TheNewsGuru

Tag: WHITE HOUSE

  • Biden appoints 1st black woman White House Press Secretary

    Biden appoints 1st black woman White House Press Secretary

    U.S. President Joe Biden, on Thursday, announced Karine Jean-Pierre as White House Press Secretary, making history as the first Black woman to hold the post.

    Jean-Pierre, 44-year-old daughter of Haitian immigrants, will replace Jen Psaki, who was originally expected to serve for only the first year of Biden’s term.

    New COVID-19 variants and the war in Ukraine kept her in the job for several months beyond that self-imposed limit.

    Biden, in a statement from the White House, said: “ Jill and I had known and respected Jean-Pierre a long time and she would be a strong voice speaking for me and this administration.

    “She is not only bringing the experience, talent and integrity needed for this difficult job, but she will continue to lead the way in communicating about the work of the Biden-Harris Administration,’’ he said.

    The U.S. leader thanked the outgoing press secretary, Psaki, who according to him, had set the standard for returning decency, respect and decorum to the White House Briefing Room.

    “I want to say thank you to Psaki for raising the bar, communicating directly and truthfully to the American people, and keeping her sense of humor while doing so.

    “I thank her and wish her the very best as she moves forward,” he said.

    Jean-Pierre is currently the Principal Deputy Press Secretary and Deputy Assistant to the President.

    She is a long-time advisor to President Biden, having served in senior communication and political roles in the Biden Administration, the Biden campaign, and to then-Vice President Biden in the Obama Administration.

    Prior to her role on the campaign, she served as Chief Public Affairs Officer for MoveOn.org and an NBC and MSNBC Political Analyst.

    Jean-Pierre served as Regional Political Director for the White House Office of Political Affairs during the Obama-Biden administration and as Deputy Battleground States Director for President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.

    Previously, she worked at the Center for Community and Corporate Ethics, pushing major companies to change their business practices, and is a published author.

    Born in Martinique and raised in New York, Jean-Pierre is a graduate of Columbia University.

  • U.S. Vice President, Kamala Harris tests positive for COVID-19

    U.S. Vice President, Kamala Harris tests positive for COVID-19

    U.S. Vice President, Kamala Harris tested positive for Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) on Tuesday after returning from a weeklong trip to California.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the Vice President is, however, asymptomatic but did not participate in a scheduled briefing at the White House as a result of the infection.

    “Today I tested positive for COVID-19. I have no symptoms, and I will continue to isolate and follow CDC guidelines. I’m grateful to be both vaccinated and boosted,” Harris tweeted on Tuesday.

    Meanwhile, Kirsten Allen, the Vice President’s press secretary had in an earlier statement said Harris tested positive for Covid-19 on rapid and PCR tests.

    Harris “will isolate and continue to work from the vice president’s residence,” Allen said, adding: “She has not been a close contact to the President or First Lady due to their respective recent travel schedules.

    “She will follow CDC guidelines and the advice of her physicians. The Vice President will return to the White House when she tests negative”.

    Harris had been scheduled to receive her intelligence briefing on Tuesday at the White House alongside President Joe Biden, according to daily guidance sent to reporters Monday evening.

    She did not participate in any events or meetings at the White House on Tuesday, according to a White House official.

  • Biden nominates first black woman for U.S. Supreme Court

    Biden nominates first black woman for U.S. Supreme Court

    U.S. President Joe Biden has nominate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the Supreme Court on Friday, according to the White House.

    Jackson, who currently sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, will be the first black woman serving on the country’s highest court if the Senate confirms the nomination.

    Jackson will break the court’s 232-year history if confirmed

    The nomination came about a month after Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, a longtime liberal, said that he was about to retire this summer after nearly three decades on the bench.

    Jackson clerked for Breyer in the 1999-2000 term.

    The White House said in a statement that Biden had “conducted a rigorous process’’ to identify Breyer’s replacement and “sought an individual who is committed to equal justice under the law and who understands the profound impact that the Supreme Court’s decisions have on the lives of the American people.’’

    “Judge Jackson is an exceptionally qualified nominee’’ as well as a historic nominee, the statement read. “The Senate should move forward with a fair and timely hearing and confirmation.’’

