Biden focuses on the climate crisis

Virginia Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine said Wednesday he has drafted a resolution to censure former President Donald Trump for his actions on Jan. 6, a method Kaine thinks would be faster way to hold Trump accountable than an impeachment trial and allow the Senate to move forward with Covid-19 relief and Biden Cabinet confirmations.

Kaine said he had been talking with "about" 40 of his colleagues for a few weeks about the "the likelihood that we would fall short on impeachment," and use up time that could be used to pass a "dire" relief package.

He said there had been "some" interest in a censure motion, but noted that the House has now sent an article of impeachment to the Senate, so the chamber must act. 

After the vote yesterday in which all but 5 Republicans joined Sen. Rand Paul in claiming that holding a trial for an ex-president is unconstitutional, Kaine said he thinks there's "maybe a little more interest now" in looking at censure as an alternative way to hold Trump accountable.

Pressed further on his views that censure could be an "alternative" to a trial, Kaine said "to do a trial knowing you'll get 55 votes, at the max seems to me to be not the right prioritization of our time right now."

He cast doubt on the likelihood there would be a strong appetite for the measure if the Senate fails to convict the former president, telling reporters, "I just don't know that there's going to be more appetite to talk about Donald John Trump after the trial."

Kaine would not elaborate on how many of his Republican colleagues he's been talking to and suggested that there wouldn't be a point to moving forward with a censure if it wasn't going to get adequate GOP support.

"If we could do something like this and have it be bipartisan, and thereby potentially avoid the trial, I think that would be beneficial but we're not there yet," he said.

This effort by Kaine is still a very long shot, CNN’s Lauren Fox notes.

Moderate Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin threw cold water on the idea on Wednesday, telling reporter, “This is much, much more serious than anything that we've ever seen in our lifetime and it's really the purpose of having the articles of impeachment in the constitution,” he said, adding, “it's really a mechanism or tool, if you will to deter it.” 

“We all want to make sure that no one ever does this again, never thinks about doing something like a seditious insurrection such as that,” said the West Virginia Democrat.

Sens. Ron Wyden and Bernie Sanders avoided offering a direct opinion on the censure matter, claiming they were focused on other issues for now.

"Right now, what I'm focused on is doing the work that we're scheduled to do. We'll be starting that shortly. And I said quite some time ago that the key to unity is accountability. I still feel that way," Wyden told reporters

As Democratic leaders prepare to streamline consideration of President Biden’s Covid relief package so that it could pass Congress with only Democratic votes, a bipartisan group of senators seeking negotiations will reconvene by phone today.

The group of 16 senators – eight from each party – conferred over the weekend with top Biden economic adviser Brian Deese. This afternoon most of the group will hold a conference call to discuss next steps. 

“No WH today,” said a source familiar with the negotiations. “It’s an internal deliberation and conversation among themselves for now... about the information sharing that’s been happening with them and the WH in the days since the call.”

More on Biden's relief package: Biden signed executive orders last week that will further augment food benefits, ensure more eligible Americans get their stimulus payments, provide protections for federal workers, and extend housing and student loan payment relief. The President is pushing Congress to pass a $1.9 trillion package with even more funding for those measures — including $1,400 in additional stimulus cash — as well as other provisions to help needy Americans.

Some Democrats want his package to be even more generous, while Republicans are balking at the increased spending. It's not clear when a deal might get done or what a final version will look like.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to his workforce for the first time as top US diplomat, telling them that “it’s a new day for America; it’s a new day for the world.”

Blinken’s main message was: I am one of you so I understand what you do, I am ready to lead you all in a moment of unprecedented challenges, and I will work to revive the department.

The State Department held a welcome ceremony for Blinken this morning, and the secretary of state is expected to deliver remarks to the media at 3:30 p.m. ET.

In his remarks this morning, Blinken also directly addressed the demolition of morale in the building during former Secretary Mike Pompeo’s tenure. And he pledged to meet the challenges of the world as it is, not as it was, and nodded to both the Covid-19 pandemic and the aftermath of the deadly siege on the US Capitol — both are topics that Pompeo largely avoided discussing in his final months at the Department.

