Biden stresses U.S. commitment to NATO; Manchin to oppose president’s nominee for budget post

Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) announced Friday that he will not support Neera Tanden to lead the Office of Management and Budget at the White House, a decision that could sink her nomination.

Shortly after the announcement, Biden told reporters upon his return to Washington that he would not withdraw the nomination. “I think we are going to find the votes and get her confirmed,” he said.

When Biden chose Tanden, there was an uproar among some Republicans over her past tweets that mocked several GOP senators. Republicans argued that her partisan beliefs make her unfit for a job that requires frequent engagement with lawmakers.

Manchin, in a statement, says he agrees with that assessment, citing her tweets as his reason for opposing her.

“I believe her overtly partisan statements will have a toxic and detrimental impact on the important working relationship between members of Congress and the next director of the Office of Management and Budget,” Manchin said. “For this reason, I cannot support her nomination. As I have said before, we must take meaningful steps to end the political division and dysfunction that pervades our politics. At a time of grave crisis, it is more important than ever that we chart a new bipartisan course that helps address the many serious challenges facing our nation.”

With the Senate split 50-50, Tanden needs at least one Republican to support her nomination.

In addition to Biden standing by his nominee, White House press secretary Jen Psaki praised Tanden.

“Neera Tanden is an accomplished policy expert who would be an excellent budget director and we look forward to the committee votes next week and to continuing to work toward her confirmation through engagement with both parties,” Psaki told reporters traveling with the president to Michigan.

At her confirmation hearing, Republican senators read aloud her tweets calling Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) “the worst,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) “a fraud,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) “Voldemort,” and one saying that “vampires have more heart than Ted Cruz.” Cruz (R) represents Texas in the Senate.

Democrats accused Republicans of being hypocrites after they spent four years either defending President Donald Trump, who used Twitter as a cudgel against his political enemies, or pretending not to have paid attention to Trump’s latest offensive tweet.

Tanden has apologized several times during her confirmation hearings and said she regretted the tweets.

One of the ways Trump has soothed his damaged ego after seeing his party lose the White House and both chambers of Congress since 2016 is by reminding anyone within earshot that Republicans weren’t expected to gain seats in the House last year. And, of course, that the credit should be given to him.

“Democrats were projected to gain 15 House seats and instead — and [House Republican Leader] Kevin McCarthy gives us the credit, good man, very good man — my coattails, we swept our Republican House candidates to victory,” Trump said at a rally in Georgia on Jan. 4. (The two GOP Senate candidates he was there to support both lost their runoff elections the next day.)

Trump’s relationship with McCarthy soured a bit two days later, but you get the gist. Trump was hyping how well his party did and pointing to his coattails as the cause.

U.S. authorities alleged a wider conspiracy among the Oath Keepers, a self-styled militia, in the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol, naming six new individuals, all of whom appeared to be group members or associates, according to a federal indictment Friday.

One member posted on Facebook that 50 to 100 Oath Keepers planned to attend and that Jan. 6 would be “wild,” echoing President Donald Trump’s comment on Twitter rallying supporters to D.C.

A 21-page indictment alleged that the defendants “did knowingly combine, conspire, confederate, and agree with each other and others known and unknown” to force entry to the Capitol and obstruct Congress from certifying the election of president-elect Joe Biden during a riot that led to five deaths and assaults on 139 police officers.

Biden’s first speech to an international audience was delivered from right here in the United States, given the coronavirus pandemic. That was just as well. His message about the need to preserve liberal democracy might be nearly as useful to American political actors as to those overseas.

“We’re at an inflection point,” Biden said Friday in a speech to the Munich Security Conference, “between those who argue that given all the challenges we face, from the fourth industrial revolution to a global pandemic, that autocracy is the best way forward, they argue, and those who understand that democracy is essential, essential to meeting these challenges.”

“Historians are going to examine and write about this moment as an inflection point, as I said,” he continued, speaking from the White House. “And I believe [with] every ounce of my being that democracy will and must prevail. We must demonstrate that democracy can still deliver for our people in this changed world. That, in my view, is our galvanizing mission. Democracy doesn’t happen by accident.”

President Biden on Friday defended the size of his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, pushing back on GOP attacks as he argued for the bill’s urgency and arguing that, if passed, the economy would create 7 million jobs this year.

“What would they have me cut?” Biden asked, speaking at Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine manufacturing facility in Kalamazoo, Mich. “Should we not invest $20 billion to vaccinate the nation? Should we not invest $290 million to extend unemployment insurance for the 11 million Americans who are unemployed so they can get by while they get back to work?”

Biden ran through a litany of other items the package would address, while highlighting the myriad ways Americans have suffered in the pandemic. There were tens of thousands of small businesses that have had to close permanently, he said. Schools needed money to reopen safely, and 11 million children do not have enough food to eat. One in 5 Americans are behind in their rent; 1 in 10 are behind in their mortgage, he added.

