executive order to improve federal construction projects
Meanwhile, Joe Biden has just signed an executive order aimed at improving the timeliness and lowering the costs of federal construction projects.
The president signed the executive order at Ironworkers Local 5 in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, and he praised the workers present as some of “the best in the world”.
The executive order will require the use of project labor agreements on federal construction contracts above $35 million, and the White House has said that the policy will help alleviate delays to ensure projects are completed on time.
“The executive order I’m going to sign today is going to help ensure that we build a better America, we build it right and we build it on time [and] we build it cheaper than it would have been otherwise,” Biden said.
The president said that the expanded use of project labor agreements would lead to highly-skilled workers overseeing the most important projects, resulting in fewer work stoppages and a smaller bill for the federal government.
“When big construction projects are completed efficiently and with the highest degree of professionalism, it’s good for the American taxpayer,” Biden said. “We don’t talk about how y’all save the American taxpayers’ money.”
Updated
Weeks after the 2020 election, Donald Trump reviewed a draft executive order that authorized the national guard to seize voting machines and verbally agreed to appoint Sidney Powell, a campaign lawyer and conspiracy theorist, as special counsel to investigate election fraud.
The two previously unreported actions of the former president – which is certain to interest the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack and Trump’s efforts to overturn his defeat – came during a contentious White House meeting on 18 December 2020.
Trump never followed through with issuing a formal executive order authorizing the seizure of voting machines or appointing a special counsel. But four sources with detailed knowledge of what transpired during the 18 December meeting described to the Guardian how close he came to doing so.
The draft executive order Trump reviewed was one of the final versions Powell had prepared. An early version of the document was published by Politico. Another version, obtained by CNN, empowered the Department of Homeland Security instead of the Department of Defense.
But all versions included language that would have allowed Trump to appoint a special counsel to investigate claims of foreign interference in the 2020 election, which the Department of Justice had already determined were without foundation.
Read the Guardian’s full report:
Records show Trump spoke to Jim Jordan on morning of Capitol insurrection - report
As Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger are censured over their involvement with the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection, the panel is gathering some new information about Donald Trump’s communications on the morning of the attack.
CNN reports:
The House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection is now in possession of White House records that provide new details about a phone call Donald Trump made to Republican Rep. Jim Jordan on January 6, 2021 -- as the investigation drills down on the former President’s communications that day and questions have long swirled around calls between him and lawmakers.
Two sources who have reviewed the call records tell CNN that Trump spoke on the phone at the White House residence with Jordan for 10 minutes on the morning of January 6. That afternoon, Jordan took to the House floor to object to the certification of President Joe Biden’s Electoral College win, and pro-Trump supporters attacked the US Capitol.
The select committee has asked Jordan to voluntarily appear before investigators to provide testimony about the insurrection, but he has refused to do so.
The latest details about Jordan’s call with Trump hours before the attack unfolded may give the select committee justification to move forward with a subpoena of the Republican congressman.
Some Republican lawmakers are expressing dismay over their party’s decision to censure Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney for their work with the select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection.
“The GOP I believe in is the party of freedom and truth,” said Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, who has frequently criticized Donald Trump and his hold over the Republican party.
“It’s a sad day for my party—and the country—when you’re punished just for expressing your beliefs, standing on principle, and refusing to tell blatant lies.”
The GOP I believe in is the party of freedom and truth.
— Larry Hogan (@LarryHogan) February 4, 2022
It’s a sad day for my party—and the country—when you’re punished just for expressing your beliefs, standing on principle, and refusing to tell blatant lies.
Republican party calls Jan 6 insurrection 'legitimate political discourse' as it censures Cheney and Kinzinger
In a show of loyalty to former president Donald Trump, Republicans on Friday censured two of its own, US Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.
The move was a response to their involvement in the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection on January 6 last year.
The resolution also referred to the Capitol insurrection, which resulted in the deaths of several people and has already led to hundreds of arrests, as “legitimate political discourse”.
The censure of Cheney and Kinzinger passed on a voice vote as 168 members of the RNC gathered for their winter meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah. The yes votes were overwhelming, with a handful of nays, according to reporters at the meeting. The resolution said their actions have damaged Republican efforts to win back majorities in Congress.
Both lawmakers issued statements in anticipation of Friday’s vote. “The leaders of the Republican Party have made themselves willing hostages to a man who admits he tried to overturn a presidential election and suggests he would pardon January 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy,” Cheney said, referring to the hundreds of Trump supporters accused of various crimes in the violent attack.
Not all Republicans backed the censure. Republican Senator Mitt Romney praised Cheney and Kinzinger as honorable in a Twitter post on Friday. “Shame falls on a party that would censure persons of conscience, who seek truth in the face of vitriol,” he wrote.
