Politics – Page 628

Biden to Pittsburgh to push infrastructure improvements as local bridge collapses

January 28, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(PITTSBURGH) — Just hours ahead of President Joe Biden traveling to Pittsburgh to stress improvements needed for the nation’s infrastructure, a bridge in the area collapsed on Friday morning, coincidentally providing Biden an opportunity to tout how his bipartisan infrastructure law provides funding for badly needed repairs.

Biden was scheduled to make 2 p.m. ET remarks on Friday at Carnegie Mellon University, a few miles away from the collapsed bridge near Pittsburg’s Frick’s Park. Ten people were reported injured, according to local authorities.

The White House said not said whether Biden will visit the collapsed bridge, but he has been briefed on the situation.

“The President has been told of the bridge collapse in Pittsburgh. Our team is in touch with state and local officials on the ground as they continue to gather information about the cause of the collapse. The President is grateful to the first responders who rushed to assist the drivers who were on the bridge at the time. The President will proceed with trip planned for today and will stay in touch with officials on the ground about additional assistance we can provide,” the White House said in a statement.

While the president’s domestic agenda has taken the back burner over the past week in the face of threats from Russia on the Ukrainian border and major Supreme Court news, Biden’s appearance puts the spotlight back on his victory in getting the bipartisan infrastructure law passed.

The legislation would provide $1.63 billion to Pennsylvania in federal funding for bridges alone, the third-highest figure for any state. Pennsylvania has 3,353 bridges in poor condition, the second most after Iowa, according to administration data. The bridge program will provide $27 billion across the country.

Pennsylvania, Biden’s home state, has long been a politically symbolic state for him.

Pittsburgh was where he kicked off his 2020 candidacy, and the Keystone State ultimately cinched his presidency. He also unveiled what became the bipartisan infrastructure law there last March.

But several of Pennsylvania’s high-profile Democratic candidates told ABC News, while they support the president and his policy efforts, they also won’t be in attendance for Friday’s event in Pittsburgh, citing “scheduling conflicts.”

A campaign spokesperson for Attorney General Josh Shapiro — who is likely to become the Democratic gubernatorial nominee — tells ABC News the Attorney General is “focused on the issues that matter to Pennsylvania families” but won’t be in Pittsburgh on Friday.

“Like every American should, Josh wants our president to be successful and we’ll continue welcoming President Biden to his home state of Pennsylvania as he touts small businesses and jobs that have been saved by the bipartisan American Rescue Plan and the tens of thousands of Pennsylvania jobs that will be created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,” the campaign spokesperson said.

Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a leading candidate in the Democratic Senate primary, told ABC News, “It’s great that President Biden is coming to Pittsburgh to talk about infrastructure. If infrastructure is Elvis, then Pittsburgh is Graceland. It’s great to come to the city that helped build America to talk about rebuilding America. I’ll be in Harrisburg on Friday meeting with Democrats from across the commonwealth at State Committee and talking about the 2022 midterm election.”

Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Penn., running for Senate in the state, will meet with Biden.

With Pennsylvania’s primary elections are still months away, the unfavorable poll numbers looming over the Biden administration could factor into how Democrats interact with the president on the campaign trail.

Who is Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson?

January 28, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — When word came that Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer was retiring, the spotlight almost immediately shifted to who might replace him — and getting a lot of attention has been Ketanji Brown Jackson, who clerked for Breyer about 20 years ago.

A Harvard Law School graduate, and now a federal appeals court judge, Jackson, despite her professional and academic accolades, considers hard work to be one of the most important factors, throughout her life, that got her where she is today.

She was born 51 years ago, in 1970, in Washington, D.C. Her parents, both public school teachers, had moved to Washington from Miami in the post-civil rights era.

She has recounted in a 2017 speech that her parents, wanting to show pride in their African ancestry, asked her aunt, who was then in the Peace Corps in Africa, for a list of African girl names.

Taking one of her suggestions, Jackson’s parents named her Ketanji Onyika, which she said they were told translates to “lovely one.”

