Biden signs relief plan into action
Delivery of $1,400 payments could begin within days
WASHINGTON — Marking a year of loss and disruption, President Joe Biden on Thursday signed into law the $1.9 trillion relief package that he said will help the U.S. defeat the coronavirus and nurse the economy back to health. Some checks to Americans could begin arriving this weekend.
The signing came hours before Biden delivered his first prime-time address since taking office. He’s aiming to steer the nation toward a hungered-for sentiment — hope — as he marks one year since the onset of the pandemic that has killed more than 530,000 Americans.
“This historic legislation is about rebuilding the backbone of this country,” Biden said as he signed the bill in the Oval Office.
Most noticeable to many Americans are provisions providing up to $1,400 in direct payments, some of which could begin landing in bank accounts this weekend, and extending $300 weekly emergency unemployment benefits into early September. Also included are expanded tax credits over the next year for children, child care and family leave — some of them credits that Democrats have signaled they’d like to make permanent — plus spending for renters, feeding programs and people’s utility bills.
The House gave final congressional approval to the sweeping package by a near party line 220-211 vote Wednesday, seven weeks after Biden entered the White House and four days after the Senate passed the bill. Republicans in both chambers opposed the legislation unanimously, characterizing it as bloated,
crammed with liberal policies and heedless of signs the crises are easing.
Biden originally planned to sign the bill Friday, but it arrived at the White House more quickly than anticipated.
“We want to move as fast as possible,” tweeted White House chief of staff Ron Klain. He added, “We will hold our celebration of the signing on Friday, as planned, with congressional leaders!”
Previewing his Thursday night remarks, Biden said he would “talk about what we’ve been through as a nation this past year, but more importantly, I’m going to talk about what comes next.”
Biden’s challenge was expected to be honoring the sacrifices made by Americans over the past year while
encouraging them to remain vigilant despite “virus fatigue” and growing impatience to resume normal activities given the tantalizing promise of vaccines. Speaking on the one-year anniversary of the World Health Organization’s declaration of a pandemic, the president planned to mourn the dead, but also project optimism about the future.
“This is a chance for him to really beam into everybody’s living rooms and to be both the mourner in chief and to explain how he’s leading the country out of this,” said presidential historian and Rice University professor Douglas Brinkley ahead of Biden’s address.
“This is a big moment,” Brinkley added. “He’s got to win over hearts and minds for people to stay masked and get vaccinated, but also
recognize that after the last year, the federal government hasn’t forgotten you.”
Biden’s evening remarks in the East Room are thought to be central to a pivotal week for the president as he addresses the defining challenge of his term: shepherding the nation through the twin public health and economic storms brought about by the virus.
On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released initial guidance for how vaccinated people can resume some normal activities. On Wednesday, Congress approved the president’s $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan,” aimed at easing the economic impact of the virus on tens of millions of people. And the nation was on pace to administer its 100 millionth dose of vaccine as soon as Thursday.
Biden said he would focus his remarks on what his administration plans to deliver in the coming months, but also reiterate his call for Americans to continue to practice social distancing and wear face coverings to hasten the end of the pandemic.
“I’m going to launch the next phase of the COVID response and explain what we will do as a government and what we will ask of the American people,” he said.
He added: “There is light at the end of this dark tunnel of the past year. There is real reason for hope.”
Almost one year ago, President Donald Trump addressed the nation to mark the WHO’s declaration of a global pandemic. He announced travel restrictions and called for
Americans to practice good hygiene but displayed little alarm about the forthcoming catastrophe. Trump, it was later revealed, acknowledged that he had been deliberately “playing down” the threat of the virus.
For Biden, who has promised to level with the American public after the alternate reality of Trump’s virus talk, it was imperative that he strike the correct balance “between optimism and grief,” said Princeton history professor and presidential scholar Julian Zelizer.
“Generally, the country likes optimism, and at this particular moment they’re desperate for optimism, but you can’t risk a ‘Mission Accomplished’ moment,’ ” he said, warning against any premature declaration that the threat has been vanquished.
As members of the Oath Keepers paramilitary group shouldered their way through the mob and up the steps to the U.S. Capitol, their plans for Jan. 6 were clear, authorities say.
“Arrest this assembly, we have probable cause for acts of treason, election fraud,” someone commanded over an encrypted messaging app some extremists used to communicate during the siege.
