President Joe Biden calls on Big Tech companies and the media to do more to silence people who spread “misinformation” about vaccines and COVID-19. “I make a special appeal to social media companies and media outlets: Please deal with the misinformation and disinformation that’s on your shows,” he says. “It has to stop.”
The Supreme Court votes 6-3 to halt the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for businesses with 100 or more employees. The ruling comes just three days after the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) mandate was originally set to take effect. Justice Neil Gorsuch notes that Congress never granted OSHA the power to “regulate the daily lives and liberties of millions of Americans.” In a separate 5-4 ruling, Justices John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh join the three liberal justices in allowing Biden’s vaccine mandate to stay in place for healthcare workers at medical facilities that accept Medicare or Medicaid payments.
A Quinnipiac University poll clocks President Biden’s job approval rating at a new low of 33%, down three points from the previous Quinnipiac poll. The poll found that 53% disapprove of the job President Biden is doing. The poll also found that just 28% of Hispanics approved of Biden’s performance, suggesting a continued political realignment between the two major parties heading into the 2022 elections.
The Labor Department announces that the consumer price index grew 7% in December from a year earlier. The increase is the largest since June 1982, when inflation hit 7.1%. “Inflation at 7% is no joke,” says Seema Shah, chief strategist at Principal Global Investors. “It’s the highest annual CPI number since 1982 and driven not by energy prices, but by just about everything else.”
For the first time in more than a decade, Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not release its annual report in 2021, drawing concerns from critics that the agency is trying to keep the public in the dark about the immigration crisis at the southern border. “It’s absolutely shocking that the release of the ICE report hasn’t happened,” says former ICE Chief of Staff Jon Feere. A current spokesperson for the agency reveals that a release date for the report has not been determined.
A leaked draft of an executive order by President Joe Biden proposes transferring male prisoners to women’s prisons if the men opt to identify as female. “This move toward co-ed prisons will result in male sexual predators exploiting the system in order to abuse and rape female prisoners,” says Nathanael Blake. “We know this because it has already happened in places these proposals have been enacted.”
A federal judge in Texas grants a temporary injunction against a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for Navy SEALs who sued the Biden administration for a religious exemption. Judge Reed O’Connor stated: “The Navy service members in this case seek to vindicate the very freedoms they have sacrificed so much to protect. The COVID-19 pandemic provides the government no license to abrogate those freedoms. There is no COVID-19 exception to the First Amendment.”
On a phone call with governors, President Joe Biden says he agrees that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to combating COVID-19. Biden made the comment in response to Gov. Asa Hutchinson, R-AR, who cautioned the president not to interfere with states’ attempts to fight the virus. “Make sure that we do not let federal solutions stand in the way of state solutions,” said Hutchinson. Biden replied: “There is no federal solution. This gets solved at the state level.”
President Biden signs a bill that bans imports from China’s Xinjiang region because of human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in that region. The Biden administration has denounced the actions of China against these peoples as “widespread, state-sponsored forced labor” and “mass detention.
President Joe Biden says he would support “whatever it takes,” including ending the filibuster, to pass the voting overhaul favored by Democrats in Congress. When pressed by ABC’s David Muir, Biden reiterated: “It means whatever it takes. Change the Senate rules to accommodate major pieces of legislation without requiring 60 votes.” This is a reversal of Biden’s position in 2019, when he said: “Ending the filibuster is a very dangerous thing to do.”
The Biden administration faces backlash after expressing hostility and anger toward Americans who have not received COVID-19 shots in several official White House statements and comments from President Joe Biden. “For the unvaccinated, you’re looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families, and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm,” said a White House statement. Biden doubles down and says: “I, honest to God, believe it’s your patriotic duty.”
Admiral Christopher Grady, Biden’s nominee to be vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, assures Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, that he shares her support for “gender advisers” in the military. “The role of a gender adviser is a way to attack a very significant issue, and if confirmed, I look forward to leveraging those advisers who can make me think better and smarter about the issues that you raise,” said Grady. But Afghan war veteran Jason Church said “gender advisers” are just a “liberal pet project” that will not help the military’s missions.
Prices in November were 6.8% higher than they were the year prior. That’s the highest price markup over a 12-month period since 1982. The price of gasoline is up nearly 60%, the highest increase in 41 years. The cost of beef has increased 20% over the last 12 months. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-PA, says: “Hardworking American families are suffering as a direct result of the Biden administration’s reckless borrowing and spending and anti-energy policies.”
The Senate votes 52-48 to repeal President Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for private businesses. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-WV, and Jon Tester, D-MT, join all 50 Republicans in favor of the resolution. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV, said families consider the mandate “an invasion into their own abilities to make decisions about themselves in their health care.”
A federal judge in Georgia blocks the vaccine mandate for federal contractors. U.S. District Judge R. Stan Baker states that “even in times of crisis this Court must preserve the rule of law and ensure that all branches of government act within the bounds of their constitutionally granted authorities.”
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has ordered all National Guard and Reserve troops to get COVID-19 vaccines or face loss of pay. The order comes as the Pentagon is engaged in a battle with the Oklahoma National Guard over a COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Austin said the Pentagon will enforce the mandate even while Guardsmen are on state duty, though Gov. Kevin Stitt, R-OK, has argued the opposite.
According to a review by the Congressional Budget Office, President Biden’s Build Back Better bill would give amnesty to approximately 6.5 million noncitizens and allow them to obtain government benefits. Those who illegally entered the country before January 2011 and now live in the U.S. would be eligible. The proposal would be double the size of President Reagan’s amnesty in 1986.
During testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland refuses to rescind his controversial memo calling on the FBI and DOJ to use the Patriot Act to investigate concerned parents who attend school board meetings. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-IA, said: “As a result of your memo, local school officials and parents may not speak up in these meetings, out of fear the federal government will do something to them, so that’s a poisonous chilling effect….”
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says the Build Back Better plan will add $750 billion to the deficit over five years. The legislation contains several provisions, like universal pre-K and childcare subsidies, which expire after several years to lower the upfront price tag of the bill. The Committee for a Responsible Budget found that if those provisions are made permanent, the cost of the legislation will be $4.91 trillion.
An internal Department of Health and Human Services memo shows that officials in the department are moving to undo Trump-era actions aimed at protecting the religious freedom of health care workers. Roger Severino, who led the HHS Office of Civil Rights under Trump, calls out health secretary Xavier Becerra: “Becerra told Congress that he values religious freedom and that nothing will change with OCR concerning enforcement. His actions since then prove that he lied and this move would put an exclamation point on his anti-religious hostility.”