Updated
Congressional staff have declared their efforts to unionize offices and committees in Congress.
In a statement on Friday, the Congressional Workers Union said a survey distributed by the Congressional Progressive Staff Association found that 91% of staff surveyed “want more protections to give them a voice at work”.
The new union plans come as a result of a volunteer group of congressional staff organizing for more than a year.
“Now, in the midst of this momentous resurgence of the labor movement, and on the heels of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s commitment to ‘fully support’ any organizing efforts by Congressional staff, it is time for Democrats to lead by example,” the statement said.
On Thursday, Pelosi’s office expressed her support for the union, with spokesperson Drew Hammill saying: “Like all Americans, our tireless Congressional staff have the right to organize their workplace and join together in a union. If and when staffers choose to exercise their right, they would have Speaker Pelosi’s full support.”
Representative Andy Levin, a Democrat from Michigan, also threw his weight behind the union drive. “At the request of the new union, next week we will take legislative action to afford congressional staff the freedom to form a union - a fundamental right for all workers,” he tweeted.
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Joe Biden celebrated the strong January jobs report, which showed that the US economy added 467,000 jobs last month. In a speech this morning, Biden noted that 6.6 million jobs have been created in the year since he took office, as the country continues to recover from the coronavirus pandemic. “America is back to work,” Biden said. “History’s been made here.”
- The House passed a bill to bolster the US production of semiconductor chips. The COMPETES Act passed the House in a vote of 222 to 210, which fell almost entirely along party lines. The Senate has passed a similar bill on economic competitiveness, and the two chambers must now work on a compromise measure before it can go to Biden’s desk.
-
The Republican National Committee is expected to approve a resolution censuring Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the two Republican members of the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection. In a draft version of the resolution, the RNC accused Cheney and Kinzinger of engaging in behavior that is “destructive to the US House of Representatives, the Republican Party and our republic”.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
A reporter asked Jen Psaki why the Biden administration is trying to get out in front of Russia’s alleged plans to stage an attack in Ukraine to use it as a pretext for an invasion.
The reporter noted that this White House has been more forthcoming than past administrations in terms of sharing intelligence assessments about Russia’s potential actions in eastern Europe.
“Over the past several months, we but also a number of our allies have developed a significant amount of credible intelligence about Russian efforts to use a false pretext to justify an invasion of Ukraine, and this evidence mirrors both public reporting and Russian accounts and past conflicts,” Psaki said.
The press secretary noted that Russia has used a similar strategy in recent years, such as when the Kremlin accused the US of running a biological weapons lab in the country of Georgia to destabilize the government there.
“It doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed to repeat, but it is important for people to understand contextually what they’re capable of and what tactics they’ve used in the past,” Psaki said. “And sometimes you do see repetition of that.”
The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, is now holding her daily briefing, and she was asked about tension between the administration and reporters over questions on foreign policy.
Yesterday, both Psaki and State Department spokesperson Ned Price clashed with reporters who pressed for evidence to substantiate US claims about the recent raid in northern Syria targeting an Islamic State leader and Russia’s alleged plans to stage an attack in Ukraine as a pretext for invasion.
Both Psaki and Price declined to provide additional evidence to substantiate the administration’s claims, and they appeared to bristle at suggestions that claims from the US military should be closely scrutinized.
“We welcome tough questions and good faith scrutiny. Otherwise I wouldn’t come out here,” Psaki said.
Specifically on the issue of the Syria raid, Psaki said, “We’re less than 48 hours from the end of the mission. So the Department of Defense is still conducting after-action assessments. That’s a natural part of the process that occurs.”
As he celebrated the strong January jobs report, Joe Biden also applauded the House for passing the COMPETES Act, a bill aimed at bolstering US production of semiconductor chips.
The president noted that Intel is already working on a semiconductor production facility in Ohio, which will create thousands of jobs in the state.
“Making sure every American has a job is a great start, but it’s not the finish,” Biden said. “We need even more high-paying jobs - jobs you can raise a family on and have some breathing room.”
After wrapping up his prepared remarks, Biden walked away from his podium without answering any of reporters’ shouted questions.
Joe Biden touted the 6.6 million jobs that have been added to the US economy in the year since he took office, describing it as a historic recovery.
“It comes alongside the largest drop in unemployment rate in a single year on record, the largest reduction in childhood poverty ever recorded in a single year and the strongest economic growth this country has seen in nearly 40 years,” Biden said.
But the president also acknowledged that many American families have not been able to fully enjoy the country’s economic recovery because US prices have increased sharply as businesses have reopened.