“I know that the State Department I’m walking into today is not the same one I left four years ago,” referencing his time as deputy secretary of state. “A lot has changed. The world has changed. The Department has changed.”

The newly minted top US diplomat pledged to listen and to maintain transparent communication with his workforce, a nod to the dissenting views that were often ignored during Pompeo’s tenure. He committed to building a diverse workforce. He also offered praise to the diplomats and career officials who were denigrated under the Trump administration.

Blinken said when he first arrived at the department 28 years ago, “it did not take me long to figure out one thing and that’s how much talent and expertise that resides in this building is so important and so important to listen to the women and men of the State Department when thinking about America’s place in the world and our foreign policy,” he said. 

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding a full committee nomination hearing for Linda Thomas-Greenfield, President Biden's nominee to be the US ambassador to the United Nations.

According to excerpts of her testimony obtained by CNN, she plans to voice her support for the country's re-engagement in the multilateral institution in order to counter Chinese influence.

Thomas-Greenfield, a respected career diplomat who was forced out at the beginning of the Trump administration, is expected to present a marked contrast to the US' position on the UN for the last four years, as former President Trump and his officials were highly critical of the institution and withdrew from a number of its agencies and initiatives.

Meanwhile, Biden's nominee for secretary of energy, Jennifer Granholm, is testifying in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The former Michigan governor has long taken a deep interest in energy issues and was considered to be a top candidate for energy secretary if Hillary Clinton had won four years ago. 

Granholm, if confirmed by the Senate, would help Biden carry out his ambitious energy plan. The President-elect has proposed spending $2 trillion over four years on clean energy projects and ending carbon emissions from power plants by 2035.

The plan would create union jobs in clean energy and through projects such as the construction of electric vehicle charging stations, updating electric grids, expanding broadband internet access and more.

Here's a look at the Cabinet nominees confirmed so far.

Big Oil is gearing up for a fight over President Biden's imminent freeze on new oil and gas leases on federal lands.

In a bid to address the climate crisis, Biden is expected to direct the secretary of the interior to pause on entering into new oil and natural gas leases on public lands or offshore waters, and to launch a "rigorous review" of the existing leasing and permitting programs related to fossil fuel development.

The API, the oil and gas industry's most powerful lobbying group, relaunched an ad blitz this week that warns that a ban on federal leasing will hurt state funding of public schools.

"We will pursue every action at our disposal to push back, including legal options, if appropriate," Sommers said. "We're concerned about what this leads to next. We're raising the alarm."

The resistance shows how quickly tensions have ratcheted up between Biden and the oil industry.

During his first day in office, Biden moved to rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change, revoked a permit for the construction of the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline and placed a temporary moratorium on oil and gas leasing in the Arctic.

Ahead of today’s Executive Actions on Climate Change, White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy spoke to NBC’s Today show, calling climate change, “one of the most significant threats that we have to our health, our well being.”

McCarthy pointed to today’s actions as part of the administration’s plan for economic recovery, telling NBC, “This is all about recovering from the Covid crisis, this is all about building good clean jobs, jobs where you can get access to good pay in unions, this is all about investing in infrastructure, we need to build that future that is going to get us to clean electricity and net zero in 2050.”

Pressed on the high price tag for a lot of today’s emission reduction proposals, McCarthy pushed back, telling NBC, “This is really an investment in economic development, isn't it, it's really an investment in future. If you take a look at the costs of climate change, they far outweigh the money that it takes to actually rebuild, and you know, there are millions of people out of work today, millions and millions of families who don't know how they're going to put food on the table tomorrow.”

Finally, on the effects today’s Executive Actions might have on the energy industry, McCarthy promised those reliant on fossil fuel jobs would be transitioned to a new economy, telling Roker, “It means opportunities that we're going to lay out in this executive order that grow new jobs, where the communities that have been highly dependent on energies and individually utilities will be at those workers will be able to transition into jobs where they still invest and live in their own communities.”

