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ALBUMS

U.S. President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, paid their respects late Tuesday to Brian Sicknick, the U.S. Capitol Police officer who died defending the Capitol from a pro-Trump mob that stormed the building last month.
Sicknick’s remains arrived at the Capitol a short time earlier and dozens of Capitol Police officers stood at attention as his urn was carried up the steps to the Rotunda where he is lying in honor.
Capitol Police were given an opportunity to participate in a viewing period overnight.
Congressional leaders took part in the solemn arrival ceremony, and lawmakers will pay tribute to Sicknick at a Wednesday morning ceremony before his remains are taken to Arlington National Cemetery.
U.S. Capitol Police officers pay their respects to U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick as an urn with his cremated remains lies in honor on a black-draped table at the center of the Capitol Rotunda, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021, in Washington. …House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority ..


Bidens Pay Respects to Late Capitol Police Officer

House Democratic impeachment managers and lawyers for Donald Trump on Tuesday laid out their arguments in separate briefs ahead of the former president&#039;s Senate trial next week on charges of inciting a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
The House Democratic prosecutors charged that Trump&#039;s incendiary words and actions in the run-up to the attack led his followers to descend on the Capitol &#8220;like a loaded cannon&#8221; to try to prevent the certification of Democrat Joe Biden&#039;s election victory over Trump. The riots left five people, including a Capitol Police officer, dead and dozens of others injured.
&#8220;President Trump&#039;s conduct must be declared unacceptable in the clearest and most unequivocal terms,&#8221; they wrote.
Trump&#039;s defense lawyers rejected the charges and questioned the constitutionality of the trial, saying there is no precedent for trying a president after he has left office. They also said the former president stands by his claim that ..


House Democrats, Trump Lawyers Lay Out Clashing Views Ahead of Impeachment Trial

The U.S. Senate confirmed Pete Buttigieg on Tuesday as transportation secretary in President Joe Biden’s administration.
The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, tweeted he was “honored and humbled” by the Senate’s 86-13 confirmation vote and that he was “ready to get to work.”
Buttigieg, an opponent of Biden during the Democratic presidential primaries, is the first openly gay person to fill a U.S. Cabinet position.
The 39-year-old will play a leading role in advancing Biden’s infrastructure rebuilding and climate change agendas.
He assumes control of an agency with 55,000 employees and a multibillion-dollar budget.
He has vowed to begin quickly promoting safety and restoring trust in the country’s transportation systems as airlines, city subway and bus systems, and Amtrak struggle to regain customers lost during the coronavirus pandemic.
Buttigieg is also expected to play a leading role in implementing Biden’s $2 trillion climate and infrastructure plan that will focus on rebuilding ..


US Senate Confirms Buttigieg as Transportation Secretary

U.S. President Joe Biden signed executive orders Tuesday to start to dismantle former President Donald Trump’s restrictive immigration policies, including an attempt to reunite families that had been separated at the U.S.-Mexican border.
“I’m not making new law. I’m eliminating bad policy,” Biden said while signing the orders.
In the first hours of his presidency two weeks ago, Biden acted to halt construction of Trump’s $16 billion wall along the border and sent a far-reaching immigration bill to Congress, where lawmakers have long been stalemated between liberals looking to ease the path to U.S. citizenship and conservatives seeking to stem unauthorized immigration.
Biden’s immediate focus is on the 3,100-kilometer southern border with Mexico, where Trump tried to keep thousands of migrants from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala from entering the U.S.
Trump led repair and expansion of a border wall and imposed tough detention and deportation policies for those who made it..


Biden Signs Executive Orders Reversing Trump Immigration Policies

The influential anti-Donald Trump group Lincoln Project is denouncing one of its co-founders after multiple reports that over several years he sexually harassed young men looking to break into politics.
The Lincoln Project in a statement on Sunday called co-founder John Weaver, 61, &#8220;a predator, a liar, and an abuser&#8221; following reports that he repeatedly sent unsolicited and sexually charged messages online to young men, often while suggesting he could help them get work in politics.
&#8220;The totality of his deceptions are beyond anything any of us could have imagined and we are absolutely shocked and sickened by it,&#8221; the Lincoln Project, the most prominent &#8220;Never Trump&#8221; Republican super PAC to emerge during the 45th president&#039;s time in the White House, said in its statement.
The online magazine The American Conservative first reported the sexual harassment allegations earlier this month.
Days later, Weaver, a strategist who advised the late Republican Sen. John McCain and former Ohio ..


Young Men Accuse Lincoln Project Co-Founder of Harassment

Former U.S. President Donald Trump announced Sunday a new team of lawyers to lead his defense at his second impeachment trial.
Defense lawyer David Schoen, a frequent television legal commentator, and Bruce Castor, a former district attorney in Pennsylvania who has faced criticism for his decision to not charge actor Bill Cosby in a sex crimes case, will represent Trump at the Senate trial that begins next week.
In a statement issued through Trump’s office, both attorneys said Sunday they were honored to take the job.
“The strength of our Constitution is about to be tested like never before in our history. It is strong and resilient. A document written for the ages, and it will triumph over partisanship yet again, and always,” Castor said.
U.S. Capitol Police officers stand watch outside the Senate as lawmakers vote on procedures to proceed with the impeachment of former President Donald Trump for inciting the January 6, 2021.Two prominent South Carolina lawyers, Butch Bowers and De..


Days Before Impeachment Trial, Trump Names New Lawyers

U.S. President Joe Biden signed two orders expanding health care on Thursday, saying they would &#8220;undo the damage&#8221; of policies favored by his predecessor, former President Donald Trump.
Biden restored U.S. funding for foreign nongovernmental groups that give information to women about abortions, and also opened a special three-month enrollment period for uninsured Americans who now want to buy health insurance, as well as for those who lost their coverage because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump, like past Republican presidents, had supported what critics have called the &#8220;global gag rule&#8221; on abortion information and had refused to reopen the government&#039;s market for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.
Biden&#039;s order also increased access to health care funding for impoverished Americans under a program called Medicaid.
&#8220;There&#039;s nothing new that we&#039;re doing here,&#8221; Biden said, other than to restore programs as they were before Trump changed them. Biden ..


Biden Orders Expanded Health Care on Two Fronts

Coffee shops in downtown Tripoli, Libya, are closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, so Mohammed Abdulwaheb, 37, got his &#8221;to-go&#8221; and drank it in the parking lot. 
Libya and other countries had been subject to the Trump-era &#8220;travel ban&#8221; for four years before it was lifted last week. Back then, Abdulwaheb had wanted to attend graduate school in the United States. But that was a long time ago, he said.
&#8220;The ban wasn&#039;t fair,&#8221; Abdulwaheb added. &#8220;And of course it impacted our lives. The end of the ban will especially improve the lives of Libyans in America.&#8221;
But experts say it will take time to unravel the regulations that grounded so many travelers. And locals in Libya, Nigeria and Sudan — three impacted countries — say resolving the personal setbacks experienced by individuals may take even longer. 
FILE &#8211; Demonstrators opposed to President Donald Trump&#039;s travel ban listen to speakers during a rally outside the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, in Richmond, Virginia, Jan..


Effects of Trump-Era Travel Ban Expected to Linger

Facebook Inc&#039;s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday the company would no longer recommend civic and political groups to users of the platform.
The social media company said in October that it was temporarily halting recommendations of political groups for U.S. users in the run-up to the presidential election. On Wednesday, Facebook said it would be making this permanent and would expand the policy globally.
On Tuesday, Democratic Sen. Ed Markey wrote to Zuckerberg asking for an explanation of reports, including by news site The Markup, that Facebook had failed to stop recommending political groups on its platform after this move.
He called Facebook&#039;s groups &#8220;breeding groups for hate&#8221; and noted they had been venues of planning for the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Speaking on a conference call Wednesday with analysts about Facebook&#039;s earnings, Zuckerberg said that the company was &#8220;continuing to fine-tune how this works.&#8221;
Facebook groups are communities that form aroun..


Facebook Says it Will Permanently Stop Recommending Political Groups to Users

Three times in American history, the House of Representatives has impeached a president, and each time the Senate has voted to acquit him — most recently a year ago when then-President Donald Trump was charged with seeking to pressure Ukraine&#039;s president into gathering political dirt against Trump’s political rival, Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump made history again this month, when he became the first president to be impeached a second time — this time accused of instigating his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol January 6 to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s election victory over Trump.
The new impeachment charge of inciting an insurrection was approved by the House on January 13, a week before Trump left office. But with the Senate set to formally try the former president beginning on February 9, a constitutional controversy is swirling over whether the Senate can try and convict a former president.
The question is not an academic one. On Wednesday, 45 of 50 Senate Republica..


Controversy Rages Over Whether Trump’s Impeachment Trial Is Constitutional 

The new top U.S. diplomat, Antony Blinken, is pledging to work with core allies and partners to confront complex global challenges, while investing in a diverse and inclusive American Foreign Service.
Blinken was officially welcomed to the State Department on Wednesday as secretary of state by approximately 30 of the women and men representing a small cross-section of the larger workforce. 
&#8220;I&#039;m incredibly excited about the work ahead,&#8221; Blinken said later at an afternoon press briefing, where he declared his respect for the press and promised to be transparent with reporters.
&#8220;Here&#039;s what you can count on – we&#039;re resuming daily press briefings starting next week – on Tuesday. That&#039;s an essential part of the day and we&#039;re bringing it back,&#8221; he said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is sworn in as the 71st U.S. Secretary of State by Acting Under Secretary of State for Management Carol Z. Perez, at the Department of State in Washington, Jan. 26, 2021. (State D..