In 2017, Jackson, in a lecture at the University of Georgia School of Law, revealed more of her personal side, reflecting not just on her legal career — but on dealing with motherhood at the same time.

“Right now, in fact, I’m in that peculiar stage of life when I experience near-daily whiplash from the jarring juxtaposition of my two most significant roles: U.S. district judge on the one hand and mother of teenage daughters on the other,” she said.

Jackson and her husband Patrick, a doctor, have two daughters, Talia who was 16 and Leila who was 12 years old at the time she told that story. During that same talk, Jackson said her family values include respecting everyone and making your best effort in everything you do.

“In our family, we have a mantra that emphasizes prioritization on work over play as one of our first principles,” Jackson said. “As the girls would testify, ‘do what you need to do before what you want to do’ is a constant refrain in our house.”

Jackson is currently serving on the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, considered the most important federal court next to the Supreme Court. It has jurisdiction over cases involving Congress and the executive branch agencies.

During her confirmation hearing for her current position, Republican senators grilled her on whether she thought race would play a factor in her decision-making.

Jackson said when she considers cases, she is looking at the facts and the law.

“I’m methodically and intentionally setting aside personal views, any other inappropriate considerations,” she said. “I would think that race would be the kind of thing that would be inappropriate to inject in an evaluation of a case.”

The Senate eventually made her the first Black woman confirmed to an appellate court in a decade. Right now, there are only six Black women serving as judges on federal appeals courts.

President Joe Biden said Thursday he is committed to keeping his campaign promise to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court — and that pledge is bound to come up at confirmation hearings if he picks her.

She has noted she is “fairly certain” her ancestors were slaves on both sides of her family.

“It is the beauty and the majesty of this country, that someone who comes from a background like mine could find herself in this position,” Jackson said during her Senate confirmation hearing last year. “I’m just enormously grateful to have this opportunity to be a part of the law in this way, and I’m truly thankful for the president giving me the honor of this nomination.”

Former President Barack Obama interviewed Jackson in 2016 for the Supreme Court to fill Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat after his death.

Before that, Jackson said during her speech at the University of Georgia, her youngest daughter, Leila, came to her and her husband and asked if they knew Justice Scalia had died, leading to a vacancy on the nation’s highest court. Jackson said Leila’s middle school friends decided she should apply.

“Getting to be on the Supreme Court isn’t really a job you apply for,” Jackson said she explained to Leila. “You just have to be lucky enough to have the president find you among the thousands of people who might want to do that job.”

Jackson then shared how her daughter decided to write President Obama, telling him to consider her mom for the Supreme Court.

She said her daughter’s handwritten note read, “she is determined, honest and never breaks a promise to anyone, even if there are other things she’d rather do. She can demonstrate commitment and is loyal and never brags.”

Maybe true to form, Jackson has had no public comment since the news broke about her old boss, Justice Breyer, and whether she might soon replace him — and make history.

ABC News’ Devin Dwyer contributed to this report.

‘Join the fight’: Some GOP poll worker recruitment takes partisan bent

January 28, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — With poll workers across the country resigning at an alarming rate, efforts to recruit their replacements have grown increasingly partisan – a troubling trend that experts fear will serve to undermine Americans’ faith in the vote.

This week, as part of National Poll Worker Recruitment Day, several state Republican parties issued rallying cries on social media meant to attract a new generation of poll workers. Their pleas included politically charged language, calling on followers to “join the fight,” “combat Democrats” and “SAVE AMERICA!”

While political parties have long engaged in recruitment efforts, experts say these latest overtures mark a “notable” escalation in the way partisans solicit interest in these critical roles.

“It’s only recently that I’ve started seeing widespread use of language that implies the other side is cheating, or that working as a poll worker could be characterized as joining a ‘fight,’ as opposed to an opportunity to serve the community and the democratic process,” said Larry Norden of the Brennan Center, a nonpartisan think tank.

