Biden news – live: Trump lawyers quit before impeachment trial as president says he’s ‘just getting started’

Tom Batchelor
(AP)
(AP)

Donald Trump’s lead impeachment lawyers have reportedly quit with just over a week to go before his Senate trial, injecting fresh drama into a process that looks likely to result in an acquittal for the former president.

Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, both South Carolina lawyers, are no longer working for Mr Trump. A source told the Associated Press the parting was a "mutual decision" that reflected a difference of opinion on the direction of the case. It comes as all but five Senate Republicans this week voted in favour of an effort to dismiss the trial before it even started.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden has spent the weekend working on his administration’s ongoing efforts to tackle the Covid pandemic, as well as the government-funded aid package, billed as the American Rescue Plan. In a tweet after his first full week in office, and amid criticism from his opponents over the heavy reliance on executive orders, Mr Biden highlighted key areas that he had already addressed and vowed: “I’m just getting started.”

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  • Psychiatrists fear children are being 'coached' into accessing puberty blockers, Court of Appeal hears

    Psychiatrists fear that transgender children are being “coached” into giving rehearsed answers when trying to access puberty blockers, the Court of Appeal has heard. Dr David Bell, a former governor at a gender identity NHS trust, expressed concern that children may be pressured by parents, friends or websites when trying to address feelings of gender dysphoria. Dr Bell, who was a psychiatrist at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust from 1996 until earlier this month, was granted permission on Friday by two senior judges to intervene in a landmark case examining whether transgender children can legally take puberty blockers. In November, the High Court ruled that children should not receive the controversial drugs unless they understand the "long-term risks and consequences" of them. The NHS was forced to change its guidance overnight, preventing children from accessing the hormonal treatment without a court order. The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust has since launched an appeal against the ruling. In a preliminary hearing on Friday, lawyers on behalf of Dr Bell told the court that he wishes to intervene in the appeal as he has since retired from the NHS Trust and feels he can speak more freely. In legal papers lodged before the Court, Dr Bell is described as a “high profile whistleblower” after he published a report in August 2018 which “investigated serious concerns” raised by ten clinicians working at the Tavistock. The report found that the Tavistock’s gender identity clinic, GIDS, “is not fit for purpose” and some young patients “will live on with the damaging consequences.” Dr Bell said he felt “victimised for whistleblowing” by the Trust in the wake of the report and as a result “did not feel able to participate” in the initial High Court dispute. However, Dr Bell retired from the Trust earlier this month on January 15 and “is no longer subject to the same constraints,” the legal documents said. "There is evidence that staff members may be frightened of coming forwards," the documents continued. "Dr Bell, a highly eminent psychiatrist who until recently occupied a senior position with the Appellant, is now free from his employment and able to describe the concerns, which he investigated in some detail." Lady Justice King and Lord Justice Dingemans granted his application to intervene in the appeal, which will be heard over two days in April, while other groups, including the LGBT charity Stonewall, had their application denied. Lawyers for Dr Bell said he wants to tell the court about concerns that were raised to him by gender identity practitioners, including that “children may be ‘coached’, whether from parents, peers, or online resources, to provide rehearsed answers in response to particular questions.” The practitioners were also concerned that “highly complex factors” - including historic child abuse and family bereavement - can influence children’s attitudes towards gender, meaning puberty blockers is not always the best course of treatment. The landmark case on puberty blockers was first launched against the Trust by Keira Bell, a 23-year-old woman who began taking puberty blockers before deciding to reverse the process of changing gender. Ms Bell said the clinic should have challenged her more over her decision to transition to a male when she was 16. It was also brought by a woman who can only legally be identified as "Mrs A", the mother of a 15-year-old autistic girl who is currently on the waiting list for treatment. At the initial High Court hearing in October, their lawyers said that children going through puberty are "not capable of properly understanding the nature and effects of hormone blockers". They argued there is "a very high likelihood" that children who start taking hormone blockers will later begin taking cross-sex hormones, which they say cause "irreversible changes", and that the NHS Trust offers "fairytale" promises to children because they are unable to give their consent to the sex-change process.

  • Rep. Stephen Lynch tests positive for COVID-19 after getting second dose of vaccine

    Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) tested positive for the COVID-19, but remains asymptomatic, after receiving the second dose of the coronavirus vaccine, his office said Friday. Why it matters: Lynch's case stresses the importance of continuing to social distance and wear a face mask even after getting vaccinated. Support safe, smart, sane journalism. Sign up for Axios Newsletters here.What they're saying: Lynch received a positive test result on Friday "after a staff member in the Congressman's Boston office had tested positive earlier in the week," Lynch's spokesperson, Molly Rose Tarpey, said in a statement, per the Boston Globe. * "Congressman Lynch had received the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine and subsequently received a negative COVID-19 test prior to attending President Biden's Inauguration," she added. * Lynch "remains asymptomatic and feels fine" but will continue to "self-quarantine and will vote by proxy in Congress during the coming weeks." * It is unclear when Lynch received each dose of the vaccine. * Lynch's office did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment. The big picture: Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, the companies that have developed the two vaccines authorized in the U.S., say their vaccines are about 95% effective at preventing people from getting sick after getting the second dose of their respective vaccines. * "It typically takes a few weeks for the body to build immunity (protection against the virus that causes COVID-19) after vaccination," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes. * "That means it’s possible a person could be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 just before or just after vaccination and still get sick. This is because the vaccine has not had enough time to provide protection," the CDC adds. * It is also not yet clear how effective the vaccine is against infection and transmission, but researchers say it should prevent people from getting sick. Go deeper: We're selling the coronavirus vaccine shortBe smart: sign up FREE for the most influential newsletter in America.

