President Joe Biden is eyeing Gene Sperling for a role to oversee the implementation of the administration’s coronavirus relief plan, Politico reports.
Biden Stays Silent on Cuomo
Axios: “Unlike many of his other Democratic critics, Cuomo respects and likes Biden. The two men have had good relations — during the transition, there was even (far-fetched) talk that the governor would be considered as Biden’s attorney general.”
“If Biden called for Cuomo to resign, it would mean infinitely more than Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s statement on Friday. Schumer and Cuomo have years of bad blood — and the governor would never take marching orders from the Senate majority leader.”
Backlog of Migrant Children Soars
“As of Sunday morning, U.S. Border Patrol was holding more than 4,200 unaccompanied migrant children in short-term holding facilities, including jail-like stations unfit to house minors,” CBS News reports.
“Nearly 3,000 of the unaccompanied children in Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody had been held longer than 72 hours. CBP is legally obligated to transfer most unaccompanied minors to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), the agency which oversees shelters licensed to house children, within three days of taking them into custody.”
Cuomo’s ‘Vaccine Czar’ Gauging Loyalty of Officials
“New York’s ‘vaccine czar’ — a longtime adviser to Gov. Andrew Cuomo — phoned county officials in the past two weeks in attempts to gauge their loyalty to the embattled governor amid an ongoing sexual harassment investigation,” the Washington Post reports.
“One Democratic county executive was so unsettled by the outreach from Larry Schwartz, head of the state’s vaccine rollout, that the executive on Friday filed notice of an impending ethics complaint with the public integrity unit of the state attorney general’s office… The executive feared the county’s vaccine supply could suffer if Schwartz was not pleased with the executive’s response to his questions about support of the governor.”
Axios: Reading between Cuomo’s lines.
Abbott Says Democrats Will Use Cocaine to Buy Votes
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) suggested on Sunday that H.R. 1, the sweeping election-reform bill recently passed by the House of Representatives, could eventually result in Democrats “using cocaine to buy votes,” the Daily Beast reports.
Said Abbott: “It is a way to commit voter fraud and it cannot be allowed.”
Third Covid Wave Sweeps Across Europe
The Guardian: “A third wave of the Covid pandemic is now advancing swiftly across much of Europe. As a result, many nations – bogged down by sluggish vaccination campaigns – are witnessing sharp rises in infection rates and numbers of cases.”
“The infection rate in the EU is now at its highest level since the beginning of February, with the spread of new variants of the Covid-19 virus being blamed for much of the recent increase.”
“Several countries are now set to impose strict new lockdown measures in the next few days – in contrast to the UK, which is beginning to emerge slowly from its current bout of shop and school closures and sports bans.”
Just 75% of House Lawmakers Are Vaccinated
“Uncertainty about why only 75% of the House is confirmed as vaccinated against the coronavirus is fueling a debate about when the chamber can return to its normal rules of operation,” Axios reports.
“The other 25% of members have either refused to get the vaccine, have not reported getting it at home or are avoiding it because of medical conditions.”
Georgia Braces for Another Epic Election
New York Times: “In 2022, the Peach State’s race for governor is likely to include perhaps the Democratic Party’s leading champion of voting rights, Stacey Abrams, in a replay of the 2018 grudge match between her and Gov. Brian Kemp, the Republican incumbent. One of the two Democrats who won their races in January, Senator Raphael Warnock, will also have to turn around and defend his seat next year in a race that Republicans are already eyeing as they seek to reclaim the chamber.”
“Several local and national Republicans — including Mr. Trump — have tried to recruit the former University of Georgia football legend Herschel Walker to run for the seat, which could lend another wrinkle to the state’s political story, as if it needed one. Adding to the chaos, Mr. Kemp has become the target of a vendetta by Mr. Trump, who has condemned him for not doing more to deliver (or poach) victory for him in Georgia in November.”
Relief Bill Opens New Options for States and Cities
New York Times: “Items that had long seemed totally unaffordable are now well within reach. … Dan White, director of fiscal policy research at Moody’s Analytics said the total was more than quadruple what is needed to plug state and local budget holes through next summer. … Some mayors were still in shock.”