The FBI Counterterrorism Unit has been tracking “threats” against education officials and school boards, according to FBI documents obtained by a whistleblower. An email from the FBI stated: “The Counterterrorism and Criminal Divisions created a threat tag, EDUOFFICIALS, to track instances of related threats. We ask that your offices apply the threat tag to investigations and assessments of threats specifically directed against school board administrators, board members, teachers, and staff.” Republicans say that Attorney General Merrick Garland “willfully misled” the House Judiciary Committee about the FBI’s involvement in such investigations.
Nearly 30% of lower- and middle-class households would pay more in taxes starting in 2022 if Biden’s Build Back Better bill becomes law, according to a study by the liberal Tax Policy Center, a project of the Brookings Institution. The tax increases start small in 2022, but grow sharply by the end of the decade.
Buried in the language of President Biden’s Build Back Better Act is a clause that prohibits religious organizations from making use of the bill’s funding. The legislation’s text states that “child care providers may not use funds for buildings or facilities that are used primarily for sectarian instruction or religious worship.” Rep. Mike Kelly, R-PA, tries to fight the ban with a Religious Freedom Amendment, but Democrats vote it down.
The Biden administration tells businesses to implement a vaccine mandate on employees despite a federal court halting the order. “We think we — people should not wait. It’s — we say: Do not wait to take actions that will keep your workplace safe,” says White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
President Biden angrily defends his administration’s plan to award $450,000 payments to illegal immigrants who were separated at the U.S. border. “Whether [the border crossing] was legal or illegal, and you lost your child,” Biden states. “You lost your child, it’s gone — you deserve some kind of compensation, no matter what the circumstance.” Biden’s comments come just three days after he called a report about the payout “garbage.”
A federal appeals court places a temporary halt on President Biden’s vaccine mandate for companies with more than 100 employees. A three-judge panel with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals say that petitioners had offered significant cause to believe that there are “grave statutory and constitutional issues” with the Biden administration’s vaccine order. Gov. Greg Abbott, R-TX, says an emergency hearing will take place “soon.”
Eleven states filed suit Friday against the Biden administration, challenging the constitutionality of a new mandate that businesses with 100 or more employees force their workers to get the COVID-19 shot. “This mandate is unconstitutional, unlawful, and unwise,” said the court filing by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt. Missouri has 3,443 private employers who could be covered by the vaccine requirement, with nearly 1.3 million employees.
An NPR/PBS/Marist poll shows just 36% of Democrats want Biden nominated for a second term as president. The poll shows that 44% of Democrats want someone else, with 20% unsure. Among Republicans, 50% say Donald Trump has the best chance of regaining the White House for the GOP, while 35% want someone else and 14% say they are unsure.
A new NBC News poll indicated that 71% of Americans believe the United States is heading in the wrong direction, with just 22% saying the country is heading in the right direction. NBC’s Chuck Todd couldn’t believe the numbers: “Republicans, believe it or not, have double-digit leads in dealing with border security, inflation, crime, national security, the economy and — shockingly — on getting things done.” He added: “The only good news for Mr. Biden and the Democrats in this poll is that the midterm elections aren’t for another year.”
After their private meeting at the Vatican, President Biden claims that Pope Francis encouraged him to keep receiving Holy Communion. Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See press office, declined to confirm Biden’s account. “I would consider it a private conversation, and it is limited to what was said in the public statement.” When asked if the issue of abortion came up in their talk, Biden said: “No, it didn’t.”
President Biden releases a new $1.75 trillion spending plan that includes the recently-expanded child tax credit, subsidies for preschool, and expansion of Medicaid. Unlike his earlier $3.5 trillion bill, this proposal doesn’t include subsidized community college and paid family leave. The bill would impose a minimum 15% corporate tax, 1% surcharge on stock buybacks, and a surtax on millionaires.
A blockbuster report from Wall Street Journal claims that the Biden administration is considering giving a whopping $450,000 per person in compensation for the separation of illegal border crossers and children during the Trump administration. The payments “could amount to close to $1 million a family, though the final numbers could shift, the people familiar with the matter said,” WSJ reported. “They actually want to send $450k to illegal immigrants that broke our laws while a crisis rages at our Southern border,” tweeted Sen. Rick Scott, R-FL. “This is INSANE.”
The Biden administration appointed Viola Garcia, president of the National School Boards Association, to a federal board that analyses student progress. Garcia signed the “domestic terrorism” letter calling on the Attorney General to use the Patriot Act to investigate parents who protest critical race theory and gender ideology at school board meetings.
More than 50 federal employees from several different agencies have joined together in a lawsuit against the Biden administration over mandates to receive a COVID-19 shot in order to keep their jobs. “In rushing to force COVID-19 vaccinations on the federal workforce, the President’s edicts violate longstanding statutory prohibitions against inoculations with unlicensed vaccines, as well as the individual rights of government employees and contractors under the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act,” the complaint states
A report from the Federal Reserve acknowledges that there are nationwide labor shortages, and cited vaccine mandates as one of the factors making it difficult for employers to find workers. “Firms reported high turnover, as workers left for other jobs or retired. Child-care issues and vaccine mandates were widely cited as contributing to the problem, along with COVID-related absences,” said the Fed in its beige book report.
The Department of Justice on Monday officially requests that the Supreme Court block a recently passed law in Texas which bans most abortions after a heartbeat can be detected. The Justice Department’s application complains that abortion clinics are being “forced to shutter their doors” and may never reopen, even if the law is eventually struck down. The move by the DOJ is the latest in a constant string of efforts by the Biden administration to thwart the Texas law since it went into effect at the beginning of September.
The average price of a gallon of gas hits its highest level in seven years. The outcome is predictable, says American Exploration and Production Council CEO Anne Bradbury. “By pursuing policies that restrict supply and make it harder to produce oil and natural gas here in America, Americans will have to pay more for their energy.”
The Biden administration announces that it had canceled multiple border wall contracts on the U.S-Mexico border. Rodney Scott, the former chief of the United States Border Patrol, criticizes the move. “There are stacks and stacks of border wall panels, there’s hundreds of miles of fiber optic cabling, there’s hundreds of cameras that were being installed with that, that are just sitting, there’s no action being taken,” he said.
The September jobs report showed a gain of just 194,000 non-farm jobs — well short of the 500,000 that Wall Street analysts had predicted. The September report follows a disappointing August jobs report a month earlier. “This is quite a deflating report,” said Nick Bunker, economic research director at Indeed Hiring Lab. “The hope was that August was an anomaly, but the fact is, the delta variant was still with us in September.”