Biden asked people to picture the scenes from the news, of long lines of cars at food banks, waiting just to receive a box of food. He argued that if Congress did not pass his American Rescue Plan, 40 million Americans would lose nutritional assistance through the federal SNAP program.

“People never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever thought they would need help. And through no fault of their own, they’re in that circumstance,” Biden said. “ … How many people do you know will go to bed tonight staring at the ceiling saying, ‘God, what is going to happen if I don’t get my job? If I don’t have my unemployment check? What’s happened to me? I’m losing my health insurance. What do I do?’ This is the United States of America, for God’s sake. We invest in people who are in need.”

Biden said he was still open to hearing ideas from the Senate and House on how to improve the relief package or make it cheaper.

“We have to make clear who is helped and who is hurt,” he said. “And my hope is that the Republicans in Congress listen to their constituents.”

Biden’s figure of 7 million jobs being created by the coronavirus relief package relates to an analysis from Moody’s Analytics. Its economists had evaluated a range of Biden’s proposals vs. Trump’s programs before the 2020 election and noted that a Biden win would produce 7.4 million more jobs.

Biden criticized former president Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and sought to assure wary Americans that the coronavirus vaccines are safe.

“My predecessor — as my mother would say, ‘God love him’ — failed to order enough vaccines, failed to mobilize the effort to administer the shots, failed to set up vaccine centers. That changed the moment we took office,” Biden said, in remarks after a tour of a Pfizer plant in Michigan that manufacturers one of the approved coronavirus vaccines.

Biden said that during his tour he was shown the safety precautions that go into making the vaccines, and wanted Americans to have confidence that it is safe.

“If there’s one message to cut through to everyone in this country is this: ‘The vaccines are safe’,” Biden said. “Please, for yourself, your family, your community, this country, take the vaccine when it’s your turn and available. That’s how to beat this pandemic.”

Biden also defended his commitment to contribute U.S. funds to distribute the vaccine in lower- and middle-income nations with a more tacit swipe at Trump.

“It’s not enough that we find cures for Americans, there needs to be a cure that the world is able to take part because you can’t build a wall or fence high enough to keep a pandemic out,” he said.

Biden also offered optimism to a weary nation, promising Americans that the end of the pandemic was in sight.

“I can’t give you a date when this crisis will end,” Biden said, “but I can tell you we’re doing everything possible to have that day come sooner rather than later.”

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) pledged Friday that Congress would approve President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill and send it to the president to sign ahead of a March 14 deadline when enhanced unemployment insurance benefits expire.

He made the promise even as a dispute over Biden’s proposed $15 minimum wage increase remains unresolved, with moderate Democratic senators balking on the issue as liberals push it aggressively. Under complex Senate rules for consideration of the legislation, lawmakers are awaiting guidance from the Senate parliamentarian on whether the minimum wage provision can even be part of the package.

“The Senate is on track to send a robust $1.9 trillion package to the president’s desk before the March 14 expiration of Unemployment Insurance benefits. We will meet this deadline,” Schumer wrote in a Friday letter to Senate Democrats.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Friday called for an investigation into New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s (D) handling of the state’s nursing homes amid the coronavirus pandemic.

At issue is how deaths of nursing home residents are accounted for: Cuomo ordered that residents who died in hospitals should not be counted as resident deaths. This followed an earlier directive that nursing homes accept patients despite being tested positive for the virus that causes covid-19.

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) reported late last month that nursing home resident deaths were “undercounted” by as much as 50 percent. Shortly after, the state’s reported death toll of nursing home residents increased by thousands when the health department shared more than 3,800 residents had died in hospitals.

“I support our state’s return to coequal governance and stand with our local officials calling for a full investigation of the Cuomo administration’s handling of nursing homes during COVID-19,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement. “Thousands of vulnerable New Yorkers lost their lives in nursing homes throughout the pandemic. Their loved ones and the public deserve answers and transparency from their elected leadership, and the Secretary to the Governor’s remarks warrant a full investigation.”

Cuomo has come under increasing pressure after his top aide Melissa DeRosa admitted in a call with state lawmakers last week that the administration “froze” handling an inquiry sent from the legislature about the data while it handled a request sent by the Justice Department regarding the deaths.

In DeRosa’s conversation with lawmakers, first reported by the New York Post, she said the administration feared the data would be “used against us.”

Amid mounting public outrage, Cuomo acknowledged for the first time a lack of transparency in the initial reporting of coronavirus deaths in New York nursing homes. But he did not directly apologize and instead defended his administration’s actions in the face of an unprecedented strain.

Cuomo has also come under criticism amid reports this week that he threatened a Democratic state assemblyman, Ron Kim of Queens, after Kim criticized him in the New York Post. A Cuomo adviser denied Kim’s account — but Cuomo himself went on to attack Kim during a news conference Wednesday.

Philip Bump contributed to this report.