WILMINGTON, United States, Jan 15, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – President-elect Joe
Biden unveiled plans Thursday for fighting Covid and injecting $1.9 trillion
into a battered US economy, but already his ambitious first 100 days agenda
is overshadowed by the looming Senate trial of his soon-to-be predecessor
Donald Trump.
Biden promised “a new chapter” for the nation on the day after Trump became
the first US president to ever be impeached twice, as the incoming Democrat
sought to seize the narrative in a primetime address and get Americans
looking forward again.
“We will come back,” he said in a speech from his hometown of Wilmington.
“We didn’t get into all this overnight. We won’t get out of it overnight.
And we can’t do it as a separated and divided nation,” he said.
“The only way we can do it is to come together, to come together as fellow
Americans.”
With his Democrats narrowly controlling both houses of Congress, Biden, 78,
has a shot at passing what would be the third massive pandemic aid package.
What he is less keen to talk about, however, is the impending trial of
Trump, something that will introduce a potentially nightmarish mix of
scheduling complications and political drama into an already tense Senate.
In his 25-minute televised speech Biden made no mention of Trump,
impeachment or the deadly violence that nearly overwhelmed Washington last
week.
Instead he addressed “the twin crises of a pandemic and this sinking
economy,” a challenge exceeding even that which faced him as vice president
to Barack Obama when they assumed office following the 2008 financial crisis.
The Covid-19 pandemic continues to hit new peaks, the vaccination program
is stumbling, and there are fears the economic recovery from the cratering of
2020 could backslide.
His proposal, dubbed the American Rescue Plan, will include a host of
measures aimed at revitalizing the world’s largest economy.
Among those are raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, aiding struggling
state and local governments, safely reopening schools, rolling out a massive
Covid-19 vaccination campaign, extending unemployment benefits and boosting
the size of stimulus checks Congress approved last month.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said
they would hit the ground running in order to assure the plan’s success.
“We will get right to work to turn President-elect Biden’s vision into
legislation that will pass both chambers and be signed into law,” they said
in a joint statement.
Biden, who will be sworn in January 20, is also promising to get
vaccinations off the ground, with an eye-catching slogan of 100 million shots
administered in the first 100 days.
The incoming president plans to tackle all of this at the same time,
putting one of the darkest periods of American history in the rearview
mirror.
It’s a tall order.
Yet Biden takes office with one advantage he was not expecting even a few
weeks ago: full, if razor thin, control of Congress.
Shock victories by Democrats in Georgia’s two Senate run-off races this
month mean Democrats will have slim majorities in both chambers when he takes
over.
This will also help Biden in getting confirmations of his cabinet picks.
Among those beginning the process is Avril Haines, whose nomination for
director of national intelligence will be examined Friday by the Senate
Intelligence Committee, and Treasury secretary pick Janet Yellen, who goes
before the Senate Finance Committee on January 19.
– Elephant in the room –
The elephant in the room, however, is impeachment.
Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives Wednesday for
“incitement of insurrection” by egging on a huge crowd of his supporters to
march against Congress on January 6.
The mob rampaged through the Capitol building, fighting with police and
leaving lawmakers fearing for their lives. Five people died.
In the Democrats’ dream scenario, the Senate would have convened in
emergency session to conduct a lightening quick trial before January 20,
forcing Trump out.
But the Republican leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, scratched that
idea.
As of January 20, McConnell will lose his leadership, ceding to Schumer,
who is vowing to press ahead.
A McConnell statement that he is open-minded on Trump’s guilt raises the
possibility that Trump gets convicted by a two-thirds Senate majority.
If convicted, a second, simple-majority vote would be enough to bar the
real estate tycoon from trying to come back as president in 2024.
But before any of that, senators will have to thread the tightest of
needles in figuring out how to simultaneously try a Republican former
president while cooperating on an agenda sent by a new Democratic one.
Biden is trying to persuade the chamber to “bifurcate” and deal with the
two contrasting tracks in an organized, efficient way, going “a half day with
the impeachment and a half day getting my people nominated and confirmed in
the Senate as well as moving on the (Covid) package.”