A conviction of former President Donald Trump is looking extremely unlikely as at least 17 Republicans will need to vote with all 50 Democrats when the trial begins next month to convict Trump of inciting an insurrection. 

A Tuesday vote on Republican Sen. Rand Paul’s motion to force a vote on the constitutionality of Trump's impeachment trial offered an indicator for how GOP senators – who overwhelmingly voted for Paul's measure – feel about the trial.  

Following the vote on Paul’s motion, many GOP senators voiced that the vote will be similar to how they imagine the final vote on Trump’s impeachment will go. Sen. Susan Collins summed it up this way: "Do the math. I think it’s extraordinarily unlikely that the president will be convicted.”

These 5 Republicans could break from their party to convict former President Donald Trump:

These were the only GOP senators to break with their party and vote with Democrats this week to kill Sen. Rand Paul’s motion that declared the impeachment trial of former President Trump unconstitutional. 

These are the Republicans unlikely to break from their party to convict ex-President Donald Trump:

They all voted with Sen. Rand Paul on his motion to dismiss the impeachment trial, declaring it unconstitutional. 

President Biden will sign a set of executive actions later today that, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House, will "tackle the climate crisis at home and abroad while creating good-paying union jobs and equitable clean energy future, building modern and sustainable infrastructure, restoring scientific integrity and evidence-based policymaking across the federal government, and re-establishing the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.”

Pointing to Biden’s decision to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord, the administration sets goals for a “a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035 and puts the United States on an irreversible path to a net-zero economy by 2050.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki — joined by Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy — will brief the media at 12:15 p.m. ET and Biden will speak about the Executive Actions in a 1:30 p.m. ET signing ceremony.  

In today’s packages, there are two executive orders and one presidential memorandum:

Executive Order "Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad"       

Executive Order "Establishing the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology"

Presidential memorandum on scientific integrity

At the first Security Council briefing on Middle East issues since President Biden took office, the acting United States United Nations ambassador made it a point to say the country’s position and policy will be to support a two state solution between Israel and Palestine, and it will endeavor to renew relations with Palestinian leadership, which he said have “atrophied” for four years.

Richard Mills, speaking Tuesday at a virtual UN briefing, said the Biden administration supports “a mutually agreed two-state solution, one in which Israel lives in peace and security alongside a viable Palestinian state.”

He added that “US diplomatic engagement will begin from the premise that sustainable progress must be based on active consultation with both sides and that ultimate success requires the active consent of both sides.”

He elaborated that the US will urge both Israel and Palestinian Authority “to avoid unilateral steps that make a two-state solution more difficult, such as annexation of territory, settlement activity, demolitions, incitement to violence, and providing compensation for individuals imprisoned for acts of terrorism.”

Notably, the US will “restore credible US engagement with Palestinians as well as Israeli’s.”

Mills said this is not a move that will favor Palestinian leadership, adding US assistance benefits millions of ordinary Palestinians and “helps to preserve a stable environment,” that benefits both parties.

“At the same time, I must be clear, the U.S. will maintain its steadfast support for Israel,” Mills said.

The Biden Administration also “welcomes” what he described as “normalization agreements between Israel and UN Member States in the Arab world, as well as Muslim-majority countries.”

Some background: Former President Donald Trump in January of 2020 backed a Middle East plan that he claimed was a "realistic two-state solution" but catered to nearly every major Israeli demand, and was immediately rejected by Palestinians.

Also during his tenure, in 2018, following a review of US assistance to the Palestinian Authority, he directed the State Department to withdraw $200 million in aid that was originally planned for programs in the West Bank and Gaza. Trump in the final months of his presidency announced a peace deal amounting to the "full normalization of relations" between Israel and the UAE, a joint statement calling it "historic diplomatic breakthrough." The deal included Israel’s plan to temporarily suspend the annexation of its West Bank.