A little while earlier, Proud Boys carrying two-way radios and wearing earpieces spread out and tried to blend in with the crowd as they invaded the Capitol led by a man assigned “war powers” to oversee the group’s attack, prosecutors say.
These extremists that traveled to Washington along with thousands of other Trump supporters weren’t whipped into an impulsive frenzy by President Donald Trump that day, officials say. They’d been laying attack plans. And their internal communications and other evidence emerging in court papers and in hearings show how authorities are trying to build a case that small cells hidden within the masses mounted an organized, military-style assault on the heart of U.S. democracy.
“This was not simply a march. This was an incredible attack on our institutions of government,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason McCullough said during a recent hearing.
The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers make up a fraction of the more than 300 Trump supporters charged so far in the siege that led to Trump’s second impeachment and resulted in the deaths of five
people, including a police officer. But several of their leaders, members and associates have become the central targets of the Justice Department’s sprawling investigation.
It could mean more serious criminal charges for some rioters.
On the other hand, mounting evidence of advance planning could also fuel Trump’s and his supporters’ claims that the former president did not incite the riot and should not be liable for it.
Defense attorneys have accused prosecutors of distorting their clients’ words and actions to falsely portray the attack as a premeditated, orchestrated insurrection instead of a spontaneous outpouring of election-fueled rage to stop Congress’ certification of
Trump’s defeat by Democrat Joe Biden.
And prosecutors’ case against a man described as a leader in the Proud Boys’ attack took a hit last week when a judge ordered him released while he awaits trial, calling some of the evidence against him “weak to say the least.”
The Oath Keepers began readying for violence as early as November, authorities say. Communications show the group discussing logistics, weapons and training, including “2 days of wargames.”
“I need you fighting fit” by the inauguration, Ohio member Jessica Watkins told a recruit in November, according to court documents. “If Biden becomes president our way of life ... is over. Our Republic would be over. Then it is our duty
as Americans to fight, kill and die for our rights,” she said in another message that month.
As the mob swarmed the Capitol, Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers, was communicating with some of the alleged rioters.
“All I see Trump doing is complaining. I see no intent by him to do anything. So the patriots are taking it into their own hands. They’ve had enough,” he said in a Signal message to a group around 1:40 p.m. Jan. 6, authorities say. A little later, Rhodes, who has not been charged in the attack, instructed the group to “come to South Side of Capitol on steps.”
Around 2:40 p.m., members of a military-style “stack” who moved up Capitol stairs in a line entered the building through a door on
the east side, authorities say. Lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence had been evacuated from the House and Senate chambers about 20 minutes earlier.
“We are in the mezzanine. We are in the main dome right now. We are rocking it. They are throwing grenades, they are fricking shooting people with paint balls. But we are in here,” Watkins declared over a channel called Stop the Steal J6 on the walkie-talkie app Zello, prosecutors say.
The Proud Boys met at the Washington Monument and were already at the Capitol before Trump finished addressing thousands of supporters near the White House. Listening to the president’s speech wasn’t part of their plan, prosecutors say.
Ethan Nordean led the way with a bullhorn while they wore headgear marked with orange tape. Dominic Pezzola appeared to have an earpiece in his right ear. Joseph Biggs had what looked like a walkie-talkie device on his chest.
Nordean was spotted having a brief exchange near the Capitol with Robert Gieswein, a bat-wielding Colorado man. Proud Boys planning for Jan. 6 had discussed using non-members, or “normies,” like Gieswein to “burn that city to ash” and “smash some pigs to dust,” prosecutors said.
Nine people linked to the Oath Keepers have been indicted on charges they planned and coordinated with one another in the siege. At least 11 leaders, members or associates of the Proud Boys charged in the riots are accused by the Justice Department of participating in a coordinated attack.
Several from both groups remain in federal custody while awaiting trial.
In testimony to Congress, the acting Capitol Police chief said officers had worked to intercept “the radio frequency used by some demonstration groups and monitoring the communications of those groups,” though it’s unclear if those groups included the Proud Boys or the Oath Keepers.
Their defense attorneys claim prosecutors have painted a misleading account of the day’s events based on shaky evidence. Other lawyers for those charged with storming the Capitol have tried to pin the blame on Trump for inciting the rioters.
Nordean’s lawyers said prosecutors haven’t presented any evidence that he used encrypted communications to lead a group’s attack on the Capitol.
“The government has made repeated claims about Ethan’s activities and then backed away from them without providing any support,” said one of his attorneys, Nicholas Smith.