The politicization of poll workers reflects broader democratic challenges the country has faced in recent years. As the front line of election administration, these workers undertake the burden of ensuring a free and fair vote at polling stations in each community. The work is often described as tedious, but it is cited as among the most important jobs in a democracy.

In the wake of the 2020 presidential election, poll workers bore the brunt of false claims that the election was compromised by fraud. Many became targets of threats, and a survey from the Brennan Center for Justice found that one-third of election workers reported feeling unsafe because of their job. In some states, Republican lawmakers have proposed legislation that would impose criminal charges on poll workers for committing errors.

The fallout, combined with pandemic-related obstacles, has prompted a mass exodus of poll workers and raised questions about who would replace them.

“There is very much a coordinated effort underway to use criminalization of election officials’ jobs, intimidation and violence to drive officials from their jobs and to replace them with partisan activists,” said Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

To offset the widespread resignations and spur recruitment efforts, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission last year dubbed Jan. 25 National Poll Worker Recruitment Day, “with the goal of encouraging potential poll workers to sign up to help America vote.”

At least 19 state Republican parties from Connecticut to California promoted poll worker recruitment this week, and at least five injected their messaging with partisan overtones.

“Join the front lines of election security by being a poll worker! As @JoeBiden just stated, it matters who counts the votes. #LeadRight,” read one tweet from the Nevada Republican Party.

In North Carolina, the Republican Party Twitter account called on supporters to “combat Democrats’ unconstitutional assault on our most basic voting protections” by signing up to become a poll worker.

Democracy advocates have warned that a new generation of poll workers may put partisan loyalties above a commitment to democracy. This week they said the rhetoric used in Republican social media channels threatens to make that nightmare scenario a dangerous reality.

“The last thing we need are partisan appeals for non-partisan positions,” said Nick Penniman, founder and CEO of IssueOne, a democracy watchdog. “Election workers may be Democrats or Republicans, but our elections work in this country because the workers who run them put voters first.”

Top intel official warns ‘deficiencies’ in classification system pose national security threat

January 27, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — In a scathing rebuke of the nation’s current classification procedures, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines has told lawmakers that the current system classifies so much information it puts national security at risk — because of how long it can take to process.

“It is my view that deficiencies in the current classification system undermine our national security, as well as critical democratic objectives, by impeding our ability to share information in a timely manner, be that sharing with our intelligence partners, our oversight bodies, or, when appropriate, with the general public,” she writes in a letter dated Jan. 5 and sent to Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan.

The classification system, she wrote, reduces the intelligence communities capacity to “effectively support senior policy maker decision making, and further erodes the basic trust our citizens have in their government.”

The challenge on how to protect national security information, but appropriately share it is not a new challenge, nor is it easy, she said.

The senators wrote the Haines in October to express concern about the current classification system, noting numerous reviews of the process have “documented concerns across the entire lifecycle of the current system.”

“In the meantime, the volume of classified material produced continues to grow exponentially in a digital first environment, bringing with it the expanding burden of mandatory declassification requirements,” Haines said.

Haines said there are already efforts currently underway, but those were not disclosed in the letter obtained by ABC News.

She says the issue of classification is also “great importance” to President Biden.

The letter was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Holocaust Remembrance Day comes as many worry lessons are being forgotten

January 27, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — As the world marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Thursday, the warning to “never forget” took on renewed meaning.

President Joe Biden, who was scheduled to host a 90-year-old Auschwitz survivor Bronia Brandman in the Oval Office, released a statement honoring the lives of the 6 million Jews and millions of others murdered by the Nazis while also highlighting the dangers of forgetting, denying and warping the history of the Holocaust.

“We must teach accurately about the Holocaust and push back against attempts to ignore, deny, distort, and revise history…We must continue to pursue justice for survivors and their families,” he said in a statement.

Thursday’s day of remembrance, the 77th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, comes amid rising concerns about antisemitism. A report released last fall by the American Jewish Committee found that one in four American Jews were targeted by antisemitism in the previous year.

Less than two weeks ago, a rabbi and three others were taken hostage for hours at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, resulting in the death of the gunman by police.