    Biden will deliver remarks announcing the nomination at the White House on Friday afternoon.

  • U.S. Supreme Court formally ends Trump’s fight over Capitol attack records

    U.S. Supreme Court formally ends Trump’s fight over Capitol attack records

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday brought a formal end to former President Donald Trump’s request to block the release of White House records.

    The records was sought by the Democratic-led congressional panel investigating last year’s deadly attack on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters.

    The court’s decision to formally reject Trump’s appeal follows its Jan. 19 order that led to the documents being handed over to the House of Representatives investigative committee by the federal agency that stores government and historical records.

    The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Dec. 9, upheld a lower court ruling that Trump had no basis to challenge President Joe Biden’s decision to allow the records to be handed over to the House of Representatives select committee.

    Trump then appealed to the Supreme Court.

    Trump and his allies had waged an ongoing legal battle with the House select committee seeking to block access to documents and witnesses.

    Trump has sought to invoke a legal principle known as executive privilege, which protects the confidentially of some internal White House communications, a stance rejected by lower courts.

    The House committee has said it needed the records to understand any role Trump may have played in fomenting the violence that unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021.

    His supporters stormed the Capitol in a failed bid to prevent Congress from formally certifying Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory over Trump.

    The committee asked the National Archives to produce visitor logs, phone records and written communications between his advisers.

    Biden, who took office two weeks after the riot, previously determined that the records, which belong to the executive branch, should not be subject to executive privilege.

  • White House announces President Biden’s COVID-19 test result after spokesperson tested positive

    White House announces President Biden’s COVID-19 test result after spokesperson tested positive

    US President Joe Biden has tested negative for Covid-19 in the wake of his chief spokeswoman testing positive, the White House said Monday.

    The “president was tested as well, a PCR test yesterday, and he tested negative,” Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One, on the way to the UN climate summit in Glasgow.

    Jean-Pierre said Biden’s test on Sunday was not in response to news of the positive result for Press Secretary Jen Psaki, but was done “independently” and was “required for entering the UK.”

    Psaki, who has frequent access to Biden in the White House, pulled out of his trip to Rome for a G20 summit and the following Glasgow event after family members tested positive for Covid-19.

    On Sunday she said that after testing negative all week, she had just had a positive result.

    However, she said she had not had “close contact” with Biden or other senior White House staff since her family’s first positive results.

    Biden, 78, has been vaccinated and also received a booster shot.

  • COVID-19 scare in White House as press secretary Psaki isolates

    COVID-19 scare in White House as press secretary Psaki isolates

    There are concerns for U.S. President Joe Biden after the press secretary Jen Psaki tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday.

    Psaki said in a statement that she last saw Biden on Tuesday.

    Psaki, 42, who stated she was vaccinated and experiencing mild symptoms, said she and the president sat outside more than 6 feet (1.8 m) apart and wore masks on Tuesday.

    Biden tested negative for COVID-19 on Saturday, said a person familiar with the matter.

    “I am disclosing today’s positive test out of an abundance of transparency,” Psaki said.

    Psaki, the main spokesperson for the White House, is the most high-profile person in the Biden administration known to have contracted COVID-19 since he took office in January.

    Psaki decided not to join Biden on his trip to Rome and Glasgow this week because a member of her household tested positive for the virus, after which she quarantined, she said.

    She has been in quarantine since Wednesday and repeatedly tested negative before testing positive on Sunday, she said.

    Psaki planned to return to work at the end of a 10-day quarantine period following a negative rapid COVID-19 test, she said in the statement.

    The White House has been struggling to get the pandemic under control, with millions of Americans declining to take life-saving vaccines.

    Psaki said earlier this year that Biden, who is fully vaccinated, is tested randomly every two weeks as surveillance, at the request of his physician, Kevin O’Connor.

    Biden, 78, has received three Pfizer Inc/BioNTech COVID-19 shots, including a booster last month.

    The White House has declined to disclose the number of breakthrough COVID-19 infections that have occurred among staff.

    Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, eschewed masks and played down the seriousness of the virus in its early stages.