Biden Stiffs the Sunday Shows
Playbook: “President Joe Biden just signed the first BFD of his administration — a massive Covid relief bill to boost the fortunes of everyday Americans. But you barely heard a peep about it from his own administration on the Sunday shows. Yes, Biden is hitting the road this week to sell the package. But on his way out the door, he skipped a major audience on Sunday — a day many people will actually sit back and watch something of substance, hence the gangbuster ratings for CBS’ 60 Minutes.”
Protests Expected Across Australia
“Thousands of protesters are expected to descend on Australia’s capital on Monday when the country’s parliament resumes as part of nationwide demonstrations, intensifying pressure on Prime Minister Scott Morrison,” Reuters reports.
“Spurred by rape allegations against Attorney-General Christian Porter and a former employee of Morrison’s Liberal party, 43 protests are planned across the country on Monday to demand equality and justice for women.”
“Porter denies the allegation, which surfaced recently, of the alleged 1988 rape.”
Voting Rights Groups Pressure Big Corporations
“Civil rights and activist groups are turning up the pressure on large Georgia companies like Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines to oppose sweeping voting restrictions proposed by Republican state legislators,” CNBC reports.
Americans See Better Days Ahead
CBS News Poll: “Though ‘exhausted’ from a year-long pandemic, confidence about containing the coronavirus is hitting new highs as more vaccines roll out, and Americans say they’re also ‘grateful’ and widely optimistic about the coming months. The economy seems poised for its own shot in the arm, with Americans bullish about its prospects, both nationally and locally, and looking forward to fueling it by traveling, shopping and dining out more — once they think it’s safe.”
Trump Finds Himself Adrift
Politico: “He backed away from creating a third party and has soured on the costly prospect of launching his own TV empire or social media startup.”
“His vow to target disloyal Republicans with personally-recruited primary challengers has taken a backseat to conventional endorsements of senators who refused to indulge his quest to overturn the 2020 election.”
“And though he was supposed to build a massive political apparatus to keep his MAGA movement afloat, it’s unclear to Republicans what his PAC is actually doing, beyond entangling itself in disputes with Republican icons and the party’s fundraising arms.”
Trump Left $1 Trillion War Chest for Biden to Deploy
“Republicans are bashing the new $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package for further ballooning the federal debt, but it’s the Trump administration that greased the path for a smooth federal spending spree,” Politico reports.
“The Treasury has a cash pile of well over $1 trillion, which will allow the government to quickly disburse money in line with the sweeping new law, including direct checks to millions of Americans that are expected to start hitting bank accounts in the coming week. That robust rainy-day fund was built last year by then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who preemptively cranked up the pace of government borrowing, unsure of how and when Congress might mandate further relief measures.”
North Korea Unresponsive to Biden Outreach
North Korea has not responded to behind-the-scenes diplomatic outreach since mid-February by President Joe Biden’s administration, Reuters reports.
Andrew Cuomo Biographer Has Stories
Michael Shnayerson: “In 2012, I began writing an unauthorized biography of the governor of New York, who’d been in office a year. I talked to his associates and enemies. I gathered a dossier on his bullying ways and confrontational tactics. I pored over court documents surrounding his nasty split, a decade before, from his wife, Kerry Kennedy, a member of another powerful Democratic dynasty. As I plunged into writing, I hoped he might even agree to sit for an interview—and he did agree, sort of.”
“By the time I was about to hand in my manuscript, the governor had a book of his own in the works. It was titled All Things Possible. And his intention was to beat me to market. But I was ahead. Back came word that if I would let his book appear first, he would grant me all the interview time I wanted. So I agreed. But the governor pulled a fast one. I never did get that interview; his book came out in October 2014, a full five months ahead of mine. And there was, after all, no longer anything he needed from me. It was a quintessential Cuomo move: underhanded, stealthy, self-serving, and hard-ass.”
Biden Sends FEMA to the Mexico Border
“The Biden administration is mobilizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help care for the overwhelming number of unaccompanied migrant teens and children filling detention cells and tent shelters along the Mexico border, the Department of Homeland Security said Saturday evening,” the Washington Post reports.
“The FEMA deployment will support what DHS called a 90-day government-wide effort at the border, where the Biden administration is struggling to care for a record number of teenagers and children arriving without their parents. The minors are arriving at a rate that far exceeds authorities’ ability to house them.”