And the Holocaust has been invoked repeatedly in the debate on masks, sparking outrage that its atrocities are being minimized.

Last May, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said the Capitol mask mandate was similar to the gold star of David Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust (a claim she apologized for after visiting the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum), and Lauren Boebert, R-Col., called door-to-door vaccine administers “Needle Nazis,” just two months later.

There have also been concerns that Holocaust history is being whitewashed in the nation’s classrooms.

The latest controversy arose on Wednesday, when a Tennessee school board voted to ban “Maus,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel depicting the Holocaust from the curriculum due to profanity and an image of a nude woman. In the book, cartoonist/artist Art Spiegelman tells the story of his parents’ time in a Nazi concentration camp.

Some of those lessons were on display Wednesday, when the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum held a virtual commemoration with reflections from Holocaust survivors on their experiences and the challenges that remain in the fight against antisemitism.

“Every day, we relive and remember how hatred tore apart our families, our communities and our world. Now we see a number of alarming events that we never imagined could happen in our adopted homeland,” said Péter Gorog, a volunteer at the museum, who was forced to flee his home as a young boy and live in a ghetto in Budapest.

“There are attacks against Jews and Jewish institutions in cities and towns across the world, fueled by antisemitic rhetoric, conspiracy theories and the persistent misuse of the Holocaust to promote an agenda.”

New Hampshire to sell rapid tests at liquor stores

January 27, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(CONCORD, N.H.) — The New Hampshire Executive Council on Wednesday approved a request to buy 1 million at-home COVID tests and sell them at state liquor stores, according to Gov. Christopher Sununu.

The governor expects they will be hitting shelves in the next two weeks.

“We will buy them for a certain price. We will put them on the shelves and sell them for that exact same price, approximately in the $13 range,” Sununu said during the press conference.

New Hampshire made the move to help meet the high demand for tests, according to Sununu.

“We also know that a lot of folks in New Hampshire might try to get some at stores and maybe there’s not as many on shelves with the federal government buying up so much supply. And we know that demand is still going to be there,” Sununu said.

New Hampshire provided free tests in November and these tests are becoming available in addition to those provided by the federal government, he said.

The Biden administration set up a plan to ship a total of 1 billion free at-home COVID tests to Americans’ homes. They are expected to begin arriving in late January.

Gun rights group sues to stop groundbreaking San Jose gun law

January 27, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(SAN JOSE, Calif.) — The National Association for Gun Rights filed a lawsuit against the city of San Jose, California, seeking to end a rule passed by city council which aims to reduce gun harm.

The rule, passed on Tuesday, requires gun owners to purchase liability insurance and pay an annual “gun harm reduction” fee. Gun owners will also be required to pay city cost recovery fees related to the program’s implementation.

“Liability insurance can reduce the number of gun incidents by encouraging safer behavior and it can also provide coverage for losses and damages related to gun incidents,” the bill states.

In the lawsuit, the National Association for Gun Rights claimed the new rule is unconstitutional.

“San Jose’s imposition of a tax, fee, or other arbitrary cost on gun ownership is intended to suppress gun ownership without furthering any government interest. In fact, the penalties for nonpayment of the insurance and fees include seizure of the citizen’s gun,” the lawsuit said. “The Ordinance is, therefore, patently unconstitutional”

The bill, which the group is attempting to strike down, will become law on July 25, six months after it was passed.

“If left intact, the City of San Jose’s Ordinance would strike at the very core of the fundamental constitutional right to keep and bear arms and defend one’s home,” the gun rights group said in the lawsuit.

“They want to tax law-abiding gun owners simply for exercising their Second Amendment rights,” the association said in a post on its website. “This is just as unthinkable as imposing a ‘free speech tax’ or a ‘church attendance tax.'”

“If this California city can tax citizen’s Second Amendment rights, gun grabbers in cities all across the country will quickly follow suit,” the association said on its website.

San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said he plans to support efforts to replicate these initiatives across the nation.