Newly-Confirmed US Secretary of State Pledges Cooperation on Global Challenges

The U.S. Senate confirmed President Joe Biden&#039;s nominee Antony Blinken to lead the U.S. State Department on Tuesday. As VOA&#039;s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports, Blinken faces numerous challenges worldwide as the nation&#039;s top diplomat.
Camera: Adam Greenbaum Produced by: Katherine Gypson


US Senate Confirms Biden Nominee as Secretary of State

President Joe Biden ordered the Department of Justice on Tuesday to end its reliance on private prisons and acknowledge the central role government has played in implementing discriminatory housing policies.
In remarks before signing the order, Biden said the U.S. government needs to change &#8220;its whole approach&#8221; on the issue of racial equity. He added that the nation is less prosperous and secure because of the scourge of systemic racism.
&#8220;We must change now,&#8221; the president said. &#8220;I know it&#039;s going to take time, but I know we can do it. And I firmly believe the nation is ready to change. But government has to change as well.&#8221;
Biden rose to the presidency during a year of intense reckoning on institutional racism in the U.S. The moves announced on Tuesday reflect his efforts to follow through with campaign pledges to combat racial injustice.
Housing policies
Beyond calling on the Justice Department to curb the use of private prisons and address housing discrimination, the new order..


Biden Orders End of Federally Run Private Prisons

Most Republicans in the U.S. Senate voted Tuesday against holding an impeachment trial for former President Donald Trump on whether he incited insurrection in the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol, signaling that he likely has enough votes to secure an acquittal.
The vote was 55-45 in favor of proceeding with a trial, but only five Republicans joined all 50 Democrats. A two-thirds vote is required for conviction, which would require 17 Republicans to turn against Trump, assuming the Democrats vote as a bloc after hearing the case against him when the trial starts in earnest February 9.
In this image from video, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., makes a motion that the impeachment trial against former President Donald Trump is unconstitutional in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 26, 2021.A Trump supporter, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, forced the vote on whether to proceed with the trial, calling it an “unconstitutional sham.”
Paul contended that the Senate cannot hold a tr..


5 Republicans Join Democrats in Vote to Push Trump Impeachment Trial Forward

The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote Tuesday on the nomination of Antony Blinken to be the country’s next secretary of state.
At a confirmation hearing last week, Blinken said he is ready to confront the challenges posed by China, Iran, Russia and North Korea.
He said China “poses the most significant challenge” to U.S. national interests, while noting there is room for cooperation.
&#8220;There are rising adversarial aspects of the relationship; certainly, competitive ones, and still some cooperative ones, when it is in our mutual interests,” he added.
Nominated Secretary of State Antony Blinken participates as US President Joe Biden speaks during a cabinet announcement event in Wilmington, Delaware, on Nov. 24, 2020.He also pledged to rebuild State Department morale and the diplomatic corps. Blinken said he sees U.S. standing abroad as leadership based on “humility and confidence.”
Blinken was deputy secretary of state during the Obama administration and has close ties with President J..


US Senate to Vote on Blinken Nomination as Secretary of State

U.S. senators will be sworn in Tuesday as jurors in the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.
The trial itself will not begin until the week of February 8, after Democratic and Republican leaders agreed to a short delay in order to give both the lawmakers who will serve as prosecutors and Trump’s defense team time to prepare. The extra time will also allow the Senate a chance to confirm more of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet nominees.
House lawmakers who will serve as trial prosecutors made a ceremonial walk to the Senate chamber Monday evening to deliver the article of impeachment charging Trump with inciting insurrection in connection with the storming of the U.S. Capitol by a mob of his supporters earlier this month. The assault sent lawmakers scrambling for safety and resulted in the deaths of five people.
Lead House manager Jamie Raskin from Maryland read the charges, saying Trump “gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of the govern..


US House Lawmakers Deliver Article of Impeachment to Senate

The Senate on Monday approved President Joe Biden&#039;s nomination of Janet Yellen to be the nation&#039;s 78th treasury secretary, making her the first woman to hold the job in the department&#039;s 232-year history.
Yellen, a former chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, was approved by the Senate on a 84-15 vote, becoming the third member of Biden&#039;s Cabinet to win confirmation.
She is expected to play a key role in gaining congressional approval of Biden&#039;s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, which is running into stiff opposition from Republicans who believe the price tag is too high.
FILE &#8211; Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 30, 2020.Speaking on the Senate floor before the vote, Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer noted the former Federal Reserve chairwoman had bipartisan support.
Schumer said Yellen has a &#8220;breathtaking range of experience&#8221; and support for her nomination reflected &#8220;just how ..


Janet Yellen is First Woman to Lead US Treasury Department

The U.S. House of Representatives is set to officially send its articles of impeachment to the Senate on Monday, charging former President Donald Trump with inciting insurrection in connection with the storming of the Capitol by a mob of his supporters earlier this month.
The trial in the Senate is set to begin the week of February 8 after Democrats and Republicans agreed to a short delay in order to give both the lawmakers who will serve as prosecutors and Trump&#039;s defense team time to prepare. The extra time will also allow the Senate a chance to confirm some of President Joe Biden&#039;s Cabinet nominees.
Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can download this video to view it offline.
Download File360p | 9 MB480p | 13 MB540p | 17 MB720p | 37 MB1080p | 72 MBOriginal | 83 MB Embed&#8221; />Copy Download AudioWATCH: Trump’s Impeachment Article Heads to SenateA two-thirds majority in the Senate would be required to convict Trump. With the Senate politica..


US House to Deliver Impeachment Articles to Senate

Jill Biden, the wife of recently inaugurated President Joe Biden, has made it clear that education policy will be a priority for her in the White House. Jill Biden is familiar with life in Washington as her husband spent 36 years in the U.S. Senate and eight years as vice president under Barack Obama. VOA&#039;s Esha Sarai and Carolyn Presutti bring us more about the new U.S. first lady in this profile.
Video editors: Marcus Harton, Esha Sarai


Dr. Jill Biden Steps Into First Lady Role

As Joe Biden begins his first full week as U.S. president, he faces many challenges. Chief among them: ramping up the nationwide coronavirus vaccination effort and next month’s Senate impeachment trial of his predecessor, Donald Trump. Michelle Quinn reports.
Video editor: Mary Cieslak


Challenges Abound as Biden Begins First Full Week as President

The United States returns to a unified government this week as Joe Biden becomes the 46th president and Democrats take control of the U.S. Senate. With the U.S. House continuing under the Democratic party leadership of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Biden has an opportunity to enact big legislative changes. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports.


With Control of the White House and Congress, Democrats Have 2 Years to Enact Change

With U.S. President-elect Joe Biden set to be inaugurated on Jan. 20, one question being debated is whether Congress will pursue a second impeachment of outgoing President Donald Trump over his alleged role in last Wednesday’s attack on the Capitol building. Michelle Quinn reports.


US Lawmakers Discuss Next Moves as Nation Grapples to Understand Violence at Capitol Building

What started as a day of celebration for Black organizers, voters and other Georgians who helped deliver two historic Senate runoff victories was overshadowed Wednesday when a violent, mostly white mob of President Donald Trump&#039;s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
But Black leaders and organizers say the rioters&#039; insurrection won&#039;t deter the momentum achieved after the hard-fought victories of Georgia Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. Instead, it serves as a harsh reminder of the work that lies ahead for the nation to truly grapple with white supremacy and racism, which Trump&#039;s presidency emboldened.
&#8220;It&#039;s a little bit bittersweet because on one hand it feels like vindication that if we invest in our communities and our organizations, then amazing things can happen,&#8221; said Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, which estimates that it reached 2.8 million individuals in Georgia through text and phone banking campaigns, digital and social med..


Black Leaders Cheer Georgia Success, Push for More Progress

Lawmakers from the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are scheduled to meet Wednesday in a joint session of Congress to count and certify electoral votes based on the result of the November presidential election.
This usually routine and ceremonial function — a final step after the Electoral College officially elected Joe Biden on December 14 — has turned into a litmus test of Republican lawmakers&#039; loyalty to President Donald Trump. More than 100 Trump loyalists are set to challenge certification.
Here&#039;s what we can expect from the meeting.
What usually happens?
Under the 12th Amendment, both chambers must meet to officially count and certify the Electoral College results from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Representatives of the Democratic and Republican parties in the Senate and House are appointed as &#8220;tellers&#8221; from each chamber. Vice President Mike Pence, in his capacity as president of the Senate, presides over the joint session. If he cannot presi..


Will Congress Block Certification of Biden’s Victory?

More than 100 Republican lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives and a dozen senators say they will join an almost assuredly futile effort Wednesday to try to block certification of the Electoral College vote showing that Democrat Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump in the November election.
The certification of the 306-232 Electoral College vote favoring Biden is the last step before he is set to be inaugurated as the country’s 46th president on January 20.
Both chambers of Congress would need to uphold the challenges to Biden’s victory for the election outcome to be upended. Democrats narrowly control the House and are certain to certify Biden’s win, while the Democratic minority in the Senate, along with some Republicans who have acknowledged Biden’s win, are likely to do the same in the Senate.
Trump, who for weeks has made baseless claims that he was defrauded of election to a second four-year term, continues to cheer on protests of his loss, an outcome that will m..


Dozens of House, Senate Republicans Joining Likely Futile Effort to Reject Biden Victory

Congress has overridden President Donald Trump&#039;s veto of a defense policy bill, a first by lawmakers since Trump took office nearly four years ago.
In an extraordinary New Year&#039;s Day session, the Republican-controlled Senate easily turned aside the veto, dismissing Trump&#039;s objections to the $740 billion bill and handing him a rebuke weeks before his term ends.
Trump had lashed out at lawmakers from his own party on Twitter, charging earlier this week that &#8220;Weak and tired Republican &#039;leadership&#039; will allow the bad Defense Bill to pass.&#8221;
Trump called the looming override vote a &#8220;disgraceful act of cowardice and total submission by weak people to Big Tech. Negotiate a better Bill, or get better leaders, NOW!&#8221;
The 81-13 vote in the Senate followed an earlier 322-87 override vote in the House of the widely popular defense measure. The bill provides a 3% pay raise for U.S. troops and guides defense policy, cementing decisions about troop levels, new weapons systems a..


