White House officials expressed a sense of vindication that Biden’s fellow Democrats did better than expected.

Biden, who turns 80 this month, has faced questions on whether he will seek a second term. A Biden adviser said preparatory discussions for a 2024 campaign were underway.

“Our intention is to run again, that’s been our intention,” Biden told reporters at the White House, his wife Jill sitting nearby. “This is ultimately a family decision.”

Biden said his family wanted him to run and he did not feel rushed to make a final decision. He said he would do so unrelated to any announcement from his 2020 rival, Republican former President Donald Trump, who is expected to run as well.

Biden has spent his first two years in office warning against threats to democracy after Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and did not accept Biden’s legitimate victory.

He underscored those arguments in the final days of the midterm elections.

He gently chided reporters for predicting, based on opinion polls, bigger losses for his Democrats.

Republicans made modest gains in Tuesday’s elections and are likely to take control of the House of Representatives, but control of the Senate hinges on three races that remained too close to call late on Wednesday. A so-called “red wave” or large Republican takeover did not occur.

“It was a good day, I think, for democracy,” Biden said.

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He acknowledged that the results showed Americans were frustrated, however. Inflation was a big topic for voters.

Biden focused his campaign pitch largely on preventing threats to U.S. democracy, securing abortion rights and extolling his economic policies.

Republicans are expected to try to undo some of those policies and prevent him from achieving further goals.

Biden said he was prepared to work with Republicans.

“The American people have made clear, I think, that they expect Republicans to be prepared to work with me as well,” he said.

Biden said he would veto efforts to pass a national ban on abortion and opposed tax cuts for the wealthy, two policy proposals Republicans may pursue.

Source – https://www.newsmax.com/

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“So the U.S. drone strike did NOT kill any ISIS-K but did kill 10 innocent civilians, including 7 children. Unbelievable. The Biden administration is a sad, tragic mess and an utter embarrassment on the world stage!,” Trump-era White House press secretary and Fox News contributor Kayleigh McEnany tweeted on Friday. 

Pentagon admits drone strike killed civilians

U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, told reporters on Friday that an Aug. 29 drone strike targeting ISIS actually killed 10 civilians in Afghanistan, not terrorists. 

“As the combatant commander, I am fully responsible for this strike and its tragic outcome,” McKenzie said. 

“I offer my profound condolences to the family and friends of those who were killed,” McKenzie said.

McKenzie’s announcement follows White House press secretary Jen Psaki and others in the administration describing the Aug. 29 drone strike as a success amid the U.S.’s withdrawal from Afghanistan last month. 

But now, the White House is facing even more criticisms on its Afghanistan handling, following harsh blowback it already received when 13 U.S. service members were killed in Kabul by a suicide bomber. 

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FDA panel rejects booster shots for general public as pushed by White House

An FDA panel rejected distributing booster shots to the general public, but recommended Pfizer’s booster for high-risk people aged 65 and older after the Biden administration pushed to roll out a booster shot campaign on Sept. 20.

France recalls ambassador after submarine deal

In another foreign policy hit, France pulled its ambassador to the U.S. from Washington, D.C., following the announcement of a pact between Australia, the U.S. and the U.K. to give Australia nuclear-powered submarines in what is seen as an effort to counter China.

The reports sparked a torrent of criticisms levelled at Biden, including condemnation that the news was breaking as Biden travelled to a Delaware beach for a long weekend.

Source – https://www.foxnews.com/

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“Obama’s fears about Biden and his team ran deep — deeper than defeat,” wrote Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes in their new book “Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely Won the Presidency,” according to excerpts from The Washington Free Beacon.

 “Obama worried that his former vice president would embarrass himself on the campaign trail and that the people around him would not be able to prevent a belly-flop.”

They add that Obama repeatedly pushed Biden not to run, writing that “it had stung Biden badly in 2015 when Obama made clear his preference for Hillary Clinton.”

The authors note that “Obama, like much of his brain trust, seemed to be enamored with a former Texas congressman, Beto O’Rourke,” in the 2020 Democratic Party primary.

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The former president previously praised O’Rourke for his Senate run, saying in 2018 that he was an “impressive young man who ran a terrific race in Texas,” when asked on CNN’s “The Axe Files” in an interview.

“The reason I was able to make a connection with a sizable portion of the country was because people had a sense that I said what I meant,” Obama said at the time, according to CNN.

“And that’s a quality that, as I look at what I’m sure will be a strong field of candidates in 2020, many of whom are friends of mine and whom I deeply respect — what I oftentimes am looking for first and foremost is, do you seem to mean it? Are you in this thing cause you have a strong set of convictions that you are willing to risk things for?”

Source – https://www.newsmax.com/

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“The Electoral College has spoken,” McConnell said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “So today I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden.”

McConnell also discouraged Republican senators during a conference call from joining any move to object to the Electoral College outcome when Congress convenes Jan. 6 to formally count the results.

Until Tuesday, McConnell had declined to acknowledge Biden’s win, saying the president was entitled to pursue his claims in court, even as Trump-backed cases were dismissed by numerous judges. The Supreme Court last week turned away an effort to toss out election results in states won by Biden.

Biden told reporters he called McConnell Tuesday to “thank him for the congratulations” and told him there are issues where they can work together.

“We’ve always been straight with one another and we agreed to get together sooner than later and I’m looking forward to working with him,” Biden said.

Yet even as McConnell and other Republicans are acknowledging the election results, Trump still refuses to concede. He continued to tweet unfounded claims of voter fraud in the Nov. 3 election after McConnell spoke.

McConnell later told reporters he had no advice to offer Trump but said the Electoral College vote was “determinative.” A person familiar with a GOP conference call Tuesday also confirmed a Politico report that McConnell urged colleagues not to sign on to a Jan. 6th challenge of the electors, which would force Republicans to take a tough vote.