“Tonight San José became the first city in the United States to enact an ordinance to require gun owners to purchase liability insurance, and to invest funds generated from fees paid by gun owners into evidence-based initiatives to reduce gun violence and gun harm,” Liccardo said in a statement on Tuesday.

The mayor’s office and the National Association for Gun Rights did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

Biden honors retiring Justice Breyer, commits to nominate Black woman to replace him on Supreme Court

January 27, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden and Justice Stephen Breyer appeared together Thursday at the White House to announce Breyer’s retirement from the Supreme Court, clearing the way for Biden to follow through on his campaign promise to nominate the first Black woman to the high court as his historic first pick.

“I’m here today to express the nation’s gratitude to Justice Stephen Breyer for his remarkable career of public service, and his clear-eyed commitment to making our country’s laws work for its people,” Biden said.

Biden praised Breyer’s career in public service, beginning in the United States Army as a teenager before going on to serve in all three branches of government before he turned 40. Multiple times, Biden noted his personal connection to Breyer, as the only president to have presided over a justice’s confirmation — when he was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Breyer was nominated to the Supreme Court in 1994 by President Bill Clinton.

“He has patiently sought common ground and built consensus, seeking to bring the court together. I think he’s a model public servant in a time of great division in this country,” Biden said, hailing Breyer for being a justice who could bridge divides on the bench.

Turning to the vacancy he will leave, Biden also reaffirmed his commitment to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, which he said was “long overdue.”

BREAKING: “I’ve made no decision except one: The person I will nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications…That person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court,” Pres. Biden announces. https://t.co/hQKNJg7Lhr pic.twitter.com/yDjebjLOVu

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 27, 2022

“While I’ve been studying candidates’ backgrounds and writings, I’ve made no decision except one: the person I will nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity. And that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court. It’s long overdue in my opinion, I made that commitment during the campaign for president, and I will keep that commitment,” he said.

Biden said he’s made “no choice at this point” but it’s his intention to announce his nominee “before the end of February” after consulting with both Democratic and Republican senators. He also noted Vice President Kamala Harris will play a key consulting role in the process.

“I will fully do what I’d said I’d do. I will fulfill my duty to select a justice, not only with the Senate’s consent, but with its advice,” Biden said. “I’m going to invite senators from both parties to offer their ideas and points of view.”

Biden said he will keep in mind Breyer’s spirit when he makes his decision on filling the seat.

“In the end, I will nominate a historic candidate, someone who’s worthy of Justice Breyer’s legacy, and someone who like Justice Breyer, provide incredible service on the United States Supreme Court,” Biden said.

Breyer, quoting from President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, reminded that the nation’s founders described American democracy as one great “experiment.”

“‘We are now engaged in a great Civil War to determine whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure,'” he said, citing Lincoln’s famous words, saying they are still relevant today.

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer reflects on his career: “It’s a kind of a miracle, when you sit there and see…people that are so different in what they think, and yet they’ve decided to help solve their major differences under law.” https://t.co/JhNQIRZvbD pic.twitter.com/OZFj5gW6ry

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 27, 2022

Recalling conversations with his students, Breyer said it’s now up to the next generation will “determine whether the experiment still works.”

“It’s an experiment that’s still going on. And I’ll tell you something, you know who will see whether that experiment works? It’s you, my friend. It’s you, Mr. high school student,” Breyer said. “I am an optimist, and I’m pretty sure it will.”

Earlier Thursday, in a letter to the president Thursday, Breyer formally notified Biden of his retirement and wrote he intends to complete term and remain until a successor is confirmed, holding his seat in several blockbuster decisions that will close the term in late June.

Breyer called the job a privilege and great honor, saying “I have found the work challenging and meaningful. My relations with each of my colleagues have been warm and friendly.”

BREAKING: Justice Stephen Breyer announces his retirement from the Supreme Court.

