How President Joe Biden moves on after Donald Trump’s acquittal
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden kept his head down during the indictment against his predecessor, who ended Saturday afternoon with Donald Trump’s acquittal.
And now he can not move on fast enough.
Biden travels to Wisconsin and Michigan this week as he pushes forward on the challenges that will make or break his own presidency: defeat the pandemic and revive the battered economy.
Changing not only the topic of conversation but also the tone could be just as difficult as tackling the coronavirus. It was also a key promise of his campaign.
Delaware Senator Chris Coons, a near-Biden confidante, played a key role in preventing the trial from being extended indefinitely as the House Democrats wanted to call witnesses Saturday morning.
“The trial had reached its natural conclusion,” Coons said Sunday in an appearance on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”
As he did throughout the case, Biden will spend this week sending a bill on pandemic through Congress.
He will talk to Americans about the health and economic crises facing the nation on CNN Milwaukee City Hall on Tuesday.
On Thursday is Biden scheduled to visit a Pfizer plant in western Michigan that pumps out COVID-19 vaccines.
The public and private push in pandemic legislation is also expected to include prominent oval office meetings before Biden ends the week, speaking to foreign leaders at a virtual rally during the Munich Security Conference on Friday.
“I’ve already had some good conversations with President Biden, great conversations about the way he looks at things,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. Although Trump had referred to Johnson as “Britain’s Trump”, the Prime Minister signaled in mid-November, he moved on and was ready to work with Biden on climate change and other issues.
But if Biden is embraced by some foreign leaders who were kind to Trump, it’s unclear whether he can get congressional Republicans’ support for his legislative priorities, especially after the raw emotions dissolved by the trial.
“What we saw in that Senate today was a cowardly group of Republicans,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, said Saturday. She was particularly contemptuous of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s condemnation of Trump after acquittal.
“It was a very outrageous speech,” Pelosi said. “And I say that regrettably, because I will always be able to work with the other party’s management.”
Share. Stacey Plaskett of the US Virgin Islands, part of the team of house chiefs who served as prosecutors in the Senate trial, also vented frustration over Republicans, telling CNN that it would have required “more senators with spines” to get a conviction.
Video:Pelosi mocks ‘sweeping’ Republicans from the Senate
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Pelosi has called for the establishment of a commission similar to the one that investigated the terrorist attacks on September 11, to further investigate “the facts, causes and security of the terrorist mob attack on January 6”.
Coons supported the idea Sunday.
“I think we have to spend months and months finding all the evidence that can possibly be obtained through a 9/11-style commission,” he told ABC.
Biden, however, has taken the same stance on a commission as he did when asked if Trump should be charged and convicted.
“It’s up to Congress,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Friday.
An otherwise tight lip Biden let a small perception of the prosecution slip during a walk early in the morning on the White House lawn Friday to check out his wife’s Valentine’s day decorations – oversized red, pink and white “candy” hearts stamped with the words “kindness” , “healing”, “compassion” and “courage”.
“I’m just eager to see what my Republican friends do – if they get up,” Biden told reporters, pushing for his thoughts on the final lawsuit.
After Trump was acquitted by a 57-43 vote Saturday, Biden waited more than six hours before weighs in.
In his announcement, released from the presidential retreat at Camp David, Biden said he was thinking of those who lost their lives or are still dealing with the terror of having lived through the day the US Capitol was attacked – and thinking of all those who ” demonstrated the courage to protect the integrity of our democracy before and after the election. ”
Biden included Republicans in the praise, appointing election officials, judges, elected representatives and voting workers.
He also emphasized the bipartisan nature of the final vote in which seven Republican senators voted with Democrats to judge Trump. And Biden noted that although McConnell, R-Ky., Voted in favor of the acquittal, GOP leader Trump declared “practically and morally responsible for provoking” the uprising at the Capitol.
Every American has a responsibility to defend the truth, defeat lies, and end “this civil war,” Biden said.
“And that is a task we must undertake together,” he concluded, “as the United States of America.”
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Biden’s campaign promise of a double party was not a political tactic, it’s part of who he is, said Rahm Emanuel, who was President Barack Obama’s chief of staff.
Because of this, Emanuel argued on ABC, and in a statement in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, Biden needs to get more top-flight winners on his scorecard.
“Authenticity as CEO is key,” Emanuel told ABC. “You can’t take a hit against your character.”
But Republicans may be motivated to highlight their opposition to Biden as they seek to talk about something other than Trump.
“We need to look ahead because the ideas of our party are more important now than ever, especially in opposition to the Biden / Harris administration,” said Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, one of the seven Republicans who voted to judge Trump, on ABC. . He cited the GOP’s opposition to Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL oil pipeline as an example.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said the trial helped Biden because it stopped the Republicans’ ability to “respond to things we believe are not right for the country.”
“When the Republicans want to recover,” he said on ABC, “is when the Republicans come back to talk about the things they believe in.”
Trump could still be a distraction for the GOP through state and federal criminal and civilian investigations into the former president’s taxes, campaign finance and business operations. McConnell also suggested that Trump could be criminally responsible for the January 6 violence.
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And a special commission, if set up, could reveal more evidence harming Trump.
When landlords wanted to expand the prosecution by summoning witnesses, the Coons advised them to instead accept a GOP agreement to be included in a statement from the rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., On comments Trump made during the uprising.
“They could have had 500 more witnesses. That would not change the outcome, ”Coons told ABC. “What we all needed was more Republican courage.”
But Coons said there is still more evidence that the American people need and deserve to be heard, even though he sees reason for new legal action against Trump.
At the same time, however, the Coons said Congress now needs to join Biden to focus on beating the coronavirus and reviving the economy.
“I think this phase of accountability is moving to the courts now,” he said, “and we in Congress need to move on.”
‘Tribalism is a hell of a drug’:Trial against Trump resumes GOP battle lines even though he is acquitted
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