Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) said in an interview on The Joe Pags show that he didn't feel threatened during the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, but if Black Lives Matter protesters or members or Antifa had stormed Congress instead of Trump supporters, he would have been "a little concerned."
Why it matters: Johnson, who promoted false claims of widespread election fraud in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, has repeatedly sought to downplay the severity of the riot, which left five people dead.
America's wealthiest are finding ways to access the vaccine ahead of those who qualify for it.
Why it matters: The pandemic has already widened existing health inequities and underserved communities continue to lag in vaccinations compared to the white and rich.
Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, a U.S. Army reservist and a security contractor for the Navy who was arrested for allegedly breaching the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot, was a known white supremacist, federal prosecutors said Friday, as first reported by Politico.
Why it matters: "Not only is Defendant's White Supremacist and Nazi Sympathizer ideology obvious from the evidence, that same ideology drives Defendant's enthusiasm for another Civil War," prosecutors said.
The percentage of "thriving" Americans rose to 54% in February, nearly recouping the losses since before the coronavirus pandemic in October 2019, per new Gallup polling.
Why it matters: That's up from 48% in December, the low-point since last April. It partially reflects the resolution of the 2020 election and the recent drop in daily coronavirus cases in the country, according to Gallup.
An occasional adviser who has known Andrew Cuomo for nearly 40 years tells me that the New York governor — after a career of playing hardball, including over-the-line threats — has "no net of good will" to catch him.
The state of play: After a cascade of harassment accusations, his resignation is being demanded by both of the state's U.S. senators (Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand), almost the whole 29-member congressional delegation, and a majority of Democrats in the state legislature.
White House chief of staff Ron Klain recalls being live on TV on the evening of March 11, 2020, as news on the newly declared pandemic seemed to break in waves: Then President Trump went on television to address the nation, actor-director Tom Hanks and wife Rita Wilson were hospitalized in Australia with the virus, and the NBA announced it was shutting down.
Why it matters: In an interview on Axios Re:Cap, Klain discussed how he advised then-presidential candidate Joe Biden in the weeks leading up to the World Health Organization's declaration and what he wishes had been done differently to address the pandemic.
Protests over the killing of George Floyd generated a racial reckoning across the U.S. that also helped Native Americans and Latinos bring attention to their fight against systemic racism.
Why it matters: Native Americans say the resurgent Black Lives Matter movement in response to Floyd's death helped push sports teams to change their names and logos. Latino activists say it also drew attention to their own long-ignored experiences with police abuse.
Officials in Austin and Travis County, Texas, can continue to enforce their mask mandates for at least two more weeks after a district judge on Friday refused to grant the state an emergency temporary restraining order, NBC affiliate KXAN reports.
Why it matters: The decision keeps the mandate in place through the spring breaks of many schools in the Austin area.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo reiterated on Friday that he would not resign, as pressure mounted from state and congressional Democrats in the wake of a sixth sexual harassment allegation.
What they're saying: "I did not do what has been alleged. Period," Cuomo said, stressing that New Yorkers and politicians calling for his resignation should wait for the results of the independent investigation overseen by the New York attorney general.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand issued a joint statement on Friday calling on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) to resign amid multiple allegations of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior.
The big picture: They are among the most powerful Democratic voices to call on Cuomo to step down.
The U.S. government will grant temporary deportation relief and work permits to Myanmar citizens amid an increasingly violent crackdown by security forces in the Southeast Asian country, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced Friday.
What he's saying: "Due to the military coup and security forces’ brutal violence against civilians, the people of Burma are suffering a complex and deteriorating humanitarian crisis in many parts of the country," Mayorkas said in a statement.
A statue of the Ruth Bader Ginsburg was unveiled in her hometown of Brooklyn, New York, on Friday, three days before what would've been the late Supreme Court justice's 88th birthday, ABC News reports.
Why it matters: Ginsburg, who died last September after battling cancer, is considered a feminist icon to many.
The Minneapolis City Council on Friday approved a $27 million settlement with the family of George Floyd, with $500,000 to be set aside for funding in his former community.
Why it matters: Ben Crump, the attorney for the Floyd family, called it the largest pretrial civil rights settlement ever and said in a statement that it "sends a powerful message that Black lives do matter and police brutality against people of color must end."
Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Friday that he expects Americans will be having small get-togethers "well before" President Biden's July 4 target.
Catch up quick: Biden announced in a primetime address on Thursday that he was ordering states to make COVID-19 vaccines available to all residents by May 1, and set a goal for Americans to be able to safely congregate in small groups by the Fourth of July
The Biden administration will prevent the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from sharing any information about families who accept migrant children with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to administration officials.
Why it matters: By terminating a 2018 legal agreement between HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement and ICE, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, the Biden administration hopes to encourage more sponsors to work with the government to accept unaccompanied minors apprehended at the border.
Federal prosecutors submitted a filing Friday morning requesting a 60-day delay in a series of cases related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, describing the massive undertaking as "likely the most complex investigation ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice."
The big picture: More than 300 suspects have been charged in connection with the attack, which FBI Director Christopher Wray has described as "domestic terrorism."
Escalating a push by ambitious Republicans to spotlight American workers, Sen. Marco Rubio today will side with the union in a high-stakes organizing campaign at an Amazon facility outside Birmingham, Ala.
Driving the news: "[T]he days of conservatives being taken for granted by the business community are over," Rubio writes in a USA Today op-ed posting this morning. "I stand with [workers] at Amazon’s Bessemer warehouse."
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance will not run for a fourth term and plans to leave office on Dec. 31, he told the New Yorker's Jane Mayer in a wide-ranging interview published Friday.
Why it matters: It leaves one of the country's most high-profile state prosecutors with just nine months to make a charging decision in the biggest case of his career — a criminal investigation of former President Trump and his business empire.
President Biden directed states and tribal governments to designate all adult Americans eligible for a vaccine no later than May 1 during his primetime address on the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act on Thursday.
Why it matters: It's part of the Biden administration's "wartime effort" to get the nation "closer to normal" by July 4.
Donald Trump's parting political legacy for the Republican Party is giving it an issue to rally around as it's being outflanked on COVID-19 recovery efforts.
Driving the news: The former president's strident immigration language — vowing to have Mexico pay for a wall — fueled Democratic pledges for a more humanitarian approach. Now, unaccompanied children are flooding across the border, and the Biden administration is scrambling to respond.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's alleged mistreatment of women became a more immediate legal problem Thursday as the Albany Police Department got involved in the case.
Why it matters: A separate review by Attorney General Letitia James is still in its infancy, but the referral to local authorities by the New York State Police and Cuomo's own staff could put his latest accuser before detectives — and much more quickly.
President Biden is being encouraged to effectively pack the nation's top campaign finance regulator with officials who will more doggedly enforce laws regulating political money, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: The notoriously gridlocked Federal Election Commission has rankled reformers for years. Now some are pushing Biden to abandon protocol by sidestepping congressional Republicans and nominating regulators who will more aggressively enforce campaign finance rules.
For the first time in years, Donald Trump is starting to fade into the background, according to SocialFlow data tracking the number of clicks to news articles.
The big picture: During the first month of his post-presidency, Trump remained as discussed as he was when he was in office, when he dominated social and traditional media. His numbers have plunged the past couple weeks.