The move clears the way for Pres. Biden to follow through on his campaign promise to nominate the first Black woman to the high court for his historic first pick. https://t.co/Szf1sdE8A9 pic.twitter.com/wq6rKFjrRy

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 27, 2022

In finishing out the term — but stepping down ahead of the midterm elections — Breyer, 83, the most senior member of the Supreme Court’s liberal wing who served on the bench for 27 years, fulfills the wish of Democrats who lobbied to ensure Biden could name a successor while Democrats controlled the Senate.

With the slimmest of margins, Democrats can now pass Biden’s nominee without a single Republican vote due to a 2017 rule change under then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, which lowered the threshold to break the filibuster from 60 votes to 51 votes for Supreme Court nominees. McConnell said last year that the GOP may try to block a Democratic nominee to the court if Republicans won control of the Senate in November and a vacancy occurred in 2023 or 2024.

Following Biden and Breyer’s joint announcement, McConnell called on Biden to select a nominee to fill Breyer’s vacancy who has “demonstrated reverence for the written text of our laws and constitution” and urged him “not to outsource this important decision to the radical left.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday the chamber is prepared to move to confirm Biden’s nominee with “all deliberate speed.” Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who once served as a clerk to Breyer and was confirmed to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals last year with bipartisan support, is considered a top contender.

Once Biden nominates a replacement, Senate Democrats plan to not only hold a confirmation hearing swiftly — similar to Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who had her first hearing within 13 days of her nomination — but also to hold those proceedings while Breyer is still sitting on the bench, according to two Democratic aides familiar with the matter.

While the transition presents an exciting opportunity for Biden and his supporters, replacing Breyer will not change the court’s 6-3 conservative majority.

ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky contributed to this report.

Russia maybe ‘not serious’ about diplomacy on Ukraine but ball in its court: Blinken

January 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking at the State Department on Wednesday, confirmed the U.S. had delivered a written response to Moscow security demands as Russia amassed troops on its borders with Ukraine.

“Today, Ambassador Sullivan delivered our written response in Moscow. All told, it sets out a serious diplomatic path forward, should Russia choose it,” Blinken said.

“The document we’ve delivered includes concerns of the United States and our allies and partners about Russia’s actions that undermine security, a principled and pragmatic evaluation of the concerns that Russia has raised, and our own proposals for areas where we may be able to find common ground,” he continued.

“This is not a negotiating document,” Blinken said, adding that President Joe Biden was “involved from the get-go” and had signed off on it.

“The ball is their court,” he added, referring to the Russians.

Russia had said it would not continue talks until Moscow had the responses in hand, and Blinken announced after meeting in Geneva last week with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the U.S. would oblige, which some argued might be seen as a U.S. concession.

But Blinken denied that, saying the U.S. did not change its positions in the paper, but “reiterated what we said publicly for many weeks and, in a sense, for many, many years.”

That includes rejecting Russia’s key demands, laid out in its own draft treaties last month, that NATO bar Ukraine from joining the Western military alliance and that NATO pull back troops from its Eastern European member states, who were formerly Soviet states.

“There is no change. There will be no change,” he told reporters. “I can’t be more clear — NATO’s door is open, remains open, and that is our commitment.”

Blinken and Lavrov will speak in the coming days once Russia has reviewed the U.S. response, the top U.S. diplomat said. While there are fears that Russia is using the diplomatic exchange as pretext to attack Ukraine, saying diplomacy failed to address their concerns, Blinken said the U.S. would not be the one to end talks, even as it prepares sanctions and readies NATO deployments.

“You may be right, that Russia is not serious about this at all. But we have an obligation to test that proposition, to pursue the diplomatic path,” he said. “The point is we’re prepared either way.”

Blinken’s comments follow Biden saying Tuesday there could be some U.S. troop movements in the “nearer term” — and that he would consider personally sanctioning Russian President Vladimir Putin if Russia invades Ukraine — a day after 8,500 American forces were put on “heightened alert” in the region.

But in Ukraine, leaders have offered a different assessment from that put forward by the White House that a full-scale Russian attack is imminent.

During a news conference on Wednesday, Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said they believe Russia’s forces are currently “insufficient” for a full-scale invasion and that right now the Kremlin is seeking to destabilize Ukraine with the threat of attack and other means, not yet actually launching one.

