House speaker Nancy Pelosi released a statement mourning the passing of Republican congressman Ron Wright, who died last night after testing positive for coronavirus.
“Today, the United States House of Representatives sadly mourns the passing of Congressman Ron Wright. Representative Wright was a proud sixth-generation son of Tarrant County, who dedicated a life of public service to the people of Texas. While his tenure in the House was brief, his service will be missed,” the Democratic speaker said.
Pelosi noted that Wright, who is the first sitting member of Congress to die after testing positive for the virus, is one of more than 463,000 Americans who have now died of coronavirus.
“May it be a comfort to Congressman Wright’s wife Susan, their children Rachel, Derek and Justin, and their nine grandchildren, and the entire Wright family that so many mourn their loss and are praying for them at this sad time,” Pelosi said.
Bernie Sanders called on Democrats to use reconciliation to raise the minimum wage, after the Congressional Budget Office concluded that a $15 minimum wage would increase the deficit by $54 billion over ten years.
The former presidential candidate took issue with the CBO’s assessment, but the silver lining, Sanders said, is that the agency’s report could make it easier to argue that the $15 minimum wage proposal meets the requirements for reconciliation because it would clearly have a budgetary impact.
That means the minimum wage measure could potentially be included in the coronavirus relief bill.
Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders)
The CBO has demonstrated that increasing the minimum wage would have a direct and substantial impact on the federal budget. What that means is that we can clearly raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour under the rules of budget reconciliation. pic.twitter.com/YyTEYkOugX
“Let’s be clear. We are never going to get 10 Republicans to increase the minimum wage through ‘regular order,’” Sanders said in a statement. “The only way to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour now is to pass it with 51 votes through budget reconciliation.”
Joe Biden has indicated he does not believe the minimum wage proposal will meet the requirements for reconciliation, but the White House press secretary said today that the president is awaiting the review by the Senate parliamentarian, who will issue a ruling on the matter.
Some moderate Democrats, including Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, have also signaled that they would not support including the minimum wage proposal in the relief package.
The nine Democrats who will present the case against Donald Trump in the Senate impeachment trial which will start this week have dismissed the brief filed by the ex-president’s legal team.
“The evidence of President Trump’s conduct is overwhelming,” the House Democrats wrote, in a document signed by lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin, a professor of constitutional law as well as a representative from Maryland.
“He has no valid excuse or defense for his actions. And his efforts to escape accountability are entirely unavailing. As charged in the article of impeachment, President Trump violated his oath of office and betrayed the American people.”
The managers say Trump’s incitement of the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January, which left five people dead, is “the most grievous constitutional crime ever committed by a president”.
In a paragraph for history lovers everywhere, meanwhile, the managers reject Republican claims that an impeachment trial after Trump has left office is unconstitutional. And in doing so, they cite a president – who died as a member of the House – who tends to be a little eclipsed in popular memory by Andrew Jackson, a president briefly fetishised by Trump:
The framers’ intent, the text of the constitution, and prior congressional practice all confirm that President Trump must stand trial for his constitutional crimes committed in office. Presidents swear a sacred oath that binds them from their first day in office through their very last. There is no ‘January Exception’ to the constitution that allows presidents to abuse power in their final days without accountability. As former president John Quincy Adams declared, “I hold myself, so long as I have the breath of life in my body, amenable to impeachment by [the] House for everything I did during the time I held any public office.”
Biden won't spend 'much time' watching impeachment trial, White House says
Joe Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, is now holding her daily briefing at the White House.
Asked about this week’s impeachment trial, Psaki said she did not expect Biden to spend much, if any, time watching the proceedings.
CBS News (@CBSNews)
Will President Biden watch the Trump impeachment trial?
"I think it's clear from his schedule and from his intention he will not spend too much time watching the proceedings, if any time, over the course of this week," Psaki says https://t.co/Nj065CIsxppic.twitter.com/NSg6b4pv37
“We keep him pretty busy. He has a full schedule this week,” Psaki said, noting that Biden will be visiting the Pentagon and the National Institutes of Health this week.
“I think it’s clear from his schedule and from his intention he will not spend too much time watching the proceedings, if any time, over the course of this week.”
Dr Anthony Fauci said it is possible that the UK variant of coronavirus will become the “dominant” strain of the virus in the US by March.
Hundreds of cases of the UK variant have already been confirmed in the US, and there are likely far more that have not been officially confirmed.
The good news, Fauci said, is that the coronavirus vaccines appear to be “quite effective” against the UK variant.
CBS News (@CBSNews)
Fauci says B117 variant of COVID could become "dominant" in U.S. by end of March, but current vaccines are "quite effective" against it
Vaccines are "less so" effective on South African variant, B1.351, but vaccinations could control spread before that strain is dominant pic.twitter.com/t9oMNo5Erq
Fauci acknowledged that the vaccines are “less so” effective against the South Africa variant, but that fact underscores the need to broadly limit the spread of coronavirus in the US.
“We have yet to control this pandemic,” Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said. “Please keep your guard up -- the continued proliferation of variants remains a great concern.”
The White House coronavirus response team’s briefing has now concluded.
First sitting member of Congress dies after contracting coronavirus
Congressman Ron Wright, a Republican of Texas, has died after testing positive for coronavirus, making him the first sitting member of Congress to die after contracting the virus.
Wright’s office said he passed away last night, after spending two weeks at Baylor Hospital in Dallas.
Rebecca Kaplan (@RebeccaRKaplan)
Rep. Ron Wright, who was battling cancer in recent years, has died after contracting COVID-19, his office says. pic.twitter.com/DYjnzn8PlL
Wright announced late last month that he had tested positive for coronavirus after coming into contact with someone who had contracted the virus.
Wright was 67 years old and had previously struggled with lung cancer. He was first elected to the House in 2018, succeeding retiring congressman Joe Barton.
Although dozens of members of Congress have contracted the virus, Wright is the first sitting member to die after testing positive.
Luke Letlow, a Republican congressman-elect from Louisiana, died of the virus days before he was scheduled to take the oath of office.
Trump's legal team dismisses impeachment as 'brazen political act'
Donald Trump’s legal team has filed a brief outlining its argument for acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial.
In the brief, the former president’s lawyers argue that the trial is unconstitutional because Trump cannot be impeached, given that he has already left office.
“In this Country, the Constitution – not a political party and not politicians – reigns supreme,” Trump’s lawyers say in the brief.
“But through this latest Article of Impeachment now before the Senate, Democrat politicians seek to carve out a mechanism by which they can silence a political opponent and a minority party. The Senate must summarily reject this brazen political act.”
The House impeachment managers have already pushed back against this argument in their own trial brief, filed last week.
“It is unthinkable that those same Framers left us virtually defenseless against a president’s treachery in his final days, allowing him to misuse power, violate his Oath, and incite insurrection against Congress and our electoral institutions simply because he is a lame duck,” the managers wrote in the brief.
“There is no ‘January Exception’ to impeachment or any other provision of the Constitution. A president must answer comprehensively for his conduct in office from his first day in office through his last.”
Rebecca Kaplan (@RebeccaRKaplan)