Tag: Joe Biden

  • Putin Replies Biden’s ‘Killer’ Comment, Says It Takes One To Know One

    Putin Replies Biden’s ‘Killer’ Comment, Says It Takes One To Know One

    Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday mocked US President Joe Biden over his “killer” comment but said that Moscow would not sever ties with Washington over the spat.

    Speaking at an event marking seven years since Russia’s takeover of Crimea, Putin said Moscow would continue working with Washington but aimed a barb at the US leader.

    “It takes one to know one,” Putin said in televised remarks, using a saying from his childhood.

    “That’s not just a children’s saying and a joke. There’s a deep psychological meaning in this.

    “We always see in another person our own qualities and think that he is the same as us.”

    Putin added that he wished Biden, 78, good health. “I’m saying this without irony, not as a joke.”

    In an interview with ABC News on Wednesday, when asked if he thought Putin, who has been accused of ordering the poisoning of opposition figure Alexei Navalny, is “a killer”, Biden said: “I do.”

    The US president’s remarks sparked the biggest crisis in bilateral relations in years, and later Wednesday Russia ordered its Washington ambassador back to Moscow for urgent consultations in an unprecedented move in recent diplomatic history.

    Putin said the United States was “the only country in the world that used nuclear weapons”.

    Russia, he added, knows how to “defend its interests” and will work with Washington on terms that are “beneficial” for Moscow.

    “And they’ll have to deal with it.”

    AFP

  • Biden Says He Agrees That Putin Is A ‘Killer’

    Biden Says He Agrees That Putin Is A ‘Killer’

    President Joe Biden said he agrees with the assessment that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin is a “killer.”

    In an interview with ABC News broadcast on Wednesday, Biden said Putin would “pay a price” for trying to undermine his candidacy in the US 2020 election as alleged in a new US intelligence report.

    Asked if he thought Putin, who is accused of being ruthless with his opponents, is “a killer,” Biden said, “I do.”

    The statement marked a stark contrast with predecessor Donald Trump’s steadfast refusal to say anything negative about the Russian president.

    Biden said he had spoken to Putin in January after taking office.

    “We had a long talk, he and I, I know him relatively well,” Biden said.

    “The conversation started off, I said, ‘I know you and you know me. If I establish this occurred, then be prepared,” Biden said.

    He did not specify if he meant Russia interfering in the US election or other behavior to which the US objects, such as the poisoning and jailing of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny.

    Russia reacted furiously to Biden’s comments on Putin being a killer.

    “Biden insulted the citizens of our country with his statement,” the speaker of the lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, wrote on his Telegram channel, adding that attacks on Putin are “attacks on our country.”

    AFP

  • Biden Ramps Up US Refugee Admissions To 125,000 Per Year

    Biden Ramps Up US Refugee Admissions To 125,000 Per Year

    President Joe Biden on Thursday announced his intention to massively increase the cap on annual refugee admissions to the United States, which fell to a historical low under Donald Trump.

    In line with a campaign promise, Biden said he would set at 125,000 the cap on admissions as part of the country’s refugee resettlement program, against the current 15,000.

    “We offered safe havens for those fleeing violence or persecution” in previous years, when America’s “moral leadership on refugee issues” encouraged other nations to open their doors as well, Biden said.

    “So today I’m approving an executive order to begin the hard work of restoring our refugee admissions program to help meet the unprecedented global need,” he added.

    “It’s going to take time to rebuild what has been so badly damaged, but that’s precisely what we’re going to do.”

    The United States has an extensive history of welcoming refugees and is one of the world’s largest resettlement nations.

    But after nearly 79,000 refugees headed to US shores in 2016, the numbers plunged, with just 6,740 arriving in 2020, according to resettlement data by the United Nations refugee agency.

    The executive order “will raise refugee admissions back up to 125,000 persons for the first full fiscal year of the Biden/Harris administration,” which begins October 1, the president said.

    Biden’s announcement earned swift praise from UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, who said it would send a compelling message to other countries to follow suit.

    “The action today by President Biden will save lives. It’s that simple,” Grandi said in a statement, adding that the expansion shows that “strength is rooted in compassion.”

    He added that despite the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, which has left more than 2.2 million people dead worldwide, “we remind countries of the life-threatening circumstances that refugees face and encourage them to continue to expand their resettlement programs.”

    Biden said he would direct the State Department, where on Thursday he delivered his maiden foreign policy speech as president, to consult with Congress about making a “downpayment” for raising the refugee cap as soon as possible.

    The UN estimates that there are 25.9 million refugees worldwide, most of whom are hosted in developing countries.

    AFP

  • Republican Lawmaker files articles of impeachment against Joe Biden

    Republican Lawmaker files articles of impeachment against Joe Biden

    Barely 24 hours after Joe Biden’s inauguration as US President, a Republican lawmaker, GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has filed articles of impeachment against Joe Biden, alleging abuse of power by Biden from his time as vice president.