In a First, Congress Overrides Trump Veto of Defense Bill 

The congressional joint session to count electoral votes is generally a routine, ceremonial affair. But President Donald Trump&#039;s repeated efforts to challenge Democrat Joe Biden&#039;s victory will bring more attention than usual to next Wednesday&#039;s joint session of the Senate and the House.
The congressional count is the final step in reaffirming Biden&#039;s win, after the Electoral College officially elected him on Dec 14. The meeting is required by the Constitution and includes several distinct steps.
Some Republicans who are echoing Trump&#039;s baseless claims of fraud have said they will officially object to the results, forcing votes in the Republican-run Senate and the Democratic-controlled House that will almost certainly fail. A group of House Republicans had been looking for a senator to sign on because there must be support from at least one member of each chamber to force the votes. That support came Wednesday from Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, a possible contende..


How Congress Will Count Electoral College Votes

U.S. President Donald Trump is spending the holiday weekend at his Florida resort as both Democrats and Republicans wait to see whether he will sign a critical pandemic relief and government funding package that he sharply criticized earlier this week.
The $2.3 trillion spending legislation, which includes $892 billion for coronavirus relief, has been flown from Washington to his Mar-a-Lago club to be available for him to sign into law. Trump has not specifically threatened to veto the bill, but he surprised lawmakers in both parties by labeling the legislation as a “disgrace” after it had been passed in the House and Senate, capping months of negotiations.
President Donald Trump&#039;s motorcade drives to Trump International Golf Club, Dec. 25, 2020, in West Palm Beach, Fla.Trump said the package gave too much money to special interests and foreign aid, and said direct payments of $600 for most Americans should be increased to $2,000. That was seen as a rebuke to members of his own Re..


US Spending Bill Awaits Trump’s Decision

U.S. President Donald Trump vetoed a $740 billion bill setting policy for the Department of Defense on Wednesday, despite its strong support in Congress, raising the possibility that the measure will fail to become law for the first time in 60 years.
Trump said he vetoed the annual National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, because it &#8220;fails to include critical national security measures, includes provisions that fail to respect our veterans and our military&#039;s history, and contradicts efforts by my administration to put America first in our national security and foreign policy actions.&#8221;
&#8220;It is a &#039;gift&#039; to China and Russia,&#8221; he said in a message to the House of Representatives.
Although his previous eight vetoes were all upheld thanks to support from Trump&#039;s fellow Republicans in Congress, advisers said this one looked likely to be overridden, just weeks before he leaves office on January 20.
Both the Republican-controlled Senate and Democratic-majority House of Re..


Major Defense Bill, Strongly Backed in Congress, Draws Trump’s Veto

Top congressional lawmakers struck a late-night agreement on the last major obstacle to a COVID-19 economic relief package costing nearly $1 trillion, clearing the way for votes as early as Sunday.
A Democratic aide said in an email that an agreement had been reached late Saturday and that compromise language was being finalized to seal a deal to be unveiled on Sunday.
The breakthrough involved a fight over Federal Reserve emergency powers that was defused by an odd couple: the Senate’s top Democrat and a senior conservative Republican.
“We’re getting very close, very close,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said earlier Saturday as he spent much of the day going back and forth with GOP Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. Toomey had been pressing a provision to close down Fed lending facilities that Democrats and the White House said was too broadly worded and would have tied the hands of the incoming Biden administration.
The COVID-19 legislation has been held up after months of di..


Deal on Fed Removes Obstacle to US COVID Relief

Congress passed a two-day stopgap spending bill Friday night, averting a partial government shutdown and buying yet more time for frustratingly slow endgame negotiations on an almost $1 trillion COVID-19 economic relief package.
The virus aid talks remained on track, both sides said, but closing out final disagreements was proving difficult. Weekend sessions were on tap, and House leaders hoped for a vote on Sunday on the massive package, which wraps much of Capitol Hill&#039;s unfinished 2020 business into a take-it-or-leave-it behemoth.
The House passed the temporary funding bill by a 320-60 vote. The Senate approved it by voice vote almost immediately afterward, and President Donald Trump signed it late Friday.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, walks to his office from the Senate Floor at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Dec. 18, 2020.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said both sides remain intent on closing the deal, even as Democr..


Congress Averts Shutdown; Fight Continues Over Pandemic Aid

Republican and Democratic congressional leaders expressed hope late Tuesday about reaching an agreement on a new round of coronavirus aid that has eluded U.S. lawmakers for months.
&#8220;I think we&#039;re moving in the right direction,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said after two rounds of talks. “I think there&#039;s a possibility of getting it done.”
The meetings included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
&#8220;We&#039;re making progress and hopefully we can come to an agreement soon,” Schumer said. “I think there is a genuine desire to come to an agreement.&#8221;  
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, speaks virtually with retired U.S. General Lloyd Austin, nominated by President-elect Joe Biden to be his Secretary of Defense, at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 15, 2020.Without a deal, several key programs are set to expire at the end of month, including unemployment aid that reaches 12 million out-of-work A..


Lawmakers Race to Make COVID-19 Aid Deal Ahead of Holiday Break

The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation on Wednesday that could prevent Chinese companies from listing their shares on U.S. exchanges unless they adhere to U.S. auditing standards.
The measure passed by unanimous voice vote, after passing the Senate earlier this year, sending it to the White House, which said President Donald Trump is expected to sign it into law.
&#8220;The Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act&#8221; bars securities of foreign companies from being listed on any U.S. exchange if they have failed to comply with the U.S. Public Accounting Oversight Board&#039;s audits for three years in a row.
While it applies to companies from any country, the legislation targets Chinese companies such as Alibaba, tech firm Pinduoduo Inc. and oil giant PetroChina Co Ltd.
Measures taking a harder line on Chinese business and trade practices generally pass Congress with large margins, as both Democrats and Trump&#039;s fellow Republicans echo the president&#039;s hard line against B..


Bill Forcing Chinese Firms to Meet US Accounting Standards Passes Congress

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says time is running out for U.S. lawmakers to reach an agreement on a second massive round of aid addressing the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
With just a handful of days left in session this year, members of Congress are racing to reach an agreement after months of fruitless negotiations.
McConnell told reporters Tuesday he had been in discussion with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows earlier in the day to determine what legislation U.S. President Donald Trump would be willing to sign.
“The way you get a result, you have to have a presidential signature. So, I felt the first thing we needed to do was to find out what the president would in fact sign. We believe we&#039;ve got the answer to that,” McConnell said. He added that given the dwindling days in session, any agreement on coronavirus relief would more than likely be tied to the omnibus bill funding the U.S. government past a D..


US Lawmakers Running Out of Time to Pass Coronavirus Aid

At least there won&#039;t be a government shutdown.
But as lawmakers return to Washington for an abbreviated preelection session, hopes are dimming for another coronavirus relief bill — or much else.
Talks between top Democrats and the Trump administration broke off last month and remain off track, with the bipartisan unity that drove almost $3 trillion in COVID-19 rescue legislation into law this spring replaced by partisanship and a return to Washington dysfunction.
Expectations in July and August that a fifth bipartisan pandemic response bill would be agreed on despite increased obstacles has been replaced by genuine pessimism. Recent conversations about COVID-19 aid among key players have led to nothing.
Democrats seem secure in their political position, with President Donald Trump and several Senate GOP incumbents lagging in the polls. Trump is seeking to sideline the pandemic as a campaign issue, and Republicans aren&#039;t interested in a deal on Democratic terms — even as n..


Hopes Fade for Coronavirus Deal as Congress Returns to Work

U.S. counterintelligence officials will no longer brief lawmakers on threats to the upcoming presidential election in November, telling them such in-person briefings have led to leaks of “sensitive intelligence” and the politicization of information.
Officials with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence verbally informed key lawmakers and congressional committees of the change Saturday, saying the intelligence on threats to the November 3 presidential election would still be provided, just in a different form.
“We are committed to meeting our statutory responsibilities and keeping Congress fully and currently informed,” an ODNI official told VOA on the condition of anonymity.
FILE &#8211; U.S. Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 5, 2020.“For clarity and to protect sensitive intelligence from unauthorized disclosures, we will primarily do that through written finished intelligence products,” the official said, adding, “We are concerned about un..


Top US Intelligence Official Ends In-Person Election Security Briefings for Congress

The U.S. House of Representatives is preparing for the possibility congressional staff members may have to telework because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The preparations are being launched &#8220;in light of the unique and unusual circumstances presented by the coronavirus.&#8221;
U.S. financial regulators are also preparing contingency plans, as there are COVID-19 cases in suburban Washington, New York, San Francisco and New Jersey, all places where regulatory agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and banking regulators have offices.
The Reuters news agency reports the financial watchdogs are allowing more telework, limiting travel and canceling conferences.


House of Representatives, Federal Agencies Prepare to Telework

U.S. President Donald Trump says the highest-ranking member of the country&#039;s legislative branch, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, &#8220;broke the law&#8221; when she shredded a copy of the State of the Union speech he delivered to Congress.
The president told reporters Friday that Pelosi&#039;s act, which was caught on camera just after Trump completed his address late Tuesday, was &#8220;disrespectful to our country, and actually very illegal.&#8221;
A Florida congressman of Trump&#039;s Republican party, Matt Gaetz, has filed an ethics complaint against Pelosi, accusing her of potentially violating federal law (18 U.S. Code § 2071).
The regulation prohibits the destruction of government records, but it only applies to documents that have been &#8220;filed or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court of the United States.&#8221;
&#039;Brilliant&#039; or &#039;tasteless&#039;
&#8220;That&#039;s really a law about preserving official documents, such as the official copy that would make it to the National Archives,&#8221; said..