President Joe Biden reverses a Trump-era ban on abortion referrals by taxpayer-funded federal family planning clinics, returning some $60 million in annual funding to Planned Parenthood. Former President Donald Trump’s policy amounted to a prohibition against giving taxpayer funding to healthcare providers who actively promoted or partnered with the abortion industry. Planned Parenthood tweets: “Thanks, [President Biden], and everyone who organized to make this happen!”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, has inserted a provision into the controversial $3.5 trillion “Build Back Better Act” which would empower the government to fine employers over half-a-million dollars per infraction if they don’t enforce President Biden’s vaccination mandate for employees. “Buried on page 168 of the House Democrats’ 2,465-page mega bill is a tenfold increase in fines for employers that ‘willfully,’ ‘repeatedly,’ or even seriously violate a section of labor law that deals with hazards, death, or serious physical harm to their employees,” Forbes reports.
President Joe Biden tells a reporter that America will go back to normal after as many as 98% of Americans submit to mandatory vaccination and take COVID-19 shots. “Well I think, look — I think we get the vast majority, like what’s going on in some of the … some industries and some schools — it’s 97, 98 percent,” Biden states. “But I’m not the scientist,” Biden added. “But one thing for certain: A quarter of the country can’t go unvaccinated.”
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas confirms that 12,000 Haitian migrants entered the country illegally and were released into the country. By law, they are required to appear before an immigration judge when their cases are scheduled to be heard. According to the Department of Justice, 44% of those released into the country miss their court hearings.
House Democrats pass the so-called Women’s Health Protection Act in a 218-211 vote. The bill is designed to ingrain the most expansive interpretation of Roe v. Wade into federal law and therefore preemptively eradicate all state-level pro-life legislation. The Biden administration releases a statement saying it “strongly supports” the passage of the bill. The proposed law is expected to be blocked in the Senate, where Republicans will filibuster it.
The U.S. bishops denounce the Biden administration for attempting to massively fund abortions with taxpayer dollars through the Build Back Better Act, the Democrats’ proposed $3.5 reconciliation bill. The text of the bill “funds abortion, the deliberate destruction of our most vulnerable brothers and sisters – those in the womb,” writes Archbishop Joseph Naumann, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Archbishop Paul Coakley, chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development. “Congress can, and must, turn back from including taxpayer funding of abortion, in the Build Back Better Act.”
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll has President Biden’s approval rating at 44%, while 50% disapprove. Reuters notes that public approval of Biden is now at the lowest level of his presidency, with Americans “appearing to be increasingly critical of his response to the coronavirus pandemic.”
Gov. Greg Abbott, R-TX, shuts down six ports of entry from Mexico into his state. “The sheer negligence of the Biden Administration to do their job and secure the border is appalling. I have directed the Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard to surge personnel and vehicles to shut down six points of entry along the southern border to stop these caravans from overrunning our state,” says Abbott.
Vermont Associate Supreme Court Justice Beth Robinson once represented a client who tried to force a devout Catholic couple who owned a printing company to produce materials for a pro-abortion group. The Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing on Robinson, whom President Biden nominated for the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote, says: “How does a nominee like this ever get sent to the Senate? Surely the Biden Administration knew of this record and considered her qualified. The decision is telling. The anti-Catholic animus of this administration grows by the day. When will Catholics wake up?”
President Biden orders all employers with over 100 employees to mandate that all workers get COVID-19 shots or submit to weekly testing. “This is not about freedom or personal choice,” says Biden. “It’s about protecting yourself and those around you… We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin.” Biden’s announcement is an about-face from his position in December, when he told reporters that he didn’t support a national vaccine mandate: “I don’t think it should be mandatory, I wouldn’t demand it be mandatory.”
Newly-discovered emails show further coordination between the Biden administration and teachers unions. When the CDC announced on May 13 that fully vaccinated Americans could stop wearing masks indoors, the National Education Association threatened the Biden administration that they would go public with harsh criticism. After the CDC “clarified” that everyone should be masked in schools, the teachers union publicly issued a statement with a softer tone. The emails were made public by Freedom of Information Act requests by a group called Americans for Public Trust
The Biden administration reportedly blocked private flights from evacuating U.S. citizens and Visa-holders stranded in Afghanistan after the chaotic withdrawal, but one organization reports why its contacts on the ground still have hope. “The Biden administration seems to be a bigger obstacle for us than the Taliban,” says Jason Jones of the Vulnerable People Project. “But that doesn’t mean we don’t have any hope.”
President Joe Biden says he doesn’t personally believe that life begins at conception, contradicting an interview he gave in 2015 in which he said the exact opposite. Answering a question on what he’d say to women about the new Texas ban on abortions after six weeks, Biden says he was a “strong supporter of Roe v. Wade” and added: “I respect those who believe that life begins at the moment of conception — I don’t agree but I respect that.”
President Biden says in a statement that the Texas ban on abortions after six weeks “will significantly impair women’s access to the health care they need, particularly for communities of color and individuals with low incomes.” CatholicVote President Brian Burch replied: “It is beyond shameful to see a Catholic President of the United States attack this effort to protect children and mothers in Texas. Catholics are called to defend the weakest and most vulnerable. Once again President Biden betrays his faith.”
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan tells ABC News that the United States is considering providing aid to Afghanistan through the Taliban. “There is an important dimension of humanitarian assistance that should go directly to the people of Afghanistan,” says Sullivan. “When it comes to our economic and development assistance relationship with the Taliban, that will be about the Taliban’s actions. That will be about whether they follow through on their commitments to safe passage for Americans and Afghan allies….
The Defense Department conceds that “hundreds” of Americans were left behind in Afghanistan as the final U.S. troops departed Afghanistan. Americans wishing to leave Afghanistan will now have to rely on diplomatic efforts by the State Department. CENTCOM Commander Gen. Frank McKenzie says: “We did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out.”
Lawmakers from both parties cry out for the Biden administration to do more to help Americans trapped outside the gates of Kabul airport to get inside. Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), a former Colonel, says: “Biden has ordered the gates closed. Our fellow Americans will soon be left behind. Unbelievable and unforgivable.” Rep. Andy Kim, D-NJ, pleads with a senior State Department official to help him rescue Americans who were just outside the airport’s gates. “I asked directly for a phone number American citizens can call if in an emergency like this family stuck at the gate… I was told no such number exists.”
It is revealed that U.S. officials in Kabul provided the Taliban with the names of Americans and Afghan allies to evacuate. The move infuriates lawmakers and military officials, who note that the Taliban has a history of brutally murdering Afghans who collaborated with U.S. and allies. “Basically, they just put all those Afghans on a kill list,” says a defense official who spoke anonymously to Politico.