    The newly sworn in Rep. from Georgia, who has supported QANON conspiracy theories and criticized the 25,000 National Guard deployed to Washington D.C. to protect the presidential inauguration, took to Twitter to make her announcement.


    “I’ve just filed articles of impeachment on President Joe Biden, we will see how this goes,” Greene said.


    She then immediately used her announcement to raise money for an “Impeach Joe Biden Fund.”

    Republican Lawmaker files articles of impeachment against Joe Biden

    In a press release, she accused Biden of “enabling bribery” and “blatant nepotism” by utilizing his son Hunter Biden’s position on the Ukrainian energy company, Burisma.


    “President Joe Biden is unfit to hold the office of the Presidency. His pattern of abuse of power as President Obama’s Vice President is lengthy and disturbing,” she wrote in a statement Thursday.


     “President Biden has demonstrated that he will do whatever it takes to bail out his son, Hunter, and line his family’s pockets with cash from corrupt foreign energy companies.” She added 

    Republican Lawmaker files articles of impeachment against Joe Biden
    Republican Lawmaker files articles of impeachment against Joe Biden

    Biden has repeatedly denied involving U.S. foreign policy in Kiev with his son’s work. 


     Republicans in the Senate after months of investigation last year found no evidence of wrong doing from Biden.

     
    Greene’s articles of impeachment are not expected to be taken serious as the house is controlled by Democrats.


    Greene announced last week, just hours after the House’s historic second impeachment of President Trump, that she would bring articles of impeachment against Biden.


     She took to Twitter Thursday to say the “inauguration looked like a one party military state takeover with 30k troops.”


    “People were told not to go & flags were planted to show the fake support,” she claimed.

  • Biden cancels travel ban on Nigeria, Sudan others

    Biden cancels travel ban on Nigeria, Sudan others

    U.S President Joe Biden on his first day in office issued some executive orders undoing some of former President Donald Trump’s policies.

    Among the 17 executive orders and presidential actions Biden signed on Wednesday were the order to end travel restrictions and immigration from countries including Nigeria, Eritrea, Yemen, Sudan and others.

    “There’s no time to waste,” Biden said before signing the executive orders in the White House.

    “These are just all starting points,” he added.

    The American Civil Liberties Union, a non-profit civil rights organisation, applauded the move calling the travel policy a “cruel Muslim ban that targeted Africans.”

    However, the ban was changed, in part due to legal challenges, and included some non majority-Muslim nations.

    President Biden described the policy as discriminatory and an affront to the country’s values.

    The President has also sent a bill to Congress to overhaul the country’s immigration system, his team said earlier.

    The legislation aims to provide pathways to US citizenship for undocumented people, address the causes of migration and speed up the reunification of families after children were separated from parents at the US border with Mexico.

  • Biden Calls Josephine, A Nigerian Girl & Her Father Who Contributed To Victory

    Biden Calls Josephine, A Nigerian Girl & Her Father Who Contributed To Victory

    It is new dawn for America and the world at large as Joe Biden was sworn in as the president of America after defeating Donald Trump. 

    However, it will be a memorable day for a Nigerian girl named Josephine who contributed towards joe biden victory. She received a call from the new president of the united state and she and her family are so happy. 

    The Oyo state girl answered the call from Joe Biden who showered praise on her for her smartness leaving her proud dad all smile. 
    Congratulations president Joe

  • Joe Biden: Details Of The 17 Executive Order

    Joe Biden: Details Of The 17 Executive Order

    Biden’s 17 Executive Orders and Other Directives in Detail

    The moves aim to strengthen protections for young immigrants, end construction of President Donald J. Trump’s border wall, end a travel ban and prioritize 

    President Biden signed executive orders during his first few minutes in the Oval Office

    WASHINGTON — In 17 executive orders, memorandums and proclamations signed hours after his inauguration, President Biden moved swiftly on Wednesday to dismantle Trump administration policies his aides said have caused the “greatest damage” to the nation.

    Despite an inaugural address that called for unity and compromise, Mr. Biden’s first actions as president are sharply aimed at sweeping aside former President Donald J. Trump’s pandemic response, reversing his environmental agenda, tearing down his anti-immigration policies, bolstering the teetering economic recovery and restoring federal efforts to promote diversity.

    Here’s a look at what the measures aim to accomplish.

    On the Pandemic
    Mr. Biden has signed an executive order appointing Jeffrey D. Zients as the official Covid-19 response coordinator who will report to the president, in an effort to “aggressively” gear up the nation’s response to the pandemic. The order also restores the directorate for global health security and biodefense at the National Security Council, a group Mr. Trump had disbanded.