Trump Accuses House Leader of ‘Very Illegal’ Act

Democrats on Tuesday accused the top Senate Republican of rigging U.S. President Donald Trump&#039;s impeachment trial with proposed rules that would prevent witnesses from testifying and bar evidence gathered by investigators.
Trump&#039;s trial on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress charges begins in earnest in the Republican-controlled Senate on Tuesday in a rare use of the constitutional mechanism for ousting a president. The Democratic-led House of Representatives approved the charges last month on a party-line vote.
Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has vowed to coordinate the televised trial with the White House, proposed on Monday rules that would execute a potentially quick trial without new testimony or evidence.
He unveiled a resolution that would give House Democratic prosecutors and Trump lawyers 48 hours, evenly split, to present their arguments over four days. Opening arguments are expected to begin this week and could well run into each night..


Democrats Accuse McConnell of Rigging Trump’s Impeachment Trial

In the U.S. Senate, except for important votes, the seats are often empty and only a handful of lawmakers might be listening in person as one of their loquacious colleagues opines on the issue of the day. When present on the floor, senators often carry on private conversations or text or tweet on their cellphones.
But all that will change at the impeachment trial of U.S. President Donald Trump, only the third such event in American history. Strict rules have been set that will be new and constraining to many lawmakers — and to Americans watching on television across the country.
For one thing, all 100 lawmakers, acting as jurors to decide whether to convict Trump of two articles of impeachment and remove him from office, have been told to show up for the entire trial. None may skip the long hours of proceedings to meet with constituents or lobbyists or to attend a political fundraiser. They&#039;ve been told to stay in their assigned seats and not to bring along reading material either..


At Trump’s Impeachment Trial, 100 Senators Face Strict Rules

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Trump was unseen player in election, experts say

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<div id="id9w"><div id="iuoi"><font color="#333333" face="sans-serif"><span id="ihii">Watch our </span><span id="igj6">exclusive</span><span id="i52ov"> LIVE interview with President Trump! <br/>Outside The Beltway show host, </span></font><span id="i0i8w">John Fredericks talks with President Trump on what&#039;s happening in Afghanistan and more.</span></div><div id="i52u"><iframe width="100%" height="360" src="https://rumble.com/embed/vjbz0x/?pub=kqd4p" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="rumble"></iframe></div></div>

WATCH OUR EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP

THE SAVE AMERICA FREEDOM TOUR

Taking his message of unity Wednesday to Wisconsin, a state key to his likely 2024 reelection bid, U.S. President Joe Biden doubled down on his criticisms of Republicans, calling out by name those who had called him a “liar” during his State of the Union address Tuesday evening.


“Many of you have seen, we've had a spirited debate last night with my Republican friends,” he said, referring to the boos and jeers befalling upon him as he asserted that Republicans aim to sunset Social Security and Medicare, social programs cherished by supporters of both major parties.


“Marjorie Taylor-Greene and others stood up and said, ‘Liar, liar,’” Biden said, referring to the Republican representative from Georgia who heckled him repeatedly. He then laid out names of Republican lawmakers, including Florida Senator Rick Scott, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson and Utah Senator Mike Lee, and the instances in which they suggested cutting government spending on the programs that tens of millions of Americans depend on.




“Sounds pretty clear to me. How about you?” Biden, a Democrat, quipped before repeating what he concluded in his remarks following the outbursts — that Republicans now agree to protect Social Security and Medicare


“It looks like we negotiated a deal last night,” he joked.


The verbal jujitsu skills displayed amid Republican attacks and the decline in congressional decorum is a preview of the way Biden will conduct his expected reelection campaign in 2024, observers say.




“I do think President Biden was challenging or even ‘baiting’ Republicans to respond to him,” said John Fortier, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who focuses on Congress and elections. “House leadership had warned members to not take the bait, but the dynamic spiraled. The members who shouted out that the president was lying probably did not help their cause.” 


Decades in 'the business'


With 50 years of political experience under his belt, Biden, now 80 years old, appeared to relish the exchange, grinning as he swiped back at Republicans. “We'll, I'm glad to see — I tell you, I enjoy conversion,” he said.


“It’s hard to say if the president was expecting that reaction, but he was certainly prepared for it. He’s been in this business for a long time,” said Jeff Bennett, professor and chair of communication studies at Vanderbilt University. “The president was arguing that he’s a reasonable person who is willing to reach across the aisle to get things done. And then the hecklers ended up providing the visual evidence he needed to support that claim.”




The heckling opponents appeared unruly and disrespectful of what is supposed to be an orderly American tradition that began with President Woodrow Wilson in 1913, observers noted.


“Ceremonial occasions aren't debate occasions, which is why congressional outbursts seem so out of place and indecorous,” Jennifer Mercieca, who teaches presidential rhetoric at Texas A&M University, told VOA. “Those outbursts aren't what the Greeks called ‘kairotic’ — the right time and place. it's not the right time nor the right place for debate.”


White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre contrasted lawmakers who behaved in a way that “Americans don’t want” with a president who “was very clear in how he sees the next two years.”


“He called out members on live television, in front of millions of Americans, and effectively put them on the defense,” she said in a briefing to reporters Wednesday.


Republicans are certainly defensive.


“We've made it clear from the beginning, we are going to honor our debt, we are going to protect our seniors. And furthermore, we're going to take care of our military personnel," Representative Andy Ogles of Tennessee told VOA. "And so for him to stand in the dais at the podium, and to make those accusations and really scare the American people was untruthful.”


Biden’s tone was “accusatory,” Ben Carson, secretary of Housing and Urban Development under the Trump administration, told VOA. “It really wasn't bipartisan at all.”


Decorum in decline


As Republicans heckled throughout the speech, including shouting calls to “secure the border,” many are noticing that these disruptions are now considered acceptable in American politics.


It’s a far cry from the condemnation lobbed by members of both parties when Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina yelled “You lie!” during President Barack Obama’s 2009 speech to a joint session of Congress. Booed by his colleagues, Wilson, a Republican, later issued an apology to the president, a Democrat.




“Then, it was a single voice, and it was shocking,” Fortier noted. “Last night, it became almost a team back and forth, somewhat reminiscent of Prime Minister’s Question Time, with many voices calling back at the president,” he said, referring to the animated British parliamentary tradition when members of the House of Commons grill the prime minister, often in an unruly manner.


Biden will likely aim to disarm combative congressional Republicans with the same strategy of boxing them in a corner as he is set to again clash with lawmakers demanding spending cuts before agreeing to pass a debt ceiling hike to avoid the country from defaulting in a few months.


“I can’t imagine that’s how negotiations to the debt ceiling will play out, but this moment will be an important one in the coming months,” Bennett said. “This is all part of his strategy to show that he is a uniter who is willing to reach across the aisle to do the business of the American people.”


Bringing the parties together will not be easy. New polling from Ipsos shows that 70% of Americans believe the country is “far apart” on issues of government budget and debt. Eighty-one percent believe the country is far apart on the abortion issue, and 78% believe the country is far apart on immigration stances.

As Political Decorum Declines, Biden’s Verbal Jujitsu Strategy Emerges

Former Twitter executives conceded Wednesday they made a mistake by blocking a story about Hunter Biden, the son of U.S. President Joe Biden, from the social media platform in the run-up to the 2020 election, but adamantly denied Republican assertions they were pressured by Democrats and law enforcement to suppress the story.


"The decisions here aren't straightforward, and hindsight is 20/20," Yoel Roth, Twitter's former head of trust and safety, testified to Congress. "It isn't obvious what the right response is to a suspected, but not confirmed, cyberattack by another government on a presidential election."


He added, "Twitter erred in this case because we wanted to avoid repeating the mistakes of 2016."


The three former executives appeared before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee to testify for the first time about the company's decision to initially block from Twitter a New York Post article in October 2020 about the contents of a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden.


Emboldened by Twitter's new leadership in billionaire Elon Musk — whom they see as more sympathetic to conservatives than the company's previous leadership — Republicans used the hearing to push a long-standing and unproven theory that social media companies including Twitter are biased against them.


Committee Chairman Representative James Comer said the hearing is the panel's "first step in examining the coordination between the federal government and Big Tech to restrict protected speech and interfere in the democratic process."


Alleged political bias


The hearing continues a yearslong trend of Republican leaders calling tech company leaders to testify about alleged political bias. Democrats, meanwhile, have pressed the companies on the spread of hate speech and misinformation on their platforms.


The witnesses Republicans subpoenaed were Roth, Vijaya Gadde, Twitter's former chief legal officer, and James Baker, the company's former deputy general counsel.


Democrats brought a witness of their own, Anika Collier Navaroli, a former employee with Twitter's content moderation team. She testified last year to the House committee that investigated the January 6 Capitol riot about Twitter's preferential treatment of Donald Trump until it banned the then-president from the site two years ago.


'A bizarre political stunt'


The White House criticized congressional Republicans for staging "a bizarre political stunt," hours after Biden's State of the Union address where he detailed bipartisan progress in his first two years in office.


"This appears to be the latest effort by the House Republican majority's most extreme MAGA members to question and relitigate the outcome of the 2020 election," White House spokesperson Ian Sams said in a statement Wednesday. "This is not what the American people want their leaders to work on."


The New York Post reported weeks before the 2020 presidential election that it had received from Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, a copy of a hard drive from a laptop that Hunter Biden had dropped off 18 months earlier at a Delaware computer repair shop and never retrieved. Twitter blocked people from sharing links to the story for several days.


"You exercised an amazing amount of clout and power over the entire American electorate by even holding (this story) hostage for 24 hours and then reversing your policy," Representative Andy Biggs said to the panel of witnesses.


Months later, Twitter's then-CEO, Jack Dorsey, called the company's communications around the Post article "not great." He added that blocking the article's URL with "zero context" around why it was blocked was "unacceptable."


