Nearly three years to the day after the Trump administration first forcibly separated thousands of undocumented parents from their children in order to discourage others from seeking asylum, the Department of Homeland Security has begun reunifying families torn apart by the policy. Four families, to be exact, with a few dozen more expected in the coming weeks. The slow pace of undoing the damage caused by […]
Scott Bixby
47 posts
The Biden administration will more than quadruple the cap on refugee admissions into the United States this fiscal year, President Joe Biden announced on Monday, after weeks of harsh criticism from human-rights advocates and Democratic allies for his decision to keep the cap at a record low. “Today, I am revising the United States’ annual refugee admissions cap to 62,500 for this fiscal year,” Biden said […]
A cataclysmic rise in COVID-19 cases on the Indian subcontinent was allowed to spread for too long before the Biden administration issued restrictions on travel, public health experts warn, a decision that could make thwarting potentially vaccine-resistant variants of the disease even more difficult just as America crosses a major milestone in vaccinations. “Travel restrictions should have been imposed much earlier,” Lawrence Gostin, a professor of […]
Unvaccinated Americans have one more good reason to book an appointment to receive the coronavirus vaccine, President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday: the ability to go outside and hang out with friends without wearing a facial covering. “Because of the extraordinary progress we’ve made in fighting this virus,” Biden said in remarks from the White House, “starting today, if you’re fully vaccinated and you’re outdoors, and […]
Breaking with decades of political tradition set by predecessors from both parties, President Joe Biden has kept his word. He announced on Saturday that the United States officially views the systemic killing of more than one million ethnic Armenians by the Ottoman Empire a century ago as a genocide—a promise that previous presidents have made on the campaign trail only to get cold feet in office […]
Amidst growing calls to lift the historically low yearly cap on refugee admissions into the United States, President Joe Biden on Friday signed an emergency order intended to speed the admissions process for those fleeing war, natural disaster or persecution abroad—but did not lift the cap itself, setting up a potential conflict with Democratic allies on Capitol Hill. The order, first reported by the Associated Press, […]
The White House is calling for a massive reinvestment in education, housing, and other core public services in its first budget proposal submitted to Congress on Friday, in the hopes of “reversing” stark cuts to non-defense spending of the previous administration. “We want to use every lever at our disposal to address the challenges we face,” an administration official told reporters in a background briefing outlining […]
President Joe Biden on Thursday will announce six executive actions intended to address the “epidemic” of gun violence in the United States, senior administration officials said on Wednesday evening, the administration’s first concrete steps to address an issue that Biden has wrestled with since his time in the U.S. Senate. “We know that Americans are dying from gun violence, every single day in this country,” an […]
If March 2020 lasted for 396 days, then “Infrastructure Week” has lasted since the dawn of time. Former President Donald Trump’s myriad trillion-dollar infrastructure plans began and ended in fits and starts for the nearly entirety of his presidency, usually ending when the president lost interest or got sidetracked by the latest scandal. The idea of “Infrastructure Week” eventually devolved into a running joke, a metonym […]
President Joe Biden pledged to sign a bill that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity within his first 100 days. But 71 days into the Biden presidency, the prospects of a signing ceremony for the landmark legislation are starting to look like dreams. When it was adopted by Congress in 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment appeared to most observers as a lock […]
“Help is on the way.” President Joe Biden’s message on Thursday afternoon was a simple one, but the act of signing the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act into law officially kickstarted one of the most complex and far-reaching economic relief packages in history—at a moment when any missteps on vaccinations, school re-openings and direct payments to struggling Americans could have devastating consequences. The plan is […]
President Joe Biden’s agenda for his first 100 days can’t be criticized for a lack of ambition. But as key components of his policy priorities, from raising the national minimum wage to wage discrimination against workers with disabilities, have fallen victim to the filibuster, stakeholders in the Equality Act—one of his key legislative goals—grew increasingly frustrated with the White House’s white-knuckle commitment to an item that […]
The Biden administration’s path to a fully staffed Cabinet hit its largest hurdle yet on Tuesday evening, when the White House announced that it was pulling the nomination of Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, to lead the Office of Management and Budget, long after it had become clear that she would not have the votes to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. […]
Dr. Rachel Levine, the first transgender person to be nominated for a Senate-confirmed position in the federal government, had been seated in her confirmation hearing to become the nation’s assistant secretary of health for a little less than an hour when she was grilled about “genital mutilation” of minor children by a Republican committee member. “American culture is down normalizing the idea that minors can be […]
After weeks of what President Joe Biden might dub “mistakes in the communication” on where the White House stands on one of the most critical provisions in the government’s guidelines for reopening public schools, the administration is finally in sync with scientific experts on vaccinations for teachers. But while most teachers’ unions and rank-and-file educators support the guidelines, some teachers say that the Centers for Disease […]