    Though it is not a national mask mandate, which would most likely fall to a legal challenge, Mr. Biden is requiring social distancing and the wearing of masks on all federal property and by all federal employees. He is also starting a “100 days masking challenge” urging all Americans to wear masks and state and local officials to implement public measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

    Mr. Biden is also reinstating ties with the World Health Organization after the Trump administration chose to withdraw the nation’s membership and funding last year. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci will be the head of the U.S. delegation to the organization’s executive board and will jump into the role with a meeting this week.

    On Immigration
    With an executive order, Mr. Biden has bolstered the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that protects from deportation immigrants brought to the United States as children, often called Dreamers. Mr. Trump sought for years to end the program, known as DACA. The order also calls on Congress to enact legislation providing permanent status and a path to citizenship for those immigrants.

    Another executive order revokes the Trump administration’s plan to exclude noncitizens from the census count, and another overturns a Trump executive order that pushed aggressive efforts to find and deport unauthorized immigrants. Yet another order blocks the deportation of Liberians who have been living in the United States.

    In a blow to one of his predecessor’s earliest actions to limit immigration, Mr. Biden has also ended the so-called Muslim ban, which blocked travel to the United States from several predominantly Muslim and African countries. Mr. Biden has directed the State Department to restart visa processing for individuals from the affected countries and to develop ways to address the harm caused to those who were prevented from coming to the United States because of the ban.

    Mr. Biden has also halted construction of Mr. Trump’s border wall with Mexico. The order includes an “immediate termination” of the national emergency declaration that allowed the Trump administration to redirect billions of dollars to the wall. It says the administration will begin “a close review” of the legality of the effort to divert federal money to fund the wall.

    On Climate Change
    Chief among executive orders that begin to tackle the issue of climate change, Mr. Biden has signed a letter to re-enter the United States in the Paris climate accords, which it will officially rejoin 30 days from now. In 2019, Mr. Trump formally notified the United Nations that the United States would withdraw from the coalition of nearly 200 countries working to move away from planet-warming fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas.

    In additional executive orders, Mr. Biden began the reversal of a slew of the Trump administration’s environmental policies, including revoking the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline; reversing the rollbacks to vehicle emissions standards; undoing decisions to slash the size of several national monuments; enforcing a temporary moratorium on oil and natural gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; and re-establishing a working group on the social costs of greenhouse gasses.

    On Racial and L.G.B.T. Equality
    Mr. Biden will end the Trump administration’s 1776 Commission, which released a report on Monday that historians said distorted the role of slavery in the United States, among other history. Mr. Biden also revoked Mr. Trump’s executive order limiting the ability of federal agencies, contractors and other institutions to hold diversity and inclusion training.

    The president designated Susan E. Rice, who is the head of his Domestic Policy Council, as the leader of a “robust, interagency” effort requiring all federal agencies to make “rooting out systemic racism” central to their work. His order directs the agencies to review and report on equity in their ranks within 200 days, including a plan on how to remove barriers to opportunities in policies and programs. The order also moves to ensure that Americans of all backgrounds have equal access to federal government resources, benefits and services. It starts a data working group as well as the study of new methods to measure and assess federal equity and diversity efforts.

    Another executive order reinforces Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to require that the federal government does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, a policy that reverses action by Mr. Trump’s administration.

    On the Economy
    Mr. Biden is moving to extend a federal moratorium on evictions and has asked agencies, including the Agriculture, Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development Departments, to prolong a moratorium on foreclosures on federally guaranteed mortgages that was enacted in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The extensions all run through at least the end of March.

    The president is also moving to continue a pause on federal student loan interest and principal payments through the end of September, although progressive groups and some congressional Democrats have pushed Mr. Biden to go much further and cancel up to $50,000 in student debt per person.

    On Government Accountability
    Following in the footsteps of some of his predecessors, Mr. Biden has established ethics rules for those who serve in his administration that aim “to restore and maintain trust in the government.” He has ordered all of his appointees in the executive branch to sign an ethics pledge.

    Finally, Mr. Biden issued a freeze on all new regulations put in motion by his predecessor to give his administration time to evaluate which ones it wants to move forward. The memorandum is aimed at preventing so-called midnight regulations, policies pushed through by a lame-duck president unconstrained by electoral considerations. The fast pace often cuts short the opportunity for the public or industry to review the policies.

  • Biden effects first sack, forces top official to resign

    Biden effects first sack, forces top official to resign

    U.S. Surgeon General Jerome M. Adams resigned on Wednesday after President Joe Biden asked him to do so, according to Washington Post.

    Adams wrote on Facebook, “Thank you for the opportunity to serve this great Nation, as this has been the honor of my life.

    “I hope in 2021 and beyond, we can focus more on what unites us, and rise above what divides us.”