The newspaper story was greeted at the time with skepticism because of questions about the laptop's origins, including Giuliani's involvement, and because top officials in the Trump administration had already warned that Russia was working to denigrate Joe Biden before the White House election.


The Kremlin interfered in the 2016 race by hacking Democratic emails that were subsequently leaked, and fears that Russia would meddle again in the 2020 race were widespread across Washington.


Musk releases 'Twitter files'


Just last week, lawyers for the younger Biden asked the U.S. Justice Department to investigate people who say they accessed his personal data. But they did not acknowledge that the data came from a laptop Hunter Biden is purported to have dropped off at a computer repair shop.


The issue was also reignited recently after Musk took over Twitter as CEO and began to release a slew of company information to independent journalists, what he has called the "Twitter Files."


The documents and data largely show internal debates among employees over the decision to temporarily censor links to the Hunter Biden story. The tweet threads lacked substantial evidence of a targeted influence campaign from Democrats or the FBI, which has denied any involvement in Twitter's decision-making.


Witness often targeted


One of Wednesday's witnesses, Baker, has been a frequent target of Republican scrutiny.


Baker was the FBI's general counsel during the opening of two of the bureau's most consequential investigations in history: the Hillary Clinton investigation and a separate inquiry into potential coordination between Russia and Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. Republicans have long criticized the FBI's handling of both investigations.


Baker denied any wrongdoing during his two years at Twitter and said that despite disagreeing with the decision to block links to the Post story, "I believe that the public record reveals that my client acted in a manner that was fully consistent with the First Amendment."


There has been no evidence that Twitter's platform is biased against conservatives; studies have found the opposite when it comes to conservative media in particular. But the issue continues to preoccupy Republican members of Congress.


And some experts said questions around government influence on Big Tech's content moderation are legitimate.

Ex-Twitter Execs Deny Pressure to Block Hunter Biden Story

U.S. President Joe Biden said Tuesday the “story of America is a story of progress and resilience” as he gave his second State of the Union address with a focus on his domestic economic policy, including an appeal to his Republican opponents to work together.


“Two years ago, COVID had shut down our businesses, closed our schools and robbed us of so much,” Biden told a joint session of Congress.


“Today, COVID no longer controls our lives,” he said.


“And two years ago, our democracy faced its greatest threat since the Civil War. Today, though bruised, our democracy remains unbowed and unbroken,” he added.


Highlights consensus 


Facing a Congress in which Republicans now have a majority in the House of Representatives, Biden cited legislation that Republican and Democratic lawmakers came together to pass, including a massive infrastructure bill, aid for Ukraine and protecting same-sex marriage rights.


“To my Republican friends, if we could work together in the last Congress, there is no reason we can’t work together and find consensus in this new Congress as well,” Biden said.


Biden was also expected to again argue to raise the debt ceiling, which is the maximum amount the U.S. Treasury can borrow to pay its bills. The U.S. hit its debt limit of $31.4 trillion in January. Congress now has until midyear to raise the limit before the U.S. defaults on its loans.




Kevin McCarthy, the newly elected speaker of the House of Representatives, has said the Republican Party will continue to oppose what they see as excessive spending.


"Biden's challenge in the State of the Union is to make the global case while also presenting himself as a leader who understands and is prepared to meet the day-to-day economic challenges facing Americans here at home," political scientist Andrew Seligsohn said in a note to VOA.




Biden also was expected to discuss a range of foreign policy issues, administration officials said.


Relations with China, the nation Biden sees as the biggest competitor for the U.S., hit a new low last week when the U.S. shot down what it said was a Chinese spy balloon that traversed the country for a week, including over key military installations.


Patrick Cronin, Asia-Pacific security chair at the Hudson Institute, a conservative Washington think tank, told Lin Feng of VOA’s Mandarin Service that Biden needs to show he “is forging ahead with policies that strengthen the security of America and its allies. His words about China should highlight Beijing’s deeds, not words, but without adjectives. Let facts speak for themselves."


Gun policy, immigration, health care, police reform and more were also likely to feature in the address.




Invited guests include Tyre Nichols' parents


As is custom, the event hosted guests who symbolize some of the issues. The Congressional Black Caucus invited the parents of slain Memphis resident Tyre Nichols to the address.


Nichols, 29, was killed by five Black police officers in January. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have used the tragedy to urge Congress to revisit the stalled police reform act that Democrats proposed after the 2020 killing of Minneapolis resident George Floyd.


And Jeremi Suri, a history professor at the University of Texas at Austin, also noted that Biden will use the speech to rally support. Biden has not officially announced whether he will run for reelection in 2024. His critics say at 80, he is too old for another term.


“He will depict Republicans as ideologues, while he is a pragmatist for the American people,” he told VOA.

Biden Focuses on Economy, Touts Accomplishments in 2nd State of the Union

For the first time in his presidency Tuesday night, U.S. President Joe Biden will address a Congress under divided party rule.


Republicans who hold a slim majority in the House of Representatives have already issued the first subpoenas in one of many investigations just getting under way based on accusations the White House has abused its power.


“I do not think any American believes that justice should not be equal to all,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters last week. “We found from this administration, what happened before every single election, whatever comes out, that they utilize to try to falsify... they try to have different standards for their own beliefs. That doesn't work in America.”


Republicans argue the Biden administration has abused its power in several ways and plans to conduct investigatory hearings. The House Judiciary Committee, headed by Representative Jim Jordan, launched hearings into the Biden administration’s border security last week.


“Month after month after month, we have set records for migrants coming into the country. And frankly, I think it's intentional,” Jordan said. “I don't know how anyone with common sense or logic can reach any other conclusion. It seems deliberate. It seems premeditated.”


One of the Republican-majority House’s first acts was to establish a Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. The subcommittee – along an entirely party-line vote – has a mandate to investigate the use of information on U.S. citizens by executive branch agencies. Republicans will investigate their allegations that U.S. government agencies targeted conservative supporters of former President Donald Trump.


“The goal, the principle is that the president, like every other American citizen, is not above the law. And congressional hearings are one way to ensure that the president does not put himself above the law,” Ken Hughes, a historian with the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs, told VOA.


Hughes said that in the past, Congress has been able to conduct productive investigations even in eras of divided party rule.

“Even in a polarized era, congressional investigation can do some good, but in order for you to have ... a truly beneficial impact, both parties have to cooperate.”


With Democrats maintaining their control of the Senate, the prospect of any legislative solutions coming out of the House investigations is highly unlikely.


“Nobody really expects that were the House Republican majority to come up with a rule about how DOJ could do investigations, to pass a law, it's dead on arrival in the Senate,” Sarah Binder, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told VOA. “There's a broad realm here for lawmakers to use the subpoena power to force people to come to speak to them, even though no one expects a real lesson of change to occur because of those investigations.”


Democrats have already said Republican investigations unfairly target Biden and distract Congress from important work of legislating.


“It’s very unfortunate that we’ve seen this extreme MAGA Republican agenda which is apparently anchored in impeachment and investigations focused on witch hunts, not on working families,” Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters last month. MAGA stands for Make America Great Again, a phrase associated with former President Donald Trump, who has announced his intention to run for the White House in 2024.


Chief among Democrats’ concerns are investigations into Biden’s family, including his son, Hunter Biden, who is alleged to have unfairly benefited from his father’s political position. Republicans have also already launched investigations into the use of congressionally appropriated funds combating the COVID-19 crisis and other issues of government waste. At a House Oversight Committee hearing last week, Republican Rep. James Comer said the oversight was long overdue.


“We're going to be returning this committee to its core mission. And that is to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not being mismanaged, abused or wasted, to shine a light in the darkness of the federal bureaucracy to prevent corruption and self-dealing to make sure our federal government is working efficiently for the American people.”


The discovery of classified documents at Biden’s Delaware residence dating back to his time as vice president in the Obama administration will also come under investigation in the U.S. House. With just a year to go until the first 2024 presidential election primaries, Republicans will be seeking to keep the focus on Biden.


But Hughes, who specializes in studying abuses of presidential power, told VOA the classified documents issue now clearly impacts both parties.


“For the last decade or so we've seen a lot of political rhetoric about the danger of mishandling classified information, and almost no actual damage to national security as a result," Hughes said. "It doesn't mean that it's OK for officials and former officials to mishandle classified information, but I think we need perspective on it. And it does no harm. If the information in the classified documents doesn't fall into the hands of foreign powers, particularly the hostile powers, then we're talking about an interaction rather than a crime.”


Investigations can be a way of bringing down presidential approval ratings, but the opposite party has to be careful about appearing too partisan, Binder told VOA.


“Congressional investigations we can show historically do dampen presidential approval, right? They can really tarnish what the public thinks about the president,” she said.


“The question is whether the public sees through that. Democrats won't be convinced. And the question then is Republicans – do they care about the work of Hunter Biden? We’ll see, depending how far that investigation goes.”

Republicans Launch Investigations Into Biden Administration

The Democratic Party approved reordering its 2024 presidential primary Saturday, replacing Iowa with South Carolina in the leadoff spot as part of a major shake-up meant to empower Black and other minority voters critical to its base of support.


Although more changes are possible later this year, the formal endorsement by the Democratic National Committee during its meeting in Philadelphia is an acknowledgement that the start of the 2024 primary will look very different from the one in 2020. Hundreds of party stalwarts cheered after the easy passage by voice vote.


States with early contests play a major role in determining the nominee because White House hopefuls struggling to raise money or gain political traction often drop out before visiting states outside the first five. Media attention and policy debates concentrate in those areas, too.


The new plan was championed by President Joe Biden, who is expected to formally announce his reelection campaign in the coming months. The reconfiguring would have South Carolina hold its primary Feb. 3, followed three days later by New Hampshire and Nevada, which is swapping the caucus it used to hold in favor of a primary.