In the weeks since his inauguration, President Joe Biden has publicly taken on the role of reassurer-in-chief, telling Americans that the long-promised solution to the coronavirus pandemic and the rebuilding of the nation’s economy are on their way. “Don’t be scared, honey—don’t be scared,” Biden told an attendee during a town hall event at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee on Tuesday evening. “You’re gonna be fine, […]
They wrote massive checks. They encouraged their deepest-pocketed friends to do the same. They sat through Zoom concerts with James Taylor and Zoom roundtables hosted by Diane Lane and helped pay for an inauguration they didn’t even get to attend. Now, some of President Joe Biden’s most generous financial backers want what’s coming to them: an ambassadorship—both extraordinary and plenipotentiary, if possible. And they’re getting sick […]
When a parent and their child are forcibly separated by hundreds of miles, every second apart is excruciating—and every delay is torture, no matter the justification. That urgency is what immigration advocates, attorneys and activists are increasingly anxious to convey to President Joe Biden after he signed three executive orders relating to immigration on Tuesday evening. The orders each begin a long and complex process to […]
President Joe Biden is set to formally create a task force charged with reuniting migrant families that were separated under his predecessor’s hardline immigration policies. But with an unknown number of immigrant children still separated from their parents across national borders, it remains unclear how many of those families will be reunited on American soil. Biden will seek to undo the “moral shame” that the Trump […]
Only seven days into President Joe Biden’s administration, and his immigration agenda has already hit multiple roadblocks. His 100-day pause on deportations has been blocked by a Trump-appointed federal judge, and Republicans are vowing to slow-walk his nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security over objections to his record on immigration. Which is why immigration advocates were stunned on Tuesday to see Biden miss an […]
As President-elect Joe Biden’s Democratic allies work to convict President Donald Trump for incitement of insurrection, and as those working to pull off his inauguration weigh the importance of turning the page against the increasing fears of terrorist violence, Biden is trying to refocus attention back on the twin emergencies to which Americans have grown accustomed over the past twelve months: the coronavirus pandemic and the […]
Like many young people she knew, Barbara Boch-Sojo could list a dozen reasons why she wanted to leave Cuba. But it was being beaten and jailed for the crime of sitting in a public park while transgender that finally forced her hand. “I was sitting in a public park with my friend, and the police came in to say that we needed to move from there, […]
One month out from the first primary contest of the 2020 cycle, the Democratic Party was in disarray, again. For months, the party’s two dozen presidential hopefuls had grown more and more divided over whether defeating President Donald Trump required a restoration of past small-d democratic norms, or a wholesale rebuilding of the system that had allowed him to be elected. Every presidential debate had begun […]
President-elect Joe Biden made it clear last week he had heard concerns that his incoming cabinet that was shaping up to be more of a reunion of Obamaworld holdovers than a launching pad for the next generation of party leaders. “Some are familiar faces. Some are in new roles. All are facing new circumstances and challenges,” Biden summed up his fledgling cabinet last Friday. “That’s a […]
Defending himself against the federal government’s increasingly indefensible handling of the coronavirus, President Donald Trump has routinely declared that “nobody” could have predicted, or prepared for, a deadly pandemic that could strike at any moment. But the man now tasked with running President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming administration saw it coming—and according to public health officials, may be the only person with the first-hand experience necessary to […]
It’s no secret that Sen. Lindsey Graham is in the fight of his political life in the closing days of his campaign to win reelection to the U.S. Senate. “I’m getting overwhelmed,” Graham begged on-air with Fox News’ Sean Hannity last month, as his Democratic rival Jaime Harrison brought in a record-shattering $57 million in donations to unseat him. “Help me—they’re killing me money-wise. Help me.” […]
As former Vice President Joe Biden rides consistently high in national polls and internal numbers indicate that red-leaning states are tantalizingly close to abandoning President Donald Trump in next week’s election, the Democratic nominee’s campaign is feeling the same rush that Clinton did—and they’re going for it. With only seven days until Election Day, the Biden campaign has announced a rash of in-person campaign appearances in […]
President Donald Trump, staring down a double-digit polling deficit with less than three weeks before Election Day, has resorted to trying to make one of his vintage conspiracy theories a hit in syndication: the idea that former Vice President Joe Biden is in a steep stage of cognitive decline and is only kept lucid by a mysterious cocktail of prescription drugs. “We can’t have a leader […]
President Donald Trump’s head physician admitted to reporters on Sunday morning that he’d kept the knowledge that the president had been administered supplemental oxygen from the public in order to reflect an “upbeat attitude” of Trump’s health as doctors continue to treat his infection with the novel coronavirus. “I was trying to reflect the upbeat attitude that the team, the president over the course of his […]
An advertisement for President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign emphasizes that he is the only candidate whose economic plan will be “made in the USA”—but part of the ad itself was made in Russia. Eight seconds into Trump’s latest ad boosting his work on the economy, wordily titled “We built the greatest economy in world history and now we’re doing it again!”, the spot cuts from standard […]
In anticipation of the potential nomination of a staunch Catholic woman to the Supreme Court, allies of President Donald Trump are mounting a preemptive attack on Democrats who may seek to question Judge Amy Coney Barrett about her faith—before any such questions have even been raised. But Democrats say that they have zero interest in taking the bait. “There’s no evidence in the run-up to this […]