    Adams was nominated by Trump and was sworn in as surgeon general on Sept. 5, 2017, to serve the office’s standard four-year term, which was set to expire this September 2021.

    The anesthesiologist was regularly appearing on national TV and using social media to advocate for public health measures such as social distancing.

    Adams’s visibility also made him a target last spring for Democrats, who accused him of defending Trump’s statements.

    Biden has nominated Vivek H. Murthy, surgeon general but he first needs to undergo Senate confirmation hearings, which have yet to be scheduled.

    Biden and Kamala Harris were sworn-in on Wednesday having been declared winners of the November 3 presidential election. p

    He has promised to face the fight against the deadly COVID-19 squarely and had always blamed the Trump administration for not taking the fight seriously.

  • Trump leaves letter at the White House for Joe Biden before leaving

    Trump leaves letter at the White House for Joe Biden before leaving

    It has been confirmed that Donald Trump left a letter for President-elect Joe Biden before departing the White House for the last time as US President despite breaking one of the traditions of transfer of power between presidents by skipping Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday.

    White spokesperson Judd Deere confirmed on Wednesday that Trump had written a letter to President-elect Joe Biden and left it for him in the Oval Office’s Resolute Desk.

    The Trump White House did not divulge the contents of what Trump left for Biden to read as Presidents usually leave a note of congratulations and support behind in the Oval Office.

    The White House did not release contents of Trump’s note: “It’s a letter between 45 and 46,” Deere said.

    In 2017, Trump received a letter from President Barack Obama wishing him and his administration good fortune and urging him to ensure that the “instruments of our democracy at least as strong as we found them.”

    “We are just temporary occupants of this office,” President Barack Obama wrote. “That makes us guardians of those democratic institutions and traditions – like rule of law, separation of powers, equal protection and civil liberties – that our forebears fought and bled for. Regardless of the push and pull of daily politics, it’s up to us to leave those instruments of our democracy at least as strong as we found them.”

  • Joe Biden Sworn in as 46th US President

    Joe Biden Sworn in as 46th US President

    Joe Biden on Wednesday became the 46th president of the United States, vowing a “new day” for the United States after four years of tumult under Donald Trump who in an extraordinary final act snubbed the inauguration.

    Two weeks to the day after Trump supporters violently rampaged at the US Capitol to overturn the election results, Biden took the oath on the same very steps alongside Kamala Harris, who was sworn in moments earlier as the first woman vice president.

    Biden, putting his hand on a family Bible, repeated after Chief Justice John Roberts the presidential oath — that he will “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

    “It’s a new day in America,” Biden wrote on Twitter before the inauguration as, in a sign of his push for unity, he prayed alongside congressional leaders at a Roman Catholic church.

    Biden, who at 78 is the oldest president in US history and only the second Catholic, took office amid enormous challenges with the still-raging Covid-19 pandemic having claimed 400,000 lives in the United States.

    Central Washington took on the dystopian look of an armed camp, protected by some 25,000 National Guard troops tasked with preventing any repeat of the January 6 attack that left five dead. The Supreme Court reported a bomb threat Wednesday morning.

    Harris, the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, became the highest-ranking woman in US history and the first person of color as the nation’s number two.

    She and her husband Doug Emhoff — America’s first-ever “second gentleman” — were escorted to the inauguration by Eugene Goodman, a Black police officer at the Capitol who lured the mostly white mob away from the Senate chambers in a video that went viral.

    Unprecedented atmosphere

    With the general public essentially barred from attending due to the pandemic, Biden’s audience at the National Mall instead was 200,000 flags planted to represent the absent crowds.

    “It’s a day a lot of us have been trying to visualize for a long time. We couldn’t have guessed that the visual would be quite like this,” Pete Buttigieg, the former presidential contender tapped by Biden as transportation secretary, told reporters.

    Biden nonetheless brought in star power — absent four years ago with Trump — as Lady Gaga sang the national anthem and Tom Hanks prepared for a televised evening appearance with the new president.

    Biden, who was vice president under Barack Obama and first ran for president in 1987, plans to kick off his tenure with a flurry of 17 orders to turn the page on Trump’s divisive reign.

    Officials said Biden will immediately rejoin the Paris climate accord and stop the US exit from the World Health Organization and set new paths on immigration, the environment, Covid-19 and the economy.

    He will also end Trump’s much-assailed ban on visitors from several majority-Muslim countries and halt construction of the wall that Trump ordered on the US-Mexico border to stem illegal immigration, the aides said.

    Many overseas leaders breathed a sigh of relief at the end of Trump’s hawkish, go-it-alone presidency, with Biden’s team pledging greater cooperation with the rest of the world.

    Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, called Biden’s inauguration “a demonstration of the resilience of American democracy,” as well as “the resounding proof that, once again, after four long years, Europe has a friend in the White House.”