Georgia would vote fourth on Feb. 13, followed by Michigan on Feb. 27, with much of the rest of the nation set to vote on Super Tuesday in early March.


"The Democratic Party looks like America and so does this proposal," said DNC chair Jaime Harrison, a South Carolinian. The change "continues to make us stronger and elevates the backbone of our party," he said.


Biden wrote the DNC rules committee in December, saying, "We must ensure that voters of color have a voice in choosing our nominee much earlier in the process and throughout the entire early window." That committee approved the new lineup, setting up Saturday's vote.


The move remakes the current calendar, which saw Iowa start with its caucus, followed by New Hampshire and then Nevada and South Carolina. The Republican Party has voted not to change its 2024 primary order, meaning the campaign has already begun in Iowa.


"The DNC has decided to break a half-century precedent and cause chaos by altering their primary process, and ultimately abandoning millions of Americans in Iowa and New Hampshire," Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel said in a statement Saturday.




Four of the first five new states under Democrats' new plan are battlegrounds, meaning the eventual party winner would be able to lay groundwork in important general election spots. That's especially true for Michigan and Georgia, both of which voted for Republican Donald Trump in 2016 before flipping to Biden in 2020.


The exception is South Carolina, which hasn't backed a Democrat in a presidential race since 1976, leading some to argue that the party shouldn't be concentrating so many early primary resources there. But the state's population is nearly 27% Black, and African American voters represent Democrats' most consistent base of support. Iowa and New Hampshire are each more than 90% white.


The revamped calendar could be largely meaningless for 2024 because Biden is expected to run for a second term without a major primary challenge. Also, the DNC has already pledged to revisit the voting calendar before the 2028 presidential election.


Still, this year's changes could establish precedent, just as a new lineup that moved Nevada and South Carolina into the first states to vote did when the DNC approved a new primary calendar before the 2008 presidential election.


"These things may be symbolic, but they're realistic," South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, assistant Democratic leader in the House and a close Biden ally, told The Associated Press.


The new order follows technical glitches that caused Iowa's 2020 caucus to meltdown. It also gives Biden the chance to repay South Carolina, where he scored a decisive 2020 primary win that revived his presidential campaign after losses in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.


Democrats have worked on overhauling their primary lineup for months. On Saturday, nearly an hour of final debate turned raw at times.


Some Black members of the DNC said those arguing to abide by tradition could be seen as implying that states with larger African American populations were incapable of handling the responsibility of going early in the primary.


"If we're really a family, it means some of y'all got to shift to make room at the table for others," said Leah Daughtry, a DNC rules committee member from New York.


Iowa Democratic Party chair Rita Hart argued that Republicans in her state were already accusing Democrats of "have turned their back on Iowa and on rural America." But Michigan Rep. Debbie Dingell, to sustained applause, countered: "No one state should have a lock on going first."


Despite the approval, the final slate is not yet set. South Carolina, Nevada and Michigan have met party requirements to join the party's new top five. But Georgia may not change its Democratic primary calendar date without the Republicans also doing so.


Iowa argued that continued uncertainty could cause other states to try and jump ahead of the new DNC calendar, as happened before the 2008 presidential race. The new rules include penalties for states trying to move up without permission, including possibly losing delegates to the party's national convention.


New Hampshire has a state law mandating that it hold the nation's first presidential primary, which Iowa circumvented since 1972 by holding a caucus. New Hampshire Democrats have joined with top state Republicans in pledging to go forward with the nation's first presidential primary next year regardless of the DNC calendar.


No major challenger has yet emerged from his own party to run against Biden for president next year. Still, top New Hampshire Democrats have warned that another Democrat could run in an unsanctioned primary the state stages and, if Biden skips it in accordance with party rules, could win and embarrass the president — prolonging a primary process that wasn't supposed to be competitive.


"Respecting our state law and lifting up diverse voices need not be mutually exclusive," said Joanne Dowdell, a DNC rules committee member from New Hampshire.

Democrats Reshuffle Primaries, Emphasize Diversity Over Tradition

As former Vice President Mike Pence joined the club of top officials mishandling classified documents, U.S. presidents and vice presidents going all the way back to Jimmy Carter, the oldest living former commander in chief, must now respond to public scrutiny on whether they followed procedure in returning classified material upon leaving office.


Representatives of the 39th U.S. president, who served from 1977 to 1981, said he did.


“Though President Carter was not bound by the Presidential Records Act, which took effect after his presidency, he nevertheless voluntarily donated his documents and records to the National Archives after he left office and directed his team to work closely with the National Archives on their transfer,” a spokesperson said in an email response to VOA.


The Presidential Records Act of 1978 governs the official records of presidents and vice presidents after January 1981 and transfers the legal ownership of those records from private to public under the management of the National Archives and Records Administration.


The Carter Center did not deny reporting by The Associated Press that classified materials were found at the president’s home in Plains, Georgia, on at least one occasion and were returned to NARA.


“It could happen,” Matthew De Galan, Carter Center vice president of communications, told VOA. “If it happened, it's a normal thing — you find a classified document, you turn it in.”




But no one currently working at the Carter Center or the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum remembers the president finding classified materials at his home, De Galan added.


Representatives of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama responded similarly to VOA’s query, saying the presidents returned materials to NARA at the end of their terms and no additional searches are being conducted. Obama’s office points to NARA statements in September that refute media reports that boxes of presidential records were missing from the Obama administration when NARA moved them at the end of his term.


Widespread problem


Lawyers for Pence said a "small number" of classified documents were found at his home in Indiana last week. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden are under separate special counsel investigations looking into their respective mishandling of classified documents.


Much is still unknown about how, when and why these materials were not appropriately handled. However, many former officials and experts say the problem is widespread.


“There are several million people at any given time who hold a security clearance and have access to classified information,” Mark Zaid, an attorney focusing on national security law, told VOA. “Individuals leave federal service and just mistakenly bring documents home that are classified, and they don't even realize that for years.”


Classified documents may also get misplaced during a presidential transition, where there is a massive move of records, including the physical transfer of hundreds of millions of textual, electronic and audiovisual records and artifacts from the White House to an outgoing president’s future library.


Matthew Dowd, chief strategist for the Bush-Cheney 2004 presidential campaign, said in a tweet that it is likely every president and vice president in recent history “accidentally left with classified documents because of packing mess at transition times.”




Still, some lawmakers are livid.


“We have an epidemic of senior leaders taking classified [documents] home. And we have to say categorically, whether it’s Republican or Democrat, it’s all wrong,” Republican Representative Don Bacon said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.”


“It shows carelessness, negligence, and I think Americans should be mad," he added, throwing his support behind a special counsel investigation on Pence similar to those investigating Trump and Biden.


White House officials maintain that Biden and his aides take treatment of classified materials seriously.


“The National Security Council staff, we deal with classified material every single day. You have to do that,” John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the NSC, said during a briefing to reporters on Wednesday. “We all know what the rules are. We follow the rules. And the procedures exist for a reason.”


Public trust in elected officials is already at a historic low, with only 20% of Americans saying they trust the government in Washington to do what is right, according to a Pew Research poll.


“Most people think that the government does a pretty good job with national security,” Jennifer Mercieca, who teaches presidential rhetoric at Texas A&M University, told VOA. “These classified document scandals could affect how the public sees the government's ability to guarantee safety.”


Some observers say that while officials must deal with classified materials more carefully, the U.S. government system suffers from rampant overclassification.


“Many millions of documents are classified each year, most of which do not contain any real secrets but are classified for political purposes,” said Allan Lichtman, presidential historian at American University who has written about reforming the U.S. classification system. “Until such reform is realized, the American people have a reason to distrust the classification system.”


As part of his Open Government Initiative, Obama signed an executive order mandating that the government cannot classify a document if “significant doubt” exists about the need to hide it.


Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty & National Security Program, argues that the order doesn’t go far enough. She said officials overuse “Secret” and “Top Secret” stamps, keeping many documents that should be public from becoming available.


Katherine Gypson contributed to this report.

US Presidents Facing Scrutiny on Documents

As Californians deal with two deadly mass shootings just days apart, U.S. President Joe Biden is throwing his support behind gun control measures, including renewing the 1994 assault weapons ban he championed as a senator.


“Even as we await further details on these shootings, we know the scourge of gun violence across America requires stronger action. I once again urge both chambers of Congress to act quickly and deliver this assault weapons ban to my desk, and take action to keep American communities, schools, workplaces, and homes safe,” President Biden said in a statement Tuesday following Monday shootings in two locations at Half Moon Bay, California, that left at least seven people dead.


The shootings happened just two days after a gunman killed at least 11 people at a dance studio in Monterey Park, California, as that city’s Asian American community was celebrating Lunar New Year weekend.


On Monday, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, along with Democratic senators from Connecticut Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, introduced the bill to reinstate a federal assault weapons ban, as well as legislation to raise the minimum age to purchase an assault weapon to 21. That ban expired in 2004.


“The constant stream of mass shootings [has] one common thread: They almost all involve assault weapons. It’s because these weapons were designed to kill as many people as quickly as possible,” Feinstein said. “It’s time we stand up to the gun lobby and remove these weapons of war from our streets, or at the very least keep them out of the hands of young people.”


The weapons ban, opposed by Republicans and gun rights activists, blocks the sale of 19 specific weapons that have the features of guns used by the military and outlawed magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition.


Democratic Congressman David Cicilline will introduce a companion version of the bill in the House of Representatives. Both chambers will need to pass the bill for it to reach Biden’s desk for signature into law — a very slim chance with Republicans controlling the House.


White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration is considering more executive actions to deal with reducing gun violence.


“But what we believe is that Congress needs to act,” she told reporters Tuesday.


There have been more deadly gun violence incidents so far this year than in any year on record — 39 mass shootings, defined as incidents with at least four victims shot, across the country in the first three weeks of 2023.