Hours after it was revealed that President Donald Trump intentionally misled the American public about the threat posed by the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed nearly 200,000 lives nationwide, the president explained his actions by saying that he didn’t “want to scare people.” The daughter of a Trump supporter who died from COVID-19 told reporters on Thursday morning that she would rather her father have been […]
As nearby volunteers in reflective vests and medical-grade face masks swept broken glass and righted overturned trash cans in Wilmington, Delaware, earlier this summer, former Vice President Joe Biden promised to heal the pain of civil unrest sparked by racist violence. “We are a nation enraged, but we cannot allow our rage to consume us,” Biden vowed, one day after a night of protests and scattered […]
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows doesn’t believe that anyone in America is concerned about a law that bars members of the Trump administration from engaging in political activities—or about the particularly enthusiastic breaking of that law during the Republican National Convention this week. “Nobody outside of the Beltway really cares—they expect that Donald Trump is going to promote Republican values and they would expect […]
As the curtain rises on the Republican National Convention, LGBTQ organizations are pushing back on the Trump campaign’s newest attempt to woo queer voters. The president’s campaign is calling Trump “the strongest ally that gay Americans have ever had in the White House,” but a new ad produced by GLAAD says otherwise. The anti-Trump advertisement, which will target Fox News voters the week of the convention, […]
After nearly a year of attacks from President Donald Trump, and months of near-silence as his father fought for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hunter Biden made an appearance in the final minutes of the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night. It was his first on the—albeit digital—campaign trail since his work abroad helped spark an impeachment inquiry into the president. In a prerecorded video introducing former […]
“REQUEST YOUR ABSENTEE BALLOT TODAY,” reads a mailer sent to North Carolina Republicans earlier this week by the North Carolina Trump Victory campaign, the Trump campaign’s joint field operation with the Republican National Committee in the state. The mailer, part of a push to contact more than three million voters in the state, calls voting by mail “easy and secure,” and urges recipients to use the […]
Airtime cut in half. A Zoom-style backdrop the size of a tennis court. Celebratory car-honking. And most of it won’t even be in the host city. These are the Democratic National Committee’s current plans for the party’s convention in four weeks, according to a ten-page preview outline for the event obtained by The Daily Beast. The plans, marked for internal use only, feature digital renderings of […]
Federal immigration authorities are refusing to release an HIV-positive man who has been held in a Minnesota detention facility since January, despite the fact that the man has already won his case for release before an immigration judge—and despite his severe risk of medical complications from the coronavirus outbreaks that have spread inside detention facilities across the country. “I’m dying, slowly, even with my medication,” said […]
For weeks, President Donald Trump and his campaign have attacked former Vice President Joe Biden for “hiding in a basement” as new coronavirus cases have skyrocketed across the country. In public remarks on Tuesday, Biden responded to those attacks by challenging Trump to focus on the deadly pandemic that has killed at least 125,000 Americans under his watch—and laid out his own plan to address the […]
As Texas faces a massive surge of COVID-19 cases and increasing criticism from public health experts for having opened too early and too quickly, Houston has been at the forefront of the outbreak. Hospitals in the state’s most populous city are quickly running out of beds—including Texas Medical Center, the largest hospital in the world, where ICU beds were at more than 99 percent normal capacity […]
The Trump administration’s attempts to implement longstanding policy goals on immigration in the name of fighting the coronavirus pandemic has helped spread the deadly virus to Central America, according to a new report from an international refugee organization provided to The Daily Beast. Among the findings, a staggering one in five cases of COVID-19 in Guatemala can be traced back to migrants that the United States […]
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s insistence that his campaign recommence holding massive rallies will bring him to the heart of the state with one of the highest increases in new COVID-19 infections in the country. But in addition to the well-documented health risks of a crowded indoor event in a state where more than 2,500 new cases of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus were […]
Two months into her first term as a member of Congress, Florida Democrat and former police chief Rep. Val Demings was asked on national television whether “all lives matter.” “When we hire law enforcement to do the job, we need to let them do their job, sit back, and not let, when a group of society feels like they’re being mistreated, let them go in there […]
President Donald Trump may have shown diminishing concern for the threat posed to the American public by the novel coronavirus in recent weeks, but his administration and allies are increasingly pointing to the pandemic as a justification for further longstanding policy goals on immigration. For months, the Trump administration has utilized the pandemic as a pretext for raising the barriers for entry into the country, effectively […]
Last week, former Vice President Joe Biden told the world that he “unequivocally” denied accusations by Tara Reade, a former staffer in his Senate office, that he sexually assaulted her in the early nineties. On Friday evening, Reade responded: prove it. “Joe Biden should take the polygraph,” Reade told former television anchor Megyn Kelly, in an interview that aired on Kelly’s YouTube channel. “I will take […]
When former Vice President Joe Biden said last week that he didn’t remember “any complaint ever having been made” by former staffer Tara Reade, in his first public remarks responding to her accusation that he sexually assaulted her in 1993, a hair stylist from New Jersey sought to remind him. “Joe Biden says he can’t remember Tara Reade,” Twitter user @prettyjanice888 wrote roughly 12 hours after […]