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Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia said GOP senators on the call were encouraged “to accept the results” even if it wasn’t the outcome they wanted and “to try to do what’s best for the American people, which is to look forward.”

She told reporters at the Capitol that “there wasn’t any pushback to it. There wasn’t anybody saying ‘Oh, wait a minute.’”

A Trump ally in the U.S. House, Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama, said he still plans to contest the electoral vote count next month. There is no chance the Democratic-led House would indulge any further attempts to overturn the election results. Even if a senator raises an objection, it’s clear from the comments from McConnell and others it would be doomed to fail.

Senior Republican senators began acknowledging Biden’s victory after the Electoral College voted on Monday, with retiring Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee urging Trump to put the country first and ensure a smooth transition to the incoming Biden administration.

Source – https://www.bloomberg.com/

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The proposal, which Biden outlined in a speech Tuesday afternoon, would emphasize tax credits and state funding subsidies to make child care more affordable and accessible, and make prekindergarten for 3- and 4-year-olds universal.

A Biden administration would also push to increase pay for child care providers through new state-level standards and federal minimum wage laws, and would aim to speed the construction of new and upgraded child care facilities through tax breaks.

“Families are squeezed emotionally and financially,” Biden told a small group at an early childhood education center in New Castle, Del. “They need help, but too often they can’t afford it. And the professional caregivers out there, the home health care workers, child care workers … are too often underpaid, unseen and undervalued.”

Biden’s plan comes as the country faces what he called a “child care emergency.” Schools and day care centers have been closed for months because of the coronavirus pandemic. Many school districts plan to continue distance learning into the fall. And child care centers that have reopened are facing financial uncertainty, as well as the financial, logistical and emotional challenge of guarding caregivers and children against infection.

The former vice president spoke in front of a backdrop emblazoned with the words “Build Back Better” — the tagline for a series of economic policy proposals he’s unveiled in recent weeks. Pulling down a black face mask as he got underway, Biden criticized President Trump for abdicating responsibility on the pandemic.

“We’re trapped in a caregiving crisis within an economic crisis within a health care crisis,” Biden said. “You’re doing everything you can, but this president is not.”

In a statement, Trump’s campaign said Biden’s “unaffordable left-wing agenda gets more expensive by the day.”

COVID-19 has ravaged nursing homes, as well.

“People in nursing homes have been hit especially hard by the coronavirus, shining a bright light on the fact that many would prefer to be in a home or community-based setting,” the Biden campaign said in a statement accompanying the new proposal.

Of its total 10-year cost, Biden’s plan would spend more than $400 billion on caregiving for older Americans. It would devote much of that funding to lowering Medicaid wait-list times for home and community care services. It would also provide tax breaks to people who care for older family members themselves.

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A senior official on the Biden campaign says most of the cost for the plan would come from limiting tax loopholes and exemptions for real estate investors.

On Tuesday, Biden leaned on his own experience, talking about caring for his two young sons as a single father after his wife and daughter were killed in a car crash just as he was beginning his first term in the U.S. Senate.

“It was hard,” he said. “If I didn’t have my mom, my sister, my brother, I don’t know how I would have been able to afford it.”

BIden also told the crowd about taking care of his mom and dad when they were in hospice, and his son, Beau, who died from brain cancer.

The caregiving proposal is the third major economic plan that Biden has rolled out in the past month. It follows a $2 trillion clean energy proposal, as well as policies aimed at expanding American manufacturing.

Last week, he also released a plan for reopening schools.

After months of mostly focusing on Trump’s actions and statements, Biden is now focusing more on highlighting his own proposals and possible presidential agenda.

Source – https://www.npr.org/

The post Biden Says U.S. Faces ‘A Child Care Emergency. Unveils $775 Billion Plan appeared first on Daily Concord.

Mr. Biden, who previously had been defiant about those remarks and is often reluctant to issue apologies for his past positions, told a heavily African-American audience gathered in South Carolina, a crucial early-voting state, that he regretted those comments, which had incited backlash from many Democrats.

He also used his speech to draw contrasts with some of the candidates in the Democratic presidential primary who are to his left, and to defend his broader philosophy of working “within the system” to “get things done for the least among us,” even when that means dealing, he said, “with those who we find repugnant.”

“Now, was I wrong a few weeks ago to somehow give the impression to people that I was praising those men who I successfully opposed time and again?” he said. “Yes, I was. I regret it. I’m sorry for any of the pain and misconception I may have caused anybody.”

The room broke into applause, drowning out Mr. Biden. But, he asked the crowd, should “that misstep define 50 years of my record for fighting for civil rights, racial justice in this country?”

“I hope not,” he said, as some in the crowd murmured “no.” Mr. Biden added: “I don’t think so. That just isn’t an honest assessment of my record.”

The remarks came during Mr. Biden’s first public event of a weekend trip to South Carolina, a state with a heavily African-American Democratic electorate, where Mr. Obama is beloved.

It is a state where Mr. Biden has enjoyed significant good will tied to his time in the Obama administration. And his visit comes amid recent scrutiny of his civil rights record and slipping national poll numbers following his first Democratic debate of the 2020 primary season and its heated exchanges over busing and race.

On Saturday, before a crowd that appeared sympathetic and often enthusiastic, Mr. Biden sought to put his record on issues like the 1994 Crime Bill — which many associates with mass incarceration — or his dealings with segregationist lawmakers, in what he cast as historical context. He argued that throughout his career he was simply being pragmatic, an approach he continues to embrace even as many of his opponents suggest it is not possible to negotiate with today’s Republican Party.

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