Last June, just over a month after the mass shooting at a Texas elementary school killed 19 children and two adults and a mass shooting at a Buffalo, N.Y. supermarket killed 10 Black people, Biden signed a bipartisan gun safety bill into law.


The legislation, the first major gun safety regulation passed by Congress in nearly 30 years, includes strengthening background checks for gun buyers between the ages of 18 and 21 and providing incentives for states to pass so-called red flag laws that allow groups to petition courts to remove weapons from people deemed a threat to themselves or others, among other provisions.

Biden Pushing Assault Weapons Ban Renewal Following US Mass Shootings

Documents with classified markings were discovered in former Vice President Mike Pence's Indiana home last week, his lawyer told the National Archives in a letter — the latest in a string of discoveries of confidential information in private residences.


The records "appear to be a small number of documents bearing classified markings that were inadvertently boxed and transported to the personal home of the former vice president at the end of the last administration," Pence's lawyer, Greg Jacob, wrote in the letter shared with The Associated Press.


He said that Pence “engaged outside counsel, with experience in handling classified documents, to review records stored in his personal home after it became public that documents with classified markings were found in President Joe Biden's Wilmington residence.


The Justice Department already is using special counsels to investigate the presence of documents with classification markings taken from the Florida estate of former President Donald Trump and from Biden’s home and former Washington office. The department says roughly 300 documents marked classified, including at the top-secret level, were taken from Mar-a-Lago, and officials are trying to determine whether Trump or anyone else should be charged with illegal possession of those records or with trying to obstruct the months-long criminal investigation.


Pence's lawyer said in his letter that the former vice president “was unaware of the existence of sensitive or classified documents at his personal residence” and "understands the high importance of protecting sensitive and classified information and stands ready and willing to cooperate fully with the National Archives and any appropriate inquiry.”


Jacob said that Pence immediately secured the documents that were discovered in a locked safe. And according to a follow-up letter from the lawyer dated January 22, FBI agents visited Pence's residence to collect the documents.


A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment Tuesday, and a lawyer for Pence did not immediately respond to an email seeking elaboration.


Pence told The Associated Press in August that he did not take any classified information with him when he left office.


Asked directly if he had retained any such information, he said, “No, not to my knowledge.”


In a January interview with Fox Business, Pence described a “very formal process” used by his office to handle classified information, as well as the steps taken by his lawyers to ensure none was taken with him.


“Before we left the White House, the attorneys on my staff went through all the documents at both the White House and our offices there and at the vice president’s residence to ensure that any documents that needed to be turned over to the National Archives, including classified documents, were turned over. So, we went through a very careful process in that regard," Pence said.

Classified Documents at Pence's Home, Too, His Lawyer Says

The Federal Bureau of Investigation searched President Joe Biden's home in Wilmington, Delaware, on Friday and found six documents containing classification markings and also took possession of some of his notes, the president's lawyer said Saturday.


Bob Bauer, the president's personal lawyer, said the search of the entire premises lasted nearly 13 hours.


The documents with classification markings spanned Biden's time in the Senate and the vice presidency, while the notes dated to his time as vice president.


The search took place more than a week after Biden's attorneys found six other classified documents in the president's home library from his time as vice president, and nearly three months after lawyers found a small number of classified records at his former offices at the Penn Biden Center in Washington.


The president and first lady Jill Biden were not at the home when it was searched. They are spending the weekend at their home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.


Bauer said the FBI requested that the White House not comment on the search before it was conducted. He said the FBI "had full access to the president's home, including personally handwritten notes, files, papers, binders, memorabilia, to-do lists, schedules, and reminders going back decades."




The Justice Department, he added, "took possession of materials it deemed within the scope of its inquiry, including six items consisting of documents with classification markings and surrounding materials, some of which were from the president's service in the Senate and some of which were from his tenure as vice president."


Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed former Maryland U.S. Attorney Robert Hur as a special counsel to investigate any potential wrongdoing surrounding the Biden documents.


"Since the beginning, the president has been committed to handling this responsibly because he takes this seriously," White House lawyer Richard Sauber said Saturday. "The president's lawyers and White House Counsel's Office will continue to cooperate with DOJ and the special counsel to help ensure this process is conducted swiftly and efficiently."

FBI Searches Biden Home, Finds 6 Documents Marked Classified

Ron Klain, President Joe Biden's White House chief of staff, plans to leave his post in the coming weeks, sources familiar with the matter said on Saturday, a major changing of the guard.


Klain has informed Biden of his plans, the sources said, confirming a New York Times story that said the long-serving aide would likely depart after the president's State of the Union address on February 7.


Klain, 61, has a long history at the White House, having served as chief of staff to former Vice President Al Gore and to Biden when he was vice president under President Barack Obama.


His departure is coming as Biden prepares to declare whether he will seek a second four-year term in 2024, an announcement anticipated after the State of the Union address.


The Times cited a lengthy list of possible successors to Klain: Labor Secretary Marty Walsh; former Delaware Governor Jack Markell; Biden senior adviser Anita Dunn, counselor to the president Steve Richetti, former pandemic coordinator Jeff Zients and domestic policy adviser Susan Rice, along with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.


The news broke as Biden spent the weekend at his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, home.


The chief of staff position is one of the most important at the White House, the senior political appointee responsible for driving the president's policy agenda and ensuring appropriate staff members are hired.


The job can have a high burnout rate as the long days pile up. Klain's tenure has been fairly lengthy comparatively speaking. Biden's predecessor, Republican Donald Trump, burned through four chiefs of staff in four years including his first, Reince Priebus, who lasted 192 days.

White House Chief of Staff Klain Expected to Step Down Soon

President Joe Biden said Thursday there is "no there there" when he was questioned about the discovery of classified documents and official records at his home and former office.


"We found a handful of documents were filed in the wrong place," Biden said to reporters who questioned him during a tour of the damage from storms in California. "We immediately turned them over to the Archives and the Justice Department."


Biden said he was "fully cooperating and looking forward to getting this resolved quickly."


"I think you're going to find there's nothing there," he said. "There's no there there."


The White House has disclosed that Biden attorneys found classified documents and official records on four occasions in recent months — on Nov. 2 at the offices of the Penn Biden Center in Washington, and then in follow up searches on Dec. 20 in the garage of the president's home in Wilmington, Delaware, and on Jan. 11 and 12 in the president's home library.


The discovery complicates a federal probe into former President Donald Trump, who the Justice Department says took hundreds of records marked classified with him upon leaving the White House in early 2021 and resisted months of requests to return them to the government.


The two cases are different — Biden for example, willingly turned over the documents once found. But the issue is wearing on the president and his aides, who have repeatedly said they acted swiftly and appropriately when the documents were discovered and are working to be as transparent as possible though key questions remain unanswered.


Attorney General Merrick Garland last week appointed Robert Hur, a former Maryland U.S. attorney, to serve as special counsel to oversee the Justice Department's inquiry into the documents. Garland said the extraordinary circumstances warranted a special counsel, and he also made the decision in part to show the Justice Department's "commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters."


Hur is taking over for federal prosecutor John Lausch, who was initially asked to review the documents and whose team has already been interviewing former Biden aides responsible for packing up boxes during his time as vice president. Those interviews include Kathy Chung, who served as an administrative assistant during that time, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.


Biden expressed frustration that the documents matter was coming up as he surveyed coastal storm damage, telling reporters that it "bugs me" that he was being asked about the handling of the classified material even as "we have a serious problem here" in California.


"The American people don't quite understand why you don't ask me questions about that," he pressed.


Biden's team has faced criticism for its fragmented disclosures — the public wasn't notified of the documents until early January and after that the additional findings dripped out slowly. It has occasionally led to heated exchanges between reporters and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in the White House briefing room. She ran into trouble when she suggested last Friday that all documents had been recovered, only to have an additional discovery disclosed over the weekend.


Biden said Thursday he has "no regrets" over how and when the public learned about the documents.


"I'm following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do," he said.

Biden on Classified Docs Discovery: 'There's No There There'

Walking through the center of the city in the shadow of the looming domes of two state Capitol buildings — the old one and the new — it’s hard to miss the signs of history marked throughout Springfield, Illinois, the launching pad of the political careers of U.S. presidents Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama.


“It is surreal to know that Abraham Lincoln was in the same position as me at one point,” said Nabeela Syed while standing in front of a statue of the “Great Emancipator” at the entrance to the current Illinois state Capitol.


While Lincoln made a name for himself at the old Capitol building a few blocks away, history is very much on the mind of Syed as she walks amid the rows of well-polished wooden desks and leather chairs lined up on the floor of the Illinois House of Representatives.


“Our tour guide said he actually took a picture of Barack Obama in the same exact place that me and my family were posing,” Syed told Voice of America. “So, to think about the history that exists here in Springfield and the history that we’re contributing, it’s an incredible feeling.”


Making history


Syed and her colleague Abdelnasser Rashid are about to make their own history as the 103rd Legislative session in Illinois gets underway. They are the first Muslim American lawmakers ever elected to the Statehouse.


“I think considering that Illinois has the highest per capita population of Muslims, I do wish it happened sooner, because I know the importance of representation,” Syed said.


In November, Syed defeated an incumbent Republican to win her suburban Chicago district.


“Not only am I Democrat, but I am a hijab-wearing Muslim, Indian American woman,” said Syed. “Our values, the way that we communicate our message, the way we engage our community, went beyond those things that people consider obstacles, and we flipped our district.”


At 23, Syed is also among the youngest women ever elected in Illinois and begins her term among other notable firsts in the Illinois House of Representatives, led by the first Black speaker, with the first female Republican House leader, and the largest Asian American caucus in the General Assembly.


“As the first Palestinian elected to the legislature and as one of two Muslims, I also carry the voices of so many people who have been marginalized and have been yearning for representation. And I take that responsibility very seriously,” said Rashid, who now represents a suburban Chicago district with a large Latino population.


