Good Morning DC. Today marks the first anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, and his family is coming to the White House to meet with Biden and Harris in the Oval Office at 1:30 PM.
Good Morning DC!
Today marks the first anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, and his family is coming to the White House to meet with Biden and Harris in the Oval Office at 1:30 PM. The event is billed “closed press” and unless they decide to make some last-minute changes, the White House Correspondents won’t be allowed in.
Biden spoke on Belarus’s forced diversion of a commercial Ryanair flight and arrest of Raman Pratasevich, a Belarusian journalist. “This outrageous incident and the video Mr. Pratasevich appears to have made under duress are shameful assaults on both political dissent and the freedom of the press,” said Biden. The president said that he welcomes targeted economic sanctions against Belarus.
Biden wants to see progress in the infrastructure plan by Memorial Day. The President is open to various mechanisms for paying for these proposals, including lowering the corporate tax rate to a lesser percentage.
The White House released its infrastructure counteroffer plan on Friday to Senate Republicans, cutting the bill by $550 billion.“The ball is in the Republicans’ court,” Psaki stated. The most recent counteroffer from Republicans increased by $50 billion.
She expressed, “It doesn’t take anything more than simple math to know that if we came down by 550 billion, and they came up by 50 billion, they have ways more to go. The White House is awaiting the Republican’s counter-proposal and is “eager to engage and even have them down here to the White House.”
Florida passed first-in-the-nation legislation that can fine tech companies for de-platforming politicians. The new law state that social media companies can suspend an account for no longer than 14 days and that any violation may result in up to a $250,000 fine per day.
Liz Cheney gave an interview to Axios where she talked about her stance on voter suppression laws and the future of the Republican party. Cheney was so prominent on the TV networks watched by the Democrats that they now act surprised to learn that she is still a Republican at heart. I said many times that Cheney’s mistake was a strategic one. She kept appearing in the media, hoping to influence the Republican voters who do not watch those networks and have no trust in them.
If you plan to travel to Japan for the Tokyo Olympics, the U.S. State Department advises against it due to COVID-19. In Japan, only 2% of the Japanese population are vaccinated.
Across the pond, Swaran Singh’s independent report on anti-muslim sentiments in the Conservative party is out. Allegations of “institutional racism” made by Baroness Warsi proved baseless, but the report states that anti-Muslim sentiment “remains a problem.”
To celebrate Bob Dylan’s 80th birthday yesterday, we published an imaginary interview On Being Young.
And that’s a wrap for this Tuesday morning, May 25, 2021. Thanks for waking up with me. Good Morning DC will be back tomorrow to bring you the latest first.