Afghan Christians whose names appear on U.S. government lists of qualified evacuees are being turned away from the airport in Kabul. Additionally, the State Department’s “P-2” designation for certain priority evacuees does not specifically include Christians or other religious minorities. “It seems at present as if no one is getting any priority unless they have some sort of special connection inside the airport,” says Faith McDonnell, director of advocacy at Katartismos Global.
France and the United Kingdom are reportedly conducting missions in the city of Kabul to rescue trapped citizens, but President Biden says he will not expand the American perimeter beyond the airport. ABC’s David Muir asked reporter Ian Pannell about Biden’s claim that there’s no intelligence indicating that Americans haven’t been able to get to the airport. Muir asks: “Does that square with reporting on the ground?” Pannell replies: “I mean—just totally not.”
Pentagon officials estimate that the Taliban has captured 2,000 armored vehicles and up to 40 aircraft (including Black Hawk helicopters). Social media photos have shown Taliban fighters driving U.S. Humvees and wearing special forces tactical uniforms. It is believed that the Taliban also control the vast majority of the supplies once held by the Afghan army. Since 2003, the United States has equipped the Afghan army with more than 600,000 infantry weapons, 162,000 pieces of communications equipment, and 16,000 night-vision goggles.
It was revealed that U.S. diplomats sent a memo urging top State Department officials to take action with evacuations ahead of the August 31 withdrawal deadline. The July 13 cable warned of the possible fall of Kabul, and pleaded with the Biden administration to begin collecting information from Afghans who qualified for Special Immigrant Visas and start evacuation flights no later than Aug. 1.
The White House reports that a “fair amount” of military equipment, including guns, ammunition, and helicopters, are now in Taliban hands. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan also admits that Afghan forces, trained by the U.S. military, “are no longer operating as (a) coherent entity.”
In the face of rising inflation, the Biden administration approves the largest permanent boost to food stamps in U.S. history to help struggling families. The New York Times reports the news of the more than a 25% permanent increase, the highest individual hike in the federal program since it began, which will take effect in October for more than 40 million recipients.
The Biden administration faces bipartisan backlash over the chaos involved in the exit from Afghanistan. “I’m not going to mince my words on this,” said Rep. Jason Crow, D-CO, an Afghanistan veteran. “We didn’t need to be in this position. We didn’t need to be seeing the scenes that we’re seeing at Kabul airport with our Afghan friends climbing aboard C-17s.” Rep. Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said: “I don’t know, for the life of me, why they waited until the very last week or days to do this when we were calling upon them for months to get them out of that country.”
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani flees Afghanistan as Taliban forces enter the capital city of Kabul and seize control of the Presidential Palace. The rapid takeover of the country by the Taliban catches President Biden by surprise, as he previously stated on July 8th, “the likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.” Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-TX, says, “Withdrawal was never going to be easy but it didn’t need to come to this.”
The Biden administration announces the extension of the student loan repayment moratorium to January 31, 2022. They also state that this represents the final extension of the payment pause. But Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-NC, criticized the plan, saying Biden’s Secretary of Education “is using the permanent pandemic narrative to wield power rather than enact responsible solutions to help borrowers get back on track.”
President Biden signs an executive order calling for 50% of all cars sold in the United States to be electric vehicles by 2030. But the Pew Research Center stated that between 2017 and 2020, electric vehicles accounted for only “about 2% of the U.S. new-car market.” According to a report published in Quartz, the median retail price for all vehicles in the United States was $36,600 in 2019, but electric vehicles had an average price of $55,600.
The city of McAllen, TX says the federal government has released over 7,000 COVID positive migrants into their city since February, including over 1,500 new infected migrants in just the *last week alone*. A local state of disaster in McAllen has been declared.
According to data released by the Department of Commerce, the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index rose 4% between June 2020 and June 2021. If you factor out food and energy costs, the metric rose by 3.5%, reaching the highest peak since July 1991. Wages have also been increasing, but not as quickly as inflation, resulting in “real average hourly earning” declining by 1.7% over the past year.
The Democrat-led House passes a large spending bill without pro-life protections in a 219-208 vote. The legislation excludes the Hyde Amendment, which bars funding of most elective abortions in Medicaid. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-NE, says the Hyde Amendment was a “bipartisan compact” in Congress. “Now it’s gone.”
A new poll shows that race relations in the United States are at a new low. The downward trend began during the Obama-Biden administration, but has grown under President Biden. Gallup says that 57% believe relations between blacks and whites are “bad,” with 42% calling them “good.”
TC Energy, which saw its contract to construct the Keystone XL pipeline canceled, sues the Biden administration for $15 billion over a “breach of the United States’ free trade obligations.” The Wall Street Journal editorial board notes that the United States has “never lost before a NAFTA arbitration panel… but TC Energy … has a good case.”
A federal judge orders the Biden administration to stop processing applications for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen found that the Administrative Procedures Act was violated in creating the policy. “DACA would grant lawful presence and work authorization to over a million people for whom Congress had made no provision and has consistently refused to make such a provision,” Hanen wrote. The ruling did not affect any current DACA recipients.
New data from the Centers for Disease Control has revealed record drug overdose deaths during the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020. An estimated 93,000 people died last year from drug overdoses, marking a significant increase from the previous year’s total of 72,000 deaths, the CDC reported. The spike in overdose deaths was especially grave for young people.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-FL, calls on President Biden to give internet access to the people of Cuba. DeSantis writes: “At first, the world could see the images and videos of this mass movement, but now the tyrannical regime of President Miguel Díaz-Canel has shut off access to the Internet.” FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr says DeSantis’s call was “exactly right” and that the FCC “can get to work immediately” to help make it happen.
President Biden applauds the “courage” of Texas Democrats who fled the state to avoid voting on election reform bills, according to his spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre. She said the Texas proposals were part of “a concerted attack on our democracy.” The legislative reforms would prohibit drive-thru and 24-hour early-voting, and introduce identification requirements for absentee voting.
North Dakota sues the Biden administration for blocking oil and gas leases on public lands. “Oil and gas produced from leases on Federal and Indian lands in North Dakota are an important part of this sector, generating approximately $93.65 million in royalties to the State every year,” the state states in the lawsuit.