“Average people are getting clobbered by the cost of everything,” Biden said. “Gas prices at the pump are up. We’re working to bring them down, but they’re up. Food prices are up. We’re working to bring them down as well.”
The White House has pledged to enact policies aimed at tackling inflation, which has become a major concern for Americans and could be a drag on Democrats’ midterm prospects.
Biden celebrates strong jobs report: 'History’s been made here'
Joe Biden is now delivering remarks on the strong January jobs report, which showed that the US economy added 467,000 jobs last month.
The president pointed to the report as the latest evidence of how the US economy is recovering from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, applauding the “extraordinary resilience and grit of the American people”.
“America is back to work,” Biden said. “History’s been made here.”
Pres. Biden on expectedly strong jobs report: "Our country has taken everything that COVID has to throw at us, and we've come back stronger...America is back to work." https://t.co/CJtHZHpCfZ pic.twitter.com/j4QaTbNSfC
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) February 4, 2022
Updated
House passes bill to bolster US production of semiconductor chips
Joe Biden has still not appeared for his remarks on the January jobs report, but the House has just passed an important bill that the president may address in his speech.
In a vote of 222-210, the House passed the COMPETES Act, a bill aimed at helping the US keep up with China in the semiconductor chip industry.
The House passed H.R. 4521 - America COMPETES Act of 2022 by a vote of 222-210. https://t.co/BMm5ay2luQ
— House Press Gallery (@HouseDailyPress) February 4, 2022
Every House Democrat every Stephanie Murphy supported the bill, while every Republican member except Adam Kinzinger opposed the bill.
CNN has more details on the legislation:
The legislation put forward by House Democrats -- called the America COMPETES Act of 2022 -- addresses pressing economic issues facing the Biden administration, including supply chain disruptions and a global shortage of semiconductor chips, which are essential for the production of smartphones, medical equipment and cars. Additionally, the bill calls for a number of changes to US trade rules, aiming to level the playing field for American businesses and combat China’s market-distorting trade practices.
The Senate passed its own legislation last year aimed at countering China’s influence by investing in American technology, science and research -- with bipartisan support. While the House bill also seeks to increase US competitiveness abroad, it is not an identical piece of legislation.
An aide for the majority staff of the House Science Committee told CNN the expectation is that differences between the House and Senate legislation will ultimately be reconciled in order to get a bill to the President’s desk as soon as possible.
As we await Joe Biden’s remarks on the January jobs report, House speaker Nancy Pelosi has released a statement celebrating the 467,000 jobs added to the US economy last month.
“Today’s jobs report makes resoundingly clear that, with nearly half a million new jobs created last month, the Biden economic recovery continues to be historic,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi noted that the US economy has added 6.6 million new jobs in the past year, and she credited that progress to “President Biden’s visionary leadership and Democrats’ effective economic plan”.
“Now, Democrats are prepared to build on this extraordinary economic momentum: continuing our work to lower families’ costs, strengthen our supply chains, and make more goods in America,” Pelosi said.
“Under the leadership of President Biden and House Democrats, our nation will continue to Build Back Better to create more good paying jobs and lower costs for families across America.”
Joe Biden is expected to soon deliver remarks at the White House on the strong January jobs report, which showed that the US economy added 467,000 jobs last month.
The report was welcome news for the White House, after the past couple of jobs reports missed economists’ expectations and intensified fears over a sluggish recovery from the pandemic.
In 2021, we went from an economy in crisis to the fastest economic growth in nearly 40 years.
— President Biden (@POTUS) February 4, 2022
Let’s keep the progress going.
“In 2021, we went from an economy in crisis to the fastest economic growth in nearly 40 years. Let’s keep the progress going,” Biden said on Twitter this morning.
The president is scheduled to start speaking at any moment, so stay tuned.
Some Republican lawmakers have denounced their party’s plan to censure Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger over their work for the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection.
“The RNC is censuring Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger because they are trying to find out what happened on January 6th - HUH?” said Bill Cassidy, one of the seven Republican senators who voted last year to convict Donald Trump for inciting the insurrection.
The RNC is censuring Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger because they are trying to find out what happened on January 6th - HUH?
— U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (@SenBillCassidy) February 4, 2022
Mitt Romney, another one of those seven senators, added, “Shame falls on a party that would censure persons of conscience, who seek truth in the face of vitriol. Honor attaches to Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for seeking truth even when doing so comes at great personal cost.”
It’s worth noting that Romney’s niece, Ronna McDaniel, is the chairwoman of the RNC, and she has spoken in favor of the resolution, according to Buzzfeed News.