“It is not just about adding the number of colored faces, it is more about perspectives and strategies and position. That’s why I think they got the support from the broader community, not only the Muslim population alone,” said Kikue Hamayotsu, a political science professor at Northern Illinois University.


She credits Rashid and Syed’s successful election campaigns to their focus and messaging on the issues concerning voters and not necessarily their identity.


“The things and policies they talked about are more about imminent important issues such as reproductive health, abortion law. Also gender issues, religious freedom at a time when religious conservatism is rising to influence politics,” Hamayotsu said.


“I think the lesson of my election and Nabeela’s election and so many more — it’s not just Muslims,” said Rashid. “It’s folks like Hoan Huynh, a Vietnamese refugee who was elected. People like Sharon Chung, a Korean-American who was elected. The number of people who are in the Illinois legislature is reflective of the diversity of our state. This is something that we should take pride in, and something that we should embrace so that our government continues to reflect the wishes of its people. I think where we have a strong healthy vibrant democracy, we’ll have better outcomes for all of us.”


'Our democracy is composed of us'


As he reflects on a long, memorable day that included his swearing-in ceremony, Rashid was hopeful about the signal his and Syed’s elections send to others with similar backgrounds who may be debating their own political careers.


“My election gives confidence to people who may have been hesitant to run but now realize that they can. I’ve had people come to me and say, ‘I didn’t think that you could win, and now my eyes are open,” he said.


Syed hopes others who also wear the hijab might see her as an example of what is possible instead of what is not.


“Our democracy is composed of us,” she told VOA. “And we are contributing to making America amazing.”


While Illinois is a reliably “blue” state, Rashid and Syed’s election wins helped Democrats increase the party’s overall influence in state politics. In the 118-member Illinois House of Representatives, 40 seats are now held by Republicans and 78 by Democrats — one of the largest party majorities in state history.

First Illinois Muslim American Lawmakers Begin Work in Diverse Legislature

Illinois' first Muslim lawmakers are now serving in the Midwestern state’s increasingly diverse House of Representatives. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports from the state capital, Springfield.

Illinois' First Muslim American Lawmakers Begin Work in Diverse Legislature

The White House faced a new barrage of criticism Tuesday about the weekend announcement that lawyers found a third tranche of classified documents at the president’s private home.


Administration officials emphasized they are being cooperative with investigators and transparent with the public and are drawing a contrast between their behavior and that of former President Donald Trump.


However, in a half-hour call with reporters, White House spokesperson Ian Sams declined to offer any details beyond the few the administration already has reported about the unknown number of documents found in private offices and homes used by President Joe Biden.


And while White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre fielded multiple questions on the issue, she stressed repeatedly that the White House would not provide too many details while an investigation was underway. Last week, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to investigate the potential mishandling of classified documents by Biden.


“While we may be constrained from being able to provide a ton of facts as this investigation is ongoing, we're being very forthright that we're being cooperative with the Justice Department,” said Sams, special assistant to the president and senior adviser to the White House counsel’s office. “And that's such a stark contrast. I mean, you listen to these House Republicans … they're faking outrage about disclosure and transparency.”


On Saturday, White House lawyer Richard Sauber said in a statement that officials found six pages’ worth of classified documents in Biden’s private library at his home in Wilmington, Delaware. He said those documents were immediately turned over to the Justice Department.


The latest discovery adds to a trove found in December in the garage of Biden’s Wilmington home, and another set found in November in an office in Washington that he used.


Biden said after the first discovery was announced last week that he was “surprised to learn that there were any government records that were taken there to that office.”


“But I don’t know what’s in the documents,” he added.


Previously, the Justice Department retrieved about 300 documents at various levels of classification from Trump’s Florida home.


Unanswered questions


In Tuesday’s call with reporters, the White House did not give comprehensive responses to questions about why they delayed by days or weeks in announcing the document discoveries, what the parameters were for the searches, whether they are done searching, what’s in the documents themselves and how many there are, and whether Biden would sit for an interview with the special counsel if he is asked.


Trump, on his social media network, sought to contrast his case with Biden’s, saying that he “did NOTHING wrong [and] have the right as President to “declassify.”


Trump added that he kept the documents securely and that “Mar-a-Lago is a highly secured facility, with Security Cameras all over the place, and watched over by staff & our great Secret Service. I have INFO on everyone!”


Biden’s Republican critics have promised swift action.


“President Biden’s three strikes against transparency will be met with swift congressional oversight,” James Comer, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, said in a statement on Saturday. “The White House, the National Archives, and the Justice Department failed to promptly inform Congress and the American people about mishandled classified documents from Joe Biden’s time as vice president.”




When asked if the White House would cooperate with Congress, Sams said, “We're reviewing those letters. We'll make a determination about our response in due course. But of course, we're going to call it out when we see rampant hypocrisy that shows a total lack of credibility when it comes to these requests.”


Walter Shaub, a senior ethics fellow at the Project on Government Oversight, told VOA via email that while the administration was right to promptly inform Justice Department officials after they found the documents, “things might have come out better for the Biden White House if they had done a better job [of]] communicating with the public. At a minimum, they should have been forthcoming with all relevant details when the media first asked about President Biden’s retention of the records.”


"It may be understandable that the administration didn’t alert the public immediately” when they first discovered the documents, he said, but “at some point, they owed the public information. It would have been nice if the administration made an announcement before the media learned that President Biden had discovered classified records in his possession. ... That was a breach of trust with the public.”




Jean-Pierre questioned whether the public was preoccupied with what is turning out to be a political headache for the Biden administration, which faces stiff opposition in the new Congress.


“That's for the American people to decide, right?” she said.


Time and tension


The White House said the Biden administration is aware of its responsibility to inform the public, but it noted there are legal considerations.


“We understand that there's a tension between the need to be cooperative with an ongoing DoJ investigation and rightful demands for additional public information,” Sams said.


Jordan Strauss, a former Justice Department official and former White House staffer, said that often happens in legal matters.


“It is not common for the public to learn about investigations at the investigation stage,” said Strauss, now a managing director at Kroll, a risk and financial advisory solutions firm.


Strauss said the outcome is not inevitable — some of the found documents, which date from Biden’s time as vice president, might no longer be classified.


The one thing that is sure, he said, is that this will take time.


“Right now, I suspect that the president's lawyers are conducting a very thorough investigation on their own to try to figure out what's happened, and they probably don't want to share information until they've definitively established what happened and what did not,” he said. “And that's not a short process in almost any criminal case, or civil case.”


Until this is resolved, questions will continue to hit the White House.


“You guys can ask me this 100 times, 200 times if you wish,” Jean-Pierre told reporters on Tuesday, after fielding several questions on the issue. ”I'm going to keep saying the same thing. I hear your question. It's been asked. And answered. It's been noted. And we're just going to try to move on here.”

White House Gives Few Details About Additional Classified Documents Found at Biden's Home

Key dates related to the discovery of classified documents tied to U.S. President Joe Biden, based on statements from the White House, the president, and Attorney General Merrick Garland:



	Jan. 20, 2017: Biden's two terms as vice president to President Barack Obama end.
	Mid-2017-2019: Biden periodically uses an office at the Penn Biden Center, a think tank in Washington.
	Jan. 20, 2021: Biden is sworn in as president.
	Nov. 2, 2022: Biden's personal attorneys come across Obama-Biden administration documents in a locked closet while packing files as they prepare to close out Biden's office in the Penn Biden Center. They notify the National Archives.
	Nov. 3, 2022: The National Archives takes possession of the documents.
	Nov. 4, 2022: The National Archives informs the Justice Department about the documents.
	Nov. 8, 2022: Midterm elections.
	November-December 2022: Biden's lawyers search the president's homes in Wilmington, Delaware, and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, to see if there are other documents from his vice presidency.
	Nov. 9, 2022: The FBI begins an assessment of whether classified information has been mishandled.
	Nov. 14, 2022: Garland assigns U.S. attorney John Lausch to look into whether a special counsel should be appointed to investigate the matter.
	Dec. 20, 2022: Biden's personal counsel informs Lausch that a second batch of classified documents has been discovered in the garage of Biden's Wilmington home. The FBI goes to Biden's home in Wilmington and secures the documents.
	Jan. 5, 2023: Lausch advises Garland he believes that appointing a special counsel is warranted.
	Jan. 9, 2023: CBS News, followed by other news organizations, reveals the discovery of the documents at the Penn Biden Center. The White House acknowledges that "a small number" of Obama-Biden administration records, including some with classified markings, were found at the center. It makes no mention of the documents found in Wilmington.
	Jan. 10: 2023: For the first time, Biden addresses the document issue. During a press conference in Mexico City, he says he was "surprised to learn that there were any documents" in the Penn Biden Center and doesn't know what's in them. He does not mention the documents found in Wilmington.
	Jan. 11, 2023: Biden's lawyers complete their search of Biden's residences, find one additional classified document in the president's personal library in Wilmington. NBC News and other news organizations reveal a second batch of documents has been found at a location other than the Penn Biden Center.
	Jan. 12, 2023: Biden's lawyer informs Lausch that an additional classified document has been found. Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, reveals publicly for the first time that documents were found in Biden's Wilmington garage and one document was found in an adjacent room. Garland announces that he has appointed Robert Hur, a former U.S. attorney in the Trump administration, to serve as special counsel.
	Jan. 14, 2023: The White House reveals that Biden's lawyers found more classified documents at his home than previously known. Sauber said in a statement that a total of six pages of classified documents were found during a search of Biden's private library. Sauber said Biden's personal lawyers, who did not have security clearances, stopped their search after finding the first page on Wednesday evening. Sauber found the remaining material Thursday as he was facilitating their retrieval by the Justice Department.

Key Dates in the Discovery of Classified Records Tied to Biden

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