The Biden administration announces a plan to send agents to the homes of unvaccinated Americans in an effort to get more people vaccinated against COVID-19. “We need to go community by community, neighborhood by neighborhood, and oftentimes door-to-door — literally knocking on doors” to get unvaccinated people “protected from the virus,” President Joe Biden says.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announces that Americans can now choose which gender they are on official passports arbitrarily, even if their choice contradicts other documents and medical history. The Biden State Department is also working on adding “nonbinary, transgender, or intersex” options.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki defends Gwen Berry, who snubbed the American flag during the Olympic trials. Psaki says that Berry was seeking to “peacefully protest” the moments that Americans “haven’t lived up to our highest ideals.”
The Biden administration launches multiple airstrikes near the border of Iraq and Syria. The U.S. military said it was targeting “facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups” who had attacked U.S. troops in Iraq via drones.
The Biden Justice Department announces a lawsuit against Georgia alleging that their voter laws could restrict the rights of black Georgians. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp condemns the DOJ’s actions. “This lawsuit is born out of the lies and misinformation the Biden administration has pushed against Georgia’s Election Integrity Act from the start.”
Health secretary Xavier Becerra shuts down the National Institutes of Health ethics board which was overseeing human fetal tissue research. Under the Trump administration, this advisory board had the authority to block fetal research proposals on ethical grounds.
Tracy Stone-Manning, President Joe Biden’s nominee to head the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), once wrote that Americans “breed” too much, called American children “environmental hazards,” and stated that U.S. citizens should stop “at one or two kids” for the sake of the environment.
Three months after President Biden placed her in charge of the migrant crisis, Vice President Kamala Harris announces that she will be heading to the U.S.-Mexico border. Republicans had been criticizing Harris for several weeks for not visiting the border. On her recent trip to Guatemala, several mainstream media reporters peppered Harris with questions about when she will visit the border.
The Department of Education announces that all public educational institutions nationwide must recognize the “gender identities” of “trans” people, including by allowing biological males to use female facilities such as restrooms and compete in female sports. Ryan T. Anderson criticizes the move: “A law meant to ensure equality for girls is now being used to privilege boys who ‘identify’ as girls.”
The Biden Justice Department files legal documents this week stating that state bans on “transgender” medical procedures for children are unconstitutional. The DOJ also argues against state efforts in West Virginia and Arkansas to protect girls sports from having to include biologically male competitors.
A planned presidential visit to the Vatican, which reportedly would have included Mass and an audience with Pope Francis, is abruptly canceled. If the event went as planned it would have been used against U.S. Bishops just as they begin the process of issuing a document reaffirming Catholic teaching on political supporters of evils like abortion presenting themselves for Communion. Biden, a regular Mass-goer, promotes taxpayer-funded abortion up to birth.
Sen. Tim Cotton, R-AR, says he’s heard from hundreds of whistleblowers in the military who object to critical race theory and “privilege walks” done during so-called diversity training sessions. “We’re hearing reports of plummeting morale, growing mistrust between the races and sexes where none existed just six months ago, and unexpected retirements and separations based on these trainings alone.”
Leaders of the G7 countries agree to new targets on reducing emissions to curb climate change. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the G7 wants to “drive a global Green Industrial Revolution to transform the way we live.” The G7 leaders commit to halving their emissions by 2030, relative to 2010. They also agree to end government support for the fossil fuel sector overseas.
President Joe Biden refers to mothers as “birthing people” in his $6 trillion budget proposal. The Biden administration appears to have adopted the term “birthing people” from far-left activists who preach that references to biological sex are not “inclusive” of all “LGBTQ” people. Women’s advocates object to the strange verbiage, which they say “erases” and otherwise denigrates women and the unique role of mothers.
Despite sharp increases in gasoline prices, the Biden administration announces a suspension of oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy denounced the administration’s action. “Each action they take demonstrates a failure to comprehend the worldwide demand for oil and gas,” he said. “We are not going to allow the Biden administration to turn Alaska into a giant national park.”
President Biden commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre. But Biden also asserts that white supremacy is “the most lethal threat” facing the United States today. “According to the intelligence community, terrorism from white supremacy is the most lethal threat to the homeland today,” Biden says. “Not ISIS. Not Al Qaeda. White supremacists.”
The Biden administration takes a swipe at former President Trump as he issues a proclamation to mark June as “Pride Month” to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community. “After four years of relentless attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, the Biden-Harris Administration has taken historic actions to accelerate the march toward full LGBTQ+ equality,” said the White House.
The U.S. Embassy to the Holy See sends a message by flying the LGBT “Pride” rainbow flag at the Vatican. “The U.S. Embassy to the Holy See celebrates #PrideMonth with the Pride flag on display during the month of June,” the embassy tweets from its official account. “The United States respects the dignity and equality of LGBTQI+ people. LGBTQI+ rights are human rights.” The move comes just a few weeks after the Biden administration authorized U.S. outposts to display the rainbow flag on the same flagpole as the American Flag at embassies around the world.
Consumer prices are up 3.1% compared to February 2020, the month before the pandemic shut down the economy. Projections show that prices will likely continue rising all summer with increased demand as Americans begin traveling and gathering more. Added to that increased demand is a tighter supply of goods as supply chains struggle to ramp up production after the pandemic.
The Biden administration fires four members of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, including its chairman, whom President Trump appointed to help ensure that neoclassical architectural styles remained the standard in federal buildings. Justin Shubow, who chaired the Commission, shares that the White House gave him less than a day to submit his resignation. “In the Commission’s 110-year history, no commissioner has ever been removed by a President, let alone the commission’s chairman. Any such removal would set a terrible precedent,” said Shubow.
Border patrol agents encounter more than 33,000 people crossing into the United States illegally from countries other than Mexico and Central America’s Northern Triangle. The number of immigrants from Haiti, Cuba, Romania, and India “has spiked during recent months,” reported Axios. They fly into Central American countries and then travel through Mexico heading for the U.S. border.
An activist hired by the Biden administration to root out “extremism” in the United States Armed Forces accuses all Trump supporters of “complicity” with extremism. “Silence from our Congressional leaders is complicity,” tweeted Bishop Garrison in a July 2019 Twitter thread about former President Donald Trump. “He is only going to get worse from here, & his party and its leadership are watching it happen while doing nothing to stop it.”
President Biden proposes a new rule to have critical race theory taught in public schools. Lindsey Burke and Inez Stepman write about the impact of the proposed rule: “Initially, the rule would apply only to a couple of small grant programs. But it wouldn’t stop there. Its introduction would follow a pattern similar to that of other unpopular national curriculum efforts, such as Common Core, which gained entrée to classrooms all over America through a carrot-and-stick approach.”