  • Filipino American Father, Daughter Electrocuted by Downed Power Lines in LA

    A Filipino American father and daughter were electrocuted in the backyard of their home in Panorama City, California, on Monday. The victims were identified as Ferdinand Tejada, 53, and Janine Reyn Tejada, 20, according to the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office via CBS Los Angeles. Ferdinand was reportedly trying to move a downed electrical wire outside his home when the fatal accident occurred.

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  • United Arab Emirates says it will offer citizenship to some

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  • Rural communities 'under siege' by criminal hare-coursing gangs

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  • China crackdown prompts thousands to flee Hong Kong as U.K. opens new visa scheme

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  • Cuomo Won’t Apologize for Nursing-Home Miscount, Says ‘Who Cares’ Where Deaths Recorded

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  • Why Republicans won’t agree to Biden’s big plans and why he should ignore them

    The new president can achieve huge and vital reform and relief without the party of Trump – and they know it Joe Biden speaks to journalists before boarding Marine One at the White House. Photograph: Tom Brenner/Reuters If there were ever a time for bold government, it is now. Covid, joblessness, poverty, raging inequality and our last chance to preserve the planet are together creating an existential inflection point. Fortunately for America and the world, Donald Trump is gone, and Joe Biden has big plans for helping Americans survive Covid and then restructuring the economy, rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure and creating millions of green jobs. But Republicans in Congress don’t want to go along. Why not? Mitch McConnell and others say America can’t afford it. “We just passed a program with over $900bn in it,” groused Senator Mitt Romney, the most liberal of the bunch. Rubbish. We can’t afford not to. Fighting Covid will require far more money. People are hurting. Besides, with the economy in the doldrums it’s no time to worry about the national debt. The best way to reduce the debt as a share of the economy is to get the economy growing again. The real reason Republicans want to block Biden is they fear his plans will work Repairing ageing infrastructure and building a new energy-efficient one will make the economy grow even faster over the long term – further reducing the debt’s share. No one in their right mind should worry that public spending will “crowd out” private investment. If you hadn’t noticed, borrowing is especially cheap right now. Money is sloshing around the world, in search of borrowers. It’s hard to take Republican concerns about debt seriously when just four years ago they had zero qualms about enacting one of the largest tax cuts in history, largely for big corporations and the super-wealthy. If they really don’t want to add to the debt, there’s another alternative. They can support a tax on super-wealthy Americans. The total wealth of America’s 660 billionaires has grown by a staggering $1.1tn since the start of the pandemic, a 40% increase. They alone could finance almost all of Biden’s Covid relief package and still be as rich as they were before the pandemic. So why not a temporary emergency Covid wealth tax? The real reason Republicans want to block Biden is they fear his plans will work. It would be the Republican’s worst nightmare: all the anti-government claptrap they’ve been selling since Ronald Reagan will be revealed as nonsense. Government isn’t the problem and never was. Bad government is the problem, and Americans have just had four years of it. Biden’s success would put into sharp relief Trump and Republicans’ utter failures on Covid, jobs, poverty, inequality and climate change, and everything else. Biden and the Democrats would reap the political rewards in 2022 and beyond. Democrats might even capture the presidency and Congress for a generation. After FDR rescued America, the Republican party went dark for two decades. Trumpian Republicans in Congress have an even more diabolical motive for blocking Biden. They figure if Americans remain in perpetual crises and ever-deepening fear, they’ll lose faith in democracy itself. This would open the way for another strongman demagogue in 2024 – if not Trump, a Trump-impersonator like Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley or Donald Trump Jr. The worst-kept secret in Washington is Biden doesn’t really need Republicans If Biden is successful, Americans’ faith in democracy might begin to rebound – marking the end of the nation’s flirtation with fascism. If he helps build a new economy of green jobs with good wages, even Trump’s angry white working-class base might come around. The worst-kept secret in Washington is Biden doesn’t really need Republicans, anyway. With their razor-thin majorities in both houses of Congress, Democrats can enact Biden’s plans without a single Republican vote. The worry is Biden wants to demonstrate “bipartisan cooperation” and may try so hard to get some Republican votes that his plans get diluted to the point where Republicans get what they want: failure. Biden should forget bipartisanship. Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans didn’t give a hoot about bipartisanship when they and Trump were in power. If Republicans try to stonewall Biden’s Covid relief plan, Biden and the Democrats should go it alone through a maneuver called “reconciliation”, allowing a simple majority to pass budget legislation. If Republicans try to block anything else, Biden should scrap the filibuster – which now requires 60 senators to end debate. The filibuster isn’t in the constitution. It’s anti-democratic, giving a minority of senators the power to block the majority. It was rarely used for most of the nation’s history. The filibuster can be ended by a simple majority vote, meaning Democrats have the power to scrap it. Biden will have to twist the arms of a few recalcitrant Democrats, but that’s what presidential leadership often requires. The multiple crises engulfing America are huge. The window of opportunity for addressing them is small. If ever there was a time for boldness, it is now. Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a columnist for Guardian US

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  • Biden reportedly expected to nominate judges with legal backgrounds 'historically underrepresented on the federal bench'

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  • Donald Trump's legal team in disarray after he parts ways with lead impeachment lawyers

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