In a televised address to the nation Tuesday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged people to stay calm about the threat of a Russian attack and said there was work in progress to bring about a meeting between him and the leaders of Russia, France and Germany.

“Protect your body from viruses, your brain from lies, your heart from panic,” Zelenskiy said.

The White House and State Department have defended the administration’s decisions and rhetoric, denying that drawing down the embassy, putting 8,500 U.S. troops on alert, and warning of an “imminent” threat have escalated the situation.

Asked on Tuesday about the criticism from Kyiv that the U.S. is giving into Russia’s playbook, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price denied the U.S. created a “panic.”

“We have been clear about our concerns. We have been clear about the depth of those concerns,” Price said. “Given what we’re seeing on Ukraine’s borders, what we’re seeing in what should be an independent sovereign country of Belarus, with the Russian military buildup there, what we’re seeing with preparations for potential hybrid operations — all of this is cause for concern, but certainly no one is calling for panic.”

Biden, lawmakers prepare for Supreme Court vacancy, react to Breyer’s retirement

January 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday declined to expand on reports Justice Stephen Breyer would be retiring from the Supreme Court at the end of the current term, saying he would wait to speak further until the justice personally announces his plans.

“Every justice has the right and opportunity to decide what he or she is going to do, announce it on their own. There’s been no announcement from Justice Breyer. Let him make whatever statement he’s going to make, and I’ll be happy to talk about it later,” Biden said.

Breyer, the most senior member of the U.S. Supreme Court’s liberal wing and staunch defender of a nonpartisan judiciary, stepping down from the bench fulfills the wish of Democrats who lobbied for his exit and for Biden’s first high court appointment.

The vacancy now paves the way for Biden to nominate a Black woman to the court — a historic first and something he promised during the 2020 campaign.

Biden’s first public appearance since the news was at an afternoon White House event with American business executives to discuss his stalled Build Back Better agenda.

Several progressive House lawmakers have already amped up the pressure on Biden with Reps. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., Cori Bush, D-Mo., and Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., all reminding Biden on Twitter of his promise to elevate a Black woman to the position.

When reporters followed up with the president on Wednesday, Biden added, “I’ll be happy to talk about this later. I’m gonna get into this issue.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki shared the president’s sentiment in an earlier tweet.

“It has always been the decision of any Supreme Court Justice if and when they decide to retire, and how they want to announce it, and that remains the case today,” she said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, in a statement, said the Senate is prepared to move to confirm Biden’s nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy with “all deliberate speed.”

“President Biden’s nominee will receive a prompt hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, and will be considered and confirmed by the full United States Senate with all deliberate speed,” he wrote in a statement.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, which holds hearings for court nominees, said in a statement that the vacancy presents Biden “the opportunity to nominate someone who will bring diversity, experience, and an evenhanded approach to the administration of justice” and that he looks forward to moving the nominee “expeditiously through the Committee.”

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina reacted to the news with a reminder that Democrats — having the slimmest of majorities in the Senate — still have the ability to pass Biden’s nominee without Republican support. Sen. Mitch McConnell, as majority leader in 2017, lowered the threshold to break the Senate filibuster from 60 votes to 51 votes for Supreme Court nominees in order to pass former President Donald Trump’s first pick.

“If all Democrats hang together – which I expect they will – they have the power to replace Justice Breyer in 2022 without one Republican vote in support. Elections have consequences, and that is most evident when it comes to fulfilling vacancies on the Supreme Court,” Graham said in a statement, in a nod to the 2020 Senate elections in Georgia which Democrats won.

Progressive activists had put unprecedented public pressure on Breyer, who was nominated in 1994 by President Bill Clinton, to retire. McConnell said in June that the GOP may try to block a Democratic nominee to the court if the party wins control of the Senate in November and a vacancy occurs in 2023 or 2024.

ABC News’ Devin Dwyer, Allison Pecorin and Eric Fayeulle contributed to this report.

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