Space Force Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier is relieved of command after appearing on a podcast to promote his book, which asserts a neo-Marxist agenda is transforming military culture. Lohmeier says, “The diversity, inclusion and equity industry and the trainings we are receiving in the military … is rooted in critical race theory, which is rooted in Marxism.” The Space Force said Lohmeier was relieved “due to loss of trust and confidence in his ability to lead.”
President Biden issues an executive order rescinding President Trump’s directive to build a “National Garden of American Heroes” which was intended to be built in conjunction with the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The proposed garden was to include Americans from every era of U.S. history, including figures such as Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr.
U.S. consumer prices surge 4.2%, the biggest jump since 2008. The price of lumber has spiked since the beginning of this year, sending the price of new homes upward. A global microchip shortage has set back the building of new cars, sending the price of used cars soaring. Other sectors, like airfare and the hotel industry, had artificially low prices because of the pandemic last year but are seeing prices rise as Americans begin spending again.
President Biden reverses course and restarts construction on a 13.4 mile stretch of border wall in the Rio Grande Valley. According to reporter Bill Melugin of Fox News, the Biden administration made the reversal in response to pressure from local residents and politicians. President Biden’s administration had halted all wall construction during his first month in office.
A United States Army recruitment ad tells the story of a radical Leftist who joined the military in part to “shatter some stereotypes.” “This is the story of a soldier who operates your nation’s Patriot Missile Defense Systems,” the narrator says at the start of the ad. “It begins in California with a little girl raised by two moms.”
The Department of Health and Human Services announces that it will be enforcing a new ban on so-called discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The decision receives immediate blowback from advocates for freedom of conscience, who warn that doctors will now be pressured to administer “transgender medicine” against their religious convictions or medical judgment. “This move by HHS is a setup to normalize and strong-arm doctors into administering puberty blocking drugs on children, performing sex-change surgeries, and more,” says CatholicVote President Brian Burch.
Economists had predicted that one million jobs would be added in April, but non-farm payrolls increases by just 266,000 as unemployment rises slightly to 6.1%. An analyst for Bank of America noted that 4.6 million workers left the labor force during the pandemic, but only half are expected to return by the end of the year. For workers earning less than $32,000 a year, it’s often more lucrative to collect unemployment with the $300 weekly bonus than it is to return to work.
The Biden administration has spent $3 billion to house tens of thousands of migrant children who crossed the southern U.S. border illegally shortly after President Biden was sworn into office. Nearly 25,000 migrant children are in the custody of the federal government, separated from their families.
The Biden administration plans to crack down on elected officials who attempt to legislate against the aims of the LGBT movement at the state level, according to a prominent LGBT leader. The new information came from Alphonso David, the head of the Human Rights Campaign, America’s most powerful LGBT organization, who lamented to The Daily Beast that a number of states have passed, or are in the process of passing, laws to protect women and girls from having to compete against biological males in school sports.
The Biden administration quietly ends the military’s involvement in the construction of a border fence on the southern border, leaving several holes in the wall. “Consistent with the president’s proclamation, the Department of Defense is proceeding with canceling all border barrier construction projects paid for with funds originally intended for other military missions and functions,” the Department of Defense says in a statement.
In response to liberal backlash, President Biden announces that his administration will increase the number of refugees admitted into the United States. “Today, I am revising the United States’ annual refugee admissions cap to 62,500 for this fiscal year,” Biden says. However, the president admits that the admissions target will not be met by the end of the fiscal year.
The Biden administration informs the UN that the United States has withdrawn from a historic pro-life declaration started by the Trump administration. The Biden administration declares to the other 34 countries who signed the document: “Upon reviewing the Declaration, we have reservations that aspects of the document are not consistent with our current Administration’s policies, including those relating to women’s health, LGBTQI equality, and gender equality.”
Sen. Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat, calls out President Biden for not including a plan to address the border crisis in his presidential address to Congress. Kelly stated: “This continues to be a major problem that shouldn’t fall on the shoulders of Arizona communities. And I think it was important to highlight that it wasn’t part of the address [Wednesday] night.”
The secular Washington Post took a cue from the White House this week, calling Biden “very Catholic.” Many faithful Catholics objected, including CatholicVote President Brian Burch.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops considers whether to clarify the Church’s stance on the reception of Holy Communion by politicians, such as President Biden, who oppose the Catholic Church on grave moral matters such as abortion. “Because President Biden is Catholic, it presents a unique problem for us,” says Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, KS, who chairs the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities. “It can create confusion. … How can he say he’s a devout Catholic and he’s doing these things that are contrary to the Church’s teaching?”
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki says President Biden “respectfully disagrees” with the U.S. bishops, who object to the administration using the bodies of aborted children for scientific research. The Biden administration rescinded a Trump-era ban on the use of aborted human remains earlier this month.
The Biden administration withdraws a proposed rule that was initiated by the Trump administration that would have allowed single-sex shelters to accept clients based on sex, not gender identity. The decision by the Biden administration “abandoned women and girls under the guise of being ‘inclusive,’” says Kate Anderson, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken sends a directive authorizing U.S. outposts to fly the “LGBT pride” flag on the same flagpole as the U.S. flag starting in May. Under U.S. law, embassies and other official outposts must be granted permission by the State Department before posting any banners other than the American flag on the flagstaffs outside their offices. Heritage Foundation foreign policy analyst Daniel Kochis says: “Pushing ‘progressive’ narratives often runs afoul of local religious or cultural sensitivities and will besmirch the U.S. as an impartial interlocutor in many countries.”
The Senate votes 51-49 to confirm Vanita Gupta as associate attorney general. Gupta previously served as head of the civil rights division at the Justice Department during the Obama administration. Gupta claimed to support religious freedom but argued in 2020 that the Little Sisters of the Poor should not have a religious exemption from having to provide abortifacients in their health plans.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slides 321 points, or 0.94%, over news that President Biden would nearly double the capital gains taxes for individuals earning more than $1 million to between 36.9% and 43.4%. The tax increase would reportedly finance Biden’s American Families Plan, which is expected to provide paid family leave and free community college. The current tax rates on capital gains are 0%, 15%, and 20%, depending on your filing status.
The House approves legislation to make Washington, DC, the 51st state in the country with a 216-208 vote. It’s the second time the House has passed this legislation in two years. President Biden has previously voiced his support for the effort to make the capital city the 51st state. It faces a steep climb in the 50-50 Senate, where it must clear a 60-vote hurdle.