Shame falls on a party that would censure persons of conscience, who seek truth in the face of vitriol. Honor attaches to Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for seeking truth even when doing so comes at great personal cost.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) February 4, 2022
RNC expected to approve resolution censuring Cheney and Kinzinger
The Republican National Committee is expected to approve a resolution censuring Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the two Republican members of the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection.
The RNC’s resolutions committee advanced the proposal last night, and all members are expected to vote on the measure later today, as the party holds its winter meeting in Salt Lake City.
According to a draft obtained by the Washington Post, the resolution accuses Cheney and Kinzinger of participating in behavior that is “destructive to the US House of Representatives, the Republican Party and our republic”.
Here is the draft censure resolution from Trump ally Dave Bossie and RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel against Rep. Liz Cheney. pic.twitter.com/EJ7O0XyUAk
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) February 4, 2022
The resolution also appears to refer to the Capitol insurrection, which resulted in the deaths of several people and has already led to hundreds of arrests, as “legitimate political discourse”.
The resolution was originally expected to include a demand for Cheney and Kinzinger to be expelled from the House Republican conference, but that does not appear to be in the latest draft.
Cheney, who is already facing a primary challenge over her work with the select committee, released a statement last night criticizing the RNC’s efforts to defend Donald Trump and the violent insurrectionists.
“The leaders of the Republican Party have made themselves willing hostages to a man who admits he tried to overturn a presidential election and suggests he would pardon Jan. 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy,” Cheney said.
“I’m a constitutional conservative and I do not recognize those in my party who have abandoned the Constitution to embrace Donald Trump. History will be their judge. I will never stop fighting for our constitutional republic. No matter what.”
One reason why the January jobs report was so unexpectedly strong has to do with how employers dealt with their seasonal workers, who are usually let go after the holidays.
Axios explains:
Some of the biggest job gains were in categories that have strong seasonal patterns, normally adding workers in the fall and then cutting those temporary workers in January.
But employers, desperate for staff, appear to have held onto those workers in greater numbers than in a normal year.
Due to the statistical process of seasonal adjustment, ‘cutting fewer workers than usual for this time of year’ gets translated as ‘adding lots of jobs.’
Later today, Joe Biden will also sign an executive order to “improve timeliness, lower costs and increase quality in federal construction projects”.
According to the White House’s fact sheet, the order will require the use of project labor agreements on federal construction projects above $35 million.
“The Order will help alleviate the management and coordination challenges that can stymie progress on major construction projects,” the fact sheet says. “This helps projects get completed on time and helps the government get the best value for taxpayers’ dollars.”
The White House has said the order could impact up to $262 billion in federal construction contracts and nearly 200,000 workers on those projects, and the departments of defense and labor will lead training for federal employees on the new policy.
Earlier this week, in a highly unusual move, the White House sought to manage expectations ahead of the latest jobs figure release.
White House officials cautioned that Friday’s jobs report could be “confusing” because of the timing of the survey. Covid infections have fallen sharply across the US since the report was compiled.
The government report follows on from a survey conducted by ADP, the US’s largest private payroll supplier, which reported that companies cut jobs in January for the first time in over a year. Payrolls fell by 301,000 for the month with more than half the losses coming from the pandemic-sensitive leisure and hospitality industries.
“The labor market recovery took a step back at the start of 2022 due to the effect of the Omicron variant and its significant, though likely temporary, impact to job growth,” said Nela Richardson, ADP’s chief economist.
There were signs that the jobs market is still recovering ahead of Friday’s report. On Thursday, the labor department reported that new unemployment claims fell to 238,000 for the final week in January, dropping 23,000 from the week prior, a second straight week of falls.
Biden to deliver remarks on strong January jobs report
Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.
The US economy added 467,000 jobs last month, far surpassing economists’ expectations as the country continues to grapple with the surge in coronavirus cases caused by the Omicron variant.
The AP reports:
The government’s report Friday also drastically revised up its estimate of job gains for November and December by a combined 709,000. It also said the unemployment rate ticked up last month from 3.9% to a still-low 4%.
The strong hiring gain for January, which was unexpected, demonstrates the eagerness of many employers to hire even as the pandemic maintains its grip on the economy. Businesses appear to have seen the omicron wave as having, at most, a temporary impact on the economy and remain confident about longer-term growth. ...
The surprisingly healthy hiring figures will likely give the Federal Reserve leeway to raise interest rates more quickly to cool inflation. The Fed has already indicated that it will begin raising rates in March, and it could do so again at its next meeting in May.
Biden is scheduled to deliver remarks on the jobs report in about an hour, and he may comment on potential interest rate hikes, so stay tuned.