    He contracted COVID-19 in the waning stages of the 2020 presidential campaign and many of his staff, including former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, came down with the illness.

  • White House rejects plans to donate expiring unused COVID-19 vaccines overseas

    White House rejects plans to donate expiring unused COVID-19 vaccines overseas

    Although surplus Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine doses in U.S. states will soon expire, the White House Vaccine Task Force rejected the proposal to donate unused doses to other countries.

    The Washington Post reported that health authorities and hospitals in Southern California’s demand for COVID-19 vaccines decline while the expiration dates of the unused doses are nearing.

    The report says a small group around San Diego put forward a plan to donate thousands of shots to Mexico, where the vaccination campaign was carried out quite slowly with a high infection rate.

    However, the White House task force has blocked such plans and similar efforts by local and state governments to donate leftover vaccines to other countries.

    A white house official said vaccines in the United States are the property of the federal government, not the cities or states in which they are distributed.

    “That means the federal government is liable for their use and donation efforts.”

  • End of an era: Trump’s aides begin packing up at White House

    End of an era: Trump’s aides begin packing up at White House

    Aides of President Donald Trump have begun clearing their desks at the White House ahead of Wednesday’s inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.

    Already, 20,000 National Guard troops have descended upon Washington to protect the capital from pro-Trump protests expected in the coming days.

    Some Trump’s aides were seen removing a bust of President Abraham Lincoln from the West Wing.

    Assistant to the president Peter Navarro was also seen carrying a framed photograph out of the White House on Wednesday, despite his insistence that Trump had won the election.

    “The Democratic Party did violence to this country by attacking a president who I believe was legally elected on November 3,” Navarro said in an interview with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo.

    While Trump himself has yet to acknowledge that Biden won the election, on Wednesday he called on his supporters to refrain from violence.

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice have issued alerts about armed protests by Trump supporters leading up to Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20.

    The Pentagon will not host a farewell tribute to Trump, as is customary for an outgoing commander in chief, Defense One reported Thursday.

  • Trump gives condition to quit White House

    Trump gives condition to quit White House

    U.S. President Donald Trump said he would leave the White House if the Electoral College declared Joe Biden the election winner.

    He said he was not prepared to concede defeat and repeated false claims that he won.

    The president said that he would “certainly” leave the White House if the Electoral College voted for Biden, telling reporters on a press call “you know that.”

    But he also repeated claims of “massive fraud” in the election, without providing supporting evidence, and said an Electoral College appointment of Biden would be a “mistake.”

    “I know one thing, Joe Biden didn’t get 80 million votes,” Trump said, according to reporters who dialled in.

    “It’s going to be a very hard thing to concede,” Trump said when asked what he will do if the Electoral College elects his Democratic opponent.

    According to forecasts by the U.S. media, Biden has secured 306 electoral college votes, significantly more than the majority of 270 votes necessary to win.

    Each state must officially certify their vote tallies before deadlines in early December.

    The Electoral College vote and the ultimate declaration of the winner by Congress on Jan. 6 are usually symbolic events, but since Trump has declined to concede, they may take on more significance this time.

    In the national popular vote count – a metric to gauge popularity but with no legal meaning – Biden leads Trump, with about 80 million votes to some 73.9 for the incumbent.

    Trump is pursuing numerous court cases to try to stop Biden from being declared the winner.

  • White House approves intelligence briefing for Biden

    White House approves intelligence briefing for Biden

    The White House has given approval for U.S. President-elect Joe Biden to receive the president’s daily intelligence brief “as part of the support to the transition.”

    A spokesperson in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday.

    “Following the statutory direction of the Presidential Transition Act, ODNI will provide requested support to the transition team.

    “This afternoon the White House approved ODNI to move forward with providing the PDB (president’s daily brief) as part of the support to the transition,” the official said.

    The decision came a day after the President Donald Trump administration finally gave its nod for the transition process to begin.

    The transition process had been on hold since Biden was projected winner of the Nov. 3 election due to Trump’s refusal to concede.

    With the latest move, the president-elect will now have access to the latest classified field intelligence reports about major national security threats around the globe, according to Reuters.