The Biden administration filed an appeal Tuesday against a January federal court order in North Dakota that said the government cannot force doctors to perform controversial “gender reassignment” surgeries against their consciences. Lawyer Luke Goodrich, who serves as chief counsel for the pro-religious liberty law firm Becket, called the move an attempt to establish a “Transgender Mandate,” adding that it is “bad for patients, doctors, and religious liberty.”
College of the Ozarks is suing President Biden over a so-called anti-discrimination executive order that “requires private religious colleges to place biological males into female dormitories and assign them as females’ roommates.” The private Christian school in Missouri says that religious freedom is “under attack” from the Biden administration. “College of the Ozarks will not allow politicians to erode the essential American right or the ideals that shaped America’s founding,” said Dr. Jerry Davis, the school’s president.
President Biden reneges on a key campaign promise to do away with President Donald Trump’s 15,000 annual cap on refugee resettlements. Then after intense blowback, the White House announces it will lift the cap next month after all. The initial announcement of yet another reduction of the refugee number — this time to precisely the same number Trump had set and which Biden had campaigned against — riled Biden-supporting Catholics.
The president of Guatemala says President Biden’s confusing messaging encouraged smugglers to drop off children at the U.S.-Mexico border. President Alejandro Giammattei says: “They were compassionate messages that were understood by people in our country, especially the coyotes, to tell families, ‘we’ll take the children, the children can go in and once the children are there they will call their parents.’ And so those messages were confusing. Not because of the way they were communicated, but because of the way they were translated here.”
The Biden administration cites the coronavirus pandemic as a reason to authorize the prescription of the abortion pill mifepristone through the mail. This new Biden policy allows at-home, self-administered abortions. “With this action, the Biden administration has made it clear that it will prioritize abortion over women’s safety. Allowing unsupervised chemical abortions via telemedicine, without requiring timely access to medical care, will put women in grave danger,” says Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life.
President Biden announces executive orders on guns, including attempts to reduce the proliferation of 3D-printed guns, known as ghost guns. Under current law, manufacturing ghost guns is permitted for personal use. Biden says: “I want to see these firearms treated as firearms under the gun control act.”
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports that a record 172,331 people were taken into custody trying to cross the southern border in March alone. Included in that number were 18,890 child migrants, which is the “largest monthly number ever recorded.” That number shattered the previous highs of 11,475 in May 2019 and 10,620 in June 2014.
President Biden suggests that Pope Francis called getting vaccinated for COVID-19 a “moral obligation.” When asked for the source of this claim, the White House points to a January television interview where Pope Francis said: “I believe that, ethically, everyone has to get the vaccine.” But the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith also made clear in December that “vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation and that, therefore, it must be voluntary.”
The Biden administration considers restarting construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall started by former President Donald Trump. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says during a conversation with ICE employees that the administration is considering finishing “gaps in the wall.” A new AP-NORC Center poll shows that 56% of Americans disapprove of Biden’s handling of the border situation.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki again refuses to respond to concerns that the Equality Act would threaten the conscience rights of doctors. EWTN White House Correspondent Owen Jensen asks Psaki at a White House press briefing: “What does the president, who we know is Catholic, say to Catholic doctors, Catholic institutions who are fearful that if the Equality Act passes [it] has the potential to trample on their conscience rights?”
The Pentagon announces that the military will now perform gender transitions for service members. Once an individual gets a diagnosis from the military medical system that gender transition is “necessary,” commanders then must act on that request within 90 days. Thomas W. Spoehr, a retired Army lieutenant general, calls the new policy “an unforced error.”
President Biden formally announces his $2 trillion infrastructure plan that he claims will be the largest “investment in American jobs” since World War II. The Biden plan would allocate $621 billion for transportation-related infrastructure, $300 billion to improve drinking water systems, $300 billion for affordable housing and upgrading schools, $400 billion for elderly and disabled care, and $580 billion for job training, research, and development.
President Biden is expected to end former President Trump’s ban on temporary foreign workers. The Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers had sued the Trump administration, claiming the lack of foreign labor was causing their businesses “irreparable harm.” But critics said that the businesses simply wanted cheaper labor.
A staffer for President Biden blocks Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX, from taking video at a migrant facility. Cruz says: “Biden sent a political operative from DC to block our cameras and even threatened another senator to obstruct legitimate congressional oversight.” Nevertheless, Cruz is able to post several pictures and videos that detail what he calls “a humanitarian and a public health crisis.”
The Biden administration is reportedly working on developing vaccine passports. Some businesses have already indicated that they will require proof of vaccination for people to enter their businesses. But the Electronic Frontier Foundation objects to the passport because it would “create a two-tiered system that bars people who can’t work, shop, or attend school because they don’t have a cell phone or access to testing.”
President Biden has said that the filibuster is a Jim Crow relic of the segregationist era of American history. But Democrats used the filibuster against Republican legislation 327 times just last year alone.
The Senate confirms controversial Biden pick Dr. Rachel Levine in a 52-48 vote, making him the nation’s assistant secretary of Health and Human Services and America’s first transgender Cabinet member. The confirmation comes amid grave controversy, with Levine embroiled in an ongoing scandal involving his conduct as health secretary in Pennsylvania. Under Levine’s tenure, thousands of elderly people died in Pennsylvania nursing homes and other care facilities.
Vice President Kamala Harris is reportedly taking calls with foreign leaders on behalf of President Joe Biden. Harris has spoken with French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In January, the vice president spoke with World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. By comparison, the New York Post notes: “A review of press notices from [Vice President Mike] Pence’s final year in office reveals no readouts of direct calls with the leaders of foreign nations.”
Twenty-one states filed a federal lawsuit against the Biden administration for the canceling of the Keystone XL pipeline. In explaining the lawsuit, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said: “The power to regulate foreign and interstate commerce belongs to Congress — not the President. This is another example of Joe Biden overstepping his constitutional role to the detriment of Montanans.”
An influx of unaccompanied minors continues along the southern border, causing a Texas migrant facility to be at 729% pandemic-era capacity. “Some of the boys said that conditions were so overcrowded that they had to take turns sleeping on the floor,” Neha Desai, a lawyer representing migrant youth, told CBS. The facility in Donna, TX, is designed for 250 migrants but was holding more than 1,800 people on March 2.
President Biden’s pick for deputy budget director, Shalanda Young, believes taxpayer-funded abortions are necessary for “racial justice.” In a written portion of her confirmation process, Young wrote: “Eliminating the Hyde Amendment is a matter of economic and racial justice because it most significantly impacts Medicaid recipients, who are low-income and more likely to be women of color.”
The House secures final passage of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid bill. Unlike all previous COVID relief bills, this one passed without the inclusion pro-life Hyde Amendment protections that prevent moneys from being used to pay for abortions, despite objections by Republicans and faith leaders — including the U.S. Bishops.
Archbishop Jose Gomez, president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, told Congress and President Biden that they shouldn’t force pro-life Americans to oppose COVID relief. “We urge President Biden and the leadership on Capitol Hill not to force upon Americans the wrenching moral decision whether to preserve the lives and health of the born or unborn, all of whom are our vulnerable neighbors in need,” Gomez said. He noted that for 45 years Congress “has maintained that taxpayers should not be forced against their conscience to pay for abortions.”
Members of the National Guard are hospitalized after eating “substandard” food, with some complaining of tainted food with metal shavings and feathers found in their meals. Members of the National Guard are providing security for the U.S. Capitol since the riot on Jan. 6.
In a virtual meeting with Mexico’s President López Obrador, President Biden speaks of his devotion to “the Virgin of Guadalupe” and how he still has a rosary that his son was wearing when he visited her shrine. Biden’s continued references to faith have caused bishops to respond. Last month, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City said: “The president should stop defining himself as a devout Catholic and acknowledge that his view on abortion is contrary to Catholic moral teaching.”
The White House refuses to deny that the Equality Act’s “pregnancy discrimination” clause would require doctors to perform abortions, sex-change operations, or sterilizations. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki offers no reassurances when EWTN White House correspondent Owen Jensen asks if the Equality Act would violate doctors’ conscience rights.
President Biden orders an airstrike in Syria, destroying facilities located at a border control point. The facilities had allegedly been used by Iranian-backed militant groups. “These strikes were authorized in response to recent attacks against American and Coalition personnel in Iraq, and to ongoing threats to those personnel,” says Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby.
The House passes the Equality Act in a 224 to 206 vote. The legislation would add sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes under civil rights law. The bill would also eliminate religious liberty protections in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. The U.S. bishops’ conference oppose the bill and say it would “punish” religious groups opposed to gender ideology.
Dr. Rachel Levine, President Biden’s nominee for assistant secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services, supports the use of puberty blockers and the medical “transition” of minors as a means of preventing suicides among gender-confused minors. Levine is a man who claims to be a woman.
President Biden calls on Congress to quickly pass the Equality Act, which would add sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Biden says it would provide “long overdue federal civil rights protections.” But the U.S. bishops say the Equality Act would “punish” religious groups opposed to gender ideology: “Instead of respecting differences in beliefs about marriage and sexuality, the Equality Act would discriminate against people of faith.”
Owen Jensen, a reporter for EWTN News Nightly, asks White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki if Biden would “guarantee” that the coronavirus relief bill wouldn’t fund abortions. Psaki responds that President Biden’s “view on the Hyde Amendment is well-known” and that she does not “have anything new for you” on the matter of abortion funding in COVID relief. The pending legislation would provide $750 million in funding for global health and community health centers, $50 million for Title X funding, and aid for people to pay COBRA insurance payments — all without specific pro-life protections.
President Biden announces that Vice President Kamala Harris will be in charge of handling the surge of migrants coming across the U.S.-Mexico border. “This increase has been consequential. I can think of nobody who is better qualified than this woman, who led the second-biggest attorney general’s office in America,” Biden says.
President Biden tells a CNN town hall audience: “It’s one thing to have the vaccine, which we didn’t have when we came into office, but a vaccinator, how do you get the vaccine into someone’s arm?” The first dose of the Pfizer vaccine was given on Dec. 14. In fact, Biden himself got the second dose of the vaccine on Jan. 11, nine days before he was sworn in as president.
President Biden withdraws a proposed Trump administration rule that would have required universities and K-12 schools with foreign exchange programs to disclose any financial connections with the Confucius Institutes, which are backed by the Chinese government. “The Biden administration is sending a concerning signal about its scrutiny of CCP influence in academia and telling academic institutions that they don’t need to be transparent about their ties to China’s regime,” says House Foreign Affairs ranking member Michael McCaul, R-TX.
The attorneys general from 14 states send a letter to President Biden urging him to reconsider his decision to revoke a permit for the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and say they are “reviewing available legal options.” The letter was organized by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, who said revoking the pipeline construction “will increase heating and fuel costs for families and businesses across the country and disrupt other industries including agriculture, transportation, manufacturing, and even the affordability of consumer goods.”
President Biden rescinds the pro-life Mexico City Policy, which ensures that foreign aid would not go to organizations that perform or refer for abortions. The Reagan administration first announced the policy at a U.N. conference on population and development in Mexico City in 1984. Every Republican president has enforced the pro-life policy and every Democratic president has removed it within their first days in office.
The Biden administration is set to ban new leases for oil and gas drilling on federal lands and waters for one year. The American Petroleum Institute projects 1 million job losses could occur by 2022. At this point the oil and gas industry provides 10.3 million jobs in the United States, with workers making an average salary of $101,181.
The Biden administration rescinds the “zero tolerance” policy from the Trump era that resulted in family separations at the border. The Trump administration had called for law enforcement to refer all adults for prosecution who illegally crossed the border, even those with children. A spokesman for the Biden Justice Department says such a policy is “inconsistent with the department’s longstanding principle that we exercise judgment and make individualized assessments in criminal cases.”
President Biden revokes the Trump administration’s ban on gender transitioning in the military, allowing troops to serve on the basis of their gender identity. Trump announced his ban in 2017, and the Supreme Court upheld it in 2019. The RAND Corporation estimated in 2016 that there are about 2,450 transgender active military personnel out of approximately 1.3 million members.
President Joe Biden issues a statement celebrating the 48th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. Biden says he is “committed to codifying” the decision into federal law and that he will be “appointing judges that respect foundational precedents like Roe.” Pro-life organizations quickly rebuke Biden. The previous day, Biden’s spokeswoman called him a “devout” Catholic.
People who sponsored one of the 200,000 American flags at Biden’s inauguration were also sending a donation to Planned Parenthood, whether they realized it or not. “Unless donors pay careful attention and alter the default settings of the donation platform, the amount they give will automatically be split evenly among nearly 100 Democratic and progressive political-action groups, including one notable name: the Planned Parenthood Federation of America,” Alexandra DeSanctis reports.
President-elect Joe Biden selects Dr. Rachel Levine to serve as assistant secretary of health. Levine was born male but “transitioned” in 2011 and now claims to be female. Levine served as health secretary in Pennsylvania, where he is embroiled in an ongoing scandal involving the deaths of many elderly citizens due, critics say, to his handling of COVID-related policy.